It was nearly evening by the time they reached the restaurant and told the manager and their coworkers that they had passed the Imperial Guard's screening.
Their coworkers all congratulated Lin Feng, clamoring that he would get seventy percent off whenever he visited, for the rest of his life.
Everyone laughed and joked, as though they had never heard that Sheele and Lin Feng were leaving.
Yet once the two had gone, they secretly wiped away tears in the corners.
After all, they had been friends for many years, and suddenly going their separate ways always brought a deep reluctance to part.
The handover procedures were already complete, and Sheele and Lin Feng planned to find a decent bar near the guard station to celebrate the start of their new lives together.
It was both a celebration and a farewell to their old friends at the restaurant.
After all, those friends were still working at the restaurant, so this was the only way the two could express how much they would miss them.
"Um... could I have a little alcohol? Just a sip..."
Sitting at the counter of the bar closest to the guard station, Sheele said this to Lin Feng.
Although Sheele normally loathed alcohol and people who drank to excess, at this particular moment, she wanted a little drink herself.
She too wanted to melt into those dreamlike feelings, cast all her doubts and lingering sorrow behind her, and embrace a brand-new tomorrow together.
"Just a little sip. Drink it slowly."
Lin Feng looked after Sheele with all the meticulous care he would give his own younger sister, even holding her stemmed glass for her, afraid the strong alcohol would catch in her throat.
After a sip of the potent, richly fruity cocktail, Sheele's vision swam a little. In the end, she was still a girl, and her ability to process toxins could not compare to an ability user with vampire powers like Lin Feng.
Just one sip left Sheele a little woozy. Crimson had spread across her fair cheeks, and an indescribable feeling rippled in her eyes.
At that moment, Lin Feng felt that this ditzy girl, who usually seemed so clumsy, had a different sort of charm.
Before this, Lin Feng had never imagined that the crybaby who always trailed after him could grow into such a graceful young woman.
Her long, straight purple hair was incredibly silky, even giving off a faint glow.
That purple glow fell on Sheele's fair face along with the reflected lamplight, making her already smooth, jade-like skin appear even more luminous.
The flush brought on by the alcohol spread across her face, creating perfect, natural makeup.
Above her vermilion lips, her high nose and shy, amethyst-like eyes were utterly captivating.
Yet even such an outstanding face seemed so pure and innocent with Sheele's shy, introverted personality.
She inspired no desire for the opposite sex, only the urge to protect her like a small animal.
Seeing Sheele like this, Lin Feng not only felt a surge of tenderness, but also could not resist wanting to tease her a little.
"Sheele, let's play a game."
"What... kind of game?"
Lin Feng lifted the cylindrical container sitting upside down on the counter. Inside were five dice.
This container was called a dice cup, and Lin Feng had only confirmed what the dice were called by listening to the drinkers around them chat.
There were no upscale establishments like bars anywhere from the slums to the area around the restaurant where Lin Feng worked, so this was the first time in their lives that either Sheele or Lin Feng had encountered these things.
Whenever the rich had more money than they could spend, they liked to amuse themselves with these props, playing a few rounds in this worldly place of dazzling lights and squandering a family fortune in the process. To them, this seemed less a waste of money than a ritual to pray for blessings.
"Sheele, their rules are too complicated. Let's play something simple. Today's an important day, after all. When it's time to have fun, we should have fun."
Lin Feng placed the cup upside down over the five dice, then began shaking it violently with both hands.
They all seem to shake it pretty hard. This should be about right.
After only a brief exertion, more than a dozen afterimages appeared around Lin Feng's wrists and fingers.
Sheele could barely tell which ones were Lin Feng's hands anymore.
After shaking it for a little while, Lin Feng slowly lifted the cup. Just as he was about to continue explaining to Sheele, he noticed a trembling bartender staring at him from the counter.
"Excuse me, is something wrong?"
Lin Feng looked at the rather elderly bartender and asked in confusion.
"N-no, nothing! Have fun! Enjoy yourselves!"
Yet at Lin Feng's question, the bartender looked as terrified as if someone had pointed a gun at him, leaving Lin Feng even more baffled.
But when he looked back at the dice inside the cup, Lin Feng nearly fainted himself.
All six dice had been shaken to pieces.
Just holding and squeezing one a little would tell him that even a knife could only leave a slight scratch on these dice, yet now they had shattered merely from hitting the cup.
What terrifying wrist strength and control would that take? The bartender must already have taken Lin Feng for someone with superpowers.
"I'm sorry! Please put them on my drinks bill..."
Lin Feng sucked in a breath. He had never imagined he would unwittingly perform such an astonishing feat.
"So that's how you play? You shake them until they break? I didn't know dice were so fragile..."
"No, no, that's not it. That was an accident. Let me show you again."
Lin Feng gripped the dice cup again, holding back his strength as he gently rocked it. Before long, he heard the dice slowly rattling inside.
When he lifted the cup, the five dice showed five numbers completely different from before.
"See? Shaking this makes the dice turn over. We both shake ours and compare the totals. Simple, right?"
Sheele seemed to find the rules very easy too. After all, remembering which numbers were bigger and adding them together was still manageable for her level of comprehension.
If a game involved even a little psychology, this fool, whose thoughts could be read at a glance, would probably never take part.
"Then let's begin."
Lin Feng and Sheele shook their dice cups together. As two sets of rattling sounds rang out, their rolls settled when the clattering stopped.
At that moment, however, Lin Feng had a few new ideas.
"Form Transformation-"
Lin Feng's left hand rested on the bar counter, looking no different from usual, but a small, concealed part of his palm had already transformed into a slender shadow.
The shadow merged with the shadow cast by the cup and slipped inside. Through the shadow's shared vision, Lin Feng easily saw his roll.
The dark shadow turned into a thin, rigid shadow spike. With just a few gentle nudges, it turned all of Lin Feng's dice six-side up.
There was no telling how many rounds had passed.
"Lin Feng, you're so sneaky."
"How am I sneaky?"
"You must be cheating. Why do you get thirty every time..."
"You need evidence. You can't just say things like that."
"I... boo-hoo..."
Sheele was already having trouble holding her liquor, and with Lin Feng provoking her like this, her face flushed even more, until she looked like a plump pink bun.
How many more days would he have to tease Sheele like this?
At least, Lin Feng felt that making the most of the present was what mattered most.
Perhaps by relying on his abilities to pull such dirty tricks, he could become fabulously wealthy through gambling, but Lin Feng scorned that kind of life.
Of course he did. If he cheated to exploit others for his own gain, he would be no different from those thugs in the Gathered Heroes Group.