The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 166: Spectator

The well-lit armory was quiet for a few seconds until the silence was broken by Gray Bear’s hearty laughter.

“Haha!” He turned to Lithe Snake. “What did I tell you before? Captain Seven Shadow is dependable, a worthy captain to follow!”

Lithe Snake huffed, and the others laughed.

Gray Bear swung his arm. “Let’s go!”

The two operations teams each took a black, seven-seater van and headed to the Eleventh High School. Since their mission was to investigate the school rather than to fight, the atmosphere in the car was more relaxed.

While driving the car, Gray Bear chatted with Lithe Snake, who took the passenger seat, about the techniques of fighting with cold weapons. In the back, Xiran and Ronnie were sharing theories on the Mist World proposed by experts and other unproven rumors. Meanwhile, Can had her phone in hand, fighting an epic battle in a valley with Xiao Qiao.

Gao Yang closed his eyes, pretending to be resting, when in truth he was making preparations for potential battles.

[Access granted.]

—Luck points.

[You have accumulated 393 Luck points.]

—Let me go over it. It’s been 6 days since I last allocated points. There are 24 hours in a day, so discounting the bonus, I should get 144 points in total.

—The night we went to catch Sister Luo, we fought a slaughterer and then Officer Liu, a freerider. The former granted a 2000 times bonus, while the latter granted a 3000 times bonus. The battles lasted a few minutes. Roughly speaking, that should be 250 points.

—System, increase my Constitution and Endurance to 200 and put the rest of my Luck points in Strength and Agility.

[Command rejected. Your current maximum stat is 300.]

—What?! There’s a limit? Why didn’t you tell me?

[You didn’t ask.]

—You did it on purpose to make me angry! Wait, didn’t my Willpower exceed 300 already?

[The limit does not apply to bonuses granted by Talents.]

—Wait, do you mean that without the bonuses from Talents, the highest I can get my stats to is 300 from Luck points allocation alone?

[Yes.]

—Dang it! Is there a way to increase the maximum stats? There must be.

[Level up Talent: Lucky.]

—Speaking of which, my Lucky has been stagnating at level 2 for a while. How am I going to reach level 3?

[Please find out on your own.]

[Access ends.]

Gao Yang opened his eyes. If he had been alone, he would be cursing up a storm!

What the hell was wrong with the damn system?

Calm down, take a breath.

Upon reflection, while the system came with many limitations and unspoken rules, it had never really acted against him. Actually, Gao Yang had been quite lucky all this time.

Ah, luck.

That’s right. I can’t believe I forgot about it!

He had run into so many dangers recently that he paid much more attention to his other stats; as a result, he neglected one key stat of his—Luck!

Every time he put points in Luck, he was pleasantly surprised one way or another, like the time he gained access to the Talent Pantheon. Even if he only got additional Luck points to put into his stats, it wouldn’t be a bad deal.

Moreover, he suspected that his Lucky had gone up to level 2 back then because his Luck had met a certain threshold.

Although he didn’t know the exact mechanism behind all that, what clues he had pointed to a deeper link between Lucky and his system.

[Access granted.]

—System, make my Constitution and Endurance 200. Skip the confirmation.

[Understood.]

[Constitution: 200 Endurance: 200]

[Strength: 217 Agility: 259]

[Willpower: 409 Charisma: 97]

[Luck: 132]

[You have a total of 322 Luck points.]

—Put the rest of my Luck points into Luck.

[Luck is now 454.]

[Congratulations! Lucky has leveled up to level 3.]

—Yes! My guess is right! Good job, me!

[Level 3 Lucky: Maximum stats has increased to 500.]

[Level 3 Lucky: You have become a spectator of the Talent Pantheon.]

—Spectator?

[A spectator may visit the Talent Pantheon.]

—Interesting. I’m going to visit it now.

[You may only visit the Talent Pantheon once a week. Do you confirm?]

—I confirm.

Gao Yang felt as if he was pulling out of the system, and he could hear the chattering of his teammates and sensed the slight tremor from the car chassis beneath his feet, but soon, the sounds and sensory input gradually grew distant again.

He felt like he was floating.

“Gao Yang, Gao Yang.”

Gao Yang opened his eyes to a courtyard.

It was old. The brown mud brick walls were short and covered in cracks. The concrete ground under his feet was in a similar state, and from the cracks emerged tender shoots of clovers.

It was a summer afternoon. Through the thriving, emerald-green canopies of the large camphor trees in the courtyard, sunlight cast a splattering of gold on the ground. Gao Yang could feel a warm breeze and heard the chorus of cicada chirps.

This is...

Gao Yang remembered. This was the orphanage he had spent the first six years of his life in!

The only difference was that the courtyard he remembered was always packed with children playing together, but it was now empty, like it had been forgotten by time.

“Gao Yang,” a voice called out to him from behind.

Gao Yang turned around and jumped.

On the concrete staircase leading to the entrance of the orphanage stood a gentle-looking young woman. Her silky long hair was tied near the end, wrapping around her nape and resting on her left shoulder.

She was dressed in a tapered long dress with flower patterns, and hanging down her neck was a blue whistle. She smiled tenderly at Gao Yang.

She was the dorm keeper at the orphanage. Whenever it was time for the kids to eat or sleep, she would blow the whistle, and the kids had learned to gather at the door when they heard the sound, never giving her any trouble as she counted their number with a smile.

“Auntie...”

The woman shook her head. “I’m not her. I’m the system. I can give myself a physical form in the Talent Pantheon.”

Gao Yang’s joy was quickly replaced by awkwardness. “Would you mind changing your appearance? Or I would feel like I’ve returned to my world.”

The woman was still smiling, but her tone was anything but warm. “I cannot change my appearance on my own. This is the image that was conjured the moment you entered the Talent Pantheon. You may consider it a projection combining your rationality, emotions, and imagination.”

Gao Yang was a little surprised. Outside of that dream from a while ago, it had been a long time since he thought about his orphanage and caretaker with yearning. Why would his brain create a projection like this?

Well, this isn’t the time to dwell on it.

“Where’s the Talent Pantheon?” Gao Yang asked.

“Please turn around.” The woman extended a hand.

Gao Yang turned around, and his jaw dropped.

The blue sky and white clouds of the courtyard vanished, replaced by the cosmos. Or more specifically, it was the recreation of the universe he had seen in movies.

Gao Yang took a deep breath to calm himself before slowly walking out of the courtyard gate. A vast, boundless universe extended before him, deep and lonely despite the flickering stars.

He saw a gargantuan pillar towering over him, or maybe it was far, far away at the horizon. Gao Yang had lost his sense of distance.

Taking a closer look, he realized that it wasn’t a pillar, but a spectacle given form, consisting of countless broken stars and space particles.

The twelve vine-like threads intertwined, wrapping around a tremendous, lonesome beam of light. They climbed up and up until they reached the edge of his vision.

Gao Yang was suddenly reminded of a photo of space he had seen before, specifically of the Pillars of Creation[1].

He felt as if he was standing at the foot of the pillars, stunned by the awe-inspiring sight.

He marveled, “I thought the Talent Pantheon would be a palace or a catacomb, but it turns out to be the universe.”

“All this is but the projection of your rationality, emotions, and imagination.”

“I got it already.”

Gao Yang was irritated by the buzzkill of a system he got, but as soon as he saw the dorm keeper’s gentle face, he couldn’t help but lose a large part of his anger.

A thought coming to mind, Gao Yang hurriedly asked, “Since I can step into the Talent Pantheon, can I also see the physical forms of Talents?”

1. A photo taken by the Hubble Telescope of a small region in the Eagle Nebula. It’s beautiful. ?

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