The scent of sizzling bacon fat filled my nose as I groggily woke up from a strange dream... I got fired, and zombies suddenly appeared. That wasn't the weirdest thing. My boss, Mu Qinglan, started living with me, and our relationship became complicated after she became some kind of living dead...
"Ugh..." With I grunt, I pulled myself off the sofa.
However, it wasn't the one I usually crashed on, nor was it my room. That's when I started waking up and realised that it wasn't a dream...
This house was Jiang Roulan's, and I was wide awake.
'Fuck!'
At least the delicious scent of bacon, eggs, and fish spread through the room. It wasn't too strong and honestly made me feel hungrier.
I stretched my arms, and a blanket fell from my body to the floor.
'Roulan...'
Because she put it on me, I picked the blanket up and folded it before calling out. "Roulan?" Since she had hugged me the night before, calling her full name felt a little strange. Even if our relationship wasn't that close yet, maybe that's just what I wanted.
There wasn't an answer, but I could hear her voice, or rather a strange humming tune.
"Hmm... Nn... La~ Nn... Mmm~ Hah!"
When I peeked into the kitchen, a wide and well-equipped room, and found Jiang Roulan dancing across the floor while preparing the food.
I saved the way her seductive peach bounced to my mind's SSD drive and quickly returned to the living room to check on the system like I promised.
'Since I scolded Mu Qinglan and acted like that. I should improve myself as a leader.'
He tapped the system screen, flicking through the various skills with a low hum, copying Roulan's sound before he tapped the button for Martial Arts. That's when an array of three different screens and important information enveloped his vision.
[Martial Arts Dojo]
▼ Welcome to the Martial Arts Hub: A place to buy, combine and develop your Skills!
[Purchase Breathing Technique]
[Purchase Physique]
[Purchase Flow Technique] (LOCKED)
Everything below the Flow Techniques was locked, so I just tapped the Breathing Techniques option and found a huge menu of skills and things I could buy. There were even skills for women, which made me consider the future more.
▼ Elite [Purple] — 1500 ZKP
[Titan's Marrow Sutra]
[Cryo-Veil Sutra]
[Verdant Stone Sutra]
▼ Rare [Blue] — 1000 ZKP
[Ember Veil Sutra]
▼ Refined [Green] — 500 ZKP
[Thornshell Hide Technique]
[Shadow Vein Circulation]
[Bone-Locked Breathing]
▼ Common [Grey] — 100 ZKP
[Pale Flame Inversion]
[Iron Thread Lung Practice]
[Steady Pulse Method]
——
The skills ranged from simple breathing improvements to the ones that would help improve muscle strength, disease resistance and change a person's life.
Sadly, it wasn't something that would allow me to fly on a sword or attain enlightenment, but the one I chose had an interesting training style.
"Are you finally awake?"
Jiang Roulan called out to me with her sweet voice while stepping into the room, carrying two large plates of food with a pleased look on her face. "I didn't burn the bacon for once, I hope you enjoy breakfast..." She looked at the ticking clock above the television and frowned. "Well, maybe it's more of a lunch?"
The moment I tapped the foundation technique, she placed the steaming plate on the table, and the golden yolks with fluffy whites looked delicious, with a separate bowl of rice and some small fish on the side.
"I didn't know if you liked western or..."
"I can eat anything, especially when it smells this good."
"Such a silver tongue... Hah!" Jiang Roulan pouted and huffed to the side, peeking at me from the corner of her eyes, before I took the chopsticks and cut the egg slowly, avoiding popping the yolks, before taking a mouthful of egg whites and bacon...
'Ah~ the taste of sweet freedom!'
[You have purchased: Titan's Marrow Sutra]
[Would you like to learn it now?]
Excited to finish this delicious meal and also try out the magical techniques that I always enjoyed reading about in the past, I accepted the system's message while scooping rice into my mouth with the delicious soup broth that Roulan made.
Suddenly, a pulse jolted inside my chest. At first, I thought it might be indigestion... "Ack!" I coughed, but there was a vile taste in my throat as the pulse became an aching throb that rapidly spread through my body, causing my muscles to bulk, then tighten instantly... like they were breathing.
The pain made me groan and drop my chopsticks, as Jiang Roulan gasped, "What's going on, are you alright?!"
"..." I tried to speak, but my throat became swollen and tight... breath trapped inside as I fell to the ground and rolled onto my back, hitting my chest in desperation trying to recover.
Dark veins bulged under my skin, forming strange lines along my arms and throat, and my muscles continued to convulse and cramp as my shirt became tight. My chest almost doubled in size as a burning sensation spread through my stomach.
"Take deep breaths, lay on your side."
Jiang Roulan started helping me, putting my body into the recovery position, while I sucked whatever air into my throat I could... as the heat in my abdomen became worse. It became like a constant, violent tremor of my abdominal muscles.
"Urgh...!"
I couldn't stop myself from grabbing onto Roulan's arm, but the muscles on my forearms shocked me. They were more defined and thicker, not like a superman or excessive western superhero, but my veins bulged slightly along my forearms like I worked out daily.
"Ah—!" She cried out in pain, but the moment I touched her, my arm suddenly filled with a cool flow of energy. Like an icy breeze, it spread from my hand down into my stomach and muscles, helping me calm myself.
"Ngh... I think... I think it's over?"
There was a strange milky essence flowing in my abdomen. At first, it felt weird, but when I focused on gathering the energy from all my muscles and organs. It condensed into a small earthen sphere, the size of a quail's egg at most.
"Really...?"
Her wrist looked horrible, with a dark bruise from my grip, and I felt guilty.
"Sorry about your wrist."
"What? Don't be stupid! You turned blue for a moment—how can I blame you for this?" She looked at me with such a trusting smile, joking with a light chuckle despite the bruise and her trembling fingers...
'I will make everything up to you.' I swore to myself and sucked in the air... before checking my current status page. "Let's finish breakfast, and I'll rub some ointment on that wrist of yours, alright? Can you still eat?"
"Haha, I'm not a baby, but maybe... it might be good to have a handsome, muscular guy to feed this older sister later." She joked while stealing some of my fish, grinning as she snapped open a bottle of lightly scented beer.
—
[STATUS]
Name: John Wang
Title: Harbinger of the Lunar Beast
Cultivation Technique: Titan's Marrow Sutra
Stage: 0 (Adjusting)
Rank: Raid Leader [4/25]
∟ S-Tier: Mu Qinglan [232/500]
∟ S-Tier: Wang Yin [500/500]
∟ S-Tier: Jiang Roulan [200/500]
∟ B-Tier: Shen Yifei [215/500]
Health: [●●●●●] 100% (I feel strong!)
Morale: [●●●●●] 100% (This bacon is Great!)
[Attributes]
Strength | 3.8
Physique | 4.3
Agility | 3.7
Spirit | 3.3
[Skills]
Leadership: [Level 1]
Self-Defence: [Level 3]
IronWill: [Level 2]
Dash: [Level 3]
DangerSense [Level 2]
Spear Mastery [Level 2]
UnbreakingWill [Level 1]
[Currency]
ZKP: 2050
EXP: 800/11000
—
The food didn't last long after my body recovered—my mind became clearer, and I could control my movements with more precision.
However, there was still something important to take care of.
"Roulan, would this place be a good place to make into a base?"
It was time to focus on finding somewhere to use my Rank four authority and see just exactly what this ability entails.
"Here?"
She asked with a mouthful of rice, almost choking her cheeks turning red, likely misunderstanding my question.