He didn't offer any empty words of encouragement. Instead, he simply looked at Lin Yuan for a long time.
His gaze wasn't that of an examiner looking at an examinee, but rather like someone seeing something from a long time ago.
“Seeing you reminds me of someone,” Meng Hao said, his voice soft. “He was also a kid who clawed his way up from the bottom. When he awakened, everyone called him trash.”
Lin Yuan remained silent.
“It was many years ago. That kid eventually went to Kyoto...” Meng Hao trailed off.
He patted Lin Yuan on the shoulder. His hand was heavy and rough, pressing down like a stone, yet the weight wasn't uncomfortable.
“Go and make something of yourself. Don't shame Donghai City.”
Lin Yuan nodded.
Meng Hao withdrew his hand and looked up at the moon.
Tonight, the moon was exceptionally round and bright.
A faint, almost imperceptible crimson tint bled into the moonlight. It wasn't the lingering glow of a sunset, but the moon’s own hue.
“I wonder why the moon feels so exceptionally round tonight,” he murmured to himself.
A young examiner nearby also looked up and replied, “True. It is a full moon, after all. It’s probably normal.”
Meng Hao said nothing more in response.
...
Lin Yuan walked out of the combat base gates and hailed a maglev taxi by the roadside.
He stuffed his large bag and Purple Lightning into the back seat, then sank into the chair with a long, heavy sigh.
For three days, he had lived in the woods, eating compressed biscuits and killing monsters. He had single-handedly pushed the Hangzhou college entrance exam point record to a whole new level.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't tired, but it was absolutely worth it. After all, he had gained a significant amount of Ability Points.
“Driver, take me to Hangzhou’s largest trading market.”
The trading market was still that same six-story building, its holographic sign tirelessly flashing fire and frost effects.
Lin Yuan carried his large bag into the first-floor lobby and headed straight for the materials acquisition area.
However, the lobby seemed to have changed since his last visit. A massive monster statue now stood in the center of the hall!
It was a creature Lin Yuan had never seen before—a wolf-headed humanoid.
The statue appeared ordinary on the surface, except for a rhombic red crystal embedded between the eyes of the wolf-headed humanoid.
Lin Yuan didn't pay it much mind and continued toward the acquisition area.
He soon arrived at the counter, where the clerk was a middle-aged man wearing glasses.
The man looked at the half-bag of Tier 2 monster cores Lin Yuan poured out, then at Lin Yuan, then back at the cores.
“Are you from this year’s college entrance exam?”
“Yeah.”
“The first-place guy, Lin Yuan?”
“...Yeah.”
The clerk silently lowered his head to continue sorting the cores, muttering a soft “No wonder” under his breath.
In the end, the materials sold for just over three hundred and twenty thousand. Lin Yuan watched the bank notification arrive on his phone, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Combined with his previous balance and the 450,000 from the arena bets, his account balance was now exactly over 4.6 million.
He went to the medicine section to restock on Source Recovery Pills. The shop owner smiled upon seeing him. “It’s you again, young man. How many do you need this time?”
Lin Yuan thought for a moment. The exam was over, but he didn't know what he would encounter on the way to Magic City. It was always better to stock up.
So, he bought four more bottles.
During this time, Lin Yuan chatted with the owner and asked about the massive statue in the lobby.
“Oh, you mean that statue? That creature is a demon species from the Magic Cave beneath Hangzhou. It’s called a Shadow Abyss Wolf!”
The owner stood up to hand the pills to Lin Yuan and continued:
“Supposedly, the statue was brought out from the Magic Cave by people from the Ability User Association. After researching it, they found it had no practical use, so they placed it in the lobby to inspire ability users.”
...
After buying the medicine, he walked out of the trading market and scanned the street.
His gaze locked onto a decent-looking men’s clothing store. The mannequin in the window wore a deep gray casual jacket with clean, sharp tailoring.
Then he saw a small sign at the door with a line of text: “Shower room available on the second floor. Free use with minimum purchase.”
Lin Yuan stood at the shop entrance for exactly five seconds.
Then, he pushed the door open with unprecedented speed.
Forty minutes later.
The shop door opened again, and the person who stepped out was like a completely different person from the one who had entered.
The one who went in was a savage with hair like a bird's nest, wearing tattered black clothes with several holes, carrying a burlap sack, and reeking of a mixture of blood and sweat.
The one who came out was a slender youth with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, standing 1.82 meters tall with fair skin.
He had changed into a trendy casual black outfit and had even bought a light-colored spare set to rotate.
The two outfits together weren't cheap, but with over three hundred thousand just deposited into his card, he didn't feel the sting of the expense.
The rate of people turning their heads to look at him skyrocketed. One girl was so busy looking back as she walked that she nearly hit a utility pole.
Lin Yuan kept his eyes forward, but the corners of his mouth curled into an uncontrollable arc.
“I guess being handsome is a real thing,” he thought, before expressionlessly opening the door of a maglev taxi.
“Driver, to the hotel.”
By the time he returned to the hotel, the lobby clock pointed to 9:10 PM.
The girl with the round-rimmed glasses was still at the front desk. She visibly froze when she saw him enter, the kind of look that said, “This person looks familiar.”
Lin Yuan gave her a nod and stepped into the elevator.
The moment the elevator doors closed, he pulled out his phone and sent a message to Shen Man.
“Teacher Shen, I went to the trading market today to buy a space ring and almost got scared off by the price. Even the smallest one costs over three million. Are you sure my S-rank benefits include a space ring?”
About ten seconds later, Shen Man’s reply arrived.
It wasn't text, but a voice message.
Lin Yuan tapped it, and Shen Man’s lazy voice drifted from the speaker.
“Yes, did I not tell you? An S-rank freshman is standard-issued a space ring with a capacity about the size of a small room. What’s the rush? You’ll get it once you reach Magic City.
Don't go buying one blindly. With your current net worth, you can't afford anything good anyway. Pay for your own milk tea.”
Immediately after, another message arrived.
“Congratulations on first place. As for the reimbursement for Purple Lightning, I’ll give it to you when you get to Magic City.”
Lin Yuan had originally wanted to complain about her not telling him about the space ring sooner.
But upon hearing about the reimbursement for Purple Lightning, he grinned from ear to ear.
When he reached the top floor, the elevator doors opened. He found his room, swiped his card, and pushed the door open.
The room had already been cleaned.
The sheets were changed, the curtains were half-drawn, and moonlight spilled in through the other half of the window.
He propped Purple Lightning against the bedside and collapsed onto the bed.
The mattress bounced twice, letting out a dull thud.
At that moment, he remembered Meng Hao’s words: “Seeing you reminds me of someone.”
Meng Hao hadn't said who that person was.
But his tone had carried a hint of regret, a touch of nostalgia, and something else that was hard to define.
Thinking of this, Lin Yuan simply decided not to dwell on it and closed his eyes.
...
Outside the window, the moon grew slightly redder than before.
Rate on N.U.
