The three held their weapons and immediately spotted Sampo in the crowd.
"Found the blue-haired suspect and his accomplices!"
"Hey, no!"
March 7th still wanted to explain.
But someone patted her shoulder.
She turned to look at Liuge.
"What?"
"No need to explain. That guy Sampo already ran off!"
Liuge spoke helplessly.
Was he truly worthy of being a Masked Fool?
Even though Dan Heng and he had both been wary of that guy, Sampo had still escaped in that brief moment—and even dumped the blame on them.
"Huh?!"
March 7th looked around, but Sampo was indeed nowhere to be seen.
At that point, even her little brain understood that Sampo had used them as pawns.
"Ugh, I'm so mad! That guy actually threw us out here to take the blame!"
March 7th angrily summoned her Six-Phase Ice bow.
Looking at the aggressive group on the other side, she knew they would not be able to avoid this fight.
Liuge, meanwhile, glanced at the place Sampo had just slipped away from. A purple light orb remained there.
After silently picking it up, Liuge's lips curled upward slightly.
Dishonest Merchant Quality · Purple Effect: As a dishonest merchant, your chance of escaping is 100%. When selling items or information, the transaction price increases by 20%. No merchant is honest; if you can't run fast enough, you're finished!
Just as the group was about to begin fighting, a steady young voice suddenly rang out.
"Wait!"
The moment they heard that voice, the Silvermane Guards immediately stopped their attack stance and turned to look behind them.
"Commander Gepard!"
A man clad in silver-white armor, with a long blue scarf draped around him, walked out carrying an enormous guitar case.
Looking at the man, March 7th quietly whispered to Liuge beside her.
"Hey, Liuge, don't you think that guy looks like he's planning to fight with that guitar case?"
"Is it possible that the guitar case is just really hard?"
"Possible. It really does seem possible!"
March 7th looked at it and solemnly nodded.
The man named Gepard seemed to have heard March 7th and Liuge's conversation. He fell silent for a moment, then, perhaps intentionally, quietly shifted the massive guitar case in his hand behind him.
Stat-Stick Scavenging and Devouring Black Hole
After they explained things to Gepard, the battle that had begun because of a misunderstanding in the original story did not take place as expected.
That surprised Liuge somewhat.
But it was only natural. After all, one was a game, while this was reality.
It was normal for things to change.
So, after everyone introduced themselves as Trailblazers from beyond the planet, Gepard looked astonished. But when he heard that they had come because of the Eternal Freeze, he froze for a moment as well.
"You're saying that the Eternal Freeze on our planet was caused by something called a Stellaron?"
Gepard had grown up in this environment. If someone claimed they could change it, he would never believe it.
However, as a member of Belobog, this was not something he could judge.
"If things are truly as you say, then I cannot make a decision on such a matter. It must be decided by the Supreme Guardian."
Gepard thought for a while before deciding to introduce them.
Afterward, led by Gepard and the others, the group entered the massive city of Belobog.
Not long after entering the city, March 7th felt that she was no longer so cold.
She immediately moved closer to Liuge.
"Liuge, why does it feel warm after we entered this city?"
In response, Liuge pointed at something beside them that looked like a heater.
"Look. Aren't there a lot of these things along the streets?"
"Yeah!"
"The heat comes from inside those."
Liuge replied.
"Is that so?"
March 7th curiously stepped forward and poked the thing with her finger.
Liuge ignored March 7th and walked straight over to Gepard.
"Gepard, can I skip meeting the Supreme Guardian?"
"Hm?"
"To be honest, I know your sister. I want to go catch up with her."
"You know my sister?"
Gepard was genuinely shocked this time.
Didn't you say you were a visitor from beyond the stars?
How do you know my sister too?!
Still, Gepard looked at the other three besides Liuge.
"Are you sure you don't want to meet the Supreme Guardian?"
The moment he asked that, Liuge knew he could leave the group.
"Yep!"
"All right, then! But I'll have him go with you. You just arrived here, so there are many things you don't know."
Gepard pointed at a Silvermane Guard beside him who was skinny as a bamboo pole.
Calling it an escort and guide was more like calling it surveillance.
But Liuge did not care.
Because after this, Cocolia would put March 7th and the others on the wanted list.
So Liuge did not care about such things.
Right now, his attention was entirely on the Stat-Stick Light Orbs scattered throughout Belobog's streets.
In just that short while, he had picked up no fewer than fifteen white Stat-Sticks.
Though they were all basic ones like Attack, Speed, and endurance, there were simply too many of them.
Besides, once enough basic Stat-Sticks were accumulated, they could be combined into higher-quality ones.
He had not forgotten that when he first equipped Stat-Stick: Strength, his strength had increased to nine times what it had been.
If it were green or blue, how great would the increase be?
And if he added and combined these basic Stat-Sticks into Haxxor Bunny's character Stat-Stick card, could he bring the character card's strength to a full hundred percent?
With that in mind, Liuge greeted the others and went off on his own.
March 7th and Stelle both found that strange.
Weren't we supposed to be one team? Why are you running off while leaving us to handle the mission?
But Liuge did not see their looks.
Right now, all he could see were Stat-Sticks.
After wandering around for more than thirty minutes, until even the Silvermane Guard following him had fallen behind from exhaustion,
Liuge found a bench by the roadside and sat down, beginning to sort through his gains.
Fifteen Strength, seventeen endurance, nine Speed, plus Stat-Stick: Flower, Stat-Stick: Tale, Stat-Stick: Opera, Stat-Stick: Memory, and fourteen other miscellaneous Stat-Sticks.
All in all, it had been a fruitful haul.
Though they were all white, of course.
Liuge then began arranging and combining them.
After raising his own strength, speed, and endurance to twenty times the limit of an ordinary person, he seemed to feel a restraint within his body firmly locking away any further increase in strength.
But that did not matter. After all, the increase came from Stat-Sticks. Unless he could genuinely improve himself, removing those Stat-Sticks would still return him to an ordinary person's strength.
Just as he was thinking that, a vortex suddenly appeared on the 3D model of himself in Aether Edit, along with a prompt beside it.
You may strengthen yourself by consuming unneeded Stat-Sticks. Limited to attribute Stat-Sticks.
"What? If your Aether Edit can do this, why didn't you say so earlier?"
With his eye twitching, Liuge silently tossed the high-level Stat-Sticks he had just combined into Haxxor Bunny's character card.
He forcibly raised the extent of her strength she could wield to 99%. As for the remaining 1%, it seemed to require some special condition.
That left Liuge puzzled.
So you need me to complete a breakthrough quest too?!
But that was not what Liuge cared about for now.
He wanted to see exactly how much these remaining attribute Stat-Sticks could increase his strength.
So, after removing all his Stat-Sticks and returning himself to the state of a completely ordinary person,
he tossed all those attribute Stat-Sticks into the devouring vortex at once.
The next moment, Liuge felt as though his body had been strengthened. Streams of warmth flowed continuously through his limbs and bones, feeling incredibly comfortable, like he was soaking in a hot spring.
But as time slowly passed, that comfort gradually turned into intense pain.
He seemed to feel every muscle in his body tearing apart, constantly reconstructing itself, then tearing apart and reconstructing itself again.
The pain prevented him from uttering even a single word.
Drops of sweat fell one after another, even streaming down onto the ground.
Yet the strengthening had not ended. It continued, steadily intensifying the pain.
Gradually, passersby noticed Liuge's abnormal condition. They all watched him with strange looks, but not one stepped forward to ask about him.
"Damn it. If I'd known this would happen, I would've found a quiet room first."
Liuge was genuinely embarrassed now. He felt like a monkey being watched by a crowd.
Suddenly, his gaze lifted, and a fragrant scent entered his nose.
"You..."
Before he could finish speaking, a voice interrupted him.
"Don't talk. Your condition is a little dangerous..."
It was a somewhat familiar voice.
When a lock of golden hair drifted through his vision, he knew Serval had found him.
Before you continue