ARBW Chapter 07

The organizers of the town had long been aware of the situation, and the reason they had not reacted until now was mainly because they were uncertain about who Pei Yuhuai was.

Like the nobles who had watched the live stream before, they initially thought Pei Yuhuai was just some young master from a wealthy family.

After all, both his gentlemanly demeanor and the air of authority he exuded were not something an ordinary family could cultivate.

To avoid inadvertently offending a major financial tycoon, the organizers needed to verify with the various financial groups.

If he truly was the precious young master of some family, they would rather sacrifice a few Guardians than risk offending a Crown Prince.

If he had no significant background, they would send more Guardians to capture him, and perhaps they could make a fortune off him.

A young man with such striking looks, an extraordinary aura, and formidable abilities was a target many nobles enjoyed toying with.

Once captured, many would likely be willing to pay a hefty sum for him.

While the town organizers were verifying with the financial groups, Pei Yuhuai had finally finished his card draw.

He then drew two more sets of ten cards, receiving two guaranteed abilities.

One was a small guarantee, a common ability, a strength-based ability.

The other was a larger guarantee, a more precious ability, a Healing-based Ability.

In addition to these two guarantees, he also drew a rare ability, a Lightning-based Ability.

With these, he now had a total of nine abilities. Not all abilities could be used at once.

He could only carry four abilities at a time, and since he was unsure if he would draw better abilities in the future, he did not fill all four slots.

From the nine abilities, he chose three.

The first was the Healing-based Ability; while it had no offensive power, it was incredibly useful in the apocalypse and was the most precious of his current abilities.

The second was the Lightning-based Ability. With a life-saving Healing-based Ability, he needed a powerful offensive ability to match. Among these abilities, Lightning-based was considered one of the more lethal ones and also quite impressive.

The third he chose was the Speed-based Ability. While not particularly powerful, it was still fun to use. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to worry about being surrounded by enemies one day.

After selecting the three abilities he would equip, three corresponding skills appeared at the bottom of his game interface.

As the game system had warned him during his card draw, those two Guardians were not easy to deal with.

So, as soon as his invincibility state ended after his card draw, he activated his Speed-based Ability.

The two Guardians facing Pei Yuhuai, upon seeing the golden light around him vanish, opened fire on him again.

They believed their reactions were quick, but from Pei Yuhuai’s perspective, their movements seemed to slow down at that moment.

Pei Yuhuai moved his character slowly to the side, taking two steps, and then noticed the middle-aged man beside him.

He smirked and leisurely pushed the middle-aged man back to his original position.

Once he completed this, his Speed-based Ability ended, and a thirty-second cooldown began.

As his ability ended, everyone else’s speed returned to normal. When they finally saw the situation in front of them, they discovered that Pei Yuhuai, who had been standing there, was now gone, replaced by Brother Wu hiding in the corner.

Brother Wu, still trying to figure out what had happened, suddenly felt a bullet hit him, looking incredulously at the two Guardians.

The two Guardians were equally bewildered, completely unprepared for the turn of events, cold sweat trickling down their foreheads.

However, thinking that this was all under the watchful eyes of the cameras, they figured the nobles in the live stream could testify that they hadn’t shot at Brother Wu; it must have been that young noble’s doing.

A commotion erupted among the viewers of the live stream, and a particularly observant noble immediately reviewed the playback, slowing it down significantly to see what had transpired.

After watching, he rushed to the live chat and said, “You all need to check the live playback quickly; this guy is a Speed Mutant.”

“No way, he was invincible before, could control people, and now he’s a Speed Mutant?”

“Scary!”

“So strong!”

“Looking at it this way, he has at least three abilities? How are we supposed to fight that?”

“Exactly, isn’t that just asking to die?”

“Poor Brother Wu, it seems we can only mourn for him today.”

“Brother Wu… rest in peace.”

“Brother Wu, may you rest well.”

…

Brother Wu, who hadn’t died yet but had been shot twice, nearly spat out a mouthful of blood upon seeing the barrage of comments on the live stream.

Having taken Gene Serum, his physical condition was better than that of an ordinary person. Plus, the bullets hadn’t hit any vital spots, so he wasn’t dead yet.

He had survived being hit by an electric baton, survived being shot, and was now on the verge of dying from the live comments.

This group… truly, it was too much.

One of the Guardians couldn’t help but point at Pei Yuhuai and ask, “You… who are you? Why are you causing trouble in the town?”

Pei Yuhuai did not respond; instead, he raised the gun in his hand.

What was there to say to a Red-named Monster? He just wanted to kill them quickly to collect their dropped treasure chests.

Unfortunately, his shot went a bit wide; perhaps sensing his murderous intent, the two Guardians steeled themselves.

One was Fire-based, the other Wood-based. As Pei Yuhuai fired again, both of their abilities activated simultaneously.

Vines with fire snakes suddenly charged at Pei Yuhuai, seemingly aiming to take him down in one blow.

However, Pei Yuhuai was incredibly fast; not only did he easily dodge, but he also remembered to carry the unconscious girl and Lin Mian with him.

When the Fire-based Ability was activated, its lethality was significant. Staying in the room was too dangerous; it was inconvenient for Pei Yuhuai to unleash his abilities.

He carried the two of them out of the room and attracted the two monsters to the town square before finally setting them down.

Lin Mian, being carried, saw nothing during the process, only a blur of surroundings due to the excessive speed.

When his vision returned to normal, he found himself placed on a bench in the square.

He glanced at the still unconscious girl beside him, then looked over at Pei Yuhuai with a hint of worry.

Pei Yuhuai indeed seemed formidable, but the town’s Guardians were no pushovers either; he wondered if they could leave safely.

As he pondered this, the two Guardians finally caught up, drawing the attention of other nobles and townsfolk.

Their commotion was so loud that even those who didn’t want to know couldn’t help but take notice.

Pei Yuhuai looked at the others, saw that they were all green-named for now, and didn’t pay them much mind. Instead, he focused on the two Guardians.

He still had no intention of talking to them; this time, he activated his Lightning-based Ability, which was a large-area, high-damage ability.

Each activation consumed a significant amount of mana. Yes, like most monster-fighting games, this game character also had mana.

Mana, similar to an Ability user’s power, could also be referred to as mental energy.

Likewise, Pei Yuhuai’s character had a health bar.

The health bar had a total of one hundred points, and the mana also totaled one hundred points.

The Speed-based Ability consumed five points of mana per activation.

The Lightning-based Ability consumed twenty points of mana per activation.

Currently, Pei Yuhuai had ninety points of mana left, meaning he could activate the Lightning-based Ability four more times.

However, his mana could be replenished with potions, which could be purchased from the game store or obtained when drawing Ability cards.

As mentioned before, drawing Ability cards did not guarantee obtaining an ability.

Among those that didn’t yield abilities, the draws were mostly weapons and red and blue potions.

Pei Yuhuai had drawn fifty times, and from those fifty draws, he obtained four abilities, leaving the remaining five as guarantees.

So, fifty draws minus four means the remaining forty-six draws were all red and blue potions and various weapons.

He had just casually glanced at his backpack and found he had eighteen red potions and twenty-one blue potions.

One blue potion could restore one hundred mana, so twenty-one blue potions meant two thousand one hundred points of mana, enough for him to wipe out all the Red-named Monsters in this town.

With this support, and believing in using skills early to reduce cooldowns, Pei Yuhuai immediately unleashed a Lightning-based Ability.

A lightning circle crashed down, instantly frying the two Guardians.

This electric shock was far more lethal than the electric baton Pei Yuhuai had used earlier.

In almost an instant, the two Guardians were stunned.

Seeing this, Pei Yuhuai immediately shot one in the forehead.

As the two Guardians fell, two treasure chests dropped beside them.

Pei Yuhuai stepped forward to collect the chests and then turned back to Lin Mian.

As Pei Yuhuai approached Lin Mian, everyone present—the townsfolk, the nobles, and even those in the live stream, including the town organizers—witnessed the scene of thunder crashing down.

In this world, there were Mutants who possessed dual abilities, but such individuals were extremely rare; currently, only a few were known.

Someone like Pei Yuhuai, possessing three or even possibly more abilities, was the only one they had seen so far.

Previously, they had seen Pei Yuhuai controlling people, having an invincible golden light shield, and now a Speed-based Ability. Well, now he had also revealed a highly lethal Lightning-based Ability.

Under such circumstances, the remaining two Guardians in Scarlet Town dared not act recklessly.

Although they were indeed serving the nobles, they were not fools willing to throw their lives away.

Moreover, the organizers had instructed them not to act rashly until they verified the other party’s identity and figured out what he intended to do.

What did Pei Yuhuai want to do?

What could he do?

To him, this game was just a dating simulation game.

He would take action against that noble mainly because he happened to see the other party doing something bad, thinking it triggered some hidden quest.

Unexpectedly, he had indeed triggered a hidden quest and conveniently defeated monsters to obtain three treasure chests.

At this moment, Pei Yuhuai stood in front of Lin Mian and clicked on the chat option in the interaction menu, ensuring no one would interrupt their conversation.

After opening the chat option, he expected to see various chat choices. Instead, he found that there were no options in the chat.

This meant he could say whatever he wanted?

As for how the NPC would respond, the game likely employed an AI system.

Most games nowadays have already integrated AI systems.

In the world where Pei Yuhuai resided, technology was advanced, and AI intelligence was quite sophisticated.

He wondered how the AI in this little game would perform.

With that thought, he used voice input to say to the other party, “Hello, is there anything you need my help with?”

He must be an important quest NPC, right?

He wondered if there were any clues about the main quest.

Lin Mian, upon hearing this, stared blankly at the tall man in front of him.

Was he… also under the other party’s control?

Just now, it seemed he had lightly tapped him, and his body had become immobile.

Lin Mian suddenly understood a bit of the middle-aged noble’s feelings.

It was a fear of facing an unknown power, as if his body no longer belonged to him at that moment; he could only obediently stay in place and accept the judgment of fate.

However… thinking back to how Pei Yuhuai had been protecting him, Lin Mian’s fear began to dissipate a little.

“I… I need your help.”

Hearing Lin Mian’s weak response, Pei Yuhuai leaned in closer to examine him.

This leaning in meant that in the real world, Pei Yuhuai brought his phone closer.

But what Pei Yuhuai didn’t realize was that he and the character in the game were one and the same.

As he instinctively leaned closer to Lin Mian, from Lin Mian’s perspective, it appeared as though the man was approaching him as well.