Chapter Eighty-Two: I’m Just Here to Tag Along

“Only the warrior general Guan Yu, not Guan Yu the Martial Sage, much less the Divine Emperor Lord Guan.”

Skills: Dragging Blade Stratagem, Horse-and-Blade Unity, One Rider Against a Thousand.

Among them, One Rider Against a Thousand was a passive ability, much like the generals in Dynasty Warriors having a health bar: attacks from common soldiers, even if a blade hacked into the body or a spear pierced the chest, would not kill—at most they would shave off a little health. That was the very essence of how a martial general could face a thousand alone.

Horse-and-Blade Unity meant that when mounted, both rider and horse received boosted attributes—whether strength or speed.

It was basically like forming a partner bond with the horse and gaining a buff.

As for Dragging Blade Stratagem, that was simply an offensive technique.

“Guan Yu with One Rider Against a Thousand...”

Yan Luo pondered inwardly.

At that moment, Big Fly, the leader of the Azure Dragon Gang, came over carrying a bag.

He pulled open the zipper, revealing stack after stack of cash.

“There’s one million here.” Big Fly was deeply uneasy.

Even a gang in a fourth-tier city possessed far more than a million in assets. It looked like a lot of money, but at most it would buy a modest apartment a little over a hundred square meters. Yet with so many of his men sent to the hospital with broken bones, a huge sum would be needed, not to mention their usual expenses and daily outlays...

Yan Luo did not particularly care. He hooked the bag over with his long spear and casually asked, “None of this is counterfeit, right?”

“Boss...” Big Fly was full of grievance. “We’re just a small-time gang. Even if we had the guts of bears and leopards, we wouldn’t dare print fake money! That gets you shot!”

Yan Luo glanced at the statue of Lord Guan, leapt down from the horse, walked over, and took the Green Dragon Crescent Blade from its hands. It was quite weighty; even if it did not compare to the Coiling Dragon Staff, it was surely over thirty catties. He raised the weapon and chopped downward. With a crack, a fissure split open in the concrete.

Big Fly stared from the side in utter shock. This Spring-Autumn great blade weighed thirty-eight catties. An ordinary person would struggle just to carry it, yet this young man wielded it with absurd ease.

This was a high school student? The hell—was he some kind of Japanese manga high schooler?

“Not bad.”

Yan Luo gave a word of praise.

“It was forged by an old blacksmith from my hometown, over eighty years old... made with genuinely good steel... We may be gangsters, but how would we dare show disrespect to the Second Lord?” Big Fly said with a fawning smile beside him.

“All right. I’ll take the money and the blade. Goodbye. And don’t bother me again in the future.”

Though this blade was only an ordinary object from the real world and could not be brought into the inner world, it was still a fine weapon. Perhaps it might come in handy if he encountered a fight in reality—weren’t there things like contaminated zones and descent points?

With an unexpected windfall in hand and a decent weapon besides, Yan Luo mounted his horse and drifted away with effortless grace.

As for how the Azure Dragon Gang felt after suffering a grievous blow, losing a million, leaving behind a ground full of wounded men, and even having Lord Guan’s weapon taken from them—that need not be told. Yan Luo returned home, took a bath first, then practiced the first move of the Ten Directions Staff Art, Pillar Supporting the Heavens, until two in the morning before finally going to sleep.

Early the next day, he still rode to school on horseback, though unfortunately the Heartless Puppet now held two masks and could no longer absorb emotions.

He left the horse at Old Chen’s house and then went to class.

Yesterday, because he had arrived late for morning study and the horse had soon been led away, not many people at school had seen him, and his classmates did not know that Yan Luo came to school on horseback. He entered the classroom quietly, took out his books, and before long homeroom teacher Wu arrived as well. Seeing that no one was late today, the teacher nodded in satisfaction.

As for what had happened yesterday after An Zixuan and the three Azure Dragon Gang punks had called Yan Luo away, Zheng Hong, along with the plump and skinny girls in the class, were all intensely curious. But it was awkward to ask, so the matter remained unspoken until noon. After class ended, Yan Luo was just preparing to eat when the program transmitted a warning:

“Warning, warning! A spatial-temporal anomaly has occurred within ten kilometers. Because the space-time of the real world has been disturbed, the gateway to the Dream Space cannot be deployed for transport. All nearby Modulators are to proceed directly to deal with it. This is a special mission. Each participant will receive 1 Gene Point. After the anomaly is cleared, an additional 1 Gene Point will be awarded.”

“A spatial-temporal anomaly?”

Yan Luo immediately thought of contaminated zones and descent points.

Everything else aside, merely participating would earn 1 Gene Point, and resolving it would earn another 1! With those 2 points, his total would reach 10, enough to upgrade the basic life unlocked through Dream Gene Points into intermediate life.

His power would rise dramatically.

Though he had no idea what he might encounter, Yan Luo had two personality masks in hand after all, and immediately decided to go. Even if he had to skip class, he would do it without hesitation.

To hell with this afternoon’s lessons.

Yan Luo hurried to Chen Jianmin’s house and found the old man drinking with another old fellow. Cream Chocolate’s hooves had already been fitted with horseshoes... There was no time to say much. He only gave a brief explanation that he had urgent business and had to leave at noon, thanked the other old man for helping shoe the horse, then mounted up and galloped straight out from the school residential district, leaving only dust in his wake.

It was noon now, and also school dismissal time, so the campus was crowded.

Student after student saw Yan Luo riding a horse at full speed across the school grounds.

“What is that?”

“A horse?”

“He rides a horse to school? That’s insane.”

...

The place was within ten kilometers, and riding hard, Yan Luo arrived quickly. The mini-map indicated that the spatial-temporal anomaly was right here, yet the streets and buildings looked no different from reality. He activated the program’s scanning function and investigated.

“This spatial-temporal anomaly is a contaminated zone. Contaminated zones are divided into chaos contamination, fantasy contamination, fallen contamination...”

“Fantasy contamination: a spatial-temporal overlap has occurred between an inner world and the surface world, and creatures from the inner world are invading reality. The scope of this contaminated zone is: extremely small. Dream Space has already sealed this area with a temporal membrane, temporarily isolating it from reality.”

“Modulators are requested to enter the temporal membrane... In 4 minutes, the membrane will be eroded, and entry will no longer be possible.”

“Detection result: the theme of this contaminated zone is extraterrestrial lifeforms. Recommended entry level: LV3.”

Yan Luo was only an LV1 World Modulator. He had no idea whether he ought to go in... but with trump cards in hand, he wanted to test the waters. After all, even if he merely showed up to make up the numbers, if the contaminated zone were successfully cleared in the end, those 2 Gene Points would be his.

He urged the horse forward...

At that moment, a ripple passed through the program, and Yan Luo also felt as though he had crossed an invisible barrier... So this counted as breaking through the membrane and entering?

“Heh. Among all the people who came this time, your caliber is the worst.”

A cold voice rang out.

Yan Luo turned his head and saw a black-haired young man staring at him with a sneer. The man looked about twenty-four or twenty-five, with an utterly ordinary face, but several scars slashed across it, making him appear especially grim and fearsome.

“My friend, level and caliber don’t seem to be related,” Yan Luo said mildly.

“How are they not related? An LV1 scrub dares enter a contaminated zone? You really aren’t afraid of death. Didn’t you see the program’s warning?” said another man—a fat one. Though he too was fat, he was middle-aged, and far fiercer-looking than Zhu Xiaoyong the shut-in, his face brimming with brutality.

“All right... I’m just here to make up the numbers.”

Yan Luo said, looking harmless and amiable.

Then, after a moment’s thought, he deliberately added, “But not with Pear Blossom brand soy sauce, and not with Azusa brand soy sauce either.”