Trouble

“Got her.”

On the profile card, Lingxin's Affection had already broken past thirty, the progress bar slowly coming to a halt at 37.

A small grey gift icon had been activated, bouncing merrily.

He gently took off his helmet. Less than a second passed.

The pure, untainted affection on his face vanished completely, replaced by a sharp, calculating glint in Bai Xiaodu's eyes.

“Admires the Emperor and the Mage Emperor, loves Empire history, athletic, pure-blood human...”

This was practically laying her cards on the table, revealing that she was with the Federation military.

And everything after that had also gone exactly as Bai Xiaodu predicted.

People like her simply couldn't resist playing the hero to the weak.

Regardless of gender, anyone would feel their vanity deeply satisfied when adored and pursued by an attractive member of the opposite sex.

Especially when that person shared some of their own hobbies.

His phone vibrated as several big rockets shot across the screen in a lively display.

Watching the dazzling fireworks on the screen, Bai Xiaodu's face remained expressionless.

She really was a sucker for this.

Everything was going according to plan.

As for whether it counted as manipulation—it was clearly a mutual agreement.

Why was his careful effort to win Lingxin's affection labeled as deception, while Lingxin's little tricks to tease him and spark their relationship were considered “pure love”?

Wasn't that a bit too unfair?

Opening the gift, the reward that popped out caught Bai Xiaodu a bit by surprise.

He had expected it to be more attribute points, or perhaps a straightforward spell or weapon.

Instead, it was a passive skill.

【Heart of Iron】 (Equippable)

【Type: Passive Skill】

【Quality: Blue】

【Effect: Spirit Resistance +3. Reduces spellcasting action time based on spell intensity: Second Circle spells reduced by 1s, First Circle spells reduced by 2s, cantrips reduced by 3s.】

【Description: Your thoughts are as rational as electronic components, and your heart is as cold as mechanical metal. You shall praise the glory of binary code for eternity.】

To maintain balance, many games with spellcasting classes would often shackle Mages with skill cooldowns.

This was to prevent them from chugging mana potions while spamming ultimate abilities, essentially turning a single player into a one-man army capable of clearing any field.

Otherwise, Warrior players would have absolutely no game experience.

But reality had no such restrictions.

Getting wiped out by an endless barrage of giant meteors falling from the sky like a natural disaster before even catching a glimpse of the enemy was a very common occurrence.

Of course, such an absurd tactic had its requirements. For instance, casting magic was extremely taxing on one's energy.

Instantly recovering from that soul-deep exhaustion required a massive amount of rare and expensive materials.

But that was only under the premise of brainlessly spamming massive spells.

Under normal circumstances, the most common limitation for a Mage or Warlock in combat was their spellcasting actions.

The speed at which they could construct a spell rune to recast a spell was essentially the real-world equivalent of a magic cooldown.

From this alone, one could see just how terrifying 【Heart of Iron】 was.

“Equip.”

Bai Xiaodu issued the command without a second thought.

Aside from his thoughts speeding up slightly, there didn't seem to be any other changes.

He raised his hand and aimed, preparing to construct a spell rune as usual, adjusting the timing of its flashes and the size of its lines.

But the moment the thought of casting arose, images of his previous successful casts suddenly flashed through his mind.

A gorgeous array pattern spun gently in his palm.

A bone-chilling cold began to spread, yet it was strictly confined within the delicate and compact patterns.

Bai Xiaodu's eyes instantly widened.

Oh, so that's how the reduction worked.

It modified his memories, extracting the pattern of the array from his successful casts to create a pre-processed shortcut for the spell.

When he actually wanted to cast, it would simply release this pre-processed template.

Wasn't this basically cheating?

Wait, no.

A wide grin spread across Bai Xiaodu's face.

How could this be cheating? This was his super-brain using its super-intelligence to tell him to cast a super-spell.

Bai Xiaodu was in a fantastic mood.

His alarm rang. Covering his belly with his tail, he went to sleep.

...

The next day.

Since the minotaur boss said no clients would be coming in today, Bai Xiaodu decided to use the free time to apply for the association.

【Federal Explorers Association - Pingshan District Branch】

To put it nicely, it was a channel provided by the Federation for commoners to climb the social ladder, a gathering place for pioneers of new planets.

To put it bluntly, they were just outsourced workers without any social security benefits, essentially begging for scraps in the Federation's transcendent circle.

With the combined population of all races nearing a hundred billion, jobs chose the people, not the other way around.

Bai Xiaodu was already very satisfied just to have a decent job opportunity that allowed him to access transcendent resources.

Working the night shift at a lounge was definitely not a proper job.

A strong-willed person could resist the corruption of a decadent lifestyle, but the more he refused, the more he would be targeted by wealthy patrons.

In their words, it was about the thrill of conquest.

After all, no matter how good-looking a mortal was, they were nothing more than toys in the eyes of others.

If one was disobedient or got in the way of someone's profits, having a handsome face would only make things worse.

Such situations were all too common.

Bai Xiaodu came to a halt, his silver fox tail drooping slightly.

Two thugs on the street casually closed in on him. They were heavily built, wearing peaked caps, with jackal-like tattoos on their arms.

【Jackal Gang】

A prominent underworld syndicate in the Pingshan District, they naturally engaged in the classic businesses of running casinos, bars, and loan sharking.

Bai Xiaodu didn't recall ever provoking this gang.

But they were clearly following him.

Finding a relatively secluded spot, Bai Xiaodu turned around.

“Brothers of the Jackal Gang, what business do you have with me?”

One of them shrugged, ignoring his question, while the other crossed his arms, a hideous grin spreading across his scarred face.

“Since you know who we are, we can skip the pleasantries.”

He pulled out a photograph showing a grey fox-kin child. The child had blood at the corner of his eye and looked terrified, cowering in fear.

He deliberately waved it in front of Bai Xiaodu's face.

Bai Xiaodu narrowed his eyes, a trace of coldness slipping into his gaze.

It was a kid from Grandma's orphanage.

He was quite cute but was always bullied because of his small build. Since they shared the same race, albeit with different colored fur, Bai Xiaodu would sometimes give him some extra candy and biscuits.

He was a very good kid.

Seeing his expression, the thug's grin widened.

“Enjoying your time at the Tulip Night Lounge? You've been making good money and drawing all the customers there, leaving our brothers with nothing but the north wind to eat, eh?”

“You know who we are and what we're capable of. He's just an orphan. No matter how many of them die, we have plenty of ways to sweep it under the rug.”

“If you want to settle this, come with us quietly. Don't worry, we won't kill you. After all, you're far too useful.”

He raised his triangular eyes, deliberately scanning their surroundings slowly.

“But now that you're here, you can't run anyway. You really picked a great spot—there are no surveillance cameras around.”

Bai Xiaodu nodded.

“You're right. There really are no cameras here.”