Chapter 3: Card of Something, What Kind of Nonsense is That?
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
Ren Nan sank his teeth into the fresh tender flesh of the young woman. The smell of iron rust filled the air as his chin was dyed red by her fresh blood. He only needed to bite down a little harder, and Lin Sanjiu’s fragile life will forever disappear from this world.
But Ren Nan could not move. It wasn’t that he did not want to eat this good progeny, he just could not move. At that moment, there was a kitchen knife in the back of Ren Nan’s head. Its blade was fully embedded, and only its handle remained in sight.
There was still a shred of excitement in Ren Nan’s eyes — even as he died, he could not understand the situation. Lin Sanjiu was bare-handed, she was just struggling uselessly with her arms in the air. [How could he just die like that?]
Momentarily, Lin Sanjiu could only hear the intense drum-like thumping of her heart. “Ba-dump. Ba-dump.” Her heart pounded as she laid under the heavy corpse. Overcoming the sharp pain in her neck, she used all her strength and finally pushed Ren Nan off. “Thump!” The corpse rolled off her and laid supine on the floor. With that, the knife in Ren Nan’s head was pushed further in. The blade pierced through, revealing itself in his large opened mouth.
Lin Sanjiu held her neck tightly. One of her hands was already covered in blood. She rapidly took in a few large gulps of air before giving a ruthless kick to the corpse on the floor. She cursed softly with her hoa.r.s.e voice, “Who told you that I only evolved to get two abilities?” she only muttered a few words, but the acute pain around her throat was too unbearable.
Just seconds after kicking the corpse, Lin Sanjiu’s vision went dark. She almost fell — the dizziness brought by her loss of blood hit her faster than she thought it would. Everything else did not matter now. Right now, the most important thing for her was to bandage her wound. She staggered around finding for a towel. When she found one, she placed it on her neck and applied heavy pressure to her wound. She gasped. She sat on the floor again and pressed the towel to her neck with all the strength she could muster.
After being in a state of half-consciousness for some time, the bleeding finally stopped. It seems that it was not her time to die yet; after all the bite missed her arteries. After she had rested for a while, she managed to acc.u.mulate barely enough energy to somehow stand up to get herself some water.
After she had put the gla.s.s of water down, she noticed that Ren Nan’s bizarre-looking corpse was still lying silently on the floor.
After some consideration, Lin Sanjiu dragged her weakened self and stood beside the corpse. Trembling, she put one of the hands on the corpse and whispered hoa.r.s.ely, “Store this.”
Just as she finished her sentence, a white light flashed across her palm rapidly. The corpse, with a knife sticking out from it, disappeared. With a “pa” sound, a card which was the size of a poker card fell to the ground.
Lin Sanjiu felt for her mobile phone and used it to illuminate the card. Just as she expected, there was a simple squiggly crayon drawing of a man with a wide opened mouth and a sharp knife sticking out of his head. There was also a row of blank words underneath it: “Ren Nan’s Corpse”.
【Ren Nan’s Corpse】
Name：Can’t you read the card t.i.tle?
Species：Human
Status：Dead
Potential Growth Value：204
Murder Suspect：Lin Sanjiu
Pa.s.sive Skills：Extreme Temperature Adaption, Strength Augmentation, Strength Augmentation Body Modification
Active Skills：Good for Me, You and Everyone, Nutritionist
“What the heck is this?” Lin Sanjiu stared at the card, she was speechless for a moment. This weird item was produced by the third ability she had gained. Tonight, it just saved her life.
At will, Lin Sanjiu was able to transform items that she touched into a card and store them in her body. When she wanted to use an item again, with that intention in her mind, the card will revert back to its original form in her hands.
Previously, she threw the boning knife at Ren Nan to lower his defenses and as a ruse. She killed him by actually putting her hand behind the back of his head when she was struggling as he bit her. With a quick thought, the “Chef’s Knife” card that she had hidden in the morning, reverted back to its original form and pierced deeply into Ren Nan’s cerebrum.
After a few days of experimentation, Lin Sanjiu found out that she could only use this item transformation four times.
Even though the cards that she created no longer felt unfamiliar to her, this was the first time that she saw a card which showed such… rich content. She quickly flipped the card and indeed found that the back of the card was filled with tiny little words: “Ren Nan, Male, 28 years old, he came from another ‘New World’. He had been an introvert since young and was not popular with women. He even received a love confession from an older male schoolmate. When the New World arrived, he struggled to survive… you get the point. Anyways, after he had arrived in the world belonging to the murder suspect, Lin Sanjiu, Ren Nan ate a multi-millionaire who had the potential growth value of 2. He took over the man’s wealth and got close with the murder suspect, Lin Sanjiu with a hidden agenda. When he was about to consume Lin Sanjiu, he was killed instead.”
“It is frustrating enough that you don’t reveal what you should, you even labeled me as a ‘murder suspect’?” Feeling a little gloomy, Lin Sanjiu ran her finger across the paragraph. The words disappeared, and the next paragraph slid in and appeared on the surface of the card.
【Good for Me, You and Everyone】: You can spot a person with high potential growth value in a large population with your perception. Through intimate skins.h.i.+p (kissing, hugging, etc.), this ability is able to activate a normal human’s potential, speeding up the party’s evolution and allowing that person to gain their abilities more quickly. This is what’s called a “win-win situation”.
【Nutritionist】：After you finish consuming a person, you can efficiently inherit the potential growth value, evolved abilities and body const.i.tuency of your meal. A balanced and nutritious diet will guarantee a better tomorrow.
Note: The knife in his brain was manufactured in Germany. It is sharp, lightweight and st.u.r.dy. $599. Purchased from Jingxi Shopping Mall.
If she did not have her Keen Senses ability, she might think that this was just a dream. She cursed silently as she held on to 【Ren Nan’s Corpse】, not really knowing what to do. She did not want to place a corpse into a body. After she thought about it for awhile, she simply slid it into her pocket.
Ren Nan’s card had clearly explained his abilities. She wondered if her own card would introduce her abilities and explain more about the so-called “New World”. Even though this was her plan, she could not possibly transform herself into a card. With quick thinking, she plucked a strand of her hair, and said quietly, ”Store this!”
With a flash of white light, another card appeared on her hand.
【Hair】
Owner：Lin Sanjiu
Condition：Black, healthy and a little dry on the ends
Function：It is annoying when it gets stuck on a broom.
Note: According to the condition of roots, the owner may start balding around forty.
[What the heck. It was totally useless.] Frustrated, Lin Sanjiu gestured her hand in the air. A white light flashed, and the hair disappeared into the darkness. [Is this a New World with a high-temperature climate?] She was preoccupied with this thought.
56°C… It already felt unbearable for a person like her who had evolved and gained Heat Resistance Adaptation. She wondered what it was like for other normal people.
Suddenly, she shuddered and jumped down from the sofa. Zhu Mei! How did she almost forget her friend? Thinking that Zhu Mei could be in danger right now, Lin Sanjiu ignored the fact that she was still injured. She searched hastily for a backpack and rushed into the kitchen. She stuffed all the bottled beverages and drinks she could find into the backpack. Then, after changing into a more comfortable sports attire, she searched for the keys for the emergency exit and ran into the dark stairway.
After she had run downstairs, she found herself quite breathless; it was 38 floors after all. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, drank a mouthful of water and continued toward the bas.e.m.e.nt.
Ren Nan’s car, or rather the car that belonged to the man he had eaten, was parked at bas.e.m.e.nt 1. As Zhu Mei apartment was a twenty minutes drive away, there was no way that Lin Sanjiu would choose to walk in such a high temperature.
Once she stepped into the carpark, Lin Sanjiu was surprised by the heatwave that hit her. As she looked around, she switched off the phone’s flashlight expressionlessly.
There was no need for a flashlight here.
At this moment, every single car here had their headlights on. All the cars had their engines running. The rumbling sounds of their engines a.s.saulted the entire s.p.a.ce as the acoustics in the carpark amplified the noise by ten times. With hundreds of exhaust pipes spewing out hot air, the half sealed carpark had truly turned into an oven which was at least 3°C to 4°C warmer than the outside temperature.
Everyone who could make it to the carpark was here. Due to the power outage throughout the city, the people who could not endure the harsh high temperatures naturally hid in their own cars where they could find working air-conditioners.
Barely walking just a few steps in this hot stifling s.p.a.ce, Lin Sanjiu could feel that the clothes on her back were totally drenched in sweat. When she walked pa.s.sed each car, she could see the terrified faces of strangers behind every car window. Some of the people were continuously attempting to make calls; some of them were crying uncontrollably as they hugged their children; some people had already lost consciousness, perhaps because they were already dehydrated when they reach the carpark. There were even some people who were staring at her flabbergastingly, apparently unable to understand how she still had the strength to walk around.
Despite the cool air in their cars, many people’ faces were faintly shrouded in despair. The air-conditioners in their cars could only merely prolong their time. Once they ran out of petrol or electricity, with the terrifyingly high temperatures outside their cars, there was little chance for anyone in this carpark to survive this.
Lin Sanjiu knew very clearly that she did not have the ability to help these people who were in their cars. She only had five bottles of mineral water, three cans of cola and a few packets of plasters. With this amount of water, she did not know how long she would last. Gritting her teeth, she suppressed the sympathy she felt and concentrated on looking for the familiar Audi. When she did, she rushed into the car as if she was escaping.
She gave it some thought and decided not to switch on the air-conditioner. She only rolled down the car window. In any case, she would not die from the heat. At most, she would only feel some discomfort. She decided to save the precious petrol and electricity for Zhu Mei. Lin Sanjiu wiped her sweat away, held on to the steering wheel and drove the car slowly out of the carpark.
Compared to the steamer-like environment in the carpark, the 56°C temperature outside made Lin Sanjiu feel slightly better. The streets were empty. There were almost no cars on the road — likely because most people were unwilling to waste that electricity and petrol.
The cars that were parked at the two side of the road were like the cars at the carpark. Their engines were switched on. The people within the cars similarly wore faces of fear and despair as they savored their last bit of cool air.
Just when Lin Sanjiu swerved pa.s.sed a red Mazda, a sudden black shadow flew towards her from the left. With a low sounding “Bang!”, it hit the Audi’s door violently.