Abnormalities on Patrol

Knife Skills lv.3 (Speed +1): 2/40000

After proficiency reached level three, nothing much changed, but the cap doubled again, becoming forty thousand.

But another line of text appeared beneath the proficiency bar.

Please choose a path

Butchering Ox Technique (Precision +1, Speed +1)

Five Tigers Severing Door Blade (Precision +1, Strength +1)

Zhou An: "?"

He did not remember including this feature when he had designed the game.

How had a life skill turned into something like this?

Zhou An did not rush to choose. Instead, he carefully sorted through his memories from his previous life.

Only after quite a while did he figure out where the problem lay.

When he had first made this little life-skill game, it had become popular for a time and earned him quite a bit of money.

But maintaining the game afterward had been a real headache.

So he had hired a college graduate fresh out of school to help.

All the later patches and updates had been made by that college student.

Most of the time, Zhou An had only given them a quick glance before leaving the student to handle everything.

Games like this might have enjoyed a burst of popularity at the start, but they gradually lost momentum.

So he had stopped managing it later and handed everything over to that college student.

This thing was probably added by that guy, Zhou An thought.

He had looked through it before, and now the memories gradually returned.

One update designed by that college student had made it so that every time proficiency reached level three, there would be a huge change.

Now it seemed this was the result of that update.

"Which one should I choose?"

Zhou An fell into a bout of indecision.

He racked his brain until he finally remembered what that college student had told him.

—The attributes added at the beginning are foundational, but they are also what you excel at. Choosing based on that is the right approach.

"So that means my initial attribute was speed, so I should choose the speed-oriented one now too."

Once Zhou An understood, he stopped overthinking it.

Indecisiveness was not something one could overthink.

The more he thought, the more tangled up he became.

He gritted his teeth, hardened his heart, and chose the Butchering Ox Skill.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the text before him changed.

Butchering Ox Technique lv.3 (Speed +2, Precision +1): 2/40000

After the text appeared before his eyes and vanished once more, a flood of information poured into his mind.

Zhou An closed his eyes and felt the upheaval inside his head.

Nearly two minutes passed before he opened his eyes again.

The flow of qi within his body had grown from the thickness of a thumb to the thickness of two thumbs.

But it had not condensed into the qi cluster of a Second-Rate Expert.

Zhou An raised his hand and picked up the kitchen knife from the table.

The next moment, he swung it down toward the chopping board.

The kitchen knife became an afterimage, white light flowing along its blade.

When the blade's light fell upon the chopping board, nothing happened.

The knife remained a hair's breadth away from the board, never actually touching it.

This was precision!

Zhou An finally understood the benefit of Precision +1.

"To wield heavy things lightly, never missing by a hair."

Before, his blade had been fast—fast indeed—but every slash lacked the ability to be freely controlled.

A simple example.

If he slashed and his opponent dodged, his center would be left completely exposed.

Because he lacked precision and the ability to wield heavy things lightly, he could not pull back any slash once it had been made.

But now, things were different.

Precision made his blade techniques both real and feigned, taking them to another level.

"Good, good, good. As expected of the Butchering Ox Skill."

With his proficiency improved, Zhou An was naturally delighted.

He set the kitchen knife back on the chopping board, put on his constable's Zi Clothes, and then headed out with his long saber in hand.

He still had to work this damn job.

Today, he was on street patrol.

After roll call, Zhou An did not linger. Wearing his saber at his waist, he headed out.

As it happened, his patrol area this time was Hu Yang Alley, where the first incident had occurred.

Zhou An still remembered the first corpse found there. Its internal organs had all been hollowed out.

Before he left, Yu Hang had reminded him to be careful.

After leaving the yamen, Zhou An strolled over to Hu Yang Alley.

The alley was still fairly lively. Although something had happened there some time ago, the common folk still had to make a living.

More than ten days had passed peacefully, so the cries of street vendors along the road had gradually grown louder once again.

With his long saber at his waist, Zhou An wandered through the streets.

Seeing his Zi Clothes, the common folk hurriedly averted their eyes.

He patrolled until noon, casually ate something from a roadside stall, rested for a while, then continued his rounds.

Along the way, he also dealt with two arguments.

Everything remained peaceful until late afternoon.

He had thought nothing would happen today and that he could return after his shift.

But as he passed a narrow alley, a commotion came from inside.

"Sounds like fighting?"

Sporadic sounds of combat came from within the alley. An ordinary passerby would not have heard them.

But Zhou An had qi within him and heard them clearly.

This was precisely what constables did while patrolling the streets.

After a moment's thought, Zhou An gripped the long saber at his waist and walked into the alley.

The alley was narrow enough for only two people to pass side by side.

Walls stood on both sides, with no houses nearby.

The ground was filthy and cluttered, strewn with broken stones and trash.

There were many abandoned alleys like this in An Ding County.

Even the liveliest places had such deserted alleys.

The deeper Zhou An went, the louder the noise of fighting and arguing became.

There was a corner ahead. He could not see what lay beyond it, but the sounds of fighting came from behind it.

"Weapons?"

The clash of metal rang out from the alley.

At first, from a distance, he had thought it was merely commoners fighting.

But if weapons were involved, that was another matter.

Zhou An's expression slowly turned serious. He drew the long saber at his waist and cautiously approached.

When he reached the corner, he leaned his head out and surveyed the scene beyond it.

The alley was already narrow, and he could see everything at a glance.

There were two people inside. More accurately, one of them was not human.

He wore a black robe, and the nails on both hands were half a foot long.

His mouth jutted forward, sharp incisors protruding from within.

Zhou An had seen this appearance before.

The Beast Cult!

Only members of the Beast Cult would take on such a state after borrowing the power of wild beasts.

The other person wore the uniform of the Demon Suppression Division and held a longsword.

The two sides seemed to be in a standoff, but Zhou An saw dozens of wounds, large and small, covering the Demon Suppression Division member's body.

He's at a disadvantage, Zhou An thought.

Just as he thought this, the person from the Demon Suppression Division spoke.

"Surrender. You are already at the end of your rope. Continuing to resist will only lead to death."

His voice was hoarse, accompanied by violent coughing. He was clearly badly injured.

The Beast Cult member threw back his head and laughed. "Over the past ten-plus days, your Demon Suppression Division has killed dozens of Beast Cult members, and now you want me to surrender?"

"As a Protector, today I will take your life as an offering to heaven!"