HAGLTP Chapter 5

His physical strength became unprecedentedly abundant, as if living golden patterns flowed across Xiao Lu’s pale skin.

Xiao Lu raised his hand, carefully observing the sudden marks that had appeared on his body.

When a person resists the consciousness invasion of the starlight and devours the opponent in return, they become a power user. The bodies of power users will exhibit such marks, known as star patterns.

He remembered that in the original plot, the protagonist Xiao Keyang’s star pattern was golden, and the starlight on Xiao Lu’s body was a twin to that of Xiao Keyang, possessing the same ability—Radiance, a power that allows for the manipulation of light for attack and defense.

This was also why after Xiao Lu’s death, Xiao Keyang could easily absorb the starlight from him.

But not only power users, the transmuters who were completely replaced by starlight, and the ghouls formed after both sides’ consciousnesses perished, also bore similar star patterns on their bodies. Unlike power users, whose star patterns only glow when they use their abilities, the star patterns of ghouls and transmuters exist continuously.

At this moment, Xiao Lu’s ability had just awakened, and he could not yet control it freely.

He tried to move his fingers, and a light sphere quickly appeared at his fingertips, then uncontrollably expanded, instantly becoming a blinding light sphere that illuminated the room.

“Boom—” The light sphere exploded unexpectedly.

“Cough cough cough cough…” The shockwave stirred up years’ worth of dust in the room, choking Xiao Lu into a fit of coughing.

Outside, Huang Sansheng, drowsily clutching a large bag of potato chips, was startled by the commotion, looking up in confusion, his mouth agape enough to see his tonsils.

“Could it be that Brother Lu is a magical boy?!”

This, this, this… was different from the spy script he had just dreamed up. But magic was also thrilling; he wondered if Brother Lu would take him to choose a wand in the future…

“Boom—”

“Whoosh—”

Listening to the lively sounds of explosions and howling winds coming from inside, Huang Sansheng pondered—

Which academy should he join?

Once a person awakens their chuunibyou spirit, their ability to accept unreasonable events increases dramatically.

Soon, the door opened, and Xiao Lu walked out from the darkness, a cloud of rising dust behind him.

He walked with composure, his expression calm, the frightening red in his eyes absent, as if he had undergone a baptism, shedding some kind of shackles.

“Brother Lu!” Huang Sansheng jumped up excitedly.

Xiao Lu’s gaze swept across the room, revealing a deep suspicion: “What is this?”

The already messy room was now even more chaotic, with a mountain of potato chips piled on the table, another heap of different flavored chips on the sofa, and a white mountain of toilet paper stacked against the wall, taking up more than half of the already cramped space.

“Emergency supplies! Brother Lu, look, I specially found the latest black garlic cherry blossom flavor for you.” Huang Sansheng puffed out his chest, waiting for praise.

Xiao Lu looked at the silly kid: “…It’s pretty good, but don’t buy it next time.”

Huang Sansheng eagerly stood up, presenting a bright red floral long skirt mixed with green to Xiao Lu: “I thought you might need it, what do you think, is it pretty?”

Xiao Lu began to take deep breaths, trying to calm himself down: “…”

He always felt that this little fatty had some misunderstanding about him.

At that moment, Ivan’s voice echoed in his mind: “Master! Beautiful! Pretty!”

Xiao Lu: “…”

Are you two some kind of cross-species brothers from different parents? I wonder if the system has a gender distinction; maybe they are siblings? No, no, no, with Ivan’s terrible taste, how could he possibly be a girl?

At this moment, Xiao Lu deeply reflected, asking Huang Sansheng to prepare emergency supplies, he must have been out of his mind.

·

The park was exceptionally quiet in the early morning.

Xiao Keyang staggered as he parked the car in a corner of the park, leaning on the steering wheel, gasping for breath, his face flushed abnormally.

Even though he had recently gained fame, it still couldn’t compete with the celebrities and music industry seniors in Yaoshi City. They quickly occupied the beds at Yaoxin Hospital with their status and connections.

Yaoxin Hospital had stopped admitting patients; others had to choose another hospital or go home.

On the way home, Xiao Keyang suddenly found his vision overlapping, and auditory hallucinations began to emerge, his mind gradually becoming hazy.

With no other choice, he had to stop the car.

It felt so painful, as if he were in a furnace, every nerve was being scorched, bringing unbearable burning pain.

Having missed the mentor from the original plot, this time no one could guide him, and no one could help him through the painful transmutation process; he had to bear it alone.

Xiao Keyang’s eyes gradually turned red.

“Click, click, click, click—”

Continuous flashes of cameras crazily flashed at him, the blinding light jolting his dazed consciousness awake.

Xiao Keyang focused his gaze and saw a hooded man taking pictures of him with a camera.

—It was paparazzi! A group of parasites living off digging into celebrities’ privacy for attention.

Beside him, another similarly dressed person was recording with a phone:

“Xiao Keyang! How do you feel about the ghostwriting scandal being exposed?”

“Why did you sneak into the hospital? Are you on drugs right now?”

“How long have you been using drugs?”

“Do your fans know you’re involved with drugs?”

Xiao Keyang didn’t need to say anything; this person was already automatically scripting the narrative for him.

Previously, they could write articles insulting Xiao Lu for clicks, venting their malice without any bottom line; now, he was just another target for them to ride the wave of popularity.

Whoever they insulted was just the same.

The two were engrossed in their shooting, but they didn’t notice the dangerous expression suddenly appearing on Xiao Keyang’s face.

A surge of destructive rage rose from his heart, his blood-red eyes fixed on the two in front of him, gradually developing an impulse to tear something apart.

“Xiao Keyang, can you answer a question? What’s your attitude? Still acting like a big shot at a time like this?”

“How dare you—”

Crimson blood blossomed in the night, like flowers swaying on the other shore.

“Help, help—” The paparazzi, witnessing everything, was shocked and turned to run.

But behind him, hurried footsteps relentlessly pursued.

Time seemed to slow down deliberately; he tried to speed up but felt as if his legs were bound with a thousand-pound burden, making it hard to move, while the footsteps behind him grew closer and closer.

Was that Xiao Keyang? What kind of monster was Xiao Keyang?!

“Someone, ugh…”

The cry for help just escaped his lips, but it immediately turned into a dying whimper, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

The night wind blew, rustling the grass, creating an exceptionally tranquil atmosphere.

Finally, the noise faded, and Xiao Keyang looked at the twisted corpse before him and the blood on his palms.

Did he kill someone?!

No, this wasn’t his fault.

They deserved to die.

Yes, he was just acting in self-defense; who told them to suddenly jump out and provoke him? They had it coming.

Realizing this, a smile blossomed on Xiao Keyang’s face, but in the night, it appeared particularly ferocious.

Xiao Keyang felt his body filled with energy; this didn’t feel like an illness… it felt more like something special was happening.

He had always been lucky; things he wanted to do would go smoothly, and everyone would cooperate with him. Just after being exposed for the ghostwriting incident, change had come; perhaps this was his new opportunity.

Xiao Keyang would definitely not lose…

“Crack.” Suddenly, a sound of a branch snapping echoed ahead, very light, but exceptionally clear in the quiet night.

“Who?” His blood-red eyes immediately locked onto the source.

Xiao Keyang felt a surge of vigilance; if someone saw him, it would be over. He couldn’t be discovered; he had to clean up thoroughly…

A boy wearing a baseball cap stepped out from behind a tree.

He raised his hands, his face a bit pale, a childish face wearing a flattering smile: “Keyang, I, I’m your fan. I know you definitely didn’t mean it; how could you be at fault, right?”

·

There was no delivery service in the slums, so to stock up on supplies, Xiao Lu and Huang Sansheng could only go to the nearest supermarket.

On the way, Xiao Lu noticed that the atmosphere in Yaoshi City had changed; there were fewer people on the streets, passersby looked hurried, many wore masks, and only the direction of the supermarket was unusually crowded, even in the early morning.

Most people still thought there was an outbreak of an unknown virus, so they were preparing in a pandemic response manner.

However, there were still many who yearned for freedom, indulging in their wild nights.

Huang Sansheng was shocked by the changes outside; he looked at a passerby whose eyes were bloodshot and walked unsteadily, quietly asking Xiao Lu: “Brother Lu, is this what you call transmutation?”

Xiao Lu nodded.

Before coming out, Xiao Lu briefly described the starlight-related matters, of course omitting the parts about the system and cannon fodder, only mentioning what the starlight in his mind had conveyed.

This directly shattered Huang Sansheng’s dream of being a magical boy.

In his imagination, he could be as thrilling as he wanted, but when faced with an impending crisis, the little fatty still felt timid.

He shrank his neck, cautiously observing the people around, feeling that anyone looking at them seemed off: “Should, should we go back early, Brother Lu?”

But Xiao Lu did not answer immediately.

The situation around them was off.

Perhaps due to his enhanced physique, his perception of the surrounding environment had also strengthened. He noticed someone at the street corner pretending to fiddle with their watch, but occasionally glancing this way, while another person was talking on the phone while observing him through the glass reflection.

The gazes of these two were rational and calm, their ages close to middle age; they didn’t seem to recognize him because of entertainment news, so it was very likely another situation—

The group that had killed “Xiao Lu” in the original plot.

The original plot advanced from Xiao Keyang’s perspective, without detailed explanations about this faction.

Xiao Lu speculated that they should be from the Public Security Bureau.

In a capital-centric entertainment state like Xingzhou, there was no tradition of serving the people; every major city had established violent agencies like the Public Security Bureau, which could shoot suspects on the street and even raid homes for searches at any time, always a source of fear in the eyes of the public.

At that moment, a person in a supermarket uniform walked towards them.

“Hello, our supermarket is conducting a prize survey. Completing the questionnaire allows you to participate in a lottery with a maximum prize of 100,000.”

This person wore a hat that covered half of their face, but the neck exposed from the collar was much whiter than their chin, and the muscular arms beneath the uniform looked like someone who had engaged in high-intensity outdoor activities for years.

How could someone like that be a supermarket employee?

“No thanks.” Xiao Lu decisively said, then immediately turned and pulled Huang Sansheng to walk quickly to the side.

“Ah?” Huang Sansheng hadn’t reacted yet.

Seeing Xiao Lu and the others fleeing, the man disguised as a supermarket employee quickly followed, striding towards them, and the two who had been watching also stood up simultaneously.

Now, Huang Sansheng understood that they were being targeted.

Xiao Lu dragged Huang Sansheng into the large crowd heading towards the supermarket.

The crowd temporarily blocked the pursuers’ line of sight, and the two took the opportunity to lower their bodies and quickly move away from the pursuers.

“Do you know any way to shake them off nearby?” Xiao Lu whispered.

“Y-yes! I’m quite familiar with this area!” Huang Sansheng’s voice trembled.

Xiao Lu: “No time for nonsense, which way?”

“Left, there’s an abandoned underground pedestrian street over there; the paths inside are very chaotic.” Huang Sansheng lowered his voice.

……

Facing the crowd blocking his view, the muscular man in the supermarket uniform opened his communicator: “Can we track the phone signal?”

“Yes, 071, the target is heading towards Fifth Street.”

“Received.”

The man codenamed 071 glanced at the crowd and decisively chased left.

“Go straight at the intersection.”

“Turn right ahead.”

“The target is 500 meters away from you.”

The calm voice in the communicator kept directing 071 forward.

“100 meters, left ahead.”

“20 meters, be careful, the target is preparing to go underground.”

“I’ve spotted them.” The man’s expression was serious, his muscles tense, ready to pounce.

After a deep breath, 071 charged towards the black and yellow figures ahead, his running posture resembling that of a hunting leopard; in Yaoshi City, there was no chance for prey targeted by the Public Security Bureau to escape.

“Ah—” A piercing scream rang out, drawing the attention of the crowd.

At the entrance of the underground tavern, a frail man in black was crying like a rain-soaked pear blossom, while a tall, strong man in a supermarket uniform was being pinned to the ground by a woman in a yellow coat, being beaten mercilessly.

The man in black clutched his chest: “Wah wah wah wah wah! Scoundrel!! Get away!!”

The woman in yellow: “Damn it, where did this wild man come from to touch my person! Don’t you know who I am! The Public Security Bureau wouldn’t dare to be this bold! Oh, your pecs are pretty good, really solid.”

The man in black cried even louder: “Wah wah wah, darling, you can’t do this…”

The woman in yellow glanced at him impatiently, and the man in black immediately fell silent, looking aggrieved.

The woman in yellow pinched the chin of the man on the ground, looking disdainfully at his supermarket uniform: “Man, following me will earn you a hundred times more than slaving away in the supermarket, how about it?”

The man in black, with tear-filled eyes: “Wah wah wah, we’ll all be brothers from now on…”

The man on the ground, 071: “…”

What the hell is this cliché boss drama?

His gaze swept to the ground, where he saw a phone that had fallen next to the man in black, which had dropped from his pocket during the attack—belonging to Xiao Lu.

They had been played!