Opportunity

The man holding the iron pipe looked to be in his early thirties, his hair a messy tangle like uncooked instant noodles. He wore a dirty shirt with suspenders, a typical workwear outfit.

The iron pipe in his hand wasn't sharp; it looked like a piece of rebar he'd picked up randomly, clearly an impulsive act.

"Whoa, I almost thought my own flag summoned Joestar!" Feng Xue breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the scrawny man. He was a bit flustered by the sudden attack, as most of his strength was tied to his Phantoms. His own body was just a Phantom Assassin with three stats maxed out, and besides decent evasion, he was worse than a super minion.

But the attacker didn't seem like some super assassin, which put Feng Xue more at ease. He maintained his guard while scanning his surroundings with his peripheral vision, looking for a weapon he could use.

Even though he was ready to fight, he still spoke:

"Why are you attacking me?"

The man didn't reply, merely shifting his stance and tightening his grip on the rebar.

However, Feng Xue's keen observation skills noticed that the attacker's eyes kept flicking towards the block of ice.

"Could this ice block with only Garbled Code be some kind of treasure? Or did he, like me, discover the item with the Fate Element underneath the ice?"

Feng Xue pondered this inwardly, but the other man moved first.

Despite his disheveled appearance, in the Infinite City, physical build could be the most misleading thing.

Just like how Feng Xue still looked like a slightly underweight, unhealthy shut-in, but who would have guessed he could lift a grand piano with one hand?

The rebar was raised high, without a hint of hesitation. The whistling sound it made as the man stepped forward left Feng Xue with no intention of trying to block it with his bare body.

He immediately activated his Assassin's movement technique. Though its effect was minimal, Feng Xue also activated "Breath Concealment" right in front of him, slightly lowering his presence. At the same time, he pressed his shoulders back, and the backpack laden with loot slid off. Freed from the weight, Feng Xue's speed increased. He reached out and pulled a broken bicycle handlebar from the ground.

His body moved with great efficiency, utilizing gravity to his advantage. With a rise and fall, he seemed to teleport in front of the workwear-clad man.

The man, not being a master of long weapons, hadn't expected Feng Xue's charge to be so swift. He tried to pull back the rebar to block, but how could he react faster than Feng Xue, who was propelled by his forward momentum?

The bicycle handlebar, swung in a smooth motion, struck the man's rebar-wielding wrist. The handlebar, covered in rust and jagged edges, easily tore through the flesh of his wrist.

In pain from the injured joint, the man dropped the rebar. Feng Xue took another step forward, closing the distance to a point where even close-quarters combat was difficult.

The man instinctively tried to retreat, but it was too late.

Almost instinctively, Feng Xue thrust his palm upward. With a forceful push, a crisp bone-cracking sound erupted along with a satisfyingly clean sensation. The man in front of him went limp. Although he didn't die immediately, the twist and indentation on his throat indicated he wouldn't live long.

Only then, after reflexively unleashing a combo, did Feng Xue realize what had happened. He yanked his hand back as if he had touched a poisonous snake, feeling completely bewildered.

But the Infinite City didn't give him time to be bewildered. As the man took his last breath, an Element within the Assassin Tag activated.

A peculiar sensation spread, and Feng Xue immediately understood the name of the feedback Element—

[Agility]

This Element's feedback wasn't as direct as [Transport]. It didn't increase his physical stats even slightly, but instead granted Feng Xue a new "sense."

It was hard to describe exactly what it was, but it now existed within Feng Xue's body, allowing him to accurately detect hostility and even killing intent from others, while also helping him perceive his enemies' weaknesses.

Admittedly, the Element's feedback greatly eased the mental pressure of Feng Xue's first kill. After the initial shock had passed, he felt surprisingly little.

Facing the corpse before him, Feng Xue felt no disgust. He even had the urge to take out a knife and dissect it on the spot, a testament to his hardened heart from constantly working on cadavers lately.

However, time was precious in the Garbage Dump. Feng Xue didn't act on his impulse. He casually pushed the corpse aside. Although he never found out why the man attacked him, it didn't seem important.

Considering the man's immediate lethal intent, Feng Xue didn't just discard the ice block. He picked up the rebar the man had used as a weapon and smashed it forcefully against the ice. As the ice cracked, an eight-heart, eight-arrow diamond appeared before his eyes.

The only regret was that this diamond, too, was covered in Garbled Code.

"Smashing ice blocks?" Feng Xue casually picked up the gem, finally understanding the man's objective, and couldn't help but feel speechless. If he had been more patient, he might have discovered that Feng Xue had no idea ice blocks could be smashed.

Shaking his head, he cast aside these trivial matters. Feng Xue brushed away all the ice shards, revealing the item with the Fate Element.

To his dismay, it was another card—

A card with a large exclamation mark drawn on its back.

"Doesn't look like a trading card..." Feng Xue muttered as he picked up the card, his expression quickly becoming a spectacle. Within a few seconds, he cycled through "surprise, confusion, speechlessness, understanding."

The front of the card was simple. The illustration depicted a cartoon figure standing at a crossroads, and below it was a concise description:

"Opportunity: Encounter a fork in the road, draw a 'Fate' card."

Besides [Fate], this card also contained the Elements [Opportunity] and [Encounter].

"Well, I'll be! It's Monopoly!"

All the mysteries were solved at this moment. The ubiquitous motorcycles, the powerful item cards mentioned by the newcomer guide, the UFOs that had fallen earlier, and this ice block containing a gem—all were instantly connected by this keyword, forming a coherent explanation.

Feng Xue no longer found it strange that motorcycles were falling in the card game world. Now, he was even curious why so few planes were falling—

Did this Garbage Dump not connect to the Airplane Game world?

(Actually, it's because planes in Airplane Game don't have a crash mechanic.)

Note ①: "Yellow dot" is a term from Dota. Because the button to add stats in Dota is a yellow cross, adding stats is referred to as "dotting yellow." In most cases, yellow dots are only added after skills are maxed out. "Three yellow dots" was considered a fringe playstyle even in the early days, where players would forgo active skills with little early-game benefit to focus on passive skills and stats.