Chapter Eighty-Eight: I Am Guan Yunchang

Yan Luo lingered inside the kiosk for a while. Outside, the hacker who had surpassed human limits, Zhao Yulong, was busy manipulating the central crystal.

As for Huang Jiang, he had originally meant to roam the jungle, wiping out neutral Martian creatures while supporting all three lanes. Now he could only lie pitifully in a culture dish, reduced to raw material for cloning. Honestly, that kind of treatment was enough to make anyone lose all sense of style.

Even with the title of mini-boss hanging over his head, the commentator who had gone beyond the bounds of humanity was suffering a catastrophic collapse in coolness.

As the crystal barracks absorbed the power of the Pandora crystal, fine streams of light flickered across its surface. Inside the culture dish, Huang Jiang’s genes were being analyzed, and at the same time, upon the grassy rise before the crystal, on the flesh-like fungal mat spread across the ground, several embryos began to swell.

In scarcely a few seconds, those embryos matured completely, and a total of nine Huang Jiangs emerged.

All nine clones were only about half the size of an ordinary person, standing under one meter tall, even shorter than a hobbit. Among these diminutive clone soldiers, six had undergone mutation in the right arm, making them melee troops, while the other three had their arms transformed into tube-like forms capable of spraying acid, making them ranged troops.

Three melee and one ranged: in this formation, the nine Huang Jiangs split into three squads and advanced toward the top, middle, and bottom lanes.

That was what was called the minion wave.

“These clone soldiers look so pathetic,” Huang Jiang muttered from inside the culture dish. The container was not sealed; he could see the high-ground scenery, and watching that crowd of tiny figures, each with his own face, all less than a meter tall, left him feeling complicated.

“Say, Zhao Yulong, do I really have to stay here? I can’t leave even for a moment?”

“Yes.”

“Even if you won’t let me go out and fight, at least let me be the commentator for this Modulator-versus-alien battle! Stuck in this crystal coffin of a culture dish, able to see only the high ground, unable to get out, unable to move, I’m going to suffocate!”

Huang Jiang was the commentator who had gone beyond human limits. His greatest joy and hobby was calling matches.

“Bear with it,” Zhao Yulong said. The boy clearly possessed a maturity far beyond his years. Pushing up his glasses with calm composure, he offered a flat, measured consolation.

“Oh, right. What about grabbing a few ordinary people and using them as clone material?”

“Cloning soldiers from ordinary people makes them too weak. In fact, you’re the better choice. Cloning can’t copy spiritual energy, but it can partially reproduce physical attributes, within certain limits. That Lv1 Modulator, if used as material, would produce clone soldiers too weak to withstand even a single alien minion.”

Zhao Yulong glanced at Huang Jiang lying in the culture dish. “Your constitution is very high, and your strength isn’t low either. The clone soldiers made from you can serve as proper lane units. If we used Yan Luo instead, they’d be nothing but useless cannon fodder.”

Huang Jiang fell silent for a few seconds, then asked, “So what about that Lv1 guy now?”

“Who knows.”

Zhao Yulong shrugged indifferently. “Probably dead. A Lv1 Modulator has only unlocked basic genes at best, and doesn’t have spiritual energy. What could he possibly do in this contaminated zone, which is basically equivalent to a tier-three inner world? Even I, if I went out there as a Lv2, would die all the same. Forget about him.”

“Oh, right. The crystal core has a minimap function. Let me take a look.”

With his manipulation, the flowing light within the crystal projected a three-dimensional map once more.

“That Lv5 has already reached mid lane. He’s up against a Martian moth.”

“The Lv4, Dong Qing, is on top lane... Hm? There are two alien creatures there, a Martian octopus and a Martian worm. Can that Lv4 hold out? Aliens can revive as long as they have genetic backups, but Modulators are finished once they die even once...”

“The Lv3s, Du Rong and Liu Xin, are both on bottom lane. Their opponents are Martian moles, and the pressure doesn’t seem too heavy.”

“By the way, where’s the Martian mantis? It’s not showing on the map. Don’t tell me aliens have the concept of jungling too...”

As Zhao Yulong checked the minimap and spoke to Huang Jiang to pass the time, the barracks and defensive towers continued to provide vision.

“I still haven’t found Yan Luo. As expected... maybe he’s already been killed by a jungle monster...” Zhao Yulong said, just as he had anticipated. Then his expression shifted suddenly to surprise. “What?”

He had spotted a horse running past from the position of the bottom mid tower.

“Still alive, huh...”

Almost by reflex, he clicked open the nutrient values each Modulator had earned in the crystal core. Seeing that Yan Luo’s value was zero, he let out an “oh.”

“So he plunged straight into the jungle and hasn’t killed a single neutral creature yet. Still, that’s actually sensible...”

“Riding a horse, wandering around the map, not clearing camps, not joining the fighting. Even though his contribution to this contamination-zone purge is zero, at least he won’t die.”

Zhao Yulong manipulated the console to send the crystal structure’s minimap function to everyone through the World Modulation Program.

Then he glanced once more, almost absentmindedly, at Yan Luo’s portrait.

“Huh?!”

The boy, who had seemed so composed a moment ago, sprang straight up from the console.

He clicked the icon representing Yan Luo, enlarging it on the minimap, and there it was: a man with a red face and a long beard! Zhao Yulong stared blankly. Could that be Guan Yu, the famed general? The likeness was just too striking. Beneath the portrait was even a horse. Guan Yu on horseback?

What on earth was going on?

Looking more closely, he saw that although the figure had phoenix eyes and brows like resting silkworms, the face itself did seem to be Yan Luo’s... The hacker who had surpassed human limits could make no sense of it. A transformation? Maybe a transformation.

Transformations were common in anime: people turned into giant heroes, or magical girls. But turning into Guan Yu was such an imaginative twist that he had never seen anything like it. Why on earth had a Modulator turned into Guan Yu? Did that Lv1 have some special skill?

Setting aside Zhao Yulong’s astonishment, Yan Luo, in the form of Guan Yu, rode out from the kiosk and wandered about the area near the bottom mid tower. Just then, the program suddenly issued a prompt:

The temporary map module for the contaminated zone is loading.

It was very similar to the minimap in a MOBA game. Yan Luo immediately saw the positions of the four teammates on the battlefield: Dong Qing, Chen Beixue, the Butcher, and the Cook, each on one of the three lanes. The aliens near his teammates were also shown in their vision, with portraits appearing as well.

“These aliens really do have an oddly distinctive look...”

Yan Luo considered whether to head to a lane, but decided first to probe the strength of the neutral creatures, and to find out just how much combat power Guan Yu’s alternate personality actually possessed. Besides, killing jungle monsters could earn nutrients, which could then be exchanged at the crystal for items and equipment.

In the jungle, that is, the residential district of high-rise buildings, he galloped forward on horseback. Soon, a cluster of glowing dots appeared on the minimap, indicating a gathering of creatures.

The place where the dots were concentrated was the community service station.

Click.

Yan Luo, as Guan Yu, lifted the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and brought it down in a single stroke, cleaving open the courtyard gate. At once, he discovered the “monsters” gathered inside.

A group of security guards and cleaning women were huddled there, trembling in fear.

When they saw a young man with a red face, a long beard, and a green robe, charging in on horseback like Guan Yu, their minds all short-circuited. They were nearly stunned senseless.

You felt intense emotion:

Confusion +1, +1, +1...

“So even the split-off body controlling this alternate personality can absorb the intense emotions nearby,” Yan Luo, in Guan Yu’s form, mused thoughtfully.

“Who are you?” the security chief asked, summoning his courage.

“I am... Guan Yunchang!”

You felt intense emotion:

Shock +1, +1, +1...