The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 401: Light Out

Seeing a long-haired girl walking their way, he charged at her shouting, “Oh, Qing Ling, it’s fine for me to not be part of your world. You should be happy on your own! Qing Ling, how am I supposed to live without you? Take me away, Qing Ling...”

Scared witless, the girl almost called the police.

Thankfully, Qiu Qiu didn’t end up hurting the girl, and instead stumbled and fell into a drunken stupor. Seemingly used to it, Lin Dajian got him onto his back and kept walking.

Once they were in their dorm room, Qiu Qiu woke up for a brief moment to vomit his guts out in the bathroom. Then he blacked out on his bed, face down.

Lin Dajian rolled out a yoga mat and stretched. Then he started doing push-ups, sit-ups, and planks. He seemed to be a gym rat.

Gao Yang would like to join, but considering his image of a frail boy who had just woken up from a vegetative state, and that he was now doing the advanced exercises, he might shock his roommates to death with 100 reps of one-hand push-ups, so he stopped himself.

After taking a shower, Mi Shi returned to his desk and turned on his laptop, opening his book to start studying. As expected of a straight A student.

The light went off in the room at 10:30.

Qiu Qiu was already snoring.

Lying on his bed after taking a shower, Lin Dajian put on his earphones and started browsing Tok Tik.

Mi Shi turned on his chargeable desk lamp and continued to study.

The last to take a shower, Gao Yang got onto his bed and, for a brief moment, felt like a regular college student; there were no monsters or a coming apocalypse.

Past midnight, Mi Shi and Lin Dajian retired to bed too.

Gao Yang extended his senses, confirming with his keen hearing that his three roommates had entered a deep slumber with steady breathing.

He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes.

[Access granted.]

[You have accumulated 292 Luck points.]

—Enter the Talent Pantheon.

Gao Yang had been thinking about his path to greater power for a while.

Now that his Lucky had reached level 4, his maximum stat was 1000. His Strength, Agility, and Willpower had all exceeded 1000 with bonuses from his various Talents. There was no room to push those stats further at the moment.

On the other hand, his Constitution, Endurance, and Charisma still had a long way to go. Roughly speaking, he would need about 1600 Luck points to push them to 1000, which was quite a lot.

Luck didn’t seem to have a ceiling.

According to the studies and analysis done by the Hundred Rivers Union, however, it was concluded that Talents outside of the top 100 could at most reach level 4.

Whether that was the case needed testing to find out.

If Lucky remained at level 4 even after he pushed Luck to 1500 or even 2000, it would suggest that level 4 was as far as the Talent could go. The ordeal, however, would take him 1200 Luck points.

That was a large sum, too.

Upon deliberation, Gao Yang thought he should quickly comprehend new Talents as soon as possible.

Many awakeners had died during the Crimson Tide, releasing their Talents back into the pool at the Talent Pantheon.

Even half of the top 12 Talents had been released. If he could comprehend one and push it to level 4, the Talent itself and the bonuses it came with would bring him significant growth.

If he was too slow, the Talents would be claimed by other awakeners or newly awakened awakeners. Nainai, for example, had gotten Joker’s Shapeshifter last month.

Gao Yang felt a strong sense of regret. If only he hadn’t been out of it for three months.

On second thought, though, it was his greed speaking.

That night, he had come back to life after getting his heart crushed thanks to the curse from Fresh Snow, thus allowing him to kill Lilia, and his Lucky had reached level 4 in the process, raising the ceiling of his stats and granting him Willful Power. The only price he paid was becoming unconscious for three months. It was a great bargain.

Speaking of which, he wondered how Fresh Snow was doing.

She probably didn’t know that he had woken up yet, or she was stopped from coming to him by her sister.

Let’s push that aside. I still have a lot on my plate, and the relationship between awakeners and Spectres is a whole can of worms. I’ll try to reach out to her when I get the chance.

With a head full of thoughts, Gao Yang arrived at the Talent Pantheon.

To his surprise, he didn’t return to the orphanage, and neither did he see the lonesome cosmos and the twelve pillars of light beyond the orphanage. Instead, he found himself standing in an empty arcade.

All around him were arcade machines, dance machines, and small karaoke booths, flickering with colorful light. The mix of games’ sound effects and joyful music filled the space, vying for attention.

Before Gao Yang were twelve claw machines, but inside weren’t dolls, but glowing orbs of energy particles that resembled nebulas.

Each machine was painted with a cute pattern, including the world tree for Life, the flag for Support, the fangs for Poison, the fist for Buff, the shield for Guard, the flower for Summon, the urchin shape for Damage, the eye for Psyche, the fire for Element, the book for Knowledge, the hourglass for Time-Space, and the hexagram for Miracle.

“It will take you 480 Luck points to attempt to comprehend a Talent. You do not have enough at the moment.” A gentle voice spoke from behind Gao Yang.

“I know. Is there anything wrong with window shopping?”

Gao Yang turned around irritatedly and jumped. The system had taken the form of White Dew!

Unlike her usual regal image, she was dressed in a sexy black bunny uniform. Her captivating curves could make one’s blood boil. On her full head of silver hair were two furry white rabbit ears, the left one slumping down.

She was wearing a pair of bright red stilettos, and her long legs were wrapped in fishnet stockings...

He should stop. He felt the guilt and shame of when he did bad things behind his parents’ back in his childhood.

He turned away. “Why do you look like this?”

“Everything is but the projection of your rationality, emotions, and imaginations...”

“That can’t be it!” Gao Yang cut the system off vehemently. “I’ve never pictured this!”

The system didn’t respond.

“Oh!” Gao Yang came to a realization. “Could it be Fresh Snow?”

It was possible. Fresh Snow had left him with half of her curse. Perhaps the special energy retained some of her will and memories.

Fresh Snow had said that her sister often played games with her. Maybe she took her to arcades often too.

Arcades held activities regularly. It made sense that Fresh Snow would see a pretty and sexy bunny girl or two. Perhaps she thought that her sister, White Dew, would look better in the outfit and even pictured it in her head.

Fresh Snow, oh Fresh Snow, I didn’t expect you to be a sister like this.

Gao Yang grinned. As the bunny girl White Dew that was the system walked up to him, he kept his gaze on the twelve claw machines before him.

Soon, he frowned slightly.