Chapter 4: The accident and the tree

Translator: Sparrow Translations  Editor: Sparrow Translations

Lu Shu had no clue how he survived that without any pain or discomfort. But he could tell that the blood stains, the palpitating heat waves, and the new tree-like symbol on his palm were all real.

It felt like something special had happened but Lu Shu was not sure. The strange happenings on the news had been on his mind the whole day and he even started to yearn for such powers.

At that moment, it seemed like there were signs telling him that he was different from the rest.

His mind was filled with a myriad of emotions, partly due to the accident with the huge truck of which its shock was still lingering.

Another part of it was some sort of excitement. Who did not desire to be special? If all 17-year-olds were given a choice to obtain unimaginable powers, probably 90% of them would choose to do so.

The last part was his anger at the driver. Although he was fine, the fact that he was walking on the sidewalk and getting knocked over by a driver out of the blue was so uncalled for.

He just wanted to buy some bread and cup noodles for Lu Xiaoyu during his free time but got hit by a truck. Where’s the justice in this?

Would a simple monetary compensation make up for this? Maybe not. He had, in reality, just been hit head-on.

But there was a problem… Could the injuries on his body be proven? After the wave of heat had suddenly seared through his body, the injuries had all disappeared and his body felt normal. Lu Shu was confident that this was what just happened.

If the hospital deemed that he was totally fine, would he still be able to receive any compensation?

And there was the situation with that performer in broad daylight being put to sleep and brought away in front of his eyes. If the hospital found out about his body’s abnormality, would he be taken away as well?

At this point in time, Lu Shu was worried about the events that could follow if he was captured, and also afraid that Lu Xiaoyu would have no one to take care of her.

If he had not witnessed the incident at the temple fair, he might have gone to the hospital.

Lu Shu could have claimed a huge sum of money from the driver’s insurance and lead a comfortable life from then on but he decided to back out.

Since the usual procedure was not possible, maybe a more unorthodox one would work…

“You’ve gotten yourself into some deep sh*t!” Lu Shu slowly helped himself back onto his feet.

The driver was shocked to see Lu Shu standing even with his bloodied face! He wanted to run away upon witnessing this strange sight.

“Is that car borrowed or personal…”

Before Lu Shu could finish his sentence, the driver shrieked in fear and ran, leaving his truck behind.

Lu Shu stood there, speechless……

“Am I that…” He wiped off the blood on his face and stared blankly at the driver running off, “How am I going to get my compensation now.”

Lu Shu turned around and left. The scene of the captured circus performer was still lingering in his head, who knew if those men in black might appear soon.

He had thought about heading straight home but decided to continue his trip to the supermarket as it was the 3rd night of the Lunar New Year and the only supermarket in business was Zhang Donglai’s Supermarket.

“2 braised beef cup noodles please” Lu Shu, with his face still covered in blood, handed over a $5 note which incited suspicious stares from Zhang Donglai, the middle-aged supermarket owner.

Lu Shu grabbed 2 braised beef cup noodles from the shelf and left immediately, knowing that his appearance was too terrifying.

Under the snowy night skies, the dim streetlights illuminated passing snowflakes. This familiar scene looked just like in the movies.

Walking on a thin layer of snow, Lu Shu left a long, quiet trail with his footprints, accompanied by the contrast of white snow and black floors, dim yellow streetlights, and the endlessly dark skyline. What an unexpected but yet harmonious scenery it was.

He looked back and thought about everything that had just happened. It felt like something in his life was never going to be the same.

……

“Lu Shu! What happened to you?!” Lu Xiaoyu exclaimed upon seeing his return.

The bloodstains on his body were too eye-catching. Even on his way home, two passers-by ran upon the sight of him.

” Don’t worry, I got hit by a truck but I’m fine” Lu Shu explained.

Lu Xiaoyu had always treated Lu Shu like he was a dimwit, “So much blood and you call that fine?! So did you hit the truck and the blood came from the truck?!”

Lu Shu rolled his eyes, ” What do you mean by me hitting the truck, can you speak logically! I’m going to bathe, you cook the cup noodles yourself… Cook me one too!”

He gave up trying to explain the situation to Lu Xiaoyu because the whole event was not something one could even make sense of.

As Lu Shu stood under the hot shower, he was checking if there were any visible scars or marks on his body through the now slightly foggy mirror.

“There’s no visible change,” Lu Shu whispered to himself. His body was almost exactly the same as before.

If not for the tree-like symbol on his palm, he might have thought all that was just a dream.

Scrutinising the albescent tree symbol, a new world had suddenly opened up inside his mind:

Menu

Below the menu were three options: shop, lottery, records.

Inside his mind, Lu Shu opened up the shop option, only to see a range of items but only 1 was lit up while the rest was a blur.

The only available item was a strange one.

Celestial fruit, cost: 1000.

At the bottom of the shop displayed another number – balance: 697.

Lu Shu was puzzled. What was the 697 about, and what currency was the shop using? Why did he even have an account balance?

At the moment, the 697 suddenly changed and increased to 701.

Lu Shu recalled that the menu had a ‘records’ option and immediately went to take a look. A bunch of details was shown inside.

From Zhang Donglai’s distress, +131, +27, +5, +1, +1.

“This looks like a continuous update, but what is Zhang Donglai distressed about? Isn’t he the fat owner of that supermarket? Is it possible that my bloodied face scared him and his distress became my income?”

“Isn’t this the legendary demon king who becomes stronger with others’ increasing distress? The only difference is that the demon king becomes stronger directly but I have to buy items in order to level up?”