The Price of a Gnosis
"Please." Venti looked at Chen Luo pitifully.
It had been hard enough to get an opportunity to drink apple wine to his heart's content. Naturally, Venti was unwilling to give it up.
"Fine, for Anemo Archon Barbatos's sake." Chen Luo was quite generous about it.
Although Chen Luo knew that stringing Venti along would benefit him the most.
If Venti wanted free alcohol, he would develop a desire. Once he had a desire, he would naturally generate commissions, and commissions meant Primogems.
It probably would not directly give him forty Primogems and other rewards like this time, but there would still be the base reward of five Primogems.
Over time, those would add up to quite a lot.
But... people needed at least a little sincerity in their interactions.
Besides, this Anemo Vision had already given Chen Luo more than enough profit.
The moment Chen Luo shook hands with Venti, Venti appeared in the friends slot of Chen Luo's Talent panel.
Although it was strange, Venti was currently indeed the only friend in the friends interface of Chen Luo's Talent panel.
After unlocking a friend, Chen Luo could purchase Venti's items and abilities.
The most eye-catching ones were...
Gnosis (Item): 10,000 Primogems
Elemental Body: Wind (Constitution): 2,000 Primogems
Although an Anemo Vision definitely could not compare to an Anemo Gnosis, Chen Luo felt that it was worth a ten-pull.
So even if he might do a few fewer daily commissions, Venti was not the only person in the tavern. There was no need to keep squeezing him dry.
Besides, since Venti still had his Gnosis, that meant the plot had not begun yet. These minor commissions were just small gains. If their Friendship Level was high enough, then when Stormterror began wreaking havoc, he could definitely make a fortune if he received a commission related to it.
"Oh, right. Since I awakened an Anemo Vision, I'm in a great mood, so I've decided to give you a little something." Chen Luo suddenly said to Venti.
"What good thing?" Venti blinked.
Venti suddenly felt that this young man, who had looked pleasing from the very beginning, seemed to be treating him quite well.
The owner of this tavern really was a good person.
The tavern was just a little too deserted.
"Didn't you say you wanted something that could record your voice and play it back? I happen to have one at home. I can give it to you." Chen Luo was happy because he had obtained an Anemo Vision.
Chen Luo was talking about a recorder. He happened to have an MP4 player at home that had sat unused for a long time, and he could give it to Venti.
"Ah, how could I accept that? Besides, a bard should bring his songs to others personally. Playing them through a machine feels a little strange." Wendy scratched his head.
"There are lots of songs from a Different World on it. Maybe they'll give you some inspiration," Chen Luo added.
"This..." Venti was tempted, but he also felt a little embarrassed.
Honestly, Venti usually acted as if he did not care about certain things, and sometimes he even seemed rather thick-skinned. But Chen Luo was giving him alcohol and strange items alike. Venti really could not handle it.
"No need to be polite. I need to go home and take care of a few things anyway. I'll be right back. Watch the shop for me while I'm gone," Chen Luo said to Venti as he stepped out from behind the bar.
"You trust a drunkard like me with the shop? This is a tavern, you know." Venti was surprised.
That trust had come out of nowhere.
"The problem is, there's no alcohol in this tavern. If you can find even one bottle, I'll admit defeat." Chen Luo rolled his eyes at him and pushed the door open.
All the alcohol in this tavern was bought and sold on the spot by Chen Luo. How could there possibly be any extra?
After pushing the door open, Chen Luo appeared on the second-floor balcony again.
He looked back at the tavern and found that the faint phantom was still there. Moreover, unless someone intentionally pushed open the door, they could treat the tavern as if it did not exist and pass through it freely.
As Chen Luo thought, he took out Hong Tailang's Frying Pan.
This time, Chen Luo had come out not only to give Venti an extra reward, but also because the tavern had warned him that someone was approaching his home with malicious intent.
The second floor of Chen Luo's home had no lights on, so as he stood on the balcony, he was hidden in darkness and would not be discovered.
Chen Luo quietly crept to the edge of the balcony. Looking down, he saw Blondie, faintly visible beneath the lights on the first floor.
"That guy again? Is he here for revenge?" Chen Luo muttered to himself.
The visitor was none other than the Blondie whom Chen Luo had knocked out at school with a brick.
Although the security in Chen Luo's residential complex was fairly strong and its surveillance coverage comprehensive, it was not difficult to climb over the wall if one ignored the cameras.
After all, the guards could not watch every corner. Anyone determined to sneak in would not have much trouble.
The cameras would probably catch it, but what did Blondie care? He had only come to beat someone up.
Of course, it was also possible that Blondie had found some loophole to get in.
Blondie felt incredibly unlucky. Earlier today, while he had been dismantling a bicycle, he had run into its owner. Getting caught in the act would have been one thing, but he had not expected the other party to pull a brick out of his backpack and knock him unconscious with it.
What normal person carried a fucking brick in his backpack? Was that guy sick in the head?
But thinking about how the other guy had always insisted on doing good deeds like an idiot, maybe there really was something wrong with his head.
Still, that was not the important part. What hurt Blondie the most was that when he went to the security office with a huge bump on his head to report Chen Luo, the guard did not believe him at all.
"What a joke. Chen Luo beat you up? He's an exemplary student. How could he possibly get into a fight? Stop making trouble. Go play somewhere else."
The school guard simply did not believe Blondie.
And because there had been no witnesses at the time, and there were no cameras in the bicycle storage area, no one believed Blondie at all.
Blondie had even gone to the police station in a fit of anger. It was not far from the school, just a short walk away.
But unfortunately, the moment he wanted to file a report, an older police officer stopped him. When the officer heard that Blondie wanted to report Chen Luo for assault, he laughed outright.
"Enough. The police station is so close to the school—did you really think no one knew about your school bully antics? Chen Luo is an exemplary student who dared to act bravely and ambush a bank robber. He's been on television. Why would he beat you up for no reason? If you got beaten up, you probably deserved it. Keep talking nonsense, and I'll lock you up for two days. It's not like you've ever done anything good before."
And so Blondie was driven out.
Blondie could not understand it. He had only dismantled Chen Luo's bicycle. He was clearly the one who got beaten up, so why did nobody believe him?
The more Blondie thought about it, the angrier he became. He felt like he was about to turn evil, so he decided to come to Chen Luo's home and beat him up.
Of course, taking a few things as compensation for emotional distress would also be perfectly normal.
Chen Luo, Expert at Burying People
Standing on the second-floor balcony and watching the sneaky Blondie, the frying pan in Chen Luo's hand was itching for action.
After completing three commissions, Chen Luo could clearly feel that he had become stronger. More importantly, he now had an Anemo Vision.
In Chen Luo's view, a Herrscher Core was probably something like a Gnosis. While an Anemo Vision definitely could not compare to a Herrscher Core, it was more than enough to deal with an ordinary person.
Chen Luo touched the Anemo Vision in his hand and felt a gentle breeze coil around his body, making him lighter.
Although this was Chen Luo's first time using an Anemo Vision, after listening to the song Barbatos had personally sung earlier, he had gained a buff.
Wind God's Favor: You are a friend blessed by the Anemo Archon. For the next half hour, you will be able to skillfully control Wind Element.
Although the buff's duration was rather short, it was enough for now.
With the Anemo Vision's support, Chen Luo made a light jump, cleared the railing over a meter high, and leaped down from the second floor.
Protected by the Wind Element, Chen Luo made no sound when he landed. Just like that, he appeared behind the other person without anyone noticing.
Seeing that Blondie had not noticed him at all, Chen Luo raised the frying pan in his hand.
Bang! A dull sound echoed through the silent night.
Blondie collapsed at once.
The frying pan in Chen Luo's hand was Hong Tailang's Frying Pan, which possessed special properties. In addition, Chen Luo had Furniture Mastery, and a frying pan counted as furniture, so Chen Luo controlled his strength perfectly.
There was no need to worry about accidentally killing the other party with one blow.
"This guy came to get revenge on me, right?" Chen Luo looked at Blondie lying on the ground.
"That big pit Herrscher of Knowledge smashed out actually seems useful..." Chen Luo muttered softly.
Once he decided on something, Chen Luo acted immediately. He grabbed the other man by the collar, not bothering to be gentle with a patient, and dragged him toward the backyard.
Chen Luo could even hear his clothes scraping against the ground.
Since his strength seemed to have increased and the other person's clothes were of fairly good quality, Chen Luo did not need much effort to drag him to the backyard where he grew vegetables.
"First, I'll go home and get a shovel and some rope. I should bring a bucket too." Thinking this, Chen Luo returned home.
Because he had forgotten whose commission had required him to grow vegetables, Chen Luo had kept a shovel at home. He just had not expected to use it now.
And Chen Luo had not expected that Furniture Mastery would let him obtain shovel mastery as well.
After being strengthened by commissions and supported by the Anemo Vision, Chen Luo dug much faster when he returned to the backyard. In just six minutes, he successfully dug a hole deep enough to bury someone upright.
But before throwing Blondie in, Chen Luo searched through his belongings first, adhering to the noble principles of robbing the rich to help the poor and upholding justice.
"Only a little over two hundred yuan? What a poor bastard!" Chen Luo said disdainfully to Blondie, who was still unconscious. You were supposed to be one of the school's famous bullies.
"Though mobile payments are popular these days, so it's normal to carry little cash." With that thought, Chen Luo used Blondie's fingerprint to unlock his phone.
Alipay
As expected of one of the school bullies, the money in the two apps added up to over two thousand yuan. That was indeed a lot for a student. After considering it, Chen Luo transferred the money to his own phone using Blondie's fingerprint.
As for evidence, Chen Luo had already deleted the transfer records, though that was probably useless since the payment companies' backend data would not be erased because of it. But it was not a big problem. Later, he could ask Herrscher of Knowledge to alter the other person's consciousness. After all, Chen Luo was doing this for the two of them's living expenses. Otherwise, Chen Luo would not care about such a small amount of money, so Herrscher of Knowledge ought to contribute as well. Besides, hadn't Herrscher of Knowledge gone out to uphold justice too? The nature of the two things was the same.
And this guy had dismantled Chen Luo's bicycle, which cost over two hundred thousand yuan, more than ten times. If they were calculating compensation, two thousand yuan was nowhere near enough. It was only because the bicycle situation counted as legitimate wear and tear that Chen Luo's parents reimbursed the repair costs. Otherwise, Chen Luo could not afford to repair it himself.
As for human rights... Chen Luo had always believed that people capable of committing extremely vicious campus bullying no longer had human rights. Murderers killed people, while campus bullying killed people, broke their hearts, and left psychological scars that could never be shaken off for a lifetime...
In a sense, Chen Luo, whose bicycle had constantly been dismantled by this bastard, was also one of Blondie's victims of campus bullying.
"Maybe I should give this phone to Venti..." Chen Luo considered as he looked at the phone in his hand.
Those who killed should be prepared to be killed. Of course, Chen Luo did not plan to kill anyone. This was not serious enough to warrant murder, and Chen Luo was not some demon. Burying him for one night would be enough. Once Herrscher of Knowledge altered his consciousness, a good person would emerge.
But...
"This bastard actually has nude photos of other people? And they're boys? He even dares to blackmail them? And there are so many victims?" While transferring money through Blondie's messaging app, Chen Luo saw the messages on it.
Now Chen Luo had even less of a psychological burden.
He even gave Blondie another kick.
"Hmm... forget it. I'll keep it for now and see what Herrscher of Knowledge brings back this time. After all, you can't get by without a phone in modern times."
Having made up his mind, Chen Luo accepted the phone without any guilt.
Next came the matter of burying someone. First, he had to tie up the other person's hands.
Actually, burying someone with only their head exposed was not entirely reliable, because some people could indeed wriggle themselves free by squirming. So tying his hands was essential, and his feet had to be tied as well.
Better safe than sorry.
Next, he threw the other person into the upright hole and filled it with dirt.
The entire process took Chen Luo two minutes.
And because Chen Luo was worried that the other person might die from chest compression, he left a little room around his chest.
Chen Luo intended to teach him a lesson.
But he had not intended to kill him.
If he had truly intended to kill him, he would not have transferred the money to his own phone.
Because he had left room for Blondie's chest to breathe, he would not die. Although that would make it easier for him to escape, Chen Luo had also tied his hands and feet.
Evil people deserved to be dealt with by evil people. Chen Luo hated campus bullies the most.
Next, he found a rag and stuffed it into Blondie's mouth, then wrapped tape around it ten times to ensure that he could neither make a sound nor spit out the gag.
Finally, he took out a large bucket and covered Blondie's head with it.
That way, if the other person woke up and screamed frantically, it would ensure that his muffled cries would not travel far at all, almost to the point of being inaudible.
Because the bucket was rather large, Blondie would not be able to hit it by shaking his head. There was no need to worry that he would knock it over.
Before you continue