Unique Legend

Location: Atlantis
Time: 11:10am

I fearfully looked at the ground.

To be honest, I even accepted the fact that the picture will scream. However, this time even the shadow on the ground was screaming, and its scream was far worse than the screams of the pigs being slaughtered.

“Come on out, baby, I’ve been waiting, and now I’m feeling extremely impatient.” Twisting the black knife on the floor, Ryan said with complete fascination.

I eventually discovered one fact… When Ryan ties up his hair, he reveals his true personality. He actually becomes rather perverted!

In fact, the people who qualified as ‘robes’ were a little strange.

Then I was smacked behind my head, and I don’t think I need to mention who it was, “If you don’t want to change from a my brain made a mistake to my brain is damaged, then you’d better stop thinking nonsense.” Senior softly issued a warning.

I’d said it from a long time ago that no one wanted you to listen to it…

Ripples appeared on the shadow on the ground, as it constantly writhed, as thought it was struggling.

All around us, the pedestrians… pedestrians… pedestrians were actually not showing any shocked or frightened expressions!? Even the shopkeeper at one side didn’t seem to be afraid of his shop being affected by the fight as he stood outside with a spectator’s demeanor, while the middle of the road was cleared out, and at one side it was full of people.

They were treating this as a movie shooting, right?

“Young man, do your best!” The bunny broadcaster on second floor suddenly said vigorously through her microphone. Suddenly all around turned into an uproar, full of screams and cries of people cheering him on.

…I really shouldn’t have had any expectation of them having a normal human response.

Ryan did a Traditional Hand/Fist-Wrapping* towards the crowd, and then he suddenly removed his black dual knives from the ground. Just as the knives left the ground, the shadow on the ground suddenly rushed towards Ryan fluidly, just like water.

[T/N: Also known as Gong Shou, is a common traditional practice of greeting among the Chinese people. It’s a polite way to show respect.]

“Minor character.” Ryan also looked down on the black shadow. After giving his black knife a twist, he threw it. The black shadow that was supposed to crash into him, suddenly gave off another sharp cry. In the blink of an eye, it was pinned on the wall of a shop.

“Looks like it’s only a familiar.” Senior looked at the shadow pinned on the wall, and said, “This kind of level, should be something even you can handle.”

I lifted my head and looked at Senior. Me? I can handle it? Can it be that senior still haven’t had enough sleep!?

You’re asking calling me to go and get my a.s.s handled by that blackish object, right!?

“Want to pa.s.s it to Yang Yang?” Ryan, who heard senior’s sentence, turned around and asked.

Please don’t pa.s.s it to me!

Red eyes glanced at me and then he smiled. I realised senior curved up a hard-to-describe and strange smile, “Pa.s.s it to him, it’s time he practiced doing the things we normally do.”

I took a step back, wanting to shout at the sky.

“Alright.” Ryan suddenly pulled out his knife, and the illusionary weapon disappeared in the next second. The shadow that was relieved from being pinned to the wall, issued a sharp cry as it fell off the wall onto the ground.

“Your turn.” Before I could turn around and escape, senior had already kicked me in the a.s.s, causing me to almost fall on top of the shadow.

“Yang Yang, do your best!” Miao Miao waved while she shouted out loud, extremely happy while observing at one side.

Don’t cheer for me… I’d rather you come and save me.

The shadow started to move, and was currently circulating around my feet. This circulation made me feel like the hairs on my body were all standing up. I can feel the shadow was was extremely hostile.

“Yang Yang, use explosive charms.” Chifuyu, who was at the periphery, reminded me. It’s only then that I remembered I kept the things senior gave me with me at all times. But rather than using the explosive charms, I’d rather use the teleportation charm, this way, I’ll be able to escape in just one second.

The problem was, I didn’t have the guts to escape in front of senior. Thus, I could only bite the bullet, and while trembling with fear, I took out the explosive charm.

The first time it was the black forever brand big bomb, the second time was a household insecticide. I was currently thinking what in the world will appear on the third time.

“Chu.” I saw senior beckoning to me.

Was his conscience finally noticed I should be tagged out?

Senior just smiled coldly, “You better think carefully before using it, because if it’s the same as the previous two times…” He did a cut-throat and a “Kacha” gesture.

…I understand. This was really a serious threat.

Then, here comes the question. If it’s a shadow, what do I need to use to take care of it? A flashlight!?

No, that’s not right, I absolutely cannot use a flashlight. Regardless of whether it works or not, I can guarantee that the second a flashlight appears, there will be someone who would use his silver spear to directly pierce through my head.

Candle? Table lamp? I overthrew my own thoughts in just a second.

That’s right, I remember I seemed to have watched it before in some anime… that sentence… Nn… I think it was burn, little sun or something like that!?

Smack!

One sound with such accuracy and ruthlessness directly deflected my head to one side. I saw a bunch of flowery white stuff shining brightly in front of my eyes.

“You’re not allowed to think of nonsense.” Senior’s voice resounded on top of my head.

I also didn’t have any chance to continue thinking nonsense.

“Whoa!!” The shadow leaped out from the ground and suddenly coiled around my leg, dragging me down.

I’m finished, finished, finished—am I going to die right here today!? Wait a moment, I’m being dragged down?

As soon as I saw my current situation, I almost fainted.

The shadow was coiled around my leg and dragging me down into the ground. If it continues to drag, maybe a shovel will be needed to dig me out later on.

“What do you want to do?” I heard senior’s voice. He stood quite some distance away from me, “The explosive charm is in your hand, what do you want to do?”

What do I want to do? I definitely want to settle the shadow and immediately run away!

“Look around you, this is a marketplace, not an empty s.p.a.ce like the first two times, how do you want to go at it?” Senior just stared at me with his red eyes sharply observing.

That’s right, I’d almost forgotten this place was surrounded by people. So how am I going to go at it?

I suddenly remembered that Ryan seemed to have used a knife earlier to pin that d.a.m.n thing on the wall. So logically speaking, I should be able to use normal items to deal with it.

A knife? Then let’s just use a knife! But it can’t be too big, because I don’t know how to use a big knife.

At the same time I was thinking that, the shadow stopped dragging me down. What I saw in my hands was a black small knife… a black… penknife…

Penknife… It’s almost as if I could feel senior’s murderous eyesight.

“Yang Yang!” Miao Miao suddenly let out a cry.

I saw the whole shadow flipping upwards, directly spreading out above me. Without thinking, I immediately used the penknife in my hand to stab the ground— No matter what kind of knife it was, as long as I can pin this d.a.m.n thing down, it’ll be fine!

In front of my eyes was complete darkness, and then I heard the loud sound of people clamoring all around.

Then, it suddenly brightened up. I was sitting on the floor and what I saw was the shadow in front being pinned on the floor by the penknife, seems like it was struggling. As it kept twisting around, some smoke were coming out from around the penknife. In just a few seconds, cracks started to form on the shadow, with the penknife being the source.

If you insist of finding a way to describe it, it’s rather similar to a barbeque charcoal being shattered. I know my description was really badly, so please go and imagine it yourself.

Just as the shadow completely broke into pieces, I saw a small black insect jumping out, and then it quickly rushed towards the crowd.

“Don’t think of escaping.” Senior was one step faster. Using one foot to step on the insect, emitting a splat sound, “Don’t think I’ll allow you to bring back information.” He ground the bottom of his feet hard. The insect turned into complete mush, and was then no more.

That kind of feeling was just like stepping on a c.o.c.kroach.

“Yang Yang.” Miao Miao and the others came over, and the three of them lent me a hand by pulling me up from the floor together, “That was great!” She smiled really happily, while helping me to pat off the dust.

“For a novice, that’s considered as really powerful.” Chifuyu pushed his gla.s.ses and concluded.

“You just need to practice a bit more. Next time, you can consider picking up a job by yourself.” Ryan said as he patted my shoulder.

Picking up a job by myself… I suddenly remembered the miserable case with the bomb and insecticide. It’s better to just forget it.

“This is just an ordinary familiar, so it probably came here to scout the situation of the school.” Senior sc.r.a.ped the thing off the bottom of his shoes before walking back to us. The surrounding audience saw there were no more show to watch and dispersed one after another, “There’s nothing special about it.”

Nothing special but you still trampled it to death?

Senior looked at me, “No one knows what information was collected by it, so of course we must first annihilate it.”

I understand…

“This time, your method of using the explosive charm was still acceptable. If you continue this way, you should be fine.” I immediately looked up and saw senior’s lips curving up to his usual cold smile, “At least it’s better compared to the other two things.”

Could it be that he was fine with the penknife? This is considered a great luckiness found in misfortune.

“What other two things?” Miao Miao looked at me with shining big eyes full of questions, “Yang Yang had used explosive charms to materialize other things as well?”

I took one step back, “This, this…”

“You did, right?” Ryan joined in as the second person in the interrogation team, “I’m so jealous, you learned how to use explosive charm so quickly. In the past, it took me almost a whole month before I could control an explosive charm.”

I definitely didn’t learn how to use it.

Basically, the explosive charm was still not under control, and one would know just by looking at the things that appeared every time. They were always so very enigmatic.

“Stop teasing him. Do you guys still have anything you want to buy?” Chifuyu interrupted the topic, and asked to the other two people, “We don’t know if there are any more of those familiars, so let’s continue our conversation in school.”

His words were immediately agreed upon by the other two people.

In that second, I suddenly felt Chifuyu was like an angel… Of course, not the same type as Andy.

“I still have work later, so you guys head on back first.” Senior said and then he handed me the paper bag full of crystals, “First, help me bring this back. I want to directly head to my work’s destination.” He put a key into the paper bag. It looked similar to mine, but there were some differences.

“Ah? Don’t you need to change your clothes before you go to work?” I remembered hearing that it was necessary for black robes to wear their robes during while they work, however, purple and white robes do not have this particular requirement.

“Once in a while wouldn’t matter, even if I’m caught. At most I’ll only be admonished, it’s nothing much.” Senior shrugged with a very I’m-used-to-it kind of look, “So that’s that, you guys can head back first.”

“See you, senior.” Miao Miao and the others quickly finished saying their goodbyes to senior.

Then, just as the second wave of crowd came over, senior was already not standing at his original spot.

“Let’s go back too.” Chifuyu patted my shoulder.

“Okay.”

“I really envy the black robes.”

When we were back in school, we didn’t directly go back to the Black Dorm, instead we went to the student’s restaurant.

Because it was a holiday today, the restaurant’s kitchen wasn’t open for cooking, so they only provided some beverages and snacks. However, it still provided the students with seats for them to freely move about, chat, or whatnot, but there were very few students.

“Huh?” I looked at Ryan and issued an unknown semantic, “Shouldn’t it be that a robe level can be obtained through exams? One just has to keep taking the exam and they can become a black robe, right?” It should be rather similar to getting a credential, as one just needs to continue taking the exams for the next level and it should be fine, right?

Chifuyu laughed with a “pfft” sound.

“Yang Yang, in fact, it’s actually not that easy to acquire a robe level.” Miao Miao put down the beverage in her hands, and explained to me, “In Atlantis, there is at least approximately ten thousand people. Including the students from different grades; from primary to university, and the teachers, there are only fifteen black robes.”

Nn… that’s indeed really hard to pa.s.s.

But I always felt black robes were unlike any normal people. One would know just by looking at Andy and that weird soul sorcerer from the first day I had arrived at the dorm, so senior may be one of the more normal ones?

“In this world, robe level is set by the World Federation of Trade Unions. As far as I know, there are only about seventy-five black robes who are on active duty, in which, Atlantis is accounted for fifteen people. It is considered to be a very high concentration. Out of the fifteen people, the teachers and staff account for ten people, and students account for five people.” Chifuyu began his information a.n.a.lysis, “Within the robe level, black robe is of the highest level, so in every world, they are allowed to freely move around. They are also treated far better compared to the general workers.”

Only seventy-five people… So to say, the examination for black robe is at an extremely difficult level?

I was suddenly very full of admiration for senior, because normally, I wasn’t able to realize he was such a great person.

“Incidentally, for those who are still active for duty, there are three hundred and forty-one purple robes, and one thousand six hundred and fifty-four white robes. In our school, there are sixty-five purple robes accounted for, and two hundred and seven white robes, which is the largest amount in one fixed location.” Continuing to add on to his unfinished sentences, Chifuyu pushed his gla.s.ses, “So in all of the special ability schools, Atlantis had always been the top school.”

And somehow I mysteriously entered the top school, which was popular amongst the other abnormal schools?

“Hahaha…” I’m very doubtful over how they picked their students. Using darts?

“But I’ve heard that black robe’s death rate is also the highest.” At one side, Ryan who was lost in thought, suddenly joined in our conversation, “Last year there were eighty-nine black robes, but this year there are only seventy-five black robes who are in active duty, in which are four newly appointed black robes.”

That means in the span of one year, eighteen of them died? I suddenly felt rather creeped out.

If black robes were as G.o.dly as they’d said, then the death rate being so high was really weird.

But Ryan turned his gaze away, obviously didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Chifuyu and Miao Miao were also the same, as they didn’t even mention one word. And of course, I was embarra.s.sed to continue asking.

Change the topic, change the topic… the mood is a little too awkward…

“That’s right, just now you mentioned the sports compet.i.tion, what’s that?” I suddenly remembered them mentioning that the shadow was the spy for the whatchamacallit sports compet.i.tion of some kind. But does a sports compet.i.tion really need to use something so serious such as a spy? I didn’t understand.

And also, for freshmen who had entered not too long ago, how was it that a sports compet.i.tion came about? This was really mysterious.

“What you’ve asked about is the grand sports league for the all special ability schools, which will be held once every three years.” Miao Miao seriously said to me, “Every school will send high level experts to partic.i.p.ate. Starting from now, counting backwards, until October the fifteenth will be the start of the first elimination selection compet.i.tion, so many schools have already started to collect information on the opposing schools. That thing we ran into earlier is an example of this.”

“But everyone must already have a clue, since the representatives the school sends out every time are of robe levels, so one can kind of gauge their opponents.”

Robe level representatives?

“I guess senior’s name most definitely will appear in this year’s name list. Although senior is very young, in these past few years, with his overall strength, he should be the strongest representative within the students who are black robes.” Chifuyu drank a mouthful of his drink, and continued, “Really looking forward to this year’s compet.i.tion, but it’s still not going to be our turn yet, nevertheless, let’s just wait for a good show.”

Honestly, I think being a spectator would be so much better.

“Although that’s rather disappointing, we can still look forward to the Annual School Games in the next semester.” Miao Miao was similarly in deep regret, “To be able to exchange blows with people within the school is also not a bad learning experience.”

I’m saying that… I really think just being a spectator is better, no matter which kind of compet.i.tion.

“Yang Yang is very lucky. As soon as you entered school, you are able to chance upon the Union Sports Compet.i.tion, at that time you’ll be able to witness the compet.i.tions of experts from a variety of special ability schools, and I’ll a.s.sure you that you’ll be shocked with what you’ll see.” Patting me hard on the shoulder, Miao Miao said, “Previously, I had to wait a long time before I got to see it.”

In truth, I don’t even need to see the experts from various schools, since I’m currently already experiencing three small shocks and one big scare every day. I’m already scared until my nerves are rather numb because of it.

“Teachers are not allowed to enter the sports compet.i.tion, so all partic.i.p.ants consists of only students, and it’s a team of two or more people. Ryan do you want to consider finding a black robe or purple robe to team up with? Maybe you could even enter this year.” Chifuyu looked at that someone, who was either in a trance or had already fallen asleep, and asked.

After a long time, only did Ryan twitched, “I also have the same thoughts, so I’ve already requested some people to help me ask some purple robes and black robes who had a higher chance, but my chances are probably still rather low.”

Their discussions had already reached a realm I totally didn’t understand. Sports compet.i.tion, robe level, team-up, ideas and whatnot, which I can’t relate to, not even a little.

“You guys can continue on with your conversation, I still have something to do, so I’ll go back to the dorm first.”

Very awkward, but there’s no other way, because I still can’t really fit into this place.

It’s only after I’d hurriedly left the student’s restaurant that I finally heaved a sigh of relieve.

I knew from before that I’m different from the others, but while in a conversation with them, it was even easier to feel that huge gap. That kind of feeling was really hard to describe.

Oddly enough, when I’m together with senior or the five-coloured rooster head, I didn’t have this type of feeling.

“Yang!” Speaking of the devil.

Although it’s relatively easier to talk with him, it doesn’t mean I want to socialize with him, so I immediately turned around. But in less than a second, my collar was immediately grabbed by someone.

“You are always trying to run away every time you see me.” The five-coloured rooster head said while smiling.

Nonsense! Of course I want to run away, I don’t want to follow you to the library to court death again!

“Is there anything you need?” I turned around smiling outwardly. Although I had a lot of dissatisfaction towards him, I don’t dare to say it out loud, since I don’t want to be “kacha” killed off by an a.s.sa.s.sin.

“Nothing, I just came back from the right shopping street, and I encountered something fun.” The five-coloured rooster head loosen his hand, and took out a transparent gla.s.s bottle from his pocket.

I opened my eyes wide, and enclosed inside the gla.s.s bottle was similar to the black insect that senior had grind to death, “Familiar?”

“You know about this?” This time, it was the five-coloured rooster head who was surprised, “That’s right, it’s a familiar, I caught it in pa.s.sing.” He shook the bottle twice, the insect inside spun until it became dizzy.

Was it really just in pa.s.sing? I suspect that his hand was itchy so he caught it and brought it back to play with it. This probability was probably as high as ninety percent.

“You bought a lot of good crystals.” Looking at the paper bag on my hand, the five-coloured rooster head suddenly stretched out his hand and took out a pure red crystal from inside, “Very beautiful, such a good selections.”

“Those are selected by senior, I’m just helping him bring it back.” I stretched out my hand to take back the crystal, but the five-coloured rooster head slightly swayed, just enough to make me unable to reach it.

“So it’s actually like that, I was wondering how you got the funds to buy these high grade items.” He snapped his fingers, and then the red crystal disappeared from his hand, and in the next second it appeared inside the paper bag, “A minimum of four to five hundred KR is needed to buy what’s inside that bag of yours.”

Isn’t that a few hundred thousand NT? My hands suddenly felt weak.

I knew it wasn’t be cheap, but in fact, as soon as I heard the approximate price, it caused my heart to skip a beat.

It’s too horrifying.

“Next time when we’re free, let’s go to the right shopping street. There are so many more things in the right shopping street.” The five-coloured rooster head put his hand on my shoulder, and proposed the devil’s temptation.

Honestly, I was indeed a little interested, only a little, but I’m not so stupid that I would go there together with the five-coloured rooster head. The library was a b.l.o.o.d.y and painful lesson, “Let’s discuss this when I’m free.” By that time I’ll keep saying I’m not free.

“Alright, then that’s settled.” The five-coloured rooster head removed his hand, and then he put the bottle, which contains the insect, into my paper bag, “Since you are more interested in this, I’ll give it to you, I’ll go and catch a few more.”

Please don’t catch anymore! Before I had a chance to say that, the five-coloured rooster head had already disappeared.

“…Ah…” Now should I follow senior’s example and put it under my foot and grind it?

So tired. I have probably aged today.