"What the hell is this?"
The detective was completely flabbergasted. Despite being a Two-Path Trafficker for so many years, he had never encountered such a bizarre scene.
"COUGH, COUGH, I mean this."
Huai Shi coughed twice and pulled out a glass bottle from his bosom, placing it in front of him. Inside the bottle was a full load of Apocalypse.
This was the simplest money-making method that Raven had come up with for him.
As a rare essence, Apocalypse was a necessary base material in certain Alchemy creations. However, due to its limited application and the relative abundance of the material in deeper regions, it couldn't fetch a high price.
"Hold on a second."
Once the detective had grasped the situation, he immediately took out his phone and made a call. "Hello? Uncle, I remember you placed an order a few days ago for some Border deposits, right? I happen to have a client here who's looking to sell. Why don't you come and take a look?"
In just a few minutes, the computer screen lit up. Even more eerily, the light on the webcam transformed. It created the spectral image of an old man who seemed somewhat impatient. He walked straight over and directed the detective to pour a few grains of the Apocalypse from the bottle into some solution Huai Shi couldn't name.
Quickly observing the solution's reaction, the old man's expression softened a bit, and he nodded slowly.
"It's rare to see such pure Apocalypse in the Current Circumstances these days. Price it as top-quality goods; I'll take it all." The old man revealed a rare amicable expression, glancing at Huai Shi. "If you have more Apocalypse in the future, just contact me. I'll pay a premium of 10 percent above market price."
With that, he disappeared.
The detective, without any further fuss, took Huai Shi's bottle to weigh it. After deducting the weight of the bottle, it came to roughly three hundred grams.
Normally, such a bottle filled with Iron Sand would weigh over a pound, but the actual weight of Apocalypse was much lighter than it appeared.
This was all the Apocalypse Huai Shi had accumulated over the past days; collecting any more would have been beyond his capabilities. After all, he wasn't the type to wallow in retrospection and self-pity; he could only refine it by continually reading death records.
After some calculations, the detective looked up and said, "According to the recent market transaction price, it's eighty-four thousand total. As an intermediary, I take a cut of five percent. I'll give you his card later, and next time you can deal directly with the buyer. How about that?"
Huai Shi had no objections; middlemen are there to make a profit off the spread, right?
Moreover, earning eighty thousand so easily made him look forward to his Sublimator identity for the first time.
Before leaving, Huai Shi also bought, as Raven had instructed, a more precise set of pots and equipment materials. The cheap stuff he had at home might fool a chemistry classroom, but it was virtually useless when it actually came to Alchemy.
Even the simplest tool set here had set Huai Shi back by more than nine thousand. If it were not for Raven's repeated insistence, he would have thought about just making do.
With the remaining seventy-one thousand, he didn't plan to give it all to Raven. Her word was only half reliable; even if he only gave her fifty thousand, that would be enough for Raven to indulge in her medications for half a month.
The remaining twenty-one thousand, if used for living expenses, would last a long time.
Huai Shi planned to keep five thousand for daily expenses. He wanted to spruce up the Stone Marrow Pavilion a bit by replacing the glass and repainting the exterior walls. If he did the work himself, he could save quite a bit of money. After buying better strings for the cello and a few chairs to tidy up the hall, the remaining money probably wouldn't amount to much.
Walking out with the tools in hand, Huai Shi was still basking in pleasure, even finding the stray dogs peeing by the roadside cute.
Liu DongLi shook his head helplessly at Huai Shi's clueless appearance and walked ahead.
But just as Huai Shi was about to say goodbye and head home, he suddenly shuddered.
He stopped in his tracks and swiftly turned around.
The desolate street had a few hurrying pedestrians, several cars driving by, and a stray cat climbing over a wall, slowly walking away...
In that instant, he felt his Death Perception skill activate on its own, followed by a cold sensation pricking the back of his neck like a needle.
An unmistakable intuition arose from within – someone had harbored the intent to kill him. But then, that feeling of death quickly dissipated as if it were just an illusion.
Only the lingering chill remained, coiling around his insides.
"What's wrong?" Liu DongLi noticed his unusual behavior.
"Nothing." Huai Shi smiled calmly, "Let's stop here. I'm going home."
"Alright." Liu DongLi waved his hand, "Remember to come out to eat before you leave."
After Huai Shi agreed and turned to leave, he contemplated that the murderous intent was directed at him and had nothing to do with others. Old Liu had finally been discharged from the hospital; why drag him into his own mess?
For once, Huai Shi took responsibility.
But... who the fuck wanted to kill him?
"Damn it! I feel like I'm being targeted!"
In the hall of the Stone Marrow Pavilion, Huai Shi glanced at Raven before him. "Raven-Doraemon, do you have any solutions?"
"No hope. Wait for death. Goodbye." Raven nonchalantly sent back a triple sticker pack, calmly checking the items Huai Shi had brought back, as if she was accustomed to such situations. "What's the point in asking such a simple question? If someone wants to kill you, just kill them. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?"
"How do I kill them? Pull out an Axe out of thin air?" Huai Shi sighed. He knew his own limitations. Even dressed in a Dragon Robe, he didn't look like the Crown Prince. Even as a Sublimator, he could only deal the finishing blow. A crippled Red Gloves could easily beat him up. If someday someone came out of an alley and shot him with a burst of gunfire, he wouldn't stand a chance.
"So, as I said last night..." Raven looked up, a cheerful smile on her face. "Why don't you try the new feature of the Book of Fate?"
Despite his uneasy premonition, Huai Shi nodded reluctantly.
Thus, the Book of Fate was opened. Raven poised her pen, and lightly tapped down.
Huai Shi's vision went dark in an instant.
When he opened his eyes again, he was assaulted by a pungent smell of blood.
In the dimly lit underground chamber, corpses were everywhere. A gaunt man with half his body decayed roared at him, and his left hand, covered with a shell-like substance, suddenly stabbed forward.
Huai Shi instinctively stepped back, unable to react in time before he felt the intense pain of his body being penetrated.
Immediately after, the man lifted his misshapen, swollen right hand to Huai Shi's forehead and squeezed it hard.
CRACK!
He was dead.
In the pitch-darkness before his eyes, a huge, blood-red character for "NOOB" slowly emerged.
What the hell?
What the heck?
Huai Shi jumped up from the chair amidst the excruciating pain, glaring at Raven, "Apart from adding a character to mock me, isn't this still the same as before!"
"Eh?" Raven retorted, "Haven't you noticed any changes?"
Huai Shi paused, then suddenly remembered—just now, in that death record, he seemed... perhaps... must have... taken a step back?
Yes, that's right, he wasn't just passively experiencing it as a spirit anymore.
For the first time, he had reacted to death.
"Is this the new feature?"
"Yep." Raven nodded, "If before you were watching a streamer's video, playing as a cloud player, now you've installed software with a certain valve icon, and you can try playing the game yourself—hmm, now that I think about it, not being able to free-ride seems somewhat disadvantageous, doesn't it?"
"You've had enough," Huai Shi rolled his eyes, not knowing where this creature had learned so much slick talk.
"But it seems best not to let you go for the difficult levels on your first try." Raven pondered for a moment. "The most complete record in the Book of Fate now is the Red Gloves section, so why don't we find you a tutorial for beginners first? But before that, lift up your left hand, yes, just like that, point one finger up, and fold the others."
"Like this?" Huai Shi held up his left hand dumbly, unsure of its purpose. "Does this do anything?"
"You'll know soon enough." Raven smiled mysteriously, skillfully whipped out a phone and took a photo, waving her wings at him, "Farewell."
Instantly, Huai Shi collapsed onto the chair, falling into a deep sleep.
Then she opened up Photoshop software and deftly labeled a line of text beneath the photo she had just taken of Huai Shi:
——I want to be beaten up.
New meme acquired.
And then, the beating began.
By the time Huai Shi finally understood what the pose meant, he was already in a strange training ground, being rapidly pummeled by a large, muscular man.
The Rome Boxing Technique, which he had once seen hints of on Red Gloves, was now performed by that stranger with near-divine skill.
Especially the blows delivered without any mercy or hesitation.
They were aimed straight at crippling him!
At the sound of the whistle, a kick flew, narrowly missing breaking his neck, followed by a skillful flip and landing, then grappling with his bare hands.
CRUNCH!
Huai Shi's right hand broke.
"What are you dawdling for, number 7944!" By the side of the training ground, the cold man with his hands behind his back spoke sternly, "Have all the things you've learned gone to the dogs? Pick up the dagger and kill him! Or it doesn't matter if this convict kills you instead!"
The harsh tone left no room for doubt about his attitude.
Either die as a failure or kill that grimly smiling opponent to prove your worth.
Huai Shi took a deep breath, and in that brief pause, he bent down, reached for the dagger on the ground, and clenched it tightly.
Sometimes he couldn't help but be grateful that this scenario was just a dream.
That way, he didn't have to think twice before picking up a weapon to kill someone, ignoring the law, morality, conscience, or any other consideration.
Perhaps that was also the most terrifying aspect of it, wasn't it?
After getting used to all of this, how could he be willing to return to his once mundane life?
For some reason, he felt little resistance to the thought.
"Come on!"
At the sharp sound of the instructor's whistle, Huai Shi charged forward!
Then, he died.
In reality, after Huai Shi furiously managed a move that caused a mere 2.5 points of damage, he finally succeeded in slicing the opponent's neck.
He won.
But by that time, his spine had been nearly broken, and three out of his four limbs were disjointed.
As he tried to appeal to the instructor for help, the instructor approached him indifferently, twisted his neck, and the last thing he heard was:
"You have betrayed the Empire's expectations of you."