Chapter 106: Chapter 17: The Watcher
Seeing Li Xinyue, the "outsider," Sasa swallowed the words that were about to escape her lips.
Before getting Yan Luo’s permission, Sasa didn’t intend to share his secret with anyone else, or she would risk losing Yan Luo’s trust.
Not to mention, they were just simple allies now; even if she were Yan Luo’s lover or even his wife, she couldn’t make decisions for him on her own. Such behavior is extremely impolite and annoying.
Sasa and Li Xinyue quietly looked at each other, unsure of how to begin the conversation.
They couldn’t figure out the relationship between each other and Yan Luo, so their steps remained rooted in place.
After two minutes, Yan Luo came out holding a bowl, puzzled, and asked the two unmoving women, "What are you doing?"
Yan Luo’s voice shattered the strange silence, and both Sasa and Li Xinyue couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Nothing," Sasa shook her head, then looked at Li Xinyue and introduced herself, "Hello, I’m Sasa, a student at Lingquan University and a friend of Yan Luo."
Hearing Sasa’s self-introduction, Li Xinyue recalled the team of scholars who had recently been living on Crimson No. 2 for the past few months.
But why would Yan Luo’s friend come down from upstairs?
Li Xinyue’s lips slightly pursed, "Hello, I’m Li Xinyue, like Yan Luo, I’m a Hunter and also his friend."
Seeing the complex emotions in Li Xinyue’s expression, Sasa suddenly understood, and then sensed that Wang Lingyu might be in trouble.
In a previous interview during the Hunter Skills Competition, Yan Luo openly said that he liked women older than him, or at least those who appeared mature in looks and figure.
Li Xinyue is tall and shapely, certainly older than Yan Luo, and female hunters generally have strong personalities, not gentle or soft at all, fitting well within Yan Luo’s preferences.
If Sasa was not mistaken, Li Xinyue should have a favorable impression of Yan Luo, but with Yan Luo’s wooden head, always focused on vanquishing the Abyss, he likely hasn’t considered matters of romance.
Sasa silently sighed and said to Yan Luo, "I should be going, you two go ahead with whatever you have."
Leaving a man and a woman alone together usually isn’t a great idea, but it’s different when the man is Yan Luo.
Li Xinyue watched Sasa leave the villa, still puzzled about why Sasa had come.
"You can head to the exercise room if you want."
Yan Luo swallowed a mouthful of food and said to Li Xinyue, "My house’s robot butler is named Keke. You have guest permissions now and can instruct it. I haven’t finished my lunch yet, so it’ll be about half an hour until I can head over."
Li Xinyue withdrew her gaze and nodded to Yan Luo, calling out to Keke to have the robot lead her to the gravity room.
Unable to figure out why Sasa came to Yan Luo, she decided not to dwell on it.
After all, there was no current possibility between her and Yan Luo, so even if he ended up with someone else, it wouldn’t concern her...
Yan Luo quickly finished lunch, rested for half an hour to digest, and then headed towards the gravity room.
He didn’t want to waste a single moment, determined to grow stronger quickly.
At the entrance of the gravity room, Yan Luo sent a message to Li Xinyue, standing outside waiting.
The gravity room’s door cannot be opened easily because it requires restraint devices to keep the gravity field confined to one room. Opening the door without turning off the gravity control instrument would cause a sudden drop in the room’s gravity, potentially detonating anything outside the door.
After a previous accident, gravity room renovations typically connect the main door and gravity control instrument. Unless the control instrument is turned off, the door cannot open.
Three minutes later, the door to the gravity room opened, and a sweat-drenched Li Xinyue stood behind it, wiping the hot sweat from her neck with a towel.
"Shouldn’t you rest a bit more?" Li Xinyue was somewhat worried about Yan Luo.
Entering the gravity room right after eating could lead to problems in the stomach or even the cardio-pulmonary system.
Yan Luo, aware of his condition, shook his head, "No need, I know my limits."
The two entered the gravity room, waited for the door to lock, and then initiated the gravity control instrument.
"How many times multiplied do you want?" Yan Luo asked Li Xinyue.
Li Xinyue hesitated; she was more accustomed to 1.5 times gravity, but higher gravity fields provide better physical training.
Biting her lip, Li Xinyue said, "Double!"
Yan Luo nodded, setting the gravity field to increase by 0.1 times every thirty seconds until reaching double gravity.
If he were alone, he’d set it directly to double gravity, but with Li Xinyue present, he couldn’t be too unconventional and needed to consider her comfort.
As the gravity gradually increased, Li Xinyue’s breathing became heavier.
She turned to observe Yan Luo and found his breathing rhythm unwavering, realizing that Yan Luo had trained his body to a level she couldn’t match.
Since he couldn’t engrave, Yan Luo relied solely on his equipment and wits to fight demons. To fully utilize his combat power, he needed a powerful physique, hence the investment in a gravity room.
Li Xinyue felt she had come to understand Yan Luo’s inner resolve, which made her feel for him.
With such a steadfast ideal, but hindered by poor luck from achieving it, yet even so, Yan Luo hadn’t given up on pursuing his dream.
"Don’t just stand there, hurry and start training."
Yan Luo reminded, "The gravity room consumes a lot of electricity. Although the current price is cheap, exceeding a certain amount of consumption will make it quite expensive. We must make the most of our time."
While speaking, Yan Luo was doing warm-up exercises.
Li Xinyue set aside her distractions, focusing all her energy on training.
As they immersed themselves in training, not far from Yanluo Villa, a Hunter in civilian clothing tossed a coin at a street corner, scrutinizing the result as it landed.
Ma Liang sighed, pulled down the brim of his cap, and muttered, "You two better not add to my workload... Li Xinyue truly—already engaged, yet mingling with another man."
Recalling the time he warned Yan Luo, only to be cursed and blocked from contact, Ma Liang felt his strength drain away.
Both Xinyue and Yan Luo were extraordinary people.
The only relief was that Yan Luo reportedly wasn’t interested in women, with no desire for romance or intimacy.
Now Ma Liang only hoped Yan Luo was indeed uninterested, or he’d be in deep trouble.
Sighing again, Ma Liang sent a message to his boss.
Roughly ten minutes later, after his boss had presumably read the message, Ma Liang received an urgent video call.
Prepared for a scolding, Ma Liang answered the call.
"You idiot! What do we even pay you for? Why haven’t you dealt with that hunter yet?!"
As expected, the boss’s roar hit Ma Liang’s ears, and despite his mental preparation, he shivered.
Plastering on a flattering smile, Ma Liang looked at the holographic figure in front of him and grumbled, "Boss, I swear I’m not shirking. It’s just that Yan Luo is tough to deal with, and I haven’t found an opportunity—surely, I can’t act against him on Crimson No. 2?"
"Useless! I told you to obstruct Li Xinyue from continuing as a Hunter, and you can’t even handle Yan Luo? Can’t you find another angle with Li Xinyue?"
Faced with his boss’s tirade, Ma Liang’s cheek twitched.
Internally he cursed his boss for meddling while being inexperienced, but outwardly he displayed no dissatisfaction.
"Boss..." Ma Liang tried to explain.
"No need to explain! You’re useless, unable to handle even a trivial task! From now on, just keep watching them. I’ll be sending someone to the surface, and you’ll be responsible for receiving them!"
Ma Liang fell silent.
After a moment, he nodded submissively, "Yes, Boss, I’ll complete the task."
"Humph! Useless!"
With that, the call ended.
As it disconnected, Ma Liang’s expression instantly darkened, and he pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
Taking a deep drag, he exhaled a smoke ring up towards the sky and sneered, "Hmph, old man, if you think this can be done easily, wait until your people come down and learn the rules of the surface. A group with heads buried in the sand acting as if the world’s not their concern—what can they achieve? Spit!"
Beep Beep Beep!
An intelligence machine patrolling the street suddenly sounded an alarm and rushed towards Ma Liang.
"Spitting damages the city’s appearance, please clean it immediately! Spitting damages the city’s appearance, please clean it immediately!"
Ma Liang ducked his head and quickly ran off, but the intelligence machine pursued him, broadcasting continuously.