novelraw Chapter 25 : Privacy Secrets and Social Networks
Chapter 25 : Privacy Secrets and Social Networks
Chapter 25: Privacy Secrets and Social Networks
The more Lance thought about it, the more something felt off.
Images from that rather indecent game in his previous life instantly surfaced in his mind.
In that game, the so-called “Codex” function recorded nothing but close-up scenes of heroines after defeat, along with detailed statistics of how many times each part of their bodies had been struck.
“No way?”
Lance’s lips twitched, his eyes filled with horror as he looked at Hakon lying on the ground like a dead pig.
If he had to be forced to watch “defeat close-ups” of this greasy middle-aged man inside his head, that wouldn’t just be mental pollution—it would be visual bullying on a completely different level.
That would obliterate his sanity.
Lance took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself to shut his eyes immediately at the first sign of anything wrong, and tremblingly opened the newly unlocked Codex function.
As the panel unfolded, no nauseating images appeared.
There was only a half-body sketch of Hakon, along with densely packed lines of textual data beside it.
“Phew…”
Lance let out a long breath, finally putting his mind at ease.
Thankfully, this real-world system had undergone some “harmonization.”
This Codex function actually recorded Hakon’s basic information, current status, as well as detailed attributes and skill levels.
This was also the first time, aside from himself, that Lance could directly view another person’s detailed panel.
Name: Hakon
Status: Mild intoxication, unconscious, mild concussion
Attributes: Strength 9, Constitution 8…
Looking at this string of data, Lance felt secretly relieved.
This drunk who spent his days in taverns actually had a Strength of 9 and Constitution of 8, already close to the threshold of a first-rank professional.
After all, even after his recent hellish training, Lance’s Strength had only just reached 6.
There was a clear gap between their base attributes.
If not for the fact that this guy had been completely drunk, and that Lance had struck first with a surprise attack—catching him off guard—
If it had been a direct confrontation, the outcome would have been hard to predict.
“As expected, even when a lion hunts a rabbit, it uses its full strength. Ambush is king.”
Lance silently gave his own tactics a thumbs-up.
However, as he continued scrolling down, something truly surprising appeared.
The most important and valuable part of this Codex was not those cold lines of attribute data.
At the very bottom of the panel, it actually recorded the target’s private secrets, as well as a complex social network map.
【Hakon’s Secrets】
【Secret One: Recently, he has been having nightmares every day, and his mental state is extremely poor. The cause is that half a month ago, while burying a teammate who died in an accident, he secretly stole the burial dagger from the corpse. Now every night, he dreams of that teammate standing at the bedside, covered in blood, asking him to return a “toothpick.”】
【Secret Two: The reason he fought his teammate over a few copper coins’ worth of loot was actually because he was jealous of that teammate’s handsome appearance, which had won the favor of a female teammate. It had been a premeditated outburst.】
【Secret Three…】
After reading these secrets, Lance looked at the swollen face on the ground, his expression becoming strange.
This guy wasn’t just morally corrupt—his mind was as narrow as the eye of a needle.
“So you picked a fight with me purely because you’re jealous of my good looks?”
Lance couldn’t help but lift his foot and give Hakon a hard kick on the backside.
That explained everything.
For someone as psychologically twisted as Hakon, Lance’s very existence as a “pretty boy” was a kind of original sin.
Lance shook his head and continued, opening the 【Social Network】 option.
A massive tree-like diagram unfolded before his eyes.
Hakon’s portrait sat at the center, with dozens of lines of varying thickness extending outward, connecting to unfamiliar names and portraits.
The system’s indicators were very intuitive.
Green lines represented friendliness—the brighter, the better the relationship.
Red lines represented hostility—the darker, the greater the hatred.
Within this web of intertwined red and green, Lance immediately spotted the point representing himself.
It was connected by a thick, faintly red line directly to Hakon’s portrait.
This meant that in Hakon’s mind, Lance had already become an enemy.
“It seems that as long as someone is defeated by me, they get recorded in this Codex.”
Lance pondered.
This was equivalent to saying that once someone had been defeated by him, they would completely lose their secrets in front of him.
Whether it was weaknesses, dark history, or their network of connections—all would be laid bare.
The only question was whether the information in this Codex updated automatically in real time, or if he needed to beat them again to refresh the data.
Regardless, this function was extremely practical.
From now on, if anyone he defeated harbored resentment, Lance would be able to detect it.
He could even strike preemptively.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
With this, he could immediately tell who was friend and who was foe.
“This time, I really struck gold.”
Lance closed the system panel in satisfaction.
Looking at Hakon lying there like a dead dog, he stroked his chin, recalling the secrets he had just seen.
Although he had already beaten him up, the resentment in his chest still hadn’t completely dissipated.
He crouched down, holding his breath, and deftly untied the bulging money pouch from Hakon’s waist.
“This will count as compensation for my emotional distress.”
Lance weighed the pouch in his hand and tucked it into his chest without the slightest guilt.
Money from someone like this would only end up benefiting some passing vagrant or thief anyway.
Without lingering, he quickly disappeared into the alley.
As for whether Hakon would suffocate lying face-down in urine or catch a cold—that wasn’t Lance’s concern.
This area was within the patrol route of the city guards. At most, within half an hour, someone on night patrol would drag him away like a dead pig.
……
Back in the cramped attic room.
Lance locked the door behind him and eagerly poured the contents of the money pouch onto the table.
“Clatter—”
The crisp sound of metal clinking echoed in the quiet room.
Looking at the pile of gleaming silver coins on the table, Lance’s eyes lit up.
He roughly counted—there were more than thirty silver coins, along with a large handful of copper coins.
The profit was astonishing.
After all, working diligently as a Scribe for a month only brought him a net income of sixteen silver coins.
With just one ambush strike, he had earned two months’ salary.
“Robbery is this profitable…”
For a brief moment, a dangerous thought of working as a masked vigilante at night even flashed through Lance’s mind.
But that thought lasted only a second before he crushed it.
If you walk by the river often, your shoes will eventually get wet.
This world was full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers—who knew if some drunkard might actually be a retired powerhouse hiding their strength?
If he kicked an iron plate, he might lose his life.
Lance picked up a silver coin and flicked it with his thumb.
The coin spun through the air before landing steadily back in his palm.
“A lucky day.”
This unexpected windfall would be enough to support his high-intensity training expenses for quite some time.
Thinking of Amber’s resentful little expression when he left earlier, Lance decided to buy her a proper gift tomorrow as compensation.
After all, if you take someone else’s money, you should at least do something good to build up goodwill.
After properly hiding the money, Lance turned his gaze toward the windowsill.
The jars of Coagulation Moss that had been drying for several days had now completely lost their moisture, turning into dark brown hardened chunks.
Lance skillfully crushed them and ground them into fine powder.
As the final step was completed, the system prompt appeared as expected.
【You have personally collected, dried, and produced 30 ounces of Coagulation Moss powder. Research complete】
Lance immediately summoned the research panel.
The task bar for 【Hemostatic Ointment (Improving)】 that had been displayed there had now disappeared.
This made him slightly surprised.
In his expectation, it might have unlocked a new, more advanced recipe blueprint like in games.
But reality was not like that.
This research task seemed to be a one-time process, and it did not change the formula for the Hemostatic Ointment. Instead, it resembled a “permanent enhancement” to Lance’s personal skill.
Although he didn’t know exactly how this enhancement would manifest—
Practice was the only way to verify truth.
Lance didn’t dwell on it. This kind of thing could be tested directly.
He dragged out a cage from under the bed. Inside was a gray wild rabbit he had caught earlier that afternoon.
The poor little creature trembled, completely unaware that it was about to be sacrificed for medical science.
Lance set up a simple crucible and lit an alcohol lamp.
Following the now deeply ingrained steps in his mind, he poured the moss powder into an oil base and began stirring slowly.
During the process, he occasionally added other herbs.
Soon, a jar of dark green ointment emitting a faint herbal fragrance was completed.
The process was so simple that it didn’t even generate a skill.
After waiting for the ointment to cool and solidify naturally, Lance took out another jar—the most common ordinary Hemostatic Ointment sold on the market.
The experiment began.
He took out the short dagger seized from Hakon and skillfully cut two wounds of equal depth on the rabbit’s hind leg.
Blood immediately gushed out.
With quick reflexes, Lance applied his self-made ointment to one wound and the store-bought one to the other.
“Let me see the results…”
Lance leaned closer, his gaze focused.
In just a few seconds, the difference became visible to the naked eye.
The wound treated with the ordinary ointment—after half a minute, although the bleeding slowed, it still continued to seep.
But the wound treated with Lance’s special version—
Within the same time frame, the flowing blood seemed to be locked in place by some invisible force, rapidly coagulating.
A tough dark-red medicinal film completely sealed the wound, with not a single drop of blood seeping out.