Rules-related weird stories: 4016

The fanatic little leader, upon hearing Old Mo's words, felt somewhat angry, yet surprisingly didn't refute anything. He merely snorted and handed the three "scales" to Old Mo on the spot: "You're really not generous."

Old Mo calmly accepted them, stuffed them into his backpack, and didn't forget to emphasize: "Don't forget, three more pieces after it's done."

"I know, I know!" The fanatic little leader's expression darkened, almost roaring, "Go handle it first, I'll go get the rest now!"

With that, he turned and walked back into the mist. His back looked like a department manager with a problem project, somewhat disheveled.

Only when he had completely disappeared from sight did Old Mo breathe a sigh of relief. He then glanced at the eerie art teacher and the fanatic little leader's follower, sneered, and winked at Lin Yi.

"Let's go."

"Alright!"

Lin Yi responded, quickly following like a close-fitting little eunuch.

As a "self-propelled backup mobile energy source," he had to be proactive and conscious, and couldn't be left behind at this time.

The eerie art teacher and the follower exchanged a glance and silently followed.

Lin Yi followed Old Mo to the first large plaster body and curiously watched Old Mo, wondering how Old Mo would 'balance the books'.

He saw Old Mo gently place his hand on the large plaster body. The movement was almost no different from the fanatic little leader activating the matrix. However, in the next moment, Lin Yi clearly saw that a bright golden light emerged from the place where Old Mo's palm touched the large plaster body, as if someone had used a golden highlighter to trace the edge of Old Mo's palm.

「No, it's not that simple!」 Lin Yi quickly noticed the anomaly. 「Old Mo's extraordinary power… is golden?!」

The golden aura that even the gym teacher didn't have actually appeared on Old Mo's body?!

Moreover, judging from Old Mo's appearance, wielding this power was as easy as using his own limbs.

As the golden aura poured in, the large plaster body trembled violently. The entire plaster body became transparent, like a giant stone egg, with a dark, blurred humanoid silhouette with wings faintly visible inside.

Gradually, the stone eggs began to pulsate slowly like hearts, and began to produce the sound of 「thump! thump! thump…」. Accompanied by this rhythmic pulsation, invisible waves began to spread to the surroundings…

Lin Yi's pupils constricted slightly, and a voice emerged in his heart: 「Rage Angels! Old Mo's so-called balancing the books, could it be to help them hatch Rage Angels?」

He looked at Old Mo in disbelief. Gray transactions were gray transactions, but if the transaction crossed the line, then the nature of the matter changed.

He subconsciously clenched his fist. He didn't know why, but he felt a strange emotion—even though what Old Mo did had nothing to do with him, he would be very disappointed in Old Mo if Old Mo really did that…

However, Old Mo's next move exceeded his understanding. After the golden aura penetrated into the stone egg, before the stone egg began to contract, it filled the entire stone egg like dust.

As these auras entered, the environment inside the stone egg, which was originally somewhat transparent and still faintly showed the humanoid outline of the Rage Angels, suddenly became turbid.

Those Rage Angels, who seemed to be fast asleep, immediately noticed something was wrong and began to riot. However, the golden aura was like poisonous gas to them, severely eroding them. The Rage Angels struggled constantly, trying to break through the stone egg, but this seemingly soft, film-like stone egg was as indestructible as a steel barrier.

The Rage Angels gradually lost their vitality, and their flailing limbs slowly stopped struggling, solidifying in a certain action like a stiff corpse.

Old Mo remained expressionless as the golden aura poured into the Rage Angels' bodies.

In the next moment, the Rage Angels' bodies began to decompose at a speed visible to the naked eye. The hardened flesh and bones were peeled off and gradually annihilated. The whole process was like the Rage Angels killed by the old kerosene lamps by the gym teachers in the giant egg.

In the end, the stone egg finally stopped pulsating, and only turbid slurry and the mixed aura after the Rage Angels were decomposed remained inside.

Old Mo drained all the golden aura from it and slowly released his hand.

At this moment, the stone egg had completely withered, like a large raisin sculpture.

After Old Mo finished, he took Lin Yi to the next large plaster body.

Lin Yi followed, occasionally glancing at his watch.

Old Mo maintained the trend of finishing a large plaster body in two to three minutes, disposing of more than a dozen, and the time came to 22:00.

"Old Mo… it's past ten o'clock," Lin Yi said softly.

Old Mo nodded silently and quickly finished the task at hand.

"Then it seems it's almost time…" Old Mo clapped his hands and waved to the mist behind the eerie art teacher and the follower, "Yo! You're finally back. I thought you were hiding and didn't want to give me the 'final payment'!"

"Huh?" Old Mo's words made the eerie art teacher and the follower turn around in surprise.

However, the mist surged, but there was no sign of anyone.

The eerie art teacher was slightly stunned, and then a light flashed in her eyes: "Not good!"

She suddenly turned around, but in front of the large raisin-like shriveled stone ball, there was no sign of Old Mo and Lin Yi.

She stomped her foot: "Damn it, they just ran away like that!"

The follower's face was also full of regret, beating his chest and stamping his feet: "That Black Chef is too cunning, he's actually willing to give up the final payment?"

The eerie art teacher's face darkened: "Rather than giving up, it's better to say that he never really trusted us from the beginning… On the contrary, that silly, dull-witted guy next to him has believed in him from beginning to end."

"He used that kid to make us relax!"

"He even deceives his own people!"

The two gnashed their teeth, but couldn't find any trace of Old Mo and Lin Yi.

… …

May 9, X023, 22:03, the other end of the desolate land.

Just a moment ago, Lin Yi heard Old Mo's voice in his ear, "Relax, don't resist," and before he could react, he heard the "whooshing" sound of the wind. He felt like he was a kite being pulled by Old Mo, and all he could see was floating mist.

If his will wasn't clear, he would have suspected that he was dreaming again.

After all, the two environments were too similar.

As his vision gradually returned and he felt solid ground beneath his feet, this strange sensation of being lifted off the ground followed by the grounding felt like a scene from a wuxia film where someone is saved with light footwork – a jump and a landing, moving from point A to point B.

Of course, the only difference might be that Lin Yi felt more like a weapon being wielded than the person being rescued by a martial arts master…

"Lao Mo, how did we get here? Didn't we still have a debt to collect?" Lin Yi's mind hadn't quite caught up, and he couldn't help but ask.

Lao Mo was speechless. "Idiot, that guy's been gone for half an hour and hasn't come back. Did you really think he'd give you the final payment?"

"Ah? So you just gave up after only getting half?"

"It's alright… You don't know how precious these scales are. The fact that he dared to give three at once means he definitely has a backup plan," Lao Mo said. "When dealing with fanatic believers, don't think they're easy to bully just because they seem cowardly…"

"The only reason you think they're cowardly is because they can't beat me. If they could, we wouldn't be sitting down to talk peacefully."

"Oh…" Lin Yi responded.

Lao Mo continued, "Besides, I never intended to get the final payment in the first place, and this is very likely the last time I'll be doing business with them. If I wasn't worried about them relentlessly hunting us down, I would have taken you and just pulled a fast one."

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Lin Yi was immediately embarrassed. Didn't Lao Mo's words mean that he even planned to just run away with the three scales?

Taking the deposit and running, just like signing up for a gym membership.

"Then why didn't you run?"

"Because it's not cost-effective. If it were just me, I would have run, but taking you with me would consume too much energy. It's better to follow the normal process," Lao Mo said slowly. "Those stones, did you see them?"

"Yes," Lin Yi nodded.

"Those are artificial crystals of transcendent power, similar to extracted ore. If the transcendent power sequences within them are arranged and combined, they can be used to create a body for the Wrathful Angel, or used for other things, such as… building a campus."

Lin Yi's body stiffened.

Lao Mo continued, "Their current state is like raw ore. What they will become depends on what kind of sequence the Matrix encodes into them… But just now, the Matrix had a problem. The sequences inside were disturbed, resulting in some uncontrollable mutations."

"This mutation caused the sequence composition to deviate from the direction of the Wrathful Angel to a path that would severely damage the transcendent power within the Matrix, and it had to be discarded."

"However, the fanatic believers don't have this ability, so this transaction was naturally completed."

「Don't have that ability?」 Lin Yi pondered. 「Could it be related to the golden aura?」

Lao Mo glanced at Lin Yi: "After saying so much, you still don't understand why I'm willing to go to the trouble of helping them do practical work."

"No," Lin Yi nodded.

Lao Mo said, "Because, putting aside all the roundabout talk, the essence of those stones… is a transcendent power that has been refined through many processes and exceeds the normal purity."

Lin Yi thought of the "feast"-like changes inside the large plaster body under Lao Mo's operation, and guessed, "You're actually helping them while also secretly eating some of the transcendent power inside?"

Lao Mo nodded: "Smart."

"If I took the three scales and ran, the fanatic believers would definitely hunt me down all the way. Although I could kill them all, it would consume too much energy, and might even drain your little power bank."

"But if I help them settle the score before running… first, even if they're reluctant to part with the three scales, they'll have to weigh the gains and losses if they really catch up; second, I've absorbed so much transcendent power, and I have nowhere to vent it. If they dare to chase, they'll definitely die without a burial ground."

"The reason I didn't pursue the final payment is also to avoid them going back on their word after getting the benefits. After all, some of these fanatic believers are stubborn and double-dealing. If they really turn against us, it's no different from choosing the first option."

"Instead of them hesitating, we should just slip away. That way, they'll just curse us a few times behind our backs."

"It's all 'old tradition'. As long as it's not too excessive, everyone turns a blind eye… After all, those fanatic believers are here because they're not well-liked, they're all marginal figures, why risk their lives for nothing?"

"No, this can also be a tradition…?"

"You'll know later. Even beasts, the lions in the zoo are different from those in the wild. Some still have humanity, and if we can 'communicate', we can avoid the 'persuade with virtue' scene. Fanatic believers just have different ultimate pursuits than us. As long as it doesn't get to the point where they get red-faced and start fighting when they can't win the argument, we can basically live in peace," Lao Mo patted Lin Yi's shoulder. "So, you should be content with getting a little bit of good stuff."

"Oh…" Lin Yi called out thoughtfully, "So those things are really 'scales'? If they're scales, what kind of creature do they belong to?"

Lao Mo looked around and then said, "Let's leave the range of this Matrix first. Even though their Matrix has a problem, they can still lock onto us if they're determined to find us."

"Okay."

Following Lao Mo, Lin Yi quickly reached the edge of the desolate land, and his intuition told him that this edge should be the other side of the desolate land.

Lao Mo pushed aside the intertwined ancient vines and led Lin Yi into this dense forest.

When he completely stepped out of the desolate land, Lin Yi clearly felt that cold touch again, as if he had crossed a layer.

"We won't be tracked here," Lao Mo patted the dust off his body, observed the road conditions, and continued forward, "If you feel hungry, you can tell me and we'll stop to eat something."

Lin Yi shook his head: "I'm not hungry yet, we can continue."

Lao Mo nodded: "Okay, let's jump to the next step then."

Lao Mo took off his backpack, reached in and took out the three scales, handing two of them to Lin Yi.

"This thing is very rare. I originally thought that extorting two was already the limit, but I didn't expect to get one more. Consider it a bargain for you."

"You're giving me both?"

Looking at the two scales in Lao Mo's hand that were almost indistinguishable, Lin Yi opened his mouth wide, revealing a hint of surprise.