"To be honest, burly security guards with stun batons and weapons are tough to handle. So before I came up, I told them: whatever she offered, I'll double it. In the end, each of them got 200,000 transferred to their accounts, and 200 grand settled the whole thing. See? Simple, isn't it?"
"Don't underestimate a cash-shop player!"
"You idiot, I only gave them 10,000 each. They ripped you off."
"I know. But, Sissy, that's just human nature. You have to understand and forgive human malice. I know you'd never part with 100,000—you want to buy a house, you want to study art abroad, right?"
"I know you. You never had much growing up, so you pinch pennies. Even with 120 million in your account, you still wouldn't spend freely. That's human nature too—just like how you wanted to kill me for this money. That's also human nature. I understand. I accept it. I forgive you."
I hauled Sissy up from the floor and held her out the window with one hand. Before that, while we'd been chatting, I'd already crushed the bones in both her wrists. Without access to glass, she was as frail as the girl who used to struggle carrying her computer tower.
"But right now, shouldn't you try to understand me a little?"
Sissy looked up at the sky, then back at me. A sly glint returned to her eyes:
"Don't think I don't know what this is all about. It's for that woman who dumped you. Is she worth it?"
I gave a noncommittal glance at the sky. "How did you find me? Or do you have any last words?"
Sissy: "After I fall, check my eyes."
She paused, seeming almost embarrassed, then added:
"You know my mom's address—you sent her that specialty food from your hometown. When this is all over, could you buy her a nice apartment? She had such a hard time raising me."
I shook my head gently: "No."
"You—"
"When this is over, I'll bring you back. We'll split seventy-thirty, and you can buy it yourself."
Sissy: "You jerk, Axel Zhou, cracking jokes at a time like this! What's your Abandoned Object? You can tell me now, can't you?"
I said: "Look behind me."
Sissy looked at the full moon rising to its zenith behind me. She didn't speak—just stared, stunned.
I gazed at the patch of darkness that didn't exist in Sissy's pupils, and slowly let go.
"Be good. Sweet dreams. Say hello to the moon for me."
---
Ten
System Prompt: "Player 06 Sissy Chen—hunt complete. Next target: Player 02 Warren. Location: Beijing."
Just as Sissy had said in her final words, a line of text surfaced in her pupils—and almost the instant I glanced up at the night sky and looked back down, she had vanished.
"I wonder if this kid is really dead, or just temporarily recycled by the system," I thought. This data-like instantaneous dissolution was indeed suspicious.
The hunt over, I checked my condition. Even with the level-3 armor, I had cuts on my neck and ears where the coverage was incomplete, stinging and burning. During the fight, I'd been too busy to notice.
But examining myself now, I discovered that all these wounds had already scabbed over. The shallower ones had even begun to heal.
Just as Sissy's first piece of intel had stated—the Abandoned Object would grant its bearer power. Under moonlight, I received a certain enhancement. In the heat of the moment, I'd instinctively leapt over two meters onto the top of the Ferris wheel—surprising even myself.
I caressed the pale-yellow moonlight spilling from the sky, lost in thought.
Glass could become a storm of blades. What could moonlight do?
Transform me into a magical girl?
Next, I conducted a series of strength tests in the abandoned park under the moonlight.
I'd already bribed all the security guards, so I might as well make use of it.
For a while, the park was shrouded in dust and flying debris.
Two hours later, drenched in sweat and completely drained, I pulled out pen and paper and began analyzing:
1. Under moonlight, my personal abilities are roughly eight times those of a normal adult; pushing full throttle, maybe ten times. Punching through stone pillars and snapping iron bars is no problem. (Roughly Tenshinhan or Rock Lee at normal levels.) If I take damage and expose wounds to moonlight, the numbers should go even higher.
2. After the Abandoned Object activates, both pupils briefly show golden flames, which imposes significant strain on the eyes. Even under moonlight, this energy absorption has a half-life—peak performance for about twenty minutes, then vision starts to blur. Ten minutes of rest resets it. Essentially a bugged skill with a cooldown—use it sparingly, save it for critical moments.
3. Most crucially: apart from the basic physical enhancement, Sissy seemed to be using a higher-order Abandoned Object ability. I couldn't figure out how to trigger it despite trying for ages, but Sissy wouldn't have had any reason to hide it from me. The most likely explanation is that it requires a near-death or extreme situation to awaken.
Thinking back to Auntie Mae, who I'd hunted at the start, I couldn't help but shudder.
That had been broad daylight with no moon. If it hadn't been a fully loaded cargo truck that hit her, but a Japanese Honda or Lexus, the one getting killed might have been me.
Thinking carefully, the only reason an ordinary guy like me survived this long was careful analysis and a little dumb luck.
Before this hunt, I'd always thought I could coast by on my meager cleverness, but after this battle I realized that as time went on, all the competitors were rapidly adapting to the rules and growing stronger. Some adapted even faster than I did. If it weren't for Sissy's intel, the next fight wouldn't be nearly so easy.
The key question: how could I make sure the next hunts were at night? And outdoors? Based on what I knew, my cheapskate landlord Warren was even more of a homebody than me. After work, he never went out at all.
Warren was a thirty-something Beijing landlord who'd made a little money flipping old computers in Zhongguancun when he was younger. He liked tea and prayer beads—something of a culture poseur. When the hutong houses his family owned were demolished, he bought eight apartments in Chaoyang District in one go and lived off the rents. Except for the one time we signed the lease, I'd never seen him. Even rent was a quarterly transfer.
I wondered if such an idle man practiced any martial arts in his spare time...
In any case, this definitely wasn't happening today. Bone-tired, I dragged myself home and checked my phone—one missed call from Chloe and three unread WeChat messages:
"Lucky break this time. Might not be so simple next time. When you have a chance, look up the story of Osiris and Isis—it'll help with your upcoming hunts."
"I'm in a very safe place right now. Big open view—mountains, trees, a broken bridge. Don't worry about me. Handle the Beijing stuff, I'll wait for you here."
"When this is all over, you still owe me that hiking date. Don't even think about weaseling out of it."
Reading the messages, I sank into deep thought.
There were too many mysteries surrounding Chloe Chen.
From guessing the Holy Grail War framework before I'd said a word, to seemingly having a god's-eye view of my battle results, to now suddenly telling me to read some ancient Egyptian myth.
And if only one person could survive the Holy Grail War, why was she suddenly talking about a hiking date? Was she hoping I'd let my guard down?
And why were all these people connected to my social circle? It felt like a trap tailor-made for me.
Everything reeked of suspicion.
What was her Abandoned Object? Or was she actually the one pulling the strings?
But regardless, I could only keep moving forward.
If I didn't hunt, I'd be hunted.
Being pushed forward by fate—that was the helpless feeling.
Before I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open, I opened my laptop and looked up the myth of Osiris and Isis:
Osiris was originally the god of water, earth, and fertility. He brought blessings to humanity, governing the Nile's waters, the land, and the growth of plants, creating bountiful harvests for the people of the Nile.
Set had tried to kill Osiris several times before, but the miraculous goddess Isis had always revived him. This time, he devised a scheme. While Osiris was returning from abroad, Set invited his brother to his home for a grand welcome banquet. Isis had warned her husband not to attend, but Osiris, seeing how sincere his brother seemed, insisted on going. Shortly after the banquet began, Set produced an exquisite chest, saying he would give it to whoever could fit inside perfectly. The guests were thrilled and everyone tried, but none could fit. When it was Osiris's turn, he had no interest in the chest, but everyone wanted to see if he would fit. Reluctantly, Osiris climbed in, and strangely, his body fit perfectly. Everyone cheered, but just as he tried to get out, Set slammed the lid shut, nailed it down, and sealed it with lead. Osiris quickly suffocated inside.
When Osiris's coffin drifted to the shores of Byblos in Syria, a sacred tree grew from that spot. The local king saw the tree growing rapidly, thick and tall, and ordered it cut down to make a pillar for his palace. Isis, guided by divine revelation, traveled to Syria in search of her husband. The queen, finding Isis clever and charming, made her the royal nursemaid. Later, Isis revealed her divine form and asked the king to give her the sacred pillar. The king agreed. She extracted the chest from inside the pillar and wrapped the pillar in cloth. Later, the king had a temple built for Isis, and the sacred pillar was placed inside, where the people of Byblos worshipped for years. When Isis left Syria, the king sent his son with her. On the journey, she stopped to see her dead husband one more time, opening the chest and kissing his cold lips. The prince of Byblos tried to peek inside, and Isis's radiance struck him dead. When Isis hid the chest in the forest to retrieve the son she'd left in Buto, Set discovered it and cut Osiris's body into fourteen pieces, scattering them into the Nile. Isis endured great hardship searching for her husband's remains. Eventually, she found every piece and built a tomb at each location. People later constructed temples over the tombs, and for ages they worshipped Osiris and Isis in these temples.
"The god of life, and also the god of the underworld. Killing the god withers all living things; reviving the god makes the land fertile. Each winter brings death, and each spring the god is reborn. Osiris, dismembered into fourteen pieces by his brother; Isis, who rushed about to collect her husband's fragments and in the end gathered every piece and built his tomb."
To think boldly: if I am Osiris, then Isis is Chloe Chen.
Was she trying to save me?
Was I trapped in some endlessly cycling chest, unable to be revived?
And was the victor of the Holy Grail War the key to breaking open that chest?
My mind was in chaos. Combined with the exhaustion of two hunts in a single day, I drifted off without realizing it.
I don't know how long I slept, or whether it was still night or already morning, when I was woken by a strange, muffled thudding.
The sound was like a fire extinguisher striking a human body—thud, then another thud. Strangely, no one screamed. The violence was quiet and methodical, and the rhythmic impact was giving me a headache.
Then all the sounds vanished abruptly, as if nothing had ever happened.
Half-asleep, I heard someone knocking on my iron door.
"Little Zhou, you awake?"
"Don't sleep so heavy when you're out on your own. If I hadn't come by, you'd be in trouble."
"I just dealt with a delivery-guy competitor outside your door. Come on out, let's chat."
I sat up with a jolt. This was bad!
I walked slowly to the iron door and peered through the peephole. I couldn't help but gulp.
Different weight class entirely.
Even though no blows had been thrown yet, I knew we weren't in the same league. I couldn't beat him.
Warren was standing outside.
In his pupils, a golden flame that seemed almost tangible was steadily burning.