High School Student with Immortal Race System

The two-kilometer distance was about a fifteen-minute walk. Along the way, he encountered many fellow students heading home, including underclassmen. It seemed Yang Shen was truly famous now, as many of them cast glances his way.

"Hey, who are you guys looking at?"

"Over there! It’s our school’s celebrity. He’s probably the strongest third-year, right?"

"Holy shit! Is that Xu Bamboo?"

"Come on, man... Are you still refusing to get glasses? It’s not embarrassing, trust me. We’re about to graduate..."

Yang Shen ignored the stares and walked straight to his destination—a strange place: the wet market.

The location of the Exotic Treasure hadn’t moved... but the system only provided a general direction and distance, not a precise point.

So Yang Shen had to search for it himself.

Yang Shen had been to this wet market before with his aunt. It was massive and the top choice for residents in the area, but it was also a bit grimy.

Stalls selling vegetables, slaughtering chickens, and reeking of fish and rotten shrimp...

The butcher shops were lit by large, purplish-red lamps that dazzled the eyes—the kind of light that could make the oldest cut of meat look fresh and pink.

Yang Shen was cautious. Unsure of what he might encounter, he had bought a mask on the way. He took off his school uniform, stuffed it in his backpack, and was now wearing only the T-shirt and shorts he had on underneath.

As the weather was warming up, his outfit wasn’t out of place on the streets.

The system’s information was only precise to one of the eight cardinal directions. Yang Shen cross-referenced it as he circled the area three full times before finally stopping in front of a fish stall.

"Liu Mo’s Fish Stall."

Murky, modular tanks were stacked like tiers on a staircase. They were filled with all sorts of fish Yang Shen couldn’t name, along with shellfish and shrimp.

A plastic sign hung from one of the tanks: Belly-Up Bighead Carp, five yuan for three pounds.

And according to the location deduced from the system, the Exotic Treasure was somewhere inside the fish stall...

The owner was a middle-aged man with greasy, matted hair. He was short, stout, and verging on obese, but his hands moved with surprising dexterity as he silently butchered a fish, his head bowed.

His black-gloved hand reached into the fish’s belly and yanked out a tangled mass of innards, leaving a wet, bloody stain on the cutting board.

The massive grass carp was a full meter long.

The fishmonger kept his head down, ignoring him. He probably figured a kid like Yang Shen wasn’t a serious customer.

A thought sparked in Yang Shen’s mind, and he used his daily "Life Chart Inspection" ability.

’The Exotic Treasure seems to be inside the shop, but something about this guy feels... off.’

...

"Liu Mo: No Cultivation"

"Life Chart: Heretic Believer."

’I knew it! There’s something wrong here!’ Yang Shen thought.

He’d been using Life Chart Inspection long enough to figure out a few patterns.

A good Life Chart didn’t necessarily mean a good person. Take Director Liang’s "Impartiality" or Wu’s "Sacrifice for Righteousness," for example.

But a bad Life Chart always meant a bad person!

Liu Yuankui was a "Heretic Believer," but Wu wasn’t.

’If I were to extrapolate... To the Aliens, serving the Rebel Species might be a ’righteous cause.’ It’s only considered a ’heretical cult’ for recruited Cyan Blue Star People like Liu Yuankui.’

’Different perspectives and mentalities naturally result in different Life Charts. It’s the old ’one man’s hero is another man’s villain’ principle.’

’So this fishmonger is a ’Heretic Believer’ just like Liu Yuankui... He must be another Cyan Blue Star person who was instigated and recruited...’

’Is the Exotic Treasure somehow connected to the Rebel Species?’

Seeing Yang Shen standing there for a long time, the fishmonger finally spoke up. "Something wrong, kid?"

Yang Shen’s expression was calm. "I’m in the mood for fish."

"Have a look. They’re all fresh. Well... the not-so-fresh ones are discounted."

"Do you have anything better? A High Source species?"

The fishmonger rinsed the blood off his cutting board. "This is an ordinary market. We wouldn’t be able to sell something that expensive."

And yet, in Yang Shen’s perception, there were indeed faint Spiritual Energy Fluctuations coming from inside the fish stall.

His Qi Sensitivity couldn’t tell him what it was, but he could sense that something was out of the ordinary.

’Yang Shen considered his options. He decided to take an indirect approach and send a Sun Worm inside to investigate.’

’I don’t have to get the Exotic Treasure. I’m already close to completing ’Option Three’ for the side quest, which is a reward I can get my hands on safely.’

’But if I have a chance to mess with the Rebel Species’ plans, why wouldn’t I take it?’

’In his last two encounters, he’d been lucky enough to just be on the fringe of the chaos, never a direct target of the Rebel Species. Right now, it was a one-sided feud.’

’He couldn’t stand them, but the Rebel Species probably didn’t even know he existed.’

’Still, I can’t be too reckless. Who knows what’s in there.’

’What if I stumble into a regional convention for the Rebel Species?’

’I open the door and find two dozen Liu Yuankuis staring back at me?’

"I’ll look around a bit more."

The fishmonger didn’t respond.

To avoid arousing suspicion, Yang Shen moved to another stall, pretending to browse for something else.

In reality, he secretly released a Sun Worm, controlling it with his Bee Control Technique and directing it inside.

After Yang Shen left, the fishmonger hesitated for a moment before turning and heading into the back of the stall.

Compared to the grime outside, the interior was no better. The stench of fish had soaked into everything over the years, and small flies buzzed incessantly.

Set into the floor of the shop was a semi-hidden, sunken fish pool. An area of more than ten square meters had been hollowed out to a depth of nearly a meter, covered by several filthy plastic panels.

The fishmonger lifted one of the panels. The space below was a dark, writhing mass of huge grass carp, all over a meter long—the same kind he had been butchering outside.

Hundreds of large fish were packed together so tightly they looked like an impenetrable wall from above. But deep within, a faint, fleeting light flickered up from the bottom of the massive tank.

The fishmonger checked that the item was secure, then took out his phone and made a call.

"The item is stable. There shouldn’t be any issues for a while."

"So we finally found a way to preserve it... Good. How are the fish holding up?"

The fishmonger glanced down into the pool.

"The losses are huge... I can’t sell them all. To avoid suspicion, you guys need to eat more of them."

"Okay, I’ll have someone come by tomorrow morning. How much do you have?"

"Remember to bring a car. I’ve got over 1,300 pounds worth."

"How much?!"

"Over 1,300 pounds. And that’s *every day*."

The person on the other end was silent for a moment. "Maybe I should contact a pig farm... Who’s going to eat all that?"

"It’s 1,300 pounds of dead fish, all with similar wounds. I can’t even butcher them fast enough. I’m going to need help."

Disposing of so many fish was a huge problem. Even if he just dumped them, if that quantity were discovered, the police would consider it "intentional mass dumping of biological waste" to pollute the environment...

"This is an order, not a negotiation. Follow the most cautious procedures. Don’t complain about the hassle."

The fishmonger was about to say something else when he suddenly heard someone call out from the front of the stall.

They weren’t speaking, just calling out, "Hey! Hey!"

Closing the panel, the fishmonger walked out with a grim expression. A figure in a dark hoodie stood outside, their face mostly obscured by the hood.

"What can I get for you? The grass carp is on special today, already cleaned and ready to go."

The hooded figure chuckled, then abruptly walked past him into the back without a word.

The fishmonger’s expression hardened, and he quickly moved to block the way.

But the stranger was incredibly strong. The fishmonger failed to stop him and was shoved back into the shop.

Stunned and confused, he caught a glimpse of a strange black tattoo on the intruder’s neck, one that looked like a series of lines...

But in the next moment, his confusion vanished.

The tall figure pressed his palms together. A strange black substance gathered at his fingertips, instantly forming a meter-long spike that shot forward, piercing the fishmonger’s mouth and exiting through the back of his skull.

"GURGLE... GURGLE..."

He choked on bubbles of his own blood, robbed of even the chance to scream.

The figure spoke in a language no one on Cyan Blue would understand, a grim, low whisper.

"Those who play with bugs... all deserve to die..."

A torrent of blood flowed across the plastic panel, seeping through the cracks and dyeing the water of the fish pool red.

The tall figure glanced around, then lifted the panel. After a moment of concentration, he once again summoned the black substance, forming it into tentacles that probed the sunken pool.

A moment later, a black web retrieved one of the grass carp. The tall figure pried something off the fish’s body, then kicked the fishmonger’s still-twitching corpse into the water.

He slid the panel back into place and walked away.

No one noticed the scene that had just unfolded in the back of the fish stall.

At most, someone might have caught a glimpse of the owner and a customer going into the back, and then the customer leaving a short while later.

Except...

In a corner of the shop, a bright yellow beetle sat quietly, having witnessed everything.

It tilted its head, its gaze unblinking.

————