Chapter 235: Chapter 235 – Just A Lucky Guy
The monster appeared in a trice. From the time when the vortex first formed to when the monster emerged, it took less than a second.
However, Ren Suo, who had already noticed what was happening, remained calm—with Li Dan’s [Insights of the World] and his own [Super-Evolution of Cats], Ren Suo had a much faster reaction speed than ordinary people.
Ren Suo immediately stopped his treatment on Yuan Dang, then cast an invisible layer of [Clothes] on himself. In a swift motion, he kicked the green monster into the air.
At the same time, he began muttering in his heart to switch [Hat of Cultivation and Practice] with [Jade Pendant of the Goddess of River Luo] in his prop slot, and [Ability: Heal] with [Fighter Novice] in his ability slot—while Ren Suo had been promoted to a Level 4 Player and had two ability and prop slots each, they were still insufficient.
However, it would take slightly more time for him to change his equipped abilities from the backup slots. In the heat of the moment, Ren Suo decided to fight the green monster directly!
His [Ability: Clothes] was an equipped ability, so that was equivalent to him being 100% proficient in casting it without any difficulty. Dealing with the green monster, which had a level of damage similar to humans, with that ability was essentially child’s play—although the green monster retaliated in response to Ren Suo’s attack, it could not even tear his [Clothes] apart!
At the same time, dozens more similar green monsters appeared at other locations, one after another. The scene became slightly more chaotic, but Ren Suo’s movements were not conspicuous either. As such, no one noticed when he forced the green monster into the corner of the wall but did not kill it—he did not know any attack skills which could cause damage and kill.
Ren Suo uttered, “Give me a few more seconds to change my equipment—”
Just as Ren Suo was excitedly devising his plan in his heart while he exchanged blows with the green monster, a hand suddenly stretched out from behind and lightly struck the arm of the green monster.
In an instant, the green monster’s hand broke apart, and fresh, dark-red blood spurted onto Ren Suo’s face. Before he could react, Dong Chengling hurried over and struck the chest of the green monster with her palm again—
Then, the green monster exploded into numerous fragments.
It was as if the monster was struck by a mace, and its entire body split into multiple parts like a watermelon would have. A horrifyingly blood-curdling screech emerged from its throat as it turned into a corpse and fell to the ground. Ren Suo even saw a few segments of its intestines flying out of its body.
A second later, Ren Suo felt that the blood which splashed onto him suddenly began flowing. The blood that soaked his shirt was also ‘forced’ out and dissipated as black-colored smoke. In a similar manner, the corpse on the ground also dissipated into the air, as if it was being burned away.
“Are you alright?” Dong Chengling asked as she turned and looked at Ren Suo.
“Yes… I’m fine…” Ren Suo replied. He could not tell Dong Chengling, for obvious reasons, that she had ‘stolen his kill’, and he quickly looked around to see if there were any more monsters remaining in the arena.
Obviously, there was none. Encountering those brutal monsters which appeared out of the blue, the first reaction of the Changjiang Practitioners was to ‘kill without hesitation’. Not a single one of the monsters were left.
Ren Suo could only feel unfortunate for himself—who would have imagined that those monsters, which were akin to ‘rewards’, would spawn so quickly? Had Ren Suo known about that, he would certainly have equipped himself with [Fighter Novice] and [Jade Pendant of Goddess of River Luo] from the beginning, to kill the monsters himself first.
Ren Suo sighed in his heart, then went closer to Dong Chengling. He grabbed her shoulder and looked at her carefully from head to toe, then asked, “How are you feeling now? Are you alright?”
Dong Chengling’s eyes blinked a few times rapidly, then she lowered her gaze slightly. She replied softly, “I’m fine.”
“You’re really fine?” a curious Ren Suo remarked. He remembered—the Watchmen of the Federation once mentioned that the Xuan Nation Practitioners had discovered that Practitioners who killed the monsters that appeared after the mystery realm was purified could gain an increase in their capabilities. It was somewhat similar to increasing ‘experience points’ in games.
“I’m really alright,” Dong Chengling said as she nodded with much certainty.
Ren Suo asked very seriously, “Do you feel anything different? Like, for example… uhm… that your body temperature rose? Or perhaps that your heart is beating faster or something similar to that?”
Without killing any of those monsters before, Ren Suo could only make wild guesses. Dong Chengling continued looking down, then nodded slightly after a long time. She said, “No.”
Ren Suo thought: (It might be that the experience points gained from killing a small monster are too little and negligible for a tier 2 Practitioner, so she could not feel any difference…)
Due to the sudden appearance of green monsters, the danger level of the mystery realm was raised. The disease inspection was also forgone, and the Changjiang Practitioners quickly led everyone to leave the mystery realm.
Ren Suo took one glance at the dilapidated monastery and the wasteland near the entrance. That was where ‘his character’ once fought.
That was also the first time he had set foot in ‘the battlefield in a game’.
Upon leaving the mystery realm, a crying Gu Yueyan rushed forward and hugged Dong Chengling, while Ren Suo was called over by Li Dan to meet a group of… strange people.
“I’m pleased to meet you, Level 2 researcher Ren Suo,” the young and zesty short-haired woman, who was leading the group, said. She extended her hand to Ren Suo.
A strong stirring palpitation arose in Ren Suo’s heart, due to the woman’s breathing current. Ren Suo quickly knew that the woman in front of him was at least a tier 2 Practitioner, and that familiar feeling arising in his heart indicated to him that she was also an Awakener.
She was clad in a black vest, making her seem like a personnel of the Countermeasure System, but Ren Suo did not recall encountering anyone like her within the Lianjiang Countermeasure System. He shook hands with her and asked, “Hello, you are…?”
“I am Nancy, the team leader of the ‘Heavenly Ren Task Force’. More accurately, it is the ‘Naisser Ren and Heavenly Palace Task Force’,” the woman said.
Nancy looked at the mysterious realm which appeared like a “white marshmallow” and smiled, saying, “The name of the task force is probably going to change again.”
Ren Suo did not expect to meet someone from the task force there. He was slightly nervous and stammered, “So, what’s the matter…?”
“You did not forget that you are a special advisor of our task force, did you?” Nancy remarked with a laugh.
Indeed, Ren Suo had almost forgotten about that. Although he still received his salary accordingly, he had not done much work specifically as a special advisor of the task force. He replied, “No, I haven’t forgotten about that, but you rarely required our assistance.”
“If we are able to find out the truth so easily by ourselves, would there be any significance to the existence of our task force?” a young man, who was standing behind Nancy, questioned.
Nancy also said, “That was what I thought too, previously. However, you, Researcher Ren, was able to boldly deduce the current situation and future developments of the mystery realm just based on a few pieces of information, and yet you were almost entirely accurate. When we heard about this, we thought that, perhaps, our views needed to change.”
As Ren Suo listened to Nancy, he began breaking out in cold sweat—fortunately, they only thought that he had a great imagination, and Ren Suo was also able to back up his assertions with a bunch of reasons. Otherwise, his cover might well have been blown.
Suddenly, Nancy asked, “Would you be interested in joining the task force? I mean, as an official, formal member.”
Ren Suo quickly shook his head and replied, “No, I am extremely content with life now.”
——He would be a fool if he agreed; if he did, he would have to face the task force everyday, and wouldn’t he be walking himself into the trap if he accidentally exposed himself while taking a nap?
“That’s a pity then,” Nancy said, though there was not a great sense of disappointment in her voice. She asked, “I suppose that you saw the person named ‘Mage’ when you went in personally, right? What kind of person do you think he is?”
Ren Suo replied, “When I went over, he was almost dead.”
Nancy said, “Only those who exist between life and death are real.”
Since Nancy asked, Ren Suo pondered for a moment, then said seriously, “I think that he is someone who faces life and death squarely, and one who does not have low tastes. He is extremely clever and brave, and he possesses a high degree of belief as well as a sense of great responsibility…”
“Mmm, that’s great, that’s great,” Nancy said. She continued, “You have worked hard, there will be many more opportunities for us to work together in the future.”
After Ren Suo left, Li Dan asked Nancy, “What do you think?”
“He’s just a lucky guy who guessed a few things right,” Nancy replied. He glanced at Li Dan and said, “His past achievements are quite remarkable, but talent-wise… I really don’t see it in him.”
“Nonetheless, luck is also a talent. Focused training would be unnecessary for him, but a leisure role as a researcher is just right. Yu Kuangtu’s foresight is not too bad sometimes.”
…
Ren Suo returned to find Gu Yueyan and Dong Chengling. Gu Yueyan asked, “Can we go back now?”
Ren Suo said, “We still have to undergo disease inspection, I suppose… There might have been new types of bacteria or the like in the mystery realm. We should be able to head back after that.”
Ren Suo looked at Dong Chengling and remarked, “It was scary but not dangerous, right?”
Then, he looked at Gu Yueyan and asked, “By the way, do you eat durians?”