Goddess Strategy Outline (Burn After Reading)
"Want to grab a bite together?"
Goddess: I quit my job and stayed home to look after my mom. She hurt her leg, so I can't go out.
"What happened to your mom? Is it serious?"
"My friend's a surgeon. I can ask him how to handle something like this."
"Is your dad not home? How can you shoulder the burden of the household on your own? You must have to cook and do the laundry."
"You must be a great cook, right? I'd love to try your food. You've had a hard time looking after your mom, haven't you? I'll come visit you this weekend. I can take you and your mom out for something nice, too. Don't work too hard. Once your mom's better, what kind of job would you like? What are your plans? Is there anywhere you'd like to go?"
"That's exactly what I was thinking! Actually, my job is... I mean... Is your mom asleep?"
"Come out for a late-night snack. I'll pick you up."
"It's so late. Wouldn't we disturb your mom if you went home?"
"Tomorrow, I happen to have a meeting at a hotel nearby."
"Shoot, I forgot my charger. Can I come to your room and charge my phone?"
"Tomorrow, I want to bring your mom breakfast with you."
"You've been working so hard. You poor thing. I want to give you a hug."
"Your hair smells so good."
"I won't do anything funny."
"I'll take responsibility."
When Lu Zhaohui saw Li Ran rapidly scribbling an outline on the paper,
he was left dumbfounded, admiring him with every fiber of his being.
Li Ran tore off the sheet with the strategy outline and handed it to Lu Zhaohui. "That's all I can do for you. The rest is up to you."
This wasn't an outline. It was more detailed than a full plan.
If he still couldn't win over his goddess with this, he might as well disembowel himself.
"Happiness Mutton Restaurant."
Li Ran looked up at the sign above the storefront.
If nothing unexpected happened, this was his dad's... TUI, this was the Mutton Restaurant run by Grandma Mi's son and daughter-in-law.
"Doesn't look like anyone's here."
Lu Zhaohui peered inside. He couldn't hear a sound.
"Let's go in and take a look," Li Ran said.
The restaurant wasn't very big. Eight tables stood in the front room, with various seasonings and disposable tableware on top. A few tables still held bowls of unfinished mutton soup...
The front room looked like a mess, as if something had happened and the customers had run off before they could finish eating.
Li Ran frowned slightly, his sharp gaze fixed on the kitchen.
"Stay behind me."
Li Ran grabbed Lu Zhaohui, who was walking ahead, and pulled him behind him.
"What's wrong?" Lu Zhaohui asked, confused.
Li Ran didn't answer. He stared intently at the kitchen door.
"Yaa!"
Suddenly, a terrifying blur of blood shot out of the kitchen at incredible speed.
It was on top of Li Ran in an instant.
"Bang!"
Li Ran kicked a table in front of him.
With a loud crash, the table shattered to pieces before the blood-red blur.
"Run!"
Li Ran pulled Lu Zhaohui, who was frozen with fear, toward the exit.
Just as they reached the door, the blood-red blur smashed through the window and appeared in front of Li Ran.
"M-mon... monster!"
Lu Zhaohui collapsed to the floor in terror, pointing at the blood-red monster before him.
Li Ran's brows knitted together, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
"It's Deng Zhiwei."
Deng Zhiwei had completely lost his human appearance. He looked like a gigantic, skinned, blood-red mantis, with two enormous, tumor-like bulges on his forehead and terrifying sickle blades for all four limbs. He was hideous and terrifying, like a swift Skinner monster.
(Deng Zhiwei)
(B-Class Mental Infector)
(Mysterious Power: 300)
(His evolution is incomplete, and his strength has yet to fully develop. If left unchecked, he will become a serious threat.)
Li Ran knew exactly how Deng Zhiwei had ended up like this. He didn't need any further prompts.
He just hadn't expected Deng Zhiwei's obsession to be so terrifying.
He had turned directly into a B-Class Mental Infector, with a Mysterious Power value of 300.
But Li Ran wasn't a pushover, either. His Mysterious Power was 310. Why should he be afraid of someone with a score of 300?
Especially when the monster's evolution was incomplete.
But—
"Run!"
Li Ran shouted at Lu Zhaohui.
Lu Zhaohui scrambled to his feet and fled, not daring to linger.
"Die! You'll all die!"
The Blood Mantis Monster let out a terrifying roar, thrust off the ground with its sickle-like hind legs, leaped ten meters into the air, and flung a blood-red sickle blade at the fleeing Lu Zhaohui.
"Clang!"
Just as the blade was about to pierce Lu Zhaohui in the back, Li Ran appeared behind him and knocked the blood sickle flying with the Thunder Dagger in his hand. The tremendous impact sent him staggering five or six meters backward.
Lu Zhaohui glanced back, hurriedly thanked him, then fled in a panic.
"You ruined everything! You'll die, too!"
The completely transformed Deng Zhiwei let out a hoarse, terrifying roar.
The monster immediately changed targets and charged at Li Ran.
"Shadow Escape!"
Li Ran activated Shadow Escape and vanished into the shadow on the ground.
The Blood Mantis Monster immediately lost sight of him. It went on a rampage, destroying everything in its path.
"Li Ran, come out! I can see you!"
Five meters behind the Mantis Monster, Li Ran silently emerged from the shadows. His gaze remained fixed on the monster's back.
"Shadow Assault!"
Li Ran vanished again. Unlike when he slipped into the shadows, this time his body slowly turned transparent, blending into the surroundings.
Shadow Assault increased both his speed and strength.
Li Ran stared intently at the Blood Mantis Monster's back.
"I've never had a good grasp of my own strength. You'll make a perfect test subject!"
"If I use my skills properly, I should be able to kill this brainless mantis in one hit."
In an instant, Li Ran's speed surged while he was invisible. A transparent silhouette hurtled through the street, a glint of cold light aimed at the Mantis Monster's back.
Backstab!
The Thunder Dagger pierced the Mantis Monster's back with pinpoint accuracy. Countless arcs of lightning surged from the blade and spread across its body like a spiderweb.
"Yaaah!"
The Blood Mantis Monster threw back its head and shrieked in pain, its body paralyzed by the electric shock.
"Backstab doubles the damage and triggers an extended period of invisibility. Thunder Mark's passive effect can paralyze the target for 0.5 seconds. I can land another critical hit."
Li Ran calculated the timing of his attacks precisely, then looked at the Mantis Monster, its neck craned as it writhed in pain.
This time, he aimed for its neck.
"Shhk!"
Li Ran swiftly darted in front of the monster, his dagger flashing across its neck like lightning.
"Pfft!"
Blood gushed out like a fountain, staining the ground red in an instant.
The Mantis Monster let out a sorrowful whimper and collapsed to the ground.
Not far away, Li Ran slowly reappeared as his invisibility wore off.
"Shadow Escape, invisibility, ambush, paralysis, Throat Slit—one full combo, and I killed a monster with the same Mysterious Power as me in one go?"
Even Li Ran found it hard to believe.
In truth, he had practiced this set of moves in his head countless times, but he'd never had a chance to try them out.
He couldn't exactly go find a tree in the park to practice on. That wouldn't tell him what he was really capable of.
This time, the actual fight had gone better than he expected.
"Looks like choosing the assassin route was the right call. I come and go without a trace, no flashy nonsense, just one strike to kill!"
"Even if Backstab and Throat Slit don't kill the Mantis Monster, I can use the triggered invisibility to retreat safely. If I really can't win, I can still escape with Shadow Escape."
Li Ran was quite satisfied with the results of this combo, but he still felt he didn't have enough skills.
If he encountered someone who could see through invisibility and move quickly, he wouldn't be able to make full use of either his invisibility or Shadow Escape. Then he'd have no choice but to take a beating.
"I'll need a trump card and a backup plan, too."
As soon as he entered the Mutton Restaurant, he'd caught the scent of blood. Then a warning had appeared, alerting him to danger in the kitchen.
Sure enough, a monster had come charging out of the kitchen.
"Since this is a dungeon, killing monsters should drop loot, right?"
Curious, Li Ran walked over to the Blood Mantis Monster's corpse.
A blood-red crystal shaped like a drop of blood rolled from the Mantis Monster's neck and landed on the ground.
"There really is loot."
(Life Drop: A crystal that provides bonus attribute points. Crush and consume it directly.)
Li Ran's eyes lit up. He immediately picked up the blood-drop-shaped crystal.
"Crack!"
Without a moment's hesitation, he crushed the Life Drop on the spot.
The Life Drop turned into a cloud of blood mist that surrounded Li Ran. As he breathed, it was slowly drawn into his body.
In an instant, he felt a warm current and a surge of strength within him, leaving him with a feeling of lightness and fullness that was hard to describe.
He opened his eyes, and the blood-red glint in them slowly faded.
When he checked his attributes again, they had changed once more.
Mysterious Power: 360
Agility: 70
Strength: 70
Constitution: 50
Points: 1100
Active Skills: [Shadow Escape] [Shadow Assault]
Passive Skills: Thunder Mark, Focus
"One Life Drop gives me 50 Mysterious Power, 50 Strength, 50 Agility, and 50 Constitution?"
This was an unexpected windfall.
And it had happened while he was on a mission.
It was dangerous, but the rewards came fast.
"I wonder if killing some little monsters will drop anything good."
(Only some high-rank Mental Infectors and Special Infecteds drop Life Drops. The chance is about one percent.)
His Golden Finger quickly gave him the answer.
"Damn, should I celebrate getting such good loot from my first monster kill?"
Seeing how low the drop rate was, Li Ran gave up on the idea of slaughtering low-level monsters.
He might as well focus on his missions. It would be a lot less fun if he accidentally killed the wrong little monster and brought a bunch of monsters or some big BOSS down on himself.
Especially the residents of his neighborhood. Who among them didn't have complicated connections?
He didn't want to die that soon.
If he ever became strong enough to crush hordes of monsters, that would be another matter.
Someone like Deng Zhiwei, who had turned from a player into a monster, didn't have such complicated connections behind him.
When looting a corpse, you couldn't afford to miss a single detail.
"Huh, there's more."
Li Ran pulled a blood-bound book from the monster's corpse.
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