Chapter 26

After leaving the club, Lin Sheng still took the bus home.

Although he had money in his pocket now, it wasn't easy to break the habits he'd formed. It was like how he'd originally planned to keep a low profile for just two years, but after doing it for so long, it had become a habit.

"Basically, I'm just lazy."

Standing in the cold wind, Lin Sheng looked back at the white bus as it rattled slowly into the distance. He tightened his collar and made his way along the tactile paving in front of the shops.

There weren't many people on the street. This neighborhood didn't have much in the way of street food, and the nightlife was quite dull.

As Lin Sheng hurried home, he thought back to his earlier exchange with Russell.

"Actually, I've almost always beaten my opponents without even drawing my sword. The mercenary's residual instinctive memories make me incredibly good at dealing with sudden close-range attacks."

"Using the metal sword guard and making precise judgments, I can instantly knock an opponent's attack aside. This technique should really count as close-quarters combat."

"Unfortunately, I'm still a bit weak. Otherwise, I wouldn't have needed to borrow his momentum to counterattack."

When Lin Sheng had sparred with Russell earlier, he'd been able to toss him aside so easily not because he'd used his own strength, but because he'd taken advantage of Russell's own lunge.

This was also one of the moves in the mercenary's instinctive memories. Such moves were essential when facing an opponent much stronger than yourself.

"Overall, it uses the longsword's hardness and material as a lever, borrowing the opponent's strength.

"In theory, the stronger the opponent, the worse the damage they'll suffer. The prerequisite is that the sword needs to be made of material that's hard enough."

Recalling their earlier exchange, Lin Sheng gained a deeper understanding of these techniques.

If Ravel's memory fragments had given him the basic thrust, then the mercenary's memory fragments had enriched his experience in other kinds of combat.

There wasn't much to it, and in Ravel's world, he probably wouldn't even count as an apprentice. But beating someone like Russell was no problem at all.

That guy claimed to have been trained, but in reality, he was just a green recruit who'd never seen blood.

Lin Sheng walked through the wide entrance to the residential complex and made his way to his building's stairwell with practiced familiarity.

Someone had scattered a stack of advertising flyers across the floor by the stairs. They were strewn all over the place.

One showed a beautiful woman he didn't recognize. Beneath her picture were the words: "Offering a huge reward for a child."

Lin Sheng kicked aside a flyer that the wind had blown upright, then slowly headed upstairs.

The stairwell light was broken again.

He took three steps at a time and reached the third floor in a few strides.

The front door of his home was wide open. His father, Lin Zhounian, was carrying things outside—snacks packed into burlap sacks.

Several large sacks were piled in front of the door, leaving barely any room to stand.

"Come give me a hand. We just need to take them downstairs." Seeing Lin Sheng, Lin Zhounian quickly called out to him.

"Okay."

The father and son got to work together, and things went much faster. In no time, they'd carried all ten-odd sacks downstairs.

Lin Zhounian went to bring over the family's little three-wheeled cart, then loaded the goods onto it.

"All right, go get some sleep. I'll deliver these. They're in a hurry for them." Lin Zhounian pressed a roll of money into Lin Sheng's hand.

"Your homeroom teacher called. He said there'll be extra classes to go over the key question types for the college entrance exam. This is the fee for the extra classes.

"Here's your pocket money for the next few days, too. Don't ask your sister for any. She's having a hard time on her own out there."

With that, he waved his hand and, without waiting for Lin Sheng to reply, climbed onto the tricycle and rode off unsteadily.

Lin Sheng watched his father grow smaller in the night until he disappeared from sight.

He looked down at the roll of money in his hand: one hundred-yuan bill and two twenty-yuan bills. The money was crumpled from being squeezed, and still had a trace of his father's sweat on it.

That was just how life was. Besides running the corner shop, Lin Zhounian occasionally took on large orders for other people.

He often had to make deliveries in the evening like this. He'd earn twenty or thirty yuan a trip—hard-earned money.

After a moment of silence, Lin Sheng turned back, climbed to the third floor, and went inside.

He changed into his slippers, washed up as usual, changed into his pajamas, and drank a glass of water before bed.

Finally, he lay quietly on the bed in his bedroom.

Lying on his back, he found himself thinking about a lot of things.

"I really need to improve our living conditions."

After a long while, Lin Sheng sighed and slowly closed his eyes.

Whoosh!

The moment he opened his eyes, a chill shot straight through his head.

He instinctively rolled to the left, dodging out of the way.

Thud!!

A Black Sword slammed down where he'd just been standing, smashing a sizable hole into the ground.

Its owner was an obese Rotten Swordsman.

He was pulling his sword out of the ground, turning to charge at Lin Sheng again.

In the cold wind, the Rotten Swordsman was entirely black. Only a shadow hurtled toward Lin Sheng.

"Again?!"

Lin Sheng couldn't make out his figure at all. He could only roll to dodge once more, then get up and run.

Earlier, there'd at least been some moonlight outside, but this time, even the moonlight was gone.

Everything around him was pitch-black. He couldn't see a thing.

"I need to find a light source first!"

Lin Sheng sprinted blindly, stumbling over the uneven ground. He didn't dare stop, afraid some other monster might appear if he did.

He didn't want to die and end up back where he'd started for no reason. After dying once, he'd need several days to recover from the mental strain.

He had no idea how far he'd run. There was no sound behind him anymore.

Suddenly, he tripped over a stone and stumbled, nearly falling.

At last, the sky slowly began to grow brighter.

The moon gradually emerged from behind the dark clouds.

Panting, Lin Sheng stopped and carefully made out his surroundings.

A towering stretch of gray-white loomed before him. Everywhere he looked, he saw gray city walls.

The walls encircled the entire town, like white cheese that had rotted and was about to crumble, riddled with holes.

Lin Sheng took a few steps forward. He was now only a few meters from the city wall.

"I actually ran all the way here in one go. Is this Black Feather City?"

He reached out and touched the gray-white wall right in front of him.

Unlike its appearance, the wall was incredibly hard. Some of its sharper edges even felt metallic to the touch.

"This dream is getting more and more real."

Lin Sheng's heart sank a little. At this point, he was beginning to wonder whether he was really dreaming.

He withdrew his hand, slowly tightened his grip on the Black Sword, and walked through the main gate in the city wall.

The passageway, over three meters high, was cold and silent. Gust after gust of wind kept rushing in from behind him.

Lin Sheng couldn't help hunching his shoulders, trying to keep his body heat from escaping.

Beyond the passageway lay a decayed gray district.

There were broken-down wagon carriages in the streets. Tiny black fragments of unknown origin were constantly swept around by the wind.

The battered shops and residential buildings creaked strangely in the wind, as if they might collapse at any moment.

Lin Sheng looked into the distance.

A gray haze filled the view.

The depths of Black Feather City were still submerged in mist. He couldn't see a thing.

"Not a single living thing?" Lin Sheng stayed alert.

He didn't believe a city this big could be completely free of monsters.

Holding the Black Sword, he searched to either side. Soon, he found a directional sign to the right of the passageway.

The sign was made of black metal and pointed in five directions.

The writing for three of them had become completely blurred and unreadable. He could just barely make out the other two.

"Ears Square? Black Feather City Hall?"

Lin Sheng recognized the writing for those two directions.