NOVEL NEXT Chapter 95 - Afterimage
Chapter 95: Chapter 95 – Afterimage
[Adult Human]
[Reiki content: Scarce]
[Time required to absorb: Self-will of the life form has to be removed to be absorbed]
Indeed, it was not possible to directly absorb Reiki from a human. He had to be killed first.
Ren Suo continued looking for other Reiki items on the driver, and there were quite a few—his wallet, underwear, keys…
There was also the jade pendant, although its Reiki had been absorbed, the information could still be retrieved about it:
[36-year-old Guanyin Jade Pendant]
[Reiki content: None]
[Chance of Enhancement: 20%]
The chance of Enhancement was likely the contributing factor to the enhancement of the evolution option. At merely 20%, Ren Suo must have been lucky.
Who would have known that the Reiki setting of the game was so down to earth, Ren Suo had assumed that items from which Reiki could be absorbed would mostly be rare objects like doomed antiques and holy historical relics…
But now it seemed that most objects in the world were Reiki items, only that they differed in how much Reiki they contained, not whether they were a Reiki object or otherwise.
What Ren Suo did not expect was that there was an extremely old and slightly crumpled hundred-dollar note in the driver’s wallet. It was an old version of the hundred-dollar note that was only in circulation ten years ago and had the heads of four notable figures on it. There was much Reiki in it, and it was easy to absorb as well!
[100 RMB note (1987)]
[Reiki content: Scarce]
[Chance of Enhancement: 8%]
[Time required to absorb: 36 seconds]
The Reiki content of humans was scarce, and the Reiki content in that note was also scarce, which meant that the amount of Reiki in the driver was actually similar to that in the old edition RMB note!
Ren Suo had no intention of taking the note—if the pangolin were to purchase anything using that note, it would either be captured and be made into a dish or be sent to a research organization. Instead, he let the pangolin absorb all of the note’s Reiki right there and then.
However, at that moment, the siren of an ambulance sounded on the highway and Ren Suo saw an ambulance quickly heading towards the overturned truck.
Ren Suo looked around and found that there were no cameras before and after that section of the highway, so a car must have driven by and left after calling the police.
A firetruck and police car followed behind the ambulance. The paramedics were surprised when they found the driver to have crawled out of the truck by himself, but they quickly loaded the driver into the ambulance. In the meantime, the firefighters and the police took care of the truck and conducted preliminary investigations at the scene.
Ren Suo suddenly had an idea and controlled the pangolin to enter the ambulance first. There was a nurse inside the ambulance, but there was a stretcher at the door (the paramedics used the stretcher to lift the patient) and so the nurse would not have been able to see that a pangolin had crawled in!
The pangolin crawled right into the ambulance and squatted behind a table inside, in a corner that would definitely not be seen.
Ren Suo then fast-forwarded the time in the game by 2 hours.
Two hours later, the pangolin had indeed not been noticed and was still in the ambulance.
However, the ambulance was still moving.
Ren Suo fast-forwarded the time in 10-minute intervals, and very soon the ambulance came to a stop. A few paramedics unloaded the stretcher and Ren Suo quickly controlled the pangolin to get off the ambulance as well.
The area appeared to be a small housing estate. Only a building and a garden to the side could be seen, as the pangolin’s view angle was very low. Ren Suo naturally moved the pangolin into the grass in the garden.
The time was 16:44 and there were a few hours before the sky would turn dark. But before then, Ren Suo had to find a place for the pangolin to stay in—he would not dare to let the pangolin sleep just anywhere in the city.
It was not just that the pangolin’s vision was extremely poor at night, but also that he would very likely end up in a cage if it was found by other people…
Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to leave the small estate and realized that there was a primary school and a junior high school nearby.
There would not be anyone in the junior high school at night, and there could even be a canteen, where there would be food ingredients to consume. It was close to dismissal time and that seemed like a decent place to head to.
The only problem was that,
How could such a large pangolin cross the road…
“This is going to be troublesome…” Ren Suo muttered to himself.
Ren Suo then remembered that the pangolin’s energy bar was almost filled—only a small part of the energy from the jade pendant had been used to evolve, but much of it still remained. After absorbing the Reiki from the hundred-dollar note, it was ready to evolve again.
Undoubtedly, evolution was faster in a society comprised of humans. In just a short few hours, the pangolin was able to evolve twice, without engaging in any combat. But that could, of course, be related to the immense potential of the pangolin—or rather, it was so weak that it could evolve just by absorbing a small amount of energy.
For that evolution, two options “Fortified Defense” and “Claws and Fangs” which were red with grey words appeared, and by then, Ren Suo could guess that grey words likely represented ordinary abilities, while blue words likely represented rare abilities.
However, the third option was of a color combination that Ren Suo had never seen before—yellow and red.
The card “Afterimage” was red with yellow words. Its effect was: Active ability that can be used three times a day. When in effect, the life form would be forced to enter a state of exhaustion (all abilities decrease by 25%, requires 60 minutes to recover; the stronger the Recovery ability, the shorter the time required to recover), and its Movement ability would increase by 30% within 10 seconds (Movement is raised to 522 points if the resulting Movement remains lower than 522).
The hint provided: An increased Defense can reduce the kinetic Damage on impact, or transform the ability into a Damage ability.
An active ability!
It was the first time that Ren Suo had seen an active ability. After selecting “Afterimage”, an ability bar appeared on the left side of the screen. The “left” and “right” keys on the game controller could be used to select the ability in use, and pressing “□” would cast the ability.
Ren Suo selected the blue human figure icon representing “Afterimage” in the abilities bar. He controlled the pangolin to move into the grass by the road, and when there were no cars on the road, he activated “Afterimage” and made a dash for the school gate!
If I die, it would just be a few hours wasted anyway!
On the screen, the pangolin crossed the road as fast as lightning, living up to the ability’s name “Afterimage”. It was on the other side of the road almost in an instant, and slipped into the school through the fence!
When the pangolin burrowed into a bush inside the school, the effect also subsided!
However, the pangolin was also given an exhaustion debuff and needed one hour to recover, but it was just a matter of fast-forwarding the time in the game anyway.
After fast-forwarding an hour, the time was now 17:50, and the students of the junior high school had also been dismissed. The gates of the school were wide open and students carrying their school bags were seen flowing out the gates.
“It’s still not time to explore…” Ren Suo said as he felt slightly frustrated. As he was about to fast-forward another one hour, the voice of a few students was heard between the bushes.
“Come, come over here, have a talk with us, your big brothers,” one of the voices said.
“Hah, I am getting angry just by looking at you,” another voice said.
“What are you scared of, is big brother going to hurt you?” another one of them taunted.
Three junior high school boys were surrounding another weaker high school boy. They were almost dragging the boy all the way to the back of the classroom building. They sounded as if they were mimicking gangsters.
Was it a case of school bullying?
As mentioned before, Ren Suo studied in a top-tier junior high school in his town. Discipline was strict and the students lived on campus every day. While there were still cases of bullying in the school, they generally only involved discrimination, such as not acknowledging them, not caring for them, ignoring them, or mocking them. But that was the limit and if it affected the student’s studies or fights took place, the teachers would have had to step in.
Consequently, it was the first time that Ren Suo witnessed such a case of bullying where violence and money were involved. Ren Suo controlled the pangolin to follow them secretly.
Behind the classrooms was the sports field, and between the classrooms and the field was a toilet, likely meant for students to use during physical education lessons. There were numerous people playing basketball on the field, and so the group of boys entered the female toilet–
There were only male students playing basketball after school, so the female toilet was safer, and it was a logical choice.
After the boys entered the female toilet, the pangolin followed suit and immediately hid in the space under the sink, listening to the conversation quietly.
“Orphan Liang,” the tall student said as he slapped the weaker boy’s face a few times lightly. The weaker boy was extremely ashamed as the tall student said, “We let you off the previous time, so where’s your money now?”