Chapter 11
Chapter 11
“They really are interesting.”
Watching the feed from the recorders, Lu Xingshan nodded with evident fascination.
“Director Lu, here is their information. Please take a look.”
The receptionist who had registered Qin Lan smiled sweetly and handed him a smart screen filled with detailed records.
Despite standing before a 4-Star Anomaly Hunter, she was not nearly as restrained as everyone else. She spoke to him as though chatting with an elder from her own family.
Lu Xingshan accepted the file and smiled.
“Little Luo, you still don’t intend to transfer to another position?”
“Your father asked me to train you properly. I can’t leave a graduate of an elite academy working reception forever.”
Their familiar tone made it clear that they were close.
Luo Yue stuck out her tongue. “No. I don’t want to transfer.”
“Every other department is exhausting and boring! Reception has little work, and I get to see all kinds of amusing things. It’s much more interesting.”
She leaned closer and peered curiously at the screen.
“Uncle Lu, does that man really have an A-rank Talent?”
Among the dense records was a photograph of Xue Chuan.
He had a handsome face, though something about it always seemed faintly roguish.
“How many times have I told you to address me by my title at work?”
“Got it, Director Plant.”
“Honestly, you girl…”
Lu Xingshan sighed helplessly and swiped the screen.
“The A-rank Talent [Dimensional Pocket] allows him to draw random items from another, unknown space. It seems unstable now, but its potential is immense.”
Lu Xingshan’s gaze sharpened.
“With systematic instruction and proper enhancement, he could learn to draw items based on what he needs and resolve any crisis.”
Luo Yue blinked. “Items?”
“Even if he can draw weapons, wouldn’t they work only on physical anomalies below 3-Star?”
“Modern weapons have some effect against low-ranking physical anomalies, but powerful anomalies can ignore them completely.”
Lu Xingshan glanced at her.
“That is true… But during his college entrance examination, he once drew a cursed artifact inside an instance.”
“A 4-Star cursed artifact.”
Luo Yue’s pretty face changed instantly.
“A cursed artifact?! Aren’t those produced only inside instances?”
“They’re special objects condensed from curses. Some can even summon real anomalies. How could a Talent create one from nothing?”
Cursed artifacts were not covered at all in high school.
There was a minuscule chance that an instance would produce one. The conditions for obtaining them varied, but most were extremely demanding.
Simply clearing an instance, or even killing its anomaly, did not guarantee a cursed artifact.
Cursed artifacts carried the concentrated curse of an anomaly. Even after being removed from an instance, they could unleash terrifying power.
They could even be used to fight anomalies in other instances.
“And yet he did it,” Lu Xingshan said with a nod. “After his college entrance examination, his exceptional results earned invitations from all the major academies. He rejected every one.”
“He vanished for three years. When he resurfaced, he came here to take the Anomaly Hunter licensing exam.”
Luo Yue listened in astonishment, then noticed a problem.
“Vanished… But I downloaded this information from the Anomaly Hunter Bureau’s internal network.”
“Are you saying even we couldn’t find out what he did during those three years?”
Lu Xingshan patted her head indulgently.
“Why else would I pay so much attention to this exam?”
“However…”
He looked toward another holographic projection transmitted by a recorder.
Qin Lan’s figure was clearly visible within it.
“This F-rank youngster puzzles me even more.”
Lu Xingshan’s gaze deepened.
“He has not demonstrated any Talent skill, yet I can see his strength growing in a very strange way.”
“His strength has advanced by leaps and bounds inside this instance alone.”
“That does not match the Talent listed in his records at all.”
…
The train reached the third station.
Qin Lan regarded Xue Chuan strangely.
“Never mind that performance just now… How did you think of that solution?”
Xue Chuan grinned and flamboyantly swept back his hair.
“Because I’m a genius.”
“Didn’t you already demonstrate the method at the previous station?”
He counted on his fingers.
“First, we cannot violate subway passenger regulations. That makes fighting our way through basically impossible — unless we can kill both security anomalies.”
“Second, use the rules against the rules.”
“Those two pig-people framed you for taking secret pictures, so you framed them for robbery.”
“That kappa played the victim, so I played an even more pitiful victim.”
“Put simply, whatever method the opponent uses to set the trap, we use the same method to break it.”
Xue Chuan smiled brilliantly.
“The facts proved I was right.”
Qin Lan’s gaze changed.
This bastard really had been playing the fool!
Qin Lan had thought Xue Chuan was merely lucky enough to possess an A-rank Talent, along with a tendency to ramble and a complete lack of concern.
Now it was clear that his powers of observation and logical reasoning were both exceptional.
Qin Lan could not say with confidence that he would have devised a countermeasure so quickly in Xue Chuan’s position.
And Xue Chuan did not possess the information advantage provided by resurrection.
“Was this guy acting useless to deceive me?”
Qin Lan eyed him suspiciously from head to toe.
“First he drew setting spray and a basketball and served as comic relief. Then the moment he was in danger, he conveniently drew X-ray glasses, analyzed the situation, and found a solution.”
“Tsk.”
The more Qin Lan thought, the more suspicious it seemed.
Xue Chuan merely looked confused beneath his hostile stare.
“Forget it. Two stations remain. I hope you perform as reliably as you did just now.”
Qin Lan sighed in irritation.
During the lull, he checked his status panel again.
—
Name: Qin Lan
Race: Human
Strength: 1.9
Constitution: 2.0
Speed: 1.3
Spirit: 2.0
curse resistance: 0
curse amplification: 0
Special Status: None
Skill: [Baton Secret Art: Three Strikes, Three Guards (50%)]
—
His repeated deaths had produced significant gains in every attribute.
The more difficult an instance was, the larger the apparent gain from each death.
His Strength and Constitution were both close to twice an ordinary person’s, and even his Speed had risen slightly.
Unfortunately, diminishing returns had grown too severe. The replication of the baton secret art had stalled at fifty percent.
“Hmm… I need to find a way to die several more times during the last two stations.”
“Once I leave this instance, I may not encounter another opportunity to replicate a skill anytime soon.”
Qin Lan considered the problem.
He was increasingly grateful for his choice.
Joining the Anomaly Hunter Bureau truly was the correct path.
With his Talent, he could raise his attributes to terrifying heights by experiencing instance after instance.
He could learn all kinds of skills in the process as well.
As long as he kept his head down and developed, he would eventually reach the level of a powerhouse like Lu Xingshan — no, he would surpass him.
[Attention, passengers.]
The subway announcement sounded at that moment.
[The train may experience turbulence while in motion. Please take a seat promptly.]
Qin Lan looked around. Far fewer passengers remained at this station.
By a rough count, there were just enough seats for everyone.
But Qin Lan still wanted to grind more attributes, so he remained standing to see what would happen if he refused to sit.
The next second, the train braked without warning and launched him through the air like a cannonball.
[You tried to wrestle the floor with your spine. Killer: Conductor.]
[Constitution permanently increased by 0.2.]
[Current Constitution: 2.0 > 2.2.]
Qin Lan behaved himself.
While he was airborne, a strange force had bound his body and prevented him from struggling.
With his current physique, he should have been able to adjust his landing posture in midair. Even a fall should not have injured him badly.
Instead, Qin Lan could only watch as the back of his skull struck the floor and his body folded at an unnatural angle.
“The Conductor… Does that mean this instance contains a second anomaly?”
Qin Lan rubbed his neck.
He looked into the next carriage, but dense darkness concealed everything within.
[…Please take a seat promptly.]
This time, Qin Lan obediently found a seat.
He looked up and saw a yaksha sitting opposite him.
Blue-faced and fanged, with furious eyes and a hideous, savage face, she was ugly enough to cause nightmares at a glance.
But after the pig-creatures and the kappa university student, Qin Lan was numb.
She was only a yaksha.
This was public transportation. A yaksha riding the subway was perfectly reasonable.
Qin Lan stared at her, and she stared back.
Xue Chuan glanced between them and whispered,
“What is it? Do you two know each other?”
“Is she your ex-girlfriend?”
The idiotic question nearly made Qin Lan curse his mother.
Before he could speak, however, his expression changed.
First came confusion, then shock, and finally realization.
Qin Lan understood what kind of infuriating trial awaited them at the third station.
Beside him, Xue Chuan’s expression gradually turned strange as well.
“Am I the only one feeling this, or are you too?”
Qin Lan clenched his teeth.
“Me too… If you don’t want to die, keep your hands under control.”
Three seconds earlier, a sudden itch had appeared near Qin Lan’s thigh.
More precisely, it was on the inner side, a dozen centimeters above the knee.
The itch did not remain on the skin. It seemed to penetrate straight into his bones.
It felt as though hundreds of ants were crawling through the gaps between his blood vessels, occasionally biting into the surrounding flesh.
Across from them, the savage-looking yaksha slowly drew a phone from her bag.
The camera tilted upward. She had begun recording.
Her subjects were Qin Lan and Xue Chuan.
“Why does it itch so badly?”
Xue Chuan’s face changed. He gripped his thighs with both hands, desperately resisting the urge to scratch.
Sweat poured down Qin Lan’s face as he fought the maddening sensation as well.
Scratching through their clothes brought no relief. They had to reach inside their pants and touch the skin directly.
“Hold back. We have to hold back…”
“The instant you scratch, those guards will send their batons flying into your face and put you into a very deep sleep.”
Qin Lan clenched his jaw. His temples throbbed.
He could not endure it.
Since resurrection was available, Qin Lan stopped restraining himself. He thrust a hand into his pants and scratched furiously.
“Aha!”
The yaksha screamed at once. Her voice resembled a rusty saw cutting wood and made their eardrums ache.
“How dare you do such a thing to me in public!”
“This is long-distance sexual harassment!”
As though she had finally caught him committing a crime, she raised her phone and shouted even louder.
“I recorded everything!”
“Everyone, look! This disgusting man is harassing me in public!”
Heavy footsteps approached once more.
Still scratching, Qin Lan turned and greeted the guards familiarly.
“Hey, you’re here. Go easy on me this time, all right?”
[Your ribs were broken into thirty-two pieces. Killer: Subway Security.]
[Strength permanently increased by 0.5.]
[Skill replication progress: 70%.]