Chapter 12: A Small Interest

After restoring her blood to full, Yu Xunge used a disguise skill to take on the appearance of Su Yitong. She didn’t expect such a low-level trick to work, but it was better than showing her own face. She put on a baseball cap to cover her swim cap, took out a sharp axe, and drank a basic invisibility potion.

Cautiously climbing out from under the bed, she approached the side of it.

She had intended to behead Liang Yuchuan, but stopped when she saw a black metal collar around his neck. Liang Yuchuan had worn that collar in his previous life; his neck had an equipment slot. Given Liang Yuchuan’s abilities, it was impossible for him not to have some necklace-type gear. The only conclusion was that this collar was an equipment item—and a high-level one at that. How had she failed to steal it?

Even if it wasn’t equipment, with only seven strength points, she wasn’t confident she could chop through the well-crafted metal collar and Liang Yuchuan’s neck with a single axe blow.

Yu Xunge didn’t hesitate much. She aimed at Liang Yuchuan’s right arm, leapt high, and swung the axe with all her might.

The assassin god, huh?

The axe instantly severed Liang Yuchuan’s right forearm in less than a second.

Blood splattered across Yu Xunge’s face, revealing her eyes disguised as Su Yitong’s. Those eyes met Liang Yuchuan’s, filled with terror and hatred.

Almost instantly, Liang Yuchuan activated a skill and merged into the blood on the bed, leaving only a severed forearm behind.

This was why Yu Xunge abandoned the idea of killing him outright after realizing she couldn’t be sure of decapitating him. He was just too difficult to kill. Whether he turned into water to merge with it or was submerged, he could slowly regenerate health—this was practically a cheat!

Fear might cause distraction? No. For someone with combat talent, fear and pain only make them run faster.

Moreover, there were several cups of water around the room, even some bowls under the bed. Even if she stabbed Liang Yuchuan’s heart or stunned him first, he would still have a few seconds to escape.

Divine gifts at the S-rank level simply had no weaknesses.

But leaving him with only one arm—his right forearm—wasn't a bad trade.

Once characters become data-driven, no matter how severe the injury, healing can close wounds but cannot restore missing body parts. If an arm or leg is severed, it remains missing unless the parts are recovered and reattached with healing. Otherwise, it’s permanent disability.

Now Liang Yuchuan had lost a forearm. That was just the interest.

Yu Xunge collected the severed limb in her game inventory. Before anyone outside could break in, she equipped the Eye of Soros. The basic invisibility potion was still cooling down, so she exploited a glitch to drink a medium-level invisibility potion. The two potions had separate cooldowns, and the blood on her body, which had made her visible, vanished again.

After gulping down a phasing potion, she calmly phased through the wall and exited the room.

Through the Eye of Soros, she observed all the people coming and going inside the villa.

No players were present, not even Liang Yuchuan’s brothers, who likely only entered the game during the second beta test with his help.

Yu Xunge ran out of the estate before the invisibility potion wore off.

With an agility stat of 18, she ran faster than the fastest sprinters. She hadn’t even finished one invisibility potion when she exited the villa area. Instead of returning to her own villa, she sprinted to a nearby lake, maintaining Su Yitong’s appearance. In the lake, she washed off the blood, stripped off her clothes, and burned them to ashes by the shore. Then she shoveled the scorched earth into the lake.

She vanished once again and headed toward the city.

Having blood from Liang Yuchuan on her, she wasn’t sure whether he could track her by sensing it. Divine gifts were too extraordinary—some things went beyond the skill panel.

For example, her own initial agility in her previous life was 5, but after acquiring the Thief God talent this life, it was 11. Not only that, even without skills, she could now pickpocket phones without being noticed when brushing past someone. Her hands had become incredibly dexterous and supple. These were changes brought by her skills.

With more thefts under her belt, her skill use became smoother.

Since the Water God talent allowed control over water, she didn’t dare gamble on whether Liang Yuchuan could sense her blood through it.

Yu Xunge didn’t return home all day. After her disguise expired, she roamed around wearing a hat, mask, and the Eye of Soros, playing the street rat once more. She blended into crowds, and as soon as the disguise cooldown ended, she changed clothes and disguised herself as a man. She then checked into a seedy hotel that didn’t require ID and took a shower.

Finally, she took an unlicensed taxi to the neighboring city.

Midway, her new agent called, wanting to discuss upcoming job arrangements. Yu Xunge told him she was traveling and to wait three days.

She wasn’t sure if she was playing a mind game with thin air, but she didn’t dare take risks. She’d rather appear foolish than return to her old base after doing something wrong—this was her hard-earned experience and intuition from years on the run.

More importantly, her luck stat was maxed out now, and sometimes intuition was just luck guiding her.

As it turned out, Yu Xunge had made the right bet.

After Yu Xunge left, Liang Yuchuan shifted form, drank a basic healing potion, and was airlifted to a hospital. Such injuries were beyond the family doctor’s care.

On the helicopter, Yu Xunge continuously sensed her own blood. She could feel its presence leaving the estate and lingering at the lake, but her sensing range was too limited. After the forearm had been stopped from bleeding and numbed, the helicopter began chasing the blood’s trail.

By the time Yu Xunge left City S, the Liang family had already tracked the scent into the city.

The helicopter blatantly flew over the city, unrestrained by any flight permits thanks to the Liang family’s power.

But the scent was too chaotic. Liang Yuchuan had had his talent for less than a week. Tracking it to the city was already the limit.

Clenching her wound tightly, the pain inside was unbearable despite the bleeding. Her right arm was half gone!

She had become disabled!

Her eyes reddened with hatred.

She recognized those eyes. She would find Yu Xunge, no matter what!

...

Yu Xunge was far from idle in City H. Without her body being data-driven, she feared she might have collapsed.

She had come to City H for a very famous item.

After the game invasion, some things on Earth had a chance to mutate. She even heard of a starch factory whose machine mutated into an S-rank item that could mass-produce starch sausages granting +2 strength for five minutes after consumption.

Yu Xunge avoided such things. Though selfish and unwilling to warn everyone early about the game invasion, she refused to touch items obviously more useful on the official battlefield.

What she wanted was a cat bed from a pet hospital. The hospital had had this cat bed since its opening, letting stray cats rest there. The doctors cleaned it regularly. With the game invasion triggering mutation chances, it had become an S-rank item.

[Meow Meow Inn] (S-rank): Placed at your doorstep, it has a chance to attract visiting stray animals. If you sincerely host them overnight, they will leave one of their favorite recent treasures as a thank-you gift.