Practical Rules of the Conceptual Eraser

Su Yu slowly released his hand from Tang Wu's eyes, his movements gentle.

The air was thick with the heavy stench of blood mixed with the damp, earthy smell of the soil, assaulting their senses.

The two bandits lay in the dark red mire, their bodies completely rigid, eyes still wide open and lingering with the madness and terror they felt before death.

Su Yu stood where he was, light swirling within his bright golden pupils.

He activated the Eye of Truth, scanning the two corpses with meticulous care.

Only after confirming that those two crude green system panels had completely shattered and dissipated, leaving not even a trace of residue behind, did he truly set his mind at ease.

These two were dead beyond any hope of recovery.

"Xiao San, you can open your eyes now."

Su Yu said softly, his tone steady, as if everything that had just occurred was nothing more than an insignificant farce.

Tang Wu's long eyelashes trembled a few times before she slowly opened her eyes.

When she saw the bloody, mangled mess on the ground, she couldn't help but shiver, her small face turning pale.

Yet she did not scream, nor did she look away; instead, she gripped the corner of Su Yu's clothes tightly, pressing her body closer to him.

"Brother Yu, are they... are they really dead?"

Tang Wu's voice trembled slightly.

"Dead."

Su Yu patted the top of her head, his voice imbued with a cold, rational edge. "They wanted to rob us, and they even wanted to sell you. In this world, being kind to the enemy is being cruel to yourself. This is the fate they deserved."

Tang Wu nodded, understanding only half of what he meant.

She didn't grasp any grand principles; she only knew that if it weren't for Brother Yu, the ones lying in the pool of blood might have been them.

Su Yu released Tang Wu's hand and stepped toward the two corpses.

Without a hint of disgust, he bent down, his gaze falling upon the few coins scattered in the mud.

They were the spoils of war that had rolled out of the bandits' tattered pockets.

Su Yu reached out and, without hesitation, picked up the Gold Soul Coins one by one, each stained with dark red blood.

They felt heavy in his hand, carrying the cold, distinct texture of metal.

These were the hard currency of the Douluo Continent.

For two penniless orphans who had just left their village with only a dozen copper soul coins in their packs, this was an absolute windfall that had fallen from the sky.

Su Yu weighed them in his hand before rubbing them against his coarse cloth garment.

The rough fabric wiped the blood from the coins, revealing their dazzling golden luster once more.

He tucked the Gold Soul Coins into his inner pocket and patted it with satisfaction.

"When you're out and about, money is a good thing. Once we reach Nuoding City, we'll need this to pay for food and lodging."

Su Yu turned and smiled at Tang Wu.

Tang Wu nodded obediently, her large eyes blinking. "Brother Yu is so amazing, you can even get money from bad guys."

After tidying up the spoils, Su Yu stood in place, took a deep breath, and slowly closed his eyes.

He needed to carefully assess the consumption of soul power within his body.

Although using his second martial soul, Conceptual Eraser, to modify the bandit's system task had only taken an instant, he had to precisely grasp the consumption ratio of this rule-based ability.

This concerned his trump card for survival in the future.

His heartbeat accelerated slightly as Su Yu sank his mental energy into his dantian.

Looking inward, he could see the vortex of Innate Full Soul Power that remained full within his body.

At this sight, his heart immediately bloomed with joy.

The energy vortex representing his soul power was still remarkably robust.

That act of forcibly modifying the system panel had only consumed about one-third of his soul power!

This was a massive surprise and a discovery that left him feeling exhilarated.

Su Yu quickly reviewed the combat process in his mind.

At the time, he had modified the target vocabulary in the Baldy bandit's system task.

He had erased the four characters for "two children" and replaced them with the two characters for "comrades."

These words were not the core underlying logic of that low-level system, nor were they some heaven-defying reward mechanism; they were merely a standard task-directing instruction.

Discovering that modifying such non-core vocabulary only cost one-third of his soul power made the cost-effectiveness absurdly high!

Su Yu's brain raced, secretly deducing the laws of actual combat.

If he had chosen to forcibly erase the entire bandit system or attempted to modify a core reward mechanism—such as changing a pathetic 100 points into a hundred-thousand-year soul ring—the soul power required would have been an astronomical figure.

With his current weak strength, having just awakened and possessing not a single soul ring, he would surely have been drained instantly, or perhaps even suffered a backlash from the rules and exploded to death.

But if he only subtly tampered with one or two non-core words, as he had just done, to change the direction or conditions of a task, he could achieve the perfect effect of "killing with a borrowed knife" at the lowest possible cost.

A gentle force deflects a thousand pounds!

The basic laws of actual combat have been mastered.

The correct way to use the Conceptual Eraser is not to clash head-on with the system's core code, but to exploit loopholes, alter details, and use the system's own rigid logic against its host.

Su Yu opened his eyes, a glow of confidence and wisdom flickering within his deep pupils.

With this rule, he would have massive room for maneuver when facing those cheaters carrying all sorts of bizarre systems in the future.

He didn't need to compete with those cheaters to see who had more trump cards; he only needed to flick the Conceptual Eraser at a critical moment to change a mission objective or alter a penalty condition, and they would end up playing themselves to death.

This feeling of playing with high-and-mighty systems in the palm of his hand and controlling the entire situation made Su Yu feel completely refreshed, sweeping away the fatigue of his journey.

Just then, a light, brisk sound of footsteps interrupted Su Yu's thoughts.

Tang Wu trotted all the way over and stopped in front of Su Yu.

She pulled a coarse cloth handkerchief, washed until it had faded to white, from her bosom and stood slightly on her tiptoes.

"Brother Yu, you're sweating."

Tang Wu's voice was soft and sweet, carrying a hint of heartache.

The tense standoff and the consumption of soul power from earlier had indeed caused a fine layer of sweat to bead on Su Yu's forehead.

Tang Wu stretched her slender arms as far as she could, using the coarse cloth handkerchief to gently wipe the sweat from Su Yu's forehead.

Her movements were extremely soft, for fear of hurting him.

Because of the height difference, Tang Wu had to stand on her tiptoes, her body naturally leaning forward.

The distance between the two closed instantly.

It was so close that Su Yu could clearly smell the faint, fresh fragrance on Tang Wu—a scent mixed with sunshine and some unknown flower, which was very pleasant.

The warm breath from Tang Wu's respiration hit Su Yu's neck without obstruction, bringing a tingling sensation.

This sensation made Su Yu's heart skip a beat involuntarily.

Su Yu lowered his head slightly, meeting Tang Wu's clear, water-like eyes.

In those eyes, there was now no trace of the fear and panic she had felt when facing the bandits earlier.

They were filled entirely with undisguised admiration and deep reliance.

In Tang Wu's young heart, the Brother Yu before her was an omnipotent god of war.

He could not only see through the tricks of bad people but could also make them kill each other without any effort.

As long as Brother Yu was by her side, she wouldn't feel the slightest fear, even if the sky were to fall.

Feeling that warm breath on his neck and looking at the delicate, cute face full of trust before him, a strong desire to protect surged in Su Yu's heart.

He raised his hand and couldn't help but pinch Tang Wu's soft cheeks.

The texture was excellent, incredibly smooth and tender.

"Thank you, Xiao San."

Su Yu said with a smile, his eyes gentle.

Tang Wu's face turned bright red instantly, like a ripe peach.

She lowered her head shyly but didn't dodge Su Yu's hand; instead, like a docile little kitten, she took the initiative to rub her cheek against it gently.

Su Yu smiled slightly and tapped her forehead.

"Alright, we still have to keep moving."

After saying that, he took Tang Wu's hand and continued on their way.

On the distant horizon, the tall walls of Nuoding City were already vaguely visible.