【I cannot answer that question. Please select your Sequence.】
The golden book ignored his remark about A-Qiang and simply urged him onward in a thoroughly businesslike manner.
Ji Tan suspected the thing was playing dumb, but he had no proof. He tapped the illusory page with one finger, then moved his fingertip onto the words 【Buddha’s Son】.
【Buddha’s Son】 turned gold, and the other choices vanished.
“And now?” Ji Tan felt no different. His body was still on the verge of bursting.
【When butchering the fish, recite the incantation: ‘With one stroke, I send you to your next life.’ (This is a single-use incantation. Teaching it to another person will have no effect.)】
Another line popped up in the book, complete with the extra explanation in parentheses. Ji Tan was baffled. Why did the incantation for this cheat ability work like a constantly changing QR code, becoming useless to anyone else after one use?
His physical condition left no time to think. He struggled to his feet, picked up the fish-butchering knife coated in a thin layer of ice, and blew a trembling breath of warmth over his hands.
His hands were so frozen he could barely grip the knife. He pulled the ties off his apron and bound the handle to his right hand. Half-kneeling, Ji Tan gripped the knife with both hands and brought it down upon the dead frogfish with every ounce of strength he possessed.
“With one stroke, I send you to your next life!” Ji Tan shouted, chopping viciously through that beautiful fish tail.
With that explosive stroke, he felt the force struggling to burst out of his body suddenly settle. For one brief instant, the cold box was silent. Then the ice and snow before his eyes disappeared, replaced by a darkness shimmering with every color.
Everything around him was pitch-black, yet patches of different colors kept surging up. His body floated weightlessly in a world that felt like the opening to a nightmare.
As though sensing something, Ji Tan raised his head. Countless stars gradually appeared against the dark canopy. They grew brighter and brighter, until they shone like daylight. Then, all at once, they flashed and turned into countless eyes drawn in simple lines.
Those lashless eyes, outlined in white, hung against the black backdrop and rushed toward him from an immeasurable distance. In an instant, they merged into a single eye. The enormous eye stared at Ji Tan and blinked rapidly.
Suppressing his fear, Ji Tan reassured himself: this wasn’t the first time he’d seen it. Stay calm. Stay calm.
“This is Argus, a god who truly exists. He is upright, kind, and utterly selfless. He will judge my condition fairly and bestow power accordingly.” Ji Tan declared all this loudly, with an astonishing air of casualness, hoping the deity would hear both his praise and his sincerity.
Perhaps the prayer worked. The enormous eye dissolved into tiny white points of light, which assembled into a line of text across the black backdrop.
【Butcher. Skills: Slaughtering Mastery, Enhanced Strength, Bladed-Weapon Mastery, Killing-Aura Intimidation.】
What Butcher? Wasn’t it supposed to be Buddha’s Son?
“Argus, wait!” Ji Tan couldn’t help protesting.
His body suddenly plunged as though gravity had seized him. He screamed and opened his eyes, drenched in sweat, to discover he was still kneeling before the dead fish.
Ji Tan examined how he felt. The agonizing sensation of energy with nowhere to go, threatening to rupture his body at any moment, was gone. Yet a distinct sense of swelling remained. It was as though an extra muscle had appeared inside him, one not attached to his skeleton but drifting from place to place throughout his body.
New words appeared on the golden book.
【Sequence: Buddha’s Son. Grade: E−. Status: Butcher.】
【You have become an Orderbearer. Please integrate your power on your own.】
Ji Tan exhaled in relief. So it was still the Buddha’s Son Sequence. Butcher was merely the name of its E-level status.
Integrate his power? Ji Tan rubbed his hands, now warm again from the influx of favor-power. “How am I supposed to integrate it?” He could tell that the power he’d received did not equal the energy contained in the fish flesh he’d swallowed.
【Place your hand on the page and supply favor-power to make an inquiry.】
Apparently questions about the occult were paid features.
Ji Tan laid his hand on the book. He felt the little bit of power he’d just absorbed being drawn out of his body, and sparkling silver words appeared:
【Act out your status.】
One answer was enough to exhaust his power completely. The weakness he felt was unlike low blood sugar. It was a helplessness originating deep in his flesh and blood.
Unable to supply more energy for a detailed inquiry, Ji Tan could only stare at those precious six Chinese characters and ponder them.
Status meant Butcher. Act out a butcher?
Ji Tan began to understand. The consciousness of the world, or perhaps Argus’s consciousness, seemed to decide which Sequence someone belonged to based on their condition when they consumed the flesh. He was currently in the status of a butcher, which satisfied the E-level requirement for the Buddha’s Son Sequence. That was why he’d been placed in it.
By the same reasoning, to integrate this portion of power bestowed by Argus, he had to meet the deity’s expectations.
He needed to do what a butcher was supposed to do.
“Is my guess right?” Ji Tan asked the golden book, trying to exploit a loophole and get an answer for free.
【Blindly relying on this book will never make you strong.】
The Book of the Strong mercilessly refused to answer and even threw in a little mockery.
Ji Tan took two deep breaths and recovered a little strength. He picked up the dead fish and, with a single heave, lifted it onto the stainless-steel table.
His strength really had increased.
What’s more, the favor-power he’d drained seemed to have recovered a little during his brief rest. He guessed eating the fish flesh had effectively added a strange new muscle to his body, one capable of producing favor-power.
When he used up his favor-power, the muscle grew sore. After a rest, it recovered and could generate more.
To test his theory, Ji Tan put his hand on the golden book, which had followed him over to the table. Looking troubled, he asked, “Hey, A-Qiang, I have a friend who became an E-grade Butcher, but he consumed the flesh without any preparation. Can you find a way for him to integrate it?”
Power was drawn out of him again. This time the weakness was so severe that his knees buckled and he sat down hard on the floor.
A line of silver text immediately appeared in the book:
【To become an E-grade Butcher, it is best to consume 1 kg of Favored Kin flesh after becoming proficient in slaughtering. If your friend consumed it before gaining proficiency, trying to butcher more creatures would be a good option.】
Just as he’d thought.
Ji Tan smiled and patted the golden book. “Thanks.”
【…】
An AI might deliberately dodge certain questions, but humans had a trick called goading.
【Do not toy with the great Book of the Strong! Insufficient favor-power detected. Work hard to integrate the flesh. Until next time.】
After displaying a string of ellipses, the golden book suddenly spat out a whole paragraph as if provoked. Then it swiftly reverted to pendant form and fell onto the metal floor with a clink.
“Looks like A-Qiang is angry.” Ji Tan blinked innocently, picked up the pendant, and hung it around his neck again, close against his skin. The icy metal made him shiver. Revenge. This was definitely revenge. A moment ago, when it detected his favor-power, the book had been almost too hot to touch.
Ji Tan got back to his feet. Enduring the unpleasant swelling, he set about properly butchering the dismembered frogfish.
The instant he lifted his fish knife, he suddenly understood what Slaughtering Mastery meant.
The gray-green monster automatically divided itself into sections before his eyes. The courses of its bones and muscles appeared almost transparent. He instinctively knew where a cut would take the least effort, which parts were edible and which were not, and even the most efficient order in which to make the cuts.
With a few sharp cracks, he removed its four limbs and opened up its belly. It had remarkably few internal organs, somewhat like an eel. Knowledge that appeared unbidden in his mind told him to remove the gallbladder first: a frogfish’s bile was extremely bitter and poisonous. The frog parts were all inedible, too.
“What a shame.” Ji Tan gazed at the frog meat beneath the gray-green skin. His grand new dish, Beautiful Fish and Frog Head, had met its end before it could even reach the pot.
With his new skill, every cut went through as smoothly as slicing egg custard. He did feel a little guilty, though, when he reached the section he’d bitten into earlier. Calculating its volume, he estimated he’d eaten nearly two kilograms of fish meat.
He trimmed the chewed edges neatly, then stuffed the offcuts into the hollow cavity of the fish tail to cover up the damage.
Two minutes later, the skinless fish flesh he’d separated was arranged in several large, orderly pieces across the stainless-steel table.
Ji Tan rolled his aching shoulders. After all that work, the troublesome swollen feeling had vanished. Favor-power flowed through his limbs and bones, leaving him lighter and stronger than he’d ever felt.
He wiped his fish knife and flicked it in his hand. As though attracted by a magnet, the blade spun rapidly several times in his palm, traced an intricate flourish, and settled back into his grip.
Ji Tan slipped the fish knife into the makeshift sheath on his apron, picked up the gray-green frog head with one hand, and faced the locked iron doors. He raised his foot and kicked with all his might!
With a tremendous bang, the inner and outer doors flew open together. Lu Ren, who had been blocking the doorway, was hurled through the air and landed in a heap with Manager Zhang, who had been lying on the floor.
Ji Tan flung the frog head down in front of them with a heavy thud.
The huge gray-green head dripped blood. Its round frog eyes, lacking both eyelids and nictitating membranes, stared at the two men as though refusing to close even in death.
“Aaaaah!” Manager Zhang scrambled wildly across the floor. Lu Ren had been injured by the collision and couldn’t get up, so he remained frozen on top of Manager Zhang’s back.
Outside, everything was in chaos. The fresh-food section had been cordoned off, and several injured customers still hadn’t left. One was loudly making a phone call. The fish tanks blocked their view of what Ji Tan had thrown, but those bloodcurdling screams terrified them all the same. Everyone backed away except the caller, who was too absorbed in his conversation to notice.
When the VIP-room manager finally rushed out, he saw Manager Zhang with Lu Ren on his back, limbs flailing helplessly across a floor covered in bloody water and shards of ice.
“Good heavens! You killed today’s fish?” The woman with wavy curls who had tipped Ji Tan the other day came running out after the VIP manager. One look was enough for her to understand what had happened. “You made an ordinary person kill a mythical creature? That’s a crime!”
Still wearing thin stilettos, the curly-haired woman crossed the slippery floor without the slightest difficulty. In a few quick steps she reached Ji Tan and offered him a gold-embossed business card. “Don’t be afraid. I’m a senior lawyer. I can help you.”
Ji Tan looked down at the pale-red, faintly fragrant card with its gilded lettering:
【D-rank Senior Lawyer, Qiao Hongjin】
“Thank you.” Ji Tan accepted the card, tucked it into his pocket, and thanked her sincerely. Rationally, he really did need to discuss his current situation with the lawyer: whether this counted as a workplace injury, how to seek compensation, and whether the two men who had locked him inside had committed a criminal offense.
But right now, he wasn’t in the mood.
Ji Tan walked over to the two men scrambling on the floor and drew his fish knife. “Just now, who locked the outer door?”
“H-him! He did!” Manager Zhang jabbed a shaking finger at Lu Ren, whom he’d pushed off his back.
“You were the one who told me to lock it!” Lu Ren lay beside the frog head, unable to move. His eyes bulged as he screamed back.
“Then the two of you can repent to this frog head together!” Ji Tan raised his knife and chopped down hard, splitting the frog head in two.
The men shrieked as though pigs were being slaughtered. Lu Ren, unable even to move, was so frightened that he wet his pants.
“Little Ji!” Uncle Yan arrived in a rush, pushed open the back door, and hurried to Ji Tan. He seized the hand holding the knife and looked at the sanity-level reading on his wrist. “Are you all right?”
The number was a green 87. He appeared mentally quite stable.
Uncle Yan breathed a sigh of relief. Manager Zhang had called him in a frenzy, and he’d raced over as fast as he could. Even so, he’d arrived too late: Ji Tan had already fought his way out of the cold box.
“As long as you’re all right. You…” Uncle Yan glanced around and lowered his voice. “Did you eat that meat?”
Ji Tan didn’t want to admit it. But someone who could easily kill a frogfish alone had to be an Orderbearer, and Uncle Yan would naturally be able to guess what he’d done. Ji Tan could only give the faintest nod.
“Take a deep breath. The most important thing right now is to keep your emotions steady,” Uncle Yan urged him sincerely. He produced a black plastic bag and expertly gathered up the split frog head. Kicking away Lu Ren’s hand when the man tried to grab his trouser leg, he carried the bag into the cold box and shut the door, then signaled for the VIP manager to deal with the fish meat.
The supermarket’s person in charge arrived as well. He was a bald, middle-aged man with only a few strands of hair left, and the sight of the scene cost him another two.
Uncle Yan pulled Ji Tan aside and whispered, “Did you awaken as a Hooligan?”
Ji Tan blinked, then shook his head. “As a Butcher.”
“Hiss.” Uncle Yan drew in a breath, looking puzzled. “Strange. Very few of us fish butchers awaken as Butchers. Most awaken as Hooligans.”
Sudden understanding struck Ji Tan. “Is Hooligan the E-level status of the Crown Prince Sequence?”
Uncle Yan nodded and patted his shoulder with a smile. “You really do know quite a lot, kid.”
The supermarket manager tried to berate Manager Zhang and Lu Ren, but the two were scared witless and could do nothing but weep and scream. He had security guards restrain them, then turned to speak with Ji Tan instead.
“Little Ji, this happened because Manager Zhang failed to follow our management manual. He sent you to kill dangerous specialty seafood in violation of our rules. It’s a serious breach of procedure, and I’ll punish both of them severely.” The man began by trying to soothe Ji Tan.
Ji Tan said nothing, waiting for what came next.
Since Tom’s Supermarket dared sell something so dangerous, it surely had extremely strict procedures in place. This had to be a major management failure. As a newcomer, he might not know how things worked behind the scenes, but could Manager Zhang possibly be unaware?
“Ji Tan said himself that he was an advanced fish butcher,” Lu Ren interjected as soon as he recovered enough presence of mind.
That was the excuse he and Manager Zhang had agreed on from the start. After all, Ji Tan had been the one to boast that he was an advanced fish butcher.
Nobody dared discuss Orderbearers openly. The supermarket’s management manual said, “Only advanced fish butchers may handle the advanced ingredients in the cold box.” It did not explicitly say, “Only Orderbearers.”
“Stop playing dumb. Advanced fish butchers have a star badge. Does he have one?” The bald manager wasn’t buying it. He shouted at Lu Ren to be quiet, then turned back to Ji Tan with a smile. “Little Ji, we’ve calculated that you ate 1.6 kilograms of frogfish meat, worth 160,000. How about we count that as your fee for killing the fish and compensation for the distress you’ve suffered?”
Ji Tan was momentarily at a loss for words. Apparently there was a weighing device beneath the cold box. They could calculate the missing amount from the difference in weight. All his attempts at concealing what he’d eaten had been useless.
But that couldn’t count as compensation. He hadn’t gone in there to steal a meal; without his cheat ability, he’d already be dead. And according to A-Qiang, eating the fish meat before mastering the skill had only made things worse and caused him unnecessary pain.
“No,” Ji Tan said firmly.
The lawyer immediately perked up and stepped in front of Ji Tan. “This isn’t simply a workplace injury. Your supermarket’s negligence amounts to attempted murder! You owe him additional compensation, and those two men should go to prison!”
“Madam, this is an internal matter for our supermarket.” The manager wiped the sweat from his forehead. He could tell she was a VIP customer and not someone he could afford to offend.
“I’m now Mr. Ji’s legal representative.” Lawyer Qiao tossed her long, wavy hair, revealing the firm’s nameplate on her chest. Then she winked at Ji Tan. “Big Sister will protect you.”
Ji Tan completely missed the beautiful woman’s flirtatious glance. He heard only the words legal representative and promptly held up his wrist to display his sanity level. “My sanity level dropped by seven points,” he complained. Based on the price ratio for blank prescriptions, compensation for psychological harm ought to be at least 700,000.
“My heavens!” the lawyer exclaimed. “There’s no settling this for less than seven million! Otherwise, we’ll ask the Trade Bureau to decide who’s right.”
The supermarket manager’s expression changed instantly. He bowed and apologized, repeatedly pleading with her. “Please don’t involve the Trade Bureau. If our qualification is revoked, you won’t be able to buy retail fish meat here anymore!”
With that, he glanced at Zhao Yan. “Ah Yan, isn’t that right?”
Uncle Yan frowned. He clasped his hands tightly, then released them, and gave Ji Tan’s arm a gentle tug. “Little Ji, I’ll help you get enough compensation from the supermarket. Could we keep this from becoming public? I really need this job.”
Ji Tan studied the middle-aged man before him. They were all fish butchers, but Uncle Yan’s income was nothing like theirs. He and Lu Ren each earned 50,000 a month, whereas Uncle Yan earned 50,000 for a single job. Even so, he smoked cheap cigarettes and seemed to be short of money.
“I have a daughter who needs medication long-term…” The unreasonable request left the tough fish butcher deeply embarrassed. He lowered his head and forced the words out of his throat.
Ji Tan patted Uncle Yan’s shoulder and said quietly, “Don’t worry.”
He still needed this job himself. Besides, the supermarket belonged to a friend of Xie Zhi’s, and he didn’t want to wreck its business. But he would claim the compensation he deserved, and the people who belonged in prison would still have to go there.
The supermarket manager let out a relieved breath and was about to express his sincerity when a commotion suddenly broke out beyond the cordoned-off fresh-food section.
“We’ve received a report that you made an ordinary person kill a frogfish without protective measures, and that the resulting sound waves injured customers.” A group of people in blue uniforms entered. The leader wore a long blue coat and had an extraordinarily square face.
“We’re finished.” The supermarket manager’s knees nearly buckled. He hurried forward, stammering, “Trade Officer, sir! Why have you come in person?”
Not only had the Trade Bureau been notified, its chief had personally appeared. There was no way this could end quietly.
“I reported it!” The customer who had been engrossed in his phone call earlier raised his hand and admitted it outright. Dried blood still clung to the edge of his ear. He was one of the victims of the frogfish’s shriek.
As an innocent customer, he had no reason to care whether the supermarket could keep selling prime catches. After finishing his call with his lawyer, he’d reported the incident directly.
The square-faced Trade Officer sneered. “If I hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have known the Order Administration Bureau had sunk this low. They haven’t even shown up yet.”
His staff swiftly took out their phones to record the scene, paying particular attention to the damaged outer door and the blood around the customer’s ear.
The officer surveyed the area, approached Ji Tan, and looked down at him. In an icy tone, he asked, “You killed the frogfish, and then took it upon yourself to eat its flesh?”
Ji Tan: “…” Why did everyone know? Had that customer been listening in while he made his phone call?
“Hmph. You Hooligans really are difficult to manage.” The Trade Officer’s disdainful gaze swept over Ji Tan and Uncle Yan.
“I’m not a Hooligan,” Ji Tan tried to explain. Why was this man so irritating? A moment ago his square face had seemed almost upright and respectable. Now it looked more like a brick with every passing second.
“I don’t care what you are.” The officer waved at his staff. “Tom’s Supermarket is to suspend operations for three days to rectify its practices. Its permit to trade in Favored Kin flesh will be confiscated. And…”
He paused, glanced at Ji Tan, who was secretly rolling his eyes at him, and added, “Take away the person responsible for the unauthorized operation.”
As soon as he spoke, two blue-uniformed staff members rushed forward. They released silver chains of light just like those used by the silver-clad Police Officers, binding Ji Tan’s hands.
“On what grounds are you arresting me? I’m the victim!” Ji Tan shouted, standing his ground without budging.
Thanks to Enhanced Strength, even E-rank Police Officers couldn’t drag him away.
The lawyer intervened as well. “Show us a warrant authorizing you to act beyond your jurisdiction. Otherwise, this is unlawful! Trade Officer, you’re in the middle of an election campaign. Surely you don’t want your name associated with abuse of authority?”
“Hah. Whether I have the authority isn’t for a mere lawyer to decide!” The pressure emanating from the Trade Officer suddenly intensified, forcing her half a step backward.
Ji Tan felt that oppressive force too. It was heavy and stern, as though his soul had been dragged before a freezing execution platform to face the harshest possible judgment, inspiring an almost involuntary fear.
He was already covered in injuries, and his control over his new power was still unstable. The pressure made his whole body tremble, and fine beads of sweat formed on his forehead. The chains around his hands suddenly tightened. One of the blue-clad staff pulled, making him stumble. His foot slipped, and he fell toward the corner of a glass fish tank.
“Since when did the Trade Bureau have the power to arrest people?” A deep, pleasant voice instantly shattered the field of pressure created by the officer. A black-and-red figure darted forward and placed a steady hand over the tank’s sharp corner.
Ji Tan’s forehead struck a warm, soft palm instead. Dazed, he raised his head and met Xie Zhi’s pitch-black eyes.
Xie Zhi said nothing more to him. Instead, he turned toward the blue-clad man holding the chain of light. A pressure similar to that of the brick-faced officer erupted from him, bypassing Ji Tan and bearing equally down on everyone else. The man directly in its path grunted. The shining chain in his hand flickered twice and shattered.
The ordinary people present fainted on the spot, while the Orderbearers couldn’t help bending at the waist. Only Ji Tan and the Trade Officer remained standing perfectly straight.
Ji Tan thought it would be unwise to stand out and make himself a target, so he pretended to bow as well. Unfortunately, he misjudged the distance and pressed his head directly against Xie Zhi’s back.
“…”
A little awkward. But he didn’t dare move.
The back muscles beneath his forehead seemed to tremble. Was Xie Zhi secretly laughing?
Xie Zhi gave a small cough, lifted his chin, and sneered. “Big-Face Fang, you’ve become so shameless in your election campaign that you don’t even care about your reputation anymore. Arresting an innocent victim without the authority to do so? Maybe we should stop calling you Big-Face Fang and call you Shameless Fang instead.”
The square-headed Trade Officer’s complexion visibly turned green. “My surname is Feng, not Fang! It’s Feng Daguan, not Big-Face Fang!”
Elio’s Note ¹: Xie Zhi calls the officer Fang Dalian (方大脸, “Big-Face Fang”) and Fang Buyaolian (方不要脸, “Shameless Fang”), playing on 方 (fāng, “square”) and the officer’s actual surname 封 (Fēng). His furious correction of the name is the punchline.