Way of the Devil

“35 bucks.” Behind the run-down, yellowed counter, a hook-nosed waiter in a white shirt and suspenders concocted a cocktail with skilled movements. He easily poured the solution into the glass before him.

Pad-like objects floated in the faint reddish wine. It gave the cocktail an appearance of some half-congealed blood.

A young man in a gray windbreaker stood before the counter. He ruffled his messy, short golden hair. He slid the small change across the counter, picked up the glass, and took a few sips.

“What do the higher-ups want? There are many eyes in the Platinum Academy. The had a shot, and they blew it. Now, they’re coming here for my help. This is difficult, the reward won’t be enough…”

“The reward was increased. We have an insider in the academy, you can act without worry,” replied the waiter drily. “Naturally, the consequence of the reduced difficulty means you’ll have to share a portion of the reward with our insider. That won’t be a problem, right?”

“An insider, huh? That’s great, I’ll take the job.” The gold-haired man caressed his nose. He sucked back his snot which almost fell down from his nostrils, and finished his drink in one go. Then, he turned the glass upside down on the counter, turned, and left.

“A little fellow who doesn’t even have a recognized soldier armor, and yet we have to send out a Nightwalker with a general armor.” The waiter was also filled with emotion.

A waitress walked by, and softly said, “The Nightwalker is very close to amassing enough resources to modify his armor and bring it to a titled armor’s standards, right?”

“Almost. There’s only a few Titled Armor Generals in this city. There are too few of them. After this job, I reckon that the higher-ups will dispatch some higher-ranking Armor Generals over, and we’ll have our hands full then,” said the waiter as he shrugged. “Let’s enjoy this blissful moment while we can.”

An Armor General was a popular term for the powerful combatants who possessed a set of tailor-made armor.

They started from standard Soldier Armors and worked their way up through a General Armor to their current standing. Throughout the long years of training, they slowly noticed their own advantages and shortcomings. With that knowledge, they designed a General Armor that was most suited to themselves.

Unlike Soldier Armors, General Armors were mainly supplied to high-ranking military officers. The materials these armors were made of were usually of high quality.

The various General Armors that were improved with that as the fundamentals would be capable of unleashing powerful might due to them being close to the Armor General’s advantages.

If they utilized their armors well, they could become great generals capable of taking on 10 opponents at once. They would even have important roles in key battle tactics. They were very powerful, and were equivalent to the special forces of ordinary people.

In the Alan Federation, an Armor General was also given various titles. Hence, they were known as Titled Armor Generals.

The Nightwalker left the bar. He bought a pack of cigarettes from a small shop around the corner, lit one, and took a puff.

‘The Platinum Academy’s grand examination is just around the corner. Let’s do it on the day after the grand examination. The lax after the excitement is always the easiest weakness to exploit.’ He reached into his sleeve and took out a small paper strip. When he opened it, there was a monochrome portrait and a brief description.

The portrait was one of the Platinum Academy’s Armor Course’s Jorin.

*****************

‘Let’s see how quickly this body can adapt to improvements.’ Lu Sheng sat on his bed and focused his gaze on Deep Blue’s frame.

“Iron Man’s Three Gears, level up.”

As he focused his mind, the frame blurred again. Then, it regained clarity.

“Iron Man’s Three Gears, first gear, level two. (Armor Harmonizing Power, Weak Level Four.)”

An extremely subtle change surfaced on his body’s surface again. Lu Sheng frowned slightly. He felt that the improvement was on an even smaller scale compared to before.

“Again.”

He focused his mind again. The frame quickly blurred and clarified.

“Iron Man’s Three Gears, first gear level three. (Armor Harmonizing Power, Weak Level Four.)”

‘This time, the extent of the improvement was too small to raise the Harmonizing Power by one level… Is it the problem with the training method, or is this body lacking in potential?’ Lu Sheng’s brows were deeply furrowed.

‘Let’s continue. I’d like to see how far I can improve.’

Lu Sheng calmed his spirits and continued levelling up. Since he had the materials which listed out the actual steps, the Modifier was now capable of reducing the time he needed to train by a great margin.

The training method originally required a person to train for a couple of years to level up. However, Lu Sheng managed to condense the entire process and accomplish it within an extremely short span of time.

This was not a derivation, hence the minimal Mental Energy requirement.

“Iron Man’s Three Gears, first gear, level four. (Armor Harmonizing Power, Weak Level Four.)”

In no time, the level of the training method was the same with Lu Sheng’s own Harmonizing Power. They were both at level four.

This time, the margin of improvement was even smaller.

Lu Sheng felt his body for any changes. It seemed as if his body could still withstand it. Hence, he continued with levelling up.

“Improve Iron Man’s Three Gears.”

“Pcchht!” The frame blurred and clarified.

“Iron Man’s Three Gears, first gear, level five. (Armor Harmonizing Power, Weak Level Five.)”

Finally, his Harmonizing Power increased by one level.

However, Lu Sheng was not too happy. He continued to modify the training method.

He gradually felt this body’s limits. Consequently, the Mental Energy he expended increased as well.

At the fifth level, one unit of his Mental Energy was consumed.

“Continue improving the Iron Man’s Three Gears.”

In no time, his Harmonizing Power levelled up. From Weak Level Five, to Average Level One, Average Level Two, Average Level Three, and it stopped.

‘Is this the natural limit of this body?’ Through the rapid and consecutive improvements, Lu Sheng had a rough grasp on what this Harmonizing Power was.

This Harmonizing Power was like a comprehensive force field. It was the combination of one’s body and mind in a certain ratio, which naturally gave rise to this peculiar force field.

Through expending one’s mental energy and stamina, this force field could strengthen the user’s senses and control over the surrounding objects to the greatest extent.

The constant improvement of the Iron Man’s Three Gears also caused the contours of his muscles to rise. In a few minutes, from an average, balanced body, he grew into a strong student who was slightly well built.

‘This body can’t take it anymore. My metabolism accelerated to five times the original rate. I can’t go any further. I need some time to get used to the changes.’ Lu Sheng heaved a long sigh. He stood up again and poured himself a glass of water.

As the side effect of the Iron Man’s Three Gears’ improvement, this body’s strength and stamina were greatly improved. However, they were still within the range of an athlete.

Fortunately, Jorin had no extra social circles. A few days later, Esha came to the academy and returned the washed uniform. Lu Sheng took this opportunity to visit Xia Cheng and return her uniform to her.

Other than that, Lu Sheng did nothing else. Aside from having large meals in the cafeteria every day, he would stay in the dormitory and rest. He would not even come into contact with anyone else.

Perhaps it was due to the small margin of improvement and the healing effects of his Yang Essence which improved his constitution, but by the fourth day, Lu Sheng had completely regained his new metabolism rate.

He started another round of levelling up.

During midnight, he could not sleep. He got up and drank a glass of water. He felt that his body was almost completely healed. Hence, he decided to go to the rooftop.

It was four o’clock in the morning. The skies were still dark, for daybreak had not yet come. The skies were pitch-black since there was no moon, either.

Lu Sheng sat down in a corner.

‘Sometimes, it feels great to Arrive in the Other Worlds to relax.’ He opened a pack of compressed biscuits and stuffed one into his own mouth.

“Deep Blue,” he called out in his mind. The light blue frame immediately surfaced before Lu Sheng’s eyes.

He was planning to continue improving his Harmonizing Power. However, he suddenly picked up a vague scent of blood from the wind.

‘Why’s there the smell of blood in the academy?’ He was immediately alerted.

“Tap… Tap…”

A series of light footsteps reached his ears from the edge of the rooftop.

Lu Sheng was curled up in a corner, so he was not noticed.

“Have you brought it?”

“Mm-hm. Everything’s here.”

Two men were conversing in cold, hushed voices.

“Cash on delivery.”

“It was nice working with you.”

“It was nice— Hm?! You!!”

All of a sudden, one of the men grunted. He did not even finish his sentence when he was silenced.

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes. He heard the plop of a falling body, and the squelch of a blade being extracted from flesh. He stood up in the corner. He had an idea, and remained motionless.

The sound of flesh being cut quickly filled the rooftop. In less than 10 minutes, everything became quiet again.

The footsteps slowly moved further away into the stairs. It seemed that the other man had left.

Lu Sheng stepped out, his expression unchanged. He scanned his surroundings. Other than the faint smell of blood in the air, there were no other signs left.

“Interesting.” The edge of his lips arced upward. He quickly descended the stairs and ran into Iron Tower, who was going up the stairs.

This was his neighbor who lived opposite him. He was wielding an iron stick as thick as a forearm. He was hurrying up the stairs with a grim expression.

Lu Sheng smiled at him and continued on his way past him.

“Stop!” Iron Tower suddenly called out behind him.

“What?” Lu Sheng turned around, puzzled.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Iron Tower stared at Lu Sheng for some time before continuing coldly, “I personally saw Billy making his way to the rooftop just now. Then, his sensor disappeared.”

“Billy? Who’s that?” Lu Sheng did not even know the name, but he acted easy.

If it was before, the gloomy Jorin would have cowered internally while he faced Iron Tower whose Harmonizing Power was Average Level Four.

Not only was Iron Tower’s Harmonizing Power a rank higher than his, his physique, strength, and combat techniques were also of a greater level than his.

Iron Tower was a top student who could be ranked among the top of his batch. He also had a powerful family backing him. On the other hand, Jorin was only one of the many peasant students.

“You don’t know him?” Iron Tower’s expression was gloomy. “I hope you’re telling the truth. I’ll get to the bottom of everything. Go and tell Quan Shihui, I’ll surely get a hold of some evidence, then… I’ll kill her!”

Lu Sheng kept his silence. He did not even know who Quan Shihui was. However, judging by Iron Tower’s vengeful looks, she was clearly an extremely dangerous person in the academy.

“If I told you that me appearing here is a complete coincidence, would you believe me?” In the end, Lu Sheng attempted to defend himself.

“What do you think?” Iron Tower wore a mocking look. He ignored Lu Sheng and continued hurrying up toward the rooftop.

Lu Sheng did not say anything else. It was apparent that he had been involved in some strange case.

After parting with Iron Tower, he continued down the stairs. When he reached the elevator, he noticed that the doors were open. A slim and tall female student was standing inside the elevator with her finger on the open button.

The strange thing was, her eyes were slightly closed as if she had dozed off.

Lu Sheng stopped a few meters before the elevator’s doors. He stared at this female student.

She had shoulder-length black hair. Her features were delicate and exquisite, while one of her eyes was covered by a purple eyepatch. Her lips were curved upward in a sort of perpetual smile.

The peculiar thing was that she was wearing a gray windbreaker on top of her academy uniform.

“Aren’t you coming in?” She slowly opened her eyes and saw Lu Sheng, who was standing outside the elevator.

“Are you the one Iron Tower is looking for?” Lu Sheng guessed with a frown.