Equipment, Weapons, Skills

He raised his beer glass again and glanced around, excitement bubbling in his voice as if he were about to share a secret.

"Let me ask you guys—have you heard of that internet-famous master, Wang Tiechui?"

"Wang Tiechui?" Li Jie's eyes lit up. "The guy who livestreamed himself making armor for Di Qin and even made the trending topics?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's him!"

Chen Yu, pleased to have his guess confirmed, got even more animated.

"He's a big deal—he's made armor for top-tier period films like Di Qin. Last time I went to his studio, I saw the armor he was making for a guy entering the Full Armor Combat Tournament. It was so heavy and imposing!"

"But here's the thing: even though it looked like it weighed a ton, it actually wasn't that heavy. The main material was titanium alloy. I've even handled some titanium alloy scraps—they're light and tough!"

The more he talked, the more excited he got. He nearly spat on the barbecue skewers.

"Let's go to him! Master Wang's the one! We'll use aerospace-grade titanium alloy and have him make a wearable set modeled after the Qitian Battle Armor in the game. Then we'll pair it with a solid alloy staff. Now that would be a collectible! That's the kind of romance every man dreams of!"

He rubbed his fingertips together and chuckled.

"Brother Yi, we've been desk mates for so long, and you've never accepted anything I've tried to give you. Now that you've invited me to your college send-off banquet, I can't show up empty-handed..."

"I'll ask him to make you a set. Think of it as... as a college send-off gift from your buddy! Don't tell me no this time. It's settled!"

"Holy crap! Brother Yu, you're the man! Aerospace-grade titanium alloy!"

Li Jie cried out dramatically, and Zhang Haotian joined in. "Brother Yu, that's one seriously hardcore college send-off gift!"

"Of course! Besides..."

Chen Yu waggled his eyebrows at everyone. "I'm relying on my parents to get into the same university as Brother Yi. I'll be counting on this straight-A student to look out for me from now on."

With that, Chen Yu immediately pulled out his phone, not giving Lin Yi a chance to "react." He found the number and made the call.

"Hello? Master Wang! It's Little Chen! Yeah, yeah... I've got a big job for you! An urgent one!"

"Armor, Dark Great Sage! Yeah, that Monkey! The whole set! Armor plus two short staffs that can connect into a long staff!"

"Materials? Of course we want the best— aerospace-grade titanium alloy! Light and strong... The deadline? Two weeks? Brother Wang, you're practically my own brother. Help me out here—rush the job!"

"...All right, all right, you're a lifesaver. I'll send you the designs."

Chen Yu nodded and bowed toward the other end of the call. His tone was exaggerated, but his face wore a confident smile.

Lin Yi watched his friend take care of the armor for him, watched their companions laugh and egg Chen Yu on, and felt warmth rise in his chest. The scene was unfolding almost exactly as he'd predicted, but he couldn't help being moved all the same.

In his plans, this armor and weapon were crucial. In the early days before the apocalypse, he needed to make a strong start despite being a high school graduate with no connections—and he needed a story that would hold up under scrutiny.

It wasn't a matter of money.

Making the armor and weapon would cost a fair amount, but he had several ways to get the money quickly. The real problem was finding a master craftsman willing to bump him to the front of the queue. That was the difficult part.

Given who he was now, he had no realistic way of meeting someone like that. So the easiest, fastest, and most plausible solution was to get them through Chen Yu.

"A Yu, then I won't stand on ceremony."

Lin Yi smiled openly. "In that case, I'd better get some practice in over the next few days. On the day of the banquet, I'll wear the outfit you give me and show everyone some Staff Techniques."

This time, he didn't refuse Chen Yu's gift as he had in his previous life.

Back then, he hadn't accepted because the relationship felt unequal. He had nothing to give his friend in return, and he treasured him too much to keep taking without giving anything back. That wasn't how friendship worked.

But this time was different. He could accept this gift with a clear conscience.

In his previous life, when the apocalypse first struck, transportation ground to a halt and the city became a chaotic slaughterhouse. He'd done everything he could, but he'd only managed to save his parents and a few neighbors, along with his uncle, who'd happened to be visiting.

Many more had lost their lives in the initial chaos.

This time, he would help them avoid the early turmoil, and do everything he could to help his friends learn to protect themselves.

When Chen Yu saw Lin Yi accept outright, he froze for a moment, then broke into a grin. He swallowed the words he'd been preparing to persuade him with. "Aw, Brother Yi! Come on, we're practically family. No need to be polite!"

He drained the rest of his drink and gave Lin Yi a hearty slap on the back. "It's settled, then. On the day of the banquet, you'll be the coolest guy there! Heh, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven has arrived at Hongfu Tower!"

He seemed to picture Lin Yi in full armor, making a spectacular entrance, and grinned until his eyes narrowed to slits.

After the meal, Lin Yi hurried straight to his room as soon as he got home.

He turned on his computer and played a compilation of Dark Great Sage's staff moves, along with instructional videos on traditional martial arts staff techniques.

After watching for a while, he went out to the balcony, picked up the clothes-drying pole propped in the corner, and began practicing with it against the air. He looked "focused," even a little "clumsy."

His movements weren't exactly correct. He was just imitating the basic chops, sweeps, lifts, and jabs from the videos. Some of his motions even looked stiff, but he practiced so earnestly that he could have been any teenage chunibyo, obsessed with role-playing and secretly training when no one was watching.

"Xiao Yi? It's so late. Why aren't you asleep? What's all that clanging?"

His mother, Zhou Jinghua, passed through the living room and saw her son fooling around like a monkey. She couldn't help asking.

Lin Yi paused mid-motion. Holding the clothes-drying pole, he gave an awkward smile and scratched his head.

"Mom, it's... it's nothing! I watched some game videos and thought I'd learn a few staff moves. They look cool!"

"Besides, apart from hosting at the college send-off banquet, I have to perform something. I figured singing or whatever wouldn't be very interesting..."

"This game's really popular right now. Even the national TV station reported on it. I thought I could perform some staff techniques with the game animation playing in the background. It'd be something different."

Zhou Jinghua leaned over to look at the fine beads of sweat on her son's forehead and his slightly flushed face. She looked both exasperated and amused, but in the end, all she did was sigh helplessly.

"You and your antics... How old are you, still playing around like this? Be careful not to hurt yourself, and don't disturb the neighbors downstairs. Get to bed early."

She shook her head, assuming her son was just blowing off steam after the Gaokao.

Once his mother had gone back to her room, the sheepish grin vanished from Lin Yi's face, and his eyes cleared.

He picked up the crude staff again and resumed his seemingly clumsy practice.

He'd used a blade in his previous life, but his skill was more than enough to get him through the early days using a staff.

When it wasn't convenient to get a sharpened weapon, a staff was practically the most powerful cold weapon that was both common and plausible.

Every imperfect motion he practiced now, every deliberate pause, was laying the groundwork for the "life-or-death race against time" a few days from now—so that he could seem to have "instinctively mastered" the art of wielding a heavy alloy staff to kill efficiently.

A hot-blooded boy obsessed with the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, secretly practicing staff techniques, would "unleash" extraordinary combat potential when driven by extreme fear and the instinct to survive.

That chain of logic had to be quietly planted in the minds of every possible observer before he made his real entrance.