Lungmen Lower District, inside the dimly lit chambers of Renyi Hall.
Blue smoke curled toward the ceiling, carrying the heavy scent of sandalwood.
Flickering candlelight cast a warm, dancing glow over the gilded statue of Lord Wenheng resting upon the central desk.
A crescent blade was slung across the deity’s waist, its red silk tassel polished until it gleamed.
The aura in the room was suffocatingly majestic; just standing before the altar made a false sense of righteous brotherhood surge in the chest.
The offering table was carefully arranged.
A roast suckling pig glistened with oil in the center, its skin roasted to a perfect golden yellow, honey seeping down its sides.
Bundles of incense leaned against a porcelain furnace, enveloping the room in the classic, gritty atmosphere of the underworld pugilistic society.
“Kazuma, you have been with me the shortest amount of time, and you have the cleanest background.
I trust you the most.”
The gang boss, Wen Li, patted his newly recruited subordinate heavily on the shoulder.
His tone dripped with absolute sincerity, his eyes shining with approval.
Behind him, a bushy Vulpo tail swayed gently in the incense-thick air.
“Right now, our syndicate urgently needs a fresh face to get close to the Rat King.
As long as you infiltrate his inner circle, gain his trust, and help us take that old fossil out from the inside…
we can grow big and strong.
We will create glory!”
The young man puffed out his chest and slapped a hand over his heart.
“Boss, leave it to me!
If it weren’t for you giving me a hot meal, I would have starved to death in these alleys long ago.
Isn’t it just the Rat King?
In my opinion, he is nothing but a withered bone waiting for a grave.
The future kingpin of the Lungmen slums will definitely be you!”
“Hahahaha!
You kid sure know how to talk, and you’re brave enough to fight when it counts.
The future vanguard of this gang will definitely be you!”
The grand, painted picture of their criminal empire made the young man unable to resist letting out a satisfied burp.
He straightened his posture and looked dead at the gilded statue.
“I, Kazuma, swear to Lord Wenheng today.
From now on, if I ever betray you, Boss, I will surely suffer three stabs and six holes, and die a horrible, agonizing death!”
Wen Li looked at his loyal subordinate with overflowing satisfaction.
A sudden, violent commotion erupted outside the courtyard.
Wen Li clicked his tongue in impatience, muttering a few curses about undisciplined punks.
He took a step forward, but before his hand could even graze the doorknob, the heavy wooden doors exploded inward, kicked off their hinges by a heavy combat boot.
A blue-haired Lung girl stood in the doorway, her face an absolute mask of sour fury.
She looked as though she was ready to drag someone’s entire bloodline to the gallows.
“Xu Wen Li!” she shouted, her voice cutting through the incense smoke like a blade.
“We received a report from a highly concerned citizen!
You are suspected of severe tax evasion, organizing criminal syndicates to disturb public order, and human trafficking.
Your crimes are unforgivable.
I am now arresting you in the name of the Lungmen Guard Department!”
“Who?
Who doesn’t know I am a law-abiding citizen of Lungmen?
This is a blatant false accusation!” Wen Li’s face darkened as he peered past the Lung officer into the courtyard.
His heart dropped.
His elite subordinates were scattered across the stone tiles, groaning in pain.
Standing amidst the carnage was a towering, green-haired Oni woman.
She held a massive, triangular Hannya-mask shield in one hand and offered him a cheerful, lazy wave with the other.
A dangerous, cornered glint flashed in Wen Li’s sinister eyes.
One hand quietly slid toward the concealed weapon holstered at the small of his back.
If he was going down, he was taking the Guard Department with him.
A sharp, icy pain suddenly pierced his lower back.
Wen Li froze.
He turned his head in absolute disbelief, looking down at the blade buried in his kidney, and then up at the cannon-fodder recruit he had just promoted.
The young man was smiling at him with the utmost kindness.
“Boss, that’s right.
It was me who betrayed you.
I called the cops.
I am the true Five-Star Good Citizen of Lungmen.”
“You…
you…” Wen Li coughed, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth.
“Boss, don’t be angry.
It’s bad for your blood pressure.”
“You…
swore an oath…
in front of Lord Wenheng…”
“What does the oath Kazuma made have to do with me, Frez?” The young man shrugged nonchalantly, twisting the blade just a fraction.
“Besides, I believe in the Emperor.
I praise the Emperor every day!
Let me formally introduce myself.
My name is Frez, nineteen years old, arrived in Lungmen two months ago.
Please treat me well.”
Frez, nineteen years old, was a transmigrator.
His journey to Terra had been abrupt.
He had been hit by a vehicle twice—once by a speeding dump truck, and then immediately run over by a second dump truck.
The interval between the two impacts was exactly 2.5 seconds, far too fast for any mortal to react.
Because he had materialized suddenly in the middle of a busy intersection, the driver of the second truck had been so terrified he looked ready to invent a time machine just to undo the trauma.
To this day, Frez still fondly remembered the sheer horror on that man’s face.
Fortunately, Frez possessed incredible luck.
At the exact moment of his transmigration, his cheat system activated, successfully saving his life before he even realized what was happening.
As a standard transmigrator, Frez’s golden finger was simple, direct, and highly effective.
Every month, a new character template would refresh.
Equipping this template granted him the character’s exact physical constitution, abilities, combat techniques, and signature weapons.
Along with the template came a Character Quest.
If he completed the quest within the month, he would permanently retain that template.
The physical boosts and abilities would stack endlessly without any internal conflict.
If he failed to complete the quest before the month ended, the template would lock, and he would lose the stat bonuses and skills.
However, the system was forgiving; if he somehow managed to fulfill the quest conditions later on, the template would unlock permanently, restoring everything he had lost.
According to the system’s rules, the monthly template refresh was entirely random.
To help him manage his growing arsenal, he was also gifted a four-dimensional pocket space to store his character weapons and personal belongings.
Currently, Frez enjoyed the permanent passive bonuses of two distinct templates.
The system’s judgment for ‘quest completion’ was, thankfully, incredibly loose and full of loopholes.
For example, Frez’s very first character template had been Ash from Pokémon.
The Character Quest was straightforward: [Become a Pokémon Master].
Frez had simply walked into a shady Lungmen back-alley workshop, slapped down 300 Lungmen Dollars, and commissioned a custom-made ‘Pokémon World Tournament Champion’ trophy.
The moment his fingers brushed the cheap, painted metal, the system chimed, notifying him that the quest was complete.
Just like that, he permanently secured the Ash template.
[Permanent Character: Ash (Super Pallet Townian)]
[Abilities: Agility, Aura Sphere, Bullet Seed, Life Dew, Dodge]
It was precisely because of Ash’s absurd, superhuman ‘Super Pallet Townian’ physique that Frez hadn’t been instantly turned into paste by the double dump truck combo.
Instead, he had simply patted the dirt off his clothes and stood back up.
Because he was an undocumented immigrant with zero identification when he arrived in Lungmen, he had no choice but to vanish into the slums and join the local gangs just to eat.
His first gang secretly sold prohibited hallucinogenic drugs behind the Rat King’s back.
Frez, possessing a basic moral compass, couldn’t stand it.
He gathered the evidence, reported them to the Guard Department, and walked away with a crisp 100,000 Lungmen Dollar bounty.
He then joined a second gang.
They weren’t clean either; smuggling was one thing, but running heavy military arms into the city was another.
He reported them too, pocketing a 200,000 reward.
This current syndicate was his third.
The difference this time was that he was operating under a direct, under-the-table commission from the Grey Tail Hall.
In addition to the standard Guard Department bounty, he was guaranteed another 100,000 Lungmen Dollars from the Rat King’s people once the job was done.
“You traitorous little punk!” Wen Li roared, trying to lunge forward despite the wound.
Before he could move, Ch’en stepped in, bringing the heavy scabbard of her sword down hard against the back of the Vulpo’s neck.
Wen Li collapsed into a heap, completely unconscious.
Ch’en adjusted her collar and looked at Frez.
“You did a great job, Frez.
I will head back to the station and apply for your reward immediately.”
“Many thanks, Officer Ch’en.
Just hold onto it for me, and pass it along whenever you have the time.”
This was his third time cooperating with Ch’en.
She was a regular customer now; he trusted her completely.
Pulling his blade free and wiping it on a nearby tablecloth, Frez strolled out into the courtyard.
“Big Sister Oni, I buried the hard evidence under the old tree at the corner of the wall.
You can dig it up whenever you’re ready.
The account books and the trafficking ledgers are all in there.
It’s more than enough for the higher-ups to have them all beheaded.”
Yan was, after all, a feudal society wearing a modern, neon skin.
Punishments like public beheading were still very much on the books.
If a criminal jumped around too happily, the iron fist of feudalism would inevitably smash them into the dirt.
Hoshiguma hoisted her massive shield onto her shoulder and grinned.
“Got it.
Thanks for the hard work, kid.”
Leaving the Guard Department to clean up the mess, Frez slipped away into the labyrinth of the slums.
Finding a quiet, secure alleyway, he pulled out his newly purchased terminal and dialed a secure number.
“Miss Lin, I have successfully completed your commission.
Please settle the bill.”
A smooth, calm voice on the other end simply replied with an ‘okay’, promising the funds would be transferred shortly.
Lin Yuxia was the Rat King’s daughter.
Frez wasn’t the least bit worried about her reneging on a debt.
He hung up the phone and leaned back against the damp brick wall, looking up at the smog-choked Lungmen sky.
‘Speaking of which, the Kazuma template’s time limit is almost up, isn’t it?’He hadn’t completed the quest yet, which meant the template would lock at midnight.
He had tried to exploit the system again by paying a random street thug to roleplay as the’Demon King’ so he could defeat him in a staged duel, but the system hadn’t fallen for it this time.
If he wanted to challenge the real Demon King, he would have to make a trip to the war-torn hellscape of Kazdel.
Frez had absolutely no intention of doing that anytime soon.
Go to Kazdel and fight a Sarkaz war hero who had lived for over two hundred years and bathed in the blood of thousands?
No thanks.
It was much safer, and far more practical, to just wait for a certain rabbit-eared girl named Amiya to inherit the Demon King title.
Once that happened, he could join Rhodes Island as a logistics operator and challenge her to a sparring match.
Sure, it was technically bullying a child, but the system only cared about the title.
A hero challenging the Demon King was a tale as old as time, regardless of whether the opponent was a seasoned warlord or a stressed teenager.
If she cried after he beat her, he would just buy her some candy to make up for it.
Counting the hours, midnight was fast approaching.
The new character template was about to refresh.
[Ding!
You have joined the Chat Group.]
Frez stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the glowing blue text hovering in his vision.
His expression twisted into something incredibly strange.
Was Kazuma’s legendary luck truly this heaven-defying?
[Character: Kazuma Sato (Kazutrash)]
[Abilities: Steal, Snipe, Life Drain, Beginner Magic, Enemy Detection, Stealth, Restraint, Clairvoyance, Lip Reading, Blacksmithing, Magic Tool Creation, Cooking…]
[Character Quest: Defeat the Demon King in battle]
The sheer volume of utility skills was staggering.
When combined, they produced miraculous effects.
The only drawback was Kazuma’s abysmal mana pool, but Frez’s ‘Super Pallet Townian’ physique and the Life Drain skill easily compensated for that flaw.
But none of those skills were the true prize.
The most terrifying asset of the Kazutrash template was his great luck.
It was a cosmic, reality-bending fortune only slightly weaker than that of the Goddess Eris herself.
To have a multiversal Chat Group drop right into his lap on the very last day of the template’s duration…
Frez chuckled, shaking his head.
He could practically hear the echoes of that absurd luck ringing in his ears.