novelraw Chapter 94
Chapter 94
Chapter 94
"Huff... huff... huff..."
"Tong sis, ever heard the old Longguo tale?"
Wednesday night in the South District's VIP gym. Shirt soaked, Yan Huan was sprinting flat-out on a treadmill while trying to speak between breaths.
"Legend says Erlang Shen's howling hound slipped down to the mortal world and caused havoc. Heaven sent Lü Dongbin with a magic scroll called 'Bu Hua' to trap it."
"Huff—when the hound was sealed inside, Lü took pity. Afraid the poor dog would turn to ash, he secretly let it out. The moment it was free, the beast bit the very hand that freed it."
"That's the proverb: 'The dog bites Lü Dongbin, blind to kindness.'"
Behind him, Tong Yingying—tracksuit crisp, arms crossed—snorted.
"Got it. You're calling me the mutt, right?"
Yan Huan shook his head.
"Not saying you're a dog. Just that Brother Li and I are trying to help your bar, and you still get mad—and tonight's training was brutal. Bit ungrateful, huh?"
Before he could finish, a whip cracked through the air and snapped against the floor with a sharp pop.
He spun around. Tong Yingying grinned, soft whip coiled in her hand, eyes raking over his back like she was choosing where to strike next.
"Ungrateful? Say another word and I'll stripe your backside."
"...Why do I feel like you're riffing on some bad kung-fu dub?"
Whether from the sprint or the threat, Yan Huan slapped the stop button and stumbled off the belt, hands on knees, gasping.
"Done. Tapping out. Truce."
"Tch." Tong Yingying rolled her eyes, stepped close, and lifted his chin with the rolled whip.
"Good hustle tonight. Just remember: don't chase mirror muscles. Strength and stamina both. Otherwise you'll end up looking like a bullfrog—hideous."
Yan Huan met her gaze. That appraising sweep of her eyes felt almost scalding.
Buzz—
His attention snapped to the wing-shaped pendant dangling at her collar—one he knew too well—just as her phone vibrated in her pocket.
She retracted the whip, glanced at the time without pulling the phone out.
"Solid work. We're done. I've got somewhere to be."
"Tong sis... you heading off to whack someone?"
She waved without answering, whip in hand, and strode out. Through the glass doors Yan Huan watched her finally answer the call once she was outside.
Silence settled. Then, like a ghost, a small black cat materialized on his shoulder.
"Not my imagination, right? Tong Yingying really enjoys watching you suffer, meow."
"Just kidding around. She wasn't actually mad—she's usually pretty good to me."
That was true.
But Meow-chan meant something else. The cat glanced after Tong Yingying, said nothing more, and followed Yan Huan into the VIP showers.
No one else was around. Just boy and cat.
Shhh-shhh—
Steam billowed from one stall as water drummed on tile.
Meow-chan sat primly outside the curtain, chatting inside Yan Huan's head.
"Still only four Modifiers, meow. The fifth never showed."
"Are you sure there are five, Meow-chan?"
The cat nodded firmly.
"When they punched through reality, they tore five holes. Three were the same size, one huge, one tiny. The debris—modifier fragments—scattered differently at each site. That's how I knew: five Modifiers."
Inside the stall, shampoo in his hair, Yan Huan paused.
"So the bigger the hole, the fewer fragments? The small hole must've rained them."
"Exactly, meow. The huge one barely shed anything; the tiny one practically exploded."
As the suds rinsed away, Yan Huan frowned.
"Wait—where did all those fragments go? You skimming off the top?"
Meow-chan gave an innocent mew.
"Used them to build your Modifier, meow. Those fragments are raw material. I've tweaked it as much as I can, but it still mirrors their traits."
The water washed the last foam from his eyes. Yan Huan squinted at the cat through the curtain.
"So the reason I keep pulling junk prizes is—?"
"Not my fault, meow. I only just realized something new."
The cat licked a paw.
"Each fragment carries a unique signature. Swallow different ones and your Modifier gains distinct properties. Look—new interface incoming."
Meow-chan opened her mouth; threads of gold light spilled out and formed a translucent screen in the air.
[Collected Fragment Registry – each type grants a unique effect]
[Sequence 1: Spider Silk ×2]
Effect: When Reason drops to 0, there is a chance to trigger a warning 'flash-forward'. The moment it appears, Reason instantly rebounds to a safe margin.
Collection bonus: Each additional Spider Silk slightly raises the trigger chance. Any fragment can be converted into Spider Silk.
[Sequence 2: Snake Scale ×1]
Effect: The Modifier's avatar can roam within 15 meters of the host and exert limited influence on reality.
Collection bonus: Each additional Snake Scale slightly boosts avatar stats.
[Sequences 3–5: ???]
Yan Huan yanked the curtain aside, eyes shining.
"Meow-chan, you leveled up! This is a straight buff."
The cat tilted her head.
"These traits were always there. I just couldn't display them before."
Yan Huan suddenly remembered—after absorbing Snake Scale, Meow-chan's fur had grown glossier, and she'd been strong enough to bolt the door at the convention.
That night Ye Shiyu's aphrodisiac nearly broke him—and the 'defeat CG' had flashed. He'd chalked it up to hallucination, but it was Meow-chan's new power yanking him back to sanity.
Good news: he'd grown stronger.
Bad news: they were stronger.
Well, that's not much of a buff...
But the enhancement was already fact, like Columbus discovering America—America was always there.
He forced himself to think.
Spider Silk was definitely Ye Shiyu's drop; Snake Scale's owner was still hidden.
So Ye Shiyu might also have the defeat-CG failsafe.
He recalled the scene: under hypnosis and her velvet words, he'd almost surrendered.
Had Ye Shiyu triggered her own CG when regret over using the Modifier surfaced—only to snap back into full yandere mode?
Yan Huan swallowed hard. No matter how he looked at it, their Modifiers seemed way stronger than his.
Still, weren't those "future-warning flash-forwards" a kind of precognition in their own right?
Setting Ye Shiyu's angle aside, he could also use other people's Modifier effects to work out who that snake-scale fragment belonged to. Which meant one host—someone whose power worked like Meow-chan, an avatar that could directly warp reality—was still out there.
"Ssss."
Outside the curtain, Meow-chan sat on the tiles, watching the silhouette of Yan Huan clutching his head in thought. She couldn't help asking, "What next, meow? What do we do?"
"Let me think... With two fragments already blown, Ye Shiyu should quiet down for a while. That's decent progress."
Yan Huan opened his eyes and started counting on his fingers.
"But my energy's limited. I can't tackle every Modifier at once; I have to prioritize. Whoever pops up first and gives me an opening gets hit first."
"Bai Yi and An Le are stable for now—normal, or at least they look it."
"Only Spencer's the wild card."
Even under a stream of hot water, the thought of Spencer made his temples throb.
"Spencer, meow. Didn't you say she's dumb?"
"Yeah, she's dumb. But a monkey with a detonator can still blow up half a city, right?"
Yan Huan recalled Spencer's Modifier effects. After spending time with her, he finally had a rough picture.
Terrifying—plain and simple.
"Her entire kit is passive, zero cooldown, huge area. It scrambles minds and warps reality. Yesterday it even hijacked the characters in Hashimoto's mobile game. And her raw strength? Either she mutated on tainted baby formula or the Modifier's juicing her."
He rattled the list off like a catalog; just hearing it sounded broken.
Compared to Bai Yi's "ostrich burrow of indifference," Spencer's power felt like the Trisolarans curb-stomping cavemen. Hard to believe both came from the same alien source.
Meow-chan tilted her head. "I get the rest, but how'd you decide it's fully passive, meow?"
Yan Huan glanced back deadpan. "With that brain of hers, do you think she could activate anything on purpose?"
"..."
"Case in point—yesterday she was genuinely surprised she could cuck Hashimoto's 2-D waifu. She can't hide emotions; her face is an open book."
He raised a finger like a lecturer.
"Only explanation: the effect is always on. She never knows what reality's going to do next."
"Always on... that is kinda overkill, meow."
Even the goddess Meow-chan looked flustered.
"Still," Yan Huan added, "it's not flawless. There's a glaring side-effect: everyone subconsciously hates her."
"I'll leave myself out of it—maybe the Modifier colors my view. But last week, before she even threw a punch, Park Seo-mun was clearly bullying An Le. Yet the whole class, Hashimoto included, instinctively sided with Park and despised Spencer."
"I checked—before the fight she'd done literally nothing. Still, the class disliked her for no reason."
"That debuff is huge, and it looks permanent. Maybe we can use it."
Meow-chan nodded, then remembered something. "But An Le gets along with her, right?"
"Mm."
True—Spencer had helped An Le. Yet even after Yan Huan told Hashimoto that Spencer had punched Park to rescue An Le, Hashimoto still sniped at Spencer during study group.
"Could it be that An Le, as a host, is immune? Or..."
Yan Huan's thoughts branched.
"The side-effect isn't universal—it has filters. Most of us, me included, just happened to fit the filter."
He'd investigate later.
"Either way, Spencer is now priority one."
"Meow?"
Yan Huan picked up a bottle of shower gel, eyes glinting.
"Her Modifier boils down to stealing whatever people love—the more they love it, the stronger the theft. So counter-strategy's simple: make every theft fail and punish her for even thinking about it."
Meow-chan cocked her head, not fully grasping but nodding anyway.
"Right, meow."
"Plenty of chances coming up. I baited her yesterday by talking MV plans with Bai Yi in front of her. She'll probably act tomorrow. If not, Club Wars is right around the corner—I'll be watching."
He squeezed the shower gel. Under some strange force, the liquid shimmered like starlight—the useless reward he'd received Sunday: Muscle-Enhancing Body Wash.
Since he had it, might as well use it. Wherever it hurt, he slathered it on; worked like a charm.
As he rubbed the gel, Meow-chan hooked the curtain with a paw and peeked in.
"But Spencer's current plan is to steal you from her imaginary rival Sakuramiya Hitomi. To make the theft fail... can you hold the line, meow?"
Yan Huan's face blackened.
"You think I'm crazy enough to fall for Spencer of all people?"
"But last time in the restroom you were—"
His face went even darker behind the steam. He yanked the curtain shut, blocking the lewd little cat's view.
Swish—!
"Blame yourself! Who dumped two whole points into the Procreation stat?"
Meow-chan opened her mouth to retort—That stat boost was this week; Tuesday had nothing to do with it—but wisely stayed silent. She knew what age Yan Huan was: green shoots bursting with life.
Without the Modifier mess, he and Sakuramiya Hitomi would probably be dating already.
While Meow-chan mused, Yan Huan rinsed off, wrapped himself in a towel, and stepped out.
"Meow~" She leapt, landing ethereally on his shoulder.
Walking toward the locker room, Yan Huan declared, "Operation name decided: Operation Suppress Spencer!!"
"Meow?"
"Ah-choo!!"
At the exact same moment, in the sprawling penthouse atop Golden Lion Tower in Jinghe District.
Spencer, dumbbell in one hand and phone in the other, sneezed while playing Angry Piggies.
She wiped her nose with a tissue and started plotting Thursday's fun.
"Heh-heh... Tomorrow, when Yan Huan and Bai Yi talk MV, I'll—"
End of Chapter.