An Accident

Before him stood several people dressed in various kinds of armor, both men and women. The speaker was over two meters tall and wore the most complete set of armor. Li Wei recognized it at a glance: a standard suit of Crusader Swordsman armor. The man also carried a longsword on his back, and really did look like a knight.

As for his number, Li Wei glanced at it and was startled, though he didn't show it.

"Which one do you want?"

"All of them!"

Li Wei didn't think the other man was bluffing at all. Judging by his number, he really could afford to buy all three Stacked weapons. Even the companions beside him had enough capital to purchase them.

"If you want all of them, the price is 10,000 points. Not a single point less!" Li Wei was making an outrageous demand. As soon as he finished speaking, a chorus of shocked cries rang out.

10,000 points was an astronomical sum to the newcomers. After completing the Initial Trial, most newcomers were lucky to have 500 points. Those who ended their missions early could get only 100 points or even less. So when Li Wei named his price, the crowd erupted.

"What the hell? That's way too expensive! The Firearms Mastery over there costs no more than 200 points. Yours come to over 3,000 each on average. Why not just rob us?"

"Exactly! I bust my ass completing a mission and only get 200 points. Kid, show some decency!"

The crowd chattered among themselves, clearly thinking Li Wei's price was too high. But the true veterans and those in the know understood that his asking price wasn't high at all. If anything, it was a bargain!

Never mind the two weapons with special attributes. Even the Desert Eagle with unlimited ammunition would fetch well over 3,000 points on its own. In that respect, Li Wei was actually taking a loss.

The man dressed like a knight knew this, of course. As one of the earliest arrivals on Shadow Street, he was rarely interested in the wares sold here anymore. But today, while wandering around out of boredom, he'd spotted Li Wei's stall. Curious, he'd taken a look at the three weapons.

What he saw left him deeply shaken!

All three weapons had designs he'd never seen before, and their attached attributes were quite good. With his discerning eye, he couldn't identify them as items from any story world. That left only one possibility: they'd been made with some kind of crafting skill.

If so, they were even more precious. So when he heard Li Wei's price, he agreed without hesitation.

"Brother, my name is Long Ling. You made these, didn't you?" After completing the transaction, the veteran who looked like a knight began trying to make a connection.

How could Li Wei fail to understand what the other man was after? But he didn't want to draw attention to himself, so he had to find a way to redirect him.

"My name is Li Wei. I got these from a Treasure Chest during a story mission. I was lucky, so I'm selling them for some points!" Li Wei acted like an inexperienced rookie and "spilled" the story behind the items.

"Oh!" Long Ling nodded thoughtfully. He was about to ask which story world they came from when Li Wei beat him to it.

"Big Brother Long, your armor looks amazing! I've never seen anything like it!" Li Wei reached out with a dirty hand still smeared with mud and "admiringly" patted it.

Long Ling furrowed his brow, clearly unable to handle the rookie's enthusiasm. His earlier guess that Li Wei was a veteran shifted into condescending scorn: the kid was just a lucky fool.

Still, the admiration and reverence on Li Wei's face left Long Ling secretly pleased. It was no wonder: there was no need to wear this gear on Shadow Street. He'd put it on just to show off.

"It's a set of Crusader defensive armor. Nothing special. Its rating only just reaches C-Rank..." Long Ling said with a slight smile, dodging Li Wei's "dirty hand."

As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd erupted. What did a C-Rank set mean? You could search all of Shadow Street and probably not find more than a few pieces of equipment of the same rank.

Yet this man had managed to get his hands on a whole set. As the saying went, seeing someone else succeed could make you sick with envy. The people around him looked at him with jealousy.

Enjoying the crowd's "eager" attention, Long Ling kept smiling, every inch the expert. Now no one was paying attention to Li Wei, so he quietly slipped away.

"Huh? Where did he go?" By the time Long Ling and the others realized it, Li Wei had vanished.

Once he'd reached an empty corner, Li Wei took out the Yellow Paper and opened a passage back to the present world. The next second, he was back in his room.

Lying comfortably in his own bed, Li Wei recalled the number of the man called Long Ling: it was 99. Of his four attributes, all but his mental strength exceeded 30 points. His stamina was especially astonishing, reaching 43 points.

With strength like that, he could kill Li Wei in an instant. Thankfully, Li Wei had been masked, so Long Ling hadn't seen his face. If the man had taken a malicious interest in him, Li Wei wouldn't have been able to fight back at all.

"I really didn't think that through. Stacked items are bound to attract the attention of people who know what they're looking at. I'll have to be more careful when I sell things from now on. Still, this really is a shortcut to making money!"

He'd bought the items for 1,000 points, Stacked them, then sold them for 10,000 points—a full tenfold profit. Who wouldn't be thrilled?

Thinking about the good days ahead, Li Wei drifted off to sleep. He'd never had a proper night's rest in the story worlds of the game. Now that he was back in the present, he naturally wanted to sleep well.

The next day, Li Wei set off for work in high spirits. He might have been able to rule the roost on Shadow Street, but there were still things he had to do in the real world, like earning a living.

Sitting on the bus, Li Wei thought about what items he could Stack and sell. He already had more than 60,000 points, enough to buy just about anything he wanted.

Just then, Li Wei suddenly felt the bus jolt violently. A moment later, a loud crash rang out. The entire bus lurched to one side as if something had slammed into it, and the passengers let out piercing screams.

Li Wei instinctively grabbed the railing inside the bus. His immense strength kept him from being thrown over by the force of the crash, and he held tightly to the metal bar until the bus came to a stop. Only then did he let go.

A deep dent remained in the metal railing. Li Wei stared at it in shock. When had he gotten so strong?

But now was clearly no time to think about that. The accident had left the bus in chaos, with cries and pleas for help ringing out everywhere. Li Wei saw an elderly man in a tracksuit lying motionless on the floor, clutching his head as though he'd hit it against something. A girl who looked like his granddaughter cried out and shook him.

Li Wei hurried over and crouched to examine the old man's injuries. Because of his grandmother, Li Wei had always felt a special tenderness toward the elderly.

"Good. It's only a scrape!" Li Wei checked the wound on the old man's head, took off his coat, and pressed it against the injury, not caring that it was getting stained with blood.

Li Wei looked at the girl, whose face was streaked with tears, and froze for a moment. She had red lips, white teeth, an oval face, and a pair of large eyes with a peculiar charm. Now that they were brimming with tears, she looked all the more striking.

Damn it, what am I thinking?

Cutting off his wandering thoughts, Li Wei felt a little embarrassed. The girl didn't notice. Seeing him use his coat to stop the old man's bleeding, she politely thanked him.

"What happened to my grandpa?" The girl wiped away her tears. At a loss for what to do, she'd taken Li Wei as someone she could rely on. She was clearly terrified.

"It should just be a scrape..." Before he could finish, Li Wei's eyes narrowed. He saw blood seeping from the old man's abdomen too.

Li Wei lifted the man's shirt and sucked in a breath. Something had slashed several deep wounds across the old man's abdomen. Blood was pouring out, and through the cuts, he could just make out the bloodied intestines.

The girl went numb. She couldn't even cry anymore. It was no wonder—anyone would be stunned by a sight like this, let alone when it was her own grandfather who'd been injured.

By now, the passengers were gradually coming to their senses. Most were crying as they climbed out through the windows. Only a few kindhearted people gathered around. When they saw the old man's wounds, they all shook their heads. They knew he wouldn't survive injuries like these!

"You bastard! Look, someone's dead!" A commotion broke out outside the bus.

Only then did everyone realize that a luxury sports car had crashed into the bus. The driver had tried to flee, but the furious crowd had stopped him. Despite the severity of the accident, the people inside the car still acted as if it were nothing. After the crowd "invited" them out, they continued hurling insults.

"So what if someone died? I'll just pay some money... Come on, how much do you want?" The speaker was a young man in a T-shirt and sunglasses. There was some panic on his face, but he was mostly arrogant.

His words immediately enraged the onlookers. A few hot-blooded young men were about to step forward and teach him a lesson, but the man's next words made them stop.

"Do you know who my dad is? My father is Guo Jian..."

As soon as he said that, those who'd been about to charge forward stopped.

Who was Guo Jian?

He was one of the most powerful people in T City. Not only was he the chief of the Public Security Bureau, but he was also the son-in-law of a central government bigwig. Someone like him could make all of T City tremble with a single stomp. The consequences of crossing a man like that were obvious.

His outburst brought the scene to a sudden hush.

"Call 120!"

Someone shouted, and a person immediately took out a phone and dialed. But no one dared grab hold of the driver anymore. It was only human nature: as long as you were safe, there was no need to get yourself into trouble for someone else.

The few people who'd seen the old man's wounds could only shake their heads in silence.

"Son, don't waste your effort!" Perhaps it was a last burst of strength before death, but the old man woke up. The first thing he saw was a young man pouring white powder from an antique green bottle onto his abdomen.

Several deep, gaping wounds oozed blood. Having lived most of his life, the old man knew that even if he were rushed straight to the hospital, there was no guarantee they could save him. He'd already lost too much blood, and infection would set in. Even the gods themselves probably couldn't save him now.

But the young man kept applying the powder to his wounds as if nothing had happened. Strangely, the places it touched began to feel cool, then as soothing as if he were soaking in a hot spring.

"What is this?"

Even the slowest person would have noticed something was wrong. With wounds that deep, he should have been in agony. If he'd lost too much blood, he should have become confused or even passed out.

But now, other than feeling weak all over, the old man's mind was perfectly clear. The pain in his wounds was gradually fading beneath that hot-spring-like comfort. Yet that wasn't what amazed him most.

What he found truly unbelievable was that he could clearly see the wounds slowly healing under the powder's effects.