NOVEL NEXT Chapter 86 - Passed! New Month!
Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Passed! New Month!
It was the 1st of May, 11 days after “Over My Dead Body” had emerged on the internet.
Ren Qingqing had gone through an “underserved calamity” due to her “special bloodline” and “special ability”, and was told that she was already halfway into a new world—the reality was undoubtedly convincing when told by the police, the mayor, and your parents that you would become a superwoman.
Ren Qingqing had dropped out of school and relocated from Luoyang to the suburbs of Tianjing in haste and confusion. She was now staying in an academic institute that was undergoing construction—indeed it appeared to be an academic institution, for Ren Qingqing was quite sure that she could identify an academic institute, given that she had been studying for over ten years.
The dormitory could be considered as the best in Xuan Nation. Each apartment was shared by two people with individual rooms, showers, toilets, a kitchen and a living room. When Ren Qingqing moved into her room, there was already another person in that apartment.
Ren Qingqing’s roommate was a cute girl with baby fats, who was a year younger than she was. Her name was Tang Yihan and she spoke with a southern Xuan language accent. She occasionally lapsed into dialect but would quickly revert back to using the ordinary language of Xuan Nation. She was a very interesting person and would frequently hug Ren Qingqing, calling her “Sister Qing, Sister Qing”.
Nonetheless, Ren Qingqing did not look down on her—on her first day, she saw Tang Yihan swimming in the air in the living room, as if she was not affected by gravity.
Ren Qingqing knew that she was a superwoman in making, so Tang Yihan was already one. There was no way an ordinary person could defy gravity; even Newton’s coffin abided by the laws of gravity.
Very quickly, Ren Qingqing realized that the academic institution she was in would indeed impart knowledge like “the True Practice”, and “Extraordinary Abilities”, as she had guessed. Furthermore, it was possibly the most powerful academic institution formed to be the “best in Xuan Nation”. More people checked into the girls’ dormitory over the next few days, and all of them were teen girls who came from all over Xuan Nation and possessed “special talents”.
Most of them possessed some special ability, and they would try to find ways of improving their abilities, even though they had not started studying—or perhaps, they were showing off their abilities.
Ren Qingqing was slightly older than the rest of them and remained in the living room of her apartment to catch up with drama series on her large 55-inch LCD television. Unlike her previous roommate, Tang Yihan did not share the same hobby as her. Furthermore, Tang Yihan had not been to Tianjing before and was enjoying her time outside, spending money to visit places like the Great Wall and watch the Flag Raising Ceremony.
That morning, the moment Tang Yihan opened the apartment door, she immediately started removing her clothes while levitating in the air. She said, “It’s so hot outside today, it’s almost comparable to my hometown… Isn’t Tianjing further north?! My undergarments are all wet now!”
“The Labor Day holiday has begun, so I’m sure many people are here for travel,” Ren Qingqing—who was wearing a thin shirt as she lay on the couch, drinking a can of cola, and eating a packet of chips—said. She lazily said, “It’s about the same everywhere when it gets warmer… perhaps it’s colder up north?”
Tang Yihan only kept her undergarments on her as she hugged the air conditioner on the wall. She exclaimed happily, “Ah… I’m going to melt.”
Ren Qingqing said, “Have some decency, our dear Little Han is a flying angel.”
“Heh,” Tang Yihan remarked as she floated over to Ren Qingqing. She asked, “What episode are you at now?”
Ren Qingqing replied, “Episode 45! It’s the year 234 now in the drama…”
“Has the Battle of Red Cliff ended?” Tang Yihan curiously asked.
“It’s been more than ten episodes since it ended,” Ren Qingqing said in disbelief, although she knew that Tang Yihan was not very interested in history. Even if she had some knowledge about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, she would not know what event occurred in which year. Ren Qingqing said, “They are now showing the part where Minister Zhuge was involved in Wuzhang Plains.”
Tang Yihan scratched her head and asked, “Isn’t that a fairytale-like story about the immortal Ren family warriors? How is Zhuge Liang involved?”
“Because of one of the Practitioners of the Ren family,” Ren Qingqing said. She explained, “Ren Ge is the son of Ren Luoyang, a third-generation Practitioner… Ren Ge is one of the Practitioners of the Ren family of Practitioners, who are old enough to take part in combat. He was traveling across the land of Shu, and he greatly respected Minister Zhuge. However, he could tell that Minister Zhuge would not be able to live for long, so he stayed by him, wanting to save his life in times of emergency…”
“There are even abilities to revive a person?” Tang Yihan asked.
“There are Lv 1 Rejuvenation, Lv 2 Full Rejuvenation, Lv 3 Ultimate Rejuvenation, Lv 4 Blood Circulation… Lv 7 Soul Recovery… and at Lv 10 and above, it is Transcendence: Preservation,” Ren Qingqing said. She continued, “There has always been one Practitioner in the Ren family who specializes in recovery techniques. But to ordinary people, the Soul Recovery ability is sufficient to revive a person, for the skin to regenerate, and to calm the mind. The Lv 10 and above abilities are meant for the Ren family.”
“Hold on,” Tang Yihan said. She asked, “Since the Soul Recovery ability is already so powerful, what is the purpose of the even stronger and higher-level abilities? If the injury is worse than that and requires more than ‘reviving a person’ and ‘for the skin to regenerate’, he would have been dead long ago.”
It seemed that Tang Yihan did not watch much of “Over My Dead Body”, so Ren Qingqing explained patiently, “That’s not always the case. When the Ren family of Practitioners grew older, they would learn defense abilities. These defense abilities would usually require one to two days to train, and a complicated ceremony that can only be completed in the Ren family house has to be performed to establish the defense ability. After the ability has been established, a multi-layer armor that can be deployed at will would form around the Practitioner.”
“Such multi-layered defense armor can vary greatly between Practitioners, depending on their individual strengths and depth of study of the defense knowledge. For example, Ren Ying, the present head of the Ren family, has 85 layers of defense armor on her. She also specializes in defense, so all the layers of defense armor are fused together with her “Innate Qi” ability, and is virtually undefeatable by the monsters.”
“An ordinary multi-layered armor can be damaged from the attacks of monsters, causing one or more layers of the armor to be dropped. When defending against powerful attacks, over ten layers of armor may be dropped, and entire layers of armor could be pierced through when surrounded. Only Practitioners like Ren Ying are able to fuse all their layers of armor together and none of the layers would be damaged by small and minor attacks.”
“Nonetheless, the armor is extremely tough, and as long as not all of them are pierced through, the Ren family of Practitioners would essentially remain unharmed. There was once a situation when a Grim Wyvern Bird emitted a sound wave that pierced through rocks, but the Ren family Practitioner that was fighting it remained perfectly unharmed and killed it immediately instead.”
Tang Yihan was still slightly confused. She scratched her head, asking, “So how is that related to recovery?”
Ren Qingqing looked at the Ren family Practitioner on the television screen who was peering at a tent. She said, “Transcendence abilities at Lv 10 and above are used to repair and replenish the layers of armor on Practitioners. However, the entire process requires 2 hours to fully repair the Practitioner’s armor. As such, the Ren family Practitioners are able to quickly recover their defenses when they continuously encounter major battles while they are traveling and out in the wild.”
“That is why the Transcendence abilities at Lv 10 and above no longer treat humans but instead, meant specially for repairing the invisible armor fused together by their abilities.”
Tang Yihan dragged her words as she said in agreement, “That seems complicated… But is the armor really that powerful? Can it block a bullet?”
Ren Qingqing thought about it and replied, “I would suppose so, but perhaps it can only block a limited number of bullets. If it were Ren Ying, apart from missiles and special sharp weapons, it would be meaningless to attack her using common weapons and ammunition, regardless of quantity…”
“Is that the Ren Ying you have been talking about? She looks just like you!” Tang Yihan exclaimed as she slapped Ren Qingqing on her shoulder. She smiled and said, “So you can be this pretty when you put on makeup and change a set of clothes?”
On the screen was the over 10 years old Ren Ying who was berating Ren Ge, who was kneeling down on the floor with a head of grey hair. Ren Ge had attempted to save Minister Zhuge prior to that, but the moment he tried to do so, he turned old rapidly.
He had prolonged Minister Zhuge’s life by at most half a day, but he himself lost two years of his life.
Ren Ying, who was almost 30 years old, was used to that, having been reborn once after Spiritual Exchange with the Goddess of the River of Luo.
Just ten years after being reborn, she matured faster for her age. She also received the protection of the Goddess of the River of Luo and donned an aqua blue-colored, fire- and water-resistant robe all day long. Her appearance was pure and elegant with a charming and commanding presence.
She looked just like a more luxurious and deluxe version of Ren Qingqing.
Ren Ying looked beautiful even when she was angry and scolding Ren Ge. After that scene, the Ren family of Practitioners set out on an expedition to eliminate the Ghost Monsters at Wuzhang Plains and was pitted against Wei Yan, the “first-generation Ghost General”.
Tang Yihan finished watching the rest of the episode with Ren Qingqing. When she saw Ren Ying’s virtually indestructible aqua-blue armor in battle, it was as if the enemies were of no disturbance to her. She could not help but exclaim, “It would be great if we could learn such abilities.”
“How can that be possible, it’s merely an ability in the drama series,” Ren Qingqing said with a laugh.
“But it could be real though… There are already people who are starting to experiment with such abilities that provide long-term protection, it’s just that it is not perfect yet,” Tang Yihan casually said as she shook her calves while floating in the air.
Ren Qingqing blinked. She already knew that her roommate had an extraordinary background and was well-informed with insider information, so Ren Qingqing trusted her.
But Tang Yihan only mentioned that casually and continued watching the drama series when she finished her sentence. When the ending theme came on, she floated to the bedroom to retrieve her clothes and proceeded to shower.
Before she entered the bathroom, Tang Yihan suddenly turned around and said, “Oh, by the way, we should be starting school after the Labor Day holidays, so you take the opportunity these few days to hang around outside to play before that time comes.”
“You should be receiving the notification soon.”
School is starting?
After enjoying the past few days in the dormitory, Ren Qingqing finally remembered the great and important revival mission she was entrusted with.
————
“Huh? That can’t be…” Ren Suo said.
Ren Suo, who had no sense of the great and important revival mission he was entrusted with, sat on the chair as he listened to Yu Kuangtu over the mobile phone. He subconsciously lamented, “The danger warning is going to be removed?”
“Major changes are going to take place within the nation in three days. When that time comes, the importance of your identity would be insignificant,” Yu Kuangtu said. He questioned, “You are not still thinking of receiving your pay without working, are you?”
“Well, no…” Ren Suo replied. Even though it would be most ideal to be paid without working, he was not senseless to say such a thing to his superiors.
“Nonetheless, your report was not bad indeed,” Yu Kuangtu said.
He continued, “After I submitted your draft report, the higher-ups highly valued two of the points you mentioned. One was the “Bullet Time” ability that the Hitman had, and the other was about the Strong Warrior having a secret ability that allowed her to have “Unlimited Energy” by trading time off her lifespan. The evidence you presented for the case that the “Strong Warrior is a human” was acknowledged by many academics and researchers.”
The “Strong Warrior” referred specifically to the female Seeker in “A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters”.
‘But of course, I drew the target after I released the arrow, so the report revealed nothing but the truth,’ Ren Suo thought.
In order to submit the “Research Report on ‘The Hitman: The Bloody Banquet’ and ‘A Strong Warrior Ascends 10,000 Meters'”, Ren Suo had looked through the game settings thoroughly to uncover details that were hinted at in the videos but not clearly revealed, making use of his “extraordinary observation skills”. All of the details that he included in the report were perfectly logical in the context of the videos and complete with convincing evidence.
After a short pause, Yu Kuangtu, who was on the other end of the line, said, “You seem to be more suited for research and analysis, rather than combat… Everything is still in the initial development stage, so anyone with such abilities would be favored. You may be transferred elsewhere soon.”
“Train well over the next two days. The day after, which is the last day of the holidays, head over to the Countermeasure Division in the morning,” Yu Kuangtu said in a steady and composed manner. He continued, “You would go through an aptitude test then… Your future could be determined by the results of the test.”
The call ended, and Ren Suo lightly heaved a sigh of relief.
It was exactly as Qiao Muyi had said.
It was presently the beginning of a new age, and opportunities would be abundant.
But it was up to him if he was able to catch it.
Ren Suo shook his head and looked at the screen.
“Welcome, we apologize for the lack of hospitality!”
After easily completing Round 2, Ren Suo found himself pitted against 155 other people in the grand battle of Round 3. After three days, Ren Suo finally completed the game for the first time that morning!
And it was currently the start of a new month, which was also the official International Labor Day holiday!