Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After he left the clubhouse, Lin Sheng still went home on the bus as usual.
Although he now had money in his pocket, beating his long-established habit was hard. He only wanted to remain low-profile when he just started out, but over time, it had become a habit.
“To put in bluntly, this is nothing but laziness.”
Standing in the bone-chilling wind and glancing back at the bus, which slowly disappeared into the distance, Lin Sheng pulled his collar together and gradually moved along the tactile paving in front of a row of shops.
Very few pedestrians and street food were in that part of the town, so the nightlife was pretty much absent there.
While he was on his way home, Lin Sheng thought about his sparring moment with Russell earlier.
“I finished off my opponent almost without having to unsheathe my sword. The close-range riposte that I learned from the mercenary’s memories is absolutely impeccable.
“With accurate judgment, the metal pommel alone is enough to repel an opponent’s attack. It should be a close-quarters combat technique.
“It’s a shame that my physical strength isn’t up to par. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have to redirect my opponent’s momentum of attack to win.”
He was able to fling Russell away during the sparring session, not because of his own strength but by using Russell’s attack momentum as leverage. It was an instinctive move contained in the mercenary’s memories and a necessary technique to use when one confronted a much stronger opponent.
“Generally, it uses the solidness of the sword’s material to leverage the opponent’s strength.”
Theoretically, the stronger the opponent was, the more damage it would cause to the opponent—provided that the sword was strong enough.
The sparring session earlier had given Lin Sheng a more in-depth understanding of such a technique.
While Ravel’s memories did endow him with the basic thrust move, the mercenary’s memories had enriched his other combat experience, albeit not by much. He could not even qualify as a student in Ravel’s world, but dealing with Russell was easy peasy. While the chap claimed that he had undergone training, in reality, he was no more than a novice.
After Lin Sheng entered through the gate of the apartment buildings, he walked all the way to the stairway below his unit. There, he saw advertisement leaflets strewn all over the ground. There was a photo of a beautiful unknown woman with a line of text at the bottom that read “Baby Reward” .
Lin Sheng kicked the leaflets, which fluttered in the wind, away before he climbed up the stairs slowly. The lightbulb in the stairwell was blown again. He quickly ascended the third floor by leaping up three steps at a time.
The security door of his house was wide open as his dad, Lin Zhounian was carrying goods out of the house. Lin Sheng still managed to find a way in even though several bag loads of snacks were almost entirely blocking the entrance.
“Give me a hand in moving these things downstairs,” Lin Zhounian quickly called out when he saw that Lin Sheng was back.
“Mhm,” Lin Sheng replied.
With an extra pair of hands, the father and son quickly moved the dozen or so bags of goods downstairs and loaded up his trishaw.
“Alright, go to sleep. I need to deliver the goods, it’s urgent,” While he spoke, Lin Zhounian shoved a roll of money into Lin Sheng’s hand.
“Your class teacher called. There’ll be a tuition class for the college entrance exam. This is for your tuition fee as well as pocket money. Don’t ask your sister for money, she’s not having it easy out there too.”
After he spoke, he waved at Lin Sheng, and before Lin Sheng could say anything, he slowly paddled away on his trishaw.
Lin Sheng looked on. Once his dad began to gradually disappear into the darkness, he then looked down at the roll of money in his hand. The ¥100 note and two ¥20 notes, full of creases, were stained with his dad’s sweat.
Such was life. Aside from running a grocery store, Lin Zhounian would occasionally deliver large orders to customers all by himself. Making deliveries in the evening was normal. He made ¥20, or ¥30 at best each trip. It was hard-earned cash.
A while of silence later, Lin Sheng turned around and went back up to his house on the third floor. He changed into his slippers, cleaned himself up, put on a fresh nightdress, and habitually gulped down a glass of water before he slept.
Lying quietly in bed, his mind started to wander.
“I really need to improve our life.”
After a long moment, Lin Sheng sighed and leisurely closed his eyes.
A nip in the air rushed at his forehead the second he opened his eyes. He instinctively rolled to his left to dodge it.
A black sword landed right where he was standing in earlier, and the impact created a rather big pit in the ground.
The wielder of the black sword, a rotten swordsman with a bloated body, pulled the sword out of the ground. He turned around and charged at Lin Sheng again.
“Not again!”
All Lin Sheng could see was an inky shadow in the dark. He quickly rolled to the side and ran as fast as he could. There was still moonlight illuminating the place the last time he cam, but this time, it was pitch-black. He could see nothing around him.
“I’ve got to find some light!”
The thought of bumping into other monsters kept him from stopping. He did not want to die again without knowing what was happening. After all, it would take a few days before he could recover from the neurasthenia after each death.
Lin Sheng did not know how far he had run, but he definitely did not hear any other sound behind him anymore. Out of a sudden, he hit something like a rock under his feet and almost tripped over.
A glow finally appeared in the sky as the moon came out of its hiding place behind the dark clouds.
Lin Sheng stopped and panted while he carefully looked at his surroundings.
He saw a tall gray wall up ahead. Dotted with holes and looking like a piece of decaying cheese, the wall surrounded a city.
Lin Sheng took several steps forward until he was just a few meters away from the city wall.
“I can’t believe that I got here in under one breath. Is this Blackfeather City?” He reached out to touch the city wall. The wall did not feel the way it looked; it was made of super solid material, and its sharp sections had a metallic feel to the touch.
“It’s becoming more and more real. This dream…” Lin Sheng’s heart sank a little. Right then, he began to doubt if he was dreaming. He retracted his hand, grabbed his black sword, and went into the city via the main gate. At three meters tall, the entrance felt cold and quiet. A chilly wind rushed at him from behind as he walked through the gates. Lin Sheng instinctively shrank his neck, trying to avoid losing too much body heat.
Upon passing through the gate, a ruined gray city block appeared before him. There were broken carriages on the streets, while some shredded unknown debris were carried up in the air by the wind. The dilapidated shops and houses creaked in the wind, as though they were about to collapse at any time.
Lin Sheng looked into the distance, and everything he saw was gray. The fog was still shrouding the deepest part of Blackfeather City, and visibility was virtually zero.
“There isn’t even a single living thing here?” Lin Sheng was on his guard the entire time because he did not believe that there were no monsters in that big city. Holding his black sword, he searched around and quickly found a road sign to the right of the city gate. Made of some kind of black metal, the road sign showed the directions to five different places. But the letters of three of the place names had faded and were illegible while the remaining two were barely recognizable.
“Els Square and Blackfeather City Hall?” Nonetheless, Lin Sheng managed to read those two names.