Before he got home, the rain started to fall.
When the first couple of drops hit his face, Lu Yuan knew he was in for it.
Sure enough, within a few seconds, the rain became fierce.
WHOOSH—
Raindrops as large as beans pelted down, as if someone was splashing buckets of water from the heavens in the dead of night.
Lu Yuan quickly ran under the eaves of the street-side shops, shook the water droplets from his hair, and made his way home under the narrow shelter.
After the heavy rain started, the streets grew even more deserted.
Occasionally, he saw one or two miserable office workers, working late, clutching laptop bags and dashing down the road.
The orange headlights of cars and electric bikes pierced the curtain of rain, periodically speeding past him.
Suddenly, a minivan stopped at the mouth of an alley ahead of Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan glanced casually as he continued walking.
He saw the van door open, and four or five men in black short-sleeved shirts piled out. Two of them seemed to be carrying something.
It was wrapped in black oilcloth, making it impossible to tell what it was.
After they got out of the van, two people quickly emerged from the alley to meet them.
The two groups met and immediately headed deeper into the alley, leaving behind a young man in his twenties with dyed-blond hair smoking at the entrance.
The rain was lashing down.
Why would he choose to smoke in this downpour? Lu Yuan wondered.
Can he even get that lit? Lu Yuan thought.
As Lu Yuan walked past the young man, the latter seemed to glare at him, muttering a few curses.
He tossed his cigarette to the ground and turned into the alley.
Lu Yuan walked several dozen meters further and prepared to cross the road.
Looking at the blinking red light across the street, his gaze unconsciously drifted back to the alley he had just passed.
Three...
Two...
One.
The red light turned green.
Lu Yuan stepped onto the crosswalk.
Even as he shielded his head with his hand, raindrops still quickly trickled down from his hair.
He squinted, carefully avoiding the puddles on the road.
Halfway across, Lu Yuan stopped.
He stared at the green walking figure on the traffic signal for a moment. Then, as if an unknown chord had been struck within him, he suddenly turned and sprinted back the way he came.
I hope... I'm just overthinking this, he thought.
Reaching the alley where the van was parked, Lu Yuan peered inside.
The heavy rain blurred his vision; the alley was pitch black, without a single light visible.
This was one of the oldest parts of the city. Many of the houses within were still unrenovated, resembling old rural dwellings, and were mostly uninhabited.
Lu Yuan took a couple of steps into the alley.
Suddenly, he crouched and picked up a pink hairpin from the puddled ground.
The hairpin looked new, the kind of style a junior or senior high school girl would wear.
No matter how he looked at it, Lu Yuan found it somewhat familiar.
Fragmented images flashed through his mind like scenes from a movie.
*"...Recently, there have been several missing person cases in our city. The Municipal Public Security Bureau has established a special investigation team..."*
*"...Lu Hui, female, age 28, last seen wearing a white top... If anyone has any information, please call the following number. A substantial reward will be offered!"*
*"Lu Yuan, want to head back to class together? I wanted to go over the answers from yesterday afternoon's math test with you."*
*"What are you looking at, you little bastard! Scram!"*
CRACK—
A flash of lightning overhead suddenly illuminated everything.
All at once, Lu Yuan pieced together all the clues in his mind.
Missing persons cases... kidnapping... Ling Yue?!
He instinctively reached for his phone, but a faint whistling sound, cutting through the heavy rain, rapidly approached his ear.
CLANG!
The rusty steel pipe slammed hard onto the concrete pavement.
Lu Yuan was half-crouched on the ground. Because he had rolled, his clothes were splattered with muddy water, leaving him looking quite disheveled.
"Oh? You actually dodged that?"
The blond youth holding the steel pipe looked at Lu Yuan in surprise, the silver stud in his left ear glinting with each flash of lightning's afterglow.
Lu Yuan quickly got to his feet, his legs tensing, instinctively about to charge at the blond youth.
But in the next second, he forced himself to stop, spun around, and darted towards the alley's exit.
The adult soul within his body knew: In situations like this, the correct decision is to escape the danger first and then call the police.
But before Lu Yuan could run out of the alley, the minivan parked at the entrance suddenly flashed its two orange headlights, then it sharply turned and sped into the alley.
VROOOM—
The engine died, its body completely blocking the narrow alley.
The direct glare of the headlights forced Lu Yuan to turn his face away slightly.
Then he saw the van door open, and a middle-aged man of average build and plain appearance stepped out, his face expressionless.
Damn it!
Only then did Lu Yuan realize there had been someone in the van all along.
His earlier hesitation, his return, and all his actions in the alley had been clearly observed by this person in the van.
Lu Yuan heard a short laugh, then the sound of a club whistling through the air behind him again.
He threw himself to the side, and as he spun, he caught a glimpse of the figure behind him from the corner of his eye... then immediately launched a powerful spinning kick at the blond youth holding the steel pipe.
THWACK!
The kick landed solidly.
The blond youth was sent flying three or four meters by Lu Yuan's kick, staggered back into the wall, and slumped to the ground.
The steel pipe in his hand clattered to the ground.
"This kid's trained in martial arts!" the blond youth yelled, clutching his chest.
The expression of the middle-aged man blocking the alley changed slightly, and he charged towards Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan's left hand clenched the hairpin tightly. His cheeks burned, and he felt as if all the blood in his body was boiling.
Two lifetimes... this was his first real fight, he thought.
Basic Fist Skill, Basic Leg Skill, Basic Step Skill, Basic Capture. Jab, left hook, right whip kick, forward slide step... The fighting techniques he had diligently practiced daily raced chaotically through his mind, but Lu Yuan couldn't grasp any of them.
He could only follow his instincts, slightly lowering his stance, then throwing a straight punch at the man's face with all his might.
His fist cut through the heavy curtain of rain, but before it could land, its trajectory was sharply deflected by a casual palm strike from the middle-aged man.
The man seized the opening and threw a punch back, aiming for Lu Yuan's neck.
Lu Yuan could only turn sideways, but his shoulder still took the blow.
The two quickly grappled, their punches and kicks echoing with SMACK! SMACK! sounds in the heavy rain.
This felt completely different from sparring with Cheng Peng.
He wasn't wearing any protective gear; every punch landed solidly.
However, his adrenaline was skyrocketing, and with the enhancement from his ten points in physique, he barely felt any pain.
The middle-aged man was clearly trained as well; his speed and strength were far superior to Lu Yuan's.
Lu Yuan was also far outmatched in terms of actual combat experience.
He was at a disadvantage almost immediately, forced into a defensive position and taking a beating.
He had only managed to last this long by relying on a surge of adrenaline and sheer grit, desperately fighting back.
SPLASH! SPLASH!
Just then, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps splashing through water from behind.
Lu Yuan threw a punch to break the middle-aged man's attack, quickly pressed himself flat against the wall, and turned to look behind him.
He saw five or six figures in raincoats approaching.
They were all armed with weapons—clubs, and even gleaming machetes.
The blond youth he had kicked away earlier was now back on his feet.
He was approaching with these newcomers, his eyes as vicious as a stray dog fighting for scraps.
"Hei!" someone shouted.
The middle-aged man, who had been blocking the alley entrance and fighting Lu Yuan, smirked and replied with a few words in a local dialect.
As he spoke, his eyes flicked towards Lu Yuan from time to time, a hint of mockery and amusement in them.
Lu Yuan watched as the two groups steadily converged, about to join forces.
In the pouring rain, the high concrete courtyard walls of the urban village alley seemed to merge with the black sky.
An inexplicable sense of dread and despair welled up from deep within him.
Lu Yuan began to panic.
He could almost hear his own heart pounding in his chest.
The raindrops falling on his face and body felt cold against his skin.
HUFF... HUFF...
His breathing grew increasingly ragged.
Just as he was about to reach some critical point...
THUMP!
Lu Yuan slammed his fist hard against the wall behind him, then, like a wild beast, he lunged furiously at the nearest middle-aged man.
In the downpour, the charging young man clenched his jaw, his handsome features contorted with effort.
Flames of desperation ignited in his eyes.
Unseen by anyone, a pale blue virtual screen rapidly materialized.
On the screen, two available free attribute points instantly vanished. Simultaneously, the Strength attribute changed:
From the original 9...
It silently became... 11!