Mature Fantasy Power Invasion

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

"All done, Shiyu sis."

Yan Huan lifted the exquisitely finished fabric pouch from the table and handed it to Ye Shiyu for inspection.

She took it, examined it for a moment, then gave a small nod.

Because she didn't speak, Yan Huan kept looking at her, so after a pause she opened her mouth and offered,

"It looks good."

Only then did Yan Huan look away, casually asking,

"Aren't you going to write your name on it, Shiyu sis?"

"."

At the question, Ye Shiyu didn't glance at the little pouch; instead she studied the side of Yan Huan's face, her gaze tracing the line of his neck and the hollow at his throat, as though searching for empty space.

When he turned back to her, she looked away and shook her head.

"No. We made it together."

"Then is it okay if you keep it for us?"

"Mm."

In a while they'd have to hand the pouch to the teacher for grading. Yan Huan glanced around the craft room; everyone else's work was, to put it kindly, a disaster.

In this class Ye Shiyu was a one-woman massacre—her crafting skills were no joke. After finishing the required pouch, she'd even had time to make a yellow pet scarf at Yan Huan's request.

He was basically riding her coattails; snagging an A at the end of term was all but guaranteed. For Yan Huan, core subjects that relied on exams were a breeze; the real headaches were the quirky electives with their chaotic grading rubrics.

"All right, class is almost over. No matter how your projects turned out, please stop where you are. I'll come around to check, then you're free to leave."

"Okaaay~"

Yan Huan sat down, took out his phone, and snapped a photo of the pouch.

Just then a message arrived:

"I've got something tonight, so the bar's closed—enjoy your day off."

—Tong Yingying.

Yan Huan sent back a sticker that simply read "Got it."

He almost opened the mahjong club group chat, thought better of it, and returned to Tong sis's text instead.

"Sis Tong, what's up? Your folks nagging you about marriage again?"

The other party was typing...

"Adults have adult business; kids shouldn't ask. Be good~"

Figures. He'd known that would be the answer and still asked.

Tong Yingying was an enigma—she often vanished and shut the bar whenever she "had things to do." Yan Huan suspected she simply didn't feel like getting out of bed.

All he knew was that she'd come to Linmen from Longguo years ago for university and had been a top student. Now she seemed to be in full horizontal mode—smoking, drinking, sleeping, and fielding long-distance parental pressure to get married.

Yet she was loaded. The bar sat on a prime street-front lot in South District; in land-scarce Linmen that was serious money. She hadn't leased it—she'd bought it. She paid generous wages and even handed out holiday bonuses. She claimed the cash came from stock-market plays back in the day. Yan Huan had no idea how a "legendary idea king" like her had outsmarted the retail-investor bloodbath.

Whatever. Time to head home and study. He'd unlocked Learning Conqueror and hadn't really tested it yet; he had an idea he wanted to try.

"Mm, this pair did well."

The teacher stopped by, scrutinized their work, and offered praise—credit belonged almost entirely to Ye Shiyu.

"By the way, Shiyu sis, are you in any clubs?"

Yan Huan packed up, saw Ye Shiyu doing the same, and asked out of curiosity.

Without expression she shook her head.

"What's the point of joining a club?"

"It's not super useful, I guess. On a personal level, you get to hang out with like-minded classmates."

He folded the yellow pet scarf Ye Shiyu had sewn while explaining.

"More practically, once you join you'll have a faction for the Club Wars. If your club places, there are rewards."

"Rewards?"

Ye Shiyu's gaze lifted; images of Longguo competitions flashed through her mind.

Rewards for placing?

A certificate.

That was it.

Interest dimmed in her eyes, but since Yan Huan was still talking, she kept listening.

"First place gets the right to petition the Board for a wish, second place wins a huge club budget plus the authority to host all school club events, third place gets the budget only."

A wish, huh.

Ye Shiyu considered. A spark of curiosity flared; she asked abruptly,

"Does the student council answer to the Board?"

"Ah—strictly speaking, no. We're highly autonomous. Club Wars, sports meets, most activities are run entirely by us."

At that, Ye Shiyu's gaze slid away, interest in Club Wars apparently snuffed out.

Still, she didn't dampen his enthusiasm. "I'll look into it later."

"Okay, Shiyu sis."

Yan Huan finished packing. Learning she'd take the car home, he parted ways and boarded the school bus to South District.

The bus was neither crowded nor empty; he found a quiet seat in the last row where no one paid attention.

"Meow-chan."

"Meow~"

At the soft call, a plump black cat leapt from nowhere and landed beside him, sitting primly.

Yan Huan produced the yellow cloth scarf Ye Shiyu had sewn.

"Look, Meow-chan, I got you a scarf."

The fat cat tilted its head, patted the fabric with a pink paw, and asked,

"Ugh, what's the point, meow?"

"You're all black; at night you're basically invisible. A yellow scarf makes you stand out—and look cuter."

"Meow?"

Meow-chan watched speechlessly as Yan Huan draped the scarf around its neck and tied a neat bow on one side.

Oddly, once fastened, the scarf blurred into translucence—visible only if Meow-chan willed it.

Nice touch, kitty.

Yan Huan cradled Meow-chan and stared out the window as the engine rumbled to life.

"Oh yeah, Yan Huan, I found something in the bar last night."

Halfway through the ride, Meow-chan remembered and looked back at him.

Yan Huan leaned in curiously—then the cat hunched over and began to retch.

"Blaaargh."

Like a cat coughing up a hairball.

"What the—?"

Afraid of getting something unspeakable on his clothes, Yan Huan tried to set Meow-chan on the adjacent seat.

But the next second, a milk-white, translucent scale plopped out.

The scale was completely ethereal—his hand passed through it.

"What is—"

"A fragment from the Modifier, meow. Same kind that fell from Ye Shiyu's Modifier before."

"Huh?"

Yan Huan stared. He reached for the scale; his fingers slid straight through.

"I told you, meow—I can't interact with the world. If I can handle these fragments, then you definitely can't."

"...So that's how it is."

Yan Huan blinked, rubbed his chin, and fell into thought.

"Wait a second—could this be the fragment Bai Yi's Modifier dropped yesterday? I did give her the approval she wanted, but the fallout shouldn't have been this intense, right?"

"I dunno, meow. This shard is way bigger than the last one I scarfed down. Looks like the Modifier took a serious beating."

Meow-chan circled the shard, then tilted her head up at Yan Huan with big doe eyes that screamed, *As expected of you.*

No, no, no.

Mainly because he had zero memory of doing anything spectacular.

Yan Huan honestly didn't think his emergency patch-up on Bai Yi had been that effective—barely a stopgap, nowhere near the level of control he'd exerted on Ye Shiyu. Yet here lay a chunk the size of a poker chip. That didn't line up with his own handiwork at all.

"This thing looks like an animal scale—lizard, snake, something like that. Was Ye Shiyu's fragment the same shape?"

"Scales?"

Meow-chan tilted her head, puzzled, then brightened.

"Ah, right! The Modifier is essentially the power of a foreign god. You humans can't perceive its true form, so it morphs into whatever your mind can parse."

She made a retching motion and coughed up a wisp of gossamer-like filaments.

"See? This is the shard Ye Shiyu dropped. Looks completely different, yeah?"

"Mm. To me this one's like cobwebs, and that one's like snake scales."

Yan Huan stared, the pieces clicking into place.

"Hold on—if the Modifier can't be sensed, right?"

"Correct, meow."

"Then is it possible someone else, under that same limitation, still managed to do something to the host or the Modifier itself, forcing it to shed this fragment?"

"In theory, yes. But to pull that off while knowing nothing? Whoever it is would have to be—"

Yan Huan hissed.

No cap, a real pro.

Problem was, when Bai Yi had left the bar last night, she'd still looked like a mess. This shard didn't feel like hers either. That meant a fourth, or maybe a still-unseen fifth, Modifier had shown up at the bar.

Who could it be?

Tong sis?

He shuddered at the thought. If Tong Yingying ever got her hands on a Modifier, with her reputation as the queen of hare-brained schemes, life would become—

utterly unlivable.

He whipped out Plane and fired off a message.

"Tong sis, you there?"

A cat sticker stared back.

Her status stayed frozen; no reply came.

Ugh.

Plane, like WeChat in his last life, didn't show read receipts. Probably for the best—especially when your boss texts at midnight asking if you're asleep.

Yan Huan set his phone down and rubbed his temples, trying to sort his thoughts.

Stay calm.

Three Modifiers were confirmed so far.

Spencer's Plunder System—insanely strong, could rewrite minds and create creepy pocket dimensions. Only downside: the host was an idiot.

Ye Shiyu's Hypnosis App—also brutal, that sudden hard CC was almost impossible to dodge. But after his intervention, her possessiveness seemed... under control? (Question mark.)

Then Bai Yi's Indifference—felt weakest, plenty of room to maneuver, and he already understood the host. Call it *potential unlocked*.

That left two wildcards.

One: the noon ambush whose user could manipulate pleasure.

Two: the possible snake-scale droppper tied to Tong Yingying.

Tong sis, please answer. I miss you—strictly platonic, nothing to do with Modifiers.

"Forget it."

She never replied, and the call went straight to voicemail. Probably asleep.

Yan Huan sighed and turned to Meow-chan.

"So this shard can still power up my Modifier, yeah?"

Meow-chan nodded eagerly.

"And it's twice the size of the last one—bigger boost incoming! You'll see this weekend. I'll keep it safe."

"Good. Honestly, I barely used Learning Conqueror last time. Just felt... clear-headed after twenty minutes of study. Since I've got the afternoon free, I want to see how crazy the max-level version is."

"Meow~"

He scratched Meow-chan's head, then reached for his phone to scroll videos. The bus lurched to a stop.

"Beep beep!"

Not just the school bus—every car ahead had stopped. Horns blared behind them.

"What's going on?"

"Looks like a roadblock up front."

Yan Huan peered out the window. The bus idled before a cordoned-off intersection. Traffic cops waved vehicles down alternate routes.

"Emergency traffic control. The road ahead is closed. Please detour. Thank you!"

He pressed his forehead to the glass. On the left, flames licked out of a mid-floor office. Fire engines, ambulances, and detectives swarmed the building.

One stretcher after another emerged, bodies streaked with blood, some still clutching knives.

"Gang turf war?" Yan Huan muttered.

South Linmen had once been thick with triads. Poverty wasn't the cause—history and geography were. Coastal, early influx of illegal immigrants, dozens of cultures forming rival cliques. For decades the district had been a free-for-all, much like pre-handover Hong Kong.

The city cracked down hard once Linmen prospered. Execution squads culled the gangs; even the eggs in gang dens were scrambled. Nowadays only scattered thugs remained—hence his warning to Bai Yi about dark alleys.

Yet here they were, a full-blown shootout.

The hair salon near Tong sis's bar was about to lose a lot of walk-in traffic.

Yan Huan shook his head as the bus detoured, arriving home twenty minutes late. Skipped cooking, grabbed fried rice downstairs, and watched the news with earbuds in.

"Linmen Breaking: At 15:23 today, a fire broke out on the third floor of Sterling Tower, Longyang Road, South District. Witnesses report violence preceding the blaze. Sources link the incident to the Yu Gang, a South-District outfit composed of Longguo immigrants. Police have launched a special task force..."

He didn't wait for the rest. Paid the bill, bought juice, cat treats, and canned food, then headed upstairs.

At his computer he flexed his fingers and opened the desktop version of Plane. He typed in the keyword "side hustle—Zhangsun Studio (ghostwriting)." A chat window popped up.

"Sup?"

Cat emoji.

A moment later: *typing...*

"Yo."

Then:

"But we're dry. All the cushy gen-ed papers you used to do? AI's got 'em now."

Yan Huan sipped his juice and replied,

"Nah, not looking for work. Got any university math textbooks or slide decks? Send me the files."

"K. Scored some top-tier calc, linear algebra, and stats decks from big-name unis. Textbooks too, but they're all over the map—hardly any Linmen editions. Make do."

"Thanks."

He sent back a cat nodding gratefully.

A few moments later, the other side sent over a flood of courseware and digital textbooks.

He followed it with a grinning-emoji sticker.

"Man, you're savage. Between your part-time jobs, you're already swamped."

"It's okay, not too bad."

"Cool. Let me know when you've finished. Math orders are piling up. Our clients in Vulture Country want the full package—exams, homework, quizzes; they just dump everything on us. You know what we clear in a single semester?"

"They even outsource exams?"

"Where there's demand, there's supply. Especially with all these online classes and proctored tests. They want the easy degree; we skim a little off these rich kids' allowances. Who cares about academic integrity anyway?"

It had been ages since he'd last chatted with Yan Huan, so the ghost-writing studio's boss was in full flow.

"Knowledge is power, darling. When you're done, ping me and I'll start assigning you jobs. Soon you'll be rolling in cash."

"Mm-hmm. I'll take a look first."

"No rush. I'll set you a quick assessment later, just to confirm your level."

"OK."

Yan Huan gave a noncommittal reply and downloaded the files one by one, sorting them into tidy folders.

He took a sip of juice. The glow of the PPT slides cast a cold light on his handsome face.

Lines of text, symbols, and equations shimmered in his eyes.

Invisibly, a mysterious force activated, plunging him into total absorption; his keen mind hummed like a high-performance engine.

Ability: Learning Conqueror—activated!