Shortcomings

"Three steamed buns. Two fresh pork, one sauced pork. Are they hot? Are the ingredients fresh?"

"Of course. My equipment and ingredients are all purchased through the Gourmet Association, guaranteeing both taste and safety. Three for one dollar. Would you like them packed up?"

As he spoke, the owner pointed at the sign on the wall behind him: "Gu City Delicacies Association Rank B Gourmet Shop (Xingwang Steamed Bun Shop)."

The Gourmet Association? Lu PingAn took the buns, feeling that something about this was subtly off.

But after asking a few questions, his expression became even stranger.

"...The church even handles this sort of thing?"

The Gu City Delicacies Association was actually an affiliated organization of one of the churches of the King of Harvest and Delicacies, one of the four common righteous gods of life.

At least half the independent shops in the city had joined it, undergoing certification and rating.

There were few customers in the morning, so the bun shop owner was still bragging about how he had stood out during the evaluation and gotten his little shop the same rating as the large ones.

But in Lu PingAn's eyes, allowing "private forces" to hold the power to set standards and conduct evaluations was, in some ways, even worse than the pharmaceutical companies owning shares in hospitals he had seen before.

He recalled a news story from his previous life. A globally top-ranked pharmaceutical giant had issued an internal notice mocking a competitor because "its new drug worked too well and cured the patients," claiming that "a business model that allows patients to recover is unsustainable."

"If that was a joke, it really isn't funny."

He sighed helplessly. Perhaps in other people's eyes, he was the oddball for finding all this abnormal.

To Lu PingAn, who had grown accustomed to modern society, the mere notion that "the owner of a Secret Realm possesses absolute sovereignty within it" was already more than worthy of ridicule.

Would people accustomed to killing and committing evil within Secret Realms change after coming out? The pleasure of getting everything they wanted with a casual reach would only make them repeat it over and over.

In Lu PingAn's view, this incident was, on a small scale, merely another escalated version of "campus bullying." Similar social news had always existed.

On a larger scale, it was the absence, once again, of "public authority that ought to have existed."

At its root, it was still the "Secret Realm sovereignty system" that allowed everything to deteriorate without limit.

The owner of a Secret Realm did not even need to commit evil himself. All he had to do was "tacitly approve" or "give up supervision," and everything would worsen endlessly.

The Secret Realm Master was the order of a Small World. When order was absent, chaos and unchecked desire followed.

Calamity Fist and the others had not known things would deteriorate so badly. Those insignificant little thugs, in their eyes, had managed to go that far. They could originally have stopped all of it.

Perhaps they had simply felt there was no need to risk angering the Secret Realm's holder just to stop such "minor evil of bullying newcomers."

Those rounds of applause might have contained approval, but perhaps also guilt and unease.

What was happening before his eyes might only have been a microcosm of countless Secret Realm zones across the world.

If even the novice Secret Realms within the city were like this, then those large Secret Realms said to be like independent kingdoms and Other Worlds—had they already become completely irredeemable?

With independent finances, independent territory, and independent personnel, how were they any different from kingdoms?

"...Forget it. There's no point thinking too much. At least nothing major had happened before this. Maybe I'm overthinking it."

What Lu PingAn did not know was that his guesses were not only entirely correct—the reality was far worse.

Eating one bun after another, Lu PingAn wandered down the street, sightseeing and having fun.

Ice cream shops, game arcades, manga stores, CD shops—today, he was going to have a blast! He would not go home until every last bit of money in his pocket was spent!

What? Captain Xia's warning? Uh, too much had happened all at once. He selectively forgot about it.

What? The college entrance exam was coming up?

"Fuck! There are only two days until the college entrance exam?! Then I have to hurry up and have as much fun as I can! I heard it's hard to get out once you enter university! Right, Big Cat, you need to study hard!"

When it came to being inhuman, Lu PingAn was clearly still evolving.

Then he was blocked.

A police car shot out sideways and stopped directly in front of him.

Xia Qin, with dark circles under her eyes, got out angrily. Lei Huo Ren sat in the passenger seat with an expression that said, You deal with this yourself.

Five minutes later, Lu PingAn was back at the police station. He had been gone for less than an hour.

"Fine. I know you won't be studying. Then come work overtime with me."

"Sure, sure. I've never been a police officer before. Let me give it a try."

Going through computer files, reading documents, chatting with criminals—while playing around, he absorbed more "common knowledge" like a sponge, deepening his understanding of the inner and outer worlds.

Ten minutes later, Xia Qin's mood exploded even further because Lu PingAn kept bouncing around and asking questions about everything, disrupting her work.

"...You're pretty capable, huh? You must be very confident about getting into Gu Da. Then we'll be Senior Sister and junior brother. Let Senior Sister see whether you're really prepared."

And so, Lu PingAn was hauled to the police station's training room, dressed in a full set of sparring gear, and made to let Xia Qin see whether he was "prepared."

A minute later, Xia Qin was on her knees. Kneeling to beg Lu PingAn not to die!

"...Your frontal combat abilities really leave me at a loss for words."

"The captain was being tactful. I'll be more direct. 'You have no frontal combat ability whatsoever. You fight like shit.'"

"...I'm training, I'm training. Give me some time."

Lu PingAn lay sprawled on the floor, having just recovered from his rapid self-healing. He opened his bag, chugged down a liter of water, then tore open a package of jerky and began chewing in huge bites.

The sight before them startled both Professional Keepers.

"Rapid self-healing from the Healer path?!"

"How is that possible? That was way too fast!"

Seeing their astonished looks, Lu PingAn slightly raised his right hand from where he lay, showing them his glove and the Maiden of the Forest's holy emblem on it.

"Hehe, I got lucky. Just got it."

Lu PingAn chewed smugly.

"...My mentality just shattered. I've been a Professional Keeper for three years and only have one Taboo Item."

This counted as merely getting lucky? Even the always-calm Lei Huo Ren was somewhat shaken. He barely got to use his broken thing once a year, and its maintenance costs were exorbitant.

"I have two. One was awarded for meritorious service, and one was given by a comrade-in-arms."

Xia Qin touched the gun and sword at her waist, her face equally full of disbelief.

But Lu PingAn had no time to humblebrag with them. He tore open another pack of compressed biscuits.

"No wonder nobody wants to use rapid self-healing. Forget the hunger and thirst that make you want to eat dirt and drink iron—the stamina drain leaves you completely exhausted. Wouldn't that just be waiting to die on a battlefield?"

Lu PingAn was drenched from head to toe, as if he had been dragged out of the sea. His mind and body were both unable to move.

With a physique at the level of an ordinary person, this spell had already drained him severely.

Left with no choice, he activated Deferred Payment, pushing the stamina expenditure onto tomorrow and the day after.

"...Thankfully, I still have two days before payment is due. It won't drag into the third day, the college entrance exam."

This was also an opportunity. Using unfamiliar abilities casually in actual combat could easily lead to failure, so he had to test them before the exam.

Seeing Lu PingAn stand up again so quickly, the two veteran Professional Keepers understood him even less.

They also knew the flaws of "accelerated self-healing," but what this guy displayed was becoming harder and harder to explain.

But from another perspective, Lu PingAn showing them how absurd he was was also a form of trust.

"...Let's do it again. This time, slow down a little and let me set up the battlefield."

Lu PingAn also wanted to see just how far he could go now, what level he truly stood at within the Professionals' system.

Then he was on his knees.

He suffered three consecutive defeats against Lei Huo Ren, lasting less than a minute in total. The slow speed of his magic plants could not catch a Runner in the latter half of Tier 2. Once Lei Huo Ren got close, Lu PingAn could only choose between self-destruction and falling.

His spar with Xia Qin was even more tragic. Even with time to set up the battlefield, he still collapsed at the first blow, nearly ending up truly kneeling on the spot.

"Stop, stop! If we keep going, my baby will die! I'm still counting on it to help me with my exam the day after tomorrow! I don't have the resources to get another one now!"

At this point, Lu PingAn also realized that he was probably still some distance away from these veterans.

What he did not know was that while he was surprised by the strength of Professionals, the two Professionals were frightened by him.

"...That's too fast, way too fast. It took me over a year after becoming a Polluted One to reach this level."

"Inconceivable. Impossible to understand. Is this Tier ZZZ pollution?"

But at the same time, Lu PingAn received the evaluation he wanted.

"Passing the practical combat score shouldn't be a problem, but with such an obvious shortcoming, you can forget about a scholarship. That won't do."