That night, the sound of water echoed in the bathroom of a quiet apartment. The tap was running, and several bottles of hair dye stood on the sink.
Yan Hanu stood in front of the mirror. His hair was still wet, and hot steam filled the whole room. It looked as if he had just taken a bath.
He dried his hair slowly with a towel and looked at his reflection in the mirror. Luckily, there had still been some money in his clothes. Otherwise he would probably have had to sleep out on the street tonight.
With his hair dyed black, and with his body now smaller and younger, it would be very difficult for people to recognise him.
Once he had calmed down, his thoughts began to shift a little. He had to take revenge, but right now another question was bothering him more.
Why had they betrayed him?
He looked at himself in the mirror again. The body was young, but it looked strong and well built. The biggest change was the colour of his hair. With dark hair and this young face, he seemed like a completely different person.
Still, he was unable to understand the betrayal. That someone had been controlling their minds, that it had all been a waste — he was not accepting excuses like that. So what was the real reason? Had all of this really happened only for his SSS-grade equipment?
The question kept going round and round in his mind. No matter how much he tried to ignore it, it would not go away.
Just then the news started on the television in the next room. The reporter announced that the Divine Rhino Corps, which had been considered almost invincible in recent years, had reportedly been defeated in the SSS-grade dungeon known as the Scythe Abyss. Sources also reported that their captain, Yan Hanu, had ventured deep into enemy territory and had been killed.
Yan Hanu pulled on a shirt while he listened. Everything that was being said on the television was a complete lie.
Then the subject of the news changed. The reporter announced that the competition for the selection of first-year students at the new high school would take place tomorrow, and it was mentioned that years earlier, Yan Hanu himself had been one of the top participants in that first selection competition.
Yan Hanu stopped when he heard this.
The high school selection competition. Perhaps the answers he was looking for were connected with this. The Corps had worked with many schools in the past. And even though he now had the no-level system, revenge was still a long way off. It would take time.
Thinking this, he realised he needed one more thing. First of all, he needed a new identity. Even though his body had become young, his ability should still be at SSS-grade level. And in a high school selection competition, talent was valued more than current ability. If he could use it to get close to influential people, perhaps he would pick up some clues.
The reporter's voice on the television broke into his thoughts again. The competition for the selection of new students was about to begin from tomorrow, and the reporter was wondering whether any new talent would emerge this year.
He stared at the television silently as he planned his next move. A slight smile appeared on his lips. Was he really going to live a student's life again?
He went to the window and looked outside. If he really wanted to live as a student again, there was only one thing left to do. A new identity.
That same night, Yan Hanu walked the streets in a hoodie, moving through dark alleys.
This place was known as the Loles district. It was said that every kind of illegal activity happened here. One of them was the creation of fake identities.
The place looked like a scene from a crime film. Dim lights, old buildings, dangerous-looking people everywhere. As he moved forward, many of them began staring at him, trying to work out who this new face was.
At last he reached the place he had to reach. He knocked on the door.
A tall, broad man with a lip piercing opened it and asked who was knocking at this hour.
Yan Hanu asked in a calm voice. Could he make a fake identity? He had money.
The man immediately noticed that the person in front of him was very small. A smile crossed his face. To him, this meant a lot of possibilities. Maybe this child was hiding from someone. Maybe he was an orphan nobody could trace.
There was some talk, and more men slowly gathered around them. They silently surrounded Yan Hanu, as if waiting for him to make a move.
A pale man holding a baseball bat laughed, saying that normally they were the ones who picked people up. But today a child had walked in with so much courage that he had come straight to them.
Another man joked that a boy's organs did not sell as expensively as a girl's, but you could still make a good profit.
Yan Hanu frowned a little. He had heard that this place only did small illegal work, things like fake documents. Human trafficking and organ selling was not what he had expected.
Still, he stayed calm.
Then the man suddenly swung his bat. He would knock the boy out first, he said, and teach him manners later.
But before the bat could hit, Yan Hanu came into action.
He jumped forward and delivered a powerful flying kick. The pale man flew back so hard that blood came out of his mouth the moment he hit the wall.
Everyone froze. One of them said in surprise that this had been a D rank skill. He looked like a challenger.
Yan Hanu sighed deeply. Today could not possibly have been a worse day.
He activated the no-level system and his weapon immediately appeared. Everyone was shocked all over again. Nobody saw where it had come from. A weapon that effective had to be at least B rank. How could someone this young have it?
First he had been betrayed by his team, and now, when all he needed was an identity card, he had run into these criminals. Yan Hanu was fed up with all of it.
The sword grew to its full size the instant it appeared, and he casually rested it on his shoulder.
A notification appeared. Cross-level equipping successful. B rank weapon, Steel Radiance, equipped.