Eye Art

They're different!

They're all Armored Warrior Apprentices, but Baluk and his companion felt completely different from Ma Yancheng.

They were practically two different species!

On his way to class, Lu Zhan began to reflect on what he had just learned.

Upon learning that Baluk and his companion intended to intercept him, Lu Zhan had come up with a plan.

He would use the Blood-Red Antenna's ability to probe the life information of the senior students himself.

That way, even if Baluk and his companion really broke the rules and beat him up, he would at least gain something from the ordeal.

After a month at the school, Lu Zhan was no longer the clueless novice he had once been.

Through his studies of life alchemy, he had gained some understanding of Armored Warriors.

For all his seemingly formidable strength, Ma Yancheng was only an Armored Warrior Apprentice.

In terms of the fundamental nature of his life, Ma Yancheng differed little from the students in the intermediate training course.

The secret of "cannibalism" he had discovered in Ma Yancheng had weighed on Lu Zhan's mind ever since, even robbing him of sleep and appetite.

Lu Zhan had always wanted to verify whether Armored Warriors really had to "eat people."

Or, rather, whether all Armored Warriors ate people.

Since enrolling, Lu Zhan had encountered other Armored Warrior Apprentices.

But when he tried probing them from a distance, the Blood-Red Antenna could not pick up their life information at all.

As for recklessly making physical contact with an Armored Warrior Apprentice, Lu Zhan did not dare court death like that.

After all, he still carried the stigma of District 13.

The appearance of Baluk and his companion had been an unexpected stroke of luck for Lu Zhan.

So the instant Baluk patted his shoulder, Lu Zhan activated the Blood-Red Antenna's ability.

"Strong." "Hungry." Two pieces of information surfaced in Lu Zhan's mind.

The former came from Lu Zhan's own body. "Strong" was his cells' assessment of Baluk.

As for "hungry," that information came from Baluk himself.

Or, more precisely, from the cells in Baluk's left hand.

They were ravenous too, but showed no signs of losing control. They were merely expressing their "opinion" on instinct.

Both "strong" and "hungry" were fundamentally different from Ma Yancheng's "predator" and "eat people."

Baluk and his companion were Armored Warrior Apprentices properly trained by the Training Center.

That meant Lu Zhan's assessment of Ma Yancheng had been right. There was something wrong with that Armored Warrior Apprentice-something very wrong.

Getting out of the Wutu Gang's mire really was the right choice.

I hope the Wutu Gang knows better than to cause me any more trouble.

Otherwise, they can't blame me for forgetting old ties and reporting them.

After confirming that the Training Center's Armored Warriors did not need to eat people, Lu Zhan had no further doubts about this path.

Now he desperately wanted to become stronger, to ensure that what had happened today would never happen again.

That made the upcoming Gourmet Appreciation Class all the more appealing.

"Meow, meow, meow!"

Walking briskly, Lu Zhan was only one corner away from the classroom.

As luck would have it, he ran into that "ugly cat" again in the corridor at the corner.

The moment their eyes met, the cat's fur stood on end.

"Meow, meow, meow, meow-meow!"

The black cat with the mottled head kept growling at Lu Zhan.

Its posture made it look as though it wanted Lu Zhan to get out of its way.

Although it spoke in meows, Lu Zhan understood it perfectly.

Just my luck. All I did was think you were ugly. It was the truth!

Do you really have to hold such a grudge and pick a fight with me every time?

This was not Lu Zhan's first encounter with the "ugly cat."

Whenever they met, their interactions were never particularly pleasant.

The root of the problem was that the mottled-headed black cat was oversensitive. It could not accept Lu Zhan's assessment that it was "ugly."

Every time they met, Lu Zhan sincerely felt that the cat was truly ugly.

Lu Zhan could guarantee that, as a civilized and polite person, he had never spoken that unkind assessment aloud.

Yet, strangely enough, the ugly cat somehow knew.

At first, Lu Zhan had wondered whether the ugly cat had some special power.

He had even suspected that it might be a boss hiding in the Training Center.

But later, Lu Zhan realized he had been overthinking things.

It was just an ordinary ugly cat, the kind that could not even be bothered to catch mice.

The one with a special power was not the ugly cat, but Lu Zhan himself.

At some point, Lu Zhan's gaze had acquired a special ability: it could convey the thoughts in his mind.

Once someone met his gaze, Lu Zhan could transmit his thoughts to them through his eyes.

Or, rather, he could influence them with his thoughts.

According to Lu Zhan's retrospective review, the first unlucky victim accidentally affected by this ability had been the ugly cat.

It had involuntarily learned that Lu Zhan thought it was ugly.

The second unlucky victim had been Old Wang, the librarian.

Even now, he still felt guilty that the library could not provide the books Lu Zhan wanted to read.

Fortunately, Lu Zhan had also discovered that these accidental effects tended to occur when his emotions fluctuated intensely.

Otherwise, he would have noticed them much sooner, instead of only realizing what was happening after repeatedly "insulting" the ugly cat.

As for why the ugly cat kept getting "insulted," that was naturally because, after being accidentally affected once, it had become more susceptible to Lu Zhan's influence.

Upon realizing that he possessed an "Eye Art," Lu Zhan immediately connected it to the Blood-Red Antenna.

Since the Blood-Red Antenna could enhance his ability to pick up life information from the outside world,

it stood to reason that it could also enhance his ability to broadcast information to other living beings.

Wasn't that the very pur-

pose of an antenna?

Forget it. A decent man doesn't quarrel with a cat!

Since you've helped me a little, I'll give way this once!

Lu Zhan was, after all, a magnanimous person.

Discovering the Eye Art's existence early had eliminated one potential risk for him.

If the Eye Art went out of control and someone powerful noticed it,

Lu Zhan's fate would be all too easy to imagine.

Now that he understood the nature of the Eye Art and the conditions that triggered it, Lu Zhan could control it.

With its uncanny nature and silent activation, it certainly qualified as his current trump card.

It was also what had given Lu Zhan the confidence to face Baluk and his companion head-on.

"Meow, meow, meow!"

Seeing Lu Zhan take a step back and clear the way,

the ugly cat immediately perked up. With a proud feline strut, it walked ahead of him.

As luck would have it, that was precisely the direction of Lu Zhan's classroom.

Even more coincidentally, the ugly cat kept going and eventually slipped into the classroom.

Judging by how confidently it navigated the place, the ugly cat seemed more familiar with it than Lu Zhan was.