《A Guy, A Latte and Status Screen.》
Chapter 1
Young man, medium length unkemptman-bunblack hair and wore mostly black with flu mask covering his face and earphone on his ears; ''Maps'' by Maroon 5 was playing on an iPod Classic. It was on the highest volume and he nonchalantly nodding his head following the tunes. His name was Wa Lui Qi, and he was half-walking-half-dancing toward an ordinary convenience store in Chinatown, clutching the lousy ten dollar bill on his right hand and skateboard on the other, while vocal mouthing under his flu mask.
Wa Lui Qi pushed the glass door and walked in. The bell on the door jingled, but the store owner didn''t look up. He was busy flipping the newspaper and positioning his glasses. There was no other customer except for Wa Lui Qi, the store atmosphere was slightly solemn.
"Hey, Mr Chang." Greeted Lui Qi by waving his hand and kept heading toward the pharmaceutical section in one fluid movement.
Mr Chang, still focusing on his newspaper and without looking to whom he was speaking to reply. "Howyoudoing, Qi?"
"Just the usual flu." Lui Qi sniffed.
"Mind isbody, Qi, Mind is Body. You don''t need any medicine if you have been meditating as I showed you." Mr Chang closed his newspaper and started inhaling a deep breath, showing Lui Qi his meditation technique.
"No, I have not. And it will not work." Said Lui Qi as he walking past Mr Chang without batting an eye.
"You won''t know it will work or not if you don''t even give it a chance."
"No, it doesn''t work, because I bought a DVD from your cousin, and it was in Mandarin." Said Lui Qi. "Just because I am a Chinese, it doesn''t automatically mean I can speak Mandarin."
Hearing Lui Qi''s answer, Mr Chang startedtalking in Mandarin.Lui Qididn''t have a single clue of what Mr Chang saying, but from his tone alone it was clear Mr Chang was displeased by his answer. "Yeah, I don''t understand that, either." Lui Qi replied as Mr Chang kept spewing out some Mandarin."See, that right there, I don''t understand what you just said. That is the problem."
Ignoring Mr Chang, Lui Qi arrived at the pharmaceutical shelves and violently snorted, his nose was nothing but water right now. He searched for the flu medicine, and just when he found one that didn''t taste bitter and was about to take the medicine.
"Ah, crap." He said as he noticed a red dot was entering the store. He didn''t know when or how this was started, but as long as he could remember, he could see video-game like mini-map in the top right corner of his vision. And with 19 years old life experience of living the life with this map, one thing that he knew of was that red dot always meant something troublesome.
And he was right.
Before Lui Qi himself was able to ''take'' something else, he turned around as the bell jingled. A man moved violently through the glass door. He was wearing a trench coat and bringing a backpack. In one single fluid movement, he took a shotgun from only the God knew where, and without wasting any second he threw his backpack onto the counter and saying his demand. "Put the money in the bag." He said once then cocking his shotgun. "Put the money in the bag!" He said twice.
Mr Chang was an elderly man with heavy wrinkles, grey spiky hair and a bushy moustache, and of small stature. He did give this ''I''m the kung-fu master'' aura with all of his obsession in meditation and traditional medicine, but no matter one looked at this situation, there was no way Mr Chang could win against a big muscular guy with a shotgun in his hands.
Qi inwardly sighed a breath of relief as he noticed the burglar itself hadn''t realized he was here. At the same time, Mr Chang started moving his shaky hands, transferring the dollar bill from the register to the bag.
Maybe... if he had better skill, like super strength or super speed, Qi wouldn''t hesitate to jump in and save the day. Though, the only ''skill'' he had was ''Mini-Map.'' The best he could do with this skill was using it as acctvto observe the situation in 2D.
''Then again, it will be troublesome if Mr Chang closed his shop because of this incident.'' Qi thought as he rubbed his chin. For every now and then, twice in a month Qi always stole some things; either it was snacks, foods, medicines or anything else from Mr Chang store. And Mr Chang never noticed or caught him in action everytime he did that.
Of course, it was because of his Map skill. There was a small arrow on every dot, that if he concentrated well enough, he could see the dots field of vision on his Mini-Map. As long as he was staying out from the dot field of vision and didn''t make any unnecessary noises, Qi was 100% sure he could come and go like a ghost.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Taking a deep breath, Qi slowly walked backwards and positioned himself between the shelves. As soon as he reached the end, he aimed and slid his skateboard across the floor,it moved and hit the other side from where he was positioned himself.
Just as Qi expected, as soon as his skateboard bumped into the other shelves, the man turned around and focusing his attention to where the sound came from, as the result, the cone of his field of vision somewhat became smaller;Qi didn''t know the theory behind this phenomena but this happened everytime someone got distracted and Qi already used it many times in the past.
Knowing the burglar was distracted, Qi rushed toward the burglar and shoved him from behind. Qi might be not the most muscular or the biggest person, but he had enough strength to topple and hold the burglar down if he used his whole body. Meanwhile, the burglar''s shotgun was fell to the counter.
Grabbing the burglar by his hair, Qi pulled his head up and slammed his face once onto the floor. As the loud dull sound echoed through the store, and the red dot turned to gray. That was good, gray meant he was either sleeping or unconscious, and almost simultaneously Qi heard another sound of bell jingling on his ear.
Cring cring
Congratulations! Your level is now 1! Status ''menu'' is now available! Skill ''menu'' is now available! Class''menu'' is now available! Companion ''menu'' is now available! You have received 3 status points, 2 skill points and 1 class points.
Wa Lui Qi
Level: 1
Class: --
Health(/R per day): 100 (1.2)
Mana(/R per hour): 15 (12)
Stam(/R per minute): 33 (1.2)
Strength: 2
Vitality: 3
Dexterity: 2
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 2
Knowledge: 3
Wisdom: 3
Focus: 3
Charisma: 2
Intimidation: 1
Deception: 3
Willpower: 2
Skills: Mini-Map Lvl 1.
You can access Status, Skill, Companion or Class by thinking ''Menu'' and select ''Status/Skill/Companion/Class.''
"...The hell?" Wa Lui Qi always thought his life couldn''t get any weirder than his previous life, and yet there were invisible messages floating in front of his eyes.
Thetwelve status scores all have hover text that defines them, available whenever your mouse hovers above them. If you are viewing this story in a format that strips the hover text, here they are for reference:
STR= Strength- How much force you can exert. Used to break down doors, bend rebar, or shove someone out of the way. Affect Stamina Point and Physical Power.
AGI= Agility- How fast your body reacted. Used to dodge a bullet or do cartwheels. Also, affect Stamina Regeneration.
VIT= Vitality- How much you can physically withstand. Used to go on forced marches, or tread water. Also affect Stamina, Stamina Regeneration, and Life Regeneration.
DEX= Dexterity: How much you can precisely control your body. Used to move all of your fingers, standing on a rope, or focusing your vision.
Intelligence- How smart you are. Used to figure out puzzles, learn new things, or calculate faster. Affect Magic Power.
KNO= Knowledge- How much you know. Used to dig up old memories or memorize a ten digit number. Affect Magic Point.
WIS= Wisdom - How well you can read situation. Used to read body language, avoid being stabbed in the back or understand what your girlfriend wants to eat. Affect Magic Resistance.
FOC= Focus- How well you can concentrate. Used to finish a repetitive report, or playing video game while listening to music while talking. Affect Magic Regeneration.
CHA= Charisma - How much people like you. Used to woo the lady, bargaining with a merchant, or plead for your life.
INT= Intimidation- How well you can coerce someone. Used to demoralize ungrateful customer, or instil fear."
DEC= Deception- How well you can hide the truth, either verbally or through your actions. Used to con a merchant, or maintain a straight face while playing poker.
WIL= Willpower- How well you withstand other people. Used to withstand interrogation, or keep dry eyes during your ex-girlfriend wedding.
Chapter 2
A day had passed since Wa Lui Qi stopped the burglar from robbing Mr Chang''s store. Right now he was squatting down in the alley, listening to the music while nodding his head, becoming a slave to the rhythm. He didn''t miss a single beat. In his hand smoke twisted in its artistic way, forming curls in the gloom, illuminated only by the age-speckled lights.
"Haaaah..." Lui Qi sighed while blowing the smoke away from his mouth, grimace was shown on his face. "Damn that Mr Chang, even though I helped him stopped the robbery he didn''t even give a single cent to me... Then again, I had stolen many things from his place since so I guess that makes us even."
Wa Lui Qi had just finished his work as a dishwasher in a certain bistro with a minimum wage of $7.25, a working day last for 10 hours, there was no rest break. A day''s wage was $72.5, he got $435 for working six days a week. Four weeks pay was $1740. This was all the money he could make in a month and this wasn''t much at all.
$250 a month for food, one-room apartment in the outskirt of the city without heating or cooling plus its utility was somewhere around $800, $60 for a mobile bill, $70 for public transport. That was all added up to $1180. The remaining balance was then $560. This didn''t include any laundry and toiletry cost, and even if he already didn''t meet any friend, cutting his cigarette cost, not going outside for the whole month and did any luxury. The best he could do was saving $400 per month. After working for 10-month his total saving was $3,707
"Maybe I should''ve just dropped the college plan and become a full-fledged robber." Lui Qi muttered as he opened his status screen; the second weirdest thing that ever happened to him aside for the mini-map on the top right corner of his vision. In front of him, there was a bluish transparent screen. It was like the screen one had been seeing in the sci-fi movie. No matter where he turned his head, the whole status screen stayed in focus.
Once again, His face showed more grimace as he stared at the numerical value of his status. "Urgh... I know I am not the smartest person or the most athletic or the sociable one, but c''mon... how utter bullshit is this thing. My knowledge is only 3? Even though I had watched every trivia video on youtube and read Wikipedia as my hobby." Said Lui Qi, repeating the same kind of line with the same kind of protest for the seventh times since last night.
He slid the screen to the right and it switched to show his list of skill. For now, there was only one skill, which was Mini-Map. He didn''t believe it though. He might be not the greatest cook or the fastest person alive, but Lui Qi was confident enough with his skill in cooking and running. So he made the conclusion that the list of skill that was being shown on the screen was only for the supernatural skill.
If he slid it to the left, it would go back to his status screen. And if he hovered his finger on the top of the twelve status, a tooltip would appear, telling him the vague explanation of what each status attributes would do. If he slid it up, it switched to a mostly blank screen with nothing more than empty panes and the title of Companions.
With a sigh, he slid it down, and it showed him the list of class he could take. It had three categories: Physical, Magic and Production class.
Physical class had three options: Runner, Shooter, and Thief. After spending his time thinking for the whole night, his best assumption was that his ''real skill'' was somehow related to the class selection. For Runner, he might be not fast, but running had become his hobby since it was free. For Shooter, he just assumed it came from the fact that he played a lot of FPS games, and he was confident enough with his shooting skill when playing games in the local arcade. As for Thief, since he came to Manhattan indeed he had been shoplifting on here and there, so it kinda made sense.
In Magic category, Lui Qi only had one choice: Audiomancer. This selection kinda made him raised his eyebrows though. From the name alone, it might be something related to sound, or maybe music. But he couldn''t play any instrument nor he was a good singer, heck he even didn''t understand a single thing about soundwave and frequency when he was in high school. He only listened to the music to exorcist his boredom.
In Production category, there were three options: Chef, Trainer and Gambler. Leaving Chef aside, Lui Qi could only tilt his head no matter how much he looked at the other options. Trainer... of what? As far as he knew, he never trained anyone. For Gambler, he might have been betting some video game item, but he personally thought he never gambled that much to make him deserved to get Gambler as his class.
Scratching his head, one thing that Lui Qi knew of was that he didn''t have any intention of taking Audiomancer as he didn''t see any money-making potential in that skill.
As for Physical class, if he took Runner and Shooter, he might be able to become an athlete of some sort, but he didn''t know how big a bonus they would give, not to mention he didn''t have any achievements or connection in sports industries. For Thief, this might be the best candidate if he couldn''t come up with a better choice.
For Production category. Trainer was too ambiguous. Unlike status, there was no tooltip that would give him an insight or any type of information about the class, so he instantly scratched it away. Leaving him only with Chef and Gambler.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"If I looking them by the risk, both of Thief and Gambler had the same amount of risk, while the one with the lowest risk was Chef." Lui Qi muttered, inhaling another sip of smoke and slowly exhaling it again. "So high-risk high-return huh... Then again, indeed I want more money, but I am not in a dire need of money either."
After spending the whole night thinking about which Class he should take. With that conclusion in his mind, Lui Qi moved his finger and picked Chef as his class.
Congratulations! You have received the class of Chef Lvl 1. You have gained the Skill Cook Lvl 1. You have received the skill Bag of Colding Lvl 1. You have received the skill Side Snack Lvl 1. You may learn 7 additional skills from this class. Skills may be forgotten to learn new skills. +8 Mana, +8 Stamina, + 1 to Dexterity, Knowledge, Focus, Charisma.
Lui Qi blinked, then nodding his head in amazement when the screen switched back to the status screen. He might not have a single clue about how those number worked but knowing them increased somehow made him happy.
Swiping to the right, there was a new ''Chef'' category in Skills menu. Aside from those three skills, there were 15 more skills from Chef category, 13 of them were greyed out and Lui Qi couldn''t see the greyed skill information.
Leaving them aside, Lui Qi couldn''t help but grinned when he read what his new 3 skills could do.
Skills:
Mini-Map Lvl 1 - Shows a live mental image of 20 + (DEX + WIS)/2 meter radius of your surrounding area (Concentrate to enter Field of Vision mode. Can''t show places that are blocked by 30cm thick obstacles.)
Chef Skills:
Cook Lvl 1 - While cooking food, infuses it with mana to give it an additional effect. Only one effect can active at the same time. Cost: 10 Mana.
- Heal: Restore 5 Health and 20 Stamina.
- Physical Up: The food increases the creature''s physical status (Chef choice) by 2. The effect will active 1 hour after the food is digested, last for 1 hour.
- Magic Up: Increase magic power and resistance by 1. The effect will active 1 hour after the food is digested, last for 1 hour.
- Charisma Up: The food increases the creature''s charisma by 3. The effect will active 1 hour after the food is digested, last for 1 hour.
Bag of Colding Lvl 1 - Enhance a backpack (or any container) so that it is cool in the inside, and can store food in a frozen temperature. Last for 10 days per skill level. Cost: 20 Mana.
Side Snack Lvl 1 - Summon a lunch bag that contains:
- Two sandwiches of the chef''s choice (Each sandwich can be different. The sandwiches can include lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, mayo, mustard, gravy, salad dressing)
- 50g Trail mix (made of nuts, seeds, and berries)
- 80g Potato chips or french fries.
- 250ml waterskin (filled with fruit juice, tea, or water.)
The foods last for 24 hours before it disappears. 10 minutes casting time. Cost: 10 Mana for each lunch bag.
"This... this is greater than what I expected." Lui Qi started shaking as he couldn''t contain his excitement. If he played his card right, he could completely cut all of his food expenses, saving $250 from his monthly cost. Not to mention if the sandwiches tasted good, he could sell it to his co-worker or in Sunday morning bazaar.
"But... the next problem is convincing them to eat it before 24 hours pass away huh. No... I also need to calculate the production rate, so mana management is also important." Said Lui Qi, murmuring all by himself as he started doing the calculation with his phone. "So I need to spend them on Knowledge, Focus, and Charisma?"
Without further ado, Lui Qi opened his status screen and entered his three available status points.
Wa Lui Qi
Level: 1
Class: Chef Lvl 1.
Health(/R per day): 100 (1.2)
Mana(/R per hour): 33 (20)
Stam(/R per minute): 41 (1.2)
Strength: 2
Vitality: 3
Dexterity: 3
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 2
Knowledge: 5
Wisdom: 3
Focus: 5
Charisma: 4
Intimidation: 1
Deception: 3
Willpower: 2
Chapter 3
Wa Lui Qi now was sitting in 24m square room. There was no other decoration that made his apartment so exciting to anyone else, but for Lui Qi; a single bed, an old wooden desk that also acted as a dining table with a laptop and ashtray placed on top of them, a barely functional kitchen, a drawer, and a leaky bathroom was enough.
Without further ado, Lui Qi started saying "Side Snack." But nothing happened, he just thought he could use the spell as long as he said the name, but obviously, that was wrong.
"Abracadabra." He said, nothing happened.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." He said some other magic word that he knew, but this time he was making some hand gesture and nothing still happened.
"Expelliarmus!" He said, this time with intonation and using his cigarette as the wand replacement, obviously, that wasn''t the right spell.
After several trial and error, while feeling foolish, Lui Qi concluded that he must also concentrate on the said skill just like how he did it with his Mini-Map to enter Field of Vision mode. "Side Snack." He said. He knew he didn''t need to say it anything to concentrate on the skill, but he just thought this would make it easier.
"Oh, it works." Another new type of screen appeared in front of Lui Qi. It had 4 rows of a table, each of them had one big box on the right and several smaller boxes filled with a picture on the left side.
The first rows were what he assumed as the Sandwich row. The first four smaller boxes were the bread type: White, Wheat, Whole Grain, and Rye. While the next boxes were the fillings and there were a whole lot more of the fillings selection such as ham, cucumber, cheese, tuna and many more unlike what the skill description said, but all of them were greyed out.
"Why though?" Lui Qi muttered as he clicked on the bread type, choosing Wheat bread; a screen popped up, telling him to pick the bread''s shape, the thickness and et cetera. "Urgh... I don''t want to just eat a slice of empty bread."
As soon as he said that, eight boxes that were greyed out now suddenly had colour. "Oh... I see, so I must choose the bread first before putting the filling huh... that actually makes a lot of sense."
Each time he clicked on the fillings, another screen popped up, showing a different kind of fillings variety, such as the tomato types, how he wanted to slice it, how he spreaded it, the quantity and many more.
"...Then what?" He just assumed everytime he picked the ingredient, it would automatically show up on the big box just like how he picked the bread, but that didn''t seem to be the case. It took some amount of time for Lui Qi to notice he must drag the filling onto the big box to select it.
But Lui Qi scowled as he noticed a problem, a problem so big that it could be the biggest challenge he could ever face. It was dragging his finger on the open air. If he put to much force, his finger would pierce the screen and the dragging process would be cancelled, if he didn''t concentrate enough, his finger would slip away and let go the filling box, cancelling the whole process. "How the hell the people in a sci-fi movie can work with this type of screen..." He said while praying in his heart that humanity would never develop any type of holographic technology.
After doing this for some amount of time, with a face and body full of sweats. Lui Qi first magical sandwich was done, he chose: lettuce, onion, pickles (cucumber), lettuce, tomatoes (sliced into two), salad dressing (classic vinaigrette), and another lettuce. By the time he dragged the last lettuce, or the seventh fillings, the filling boxes once again went to grey, and he must choose the top bread.
Repeating the same process with the trail mix, he chose: Cashews, sesame seeds, and cranberries. Next was potato chips, and for the last he chose water. When he finished with all of them, he pressed the big circle and he felt like something was just seeping out from his body. If he must put it into word it was like the sensation of sweat, a lot of sweats falling down from your forehead at the same time, it was tiring but at the same time wasn''t tiring.Stolen story; please report.
But before Lui Qi was able to linger on that sensation, another message popped up.
Side Snack Lvl 1: 9 minutes 59 seconds left.
When he tried to use Side Snack once again, it only showed him the screen timer. "I see... I must wait the process time or in the system words, casting time to complete before I am able to use it again huh."
Without nothing much to do, he checked his status screen and noticed his mana dropped to 23. "Yeah, just as I expected."
Stretching his body, Lui Qi stood up and decided to transfer the inside of his refrigerator into Bag of Colding. He already calculated that if he cut the refrigerator power, he would save somewhere around 20$.
"But I need a big container huh." Lui Qi muttered, then he started rummaging through his room, searching for something big enough to contain all of his foods. And he stopped as he realized something "...I could''ve just used the refrigerator as the container." He said as he facepalmed himself.
With that in mind, Lui Qi started concentrating and trying to cast Bag of Colding onto his refrigerator.
Using the skill will cancel Side Snack Lvl 1. Do you want to cancel Side Snack Lvl 1? (4 minutes 18 seconds left.) Yes/No.
"Oh..." Lui Qi rubbed his chin. "So I could only use one skill at a time? Or is it because Side Snack has the Casting Time?" Said Lui Qi.
Next, he started concentrating on his Mini-Map, and the same screen popped up to notify him. "Man... if I knew this I should''ve gone with casting Bag of Colding first... but yeah, skill order, let''s not forget about skill order for the next time."
Laying on his bed, Lui Qi decided to just wait while watching Youtube video about film theory. Before he knew it, the four minutes mark from the video had passed away, and surprisingly, unlike what he expected, there was no notification telling him about it.
"Yep... I knew it." He said with a smug face, and secretly thanked the tycoon type games he often played on his phone. Although there were many that notified you to collect the prize, there were also many games that didn''t give any notification.
Leaving that fact aside, he used Side Snack once again and there was a picture of his sandwich, and what kind of paper bag he wanted to use. There were the striped paper bag, the light brown paper bag, the white one, the one with handles and many more.
Choosing light brown paper bag as the packaging... He waited for 2...5...10...20 seconds and nothing happened.
"Now what?" Lui Qi tilted his head. He thought the sandwich would appear out of thin, but that didn''t seem to be the case.
"Unless..." Lui Qi started moving his hand and he smiled when his guess was right. His palm was now inside the screen as if he was putting his palm through the water surface, and with a single attempt, he managed to pull out the brown bag from the blue screen.
Lui Qi opened the bag and happily humming as he took out the sandwich, directing it into his mouth without any hesitation.
"..." He only made complicated expression when he munched the sandwich, then slowly gulped it down. "...This somewhat tastes normal... this isn''t bad but this isn''t good either." He frowned at the sandwich.
He started dissecting the sandwich and tasting them one by one. "...The ingredient itself doesn''t taste that bad, in fact, they are on the almost-fresh side... so the problem is in my composition huh." Lui Qi muttered as he started snacking the potato chips. "This one needs more seasoning... well, considering it doesn''t have any seasoning option, I guess I should''ve expected the chips will taste bland."
Aside from those two, Lui Qi didn''t find any problem with the trail mix as for the water... it might kinda weird to drink from waterskin on this day and age, but aside from that, the water itself tasted fresh and a little cold.
Making mental Note, Lui Qi moved toward the refrigerator and cast Bag of Colding. As he cast it, a shining white bluish line of some sort slowly appeared on the refrigerator. It took a couple amount of seconds before he realized the line was forming a magic circle and it took another couple dozen of seconds for it to complete. As soon as the magic circle completed, it bright shone for a second and was gone from the refrigerator.
Without any hesitation, Lui Qi took the cable off and opened the refrigerator door. He stood in front of it for some amount of minutes. "Yep, it still cold but," He paused for a moment and waved his hand in front of the freezer section. "...The freezer section doesn''t get affected huh. Is it because it is a separate box? And what are Bag of Colding upper and lower temperature limit?" He thought for a while but decided to just take it easy as he realized he didn''t have enough Mana to do anything and put the cable back.
Chapter 4
Wa Lui Qi learned one important thing in his life, and that was....
"This sandwich is the reason why I''m not a vegetarian." Lui Qi''s eye twitched a little bit when he heard his cashier coworker.
"This is raw.... and taste like a wet cat.... this is the rawr-est sandwich I ever had in my life.... get it? It''s raw and tastes like a cat, that''s why it is the RAWR-est sandwich, get it?" Said the waitress, everyone went silent while Lui Qi forced his lips to curl up at her joke. "Anyone? no one? okay.. just forget about it..." The waitress said that andleft with dropped shoulder, then again Lui Qi now was wondering about how the hell she knew the taste of wet cat.
"And this is the reason why we never let a dishwasher to make our food." Liu Qi heard something cracked inside of his chest when he heard the cook said that.
The most important lesson he learned today was.... never, ever, gave a sandwich to your co-worker. Especially if your coworker was someone that worked in the food industry. From all their roasts alone Lui Qi knew what it felt like to be a roasted Peking duck.
With a slouched shoulder, he silently went back to his station.... scrubbing the plates while muttering "Even though it tastes good on my tongue," like a broken record.
Lui Qi scrubbed the durable stain that somehow couldn''t get washed away. "Yeah, just because I have one or two more points in my Charisma it won''t mean everyone will start acting nicely toward me."
"Maybe I should sell it at one dollar price?" Lui Qi muttered, still scrubbing the same stain. "If I manage to stealthily use Side Snack every hour, I can make 20lunch bag at work and if I planned to sleep 8 hours each day, I can make another 12 at home. That would be $32 for each day if I manage to sell all of them.. but the problem will be how doI sneak away at work, how to bring 32 lunch bag without a car, and when they will eat it."
Noticing the food stain wasn''t disappeared, Lui Qi changed his equipment from cellulose sponge to abrasive sponge and started moving his hand violently to scrub the same spot.
"For the first problem, I might be able to do it while cleaning the dishes." Lui Qi muttered and started looking at his Mini-Map,entering the Field of Vision mode. "Yeah, no one is paying attention to this place. As long as I don''t get careless I believe I can create and store them away."
He didn''t need to worry about the sandwiched quality getting reduced. He already tried it bycreating several sandwiches before he went to bed, and by the time he woke up, they still tasted the same and still had the same freshness. "For the second problem, maybe using Cook and enhanced the food with Physical up (STR) will be enough. Then again, I don''t know the correlation between the numerical value and the real value."
Lui Qi frowned when he noticed the stain was still there, even thoughhe already changed to better equipment. Sighing, he took some baking soda, spread it on the stain and putting more of his strength to scrub it. "Maybe I should go to the gym and just test it? Anyway, for the third problem, I should change the water skin into a plastic cup, and making sure the almost expired sandwiches getting sold as a breakfast."
His plan might not be perfect, but that was the conclusion Lui Qi reached at the moment, at the same time, with the power of baking soda the stain finally gone away from the plate and he continued to wash the other plates while wondering about the fact that no matter how much and fast he cleaned the plates, the mountain of dirty plates didn''t seem to be reduced.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
While kept cleaning the plates, before he knew it, the day turned to night and his shift was over.
As usual, before Lui Qi went home he went to the alley near hisworkplace, putting the earphone on and smoking a piece of cigarette.He opened his status and noticed his stamina had dropped to 21. It was a rough calculation, but if he didn''t count the regeneration, standing and moving his hand non-stop would cost 2 stamina for each hour.
Putting that discovery aside, Lui Qi leaned on the wall, nodded to the rhythm and switched to Class Menu.He noticed a new Class was available. It was another Production class; Cleaner. Indeed he was happy to have another Class, but he only frowned at the screen. "Somehow knowingmyself being adept at cleaning thingsdoesn''t make me happy."
Lui Qiinwardly sighed and switched to Skill menu. There were two other skills he could take from Level 1 Chef class. They were Cooking Gear and Food Inspection. There was no explanation, but he assumed Cooking Gear would be some skill to summon a cooking gear... as for Food Inspection, his best guess was inspecting food to check its ingredients, or maybe the recipe. None of them piquedhis interest.
Upgrading Side Snack was clearly a better choice. After all, if he could somehow put meat into his sandwich, the price would definitely be skyrocketed.
The next question would be what he should do with his last skill point? The answer was either he rose Side Snack to level 3, or he raised the other skill, or just saving it for future use.
If he chose the second options then Bag of Colding was an instant scratch. Its function was limited, andby doing a little experiment, Lui Qi already knew that at level 1, Bag of Colding could reach zero degrees Celcius and he didn''t need anything more than that.
Mini-Map... He grew up with it, so he kinda had this weird urge and sense of responsibility to raise its level.But no matter how he looked at it, Cook was a better choice for now.
Though, first thing first, Lui Qi spent 1 of his Skill points to raise Side Snack to level 2.
Congratulations! Side Snack is now level 2!
Along with the notification, he had the option to add Mushrooms, Cheeses and Eggs into his Sandwich, other than this, the quantity of his Trail Mix increased by 10g. The potato chips increased by 20g, the drink increased by 30ml and the casting time reduced by one minute.
"Not bad." Lui Qi smiled. It might be not meat, butwith eggsalone, his sandwich combination was increased by a ton.
Without hesitation, Lui Qi was sure to raise his Side Snack to level 3, but he stopped his finger just a moment before it touched the screen. "Now that I think about this, I don''t have a stand to sell my sandwiches huh." He muttered. "Yeah... if I see myself selling sandwiches on the street, I don''t think I want to buy it from me no matter how cheap the sandwich is."
Gritting his teeth and grimacing the thoughtof delaying his meat sandwich, Lui Qi spent his last Skill points to upgrade Cook.
Congratulations! Cook is now level 2!
Cook Lvl 2 - While cooking food, infuses it with mana to give it an additional effect. Only one effect can active at the same time. Cost: 10 Mana.
- Heal: Restore 7 Health and 25 Stamina.
- Physical Up: The food increases the creature''s physical status (Chef choice) by 4. The effect will active 1 hour after the food is digested, last for 1 hour.
- Magic Up: Increase magic power and resistance by 2. The effect will active 1 hour after the food is digested, last for 1 hour.
- Charisma Up: The food increases the creature''s charisma by 6. The effect will active 1 hour after the food is digested, last for 1hour.
"Yep, this should be good enough." He said, andhappily danced his way toward his apartment.
Chapter 5
The day was still young, and yet Wa Lui Qi already woke up. He knew it was early morning because he couldn''t hear the whir of the machines. The very first thing he did as soon as he woke up was, of course, stretching his body and went to clean up and then cooked his breakfast. The thing that he cooked was your standard instant misua (fine rice noodle) soup, though, unlike normal misua, Lui Qi''s misua was enchanted with his skill, Cook Lvl 2 (Charisma Up.)
He precisely finished eating his breakfast at 5:17 o''clock, and spent the rest of his morning watching Youtube while creating another sandwich. Combining the one he made in the morning and the one he already made before he went to sleep, he was able to create 13 lunch bag.
Lui Qi went out from his apartment precisely at 5:30, bringing two stacks of cardboard boxes on his arms and heading to the nearest park. The city was as silent as if it ended in the night. The sun was still resolutely below the horizon and the street was as dark as some old-school black and white movie but there were several other people that also headed to the nearest park while bringing their own goods, Lui Qi knew his idea wasn''t the most original idea, but knowing there was a lot of competitor with their own stands and banners somewhat made him uncomfortable.
At 5:40, he arrived at the selling spot. In one fluid movement, he spread the red and white checkered picnic cloth and started arranged his goods on top of them. Behind his back was the cardboard boxes, the secret cover that he used to take out Side Snack.
At 6:00, people, especially the housewives and the office workers started flooding at the park. Lui Qi patiently waiting, concentrating at his Mini-Map to check whether or not there were people that were interested with his goods... the line on his place was nonexistent as not a single person bothered to bat an eye at his place.
He kept waiting and patiently waiting until the alarm on his phone buzzed. Signalling that it should be the time for Charisma Up effect to kick in. Yet, not a single soul batting their eyes for more than one second at his stand.
Then again, Lui Qi never hoped or thought that 10 Charisma was enough to make people attracted to his place. But he had a secret weapon. After waiting for a few minutes, he noticed there was a single person that somehow was always looking back and forth between his stand and the stand next to his.
"Finally." Lui Qi muttered. He grabbed the paper bag in front of him and started eating his sandwich... and as soon as he took the waterskin out and drank it, he noticed from his Mini-Map that the mysterious person was now heading toward his stand.
Drinking from waterskin might be unusual, but that also meant it would pique the passerby interest.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
His mysterious buyer was a middle-aged man, covering his body with a khaki trench coat and wearing the same coloured fedora on his head. "Good morning." Lui Qi greeted him, he put the waterskin and placed it in front of the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man greeted him back and asked. "What are you selling?" At the same time, Lui Qi noticed he took a quick glance at the waterskin.
"Just some sandwich, along with potato chips, nut and berry mix, and some juice." Said Lui Qi, he spread out the untouched sandwich and their companion on top of the brown paper bag.
"You should at least put some sort of sign," Said the middle-aged man. Lui Qi only weakly scratched his cheek while thinking how the hell he didn''t think that.
The middle-aged man then took the water skin and waste a minute looking at it. "This sure brings some memory," He said. "How much is it?"
Lui Qi only raised two of his finger, making a peace sign with them. "Twenty bucks?" The middle-aged man frowned a little bit.
Lui Qi shook his head. "No, it''s two bucks." Said Lui Qi.
"What?" The middle-aged man''s eyes widened when he heard that. "Listen here boy, I know this isn''t my place to dote on your business, but this waterskin alone should''ve at least cost ten bucks."
"Yes, I know that, but I got them for free." Said Lui Qi. "A friend is giving a lot of it to me, though he said something about it''s only last for a few hours before it dissolves itself. But I don''t know much about the detail since he started going on blabbering about nature-friendly water bottle or something like that."
The middle-aged man was now looking at Lui Qi with eyes full of suspicion. ''Crap... that doesn''t work huh.'' Lui Qi silently spoke in his mind. He knew the one that increased was his Charisma, and lying was unrelated to it, but no matter how hard he turned the gears in his brain, he just couldn''t find appropriate praise that he could throw to the middle-aged man.
"Young people this day sure have a unique idea." Surprisingly, thesuspicion from the middle-aged man''s eyes shifted to amazement. His lips curled up and he started telling Lui Qi his life story. "You know, back in my day the best we can think of is...."
He blabbered for a while. Just when Lui Qi thought the man would never stop his endless lecture about younger self. "I tell you what, two bucks is too cheap for something like this." Said the middle-aged man, though he still gave Lui Qi two pieces of one dollar and left with one paper bag on his hand.
''Wouldn''t a normal person will give more money after they said something like that?'' Lui Qi protested in his mind.
Though, much to his surprise, ten minutes after the middle-aged man left, several other people started flooding his place. Now there was a line in front of Lui Qi''s stall, and less than a minute later, the rest of the bag was sold out. ''Even though nobody paid any attention toward my place before this.''
Lui Qi didn''t know whether it was because of the bonus for his Charisma, or because people watched that middle-aged man drinking from some unusual container. Either way, from this morning alone he managed to collect 24 dollars.
One might be thinking Lui Qi was a big fool, but if they saw things from Lui Qi''s perspective, he now just made 24 dollars without wasting a single cent or effort, except for the fact that he must wake up in the morning. Not to mention 12 sandwiches was the lowest production rate he could make in a single day.
Chapter 6
It had been two weeks since Wa Lui Qi started selling his magical sandwich. His production rate was varied between 20-32 sandwiches, depending on whether or not he overslept or the busyness of his dishwashing job. But all in all, he had made $760 in the past two weeks.
Now he finally had the luxury to cook an actual meal. Not an instant one and not the magical sandwich. In his pan was a half centimetre thick skirt steak, sauteed with garlic and butter.
Congratulations! Your level is now 2! You have received 3 status points, 2 skill points and 1 class points.
"What?" Lui Qi stopped moving his spatula for a while. "Why though?"
He didn''t beat anyone like the last time or did anything special in particular. His best assumption was that because his class was a chef, he would gain experience points everytime he cook something. Then again, Lui Qi just shrugged his shoulder and decided to keep focus in his long waited meat.
Putting the steak on the plate and chopping the parsley to garnish it. "Voila~" Lui Qi said with a smug expression.
Nibbling on the meat, it was only half centimetre thickness meat. But by searing it in one piece, he had created not just one, but three unique textures to enjoy. The crispy, seared edge. Its soft and juicy center. And the rough texture from the golden butter garlic. It tasted as he was in the middle of the festival.
"...What is the point of praising my own cook." Lui Qi sighed, he dropped the whole cooking manga act and just decided to finish his meal normally.
Sitting up, playing Pure Imagination as his track. He started opening his status menu.
From the last two weeks, he had found several things. First of all was the status. He had tried to go to a gym, before and after the effect of Physical up kicking in. From what he could tell, without any buff,he could lift 10kg dumbbell without putting much strain on his muscles, and 15kg dumbbell if heput more effort, and he couldn''tcurl his biceps with a 30kg dumbbell.
But by eating food with Physical up attribute, he could lift 15kg dumbbell without any effort, 20 if he put more effort, and lifting 30kg dumbbell a few times before he felt the strain on his muscle.
Same case with a treadmill. He could casuallyrun at 30km/h for an hour(his stamina dropped to 20, in which he assumed running casually would cost 1.5 stamina per minute.) with a max speed of 40km/h. And with Physical up (Agility) He could casually run at 40km/h and reached 51km/h maximum speed, that was 6km/h faster than the fastest man alive.
It was a rough guess, but Lui Qi personally thought the numerical value on his status screen was acting as the multiplier, or to put it in another word, his baserunning speed was the variable while the number from his status screen was the coefficient. For the sake of his sanity, he just assumed 1 point of status would multiply his real body capacity by 0.1.
Leaving that aside, another discovery that he found was 2 new Class. Dancer and Merchant. He understood the reason why he got a Merchant class. But for Dancer? No matter how many times Lui Qi looking at this option, it just didn''t make any sense, considering he could only sway his body or move his head.
Then again, he already had a plan of which class and skills he would take if he reached level 2.
Congratulations! You have received the class of Runner Lvl 1. You have gained the Skill Run Lvl 1. You have received the skillWallrunning Lvl 1. You have received the skill Dash Lvl 1. You may learn 2 additional skills from this class. Skills may be forgotten to learn new skills. +8 Health, +15 Stamina, +2 Stamina regeneration, + 4 to Agility, + 1 to Vitality, Strength and Dexterity.
"Oh..." Lui Qi frowned when he knew he could only get 2more skills from Runner class. Then again, the raw stats bonus itself was higher than Chef and that was good enough. His reason for taking Runner was, of course, cutting the commuting expense and his travelling time to the park.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Setting the reason for why he chose Runner aside. Runner had 10 more skills in total, and 8 of them were greyed out.
Runner Skills:
Run Lvl 1: Passive skill. Increase your base running speed by 15kmh per skill level.
Wallrunning Lvl 1: You can now run horizontally on the wall up to 30 seconds, cost 1 Stamina per second. You can now run vertically on the wall up to 10 seconds. Cost 3 Stamina per second.
Dash Lvl 1: You can go from 0 to 50kmh in less than a second. Cost 3 Stamina.
"...40 + 15 meant 55kmh, right? Not to mention the ability to accelerate from 0 to 50? ...Maybe I should try to become an athlete." Lui Qi muttered and imagined himself running on the Olympics. It seemed like the song had somehow influenced his imagination. "Then again, I need to follow the training procedure and this and that."
Stretching his body and throwing the imagination about him being an athlete, he shifted his focus back to hisSkill screen. Wall running wasn''t very useful, but it was cool. And the other two Runner skills Wa Lui Qi could unlock wasSharp Turn and Brake.
Since Dash can go from 0 to 50, Lui Qi guessed Brake would do the other way around. For Sharp Turn, the name itself was self-explained.
Switching to the Skills menu. He instantly rose Side Snack to level 3, granting him the ability to put meat and fish into his sandwich. Lui Qi grinned as soon as he saw that, no matter how adding meat into his sandwich would clearly increase the price by a ton.
"Maybe I could sell it at three... no, four dollar price." Aside from this, just like before, the Trail Mix increased by 10g, Potato chips by 20g, the drink by 30ml and the cast time reduced by another minute.
There were not much-greyed slots left from Side Snack. Lui Qi guessed he only needed to spend one or two more points into Side Snack to complete it. Without any hesitation, Lui Qi spent the last of his Skill points and continued to rise Side Snack to level 4. It granted him the option to process the fillings, such as turned tomato into tomato sauce, turned cheese into melted cheese, bread into grilled bread. Other than the usual bonus, he now could create an additional Sandwich per lunch bag.
"Damn, even if I sell them at 10 dollar price, I bet people will still buy them." Lui Qi muttered, then stopped for a while. "Then again, isn''t selling things at $10 is a little bit too pricey for street food stalls?"
While thinking a way to get the maximum profit, Lui Qi switched back to his status screen and spent all of them into Focus. Increasing his Mana Regeneration by 12. Which also meant increasing his Sandwich production to three per hour.
Wa Lui Qi
Level: 2
Class: Chef Lvl 1. Runner Lvl 1.
Health(/R per day): 108 (1.6)
Mana(/R per hour): 33 (32)
Stam(/R per minute): 61 (4.2)
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Dexterity: 5
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 2
Knowledge: 5
Wisdom: 3
Focus: 8
Charisma: 4
Intimidation: 1
Deception: 3
Willpower: 2
Chapter 7
"I knew it."
Wa Lui Qi was running to his workplace with all of his might. Normally, as soon as he opened his stall, people would line up and five or ten minutes later all of his sandwiches would run out.
But that was when the sandwich price was $2. This morning, he just did a little bit of experiment, selling $2 salad or egg mayo sandwich, $3 tuna or chicken sandwich. $4 meat sandwich. and $5 premium sandwich, filled with the combination of bun, lettuce, grilled cheese, patty, lettuce, bacon, skirt steak, lettuce and bun.
With 48 sandwiches in total. He made three sandwiches for the premium one and nine sandwiches for each other variations.
Lui Qi wouldn''t say the result was a disaster since he received $141, but it almost took two hours for him to sell all of his sandwiches. Not like he displeased with it, but it was inefficient.
The variety that ran out first was the $2 sandwiches, followed by tuna then meat, after that chicken and the last one would be premium.
"The $2 sandwiches are already popular since day one, so it might be better for me to double their quantity." Lui Qi muttered. Thanks to 8 point on his focus, right now he didn''t have any problem to calculate a simple thing while running on the street.
"And since chicken is the least popular one, maybe I should just scratch it from the menu." Lui Qi muttered, making a mental note on his note. "For premium one, I don''t think the price is the problem. But it might be a little bit too heavy to be a breakfast."
In his mind, no matter what happened he would be a fool if he only sold them at $2. Considering he gained a quite large amount of opportunity cost since no matter if he sold them at 2 or 5 bucks, his cost of ingredients was still 10 Mana. Therefore, he still would lose $3 profit per sandwich he sold out. (Author note: opportunity cost is the "cost" incurred by not enjoying the benefit associated with the alternative choice.)
Anyway, thanks to his Runner class, Lui Qi was able to arrive just at the right time at his workplace.
One might be wondering why Lui Qi didn''t just stop his work as a dishwasher, considering he already made a higher income rather than his dishwashing job. He actually had given a thought to that option, but he realized he wouldn''t have anything else to do if he stopped working. Not to mention doing this work also considered as an additional income for him.
Without nothing much to do, the day once again turned to night and Lui Qi''s shift was over.
It might be because he was on fire and because the wind was blowing a little bit too hard, tonight Wa Lui Qi didn''t hang out at the usual alley. Instead, he just lightening his cigarette... it went off because of the breeze, he lightening it again, this time covering the cigarette with his hand, it successfully burned. He then put his earphone on, playing ''Seize the Day'' by A7X. And rather than going to his apartment, he walked his way to the shopping district in Chinatown. In his bag, there were three premium sandwiches.
It might be a little bit too hard to sell the premium sandwiches as breakfast, but if he sold them as lunch or maybe dinner, Lui Qi bet it would be popular.
The problem would be he couldn''t sell them if he was working as a dishwasher. That was why he planned to find a vendor, either it was a cafe or mini market.
Without any hesitation Lui Qi went to the first store, it was Mr Chang''s store. And much to his surprise, even though Lui Qi hadn''t finished explaining his proposal. Mr Chang eyes widened when he heard Lui Qi''s offer. "Five bucks for three sandwich, the trail mix, the potato chips and the drink?" Mr Chang repeated what Lui Qi had just said.
Even a child, or maybe a person with negative Wisdom could see the money sign shaping on Mr Chang''s pupil. "This is homemade, right? If I cut the trail mix, the potato chips and the drink how much it will cost?"
Lui Qi''s eye twitched a little bit. ''...What a cheapskate.'' He thought in his heart. "They came in a package, heck. Even if you cut everything else besides the sandwich, I still won''t give you any discount."
It was a hard negotiation... and Lui Qi kinda regretted why he didn''t eat Charisma Up food before he went to his store. ''...Even though I stopped a robber from robbing your place.'' Lui Qi protested in his heart.
In the end, Mr Chang agreed to take 10 lunch bags first and he would decide to keepordering from Lui Qi.
That was good enough actually. Lui Qi thought he could only sell maybethree or five lunch bags per store, but from Mr Chang store alone he already fulfilled his quota.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
With a grin, Lui Qi left Mr Chang''s store and heading back into his apartment. Lui Qi didn''t plan to take too much premium sandwich order, because unlike the sandwiches he sold at his own stalls, he needed to create the premium sandwich at a fixed amount of quantity if he did that.
"Maybe I should sell them online? But I need to consider the delivery cost if I do that huh... and not to mention I do not have a ride. No... I should just take one step at a time rather than dashing away in one go."
It was hard to make the gear on Lui Qi''s brain stopped rotating, but eventually, he stopped walking over thehard sidewalk below his feet and stopped thinking when he heard someone was calling out to him.
"Mister."
Lui Qi turned his head to where the voice came from, his mini-map showed supposedly there was someone, but he didn''t find a single soul.
"Hello~ Mister. Down here."Searching for the source of the voice, Lui Qi noticed it was coming from below and he looked downward.
"..." There was a child standing still in front of him, her height wasn''t even reached Lui Qi''s waist, and Lui Qi wasn''t a tall person either. From her stature, Lui Qi could tell she might be somewhere between seven or maybe eight years old. She was more on the chubby side, her hair was brown and long, loosely hung on her shoulders with a red ribbon placed on each side. She wore a black dress with white frill and covering her head with a black Panama hat. "Are you talking to me?" Asked Lui Qi.
"Yes. There''s nobody else in front of me right now except for you, Mister."
''...That makes sense.'' Lui Qi thought, but trying to keep a straight face. "Haha... I''m still 19 and you''re calling me ''Mister'' Do I really look that old?"
The girl only shrugged her shoulder. "Hey, mister. Do you have a phone?" She asked and looked up, showing Lui Qi her big round brown eyes.
"A phone?"
"Yes. Do you?"
"Yeah, I have one." Lui Qi started taking his phone out of his pocket and showing it to the girl.
"Please let me borrow it for a little bit." Said the girl. She tiptoed and pointed her palm forward.
"What?" Lui Qi tilted his head, thinking this might be some sort of a new scam or something like that.
But the girl in front of him quickly sensed his suspicion. With a slightly panicked tone, she raised her index finger and said. "I''ll just make one phone call. I''m not asking you to let me use it for free, if you let me borrow it, I''ll more than happy to compensate you for your trouble."
"...." Lui Qi was taken aback by the fact the girl in front of him can speak like that. Though, he couldn''t help but chuckle at himself for thinking she was going to scam him. "Here." Lui Qi bent his knees and gave his phone to the girl in front of him with a smile on his face.
There was a slight delay from the girl side when their eyes met. "Th-thank you. I''ll give it right back." She said while using her left hand to tilt her hat a little bit to cover her face, her right hand was grabbing Lui Qi''s phone.
Never once in his life, Lui Qi thought he could see someone gesturing their thanks by using a hat... or she just wanted to hide her face. Either way, it was clear enough for Lui Qi the girl in front of him clearly knew manner. "There''s no need to rush. Just take your time and return it when you''re done."
"You stay right here Mister. I''ll go talk over there and come back." She hastily walked a few steps away from Lui Qi. Her shoes created a loud ''tap'' sound with each of her steps.
"You don''t have to go that far away." Said Lui Qi. Though, he wouldn''t need to worry about her taking his phone away, considering he could surveillance her with his Mini-Map. Under the breeze, he could hear the girl whispering a series of number.
"Man... kids these days sure know how to use technology huh." Lui Qi muttered. He closed his eyes, remembering the time when he was at her age, and it was cool enough if you brought a Gameboy advance into your school. While he was sinking in his own nostalgia, he could feel the coldbreeze brushed against his face.
"Ah!"
Lui Qi''s eyes snapped open when he heard the girl voice. He turned his face as he noticed on his Mini-Map, the girl was walking toward the street, chasing after her black hat. At the same time, a pair of headlights were heading toward her. The girl only stood still at her place as the big truck rushing toward her.
Much to Lui Qi surprise, his body already moved forward. ''The hell am I doing?! Ah! Whatever!'' He thought as he heard people started screaming.
Lui Qi closed his eyes, fully surrenderto his fate... he dashed forward and the next thing he felt was a sharp pain jolted on his whole body.
"Urgh... Am I in the other world?" He slowly half-opened his eyes. Though rather than finding himself in a white room with some kind of god greeted him, he was more surprised to find the truck was now on the other side of the street... He felt something wasshaking under the clutch of his arms.It was the girl, her body was trembling, her heart was beating loudly, loud enough that even Lui Qi could hear it.
Lui Qi tried to move his body, but there was only pain. ''Ah... right... Dash.'' He thought as he saw letter floating around. Then it was black.
The next thing Lui Qi remembered was something like a movie trailer. He heard someone said he got hit by the truck and his body was flown to the mailbox. Then it was black. He saw the flashlight from the passerby phone. Then it was black. Then he heard an ambulance. Then it was black.
"Mister! Please wake up! Mister!" Shouted the girl. "Mister!"
Lui Qi''s eyes opened slowly. "Are you..." He stopped for a while, his eyes almost closed again. "Okay?"
"Yes. Because of you..." Tears and snot flooding down her face.
"Good..." Said Lui Qi, forcing his hand to move and wipe the tears from her face. "Mister is pretty tired, so he''s going to sleep for a while." He said with a smile... ''I''ve just raised a death flag, right?''
Then it was black.
His eyes snapped open again when he felt his body was moving and heard the loud ambulance''s siren. "Ah... The sandwich!!!" He shouted.
Then it was black.
Chapter 8
Wa Lui Qi awoke like a pc hooked up on the mains. No sleepiness, no slow warming up. Within seconds his eyes snapped open, dreams not just forgotten but erased. And the very first thing that greeted him was the message.
Congratulations! Your level is now 3! You have received 3 status points, 2 skill points and 1 class points.
''...Where am I?''
There were flowers, beautiful paintings on the cream wall, leather chairs on the corner and soft music pierced his ears. On the wall was a plasma screen.
There was a white dot on his right, and Lui Qi slowly turned his gaze to the said direction.
A beautiful woman, sexy and dressed in white. Lui Qi would say she was a goddess, if not for the fact the woman was attaching the IV bag.
''Oh... this is the hospital. And I was hit by a truck? No... I crashed at the mailbox at maximum speed.''
Lui Qi closed his eyes... and noticed something. The room was spacious, there was no one else in this room except for the nurse. He knew it since he double checked it with his Mini Map. Not to mention the bed was so comfortable. "IS THIS A VIP ROOM?!"
The nurse jolted on her place when Lui Qi shouted. She glanced down and saw Lui Qi''s pale face. No, he wasn''t pale because of the pain, but because of the thought of how much money he needed to spend at VIP room.
"Eh?!" The nurse shouted. "Doctor! The patient is already awake!!"
A second after she shouted that, a man with glasses and a white coat came in from the door. He only stood for a while, before he snapped back to the reality and continued walking toward Wa Lui Qi.
"How are you feeling?" Asked the doctor while turning the page from the writing board on his hand.
That kind of question was one of the seven mystery of the world, Wa Lui Qi version. He personally thought what was the point of asking that kind of question in the hospital. If the said person was feeling fine, then they wouldn''t even bother to come to this place but much to his surprise. "Aside from the fact that I feel like I''ve just drunk a gallon of vodka, I am feeling fine."
The doctor and the nurse only went silent. "Eh... ahem. Do you feel feeble?" Asked the doctor.
"Nope." Said Wa Lui Qi. He was now sitting up and moving around casually. "Ah, my left shoulder feels a little bit stiff." He said while massaging his shoulder with his right hand.
The doctor and the nurse went to silent mode again, then the doctor broke the silence by clearing his throat. "It''s probably because you crashed at the mailbox," He said, somehow slightly hesitant. "Anyway, it''s good that you feel fine. But just in case, let us do some check up on your body."
Flashin the flashlight into his pupil, checking Lui Qi''s limbs. Lui Qi didn''t have any broken bone, and except for the serious bruises on his head and his back. "You really are a lucky guy, aren''t you." Said the doctor, fixing his glasses. "I heard that you were hit by a big truck and bounced to the mailbox. Even the mailbox that you hit had a big dentation on the front."
...Lui Qi didn''t know whether or not a doctor should say scary things like that to his patient. Then again, to tell the truth, his story was somewhat true and false. It might be true that Wa Lui Qi crashed head first to the mailbox, but the part about getting hit by a big truck was 100% false.
"You don''t seem to have any abnormalities but I think it would be best to be hospitalized for tonight and monitor your condition, just in case. Since you hit your head pretty bad." Said the doctor, writing something on the paper.
"Ah, about that." Wa Lui Qi''s face went back to pale. "...Isn''t this room is a little bit too good? I don''t think my insurance can cover a VIP room."
"Don''t worry about that." Said the doctor. He then shifted his gaze to the nurse. "Remove the equipment now that the patient is awake."
Wa Lui Qi grimaced at the doctor statement. ''Don''t worry my ass! I''m the one that needs to pay the fee, you know?!'' Replied Wa Lui Qi in his mind.
The nurse nodded then she started taking off the IV tool from Lui Qi''s body. "Ah, now that I think about it, there must have been a kid..."
"Oh, the kid you saved?" The nurse said with a smile. "She only has minor injuries but she''s hospitalized so that we can check her condition."
"Is that so..." Said Lui Qi. ''It''s fortunate if she doesn''t have any serious injuries.''
"But running in to save a child... you really did a good thing." Said the nurse.
Lui Qi only wryly smiled at her remark. "Umm... I just instinctively did that without thinking. So I don''t deserve praise."
"Nah~ Not everyone would act as you did." Said the nurse... it might just be Lui Qi, but he felt a slight flirty tone coming out from her mouth. "Putting your life at risk to save a life is a brave and praiseworthy act."
"That''s right." Said the doctor. Truthfully, even with Mini-Map Lui Qi completely forgot that he was still here."It is indeed a rare sight in this day and age, you did a great thing."Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"Haha..." Lui Qi weakly laughed.
"Then, have a good rest." Said the doctor. "I will come back tomorrow morning to check on your condition." He then walked away toward the door.
"Have a good rest~" Said the nurse, waving her hand toward Lui Qi as she also finished with her task."She''s quite a cute girl you know. Saying she''d be with you until you wake up, but her guardian calmed her down and took her back to her room."The nurse continued walking toward the door and had already opened the door, but she once again turned around.
"Ah, just in case you are worried about her, the girl is in VIP room number 1. It is right upstairs, so it will be easy to find it." Said the nurse before she walked away once again.
"....She likes me, right?" Said Lui Qi as soon as he noticed the nurse was already gone from his Mini-Map radius.
"Ah, right." Without nothing else to do, Lui Qi opened his status menu. And it was true that his level was now 3. Though, the condition of why he leveled up was unclear. But from his experience, he leveled after beating the crap out of robber, cooking food, and saving a girl. "So defeating someone, doing a class-related activity and saving someone are the condition? I wonder if there any other conditions aside from those three."
Aside from his level, the most notable change was from his Health. From his maximum 108 health, it dropped to 90. Not like he protested about it, but crashing at a mailbox with speed more than 50kmh did 18 damage, how much 1 damage would do to his body though.
Other than this, he didn''t receive a new class either. "Well, I''ll guess I just saving up the class point for now."
Slumping into the comfortable bed. Without hesitating that much, Lui Qi roseSide Snack to level 5 and somewhat felt responsible to rise his Mini-Map to level 2.
As soon as he did that, there was a star sign next to Side Snack. "Oh? This will only mean mastery, right?"
There were fruit and jam selection for the sandwich. Other than that, the casting time was now 5 minutes, and he could create up to 5 sandwiches per lunch bag with up to 12 fillings. The trail mix now could be chosen with a jam, and its maximum capacity increased by 20gram. Potato chips/ french fries now had the seasoning selection and increased by 40gram. As for the drink, except for it increased by 60ml, there were no other notable differences.
"Hee... raising a skill to level 5 really gave a ton of bonus huh." Lui Qi muttered in amazement. "Though, rather than a side snack, this now had become a full course dinner."
Though, watching the sandwich selection somewhat making his stomach grumbled. Without any hesitation, he used the max level Side Snack and created the dinner for himself.
For Mini-Map level 2, the radius was increased to 40m. Other than this there were no other notable changes except that he now could zooming in/out his Mini-Map.
"This is weird..."
The Mini-Map itself didn''t become bigger, but the grid shown on the Mini-Map now became smaller and farther. Considering Lui Qi had been living with the same scenery on the top right corner of his vision for 19 years, seeing it suddenly changed somewhat made him sad. Though, thanks to the Zoom function, he could zoom it back to the usual scenery.
For stats, he just went to 2 Knowledge and 1 Focus. Increasing his Maximum mana by 10 and the regeneration by 4.
All in all, Lui Qi stats right now was.
Wa Lui Qi
Level: 3
Class: Chef Lvl 1. Runner Lvl 1.
Health(/R per day): 80/108 (1.6)
Mana(/R per hour): 23/43 (36)
Stam(/R per minute): 61/61 (4.2)
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Dexterity: 5
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 2
Knowledge: 7
Wisdom: 3
Focus: 9
Charisma: 4
Intimidation: 1
Deception: 3
Willpower: 2
Skills: Mini-Map Lvl 2
Chef Skills: Cook Lvl 2, Bag of Colding Lvl 1, Side Snack¡ï
Runner Skills: Run Lvl 1, Wallrunning Lvl 1, Dash Lvl 1.
Nibbling on the peanut butter sandwich. "Now that I think about it, she must be quite rich being hospitalized in a VIP room." Gulping the sandwich down. "...Ah, don''t tell me her family is the one that put me into this VIP room?!"
"Not to mentionfrom what that nurse said, that kid was waiting for me until I wake up, huh." Lui Qi thinking for a while. "It''s already late, but maybe I still should''ve checked on her condition or at least tell her guardian that I''m fine."
Following the nurse suggestion, Lui Qi heading out of from his room.
Thelights were still illuminating the lobby, but walking on the VIP section really made him uncomfortable. There was no one else besides Wa Lui Qi, and he could even hear his footsteps echoed on the lobby.
Tap, tap,tap. Lui Qi continued walking to the upper floor.
"Huh?" Just before he stepped out from the stairs. There were two black dots on his Mini-Map. From what he knew, the black dot meant someone had just died for less than 10 minutes. Indeed he was in the hospital, so it wouldn''tbe weird if people died. But for them to die in the lobby? Not to mention there were two of them?
And what the hell was green dot?
Chapter 9
Wa Lui Qi stepped out from the stairway and looking to the location of two black dots. Two dead men, one of them was brought a gun on their hand, both wearing black suit and were laying on their back in a pool of blood that was still spilling out and gave the room a sickly-sweet butchershop odour.
Less than one meter behind them stood a figure of humanoid. It wore a blood-stained white T-shirt and ripped jeans. It was standing slightly taller than your average adult, bald, had a slightly muscular build with green skin and yellow eyes. Its arms were long, long enough that it even reached its knees. Its palms and its feet were big, Lui Qi was sure this creature could grab his whole body with one of its palm alone. The fingers were more like a claw rather than a normal finger. Its long scally tongue was sticking out from its mouth and dancing around in front of its chest.
''What the hell? Am I dreaming? Yeah... the doctor said I hit my head.'' Lui Qi stood still with widened eyes, carefully watching the creature in front of him.
"What''s wrong?"
It casually talked. The baritone of its voice reverberating through Lui Qi''s bones as he tried to figure out what kind of answer he should give to that creature. ''What fucking wrong is your appearance and two dead bodies on the floor'' That was what Lui Qi wanted to say, but he could only reply with "Huh? No, umm."
It stopped for a while, its eyes were scanning Lui Qi. "Judging by your reaction, I assume you can see my real appearance." It said, saliva dripping out from its long tongue every time it opened its mouth. "Interesting. To meet a guy that can see my real form in a place like this."
"I would like to know more about you, but regrettably, I don''t have time to waste." Lui Qi had just noticed this, but its teeth were as sharp as shark''s teeth. "It''s a pity that I must simply kill you."
Lui Qi flinched and shuddered when he heard that, he didn''t have any word to explain it, except for it was the ''killing intent''. It leapt forward, closing the distance between itself and Lui Qi in an instant. The claws on its palm retracted and it swung its gigantic palm in a sideways arc. But thanks to the creature warning, Lui Qi managed to react just at the right time by ducking downward.
"You dodged?!" It shouted, this time it used its other hand to slam Lui Qi from above. Moving backwards wasn''t an option.
Without any hesitation, Lui Qi bolted forward like an Olympic champion at the start gun with the help of Dash.
"Damn it. To miss two attacks. Even at running away he''s faster than I thought." It grumbled as it watched Lui Qi moving farther. "I should finish my job first, and kill him later." It turned its body, looking to the VIP room number 1.
Lui Qi ran, feet kissing the floor. "...Shit, this is not a dream or my brain playing trick on me. There''s just no way my brain is creative enough to make some kind of hideous creature like that." Muttered Lui Qi.
He had seen a game like mini-map for as long as he could remember. He had seen a real-life floating game menu. But one thing that he never saw or expected to see; judging from what the creature itself said was, something that was not a human, or in the other words, a monster. "Okay, just forget about the fact that monster exists. Why the effing hell is something like that in the hospital?"
Anyway, he had thought for himself that that was too much for him. The best he could do running away, searching for help.
Help... there was no one. It might be because he was on the VIP floor, but from his Mini-Map alone, he could tell there was no one, both in the lobby or the room. "Where the hell is the nurses and the security guard?!"
911? He didn''t even know where his phone was, not to mention he hadn''t had a single idea about what to tell them.
"Ah! The room that kid is in should''ve been right there...!"
Lui Qi slid on the floor to reduce the momentum from his running before he completely stopped and continued to run back. He couldn''t leave her alone, but he didn''t have the slightest idea of what he could do against a monster.
Just as he guessed, from Mini-Map he saw the monster was now in the same room as the girl. "Kyaa!" Lui Qi could hear the girl scream from the hallway.
''Shooter, thief, dancer, audiomancer, trainer, gambler and merchant. Which one is more useful?!'' Lui Qi opening his screen, thinking... it was not good. There was too much thing to think about and not enough time. "Argh!! Whatever!"
Lui Qi, once again did a slide to reduce the momentum, stopping precisely right at the corpses. He took the gun out of the corpse hand and picked Shooter class at the same time.
Congratulations! You have received the class of Shooter Lvl 1. You have gained the Multi Shot Lvl 1. You have received the skill Knockback Shot Lvl 1. You have received the skill Oblique Shot Lvl 1. You may learn 2 additional skills from this class. Skills may be forgotten to learn new skills. +2 Health, + 2 Mana, +6 Stamina. + 6 to Dexterity, + 2 to Wisdom, Focus and Deception.
Shooter Skills:
Multi-Shot Lvl 1: Conjures another ammunition behind the real one. Cost: 10 Stamina. 5 Mana.
Knockback Shot Lvl 1: Firing a shot that pushes enemies away. Weight limit: Push up to 100kg per skill level. Distance limit: Up to (STR+INT)/2 x m. Cost: 13 Stamina. 6 Mana.
Oblique Shot Lvl 1: Fires ammunition that bounces off of the target to hit an adjacent enemy. Bounce twice per skill level. +1 Bounce every 10 DEX. Cost: 10 Stamina.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
Then what? He had the gun in his clutch, it was Glock 19 and the very similar thing he ever used was the toy gun at arcade centre. Barged in and went to full rambo mode wasn''t an option.
But he at least knew the theory of holding and shooting a gun thanks to him watching different types of video on Youtube.
Searching on the side, he found a switch of what he assumed as the safety lock ''Is it on or off?!'' He thought, but decided to just click the switch. He then wrapped his middle, ring, and pinky finger of his right hand around the handle. And used his left hand to support the gun.
Holding the gun tightly, he extended his arms and leaned forward. In front of him was a door, and he aligned the muzzle not with his sight, but with his Mini-Map. The target was the green dot.
Lui Qi senses sharpened with adrenaline. He held his breath, straining to concentrate with every ounce of his brain to enter Field of Vision mode, the monster attention was to the girl. And Lui Qi silently cast Multi Shot before he squeezed the trigger, then there was a loud explosive sound as two bullets spat out from the muzzle nose. It pierced right through the door and the monster Field of Vision was now shifted into the door.
Immediately after shooting, Lui Qi opened the door and in one fluid movement, cast Knockback shot. It hit the monster right on the chest, just a little bit to the left and it would hit its scally tongue. The monster groaned a little bit as its body bounced backwards, crashing onto the desk and the flower pot.
"Mister?!" The girl shouted, her head was sticking out from the blanket she used to hide her body.
"What are you doing? Quick, run!" Lui Qi shouted, completely unaware by the fact that the girl''s legs were shaking as if she was standing in 10 magnitude earthquake.
"My... legs won''t move." Said the girl.
Lui Qi clicked his tongue for a moment before he went to the girl, planning to grab her and just run away. Completely forgot about something...
"You bastard..." Said the monster, he stood up from the ground, his pupil was dilating. A pink flower and dirt were peacefully rested on the top of its head. "I will shred you to pieces!"
Turning his head, Lui Qi shot the monster again with a normal bullet. ''I have 23 Mana left. With the last two shots, I should only have 12 left.''
Another two holes were created on the monster body. "Are you a zombie or what?" Said Lui Qi as he noticed the monster was still standing.
Lui Qi shot the monster again, this time with Knockback Shot. Just like before, the monster body flew backwards. And without wasting more time, Lui Qi grabbed the girl and Dashed toward the door.
Turning his back to the monster, unknowingly to Lui Qi, the monster swung its arm and launched the nail away from its finger. Ripping the left side of Lui Qi''s stomach just before he was able to step out from the door.
It wasn''t like in the movie where people would stand still, slowly looking to their wound and then fell on their knees. Lui Qi instantly dropped to the ground, throwing the girl that was being held on his arms onto the floor.
The pain throbbed in his guts. It felt like someone had their hand in there and were squeezing my organs either gently or as hard as they could. He knew it was only a second When it waned I can move, when it returned he could only hold still and breathe, breathed slow and deep until it had passed.
"Run!" Lui Qi shouted, his left hand reflexively holding the gap on his stomach.
"What?" The girl sounded confused, cradling her painful head.
"I will buy some time! You just go get help." Said Lui Qi, slamming the door shut and using his body as a barricade.
Watching the girl slowly walked away from Mini-Map, Lui Qi raised his head to see the monster was now scowling. "Tch, you dare to mess with my job?"
With ragged breath and burning throat. "What? Do you expect life will always go as you planned?" Remembering the quote from his friend. ''If you are having a fight with someone stronger than you, just act tough.''
And that what was Lui Qi did. "Mr Monster, why are you harassing such a young child? Are you into a little kid?" He said with a fearless smile on his face.
The monster only looking at him, before it used its gigantic palm to slap Lui Qi''s face, throwing him away to the side, watching Lui Qi coughed in pain as its mouth curled into a nasty smile. "Ho~ You didn''t die. I will enjoy my time playing with you after I kill that kid."
Tasting the iron on his mouth. "Sorry, I''m not into an ugly creature like you." Somehow, surprisingly, his right hand was still clutching the gun. Forcing himself to raise his arm, Lui Qi fired another bullet. It didn''t have any skill on it, just a normal, regular bullet.
The bullet hit the monster, created another hole on its stomach. Lui Qi could see it was grunting in pain and a new red stain created on its shirt but it didn''t seem to have any effect on the monster.
"Bastard. You must really want to die right now." The monster said, glaring down at Lui Qi. "You could have lived longer had you stayed on the ground."
"Cough... Umm... I am on the ground." Said Lui Qi.
"Oh... You''re right." The monster stopped talking for a while. "DID YOU THINK I WILL SAY THAT?" It swung its leg right at Lui Qi''s face, kicking him hard enough to throw his to the wall.
A dull loud sound was created when Lui Qi''s back made a contact with the wall. He wanted to act tough but could only cough in pain.
"You''re not dead?" Asked the monster. "You can even see my true appearance... Are you a Hunter?"
"No... I''m actually..." Lui Qi stopped for a while, taking a deep breath. "...A patient."
Words left them. They just stared into each other eyes. "KUHAHAHAHA!!" The monster roared, only to get stopped when it heard a footstep from the hallway.
"Tch. Hindrance has arrived." Grumbled the monster, he moved forward and grabbed Wa Lui Qi by his neck. "As I thought, I wasted too much time."
The monster raised one of its fingers, retracting the sharp claw out of it. "I am curious about your identity but..." He said. "It''s too late to catch the kid, so I should at least kill you."
Without saying more word, using every bit of his concentration. Still holding the gun on his right hand, Lui Qi shot the monster with Knockback Shot. Throwing its body two meters away from him.
"Fuck... cough... you should''ve stopped your monologuing habit." Muttered Wa Lui Qi. He was wobbling his way out to the lobby. From his mini-map, he knew four people will come to this room.
Gathering its balance back, "You bastard!" The monster roared as it threw several of his claws into Wa Lui Qi.
Lui Qi reflexively blocked them. And by reflex meant he was covering his face and his chest with his arms, as threw his body to the outside. Though, he still got hit by many of those nails. A piece of flesh from his right shoulder, right side of his chest, right arm and both of his thighs shredded away.
"Over there!" Shouted someone. His outfit was all black.
"Tch. To leave like this because hindrances show up." Said the monster. It turned its body and leapt throughout the window.
"Several people have collapsed over here! Tell the team behind us to call the doctors!" Shouted someone.
"Let''s search the room! Quickly!"
From behind those black suit, black glasses people. Wa Lui Qi could see the same brown haired girl following behind them. "Ah... crap. Seems like I won''t be able to deliver the sandwich to Mr Chang." Muttered Lui Qi, too tired to even open his eye to watch the blood spilling out from his body.
Chapter 10
Waking up was no longer the pleasure it was. There was a fleeting moment when Wa Lui Qi was whole again but it evaporated faster than summer rain off the burnt earth.
Congratulations! Your level is now 4! You have received 3 status points, 2 skill points and 1 class points.
"...Dejavu?" Lui Qi muttered.
Once again, he was in a hospital bed. ''Why am I here again? Ah... I''m sure a monster is... No... Was I just dreaming it after I lost consciousness in the accident?'' He thought, every muscle on his body throbbing with pain. ''No. It couldn''t have been a dream. My wounds from that time still hurt this much... not to mention my level is now 4.''
"Oh? You''re already awake?" Said the nurse. "Wait a moment. I''ll go get the doctor."
Lui Qi felt the nurse voice and tone was somewhat familiar. He wanted to turn his head to check whether or not it was the same nurse, but... ''Why is my body won''t move?''
He heard the door creaking. Two dots were walking in, from their familiar voice Lui Qi could assume it was the same doctor and the same nurse.
"How''s your feeling?" Asked the doctor.
"I''m feeling bad...." Lui Qi answered. He stopped for a while to gulp his saliva down. "Doc. I have a question... Please answer me honestly."
"Of course." The doctor replied without hesitation.
"What happened... to my body?" Lui Qi asked. He felt like the world was slowly disappearing in front of him. Or maybe it was just he who was fading away. It felt like there was a black hole in his head, deep inside his soul, slowly swallowing all his hopes and dreams.
"Your... body condition?" Said the doctor. Judging by his intonation and facial expression, Wa Lui Qi instantly thought his body condition must be really bad. "Don''t get surprised by what I''m about to tell you."
Wa Lui Qi gulped his saliva. ''Well, I guess it is fortunate enough that I didn''t die.''
"It seems the wounds will leave scars." Said the doctor.
"...What?"
"You have some serious cut wounds here and there but you don''t have any serious injury or broken organ." Said the doctor in a casual tone. The nurse behind him was covering her mouth, trying to hold her laugh. "You don''t have to be so scared."
"Umm... but my body won''t move at all."
"That is natural." The doctor said casually, he used his finger to fix the position of his glasses. "Although you didn''t have any fatal injury, you were unconscious for a day."
"Oh..."
"More importantly I was surprised by your luck." Said the doctor. "Getting hit by a truck, and then brawling with a serial killer on the same day, you really have a knack for the trouble, aren''t you?"
Serial killer...? Lui Qi stopped listening to the doctor and thinking for a moment. Now that he thought about it, the monster indeed said something about his real appearances.
"By the way, there''s someone that wants to meet you." Along with the doctor cue, he and the nurse walked away. Not long after, two dots were heading toward Lui Qi''s room.
The door creaked open. "Mister!" The same brown haired girl running in.
Behind her back was a tall man in a black suit. His hair was black, long and slicked backwards. His face shape was triangle shaped with a clean and thin goatee on his chin. His gaze was sharp and there was a small scar beneath his left eye.
"Heh~ I guess you''re not hurt if you''re running like that." Said Wa Lui Qi.
The girl nodded with a smile. "Yes! How about you?"
"Absolutely not fine. It hurts all over my body." As soon as Lui Qi said that, the girl expression turned grimace. ''Ah... should''ve just said I''m fine.'' Lui Qi thought in his mind after noticing his lack of tact.
"I''m sorry... Twice in a row because of me." The girl looked guilty, her face faced downward.
''Twice? Ah... She''s talking about when I saved her from the truck and the monster. Yeah... what the heck was that? was it really a monster?'' Lui Qi thought for a while before he continued to reply the girl. "Nah~ It''s fine. It''s good that we''re both alive." He said with a smile.
"More importantly, I have a question..."
"Wa Lui Qi. 19 Years old." Said the black suit man out of nowhere. Lui Qi and the girl attention immediately shifted to him. "Your mother died when she gave birth to you. Your father is now living in Texas with his fourth wife. You have two half-sisters, all from a different mother. You''re currently working as a dishwasher at Bastion bistro."
"Wa Lui Qi. Who are you?"
The was a slight amount of time passed by before Lui Qi opened his mouth. "...What are you talking about?" Said Lui Qi. "I don''t know why you investigating me, but what do you mean by my father fourth wife?! From what I knew, before I left Texas he still married with his third one."
"Not to mention, to ask me who am I after blabbering so much about me. I''m more curious about who the hell are you." Said Lui Qi.
The man only glared at him. "Answer my question. Who are you? Why did you approach the young lady?"
''Young lady?'' Lui Qi finally able to tilt his head, he raised his eyebrows while trying to think. Did he hit on a woman? A customer from his sandwich stand? That wasn''t the case since he clearly remembered there wasn''t any noticeable ''young'' woman amongst his customer. Then, was it on the street? No... he didn''t do that either. ''Just who is it?''The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"Okay, dude. I think there''s a misunderstanding." Said Wa Lui Qi. "I don''t remember any woman pretty enough for me to approach her. Moreover, take a look at my current state. Do you think I''m in a condition to flirt with a woman?"
"I think you''re the one who''s misunderstanding..." He said while closing his eyes.
"Misunderstanding? What did I misunderstand?"
Ahem, ahem~ The girl cleared her throat.
Wa Lui Qi shifted his gaze toward her. "Why are you doing that?"
Ahem, ahem, ahem~ She cleared her throat once again.
"...Could it that ''young lady'' it this kid?"
"Yes." The man answered.
"Ah..." Lui Qi shifted his gaze back to the girl. "Haha~ sorry. I don''t know he was talking about you." Because he said, young lady... I just thought it was a young woman. I meant, there are not many instances where you call someone ''young lady'' in this day and age. Isn''t that so?"
"..." The young lady only closed her eyes and nodded to Lui Qi remark.
Lui Qi turned his gaze back to the man. "Anyway, I didn''t approach her this kid. She talked to me first..."
"Yes, Paul. He''s right. I asked him to lend me his phone when he was passing by." Said the young lady, she looked upward to the Paul.
"I know that because I heard it from you, young lady. But the sheer coincidence..." Said Paul, he didn''t even bother to hidehis suspicious gaze toward Wa Lui Qi.
"What coincidence?"
"You saved the young lady''s life despite the fact that you could''ve died." Said Paul.
Lui Qi only tilted his head, confused at Paul''s remark. "What''s wrong with that? I just couldn''t let a child died in front of my eyes. Or do you prefer I don''t do anything?"
"No. I appreciate it. It''s rare to meet a person who thinks and acts like that." Paul continued.
"So what''s the problem?"
"Normally there wouldn''t have been any problems at all." Said Paul. "However, it has become a problem, because you, who saved her is a Hunter."
"?!" Lui Qi''s mind was blank and his eyes widened as he stared at Paul. "...Right, about that. What is a ''Hunter''? And how do you assume I am a Hunter?"
With unflinching expression, Paul said. "You were crashing at the mailbox, hard enough to completely destroy it and only suffered minor injuries. Not to mention it is recorded from the local CCTV you are running with a speed and acceleration, a normal human wouldn''t be able to afford, and there''s no dent on the truck, how could such thing go unnoticed?"
"...You''re making a good point."
"Anyway, it only makes sense that you had a reason for approaching the young lady."
"Ah!" Lui Qi jolted "From the way you put it, could it be that monster also had a purpose for going after that kid?"
"..." Both of young lady and Paul went silent. "He''s not a monster. He''s an organism that exists on Earth." Said Paul. He somewhat showed a little bit of emotion from his unflinching expression. Though, Lui Qi wasn''t sure if that an anger, sadness or disgust.
"Okay... keep going." Said Lui Qi.
"He''s an organism that lives on this Earth, just like humans do. It''s just most human usually don''t know about them." Paul explained. "They usually live among humans. With appearances of normal humans so most people don''t realize about them, but they are all over the world."
"A race different from humans that lives on this Earth. We call those beings ''Demi-Human.'' " Continued Paul. "They normally look like humans but when they use their power, they revert to their true form. Ordinary people couldn''t see their true form, even when the Demi-Human already revert back to their original form. But sometimes there were people born with an ability, a Hunter like you that can see the true appearances of Demi-Human."
"...." Lui Qi was digesting what he just heard. "...Could it be that you can also see them? Are you also a Hunter?"
"I have no obligation to answer you." Said Paul.
"......." Lui Qi only stared at him. The context might be different, but it almost felt like when his friend said there was a pretty girl had just been passing through, but he never told the colour of her clothes or any important characteristic.
"Why should I answer you?"
''Argh... this guy personality has irritating personality.'' Lui Qi thought, and decided to just drop the matter. "But why did that ''guy'' target this kid?" Asked Lui Qi, shifting his gaze back to the girl.
"It happens a lot." Said Young Lady.
Paul flinched when shedid that. "Young lady?"
"It''s fine. He saved my life twice." Said the Young Lady, seriously staring at Wa Lui Qi. Her expression was unfazed even though she just said something what Lui Qi could say as the true horror.
Paul sighed at young lady remark. "Haa~ I can''t tell you the details but this isn''t the first time young lady got attacked by Demi-Humans."
"Oh, okay..." Said Lui Qi. Although he didn''t know or plan to peer into their problem, but to think that such a young child had been facing a lot of dangerous situation because of them, and it was scary enough for him to face one.
"It seems this is the first time you''ve seen a Demi-Human. Does that mean you never seen one before?" Asked Paul after studying Lui Qi''s expression. "It doesn''t have to be the exact same appearance; maybe they had a different distintive feature?"
Lui Qi wanted to say he didn''t have any obligation to answer him, but with a sour expression, he said. "Yes. This is the first time I''ve seen one." But he was the one who was confused with this whole situation.
Paul scratched his chin while muttering something. "How long have you become a Hunter?"
Lui Qi couldn''t believe he just heard that kind of talk coming out from the mouth of a grown up man like him. "I guess it is somewhere around two weeks ago"
"It''s strange that you didn''t see any Demi-Humans in the past two weeks. Are you sure you are not just being ignorant?" Paul sneered at him.
''This guy...'' Vein popped out from Lui Qi''s forehead. "Yes, I sure enough to notice something like that." After all, seeing a green coloured dot would surely attract Lui Qi''s attention.
Paul only shrugged his shoulder. "So you can see them now after saving Young lady, right?"
"Yes." Lui Qi nodded.
"I see." Said Paul, he then turned his gaze to Young lady and smiled. "Young lady, it seems you don''t need to feel like you owe him your life. Although I don''t know the exact reason, but the act of saving you have granted him the ability to see Demi-Humans."
Another vein popped out on Lui Qi''s forehead.
"B-but still..." Said Young lady.
"Even if that''s not the reason. I don''t think he''s some trash who crudely demand something from you in return from saving life." Said Paul. "Or just some trash who wants the young lady to live with the big burden of having indebted your life."
''...This guy just won''t shut up, right?!'' Lui Qi thought, finally he was able to clench his hand.
Young lady raised her head and stared at Lui Qi... "O-of course... I didn''t do that to expect something in return." The young lady smiled when she heard Lui Qi''s answer.
Indeed, he definetily didn''t do that expecting something, but the things thatPaul said somehow felt annoying. Though... truthfullyLui Qi wouldn''t mind if they give him a present.
"Anyway, we already explained everything to the police, except for the Demi-Human part, Just make up a good story." Said Paul "And we also took the CCTV records. So you don''t need to worry about getting found out.
"I think that and this are enough as a repay for saving Young lady''s live from the Demi-Humans." Paul Said. Leaving a hand-sized box on the desk before they went away.
"....Crap, I forgot to deliver the sandwich to Mr Chang... and what the hell does he mean by father fourth wife?! How in the hell that old geezer is so popular with women?!"
Chapter 11
A few days had passed since Wa Lui Qi got discharged from the hospital. It was pretty hard for him to get back into the rhythm of his former daily life. But after resting for another day whileusing Cook to restore his health and making sandwiches to complete his order, he started to get the gist out of it.
Lui Qi alreadyput one point into Focus and Knowledge, so now he could produce five Side Snack for each hour. He already calculated it by working 13 hours a day, and by working meant making sandwiches while watching Youtube. At the worst, he was sure enoughto produce at the very least 50 Side Snack per day.
Setting the calculation aside,he now was standing in front of Mr Chang''s store. At first, he thought Mr Chang would cancel any further order from him... but much to his surprise. "What kind of businessman late to deliver his own goods for a whole week?!"
He got yelled. There was not much Lui Qi could do about it though. From what he knew, it seemed Mr Chang himself went to his apartment on the very first day to take the sandwiches. "The apartment owner already said I got hospitalized, right? And didn''t I already send the notice and the apologize to you?"
"Who cares about what happen to you?! You should''ve just made the sandwiches from the hospital and sent it to me!" Mr Chang said. On the other hand, Lui Qi couldn''t answer him. It was true that he could do that, but that thought just never crossed his mind.
Though, albeit protesting much, Mr Chang still took the sandwiches. "...How do you get profit from this?" He said when he noticed there were five sandwiches in each bag.
"I don''t know if this is a way for you to say apology, but there''s no way I don''t feel guilty by ripping off a greenhorn like you." He said, then pay seven bucks for each bag.
Not like Lui Qi protested about Mr Chang decision, in fact, he could only grin at him. All in all, Lui Qi skating out from Mr Chang store with $70 in his pocket. That was almost equal to the amount he gained by working as a dishwasher for 10 hours.
Speaking of his dishwashing job. Because Lui Qi was absent for a whole week, another part-timer was now replacing him. Not like he got bothered by it, considering he now could focus more on his times by selling the sandwich.
And in the last seven days, Lui Qi himself already made several plans for his business.
First was by taking a loan... and maybe started selling it in a food truck.
Second, he could take the order from his neighbourhood.
And third by selling it to the local business.
The first optionwas kinda hard for him. Considering he didn''t have any collateral for the guarantee.
The second option itself wasn''t that bad. And he could sell it at a higher price, compared to the third options. But he also needed to consider that, at most, they would only buy one or two lunch bag at most.
Therefore, he concluded the third option was the best one. Not to mention many of food business would throw the food away if they didn''t manage to sell it, so he didn''t need to worry about his food ''magically'' disappeared.
Skating his way to the local minimarket, then a coffee shop, turning around to the restaurant, crossing the street to get to the home depot, waiting for the line at the office cafeteria and many more. Before lunchtime was over, Wa Lui Qi already made a contract with three places, including Mr Chang.
Sitting on a bench, eating a sandwich, Lui Qi frowned a little bit when he saw a green dot walking in front of him. It didn''t get explained on the skill description, but he just made the assumption that the green dot was a Demi-Human.
Lui Qi blinked three times, and the scally lizardman that was walking in a suit now turned back into his human form.
He found this method by an accident though. He just walking around at the hospital, stretching his body when he saw another green dot also walking around. Indeed he already knew the existence of Demi-Human but he couldn''t help but blinked away when he saw a giant walking fox... and before he knew it, the fox already turned into one of the doctors.
"Who would''ve thought that weird shit is really happening in this world huh." Lui Qi said, nibbling on his sandwich while browsing through the net with his new phone. The box that Paul gave to him was surprisingly not money or some tools related to the Hunter. It was a phone to replace the one that Young lady broke up when she dropped it at the truck incident. Not like he protested about it, considering he just traded a 3rd generation phone with the X series.
"But man... will it kill them to at the very least tell me the ''young lady'' name?" Lui Qi muttered. Even until the end, he didn''t know a single thing about them.
Lui Qi opening his status, lazily staring at it as he inhaled the smoke from his cigarette. He now had two new class that he newly got after surviving the last Demi-Human attack. They were: Protector for Physical and Deceiver for Magical.Stolen story; please report.
None of them piqued his interest.For now, Lui Qi personally thought it would be best to take Magical class, considering the amount of bonus it would give to his Mana.
But there was another thing that also piqued his interest. It was raising Chef to level 2, or taking Merchant.
For the former, he might get a new selection of menu, and maybe, a more expensive menu would appear.
For the later, it was a little bit of a gamble. But after researching on the net, he found out that in a fantasy story, Merchant was somewhat related to Item Box skill. That would mean he didn''t need to worry about destroying his sandwich by running at a full speed.
Then again, he alreadyspent seven days thinking about which class he should take, and today, he already promised himself to make the decision. So, without thinking too much, Lui Qi clicked Merchant.
Congratulations! You have received the class of Merchant Lvl 1. You have gained the skill Item Box Lvl 1. You have received the skill Appraise Lvl 1. You have received the skill Shop Lvl 1. You may learn 2 additional skills from this class. Skills may be forgotten to learn new skills. +4 Health, +6 Stamina. + 1 to Strength, Vitality, Wisdom, Charisma, Deception and Willpower.
Merchant Skills:
Item Box Lvl 1: Able to store up to 100kg of non-living things not bigger than 1-meter cubic in a pocket space. Cost: None.
Appraise Lvl 1: Able to see and object information. (Upgrade to give more information.) Cost: 1 Mana.
Summon Cart Lvl 1: Summon a magical 2x1 meter cart that can be used to display your goods. The cart and the object on the inside will weight 50% less if the caster is the one that pulls it. (Upgrade to give more function.) Cost: 40 Mana. Duration: 7 days (Once it is summoned, the caster can summon-unsummon the cart as many times as s/he wants it.)
The other two skills were; Pay and Salvage. And only five skills that were greyed out.
But just as Lui Qi guessed. Item Bag!
100kg might not be much, but since he mainly would just use it to put the sandwiches, he didn¡¯t find any problem with only 100kg capacity.
As for Appraise, Lui Qi silently used it on the bench and much to his surprise... it was pretty disappointing. It only showed him another screen, with nothing more than the tittle box, showing him the name of an item and a bigger box that showed the general description of the bench. Then again, the skill description itself said he needed to upgrade it for more information, but for now, he just assumed it was useless.
Summon Cart might be useful if Lui Qi still planned to sell his sandwiches at the morning market. Though, if he could say it, he just got the skill a little bit too late.
Shrugging his shoulder, Lui Qi just put the last of his status point into Strength. As for the skills, he just felt slipping away every time he ran at maximum speed was kinda annoying, thus, he spent 1 skill point to learn Sharp Turn. As for the other one, he just decided to save it for the right skill.
Sharp Turn Lvl 1: Able to instantly turn away without stopping when running. (Max speed 60Km/h)
Wa Lui Qi
Level: 4
Class: Chef Lvl 1. Runner Lvl 1. Shooter Lvl 1. Merchant Lvl 1.
Health(/R per day): 77/114 (2.0)
Mana(/R per hour): 48/50 (48)
Stam(/R per minute): 73/80 (4.4)
Strength: 5
Vitality: 5
Dexterity: 11
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 2
Knowledge: 8
Wisdom: 6
Focus: 12
Charisma: 5
Intimidation: 1
Deception: 6
Willpower: 3
Skills: Mini-Map Lvl 2
Chef Skills: Cook Lvl 2, Bag of Colding Lvl 1, Side Snack ¡ï
Runner Skills: Run Lvl 1, Wallrunning Lvl 1, Dash Lvl 1, Sharp Turn Lvl 1.
Shooter Skills: Multi Shot Lvl 1, Knockback Shot Lvl 1, Oblique Shot Lvl 1.
Merchant Skills: Item Box Lvl 1, Appraise Lvl 1, Summon: Cart Lvl 1.
Lui Qi walked home under the baby blue sky.Musicthat came from his earset felt like a freshly baked apple pie upon a white tablecloth, the tune dancing in the same way the sun warming his skin. "Maybe tonight I should go out and spoil myself."
Chapter 12
Wa Lui Qi had been sitting down in his apartment for more than five hours just by making the Side Snack. This might seem like an easy job, but it was actually a tricky one.
Normally, he''d just made them as much as he could and didn''t need to worry about the food magically disappeared, considering most of it would get eaten either as breakfast or as lunch.
But for this batch, he needed to think about the time stamp.
The first one he made would be for an office cafeteria. They ordered 15 tuna sandwiches with the balance amount of vegetables and 15 egg mayo sandwiches. Considering they sold it as breakfast and lunch, Lui Qi didn''t need to worry about the sandwiches expiring out. That was why he spent time from 16 o''clock to 17 o''clock making their order.
The second one he made was for Mr Chang, the reason was more or less the same as the first one. But there was an additional request from his order. He wanted the drink and the premium sandwiches to use his store wrapping, so Lui Qi had to manually separate the sandwiches, wrapping them with food wrapper that had the maneki-neko picture on it. The same thing happened for the drink, he needed to carefully pour the grape juice from the water skin to the plastic bottle that also had a maneki-neko as the logo.
Lui Qi didn''t believe that much with feng shui or something like that, but considering he didn''t have anything else to do while waiting for the Side Snack to complete, so why not. After resting for an hour, he created Mr Chang''s order straight from 17 o''clock until 19 o''clock.
The third one was a vegetarian restaurant, and they planned to use the sandwich and trail mix both for lunch and dinner. So this one needed to be the last one he created. And since it was for dinner, Lui Qi needed to make sure the sandwiches wouldn''t get expired before 10.
Then he also needed to mix the food quantity. The cafeteria and the vegetarian restaurant didn''t need the juice, so Lui Qi could throw the juices into Mr Chang.
At the same time, Mr Chang and didn''t need the trail mix and the potato chips, so Lui Qi could put more chips onto the cafeteria, and the trail mix into the vegetarian restaurant.
Was it simple?
But the problem would be: What happened if the one from the cafeteria already expired and disappeared into smoke before Mr Chang would be able to sell it? Same case with the trail mix for the vegetarian restaurant.
Lui Qi thought for a while, only for him to facepalming himself as the answer was really simple.
He just needed to create a new batch in the morning. Then switching the juice and the trail mixes from the last night to the new batch.
The side dish from morning batch now had become the side dish from last night batch. And he didn''t need to worry about the food magically disappeared as he was confident enough they would finish it for lunch.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
"....." Lui Qi stopped his work and inwardly sighed. He then once again facepalming himself, but this time he put more power on it. "Then why don''t I just make all of them in the morning?!"
It might be because of his lack of Intelligence or just his lack of concentration; even though his focus was quite high.
But he just couldn''t help himself to not concentrating on his work, as he already made some plan to go to a local club; The other alternative would be skating park and coffee shop.
If he counted right, this would be the very first time in the last three months for him to finally do some recreation activity, so he just wanted to spend his time swaying his head to the bass rather than enjoying a cup of coffee or skating around.
"Grah! Whatever! Let''s just go!" Said Lui Qi, putting everything into Item Box then went to the outside.
The sun had long gone to rest, and the moon took his place as the darkness began to surround Lui Qi. He always liked the night, this was the time where people would get weird, and no one would bat an eye if he did his half-dancing half-walking routine. The moon guided him through the night. Her calming presence made him slowly closed his eyes, as she let his soul ran free. He could do the things he would never be allowed to do when the sun was out. Before Wa Lui Qi knew it, he already did Dash (Moonwalk mode) under the moonlight. He didn''t need to worry about crashing into something as he could monitor his surrounding with Mini-Map.
"Ah!" Lui Qi stopped his moonwalk, then rubbing his chin. "If the monster exists then how about the ghost?" He said a completely random and unrelatable thing.
Growing up with Mini-Map, Wa Lui Qi''s life was a life without any surprise. On his 7th birthday, when his father, his second wife and his half-sister were planning to create a surprise party for him, he needed to pretend to get surprised. The same case happened on his 17th birthday when he already noticed beforehand that all of his friends were hiding, planning to give a surprise to him.
And that was why he kinda like a ghost story or horror movie. Considering his Mini-Map couldn''t scan things from the TV, so the only time he would get surprised was by watching a horror movie. After standing still for a minute or so, thinking whether or not a ghost existed, Wa Lui Qi just shrugged his shoulder and continued moonwalking to the local club.
As soon as he reached the club, he was clubbing and drinking like this was his last night on Earth, but he knew that was just the way his mind avoided thinking about the hangover to come. The music moved him like he was a puppet on strings, his head mashing so hard his brain was in a shut down mode. There was so much sweat on his skin and not all of it was him. The strobe masked so many of his movements, every clap of his hands like it was on pause at different moments. Tomorrow there would be hell to pay but tonight the alcohol kept on flowing in like it was on IV drip.
Congratulations! Your level is now 5! You have received 3 status points, 2 skill points and 1 class points.
Before Wa Lui Qi knew it, he was waking up in his apartment floor with another message told him that he once again level up.
"Urgh... somehow this doesn''t feel like the usual hangover." Wa Lui Qi muttered, turning his painful head to the side. "....The hell?"
Sleeping next to him was a girl. Judging from the shape of her face and her black hair, she was also an Asian. "....Oh." The girl opened her eyes. "Ohay¨..." She said with a warm smile... It might be because Lui Qi hadn''t met any woman in the last few months, but to Lui Qi, her smile was something like an angel.
The angel sleeping next to him had a waist-length black hair which was somewhat still tied with two red ribbons on each shoulder and angular black eyes. Her face was a little bit round, and she had a small nose. Her skin was white, a pale white skin. From the width on her shoulder, Lui Qi could tell she had a small stature, and even though she seemed to be flat-chested, Lui Qi had the confidence to say she remained just as beautiful.
But what the hell was her name and what happened last night?!
Chapter 13
"..." Wa Lui Qi couldn''t open his mouth when he saw the mysterious girl started wearing a navy blue blazer with an emblem on the left chest pocket. Under her blazer was a solid white buttoned shirt, the same shirt that she used when she slept next to him. On her waist was a light steel blue skirt, then black stockings, and maroon shoes... Basically, she wore a school uniform.
''Did I sleep with a minor?!'' Lui Qi grimaced at the possibilities. ''No... she slept with the same white shirt and skirt, so there''s a chance we didn''t do anything.''
"Sore wa subarash¨© yorudeshita~" She said, stretching her body and did some exercising with a big smile on her face.
Lui Qi only staring at her. He gasped as he remembered something. Opening the translation app from his phone, he urged the girl to repeat her word. "It was a wonderful night." Said Siri.
"...." Lui Qi got petrified.
"Watashi no zenshin wa mada itai." She continued speaking while massaging her own shoulder and gave a wry satisfied smile.
"My whole body still hurts." Said Siri.
"..." Somehow, Siri''s robot like voice was bothering him, so Lui Qi temporarily turned it off. "Can... you... speak... English...?" He knew talking slowly and loudly wouldn''t make someone understand that, but he still did it.
The girl nodded at his remark. "You raiku beasuto." She said, clenching her hand in a high spirit.
"..." There was a little bit of broken English but somehow Lui Qi still understood her. ''I am like a beast...''Translated Lui Qi in his mind.
''Yep... we definitely did it.''Lui Qi could only sigh inwardly. "We use protection... right?"
"Purotekushon?" She repeated, tilting her head to the left. "Umm..." She thought for a while and then shook her head.
"..." Lui Qi cradled his painful and dizzy head. His next question might not have tact but he still asked her. "...Inside or outside?"
"Inside." She immediately answered, looking at Lui Qi with a somewhat confused look.
"..." Her speech wasn''t broken but that wasn''t the problem. Lui Qi just stared at her, open-mouthed, cursing his ownself. His brain formulated no thoughts other than to register that he was shocked. He then closed his mouth, then looked at the floor, muttering something before glancing back up to catch her eye. "Ah, yesterday is a safe day, right?!" was all he could say, his eyes started spinning around.
"S¨¥fu?" She wildly shook her head. "Dangerousuday."
"..." Lui Qi didn''t know if this was because of his Wisdom or what, but the girl in front of him didn''t seem to be lying. "Ah, I need to go to work." He said, leaving an unknown girl in his room as he was running awa- he was going to deliver some sandwiches.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He didn''t even afraid to leave her alone as he was sure nothing worth stealing from in his room.
On his journey to deliver the sandwich, he just felt like his brain stuttered. Every part of him went to pause while his thought went to catch what was going on. Before he knew it, he already clutched $152 dollar in total. "...Maybe I should visit a temple and pray for... no, no, no... what the hell am I thinking. There''s no way I can pray for something like that."
"Haaah...I should at the very least ask her name." Said Lui Qi, he was walking with a hunched shoulder.
With a determination of some sort, Lui Qi went back to his apartment. He was passing through the same street and neighbourhood, seeing the same people but his steps felt like ten times heavier.
By the time he got home, he felt like his stamina already dropped to 0. His feet stepping on the stairs... From Mini-Map, he could tell the girl was still in his room. With another sigh, he scurried down the path towards his room, his shoes slapping against thewood floor that led to his front door.
The metal of the doorknob was cool against his palm and he twisted it with ease, entering the well-lit room. And she was still there... not to mention she used the kitchen without his permission.
She used Lui Qi''s green apron as her temporary apron, and even though Lui Qi''s figure wasn''t tall or big, the apron was already reachingto her ankle. He didn''t pay much attention to her, but just only now he noticed the girl was modelling her hair in pigtails.
On the kitchen table, there were eggs, tomato sauce, an onion, a diced chicken, a variety of vegetables. The rice cooker was on. From the ingredient alone, Lui Qi could guess she wanted to make omelette rice.
Tak!
Lui Qi was mortified, frozen to the spot.He couldn''t believe it just happened. She just stabbed the onion like a killer in an old horror movie flick and started moving the knife up and down to chop them.
And the onion flew away.
Lui Qi watched in awe at her expression. He saw nothing but a surprise on her face. ''...Did she really think she can cut an onion like that?''
Still watching from the door, this time he watched her knocked the egg with a full swing.
And the egg''s innard splattered on the table, slowly spilling from the edge to the floor. ''...I have a bad feeling about this.''
Lui Qi was right.
His rice cooker might be old, but he never thought it would start vomiting out the black smoke. The girl, in panic, opened the lid and grabbed the inner pan with her bare hand.
And she immediately dropped the inner pan and sucking her thumb in reflex. What was she thinking, why she did that and what was her plan after grabbing the inner pan, Wa Lui Qi hadn''t had a single clue.
He wanted to help but... he felt like he was watching a silent comedy movie right now. What kind of other things would she do? Such question echoed in his head... before he realized she might just burn this whole place down if she kept doing whatever she just did.
"Ahem." Lui Qi cleared his throat, trying to get the girl attention.
She turned her head to the door and what she did was went as red as a beetroot and radiated heat like a hot pan. One could have cooked a three-course meal on her face. She wanted the earth to open up and swallowed her whole. She wished to ''do a Daphne'' and dropped through a scooby-doo style trap door in the floor.
"Are you hungry?" Asked Lui Qi with a little bit of gesture, he tried to hide the amused grin from his face.
"Ha-" She opened her mouth but got stopped by the thunderous rumbling growl that came from her stomach.
Lui Qi''s mind just went blank when he heard that growl and he couldn''t help but snorted away.
"Just sit over there." Said Lui Qi, jokingly pointed to the corner of his room.
Much to his surprise, the girl listened to what he said.
...Lui Qi didn''t know her name, and how she got here, or what happened last night. But after seeing her sitting down while hugging her knees at the corner of his room, Wa Lui Qi instantly knew he would get along with this girl.
Chapter 14
Wa Lui Qi had figured out the best and easiest method to have a conversation with the girl in front of him. Opening his laptop, he beckoned the girl to sit down in front of it.
He hadn''t told her anything but sheclasped her hand and nodded to his remark,seemed like she understood what Lui Qi wanted. She started popping her fingers, and the sound of her slender fingers clashing against the keyboard started echoed on his room.
(My name is Nakano Ritsuko. I am from Japan and I am a second year, a high school student fromSakurahigashi High School and I am on a school trip. About how I can get here, firstly I entered Narita airport with the student from my school. I sat on the seat C24, and sitting next to me was two of my best friends, Tsumurin and Bocchi.My other best friend, Hikari, was sitting in another row. The flight time was 16 hours long, and it was a little bit boring. But the chicken bruschetta that I had as my lunch was quite tasty.)
Surprisingly, she did a pretty well job when it came for writing in English but...
"Stop." Said Lui Qi, grabbing her hand and thus momentarily stopping her from continued typing down her diary. "When I asked how do you get here, I didn''t mean for you to start from Japan." He released her hand. "Just... cut the small detail."
"Oh!" Said Ritsuko.Her fingers curled up to make an Ok sign.
(So.. we arrived atLaGuardia airport, and a row of buses was waiting for us; one bus for one class. As soon as we arrived we immediately went to the Theatre district. Iwatched a theatre show about Aladdin from a red velvetytheatrechair. For your information, the actor paused for a little while when his eyes gazed over to me, and for a split second, he smiled.) She typed with a smug look.
Lui Qi... just ignored the last part while secretly still hoping she would just fast forward her story to how and where they met.He''d planned to cut her but after givingit some thought, he chose not to. His reason was if he knew the route of Ritsuko''s school trip, Lui Qi could narrow down the place her school had visited and hadn''t, and that would make it easier to map her route. (After Aladdin, we went to the Museum of Modern Art. We watched many kinds of weird sculptures and paintings... there was this weird garden where we just sat in a circle, and somehow none of us talking as we just silently watched the sculpture. Then, we went to Chinatown to have our lunch, it was Peking duck.)
Ritsuko stopped typing. Sheturned her head a little bit to take aglance at Lui Qi from her shoulder and grinned. They didn''t exchange a single word but from her gaze alone, Lui Qi could figure out what she wanted to say. ''It was tasty! Have you ever tried that? I bet you haven''t!''
At least that was what Lui Qi thought as the interpretation of her grin. He went silent for a while because of that and several other reasons.
First, considering at yesterday he spent a lot of his time travelling in Chinatown. He went silent because he was trying to remember whether or not he saw her group... at least if he knew the bus company name (that Ritsuko somehow forgot) he could contact them, but he didn''t recall anything.
The second reason why Lui Qi went silent was that hewas so amazed by Ritsuko''s memory capacity. If she just at least remember the restaurant name and not the Peking duck taste, Lui Qi could contact the restaurant and asked themto give him her teacher contact information.
Third, and the main reason why he went silent. He was thinking of all the spot she''d just missed. She''d just went straight from Theatre district, which was on a Midtown to Museum of Modern Art, which was on a Lower Manhattan. So she skipped things like St. Patrick Cathredal, Bryant Park and heck... he even thought it was a big shame to not go to Grand Central Terminal.
But this was only the story from her first day, and setting thataside, he silently stared Ritsuko continued typing down her diary.
(After we went to this park where this sandstone fort thingy is located.) Ritsuko typed.
From what Lui Qi noticed, after she ate her lunch in Chinatown,Ritsuko had just stopped paying any attention to thename of her next destination.Though, it was an easy guess for him.When he was broke, he would just spend most of his time searching the local tourist spot from the internet and started imagining himself on that place. So... fromher minimum description, he could figure out that it was Battery Park.
(Then we went straight to the hotel.) Ritsuko typed. (But I forgot where it is located and its name.) Somehow... Lui Qi already figured that out, but considering they went straight to the hotel from Battery Park, he just assumed their hotel location must be on the southern part of Manhattan.
(On the second day, we started our day by going to World Trade Center. There was nothing much we could do at that place except taking a few selfies and watching the city from its observation centre.) Ritsuko stopped typing for a while. She was resting her finger and started drinking the juicethat Lui Qi secretly created from Side Snack.
And the next thing that shetyped completely made Lui Qi raised his eyebrow. (After that, we went to central park but surprisingly! We didn''t go to the zoo! We just strolled around at this big pond and just watched the old men catching and releasing the fished!) Ritsuko was slamming her fingers onto Lui Qi''s laptop when she typed this.
On her back, Lui Qigrimaced by what she just did to his precious.But his grimace was somehow got shoved away when Lui Qi noticed the inefficiency in her school trip route.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The pond that she mentioned was most likely Harlem Meer, and just as the name suggested, it was located in Harlem... which was located on Upper Manhattan... And World Trade Center was located on Lower Manhattan. Not like it was wrong, considering her next destination was Times Square, which was at the Midtown. Lui Qi personally thought they should''ve just spent their first day at Lower Manhattan then slowly moved to Midtown.But, then again, Wa Lui Qi wasn''t a tourism expert.
(So at Times Square, me and my best friends, the three people that I mentioned in my first paragraph, decided toplay a game. We split up and searching for a gift that we then, would trade with each other.)She typed, she reached into her blazer pocket and showed and showed Lui Qi a globe key chain that had many triangles pattern as its design. (After I bought this, I looked around and saw other students strolling around. I don''trecognize any of their faces, so I just silently following them to the bus while scrolling down through my phone to choose which picture I wanted to upload into Instagram..... but before I knew it, the group that I followed wasn''t a student from my school! They were just some randommusic group that somehow wore the same coloured blazer like the one that my school used!)
She continued typing down. (So... in embarrassment, I panicked and just ran away from that bus. As a result, I tripped and helplessly saw my phone flying straight to the sewer gate. T-T, and when I realized it... I was already lost. @_@.) Ritsuko started using emoticons in her writing.
"U-un-unbelievable." Said Lui Qi, sighing at her story. "And somehow you walked all the way down fromTimes Square to Lower Manhattan?" He asked.
She turned around and shrugged her shoulder. "I just walk. No clue and no idea. No money and no phone. Then itsu night. I hungry and alone. Sitting in street. Cold. Then bad people came. Grabbed me away. Then you came. Face was red. Walking not straight. And you go WHOOSH! then BAM! and SMASH!" She said... Lui Qi wondered why her speech suddenly went bad... even though she could type them down just fine.
But...
"....Ah..." Somehow someway, Lui Qi started remembering what was going on.
Wa Lui Qi remembered he was vomiting the drink out in the alley when he heard a scream. "Did someone .Hic. Just see a ghost?" Drunk Lui Qi said, and hewobbled his way to the source of the voice.
He noticed five white dots and without hesitating for a bit, he stepped out from the corner. "Oi!" Drunk Lui Qi shouted and he noticed a girl, her name was Ritsuko. Tears were flooding down from her cheeks, her mouth was gagged by a piece of duct tape and she was being pinned down by many men. One was using his big hand to clutch her arms. Two men were holding her legs and spreading it. While the fourth one was opening the zipper from his pants.
"Listen! hic I don¡¯t want any trouble, so just leave her alone and go play with your hand!" Shouted Drunk Lui Qi. He didn''t or most likely forgot to enter his Field of Vision mode, but he just knew all of them were shifting their attention towards him.
They could see Lui Qi was struggling to keep his balance as he was swaying to the left and right. His face was as red as a strawberry, and combining it with his messy appearances from all the dancing. "Teach that drunkard a lesson." Said one of the thugs.
Drunk Lui Qi was somehow surprised when he saw two of them walked forward. "You guys never saw a kung-fu movie, aren''t you?" He said. He was so drunk that he just thought if he survived an encounter with some monster, then two people werenothing more than breakfast for him.
"Okay, hiclisten to me. When an Asian dude saidhic ''He doesn¡¯t want any trouble.'' That is fucking mean he motherfucking knows a martial art." After Lui Qi said that, he then dashed away and leapt forward to one of the two. While leaping, he slightly raised his feet and then the sole on his shoe was imprinted on the first thug¡¯s face... alongside with that was the sound of that thug broken nose.
It might be because he was dashing with an inhuman acceleration. The other three thugs reaction was opening their jaw as wide as they could. And it might be because of his low Intimidation, butaside from being surprised, they didn''t show any fear toward him.
Gracefully landed on the ground, Lui Qi spun his body to face the second thug and in one fluid movement he raised hisleft leg for the kick, he then bent it back upon itself so that the back of the calf was almost touching the thigh. Pivoting onhisright foot, heturnedhis body so thathisleft leg moved toward the second thug. As he did this, he extended his left leg in a sudden but smooth motion, ''snapping'' it forward and just made a contact with the second thug face. "Wataaa!" Shouted Drunk Lui Qi.
Retracting his leg back to the ground, Lui Qi shited his gaze toward the last two thugs.Much to his surprise, the girl, Ritsuko, wildly swung her legs and somehow managed to kick one of the last two thugs right in his ball.
"Oh! I''ll call that Crushing Turtle Kick!" Said Drunk Lui Qi. At the same time, the third thug was falling into his knees, holding his crotch in pain while Ritsuko running toward him.
As Ritsuko passing right through Lui Qi, He shoved his right hand forward then turning it so that his palm was now facing to the sky, Lui Qi used four fingers, from index to pinky to beckonthe last thug to come at him. His left hand was placed behind his back.
"Then, do you want to taste Spinning Blue Dragon Kick?" Said Drunk Lui Qi. Not even a second had passed since he said that. "No one?Hic,Okay. Then prepare yourself for myFiery Red Phoenix Fist!"
He dashed... more than 50km per hour. He then leapt and curled his left hand, deliver a punch straight to the last thug''s stomach.
"HAHAHA!! I AM THE KING OF THE WORLD!" Drunk Lui Qi laughed... then he slumped onto the ground.
It might be because his Knowledge wasn''t high enough to remember every part of his memory when he was drunk, but he still remembered a few fragments.
Ritsuko bowing her head to say her thanks, her body still trembled a little bit. Wa Lui Qi, just like a real gentleman, just messing with her hair while curling his lips into a big grin "That''s a good kick! Where do you learn that?" He shouted before his memory got cut off.
The next thing that Lui Qi remembered was, he was leaning on Ritsuko''s shoulder, he could hear Ritsuko was panting heavily as she dragged Lui Qi''s on her shoulder. "Oh~ your body is really cold." Said Lui Qi. "Are you a ghost~? No... whaaat am I saaying~ Your dot is white so you must be a humaaan~ Then what are you doing all by yourself~? Are you Hic running away from homme?? Do you have any destination~? I''m more than happy to lend a beauty like you my bed though."
Then it was black. And the Lui Qi''s fragments ended before he could remember the best par- the fragments ended before Wa Lui Qi knew whether or not something happened between them?
Chapter 15
There was a bright hand mark on Wa Lui Qi''s cheek. He didn''t know of what he did to deserve the slap as he only asked ''Did we have sex?'' to Ritsuko.
Perhaps Ritsuko was mad because he forgot that they had sex? Therefore she assumed Wa Lui Qi was nothing more than an irresponsible jerk and thus the slap.
Or...
"Peruveruto." Said Ritsuko, with a hot blush and in reflex started walking away from Wa Lui Qi while covering her breast.
Did they didn''t do that? If that so... then what was the deal with the ''wonderful night?'' ''My whole body still hurts?'' ''You like beast?'' ''No protection?'' ''Inside'' and ''Dangerous day?''
Lui Qi tilted his head. Little did he knew, when Ritsuko said ''wonderful night'' she stretched her body and smiled because she didn''t have to sleep on the outside. ''My whole body still hurts'' was because she carried Wa Lui Qi on her shoulder of their way to his apartment. ''You like beast'' was because he fought like a beast. ''No protection'' was because she didn''t see him wearing any armour or any other kind of protection. ''Inside'' because she thought Lui Qi was still drunk and couldn''t recognize if they were on the inside of the room or outside. ''Dangerous day'' was because, in seventeen of her life, that was the most dangerous situation she ever had.
Lui Qi somewhat sighed a breath of relief when he realized he just misunderstood the situation. "But why we slept on the floor?" Asked Lui Qi.
Ritsuko shrugged her shoulder. "Bed is small. You sleep on the floor. Me, Bad sleeping habit."
"Oh..." Lui Qi said with a somewhat confused look. ''...Falling from bed to the floor isn''t just BAD.''
Either way, he dropped the topic and gave Ritsuko his phone. "Just call your parent first."
"No!" Ritsuko jolted away, making a cross sign with her arms. "Me lost. They fly to new york. Angry. Shouting. No allowances for forever." She started making some other gesture with her hands.
"..." Lui Qi used a little bit of his strength and flicked Ritsuko right on her forehead. "...Just in case you didn''t realize, your school teacher is one hundred percent already called your parent."
Ritsuko gasped in surprise, then she started trembling while muttering some Japanese that Wa Lui Qi couldn''t comprehend. "...And if it comes to the worse, they would think I KIDNAP you." Said Lui Qi, urging her to just call her parent.
He didn''t know how much Charisma one would take to persuade her to call her parent but he had one secret weapon. His level was five, and therefore, he should''ve had two unspent stats point.
So he silently opened his stats but much to his surprise... there was any stats, skill or class point left.
Wa Lui Qi
Level: 5
Class: Chef Lvl 1. Runner Lvl 1. Shooter Lvl 1. Merchant Lvl 1. Audiomancer Lvl 1.
Health(/R per day): 79/114 (2.0)
Mana(/R per hour): 65/75 (62)
Stam(/R per minute): 84/84 (4.4)
Strength: 5
Vitality: 5
Dexterity: 11
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 5
Knowledge: 11
Wisdom: 6
Focus: 15Stolen novel; please report.
Charisma: 5
Intimidation: 4
Deception: 9
Willpower: 3
Skills: Mini-Map Lvl 2
Chef Skills: Cook Lvl 2, Bag of Colding Lvl 1, Side Snack ¡ï
Runner Skills: Run Lvl 1, Wallrunning Lvl 1, Dash Lvl 1, Sharp Turn Lvl 1, Air step Lvl 1.
Shooter Skills: Multi Shot Lvl 1, Knockback Shot Lvl 1, Oblique Shot Lvl 1, Pinned Shot Lvl 1.
Merchant Skills: Item Box Lvl 1, Appraise Lvl 1, Summon: Cart Lvl 1.
Audiomancer Skills: Mute Lvl 1, Echo Lvl 1, Ghost Sound Lvl 1, Sculpt Sound Lvl 1.
It seemed like while he was drunk, he randomly spent his points. "...Maybe... I should stop drinking... no... that''ll be too much. I should stop drinking when I started feeling drunk." Muttered Lui Qi, making a promise to himself.
He completely ignored Ritsuko for a while and checked his new skills.
Runner
Air Step Lvl 1: Walking on the air up to 10 steps per skill level before you start falling to the ground. Cost: 1 Stamina and 1 Mana per step.
Shooter
Pinned Shot Lvl 1: Fire a highly piercing shot. Target hit is pinned onto the surrounding terrain, last 2 second per skill level. Cost: 10 Stamina.
Audiomancer
Mute Lvl 1: Complete silence prevails in the affected area. All sound is stopped: Conversation is impossible, and no noise whatsoever issues from, enters, or passes through the area. The spell can be cast on a point in space, but the effect is stationary unless cast on a mobile object. The spell can be centred on a creature, and the effect then radiates from the creature and moves as it moves. Radius: 5m per skill level. Cost: 10 Mana.
Echo Lvl 1: Cause a sound heard in the target area up to repeat at a regular interval up to Deception x minute. Any special effects of the sound are not duplicated by this skill. If the area is naturally prone to echoes, such as a space surrounded on at least two sides by cliffs or high river banks, the spell''s radius is big. Otherwise, the spell''s radius is small. Radius: Small, 10m per skill level. Long: 100m per skill level. Cost: 5 Mana.
Ghost Sound Lvl 1: Create a volume of sound that rises, recedes, approaches, or remains at a fixed place. You can only choose one type of sound ghost sound creates when casting it and cannot thereafter change the sound''s basic character. Cast range: 25m per skill level. Cost: 10 Mana.
Sculpt Sound Lvl 1: Change the sounds that creatures or objects make. Duration: 1 hour per skill level. Cost: 10 Mana.
Closing his screen, with a deep sigh, Lui Qi decided to just ignore the fact that he just spent his points very unwisely and shifted his gaze back to Ritsuko. It seemed while Wa Lui Qi was concentrating on his screen, she was covering her ears with her hands and shutting her eyes off, didn''t want to listen to Wa Lui Qi''s request.
Lui Qi rubbing his chin and started thinking from her perspective... it was useless... he just didn''t understand the reason behind her stubbornness nor knew her way of thinking, maybe because he didn''t have enough Wisdom? Then again thanks to the small amount of increase on his Deception. "...Manhattan is big, do you know that?"
Ritsuko opened her eyes a little bit and peeked at Lui Qi. She tilted her head as if she was saying ''So what?''
"...If your parent is in panic... just maybe... they''ll fly straight to this place and start printing a million brochure with your face printed on it... I don''t know about you, but that will be too much embarrassment for me." That wasn''t the best lie he could think of but that seemed pretty realistic for him.
Though, after hearing that, Ritsuko once again jolted and slowly turned her attention toward Wa Lui Qi. "...Phone." She said with a voice full of hesitation and shoved her palm forward.
That... somehow worked, and thus, while Ritsuko was making a phone call to her parent, Lui Qi started thinking what he should do with her situation.
''Should I just let her stay until her teacher came to pick her up?'' Lui Qi thought as he started giving Ritsuko his address. ''Or should just I deliver her to her hotel? Not like I knew where was it though.''
After thinking for a while, Ritsuko, with a somewhat sour but glad expression, handing Wa Lui Qi''s phone back to him. "Oh!" Shouted Lui Qi. "Why don''t you just contact your friend or your teacher and asked the name of the hotel you guys staying at?"
She shrugged her shoulder. "Not remember."
"..." Not like Lui Qi could mad at her, considering he himself didn''t remember any of his friend numbers... not like he couldn''t remember it, but he just felt it was useless to remember the number that already listed on his phone. "Ah! You use your Instagram, right? Just log in to your Instagram and ask your friends about their whereabouts."
Ritsuko only sticking her tongue out and rubbing the back of her head. "..." Lui Qi didn''t need her to tell anything to realize she didn''t remember her own Instagram account.
"Then... just use my account and send the message to your friends." Said Lui Qi, not like he had high hope with this method though, considering Ritsuko herself didn''t remember her own account.
"Oh! Smart!" Said Ritsuko, nodding her head up and down in amazement.
Once again, she took Wa Lui Qi''s phone and started typing her friend account... ''You don''t remember your own account and password but remember your friend''s?!''
So the problem was over right? No, it was not.
There was this one, evil and dark feature on Instagram. The feature that if Lui Qi put into his word, an indescribable feature that blocked his path forward, a horrible feature that supposedly meant to protect someone from unspeakable terror behind the phone screen. The natural enemy of anyone who wanted to see someone''s other pictures without following their account.
Her friends'' Instagram account... was set in a PRIVATE.
Lui Qi shrugged his shoulder. "Let''s just wait until they come." Said Lui Qi as he started letting gravity to drop his body to the bed.
"No!" Ritsuko rushed forward, holding Lui Qi by his collar and started shaking his body. "It''s boring! This is America! Let''s walk around!"
Chapter 16
Wa Lui Qi had been staring at his phone for more than an hour but... the phone call from Ritsuko''s school never came. Why? No matter how he took a look at this situation, the school first priority should be contacting him and finding her. Was he the weird one for thinking things that way?
While he was patiently waiting for the phone, he heard the door creaked and saw Ritsuko nonchalantly walked out from his bathroom.
She should be using the same barely functional shower without any type of unnecessary comfort and used the same type of soap and shampoo as him, but there was something different from her aura. Once she sat near Lui Qi while drying her wet long black hair off, he noticed what was different about her. His nose twitched as he couldn''t help but to indulge himself in her fragrances, pastel and lavish at the same time.
Imperfections on her skin would shine like a beacon evenwith her clothes on and Lui Qi had to try to not stare at her. If Lui Qi had to put it in his own words, he was now stuck in an awkward stage of age. It was inappropriate for him to see a high school girl as girlfriend material, even though just a year ago he was still in high school. On the other side, another woman that was at the same age or older than him only saw him as nothing but a brat and only interested at more... successful or manly man.
Lui Qi wouldn''t call himself as unattractive but he fully aware of the fact that he lacked a manly charm... at least that was what his ex told him.
Heglanced down to his shoulder and only sighed. Of course, he had some muscles on it but it barely appeared if he didn''t curl his biceps. At the same time as he did that, he noticed already Ritsuko leaned toward him and poked his other shoulder. "Ready?" She asked with starry eyes.
Wa Lui Qi sighed inwardly and only replied her with a wry smile. He kinda knew it sucked to stuck in a small apartment while you already spent some shit load of your money on vacation, but at the very least he should also be responsibleand not taking her to the outside without the permission from her school at his own accord.
So he made a bet with Ritsuko... if her school didn''t contact him in an hour, he would accompany her strolling around n the city while also searching for hergroups.
And he lost... he might not have the most muscular build but at the very least he would keep his words.
So he started taking her walking around. Much to his surprise, she was holding her hand... so was they on a date? Obviously not. Rather than going on a date, Wa Lui Qi couldn''t help but felt like her private photographer. And rather than walking side by side, she was pulling him like a... dog only to stop for taking her pictures. Her favourite style? She pulled Lui Qi''s hand while he took a picture of her back.
Not to mention her choices of background were kinda... unusual. Of course, it wasn''t unusual to take a picture when your background was some kind of monumental status, a landmark like Brooklyn Bridge, Colombus Park or Musem at Eldrige Street but he just couldn''t understand when she started asking him to take pictures ofher with a random street sign, a tree, a bench.
When they already reached Broadway, his phone''s memory was already full with her picture. "A teenage girl is amazing..." Lui Qi muttered as he scrolled through his phone gallery. At the same time, he was being pulled to the nearby food stall where a dozen meat skewers were grilled on top of the grilled pan.
Before he was able to say ''no'', without any hesitation Ritsuko had pointed her finger to each meat, ordering four pieces of meat skewer in total.
Skewers of veal liver, lamb leg, cow''s meat and chicken heart lie inches above the coals, turning various shades of pink, tan, and brown. The cook twirled each kebab, or shashlik, six or seven times to ensure even cooking. He picked up a magenta hair dryer, slowly waving it past the white embers. The spurt of air speeded up the combustion process, akin to the oxygenating effect of a blacksmith¡¯s bellow, only this comes courtesy of a plastic grooming device.
''This kid clearly doesn''t know her place.'' Lui Qi could only scowl at her behaviour, not only he lost money by producing less sandwich than the usual but now he must also spend money to feed her.
Then again there was nothing he could do about it sinceshe had already placed the order. As gravity multiplied by 100 when Lui Qi tried to open his wallet, he just couldn''t help but widened his eyes when he saw the price. No, it wasn''t because he didn''t have enough money. Right now, he was sure he could buy a lot of them, but his eyes widened for some other reason.
It was because of the sudden realization of knowing the price for each skewer was 5 bucks for veal liver and chicken heart, 7 bucks for the other two. Not to mention from a glance alone he was sure enough to produce more meat if he used all meat formula for his sandwiches.
"I see." Lui Qi rubbed his chin as an idea crossed his mind. There was a risk for not eating the sandwiches right away,but if he pulled the meat and made them as a meat skewer, he then could lessen that kind of risk.
He handed 25 bucks to the owner of the stall with a warm grin on his face. Though, he wondered why people wanted to spend their money on ordinary street food like this rather than his usual premium sandwich.
''Is it because of this is lunchtime? or because of the atmosphere?'' Lui Qi thought as his hand moving forward to grab one of the meat skewer but...
Ritsuko gracefully shifted her hands and avoided Lui Qi''s grab before his finger was able to reach the skewer.
"...." Without saying any words, Lui Qi lips curled into a warm smile and he moved his hands forward.
Lightning-quick, Ritsuko darted her hand to the side, a split-second ahead of Wa Lui Qi''s thrown punch, whichhit nothing but open air.
"...." Lui Qi silentlyglared at her straight in the eyes.
"...." Ritsuko stood to her ground, unfazed by his glare.
Lui Qi''s hands took two more attempts to shove forward but again sheavoided them- and fast. "My food." She said.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
"I''m the one who pays them, you ungrateful brat."
Lui Qi opened his palm and pulled it back to throw another attempt to grab the meat skewer. Just like a spring, the bouncing momentum had made his arms moved faster than before and there was no way an ordinary girl like Ritsuko could evade that unless...
Ritsuko bounced back just right at the right time before Lui Qi''s hand was able to touch the bamboo skewer. Lui Qi could''ve stepped forward to extend his reach, but by doing that would risk the meat to get destroyed.
''My DEX is 11 and my AGI is 7, right?! Shouldn''t that mean myhand coordination is twice than my usual self and my reflex 70% higher?!''
Lui Qi finally stopped and just concluded that he didn''t have that much control of his body since the beginning.
"Bweek." Ritsuko stuck her tongue out, sneering at him before she gluttonously ate the meat skewer.
A vein throbbed in Lui Qi''s forehead. He wanted to just leave her right on where they were standing, but considering her parent already knew who their child last stayed with, he didn''t have any choice except for playing along with her.
They continued walking down the street, only to stop for taking her picture and enjoying more street snacks. Before Lui Qi knew it they already reached Broadway though at the same time Ritsuko walking pace had become slower.
She slouched her shoulder and clutched her stomach, her face was pale andshe hadn''t opened her mouth nor taken another photo. Her palm was cold and sweaty at the same time.
Food poisoning? or maybe she was just eating too much? That latter was the most possible answer, considering she had omelette rice and sandwiches as her breakfast and still gluttonously eating the meat skewers, pretzel, hotdog, honey muffin, and the last one waffle ice cream.
''Serve you right.'' Lui Qisneered in his mind but still showing some concern. "Let''s take some rest."
Ritsuko replied with a weak nod.
As they sat on a bench, Wa Lui Qi started taking out one of his cigarettes and burned them down. Sitting on the other corner was Ritsuko, rummaging through her bag with one hand while the other one was holding her stomach.
Lui Qi inhaled slowly, his system responding to the smoke, and he felt his lungs being wrapped by a warm blanket. Taking small, slow draws of the cigarette, he felt delighted, like he had never felt before. His mind had somewhat become calmer and he glanced downward.
Except for her wallet and her phone, Wa Lui Qi could recognize everything on her bag as it more or less was the same as his sister and his exist. He didn''t recognize the brand but most of them was clearly a makeup, after that some little stationery, a handkerchief, a power bank, a notebook, a water bottle and some candy.
"Huh?"
Maybe it was because of his high knowledge, but Lui Qi felt like Ritsuko''s bag was lacking on more item. He blew the smoke to the side then rubbing his chin, pondering for a while as Ritsuko kept searching for something in her bag with a grim expression.
"Ah..."
Lui Qi flicked the burned ash away as he realized what was missing. It was sanitary napkins. Shrugging his shoulder, he didn''t know what was the price nor was planning to buy her that so he nonchalantly opened his wallet and threw 50 bucks to her lap. ''Damn... throwing money like this really made me felt like a rich person.'' Thought Lui Qi.
Ritsuko only took a look at the money and tilted her head to the side.
"I''m thirsty." Said Lui Qi. "Go buy some drink for me on that convenience store." He continued and pointed his finger to the nearest convenience store. "Just keep the change for yourself."
She weakly nodded and wobbled her way toward the convenience store while holding onto her stomach.
Just as Lui Qi waited for Ritsuko to come back, he removed the cigarette from his pink lips, he blew the smoke in the air carefully to make smoke rings. And when henoticed that the cigarette between his fingers was almost short enough to burn him. With an effort, he leaned forward to crush it out and at the same time, Ritsuko already came back while waving a bottle of tea with a cheerful smile. There was a monkey-faced balloon floating right next to her head and the one who brought the balloon was... a crying little boy.
"..." Lui Qiscowled at the sight of the crying brat that kept shouting for his mother.
"He lost. Like me." Explained Ritsuko. The wind was pushing the balloon to cover her face when she said that.
Lui Qi exhaled a long sigh, combined with the last smoke that he hadn''t blown out yet. "DO I look like a fucking saint in your eyes?" He said while cradling his ached head. Not like he could just abandon the little boy alone though.
Lui Qi squatted low to the ground and put his warm smile on, "Hey ''lil buddy, what''s up?"
The child face buckled, tears falling thickly to his cherubic lips, "MOMMY!!!"
The scream was pain input into the air, writ large for anyone who cared to help end it. It was so high pitch Lui Qi thought his ears were going to rupture. Its got to be natures way of enabling kids to inflict enough torture on their elders to get whatever they want.
Well, he had the urge to cast Mute on that child just to stop him crying and shouting for his mommy for a while and gave him the time to think about their current situation. Though, using it in the middle of the city, not to mention with Ritsuko''s eyes kept pinned to him wasn''t a good choice.
Lui Qi sighed as he stared at the boy''s face, red and wet with tears, terror in his eyes, crying himself as loud as he could. He shifted his face to Ritsuko and gave her a silent growl, only to see thewind once again blowing the monkey balloonto cover her face.
"...."
An Idea crossed Wa Lui Qi''s mind.
He did a little warm up and stretched his body. He then curled his palm around the boy''s body, forcefully took the balloon away from his hand and gave it to Ritsuko. He then nonchalantly threw the boy two meter up to the air,and not once, but over and over.
The boy screamed. His scream was primal. It had a raw intensity to it that told of urgency, of desperate need.
He wouldn''t say this was the best idea he could think of, but at the very least, from Mini-Map,Lui Qi could tell everyone now had paid their attention toward his activity.
And that was good enough. He remembered about some video he watched telling him about human would go to the most crowded place when they looked for something.
Anyway, Lui Qi was just hoping the cops wouldn''t come and arrest him for child abuse.
Though, he won the bet as the boy''s mother already came before the cops. "What are you doing to my boy?!" She shouted at Wa Lui Qi.
''Does she realize I''m still holding her child in my arms?!'' Thought Lui Qi buthe just stayed silent, ignored the mother and just gave the boy back to her arms.
Immediately after that, without saying more words the mother left with her boy, and before Lui Qi knew it, the crowds that gathered around them had flowed away to the wide avenue the same way the Thames always meets its banks. Leaving only him and Ritsuko.
Standing next to him, he could hear Ritsuko clapped her hand in amazement, the balloon was swaying to the left and right as she did that.
"..." The same idea crossed on Wa Lui Qi''s mind as he stared at Ritsuko. Then again, he himself didn''t have that much confidence that he had enough Strengthto throw ''something'' that gluttonous.
While wondering how long that he needed to find her teachers, Lui Qi turned his head when he saw four dots, one of them was green shrieking from the distance.
"Ritsuko!!!" Shouted all of the girls that wore the same kind of uniform as Ritsuko. Her friends were rushing forward and slamming her like rugby players.
"Hoo~" Lui Qi put his hand under his chin while nodding in amazement. It seemed the random video that he watched was true after all.