Chapter 22: Smell
When Kalon's consciousness returned to his body, his body slowly started twitching, and his nose smelled something disgusting from very close. When he looked around, he was lying beside a trash can.
For a moment, his mind seemed to have lost its connection. One moment he was inside his cozy room, sitting on his fluffy rug, and when his consciousness returned, he was here.
First, let's do something about this smell... Agh. Kalon closed his nose with one hand to stop the smell from reaching his mind.
Kalon hurriedly stood up and walked out of the narrow alley, returning to the building where he had rented a room.
Could it be... Kalon remembered that he had only paid for one day for the room. If he was outside in this condition, it could only be said that a day had passed. Because he was in the System Space, his body must have been unresponsive. The staff must have checked his heartbeat to confirm he was alive, which resulted in him being thrown out.
As he was already disliked by people in this area because of his cloak from FUG, this scenario didn't surprise him.
He still remembered the first time he had tried to help a Regular being bullied by other Regulars. Seeing his cloak, everyone ran away, even the one he had tried to save.
FUG was not really liked very much. For the commoners, the Zahard Empire and King of the Tower had done nothing wrong—or, even if they had, many did not live to tell the tale to another person.
Soon, Kalon reached a new building to rent a room.
"I want to book a room for a day," Kalon rang the bell at the reception. A male staff member walked towards him hurriedly, but upon seeing the condition Kalon was in—drenched in wastewater from head to toe—the man put a hand on his nose as he could not bear the smell emitting from Kalon's body.
"Do you even have any points? Shoo... shoo."
The staff gestured with his hand as if he was shooing away a fly. Kalon did not get angry. Although he was a Xianxia novel writer in his past life, he was not like those protagonists who liked to slap people in the face whenever they had the chance. He calmly smiled and said, "I am sorry for dirtying this place, and do not worry, I have points to rent a room."
The staff member also felt that he had gone a little overboard, especially since his boss had always taught him not to judge a book by its cover.
"100 points for a day." The male staff member still did not apologize, but he spoke to Kalon more respectfully.
"Here." Kalon quickly scanned the barcode and transferred the points.
He took the room key from the staff member's hand and hurriedly walked away. He could not bear the smell any longer and urgently needed to take a bath.
"Hoo..." Kalon exhaled a hot breath after finally getting rid of that disgusting smell.
...
He had walked out of his room and was heading towards the testing area when suddenly three people stopped him.
"Looks like the high-and-mighty Slayer Candidate has been fired by the organization after failing to pass the 20th Floor test," one of the three said with a smirk on his face.
"It looks like the Slayer Candidates are also just Regulars at the end—not much different from us."
"Hey, have you heard that this one was the fake while the real one, with long hair, has already reached the 21st Floor?"
"Yeah, I also heard about it. So, if we beat up this fake who has been going around like he was a member of FUG, we would be doing a favor to both the Zahard Empire and FUG by wiping out trash like this."
After stopping him, the three people started talking amongst themselves. The topic, of course, was him. They were entertaining some intriguing thoughts. Kalon also smiled. Although after leaving the System Space he had again become a Regular, being in that extreme pressure for so long had made his body feel much lighter.
This was an idea he had gotten from watching Guy, Goku, and Vegeta, and it did wonders.
His stats had also broken through the 10,000 mark and advanced further.
He felt that, by beating up the weakest Ranker at the bottom of the rankings, he would have a chance of winning. But it was still a theory. To test it, he needed to find a Ranker.
And what better place than to go to the Hell Train and fight against the army of Zahard filled with Rankers and High Rankers? Although it was the place for Baam to shine, he could hide in Baam's shadow and target Rankers he deemed weaker than himself, one by one.
He coated his feet with Shinsu and, with its help, made a run for it. Although not afraid, when you can run or avoid fights, why get your hands dirty? And it wasn't like there were any girls around this place that he liked, to impress them by showing off his strength.
Cough!
Cough!
Cough!
All three started coughing because Kalon had left a trail of sand and dust due to the force he generated.
"He escaped!!" All three were shocked. They had thought of everything about how the fight would go, but never considered that he would simply run away.
Meanwhile, Kalon had already reached the Testing District. He had also paid the hefty fees of taking the test again. I wonder how Wangnan would be doing.
Kalon really cared about Wangnan for now, as he was innocent and naive. But in the end, if Wangnan also became hungry for power like others and started killing innocent people, it would be his job as Wangnan's best friend to lead him down the right path.
And if Wangnan really went beyond redemption, then Kalon could only kill him with his own hands. Because giving second chances was stupid—as that person would only do the same thing next time, but more discreetly.