The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 72: War Tiger

“Let him go, you villain!” Lovely Lamb yelled.

The pressure the man in black applied on Gao Yang’s neck subsided a little, and the moment Gao Yang was able to take a breath, he clung onto the man’s leg and shouted, “Run! Lovely Lamb!”

The man shook his hands off and strode up to Lovely Lamb.

“Don’t kill her...”

Gao Yang trailed off, his eyes widening in disbelief.

The man drenched in blood reached out with his right hand and lifted Lovely Lamb into a one-arm embrace.

He rubbed his uncovered chin against Lovely Lamb’s chubby face. “Come on, Cute Little Lamb. Let Uncle give you a kiss...”

“Go away! I hate you! Waaaah you are the worst...” Lovely Lamb struggled and flailed around to hit the man in the face.

“Come on, just a kiss. Then Uncle will put you down.”

“No!”

“Then I’ll kill him.” The man in black was still smiling as he turned around to glance at Gao Yang. “Didn’t you say he’s your second favorite big brother in the world?”

“Go to hell!”

Then a girl flew over, kicking the man in the head with both feet and sending him flying. White Rabbit landed and gracefully caught Lovely Lamb, who had just flown out of the man’s arm.

She put the little girl down and held onto her still injured abdomen, her face pale. Patting Lovely Lamb on the head, she instructed, “Go save Sister Qing Ling. She’s in the worst condition.”

“Yeah...” Lovely Lamb wiped off her tears and ran toward the girl lying in her own pool of blood.

Enduring the pain in her abdomen, White Rabbit strode toward the man lying prone on the floor and stomped on him repeatedly. “Are you fucking nuts?! Who would welcome newbies like this?! I’d been avoiding you on purpose exactly because I was worried about you getting another crazy idea! You truly never disappoint, you psycho!”

“Haha, hahahaha...” The man in black broke into laughter, never resisting White Rabbit’s kicks.

Finally, White Rabbit grew too tired to continue, and she slumped down on the floor.

The man in black slowly sat up, holding onto his bleeding left shoulder and calling out to Lovely Lamb, “Hey, Cute Little Lamb! Hurry! Or Uncle Tiger is gonna die.”

“Serve you right! You fuckhead!” White Rabbit kicked him again, still fuming with rage.

“Come on, little rabbit. Don’t be so angry.” The man in black took off his balaclava and chuckled.

Gao Yang finally took a good look at him. The man seemed to be in his forties. With natural curls to his hair, his face was thin and sculpted, covered in messy stubbles. His deep-set eyes were bright and blazing with fiery spirit. On his left temple, Gao Yang could faintly make out a green tattoo of the character ‘tiger’.

Noticing Gao Yang’s gaze, the man lifted his right hand as a greeting. “War Tiger of the Twelve Zodiac Signs. I’m going to be your teacher from now on.”

Then he pointed at White Rabbit and the still unconscious Wu Dahai. “These two are my students as well. That was my midterm exam for them.”

Gao Yang lay bonelessly on the floor. Although he had survived, he was still reeling from all that had happened. “Right, sure. But how does their exam...concern us?”

“Well, you were here. Might as well take the test together. Consider it a placement test you take when you first enter school.” War Tiger stood up and walked up to Gao Yang with a hand on his crippled shoulder. “You’re pretty good, kid. You made quick judgements and pulled every possible tactic at your disposal. Do you know why you lost?”

“I’m too weak.”

“Good. You know yourself well.” War Tiger squatted down and helped Gao Yang up. “Fire and Replicate! Both amazing Talents. Unfortunately, the level is too low. And you have no training in close combat. In that, Qing Ling is much better than you. You’ve both got potential though. I’ll train you two well from now on.”

“May I...say no?”

That seemed to have caught him off guard. War Tiger thought for a moment. “Well, your Uncle Tiger isn’t a real devil. How about this? Either you accept me as your teacher, or I kill you. Your choice.”

“Please take care of me, Teacher.”

“You learn quickly.” War Tiger patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. Neither Qing Ling nor Officer Huang are fatally injured. It may seem like I’ve stabbed them in the heart, but I had purposefully made my stab two centimeters off to the right. And the blade of my short sword is narrow and thin, meaning the wounds aren’t large. Lovely Lamb would be able to heal them fully in a few minutes.”

“Even though the physical wounds will heal...ack!” Gao Yang covered his neck and broke into a coughing fit. “How...are we supposed to recover from the psychological trauma?”

War Tiger walked to his side and grabbed his right shoulder with one hand, making a twist and a push to pop Gao Yang’s arm back into his shoulder joint with an audible crack.

Gao Yang screamed and almost fainted.

“Why should you recover from that? Remember how weak, pathetic, and helpless you were tonight. Be grateful that you hadn’t run into a real enemy, or you would’ve been dead.”

The man seemed entirely too pleased with himself. “That’s my first lesson to you.”

Still holding onto her abdomen, White Rabbit slowly walked up to Gao Yang and said, “Apologies for the scare. Uncle Tiger got these...ideas every once in a while, and no one can stop him. That’s the norm for Wu Dahai and I. You’ll get used to it sooner or later.”

How?! Gao Yang suppressed a shudder.

War Tiger then walked up to Wu Dahai and dragged him toward Lovely Lamb by the leg. He didn’t forget to lecture Gao Yang and White Rabbit as he walked past them, “You and Wu Dahai have gotten better from the last test, but all in all, you still need to improve.”

“Come on!” White Rabbit cried out. “It’s easy for you to say! With your level 5 Killing Expert, who other than Captain can defeat you?”

“If all of you together can’t deal with me on my own, you’ll die for sure when you run into one of the Spectres.” War Tiger then cast Wu Dahai to Lovely Lamb’s side like he was throwing away a bag of garbage.

Kneeling on the floor with both hands on Qing Ling’s injured chest, Lovely Lamb shifted one hand to Wu Dahai’s fist-shattered chin without even batting an eye.

Wu Dahai groaned and trembled in discomfort.

Gao Yang took notes of two important pieces of information—the Spectres, and Killing Expert.

Was the Spectres an enemy organization of the Twelve Zodiac Signs? He would ask about it later.

As for Killing Expert...that was the number 11 Talent!

Although Gao Yang had memorized all the Talents from 199 to 11 with the system’s help, all he knew were the names of the Talents, not the detailed information.

He sought out the system in his head.

—System! Examine War Tiger’s Talent, Killing Expert.

[It takes 3 Luck points to examine the Talent.]

—Three?! Fine, do it.

[Talent: Killing Expert. Serial Number: 11. Rune Type: Damage.]

[Killing Expert: Mastery over all physical techniques, martial arts, and the use of all cold weapons and firearms for the purpose of killing. Pain sensitivity is lowered to 10% in battle, and physical abilities are enhanced the more seriously one is injured. When on the verge of death, all stats are buffed with a maximum multiplier of 3.]

[Stats Bonuses of Level 5 Killing Expert: Constitution + 1000, Strength + 1000, Agility + 1000, Willpower + 500, Charisma + 200.]

—Holy shit! Killing Expert! That’s crazy!

—If only I could replicate it!

[Level 5 Replicate allows one to replicate any Talent with a serial number greater than 10.]

—My Replicate is only level 2. Sigh...I’ve still got a long and hard way to go.

Ding!

The private elevator opened then, and everyone turned to look at it.