Who Was That Tough Guy?

"Alright, here's fine. There's no one around now."

In the alley, Tang Jian stopped and turned to look at the punk gripping his neck.

"Fuck, are we listening to you or me? I call the shots. Get moving!"

The punk shouted angrily and shoved Tang Jian.

"Easy, easy. This kid's got such delicate skin—he's quite a looker." Another punk leered as he sized Tang Jian up, stepping forward to take his backpack.

Tang Jian's gaze turned faintly cold. He let go with the motion, and the instant the other man took the backpack, he drove a kick straight into his stomach.

With a thud, the man let out a muffled grunt and staggered back, landing on his backside. His face twisted in pain.

"You!"

The punk holding Tang Jian widened his eyes, but before he could draw the dagger at his waist, Tang Jian's right hand had already seized the wrist resting on his shoulder.

He pressed down hard!

The punk felt his entire arm go numb. Before he could react, a sharp, piercing pain struck his chest, and Tang Jian's elbow sent him straight to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, both punks had been taken down.

"What!?"

The third punk jumped in fright, then angrily drew his dagger. The gleaming blade flashed in his hand as he lunged to stab Tang Jian.

In the year 203, public safety had been incredibly chaotic.

Especially near school gates, where punks often got into fights, sometimes beating people to death or crippling them.

In cities blanketed by nuclear radiation, crimes happened constantly every day. Human lives were practically worthless.

This punk drew his dagger with an enraged expression and stabbed at Tang Jian without the slightest restraint. A few wild strikes would absolutely be fatal.

But Tang Jian did not hesitate either. His left hand slipped out of his pocket, five slender fingers flicking lightly. A silver-white card danced between them like a butterfly among flowers, flashing faintly before suddenly shooting out.

Whoosh—

The instant the card flew from his hand, it transformed into a Sleeve Arrow Card shaped like a twisting little snake.

With a clang.

The sleeve arrow struck the dagger in the punk's hand dead-on, producing a sharp metallic tremor. It then suddenly split into another sleeve arrow that flashed past the punk's cheek.

In an instant, the dagger was knocked from the punk's hand, while blood ran down his cheek. His face filled with terror as he screamed, "A card? You actually have a Combat Card?"

Tang Jian did not waste words in a fight. He dashed forward, driving his knee into the man's abdomen and sending him flying before he slammed heavily onto the ground.

"Ah—!" The punk lay facedown on the ground, retching painfully and vomiting a pile of yellowish-white sludge.

In the blink of an eye, all three punks had lost their ability to fight and were sprawled on the ground.

Several students watching from afar at the entrance of the alley were dumbfounded.

Tang Jian glanced toward the alley entrance. His gaze swept over Xie Dong's terrified, stunned face, and the corner of his mouth rose slightly. He quickly fished some money and valuables from the punks' pockets, picked up his backpack, and left through another route out of the alley.

There was no need to ask.

Since Xie Dong had appeared at the alley entrance, and these punks had just happened to target him, Tang Jian naturally knew who was behind it all.

But they were all students right now, and he was not yet a Card Master. He could only teach them a slight lesson and rob the three punks in return. Asking him to kill someone, though, was simply impossible.

Even Card Masters, that privileged class, could not openly slaughter ordinary people at will. Kill someone, and they would still be wanted by the police, let alone ordinary card apprentices.

"What a childish game. I even went out of my way to make a Sleeve Arrow Card. Looks like I made a mountain out of a molehill."

Tang Jian emerged from another exit of the alley and looked through his spoils. Though he felt relaxed and pleased, he also found it rather amusing.

With the basic combat techniques he had learned as a university student, dealing with these punks had been effortless.

In his previous life, he had dealt with Card Masters. Even the weakest among them would have a Combat Card or Mechanical Card and possess some degree of fighting ability.

Now that he had been reborn, fighting these ordinary people had been so easy that Tang Jian felt somewhat unaccustomed to it. He had clearly overestimated them.

Still, he had gained quite a lot from this move.

He had looted over five hundred yuan from the three punks, along with two auxiliary Flame Cards and one One-Star Blank Energy Card.

Tang Jian checked it. The Energy Card seemed to have been used halfway, with only a little over 50 energy units remaining inside, so its value was discounted.

The two Flame Cards sold for around thirty yuan. They were the most ordinary One-Star Blank auxiliary cards, convenient for lighting cigarettes and starting fires. They were also extremely easy to make, even easier than One-Star Blank Energy Cards.

Flame Cards were not especially useful and difficult to sell, so Tang Jian intended to keep them for his family to use.

While Tang Jian walked out of the alley as though nothing had happened and went to eat dinner.

Xie Dong, meanwhile, was restless and distracted. He did not even know how he had made it back to the classroom.

He still could not forget the scene of Tang Jian decisively taking down the three punks, especially the look Tang Jian had given him from afar while standing in the alley afterward.

That gaze had held calmness, disdain, and even utter indifference. Whenever Xie Dong recalled it, he trembled, while a voice echoed relentlessly in his mind.

"Could he know it was me?"

"Could he know it was me?"

Once that thought arose, Xie Dong became even more terrified and uneasy.

After doing too many guilty things, one naturally developed a guilty conscience. Xie Dong was feeling guilty now. Not only that, he feared Tang Jian's retaliation.

Thought after thought battled in his mind. Should he continue escalating things and strike first, or should he take the initiative to show goodwill and build a better relationship with Tang Jian?

With one thought following another, Xie Dong remained absent-minded throughout the entire evening self-study session, unable to focus.

As for Tang Jian, after treating himself to a luxurious wooden-bucket meal of stir-fried beef tripe with green peppers, he took the more than five hundred yuan of "ill-gotten gains" straight into a card shop. He bought two bottles of Rare Energy Water and three One-Star Blank Energy Cards, leaving only one hundred and twenty yuan on himself.

Only after acquiring these things did Tang Jian sigh. Sure enough, murder and arson were the fastest ways to get rich.

Xie Dong really was a money-bringing boy.

Just when he was most short of money, Xie Dong had sent him cash and resources. It could not have been better.

As for whether those punks would seek revenge afterward, Tang Jian could not be bothered to care.

There were not many Card Masters in all of Xi City.

As long as a Card Master did not come looking for revenge, Tang Jian believed that with the Sleeve Arrow Card in hand, he still had the ability to protect himself.

When he returned to the classroom, he heard Yang Mao and the others discussing something.

As he drew closer and listened, Tang Jian could not help feeling surprised.

"You know? There was another fight outside the school just now. We've got a real tough guy at our school—he took down three thugs all by himself."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard too. Some say he's a third-year student. His card energy has to be at least seventy or eighty, and he's got a card that might be from the combat series."

"Combat series cards are expensive. Could it be a mechanical series card instead?"

"Hey, Tang Jian, did you hear? A tough guy showed up among the third-years. He's even got a powerful card. Wonder which class he's in."

When Yang Mao saw Tang Jian approach, he immediately patted Tang Jian on the shoulder.

"Well... they were just three punks. Is beating them really that impressive?" Tang Jian asked hesitantly.

Yang Mao and the others all shot him sidelong looks.

"Just three punks? Nothing impressive? If you ran into them, wouldn't you get beaten flat?" Yang Mao said with a look of contempt.

"They had a Combat Card. Don't underestimate that expert," Xu Fei added.

Tang Jian looked at them helplessly but said nothing. He returned to his seat and continued listening as they speculated about and praised that tough guy.

"I think it might be Yang Chao from Class One. People with the surname Yang are all impressive."

"Tch. I heard the guy was eight feet tall and built like a tank. It's probably Wang Ba from Class Two."

Tang Jian looked at his own not particularly muscular arms and muttered to himself, The tough guy is right beside you, and you're still guessing around. What the hell are you even guessing for?

Please vote! Yesterday was Qixi Festival, and I still didn't manage to sell myself off. What a failure!