by N. Heller
Enhanced Condition： Improved physical capabilities.
Optimized Speed： Improved agility.
Eagle Eye： Greatly improved scope of vision and improved night vision.
Parkour： Having cat-like dexterity.
The sixth skill is currently being developed.
【Luther’s physical stats】
Height： 174cm
Speed： 120
Strenght： 89
Max attack： 101
Potential Growth Value： 192
Once Marcie had written down a few categories, Lin Sanjiu understood where she was coming from. Marcie noticed this and stopped writing. “You should be able to tell, right? Luther’s stats are generated conceptually using my ability, and they are like… well, a game character’s.”
Lin Sanjiu nodded. Her eyes lingered many times on the line “Potential Growth Value”.
“I don’t know why but I am unable to conceptually convert your data. It is not to say that it is too impossible, but it is not necessary. All your stats are as they are, you can get this from any physical examination… That’s not all. Most importantly, it is that Potential Growth Value,” Marcie explained calmly.
“Everyone, at least for all the people we’ve met, displayed a fixed number under their Potential Growth Value. Unless they get a rare opportunity, those numbers don’t change… You are the first exception.”
Luther’s “192” was still glowing faintly in mid-air.
[204.]
Lin Sanjiu lifted her head and exclaimed, “Ren Nan! Ren Nan’s Potential Growth Value was 204! I used my ability on his corpse so I could see a lot of his information… It seems that my stats must be pretty good!”
Luther looked as though he had been punched in the stomach. He yelled, ”How can that guy have a higher potential growth value than me?! That’s impossible! I am the Heavenly King of Potential…”
“The Heavenly King of Stupidity suits you better,” Marcie sighed faintly, turning to face Lin Sanjiu. “That’s right. Do you understand now? Your stats are just too abnormal… I have no explanation for this now.”
“It’s alright.” Lin Sanjiu laughed. Originally, she had no concept of such stats and abilities. Since she knew her stats now, it was different. She thought about it for a moment and set it aside. Just as she planned to tell Marcie to sit and eat with them, Luther suddenly paused and asked, “You said that… you kept Ren Nan’s corpse with you?”
“Yeah,” Lin Sanjiu answered and dug around in her pocket. She found it empty. She suddenly remembered that she had changed her outfit before leaving. Her Ren Nan card must have been in the pocket of the previous pants she was wearing. “It is in the c.o.n.d.o.minium. What’s the matter?”
Luther slapped his t.h.i.g.h, “That’s great! We will rest when the sun is out. We should go back later at night and search his body…”
Remembering the weird posture of Ren Nan’s corpse, Lin Sanjiu felt a little uneasy. “Search his body?”
Under the faint golden glow of the words, her cat-like amber eyes looked even lighter and brighter.
“Since you killed him, those items also belong to you,” Marcie quickly added, as if she was afraid that Lin Sanjiu might misunderstand.
On the contrary, Lin Sanjiu did not really care, she smiled and said, “Okay. We can go back later at night. What do we do now?” As she spoke, she passed the packet of digestive biscuits to Marcie.
Marcie took out two pieces and starting munching, “I think this is quite a good place. We have food and drinks, and there isn’t any sunlight here. We should find some items to light up the place. Then, we could clean up the mess first…” as she said this, she lifted the chin of one of the corpse.
She was right. Even though the air was dry, they could not tell if the bodies would still rot in such high temperature. As the three of them were thirsty and hungry, they cleared through a heap of food like a tornado and drank more water. Luther was the first one to leap up, “Let’s go. Let’s get ourselves some lavender-scented candles!”
As they knew that there were no threats in the supermarket, this time round, they moved much quicker. Without taking much time, the supermarket was lit with the soft glow of candlelights. As the candles burned, a pleasant lavender scent filled the supermarket.
“We have already experienced two worlds. This is the first time we had such a romantic atmosphere,” Luther smiled as he said this to Lin Sanjiu, while he was dragging a dead body by its shoulder jerkily along the ground.
“How can you find this romantic when you are dragging a dead body,” Lin Sanjiu lifted the legs of that dead body, finding his comment rather amusing. “Heavenly King, can you be quicker?”
Both of them carried the body, slowly dragging it up the escalator, step by step. Marcie was standing at the top of the escalator, keeping a watch out. She signaled that it was safe. This was an army gesture that both Luther and herself learned from the previous world. Both of them hurried to the first floor and dumped the body on another heap of corpses.
These people were once alive… Lin Sanjiu felt a little disturbed. She sighed in her heart and asked, “How many dead bodies are left?”
“Not many. Just two to three corpses which are over in the cosmetic area.” Luther wiped his sweat. His rabbit-like fair skin was now red. As he said this, the three of them climbed down the escalator and headed to the cosmetic section.
“Bang!”
Suddenly, they heard a ramming sound, it reverberated clearly through the supermarket.
Chapter 11 - The Person Behind the Door
“What’s that? Didn’t you say that there was nobody else in the supermarket?” Marcie spoke very softly as her body tensed up.
“There was really nobody just now. Who knows where they’ve come in from?” Luther scolded back quietly.
At that moment, the three of them were all holding kitchen knives. The group was led by Luther, followed by Lin Sanjiu, then Marcie, who was keeping a lookout for anything that might come from the side. They headed slowly toward the direction where they heard the collision.
Getting the kitchen knives was Lin Sanjiu’s idea. They managed to find them at the Ready-To-Eat section. Perhaps because they have been used for cutting Lou Mei (braised meat), they were not that sharp—they carried a faint stench of rotten Lou Mei even though they have been wiped. Nevertheless, with the knives, the three of them felt much more confident.
“Bang!” another dull sound rang out through the air.
This time, the three of them recognized immediately the correct direction where the noise came from and headed in the upper left direction. “It’s here!” Marcie pointed.
Not far from them, under the dim light of the candles, they could see a door with the sign “Staff Only”. The three of them looked at each other. Lin Sanjiu nodded and started to speak—it didn’t matter who the person was, a young female voice would certainly always let the other party lower their guard. “Who’s inside? Come out now!”
The air stood still for a few seconds.
After they waited for a while, and just when Lin Sanjiu was about to impatiently ask again, an unmistakable sobbing sound came from behind the door. They heard a bright, timid voice asking, “Who are you?”
“Hey, little girl? How old are you? We are not bad people…” Lin Sanjiu cautiously followed with a question, ”Are you alone behind that door?”
The little girl muttered a “yeah” with a sobbing tone and replied, ”I am eleven.”
Hearing this, the three of them placed their kitchen knives down. Marcie even went so far as to grab a towel from one of the shelves and covered them. Almost as if she was afraid to scare the little girl, she asked in a gentle voice, ”Why are you here alone? Where are your parents?”
The little girl’s sobbing suddenly intensified: “My, my… dad works here. He brought me here last night. Afterward, many people rushed into the supermarket and started fighting over items,so my dad locked me here and told me not to c
ome out…”
Sympathy flashed across their faces. Needless to say, the little girl’s father must be dead—he might even be one of those dead bodies that they carried outside.
“Little girl, what’s your name? Why don’t you open the door first?” Marcie knocked the door gently.
“My name is Wang Sisi. My dad warned that I should not open the door unless it was for him…” the little girl sobbed again, “but he is not even back now…”
The three of them could not help feeling emotional. She was just a little girl, they did not even know how she managed to survive that night…
“You should also say something. Comfort her,” Luther hinted softly to Lin Sanjiu.
Lin Sanjiu looked back helpless, showing that it was beyond her. Even though she was a woman, she was raised like a boy since young and was at her wits ends when it came to dealing with children. Furthermore, in such a situation where that child was already so frightened and fragile—it would be considered pretty good if that her “comfort” did not leave any sort of mental trauma.
Faced with Lin Sanjiu’s cold words, Wang Sisi instantly stammered and stopped speaking.
Marcie rolled her eyes at Lin Sanjiu and whispered to the both of them, “The little girl probably already gained Heat Resistance Adaptation. It is not right for her to keep staying inside.” Then, she quickly said, “Sisi, your dad told you not to come out because it wasn’t safe at that time. It is safe right now. Why don’t you come out? We can wait for your father together, okay?”
Wang Sisi, who was behind the door, seemed rather hesitating. She made two sniffling sound as if she was unable to make a decision.
At this point, Marcie, who was now overwhelmed with a sense of maternal instinct, felt her heart melt when she heard the girl’s sniffles. She walked quickly to the door and continued in the gentle voice, “You have been inside since last night, I guess you should be hungry now. Auntie has a lot of food here, what do you like to eat?”
“Well, I am very hungry. I wish I could see the fish that my mom cooks…” Wang Sisi said timidly, ”and a chocolate bar…”
Tears welled up in Marcie’s eyes, she wiped the corner of her eyes and replied rapidly, “Sure, sure. Let’s open the door. Auntie will bring you to get some food, okay?”
Seeing that she was handling the situation pretty well, the two idle people behind her started to gossip in whispers.
Luther said softly, “Marcie told me that she was married once before. But the two of them could not have children, so it ended in a divorce…”
Just when the two of them were chatting idly, Wang Sisi finally agreed to come out under Marcie’s persuasion. “Auntie, I am coming out…” Wang Sisi called out apprehensively. They heard the “click” of the door, and the doorknob turned.
However, the door did not move.
“Huh?” Marcie was surprised. She lowered her head and examined the door, then facing the gap at the door frame, she asked, “Sisi, did you father locked the door from outside when he left?”
The little girl suddenly became panicky and replied, “Yes... I think so. I can’t remember!”
The three of them frowned. As the supermarket’s main target group are high-end consumers, the materials used for the interior construction were all specifically chosen. Hence, even the staff room door was quite thick. Marcie examined the keyhole and yelled determinedly: “Back away, Sisi! Auntie will kick the door down!” Before the other two people could stop her, she already gave the door a forceful kick.
Marcie drew in a breath and immediately sat down on the floor holding her leg. The door did not even budge a little.
“What should we do?” She turned and looked at the two people behind her feeling slightly helpless.
Lin Sanjiu opened her mouth but finally kept silent. She might be able to “store” the door away. That is if the metal gates didn’t count just now which would mean that she only had one more chance to use that ability. But, it is only seven thirty in the morning right now… Besides, she could not tell for certain if she indeed had one more chance… Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment and did not say anything in the end.
After all, there were other methods to open that door. If indeed she could still use that ability one more time—it might be better for everyone if she kept it for something else. “When we were carrying the dead bodies, I noticed that some of them were the staff from the supermarket. They even had their uniforms on,” Luther spoke first after he ruminated for a while. Lin Sanjiu secretly felt a sense of relief and less guilty about it. Luther eyed the entrance of the supermarket, hinting to the two others, “Perhaps, a person lying over might have the key…”
Following this flow of logic, the three of them got their spirits up and gathered together to discuss.
As the sunlight outside was very strong now, the temperature must be presumably high. Since Lin Sanjiu’s body had not been “strengthened”, they decided that she will stay behind to guard the staff room door. Before she left, Marcie stressed to Lin Sanjiu with a very worried look: “Don’t say anything you shouldn’t. Don’t scare that kid!”
Lin Sanjiu nodded with a face full of awkwardness.
When the two of them left, the supermarket instantly became quiet again. Wang Sisi seemed to realize that the stiff “stay-strong sister” was the only one left outside. Other than the occasional sob, she did not say a word, so Lin Sanjiu was bored stiff. She started to play with the kitchen knife in her hand as she sat on the floor.
Honestly speaking, now that Luther and Marcie left, this was a good time for her to try out if she still had one last chance to use her ability for today. However, she could not convince herself to make the decision. Other than that slightly smelly kitchen knife in her hand, she did not have anything worth storing. If she wasted her last chance just like that, she would really weep without tears.
She did not know how long she struggled with it and hesitated before she heard the footsteps by the escalator near the entrance. Lin Sanjiu stood up and looked over. It was Luther and Marcie.
“That was fast?” she asked, puzzled.
Luther showed her his two buckteeth and laughed, “We were lucky. The first woman we searched was the manager of the supermarket. I found a bunch of keys in her apron…” after he had said this, he took out and showed Lin Sanjiu, a bunch of clanging keys. “Lucky for us, this manager labeled all her keys. So, this should be easy for us.”
Lin Sanjiu paused for a moment, as she eyed the entrance. “Wang… where is her father? Weren’t you supposed to,” she lowered her voice, “find that from her father’s dead body?”
“Sisi, auntie is back. I will help you open the door now,” Marcie said as she squatted down. Just as Marcie slot the key into the keyhole, Lin Sanjiu suddenly felt her heart skipped a beat. When she was finally aware of what she was doing, a white light had already flashed in her palm. The kitchen knife had turned in a card, and she pinched it tightly in her hand.
Lin Sanjiu looked at the card in her hand with some shock. Before she could regret over her impulsive action, she could hear the sound of the door being unlocked. Next, Marcie gently pushed opened the door and said, “Sisi, auntie already opened the door…”
Just as Marcie took a step forward, Lin Sanjiu suddenly tackled her and pushed her to the ground.
Chapter 12 - Living on with Wang Sisi?
In a split second, everything became chaotic.
With Lin Sanjiu’s tackle, the skin on Marcie’s elbow was scrapped and hurt with a burning sensation. Just as she was about to say, “What the hell are you doing?” she heard Luther yelled out. Luther lifted his knife and rushed into the room, brandishing the knife above Marcie and Lin Sanjiu. “Clash!” a metallic sound rang out. With Luther’s attack, the agile thorn-like black shadow that was about to pierce Marcie’s face was suddenly sent flying away. Marcie blinked her eyes and only realized then that it was the mouthpart of a duoluozhong.
Lin Sanjiu did a somersault and quickly stood up on
her feet. Marcie stood up almost at the same time, feeling a sudden warmth on her face—she touched her face and found that her skin was still cut by the mouthpart and was bleeding.
A few drops of blood fell to the ground leaving a few red splashes.
“Agu… Auntie, can Sisi drink this?” A timid-sounding, soft child-like voice rang out.
The three of them did not move; their faces darkened.
The staff room door was wide open, and a vomit-inducing rotten stench rushed out. A duoluozhong wearing a light pink flowery dress—no one could possibly call that thing a little girl— was standing at the door.
She looked different from the security guard they had seen. Wang Sisi was much smaller than him and was a little plumper. She also had that wrinkly, layered brown skin, but her flowery dress still fitted her well. Unfortunately, there was a large black patch on the c.h.e.s.t area of her dress which either came from the mucus that Wang Sisi’s body secreted or some person’s blood. There were a few sparse strands of thick hair that bore through that sticky layered skin on her head. They were tied together with an originally pink butterfly bow. That was probably once her ponytail.
She seemed really happy as she held her dress and swayed twice. Her mouthpart produced a “gege” sounding laughter, “Thank you, older brother, older sister, and auntie. Sisi can eat again.”
Just when Lin Sanjiu was about to say something, the girl thrust her nimble, thorn-like mouthpart forward. The three of them jumped backward at the same time, dodging her attack. The mouthpart swept across the floor, and the blood on the ground disappeared.
Thereafter, her lidless eyes turned and locked on to Lin Sanjiu. “You’re the older sister just now who isn’t gentle at all.”
Lin Sanjiu could feel the acid churning in her stomach. She suppressed her discomfort and coldly said, “We underestimated you. I didn’t know that a duoluozhong like yourself could possess such intellect…” She was much taller than Wang Sisi and was standing right in front of the staff room door, so she could easily see the entire interior of the room.