Just after midnight the next day, Lin Xiao had planned to treat himself to some instant noodles when it happened.
Ding-A crime has been detected within range-
Lin Xiao's chopsticks stopped in midair.
"...Again?"
He swallowed that mouthful of noodles and narrowed his eyes warily. "What's the mission?"
Ding-Mission objective: stop the crime currently in progress. Mission type: three-star good citizen. Mission reward: a random increase to the five attributes, plus one random item.
Three stars. And an item, too.
Lin Xiao set down his bowl of instant noodles, his expression turning serious. Based on the past three months of experience, the system suddenly turning generous was basically a weasel wishing a chicken a happy New Year.
Lin Xiao stood and rolled his shoulders. His shoulder blades cracked twice, like two stones grinding against each other.
"Where's the mission?"
Ding-Route plotted for the host.
The system map popped up, a red marker flashing on it. Lin Xiao looked it over and found it wasn't too far from Forest Hills-a fifteen-minute walk.
He pulled up his hoodie, grabbed his keys, and left.
At two in the morning in New York, the pedestrians and stray cats on the street totaled no more than three. The streetlights stretched his shadow long as Lin Xiao followed the system's arrows with his hands in his pockets. A cold wind swept through his collar, but he didn't even shiver-ever since his strength had gone off the charts, this bit of cold felt about the same as an air-conditioning vent.
After roughly ten minutes, the arrow turned onto a shopping street.
Lin Xiao looked up. He knew this street; he had eaten a hot dog nearby just two days ago. Stores lined the street: a convenience store, a dry cleaner, and a jewelry store with an all-glass storefront. Its sign read "Ellie Jewelry," and a faded promotional poster was still stuck to the glass door.
The target location is just ahead.
Lin Xiao stopped and looked around.
"There isn't even-"
He never finished.
Someone kicked the jewelry store's glass door open from inside.
The entire glass door flew out, along with the burglar alarm attached to its frame, and smashed into shards all over the ground. The alarm began shrieking, its piercing sound tearing through the early-morning silence.
Lin Xiao raised an eyebrow.
Two men walked out of the jewelry store.
One was tall and the other short. The tall one wore a knit cap and carried two bulging canvas bags in his arms, a glint of gold chain showing at one opening. The short one held a shotgun with half its barrel sawed off, exposing its dark muzzle. Both wore black ski masks that left only their eyes and mouths exposed.
Behind them, every display case in the jewelry store had been smashed. Glass littered the floor, and not a single valuable remained inside.
Knit Cap spotted Lin Xiao first.
What he saw was a figure standing beneath a streetlight-a hood concealing most of his face, his massive frame like a wall, blocking their escape route.
"Fuck-someone's here!" Knit Cap cursed.
The short man with the shotgun spotted Lin Xiao too. His response was far more decisive than his partner's. He immediately raised the muzzle toward Lin Xiao and unleashed a string of curses. "Fuck you, get out of the way! Get the fuck out of my way!"
Lin Xiao didn't move.
He looked at the sawed-off shotgun, then at the black Ford sedan parked behind the two men with its engine off.
He started walking forward.
The two men saw a monster with a physique far beyond an ordinary person's walking toward them.
The short man's hand trembled. He was less than ten meters from Lin Xiao. The shotgun wavered in his hands, its muzzle and his gaze both fixed on Lin Xiao's chest.
"Didn't you hear me?! Move! Get out of my way! Or I'll shoot!"
Lin Xiao stopped.
He flipped back his hood, exposing his entire face. The streetlight illuminated the old scar running from his brow to his cheekbone, along with his current expression.
He was actually smiling.
"You'd better put the gun down."
Lin Xiao sounded as calm as if he were buying a Coke at a convenience store. There was a trace of sincere advice in his tone, like he was telling a neighbor, "It's windy today. Don't leave flowerpots on the balcony."
"I'm not here to give you trouble. I just want to talk. About morality, about the rule of law, about-why are you robbing a jewelry store?"
Silence.
The two masked men exchanged a glance. The message in their eyes was perfectly unanimous-Is this guy a fucking idiot?
"Morality my ass!"
The short man's finger squeezed the trigger.
The shotgun fired.
With a muffled bang, the pellets struck Lin Xiao's chest. More than a dozen smoking holes instantly appeared in his hoodie. Scraps of fabric drifted down, exposing the completely unharmed skin beneath.
Lin Xiao looked down at his chest, then back at the short man who had fired. His expression wasn't angry. It was pained.
"I bought this hoodie only two weeks ago. Thirty-nine ninety, US dollars. You're paying for it."
The short man's eyes, the only exposed part of his face, widened so far they nearly popped out of his mask. He looked down at the shotgun in his hands, then back at the bullet holes in Lin Xiao's chest-there was no blood in them, only unscathed skin. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Knit Cap reacted faster. Without a word, he yanked open the car door and climbed into the driver's seat, twisting the key all the way. The engine roared to life.
"Get in! Get the fuck in!"
The short man snapped out of it and scrambled into the passenger seat. Knit Cap floored the accelerator. The black Ford's tires shrieked against the ground, kicking up white smoke as the car charged straight toward Lin Xiao.
Lin Xiao didn't dodge.
He stepped forward, bent down, and gripped the Ford's front bumper with both hands.
Then he straightened his back with a sudden heave and lifted a Ford sedan reversing at full speed-right off the ground! He really just lifted it!
The front end left the ground. Then the front wheels. Then the whole car. The engine was still roaring and the tires were still spinning madly, but the entire car hung suspended in Lin Xiao's hands like a turtle flipped onto its back.
Inside, Knit Cap still had his foot jammed on the accelerator, but the engine's sound had changed-he finally realized what had happened and stuck his head out the window to look down.
He saw asphalt. It was more than two meters below the bottom of his car door. Then he saw Lin Xiao's face.
That face wore a serious expression.
"I told you I wanted to talk. You wouldn't listen. Fine, I'll send you flying."
With that, Lin Xiao turned, drove through his waist and abdomen, and swung both arms hard.
The black Ford sedan flew from his hands.
Not figuratively. It really flew, tumbling two and a half times through the air in a less-than-graceful arc before crashing into the middle of the road fifty meters away.
-BOOM-
The roof hit first.
The metal frame crumpled like a crushed soda can. The engine finally died, and black smoke seeped through the gaps around the hood, accompanied by an acrid, scorched smell. Three of the four tires came off and rolled a long way before bumping into one another by the roadside, coming to rest after a few dull thuds.
Every window shattered. Both airbags deployed, filling the entire cabin with white.
Knit Cap and the short man were pinned to their seats by the airbags, their faces buried in them and their bodies limp as two lumps of soaked noodles. The airbags had saved their lives, but they had still taken quite a beating. Both had passed out cold.
Lin Xiao walked over and looked down into the car. The short man's eyes were still visible outside his mask, rolled back in his head. Foam spilled from his mouth, and his crotch was soaked.
"You two really can't handle pressure." Lin Xiao shook his head and said sincerely, "Being a robber takes nerves of steel. You won't have much of a future like this."
Of course, neither of them could hear him now.
Lin Xiao pulled the canvas bag from the wrecked frame and opened it-it was heavy, filled with gold chains, gold rings, and gold earrings. Just then, the wail of police sirens sounded in the distance.
Two police cars were racing toward him from the intersection, red and blue lights flashing.
Lin Xiao hurriedly pulled up his hood, put down the canvas bag, and ran toward a dark alley. He had no desire to be spotted by these cops, then caught by them and dissected for research. Wasn't Hulk the perfect example?
Lin Xiao turned into an alley before the police cars arrived. That voice sounded in his head.
Ding-Daily good deed mission complete. Mission rating: S. Distributing rewards...
Lin Xiao stopped. His heart began pounding hard. He had been doing this for three months, and this was his first S. He was getting a little excited.
Ding-Random five-attribute increase allocated: strength +3.
"Fine. What about the item?"
Something appeared in Lin Xiao's palm. Cold, with a metallic feel.
He looked down.
It was a dose of serum in a transparent glass syringe. The liquid was pale gold and glowed faintly in the darkness. A line of tiny lettering was printed on the outside of the syringe. He had to squint and bring it close to make it out:
"Perfect Lizard Regeneration Serum."
On the back was an even smaller note: "Activates highly efficient regeneration upon injection. No rejection response. No risk of schizophrenia. No changes to outward appearance. A one-in-a-million perfect specimen."
Squatting in the alley, Lin Xiao turned the serum over and examined it three times.
He knew what the Lizard Serum was. Before transmigrating, he had known about Lizard, Spider-Man's villain-a tragic scientist who had turned himself into a giant green lizard trying to regrow a lost limb. If this stuff was like the original, after the injection he wouldn't be Lin Xiao anymore. He would be Lin Lizard.
But the note on the back had crossed out every side effect. No rejection response. No schizophrenia. No changes to outward appearance. A one-in-a-million perfect specimen.
Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes and stared at that line for five seconds.
"Doupao, one last question."
Ding-Please proceed, host.
"This thing really has no side effects? It won't turn me into a giant green lizard? It won't give me schizophrenia? It won't turn me into a villain?"
Ding-System product, guaranteed quality. The item description reflects its actual effects. No false labeling.
Lin Xiao fell silent for three seconds.
Then he pulled the cap off the syringe's needle.
The needle gleamed faintly under the streetlight, as thin as a strand of hair. Lin Xiao looked at his arm, then plunged it in without a second thought.
The instant the needle pierced his skin, he felt a slight burning sensation spread from its tip. Then the pale golden liquid began flowing up his blood vessels. He could clearly see that golden line crawl from his wrist along his forearm, past his elbow, up his upper arm, then disappear toward his shoulder.
Lin Xiao looked down at his arm. His skin was completely intact. It hadn't turned green, grown scales, or swollen out of shape. He moved his fingers, his knuckles cracking twice. After flexing them a few times, he rolled up his sleeve and inspected his arm again-nothing.
"That's it?"
Ding-Serum has taken effect. The host's regeneration ability is now active.
Lin Xiao stood and brushed the dust off his knees. He casually tossed the empty syringe into a trash can, pulled his hood back up, and strolled toward Forest Hills.
As he walked, he thought that although the system had given him another three points of strength this time, at least it had also provided a serum item. That made them even. Something like a regeneration serum was definitely good stuff in the Marvel Universe.
At that thought, Lin Xiao's mood improved considerably. Humming an old song whose name he had forgotten, he walked with a spring in his step, his canvas shoes tapping rhythmically against the concrete.
What he didn't know was that the serum was spreading through his body in a way he had never anticipated, and that syringe might someday change someone's fate. Who could say for sure?