The Unfortunate Survivor

"Don't misunderstand—I'm not a killer."

"I don't have any particular obsession with this sort of thing."

"At most, I just kill a few people depending on my mood."

After patting the girl on the back, Xi Shenlian casually explained the general situation.

He figured he probably didn't count as a bad guy yet.

Sure, he'd wiped out some gangsters.

But those were gangsters!

At the very least, he was acting on behalf of justice, right?

Just thinking about it, he felt he deserved some kind of "Caring Citizen" achievement.

Of course.

He didn't think he was a good person either.

Saving the world, improving society—he wasn't really interested in that.

He'd rather act according to his mood.

And hearing his words, the girl, who had been retching, slowly lifted her head.

But she didn't dare turn around, afraid of fully seeing Xi Shenlian's face.

She felt that might trigger some kind of death mechanism.

If that happened, things would be far too unfortunate...

However.

Xi Shenlian didn't bother with such trivial matters.

Seeing was seeing.

As someone who stood tall and acted upright, he didn't really care about that kind of issue.

So.

He continued gently patting the girl's back, speaking calmly:

"Let me ask you something—do you practice martial arts?"

"Yes."

"Then what level are you at among martial artists?"

"...A decent level."

Though she said that, Xi Shenlian could still detect a hint of pride in her voice.

Recalling how she had easily leaped down from the building earlier...

She was probably a genius?

Xi Shenlian wasn't sure.

"Family tradition? Or did you join some school?"

As far as Xi Shenlian knew, because this world had long placed great emphasis on personal combat strength, there were countless factions dedicated to martial arts and technique cultivation.

And most of them were quite strong and wealthy.

After all, practicing martial arts easily damaged the body, and poor people couldn't afford medicine...

"..."

At this point.

Though she didn't understand why he was asking these things, the girl obediently replied:

"Family tradition."

"From your accent, you seem to be from Kyoto?"

"Yes."

"With your family established in Kyoto, being a true martial artist, and not weak at that, you've probably experienced a lot... So you should have a practical understanding of all the martial artists and Awakened across Dongying, right?"

"...Yes."

Having asked that much.

Xi Shenlian was very happy.

"Very good, then let's find a place to chat~"

"I think as a senior, you should give a newbie a rundown of the basics."

With that said.

He directly wrapped an arm around her stiff waist, half-dragging her as he led her off in another direction.

A few minutes later.

Several police cars screeched to a halt.

The gathered headlights even brightened the dim area somewhat.

A bunch of cops with guns holstered at their waists quickly got out of the cars.

They charged straight into the alley.

Then.

Came screams and the sound of vomiting.

In that moment, the scene inside the alley.

Turned many into vegetarians.

And since no business means no killing, Xi Shenlian, who had inadvertently saved countless lives, truly had boundless merit!

After that.

Ambulances arrived in a hurry.

Besides collecting the bodies.

They also had to administer emergency treatment.

Because the monsters hadn't all died.

While casually tearing apart a few monsters, Xi Shenlian didn't forget to follow through on his own ideas, making some of them live a different kind of life.

A brand-new life where they'd probably never need to see scenery, hear sounds, chew food, walk, grab things, or take a bath... in short.

To put it simply.

Those who didn't curse him were mostly dead.

Those who cursed him were mostly alive.

Incidentally, as a string-twisting cat's cradle craftsman, he also practiced his skills.

This meant that when the medical staff in the ambulances saw the survivors, they immediately threw up.

Even though they were used to seeing all kinds of gruesomely dead unlucky souls and all sorts of bizarre, disgusting injuries.

Those few living guys still made the medical staff think of many splatter films and ancient execution methods, instinctively refusing to look at their miserable state with their own eyes.

Meanwhile.

Xi Shenlian, still holding the girl, asked her enthusiastically:

"How about that place?"

It was a shop with a pretty interesting style.

Giving off a Tokyo red romance vibe.

Perfect for lonely, cold men and women.

But.

Judging from the girl's attempt to kill him with her eyes, he figured she wasn't willing to go in, so Xi Shenlian had to reluctantly give up that option.

Instead, he pointed at another place—a high-end café that looked a bit pricey.

"Then, what about there?"

He had to admit.

He was quite polite.

This time, the girl didn't keep trying to shoot heat rays from her eyes, so she seemed satisfied.

Thus, Xi Shenlian directly led her over.

The girl in his arms looked at Xi Shenlian's faintly smiling expression, as if he were doing something trivial.

Thought about it.

She asked somewhat irritably:

"What exactly do you want?"

By now, through his words and actions, she had figured out that her life wasn't in any real danger.

Her attitude naturally calmed down a lot.

As the one being questioned, Xi Shenlian answered casually:

"Just asking you something~"

"I'm still unfamiliar with all the major and minor forces in Dongying, and I'm just a rookie Awakened. As a newbie, I happen to need you to help fill me in on some common sense."

Having barely interacted with the martial artist system, and even as a genuine Awakened, still not quite understanding the ins and outs of Awakened, Xi Shenlian figured the girl before him could bridge some of his information gaps.

In this regard, relying solely on the network info gathered by the Auxiliary AI would ultimately lack a lot of real-world feel.

But when she heard Xi Shenlian call himself a rookie Awakened and a newbie, the girl instinctively curled her lip.

She clearly didn't believe it at all.

Coming from an ancient martial arts family, she knew exactly what a normal rookie Awakened should be like.

She still couldn't beat them, sure.

But the gap was nowhere near as huge as Xi Shenlian had shown.

If it were an Awakened from a martial artist background.

Then they could, right after awakening, use their martial artist foundation to quickly adapt their body to the changes and speed up their awakening process, making their strength and growth rate far surpass ordinary Awakened.

And she had seen that kind of person before.

But even so.

They still weren't like Xi Shenlian, who was utterly and completely overwhelming.

Thank you: 100 Qidian Coins from "If it were Victoria!" 500 Qidian Coins from Ximen Jiangxue! 3000 Qidian Coins from tazaki!