Chen Jin leaned back against the cold chair. Shadows beneath the brim of his hat concealed his eyes, but his thoughts moved clearly through the quagmire of the past two years and more.
Fifteen Yanfu Events, and seventeen arrests of suspects who had violated the rules by abusing Yanfu power.
Each time, he had clawed his way out of mountains of corpses and blood, through treacherous and perilous places.
Under the Field Operations Team's ironclad rules, all personal gains made by operatives during Yanfu Events had to be handed over to the organization unconditionally for unified assessment and distribution. They called it maximizing the team's overall strength and prioritizing the survival of logistical and support staff.
Chen Jin had always been the staunchest enforcer of this rule.
How many spoils had he handed over? So many he could barely remember them all.
An MR First Aid Potion, which could briefly stabilize an injury and buy time for treatment? He had handed it over.
It had gone to a frail young woman in the rear who handled intelligence analysis.
A Spirit-Masking Talisman, which could slightly interfere with spirits' senses? He had handed it over.
It had gone to a scout with little ability to protect himself.
A Green Moss Stone, containing a faint essence of life that could speed the healing of wounds? He had handed it over.
It had gone to one of the doctors in the medical team.
Once, he had nearly lost half his life bringing back a small bottle of War Soul Ash from the phantom of an ancient battlefield. It was said to permanently, if slightly, improve bone resilience... and he had handed it over without hesitation. In the end, it had been used on a shield-bearer whose basic constitution was too weak.
Chen Jin had never complained about any of it. He believed that his body, made of Flesh of Vision, was the strongest safeguard in itself.
His regenerative ability let him endure desperate situations and leave the hope of survival to comrades who needed protection more. Seeing hope and gratitude ignite in his teammates' eyes made it all feel worthwhile.
He believed that teamwork was stronger than any individual, and that protecting the weak was one of the few remaining glimmers of light in this cruel world.
Year after year, he handed over the vast majority of his gains. The enhancement items compatible with Flesh of Vision that he actually used to strengthen his own inherited abilities... were few and far between.
His strength had barely advanced. He relied on a reckless fighting style and an almost absurd regenerative ability to hold on, rather than any genuine leap in power that could overwhelm others at his level.
He hadn't cared. He thought it was devotion, a sense of responsibility.
Until now.
...He had been kicked out of the team like a piece of trash.
His funds had been withheld, and he had to pay out of pocket to risk his life. Worse... someone had schemed to maliciously arrange his next Yanfu Event as a resource-retrieval "kill-or-be-killed" scenario!
The chill completely swallowed the last trace of naïve warmth.
Chen Jin gripped his glass so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Beneath his newly grown skin, it was as if lava surged through his veins.
"Heh..." A low, almost inaudible sneer rolled from his throat, edged with bone-deep frost.
So, in their eyes, his sacrifices, his patience, his repeated willingness to give up resources that could save his own life... had only proved that he was an easy target, someone they could squeeze dry and then toss aside without a second thought!
A flame he had never felt before—mingling the fury of betrayal with intense self-loathing—suddenly leapt from his heart and swept through every limb! It burned hotter and more fiercely than the liquor in his glass!
"Fuck!"
He muttered the curse under his breath. It wasn't directed at anyone else, but at the foolish man he had been.
To hell with it!
He took out an old-fashioned push-button phone, nearly obsolete. His fingers flew across its tiny keypad, entering a long, seemingly random string of numbers.
The call connected. There was no ringing, only a stretch of deathly silence.
Chen Jin lowered his voice and spoke into the phone:
"Wan'an Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd."
After a brief silence, a synthesized voice, electronically altered beyond any clue to the speaker's age or gender, replied without emotion: "Please describe your request, esteemed guest."
Wan'an Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. was a private intermediary operating in the gray areas, specializing in services for Yanfu Walkers whose needs couldn't be met through the official Unmanned Auction House.
They had immense influence and operated in secrecy. Naturally, their fees were exorbitant.
"I need a Key that can take me to Human-Bingzi-Twelve right away."
There were many ways to rapidly increase one's strength, such as the famed Four Realms: Winter of Ghosts, True Martial of Scales, Seven Kingdoms of Jie, and Eight Sufferings Realm. The rare treasures found within them could make a Yanfu Walker's strength soar in a single day.
But they weren't open to the public.
According to what Chen Jin had learned, Human-Bingzi-Twelve likely contained a Yanfu secret cache that could strengthen the Flesh of Vision inheritance—and he could afford the entry fee.
"Request received. The opening fee and deposit for Fruit Human-Bingzi-Twelve are 5,000 Yanfu Points. Do you confirm?"
Five thousand points! That was almost everything Chen Jin had. But he didn't hesitate at all:
"Confirmed!"
"Transaction complete. Please go to the following coordinates to wait for delivery of your Key: beneath the third abandoned lamppost at the intersection of Seventh Street and Old Harbor Road in the eastern district of Rust City. The Key is valid for two hours. Please note that Wan'an Engineering does not guarantee the event's contents, survival rate, or subsequent consequences. Good luck."
The call ended, leaving only a dial tone.
Chen Jin downed the last of his drink in one gulp, the liquor's burn shooting straight to his head. He left a few crumpled bills on the table, stood up, and walked without hesitation into the damp, frigid night outside the bar in Rust City.
The coordinates led to a desolate street corner reeking of garbage and rust. Beneath the third lamppost, rusted and long since dark, there was nothing.
Chen Jin waited patiently. About ten minutes later, a figure in an oversized delivery uniform and a full-face helmet wobbled up beside the lamppost on a battered electric bike.
The rider didn't even look at Chen Jin. They simply bent down as if picking something up, then casually tossed it.
Something cut through the night and flew straight toward Chen Jin.
He reached out and caught it. It was cold to the touch and surprisingly heavy.
In the faint glow of neon in the distance, he made it out: an ordinary-looking metal lighter, its silver casing scuffed, with no markings.
This was the Key.
The rider didn't linger. They twisted the throttle and vanished soundlessly into the far end of the dim street.
Chen Jin rubbed the cold casing of the lighter, then pressed down hard with his thumb and struck the flint wheel!
"Click!"
A cluster of ghostly blue flames, seemingly devoid of heat, suddenly flared to life!
With the flame at its center, the surrounding light warped and folded in an instant. The air groaned under the strain, and a narrow spatial rift, its edges flickering with ghostly blue electricity, tore open in midair as if an invisible hand had ripped it apart.
Without a moment's pause, Chen Jin stepped forward and resolutely crossed into it.
The blue flame went out the instant he disappeared, and the spatial rift closed as if it had never existed.
"Walker, you are about to begin an additional Yanfu Event."