Chapter 199: Cut Scene of a Lost Boy

"It sounds a little silly, doesn't it?" Chan Lee gave him a sheepish smile before she took a bit of her sushi triangle. "A girl runs away from home to prove herself to her family, and yet the very moment that she arrived—she doesn't even know how to take the bus."

Han Jing blinked and took a sip of his milk tea, again. He wasn't so sure what to say about that—was she talking of a drama series, a movie or about herself. He had a feeling that it was her. He twisted the cap back on his drink, "Sounds like she needed a little more preparation."

"I know," Chan Lee sighed. The young woman sat across from him in the convenience store, her bag rested against the glass windows. When she said that she wanted a break, he didn't expect it to be a 'snack break' and yet here they were. "In the end, her family still does their own way to help her. The place that she's staying in? It's something owned by her uncle, or something… I actually forgot the details. Let me search it up again."

So it was a show?

He didn't know if he was relieved about that. There were instances that made it sound like she was talking about herself, but this wasn't the case. "I didn't know that you liked to watch tv shows?"

Wait, she probably mentioned that before, hadn't she?

Chan Lee coughed, "I understand that you and others like playing games to relax, but it's also nice to unwind with a show you know? I watch them on my phone—even though the WiFi at Madam Dongxia's place is…"

"Shitty." He finished for her.

Her eyes widened, but she nodded. "Yes…that's one way to say it. But maybe most of her residences don't actually need WiFi that much."

"It's one of the reasons why I ended up a regular at the PC cafe on the other side of the street." Han Jing rubbed the back of his neck. "I hung out to do homework, play games usually with friends and whatnot."

"That's amazing, so you've lived here your entire life?"

"Yeah, for as long as I can remember." It was a strange feeling, talking about this with someone now. Most of the people that he talked with before already knew him, but she was new.

And that made all the difference.

She finished her meal and glanced at the table, "I do hope that I'll be able to stay here once I graduate, it does sound like a nice place to stay in, work and possibly retire in. Although that's a lot of plans—I still need to actually master programming at the least."

"It sounds like you have your life planned out. Well, sort. You know what you want." This girl had more balls than him in a way. He didn't even move out of his family's place during university but here she was—he could understand his mother's praise before. She was gutsy.

Chan Lee looked up and pouted, "You know I don't, I'd like to think I made the right decision by coming here, but it's up to me to ensure that I do. And that's really scary...but I have to try. Do my best."

"It's not much, but I'll try to help you out when I can?" What exactly was he saying? He didn't have any time for any of this. Once again he needed to remind himself that this wasn't his business.

"Thank you, but you don't have to do much—you have other responsibilities no doubt." She scratched her cheek, she ducked her head. "You're already helping me out right now. I don't think it's right if I ask for more."

"You don't have to ask—I'll see what I can do. I mean you're right that I'm doing other things, but I don't mind helping out a junior and neighbor with what I can. Who else would help one another in this city if not us neighbors?" Han Jing shrugged.

And yet he wanted to involve himself.

Maybe he was an idiot.

But some good things came out of this right? He unlocked [ Hastened Learning ] by helping her out by studying… maybe there was something else he could unlock if he hung out with her? Most unlikely, but it wasn't that much time. Just a tiny bit. This was where one can probably rack up karma points right?

"...Han JIng?"

He blinked. "What was that?"

The woman looked at her phone, she was already on her feet. "I think I'll be going ahead to my night classes now, thank you for the time." She sheepishly smiled.

"Oh, no problem. Have a safe trip."

It didn't take awhile before she left and he was once again back with just himself as a companion. And for him, today was… it was fine. It wasn't that bad. It felt short, like he had simply woken back up and now it was night again. But there wasn't anything else he could have done right?

That was a lie.

He could have done something else, even if he had less hours than usual to stay awake. He could do a lot more. He checked the time on his phone and it was nearly 6pm in the evening, but it wasn't that late either. His sister and mother would have probably gotten back home by now. What other Skills could he try to practice or improve upon now?

The most important of them was [ Mana Sense ] and it was Inactive. All that he needed to do was to make it active again and where was the likeliest place he could do that? He had felt it during his visit at Mou Gu's diner, and it happened to be close by.

Maybe his wild assumption of Mou Gu being a Witch was true?

...He was more realistically an escort. He had seen another man visit the restaurant despite it being closed. It wasn't his place to guess or anything, but his imagination ran havoc. It made his life a little interesting. And so Han Jing got up and went there.

Han Jing ended up jogging towards there, an attempt to increase his [ Basic Endurance ] if he could. Small steps in becoming stronger, very tiny steps. But he wouldn't be too harsh on himself—even if he wanted to move up even faster than this. The screen was on the corner of his vision.

[ Skill - Basic Agility Active ]

[ Skill - Basic Endurance Active ]

[ Skill - Basic Reflexes Active ]

[ Skill - Instinctual Dodge Active ]

[ Skill - Lesser Resistance Active ]

It was a strange thing that all five of them were active even without his doing. He glanced up at the sky for the moment, the moon glittering behind the clouds with stars. And despite it already darkening—his [ Night Vision ] didn't get included with the active ones. Presumably with all the light on the streets, well, it didn't matter. Han Jing bustled through the other passerby on the streets, each one of them heading to their own destinations.

Mou Gu's street was just right ahead of him.

...And he passed through it. "Just a quick visit." He said to himself. But something changed within the air, the sounds of the city disappeared suddenly. Silence rang clear audibly. And yet when he looked up, the city was still the same, the same familiar streets but there was nobody within his vision.

Everybody was gone.