Master of Kaidan
Chapter 183: Heading to the Residential Area

Chapter 183: Chapter 183: Heading to the Residential Area

Huo Mu left, and Feng Xue pondered for a moment, then picked up his work card and dialed Old Li’s number.

"Hello, Xiao Feng, what’s the matter? Are you planning to challenge the Tower of Babylon?"

Old Li’s nonchalant voice rang in his ears, which somewhat surprised Feng Xue. However, considering the date, he didn’t think much of it and went straight to the point,

"I’ve generally understood the challenges, but I want to ask you about the specifics of the Residence Right challenges, as well as whether each level’s guards have any hidden settings or the like."

"You would actually know these things after trying once," Old Li said indifferently, as if he didn’t think Feng Xue could succeed on his first challenge. However, considering that Feng Xue was the fastest-growing individual among those he was currently investing in, he still spoke up,

"There’s not much to say about the guards; after all, you can’t die there. If you encounter one you can’t defeat, just surrender and try again. Even if they’re the same type of guards, there will be different situations, like some shooters use short bows while some shooters might use submachine guns or something. As long as your level is high enough, you can always find one you can beat.

"After obtaining the ’Pass,’ you can first wander around that level. You might encounter someone renting out a doorway. If you don’t end up getting a Residence Right, renting a door is also an option, and the price will be much lower than outside.

"As for challenging for the Residence Right..."

Here Old Li paused for a moment, as if summarizing his thoughts, and it took a little over a minute before he finally continued,

"There’s not much to say about this, really, because each homeowner is different. If I had to give some tips, it would be to surrender immediately if you can’t win. In the Residence Right challenge, the homeowner can be resurrected, but the challenger cannot. If you die, you’re truly dead. However, as long as you exit the Challenge Space, your injuries will still heal.

"Furthermore, each homeowner can only be challenged by a challenger once a year, which means you have fifty chances to challenge each level. And something to note is that each time a homeowner defeats a challenger, they earn the opportunity to refuse a challenge, and that refusal is counted in the number of times as well."

"So you’re saying that if a homeowner refuses me, then I can’t challenge him again for the rest of the year?" Feng Xue frowned, feeling there were quite a few loopholes in this.

Old Li obviously understood his thinking and confirmed,

"That’s right. Some people will hire others to rack up wins to gain the power of refusal, but no matter how high the compensation, it can’t compare to the Residence Rights of the Tower of Babylon. Thus, only experts planning to directly challenge higher levels would make some extra money along the way, and even then, they wouldn’t rack up too many points. Also, once you get a high-tier pass, you won’t be able to enter the lower-tier challenges, so there’s no need to worry about high-level big shots coming down to ’fish’."

As Old Li spoke these words, there was an inexplicably sorrowful tone to his voice, and Feng Xue immediately realized that perhaps this man had experienced a fall in his Anomaly level after obtaining a high-tier pass, leading to an awkward situation where he couldn’t beat the higher levels and couldn’t challenge the lower ones.

Wisely not continuing on this subject, Feng Xue asked about some other details. After finding that they were mostly the same as what Huo Mu had said, he hung up the phone.

With a general understanding of the so-called challenges in mind, Feng Xue began to reorganize his equipment.

After nearly half a year of accumulation, he had acquired quite a few fantasy items. Although none had emerged that could change his combat style considerably, there were some good things that could be quite useful in specific circumstances.

After recounting these small tools to prevent any lapse in memory when necessary, he finally gathered his main combat gear.

He packed all the non-combat tools, such as the Expensive Steel Pen, crocodile wallet, and Supreme Martial Arts. He retrieved the used cards from the ’graveyard’ and ’thoughtfully’ arranged them before donning his main combat equipment once again.

He was now dressed in the Phantom of the Opera’s evening suit, with Silent Boots (worn over his dress shoes), Suffocation Blade in his right hand, Holy Mother in his left, Pardon Bell hanging from his belt, and his face was completely covered by the Oathkeeper’s Appearance.

In his sleeve, he concealed an indescribable stick-like object that could be used at any moment.

After carefully placing the final feminization filter into the inner pocket of the dress, ensuring it wouldn’t fall out no matter how he moved, Feng Xue nodded in satisfaction. He then hung the consumables, which couldn’t be accessed quickly due to their size, along with the pouch on his belt.

Standing in front of the mirror, looking at himself emanating a daunting purple glow in his eyes, Feng Xue cracked a slight smirk, feeling that wielding a Great Sword would be more fitting for this attire.

"Now it’s probably too late to get comfortable with one even if I managed to obtain it, I’ll consider that later."

Abandoning the idea of fully cosplaying Wang Ha to the end, Feng Xue pushed open the door and stepped onto the street.

He hadn’t felt it immediately after returning from the real world, but now it seemed that today’s South District was a bit too bustling.

However, those who could survive in the landfills, carrying some degree of "sin," were afforded a wide berth under the Intimidation emanating from his Oathkeeper’s Appearance. Even in the crush of the crowd, a spacious path was always yielded.

Feng Xue felt rather smug as if he were a king returning to a throng’s welcome, passing through the squeezing masses, to the sound of the Silence that seemed to hold back even the breaths of those around him.

Pulling out his work pass, he hailed a rental flying vehicle. He didn’t even need to speak for the driver, with a tremor in his voice, asked:

"Sir, you’re planning to go to the residential area, right?"

"Yes," Feng Xue’s voice, modulated by Oathkeeper’s Appearance, took on an icy texture, sending a shiver through the driver who promptly started the engine and flew toward the north.

The Four Major Landfills were vast, mostly in vertical structure. It took the flying vehicle not more than ten minutes to exit the range of South District. Through the window, Feng Xue saw numerous flying vehicles, large and small, driving in the same direction, and it was then that he truly realized just how many Kaidan were concealed within South District.

...

The flying vehicle soon landed on a street, and Feng Xue stepped out of the cabin with an ambiguous expression.

There was still some time until twelve o’clock; while the surrounding area wasn’t exactly packed, there were quite a few different-looking beings, reminding Feng Xue of the scene outside the small landfills on trash day.

However, unlike the usual, he could see clusters of variously colored flames in each of them.

"Are these their Kaidan entries?" Feng Xue switched his view to Golden Finger’s Identification page, and instantly, a variety of information floated up over the flames.

Just as he narrowed his eyes, prepared to read, a chilling gaze made him shudder, and he promptly noticed the Kaidan whose entry he was reading eyeing him with a warning look.

Unsure if the other party had heightened perception or if all Kaidan possessed similar powers, Feng Xue stopped looking around and reined in his senses, opting to observe with his normal view.

The so-called residential area was enclosed by not-too-tall walls, looking no different from a high-end community in the real world. Two Kaidan, who also had "flames" burning within them, guarded the retractable gate, their non-human-like appearance suggesting they were some non-human type of Kaidan.

With each passing second, more Kaidan gathered from afar. Soon, the number of people near the South Gate reached close to a thousand. Aside from Kaidan, there were a few beings that had not yet formed flames; these were probably Anomalies trying to earn their right to enter through the trials.

"One wonders if they come here confident in beating the Kaidan or just looking for cheap rent to get through the door..."