Chapter 37: Another Modifier Fragment? |
"It''s finished, Sister Shiyu."
Yan Huan picked up the exquisitely finished cloth bag from the desk and handed it to Ye Shiyu beside him for her to inspect.
Ye Shiyu took it, examined it closely for a moment, and then nodded.
But since she didn''t say anything, Yan Huan kept looking at her. After a brief pause, she finally opened her mouth to give her evaluation.
"It looks nice."
Only then did Yan Huan withdraw his gaze, asking in passing,
"Aren''t you going to write your name on it, Sister Shiyu?"
"..."
Hearing this, Ye Shiyu did not look at the small cloth bag in her hands, but instead looked at Yan Huan''s side profile.
It wasn''t until Yan Huan turned his head to look at her again that she averted her eyes and shook her head.
"No, we made this together."
"Then is it okay to leave it in Sister Shiyu''s care?"
"Mhm."
They still had to hand the small cloth bag over to the teacher for grading later. Turning to look at the other students in the handicraft class, it was basically a disastrous sight.
Ye Shiyu was truly dominating this class; her rich experience in handicrafts was no joke.
After finishing the small cloth bag required by the teacher, she even had the free time to make a yellow pet scarf for Yan Huan at his request.
It could be said that Yan Huan was being carried by an expert, and getting an A at the end of the term wouldn''t be a problem.
For Yan Huan, the main subjects that required exams were a guaranteed success every time, but these bizarre elective courses with chaotic grading systems were the real difficulty.
"Alright, class is almost over, everyone. Regardless of how your finished products turned out, please stop what you''re doing. Once I come down and finish checking, you''ll all be free to leave the classroom."
"Okay!"
Yan Huan sat in his seat, took out his mobile phone, and took a picture of the small cloth bag.
Right at that moment, a message came through.
"I have some things to deal with tonight, so the tavern will be closed. I''m giving you the day off."
It was Tong Yingying.
Yan Huan typed out an OK emoji and sent it back.
He had intended to just open the Mahjong Club group chat, but after thinking for a moment, he returned to Sister Tong''s chat window and typed,
"Sister Tong, what''s going on? Is your family pressuring you to marry again?"
The other party is typing...
"Kids shouldn''t ask about adult matters. Be a good boy."
Great. He knew he''d get a reply like this, yet he had gone out of his way to ask her anyway.
Sister Tong was actually quite mysterious. She frequently disappeared and closed up shop, claiming she was busy with things.
Yan Huan felt it was highly likely that she just didn''t want to get out of bed, so she was giving herself a holiday.
Regarding Tong Yingying, Yan Huan only knew that she had come to Linmen from the Dragon Country to study a long time ago. She had even attended a university in Linmen, making her a top student.
Don''t be fooled by how she basically lay flat now, spending her days smoking, drinking, and sleeping, or getting pressured to marry by her parents far away in a foreign land.
In reality, Sister Tong was quite wealthy.
Just the street-facing storefront of the tavern alone, even if situated in the South Ward, was no small sum in the astronomically expensive city of Linmen.
And she wasn''t just renting the place to do business; she had bought it outright.
She was also very generous with wages, and on holidays, she would even give Yan Huan and the others red envelopes and bonuses.
She claimed that she made all this money speculating in the stock market in her early years, and he had no idea how she pulled that off considering her legendary status as an ideas guru.
Could it be that only a mighty figure like Sister Tong could dominate the stock market full of clueless investors waiting to be harvested?
Yan Huan was greatly puzzled.
Forget it, he should just go home and study today.
He hadn''t properly used the Learning Conqueror ability since obtaining it, and it just so happened he had an idea he wanted to try out.
"Mhm, this group did a good job."
The teacher walked over, carefully examined their finished product, and offered this praise, which was mainly attributed to Ye Shiyu.
"By the way, Sister Shiyu, have you joined any clubs?"
Yan Huan packed his things and, turning to see Ye Shiyu also packing her belongings to go home, asked curiously.
Ye Shiyu shook her head expressionlessly and asked in return,
"Joining a club... is it of any use?"
"Well, it''s not exactly super useful. On a personal level, it just means you can do activities with classmates who share your interests."
Yan Huan neatly folded the pet scarf Ye Shiyu had made, explaining as he did so,
"To put it a bit more pragmatically, if you join a club, you''ll have a faction for the upcoming Club War. If your club places well, you can also get rewards and such."
"Rewards?"
Ye Shiyu''s eyes shifted upward as scenes of competitions held back in the Dragon Country surfaced in her mind.
What rewards were there for placing well?
A certificate of merit.
That was it.
A look of complete disinterest quickly appeared in her eyes, but seeing that Yan Huan was still explaining, she didn''t show it and continued listening.
"First place earns the right to present a wish to the school board, second place gets a large amount of club funding plus the right to host school-wide club activities, and third place only gets funding."
''A wish, huh...''
Ye Shiyu thought about it for a moment, an intriguing idea suddenly springing up in her heart, and she abruptly asked,
"Is the Student Council under the jurisdiction of the school board?"
"Ah, strictly speaking, no. We have a lot of autonomy. We''re solely responsible for things like the Club War, sports meets, and many other activities."
Hearing this, Ye Shiyu disappointedly withdrew her gaze, looking as though she had completely lost interest in the Club War.
But she still didn''t want to dampen Yan Huan''s spirits, so she simply said,
"Later... I''ll look into it."
"Okay, Sister Shiyu."
Yan Huan packed his things and stood up to leave. Upon learning that Ye Shiyu was getting ready to take a car home from here later, he parted ways with her and prepared to take the school bus back to the South Ward.
There wasn''t an overwhelming number of people on the bus, nor was it empty. Yan Huan found a quiet spot to sit down in the last row, where others wouldn''t pay attention.
"Myau-chan."
"Meow~"
After a soft call, a chubby black cat leaped up from out of nowhere and sat elegantly beside him.
Yan Huan took out the yellow cloth scarf that Ye Shiyu had made and said,
"Look at this, Myau-chan. I got you a scarf to wear."
The fat cat tilted its head, extending a paw to touch the scarf with its toe beans, and asked in confusion,
"Hmm, what''s the point of this, meow?"
"Mainly because you''re pitch black all over, and sometimes I can''t even see you at night. Wearing a yellow scarf makes you much more visible, and it''ll look cuter, too."
"Meow?"
Myau-chan watched speechlessly as Yan Huan wrapped the scarf around its neck, then tied a nice-looking knot on the side.
Miraculously, once the scarf was worn around Myau-chan''s neck, it seemed to become ethereal as well; unless Myau-chan wanted it to, it would not be noticed by others.
''Mhm, looking sharp, little cat.''
Yan Huan hugged Myau-chan in his arms and looked out the window. The vehicle was starting, and the sound of the engine drifted over.
"Oh right, Yan Huan. Yesterday, while at the tavern where you work, I found this..."
As Myau-chan sat there, it suddenly remembered something and turned to look back at Yan Huan.
Just as Yan Huan looked over inquiringly, the cat suddenly lowered its head and began to dry heave.
"Hrk... hurk..."
It looked somewhat like a kitten trying to cough up a hairball.
"What is it?"
Terrified that it might vomit some unspeakable substance onto him, Yan Huan tried to move it to the adjacent seat to throw up.
But the very next second, a scale shimmering with a milky white halo was spat out.
The scale was completely incorporeal, looking as if Yan Huan wouldn''t be able to touch it at all.
"This is..."
"A fragment of a Modifier, meow. It''s the same kind of thing that dropped from the Modifier on Ye Shiyu earlier," Myau-chan explained.
"Huh?"
Hearing this, Yan Huan was greatly shocked.
He had wanted to pick up the snake-like scale to examine it, but when he reached out, his hand passed right through it; he truly couldn''t touch it at all.
"I''ve told you, meow. I cannot interfere with the world. Since these dropped fragments are something I can interact with, then you definitely cannot touch them."
"...Is that so."
Yan Huan blinked, but then rubbed his chin in confusion.
"Wait a minute, could this have dropped from Bai Yi''s Modifier yesterday? Even though I gave her the acknowledgment she desired yesterday, the impact shouldn''t have been this massive, right?"
"I don''t know either, meow. But this fragment looks quite a bit larger than the one I swallowed last time. It must represent a heavy blow to a Modifier."
Myau-chan circled around the fragment, then looked up at Yan Huan with big, cute eyes, wearing an expression that said, "As expected of you."
''No, no, no...''
''The main issue is that I have absolutely zero recollection of doing this!''
Yan Huan truly didn''t feel his actions toward Bai Yi yesterday were all that effective. At best, it was just an emergency stopgap measure, not even comparable to how he handled Ye Shiyu last time.
Yet now such a huge fragment had dropped, and no matter how he looked at it, it didn''t seem like the result of his own doing. "Why does this fragment look so much like an animal scale? Like from a lizard or a snake. Was the one that dropped from Ye Shiyu last time like this too?"
"A scale?"
Myau-chan tilted its head, looking at the fragment in front of it with some confusion before sudden realization dawned on it.
"Ah... because Modifiers are essentially the power of deities from another world, you mortals cannot comprehend the existence of their true forms. So when you look at it, it takes on a shape that your mind can understand."
Myau-chan mimicked the dry-heaving motion again and spat out a tiny bit of an ethereal substance that resembled spider silk.
"Look at this. This is the fragment that dropped from Ye Shiyu last time. It should look very different from this one, right?"
"Yeah. In my eyes, this one looks like spider silk, and the other looks like a snake scale."
As Yan Huan observed them, he seemed to realize something and said to Myau-chan,
"Wait a second. According to what you said, Myau-chan, Modifiers cannot be perceived, right?"
"That''s correct, meow."
"Then is it possible that, under this premise, someone else still did something to a Modifier Host or a Modifier, causing it to drop a fragment?"
"Theoretically, it is possible. However, to be able to do so while being completely unaware, that person must be..."
''Hiss...''
''I can''t even hate. That''s the work of a true master.''
But the problem was that when Bai Yi left the tavern yesterday, she still didn''t look like she had improved at all. Yan Huan felt that this fragment didn''t seem like it came from Bai Yi either.
In other words, another Modifier might have previously appeared at the tavern.
Was it the fourth one, or the fifth one that had yet to show itself?
And who else could have appeared there...
''Sister Tong?''
The moment he thought of this, Yan Huan shivered.
If a person like Tong Yingying got her hands on a Modifier, with her terrifying prowess as an ideas guru, wouldn''t that mean...
''There will be no peace?!''
Thinking of this, Yan Huan hastily opened Plane and sent Tong Yingying a message.
"Sister Tong, are you there?"
A cat emoji.
However, the name on the other end didn''t budge, and after a good while, there was still no reply.
''Ugh, how annoying.''
''Just like WeChat in my previous life, Plane doesn''t let you see if the other person has read your message!''
''Well, there''s nothing inherently wrong with that design, especially when your boss messages you in the middle of the night to ask if you''re asleep...''
Yan Huan put down his mobile phone and massaged his temples, organizing his thoughts.
''Don''t panic...''
''Right now, there are three known Modifiers that have appeared.''
''Spencer''s plundering system.''
''This thing is incredibly strong. Not only can it tamper with people''s consciousness, but it can also form a bizarre enclosed space... it''s just that its Host seems to be an idiot.''
''Ye Shiyu''s hypnosis App.''
''Mhm, also very strong. That kind of sudden, hard crowd-control is basically impossible to dodge... but thanks to my handling, Ye Shiyu''s possessiveness has been effectively suppressed (?).''
''Then there''s Bai Yi''s Indifference.''
''This one feels the weakest. I have a lot of room to maneuver, and I already have a certain understanding of the Host herself... I can only say, its future is promising.''
''So, what about the remaining two?''
''One is the Modifier that ambushed me at noon today, which seems capable of manipulating pleasure.''
''And the other might be the one that dropped this snake scale in the tavern, connected to Tong Yingying?''
''Sister Tong, please reply to my message. I just miss you, mostly... It has absolutely nothing to do with Modifiers.''
"Forget it..."
Tong Yingying didn''t reply, and she didn''t pick up when he called her. He didn''t know if she was asleep.
Yan Huan had no choice but to give up and looked at Myau-chan.
"So this fragment can also strengthen my Modifier, right?"
Myau-chan nodded and said quite happily,
"And this fragment is even larger than the last one, so the degree of strengthening will definitely be greater! You''ll find out this weekend. I''ll hold on to it for now."
"That works. To be honest, I haven''t really put the Learning Conqueror to good use since the last time; I just felt refreshed after studying for a bit... I have a lot of time this afternoon, so I want to test just how fierce its effects are at maximum stacks."
"Meow~"
Patting Myau-chan''s head, Yan Huan was just about to open his mobile phone to scroll through some videos when the school bus suddenly came to a halt.
"Honk! Honk!"
It wasn''t just the school bus that had stopped; all the surrounding vehicles had halted as well. The clueless cars at the back were still honking to hurry everyone along.
"What''s going on?"
"Looks like the road ahead is blocked."
Yan Huan frowned and looked forward.
He saw that the school bus had stopped before an intersection. The junction had been cordoned off, and several traffic police officers were directing vehicles to detour.
"Emergency traffic control! The intersection ahead is closed. Please detour to the sides, thank you!"
Yan Huan leaned against the window and glanced at the cordoned-off intersection. To his surprise, he found that a floor of a building down the street was on fire, and firefighters were actively trying to extinguish the flames.
Not only had Linmen''s fire department arrived, but ambulances, the public security''s criminal investigation brigade, and the traffic police were all present...
''What happened?''
Stretchers were carried out from the building one after another, bearing numerous people covered in blood. Faintly, one could still see them clutching knives and similar weapons in their hands...
''A gang shootout?''
Yan Huan raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself.
The South Ward of Linmen used to have quite a few underworld syndicates. It didn''t have a direct correlation with its current poverty; rather, it was shaped by geographical and historical factors.
The South Ward was near the sea, and back when Linmen was first established, many illegal immigrants had smuggled themselves over to settle here.
With a large, complex population stemming from various countries and cultures, they naturally banded together in different factions, establishing numerous gangs to vie for interests.
Much like Hong Kong before its return in his previous life, for a long time, the South Ward was entirely run by the mob.
Things were much better now. Once Linmen began to develop, the government immediately adopted a high-pressure, severe crackdown policy.
A massive number of triad members were executed, and the gang strongholds were so thoroughly raided that nothing was left intact.
If you were to ask whether there were still thugs in the South Ward today?
There definitely were. Otherwise, why would he have warned Bai Yi not to wander around the alleys outside yesterday?
But organized syndicates were basically extremely rare now.
Almost all of them had gone off to find honest work; after hauling bricks for a couple of days, they were straightened out quickly enough.
He never expected that after such a long time, he would actually witness such a large-scale turf war today...
He could only say that the dubious hair salons near Sister Tong''s tavern were going to be out of business for a while.
Yan Huan shook his head. He took the detour with the school bus, arriving home twenty minutes later than usual.
He didn''t cook and just had fried rice downstairs while watching the news with his earphones in.
"Linmen Breaking News: Today at 3:23 PM, a fire broke out on the third floor of the Sterling Building on Longyang Road in the South Ward..."
"Witnesses state that a violent clash occurred prior to the fire. Sources suggest it may be connected to the Feather Gang, a syndicate in the South Ward formed by citizens of the Dragon Country. Currently, the Linmen police attach great importance to the incident and have established a special task force..."
Yan Huan paid his bill before listening to the rest. Instead, he bought some fruit juice, cat treats, and canned food, then headed upstairs.
Sitting down in front of his computer, he stretched his fingers and subsequently opened the desktop version of Plane.
After typing the keyword "Side Gig—Zhangsun Studio (Ghostwriting)", Yan Huan opened a chat window and began typing into it,
"Are you there?"
A cat emoji.
He waited a moment, and the other side changed to "Typing...",
"Yes."
A while later, the other side typed again,
"But there hasn''t been any work lately. We rarely accept the kind of fluff elective papers you usually handle anymore. Everyone just uses AI for those now."
Drinking his juice, Yan Huan replied,
"No, I don''t need work. I just wanted to ask if you have any digital copies of university math textbooks, lecture slides, or things like that. Send them over for me to look at."
"OK, perfect timing. I just got my hands on some advanced math slides from a few top universities. As for textbooks, I have calculus, linear algebra, statistics, and all that stuff, but they aren''t all from the same country. There are very few from Linmen, so you''ll have to make do."
"Thanks."
He sent over a thankful emoji of a nodding cat.
Shortly after, the other party sent over numerous digital files of slides and textbooks.
The other party also sent a "smirking" emoji.
"You''re such a try-hard, damn it. Is your part-time job not keeping you busy enough?"
"It''s alright, not too exhausting."
"Alright, let me know whenever you''re done going through them. There are a ton of math orders, especially full-package deals from the Eagle Country over there. They dump all their exams, homework, and quizzes on us. Do you have any idea how much you can make in a single semester?"
"You can cover exams too?"
"As long as there''s a market, it can be done. Especially since there have been a lot more online classes and online exams lately. They just want an easy way to coast through their degrees, and we get to line our pockets with the money of these wealthy young masters and misses. Who gives a damn about academic integrity?"
Having not chatted with Yan Huan for a long time, the boss of the ghostwriting studio on the other end seemed quite talkative.
"Knowledge is power, darling. Send me a message whenever you finish studying, and I''ll dispatch some orders to you. You''ll be able to have an easier time of things, too."
"Mhm, let me look through them first."
"No problem, there''s no rush. I''ll set up a test for you later just to confirm your proficiency."
"OK."
Yan Huan gave a perfunctory reply, downloading the files one by one and organizing them neatly into folders.
He took a sip of juice, his handsome face illuminated with a cold clarity by the glow of the PowerPoint slides.
Lines of text, symbols, and theories flickered in his eyes.
Formlessly, a wondrous power activated, immersing him completely as his brilliant mind began to operate as efficiently as a revving engine...
Ability: Learning Conqueror, activated!
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