Ace Evolution [Prologue] Chapter 3 – Exposed

While we’re on it, chopping ribs is actually a very demanding and painful task, and the salary is pitifully low, in fact, the reason Fang Lin could do this job with the feelings of enjoyment is to feel that moment of surpa.s.sing himself.

Owner He looked at Fang Lin’s slow actions, and finally couldn’t stand it anymore, he walked over with a furious expression to scold this arrogant brat, but who would have thought that just after he took a few steps, the chopping found rang out, and several piles of minced meat few our with a “pa” sound, scaring him back, fearing that his Saint Angelo clothes would be dirtied. Just as he mustered up his courage to scold Fang Lin when he (Fang Lin) had put down his knife, he saw this young man look up at him calmly, the reached over with the hand that held the knife, and slowly unraveled the blood soaked cloth. Seeing his owners, Owner He didn’t know why, but he immediately calmed down, retreated a step, swallowed, then said forcefully with the aura he had before,

“What… What do you want to do, not working?”

Fang Lin said sincerely,

“My abilities are limited, it looks like it can’t satisfy your request, do I’ll resign myself, I won’t ask for this month’s salary either.”

With that, he wrapped up the ap.r.o.n on his body and prepared to leave, Owner He’s heart felt like it was dealt a huge blow, if this brat leaves, then where’s he supposed to find such cheap labor? It’s rare that he’s rather hardworking, and could be half a cleaner, although he was a bit slow, bit his hands didn’t stop, most importantly! If he goes to find a dunzi right now, he must give a thousand five hundred and have to include meals and accommodation, and the personality is not even guaranteed!

People often say that only when you’re about to lose something would you understand it’s value. This Owner He was the same, only now did he think of the greatness of Fang Lin, and thus said with a bit of stutter.

“No such thing, I’m just coming in and see, and just hurry you guys up on the way, you are doing good. Continue, everyone work hard, I’ll pay for additional food at night.”

He walked out awkwardly as he said it, the corner of Fang Lin’s mouth raised slightly, it seems like the furious Owner He was also afraid of a temporary worker like him that worked like him, while costing two hundred kuai per month, it really is a miracle.

If course Fang Lin was unable to handle the entire night, in the end the owner took it into his hands, and chopped up ribs with him, although two large blisters appeared on his hand, but this is a typical happiness in pain, when he closed off two o’clock at night, Owner He’s smile caused him to be unable to keep his mouth shut, he really earned tons, two hundred and fifty kilograms of ribs was made into hotpot and were all sold, thus the iron rooster plucked off feathers for once in a life time, and gave fifty kuai of bonus per person, as for dinner －－－－－－－－－－ More precisely speaking, it’s a midnight snack, was hotpot in name, but it was actually a mix of what the customers left behind! However, after working hard the entire day, everyone were starving, and couldn’t care so much, they just gobbled everything down, and wanted to leave everything to after they were full.

Fang Lin was also really tired tonight, although his endurance was amazing, and he could suppress the pain from his body, the energy wasted could not have come from thin air, even when he ate, he only used his left hand. He had a huge appet.i.te, and ate slowly, so when he finished, most of the people have been gone already, even the most diligent Zhou-sange had started snoring beside the chair. When Fang Lin had half-washed his lunch box his pupils suddenly contracted!

———————— He didn’t know when that Wan Qiang had silently arrived behind his back!

The reason Fang Lin found out was not because he had some sense of danger, nor was it because he noticed a sound Wan Qiang made, it was because the aluminum tap had coincidentally reflected the scene behind him!

“What is it?” Fang Lin suddenly said calmly. He was very interested in the blinking tattoo on Wan Qiang’s body, however, he knows that the more you care about something, the less care you have to show for it, only then can you use the smallest cost to receive the greatest benefits.

This caused Wan Qiang to be shocked instead, he said with a cold shudder,

“How-how did you know I came?”

The corner of Fang Lin’s mouth raised slightly, but he didn’t reply the question, he said once again,

“What is it?”

Wan Qiang was very dissatisfied by being in the pa.s.sive side of the question and answer, he got slightly angry, but still restrained himself and said,

“Nothing really, since you are an university student, I want to ask you to help me take a look since my chest has been feeling uncomfortable lately.”

Fang Lin’s heart moved , he did want to carefully examine that tattoo on Wan Qiang’s chest, it’s just that he has always been trying to think of a plan to do this without raising suspicion, who would have thought that this person would ask for it! An uncanny feeling flash across in heart for a moment－－－－－－－－ You have to know, everything between the heavens and earth have both pros and cons, normally, everything that goes too smoothly usually have some sort of unusual danger linked with it.

If it was with Fang Lin’s careful personality, he would have very quickly noticed this, however, right now, the man suddenly ripped open the shirt in front of his chest! The b.u.t.tons all fell onto the floor with “palapala” sounds!

That tattoo!

That blood red sneering tattoo appeared in front of Fang Lin’s eyes once more!

This time, he noticed more carefully that, the muscles lines of Wan Qiang, who’s shirt has been removed, were unusually clear, each muscle bulged out, from the looks of it, he had spent a long time training them!

However, to be honest, in the entire kitchen, he’s the laziest one, he either sits there doing nothing, or walks around like an invigilator, the reason why the hrash owner could accept it is because Wan Qiang’s meimei is also at the store, and had a rather affable relationship with Iron Rooster He.

That tattoo… was very strange.

Fang Lin could only describe it with the word strange.

Ever since he first saw this tattoo, he had done a lot of research, there are two ways of getting a tattoo, one is to use shark fins and other animal bones and tie them onto wooden sticks, then dip them in ink and hammer into the skin with little hammers. The second is to use uhi pa.s.sed down from the Maori people, and piece them into the skin manually. No matter which method was used, it’s impossible to create such a lively, realistic image!

All of a sudden, that ferocious and evil tattoo suddenly smiled at him with it’s mouth open!

Despite how good Fang Lin’s mental state is, and could sleep well even after murdering someone, he was still freaked out by this, everywhere was silent, the light dimmed down and became stark white, the tap water flowed with dripping sounds, there was a weird atmosphere in the air. Wan Qiang’s expression changed many times, then finally said expressionlessly,

“Does it look good?”

Fang Lin took a deep breath, he noticed that although Wan Qiang looked calm, his thumb and forefinger continuously rubbed against each other, his eyeb.a.l.l.s were also bulging out, even the hair on his arms were sticking up, this means that he was in an unusually worked up state. Countless ideas flashed across his mind, but when his eyes matched up with that pair of deep ghost eyes, he actually answered uncontrollable,

“It… looks very weird.”

Wan Qiang immediately leaped over, and grabbed Fang Lin’s arms, the red capillaries could be seen in his eyes, he shouted with a suddenly worked up voice,

“You-You really can see this Nightmare Brand!”

Fang Lin’s self-control was extremely strong, the moment he said it, he knew that there was a mistake, just as he wanted to call for help, he felt a coldness on his waist, where a slightly piercing pain was felt, as if something penetrated his skin, and shook within the waist muscles on the surface. Wan Qiang’s voice became darker, as he said a one word sentence,

“Walk.”

Fang Lin could already be sure that he was stabbed by a knife on his waist, and said calmly,

“To where? Be careful not to harm me. Someone could come here at any moment.”

Wan Qiang didn’t say anything, and only moved his hand slightly in reply, and gave the directions using the pain that the knife tip that was pierced half an inch into Fang Lin’s body caused him.

That was the stars.

Fang Lin had originally thought that Wan Qiang wanted to take him hostage at the rooftop, where very few people go, but the direction the two went was downwards, he didn’t understand at all, did this guy plan to bring him downstairs to the main hall? Isn’t he scared of someone calling the police? Even if he isn’t scared, he (Fang Lin), a wanted criminal, is scared!

However, Fang Lin didn’t have a choice, and could only follow him down the stairs. He could faintly see that Wan Qiang’s eyes were half closed, the oni head tattoo emitted a blurry light, when it shown onto the stars, it was actually reflected rather unrealistically! It was as if waves appeared on the hard floor, like there was a barrier, blocking off another world!

The two people pa.s.sed through it so easily!

Then after walking down half a floor of stars, Fang Lin immediately noticed that something was wrong! He walked in and out of this place every day, in order to prevent his brain from taking a break, he could always find data to memorize. Under normal circ.u.mstances, this half a floor of stairs had eleven steps, each step was fourteen centimeters tall, yet he noticed that the initial half a floor was still normal, but after turning the corner, the stairs underneath had thirteen steps, and the height of each step was slightly less as well!

Wan Qiang was breathing hard because he was getting worked up as he hurried Fang Lin to go down quickly, If it was normally, they would have been at the hall downstairs of the hotpot palace already, yet what appeared before Fang Lin’s eyes was a dim turn, the unending spiraling staircase seemed to go straight underground!

This could not be described through modern science anymore. It was silent all quiet all around, with the occasional sound of water droplets and excited heavy breathing mixing together, Fang Lin felt like a metal chain was stuck on his arm, he was completely dragged forward by this Wan Qiang effortlessly.

Five floors, six floors, seven floors… Fang Lin counted silently in his heart, keeping count of the number of floors he went down, although normal people are able to survey their surroundings, Fang Lin is able to notice a large amount of details, then store them in his mind, he can even use these to make logical predictions to predict some things that might happen.

When they arrived at eleven floors, they could faintly hear the sound of people, Fang Lin had the mental preparation already, but he still couldn’t help but feel a bit of joy, slowly advancing in this sullen environment really caused an intense pressure onto people, causing them to be unable to breathe properly. When they reached thirteen floors, there was no stairs to go down on anymore, the feeling underneath his feet were still quite soft, as if he was stepping on… intestines.

At this moment, the sinister tattoo on Wan Qiang’s chest let out a ghostly green light, the ghastly light spread around, but it was only limit to several meters around them, it was as if a pale green ball of light surrounded the two of them. After that, a sharp white light flickered from afar, then Fang Lin saw that, he instinctively closed his eyes, he felt a sudden pain in his eyes, although he was just shone by this light for half a second, he had a feeling of his entire body being pierced!

On the other hand, Wan Qiang let out a terrible scream, his eyes bulged out by nearly a centimeter, the veins on his neck also popped out, it looked like the blood in his entire body was boiling, as if he would explode any second! His hand furiously grabbed at the air, as he said in gasping pain,

“Wait… Wait!”

A cold voice with a hint of a metal’s hardness, pa.s.sed out from the darkness,

“You broke the rules, so you should be punished!”

The moment the voice pa.s.sed out, Wan Qiang roared with all his might,

“I didn’t! This person can see the Nightmare Brand!”

His roar pa.s.sed through the mysterious s.p.a.ce, and echoed through the air. The white light from afar suddenly brightened, then dampened, however, at this moment, the feeling it gave Fang Lin was more gentile. Gradually, that light spread around like mercury spilling on eh ground, like a shimmering white path, and like a carpet, it directly extended in front of the two’s eyes.

Feeling excited, Wan Qiang quickly dragged Fang Lin along towards the white light, as they got closer, Fang Lin noticed that a giant outline gradually appeared in front, when they got even closer, he noticed that it was a copper color. Above it was a huge arched door at least over a hundred meters tall, on which many sorts of fangs grew. Just looking at the arc standing indomitably there would cause a person’s heart to feel some sort of great respect, and even an impulsion to kneel down.

Underneath the door, sat a person.

That person wore a mask on his face, which was exactly the same as the oni tattoo on Wan Qiang’s chest. Although he was just sitting there, Fang Lin would feel the arm Wan Qiang was clenching him with shaking, he didn’t know it was due to fear or excitement.

“Is it him? The one that can see your Nightmare Brand?” That oni-masked person spoke.

Wan Qiang quickly replied,

“For sure!”

The oni-masked person turned towards Fang Lin, his gaze swept over him, Fang Lin immediately felt all of the hair of his skin stand up, as if some sort of electric pulse pa.s.sed through him. However, he still stood calmly in place, silently watching the other person.

“En,” The oni-masked man said slowly, “You didn’t lie, No. 13778. He can certainly see your Nightmare Brand. According to the laws of the world, you can raise a request suitable for your ident.i.ty.”

Wan Qiang swallowed, then said dryly,

“I-I request to leave this place! And resume a normal life!”

The oni-masked person paused for a moment, clearly a bit surprised, then said with a cold tone,

“Do you know the price?

Wan Qiang’s face tense, a crazy look appeared in his eyes, Fang Lin have seen this sort of gaze on gamblers madden with lost many times!

“I… know!” As long as I can successfully pa.s.s through that door behind you, I can be completely separated from this d.a.m.n place!” Wan Qiang clenched his teeth and said. “Since other people can walk out, why can’t I?”

Hearing this, Fang Lin sighed in his heart. There are a lot of things in this world that others can do, but you can’t do.

The oni-masked person’s voice said calmly without any intonations,

“Enter the door!”

Behind him, a broken down wooden door that was beyond normal appeared all of a sudden, if you must point out something irregular, it was that on the handle of the door was a faint red light that caused people’s heart to waver!

Wan Qiang’s face twisted, then he suddenly roared, grasped the handle and entered into the door, the door open and closed extremely quick, but Fang Lin could still see the hint of blood right light from within, the room was suddenly filled with weird noises, as if a sinister beast was munching on bones, or like seventeen or eighteen people forcefully pulling a saw to cut wood. Yet after a minute… More precisely, when Fang Lin counted to fifty-five, a terrible scream suddenly sounded out!

“Kill me! Kill me quickly!”

As the sound ended, that very loud meat cutting sound pa.s.sed, black ooze splashed out from the edges around the door, hurting Fang Lin’s face, then slowly flowed down. Fang Lin didn’t wipe it off, instead he thought back to the voice that sounded at in the end in the room with interest, then couldn’t help but say,

“So, the sound of human bones being crushed is exactly the same as the pig bones getting crushed.”

The oni-masked person looked quietly at him for quite a while, then said emotionlessly,

“Come over.”

Fang Lin thought about it and said,

“Since I came here, and saw so much unbelievable things, then if I don’t join, I think the consequences must be severe.”

“The consequences are the same as him,” The oni-masked person said calmly. When he spoke, his eyes were fixated on the stream of blood on Fang Lin’s face.

“Then, what benefits are there for joining?” Fang Lin smiled, at this moment he could actually still smile! “It’s like a very petty owner wanting to employ someone, you have to at least show the benefits first right.”

The oni-masked person didn’t think that the young man would actually be so calm, he momentarily blanked and said,

“If… You can successfully pa.s.s ten golden main missions, then you can make a request.”

Fang Lin suddenly took a deep breath, he dipped his head, people on the side couldn’t see the expression on his face clearly, they could only feel that the young man was having an intense mental battle, after quite a while, he spoke using very cautious language,

“Then… Can this request fulfill something that modern science cannot… Or even imagine? Such as… Letting someone who has died and already been cremated come back to life?”

“Yes,” The oni-masked person only replied with a word. It was clearly that it’s not the first time he encountered someone asking this question.

Fang Lin clenched his fist, this wasn’t the sign of attacking someone, it was due to the muscles in his entire body tensing up in excitement, his lips were also bit through uinconsciously, there was a very salty taste that spiraled in his mouth.

———————— That is the taste of blood.

“I’m in,” Fang Lin regain his calmness very quickly, “What do I need to do?”

“You’ve kill someone?” The oni-masked person suddenly asked a completely irrelevant question. Yet Fang Lin knew, he saw this from his (Fang Lin’s) calmness after seeing someone died, thus answered very tactfully,

“It’s a thing of the past, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

The oni-masked person look at him meaningfully, then suddenly flicked his fingers.

All of a sudden, the huge eerie and majestic copper door that connected the heavens and earth let out a faint light, the color of that light was very terrifying, it was as if blood was splashed onto that giant door. The oni-masked person ordered,

“Walk over.”

Fang Lin took a deep breath, then slowly walked over, when he was a meter away from the giant door, the noticed that there was actually countless tiny holes and weird patterns on the door, just as he was about to examine it more carefully, a sudden suction force appeared at the front of his body, a searing pain appeared on his chest, then he fainted!