Chapter 30: Birthday Party
“Delusion, greed, wrath, pride, life, and death are all meaningless. Life is short and nothing but a grand dream.” Baili Yi’s tone was calm, but the words strung together to form a lamenting verse.
Gao Yang committed his words to memory.
“It’s about time.” Baili Yi stood up and stretched. “I’m getting off work. Farewell.”
“Goodbye.”
Gao Yang watched Baili Yi walk away. The man looked more like a poet than a doctor, but that was beside the point. He got some useful information from the man. He could now be sure that there were six types of monsters: delusion monsters, greed monsters, wrath monsters, pride monsters, life monsters, and death monsters.
Officer Huang had said that wrath monsters could be put into three categories: slaughterers, devourers, and summoners.
Li Weiwei was very likely a devourer. She hadn’t immediately made the move to kill Gao Yang at the time, and the way she tormented him and the words she spoke…suggested that she was going to devour him.
Auntie Ho was obviously a slaughterer. She spared no breath for conversation and attacked them immediately with great bloodthirst.
As for summoners, Gao Yang had never run into one, and he would like to keep it that way.
Delusion monsters were also known as wanderers. There seemed to be three kinds of them as well.
Old Man Liu, who had a malatang stand, was the most harmless and mild-tempered kind, and they were likely to be the biggest part of the monster population in the world. They seemed easier to identify.
The second type was the wanderers who were difficult to be differentiated from humans. Awakeners couldn’t tell they were monsters with experience and observation alone. They needed special Talents for that, such as Baili Yi’s Red Eyes and the ‘mentally ill’ man’s Keen Smell. Officer Huang’s wife and Gao Yang’s family were probably in this category. Of course, there was a chance that they were unawakened humans. As long as they weren’t tested to find out the truth, they were forever this world’s version of Schrödinger's cat, both human and monster at the same time.
The third type of wanderers was Wang Zikai. He was too strange to analyze and categorize.
Old Man Zhang, the wanderer they had run into only a few hours ago, should be the first type, yet he had gone berserk without warning, and his monster form was bizarre to say the least. The white cat could be the one responsible.
Was the white cat a monster as well? A delusion, pride, life, or death monster, perhaps?
Assuming every type of monster could be put into three subcategories, there would be at least 18 kinds of monsters in this world!
Gao Yang sucked in a breath. There was no turning back after he awakened. He had to join the organization as soon as possible so that he could earn their support and grasp more rules. Otherwise, he would always be a player with his eyes closed. Once night came, he would be at the mercy of others, and his survival would be dependent solely on luck[1].
…
At noon, Gao Yang’s mother and sister came to the hospital to take over caring duty.
Gao Yang returned home to take a shower and rest. He slept for only four hours, but he felt rejuvenated. He had noticed his body getting stronger since he became an awakener. That must be a result of his increased stats.
Gao Yang made some calculations in his head. He would get 24 Luck points every day when there wasn’t a threat, which meant he would get 720 Luck points in total if he survived for a month. That was quite a lot to put into any of his stats.
However, Gao Yang had been allocating all the points to his Luck. He wasn’t one to change course halfway, and he didn’t want to waste the points he had already put in. Thus he made up his mind that in the future, he would invest half his Luck points on comprehending new Talents and the other half on Luck. If there was any point left, he would allocate them according to the circumstances.
In the evening, Gao Yang had dinner before leaving for school. Although his mother had gotten a sick leave for him, he decided to attend evening self-study so that he could exchange information with Qing Ling. She was a cautious one and never communicated through phone calls because of the traces that would leave. She always talked about such matters in person.
During the first break, Gao Yang was going to find Qing Ling when Wan Sisi came up to him and said, “Gao Yang, I heard that…your dad is in the hospital.”
“Yeah,” Gao Yang responded. “He got into a car accident.”
“Oh my, is he alright?” She looked genuinely worried.
“He’s stabilized, but his recovery…isn’t looking good.” Gao Yang was a little down. “The doctor said that he may be wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life.”
“That won’t happen. Your dad will have a full recovery,” Wan Sisi assured him. “My uncle got into a car accident two years ago. The doctor said that he would be paralyzed with high-level spinal cord injuries. Instead, he was able to get out of bed and walk after a year… Although he still needed a walking stick, he can move pretty alright on his own.”
“Thank you.” Gao Yang was grateful for her comforting words for a moment before he was reminded of one thing—perhaps Wan Sisi’s uncle had only made full recovery because he was a monster. Would that mean that his father would recover too if he was one?
Gao Yang suppressed a shudder, stunned that he would have such a thought. How could he wish that his father would turn out to be a monster…
Troubled, Gao Yang looked up to find Wan Sisi still standing by his seat and looking at him. She seemed hesitant to say something.
“Anything else?” asked Gao Yang.
“Ah, it’s just that…” Wan Sisi’s cheeks flushed. “I was going to ask if you’re free on Sunday afternoon. I’m holding a birthday party. But don’t mind me. You should focus on taking care of your father.”
“Yeah…”
“Gao Yang will go,” Qing Ling showed up suddenly and said, making Gao Yang jump.
Wan Sisi was a little surprised. She stared at Qing Ling, at a loss for words.
“I’ll go too,” Qing Ling added. “Would you mind?”
“Of, of course not!” Wan Sisi was smiling, but she actually felt a little awkward. She hadn’t planned to invite Qing Ling—not because she didn’t like her, but because she knew Qing Ling hated men, and she had invited the boys in their class. She was worried that the atmosphere would be frigid at the party.
Gao Yang gave Qing Ling a pointed look. Qing Ling pretended to not notice.
“Then let’s meet half past two in the afternoon on Sunday at the karaoke Happy Treasure Time. See you there.” Wan Sisi walked away after that, or it would be more accurate to say that she fled.
Qing Ling sat down by Gao Yang’s side. “I heard about your father.”
“Why do you want to attend the party?” Gao Yang asked instead of responding.
Qing Ling lowered her voice and said, “You’ve been spending more time with Little Si recently, and she has been approaching you more. I have to observe her closely and make sure if she’s suspecting you.”
“You’re overthinking things…”
“Did I overthink things with Li Weiwei?”
That shut Gao Yang up.
…
For the next two days, Gao Yang took over for his mother and sister every night and went back home to take a shower and sleep in the morning. He would wake up in the afternoon, and after making himself presentable, he went to school during evening self-study and met up with Qing Ling. He also made sure to ask Wan Sisi a few questions about English.
His father stayed 48 hours in ICU before being transferred to an observation ward. On the third day, he woke up once in the morning, but he couldn’t say a word and could only blink. Soon, he fell asleep again.
Nevertheless, that was enough to lift a heavy weight off the rest of the family. His mother’s knitted brows finally relaxed for the first time, and she had the presence of mind to put on makeup again. And his sister got back into her habit of roasting Gao Yang.
Sunday morning, Gao Yang again returned home and took a shower before going to bed. He woke up not long after.
He accessed his system. He had accumulated 85 Luck points.
He spent 60 Luck points comprehending a new Talent, and as expected, he failed. That left him with 25 points. He decided to put them aside for now.
If I’ll only succeed once every three tries, I’ll need 180 Luck points to acquire my third Talent. Then the Luck points required for comprehension will double again to 120 points for each try. So that’s 360 points for three tries until I succeed.
Following the logic, he could foresee that he would need almost an infinite number of Luck points to acquire more Talents. It would take years to get that many points the regular way, and the world was too dangerous for him to afford the luxury.
High risk, high return. If only there were battles that were dangerous but not life-threatening. Then he would gain a few days worth of Luck points by battling for half an hour. That was something he should look into after joining the organization. Perhaps he would find a bug allowing him to gain experience without limit.
…
Two o’clock in the afternoon, Gao Yang got himself sorted out and made his way to the karaoke Happy Treasure Time. He was the last to arrive. The staff led him to the booth Wan Sisi had reserved for the birthday party.
He was just about to open the door when he heard a boy singing—or howling like a beast. “I should be playing along, yet I ignore your cue. You are forcing the man who loves you the most to put on an act…[2]”
And you are forcing your audience to act, Gao Yang thought. You’re such a terrible singer, yet they have to clap for you later. What a tragedy.
Gao Yang entered the booth, and unsurprisingly, the man singing was Young Master Xuan. He sat on the barstool by the karaoke machine and sang with a microphone in his hand, so very into his performance with so much emotion in his voice.
His actual name was Niu Xuan. His family wasn’t exactly nouveau riche, but they were quite well off. His father ran a chain of more than twenty supermarkets. Niu Xuan thus was prone to splurge in order to appear generous, and he loved the attention and often had an entourage with him. He was also decent looking, making him quite popular in the class.
Compared to the chaotic, unpredictable devil of a man that was Wang Zikai, Niu Xuan was a lot more socially adept. He acted differently before his parents, the teachers, and his classmates.
Being part of his clique made one feel better than others; conversely, getting on his bad side had consequences. Being marginalized in subtle ways like that felt terrible. Gao Yang didn’t interact with Niu Xuan much. He had always been the kind of classmate Niu Xuan ignored but didn’t actively ostracize.
The moment Gao Yang walked in, Niu Xuan stopped singing. With faux friendliness, he shouted into the microphone, “Hey, isn’t this Gao Yang? You’re finally here. Everyone’s waiting for you!”
Gao Yang’s stomach lurched.
He…had a bad feeling about this.
1. A reference to the party game Mafia, where players are assigned different roles, the most fundamental being mafias and civilians. When the moderator announces the arrival of night, mafias will choose a civilian to kill while the civilians keep their eyes closed. ☜
2. Xue Zhiqian’s song, Actor. ☜
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