Chapter 55

Chapter 55 - The Newcomer Who Couldn't Be Recognized for a Moment

Today, Adrian didn't do anything else. As the saying goes, a slow and steady approach is best. As long as they aren't discovered, they can take their time to deal with those human traffickers later.

Overall, it felt quite enjoyable to be an anonymous hero. Adrian was starting to understand a bit of the thrill Peter Parker felt wearing a mask as Spider-Man and the fun that Luffy experienced covering his face as Lucy.

Unfortunately, there's only 300 milliliters of invisible ink. If all three of them go out together, they can only use it ten times in total. If they want to continue their operations in the future, they'll need to either increase their efficiency or find another way.

Or perhaps they should operate at night? Adrian needed to think about it.

After doing a good deed in the morning and enjoying a delicious meal at noon, the three of them were in good spirits. Adrian wanted to relax a bit after exercising, so he took out a deck of playing cards and a marker pen.

He explained the rules of playing Game of Cards to Tom and Artoria, and they understood immediately.

So, Adrian took out one of the small jokers and started shuffling the cards.

The three of them drew cards and took turns discarding pairs of cards. The goal was to end up with only the big joker remaining in hand, and the one left with that card would lose.

When Adrian and Artoria picked up the playing cards, they seemed ordinary. Tom, on the other hand, due to his small hands and only having four fingers, had a hard time. He had to fan the cards out like a folding fan after drawing them all and then carefully pick out pairs, making him appear flustered.

Sometimes, when he drew two cards that caused other cards to lose support, they would cascade down. Tom would hurriedly cover them, afraid that Adrian and Artoria would peek.

Adrian found it amusing and pretended to want to see which cards fell, making Tom twist his body and present his rear to Adrian while picking up the cards before turning back.

In the first round, Tom quickly discarded all his cards, leaving Adrian with one big joker and a 6, while Artoria had only one 6 left.

Playing Game of Cards was all about using acting skills to influence the opponent's choices and deducing which cards were safe from their expressions. Adrian began to wink and make faces.

However, Artoria paid no attention to his expressions. She simply stared at her two cards for a while and, not finding any difference, randomly drew one – a 6.

Artoria discarded a pair of 6s and said, "Adrian, you lost."

Adrian replied, "..." You're not playing by the usual strategy.

Being a good sport, Adrian closed his eyes and let Tom, the winner, use the marker pen to draw a black line on his face.

"Ahahaha!" Tom burst into cheerful laughter, pointing at Adrian's comical appearance.

Infected by his laughter, Artoria couldn't help but smile too.

In the second round, Artoria had the best luck, discarding her cards first and sipping her tea while leaving Adrian and Tom to face off.

With the big joker in Tom's hand this time, his expressions were particularly intriguing. Whenever Adrian formed a pair and discarded it, Tom's face lit up with joy, but he appeared nervous when Adrian drew his cards.

"Which one to draw?" When Tom was left with only two cards, Adrian's hand hovered over the big joker. Tom immediately grinned mischievously, but when Adrian moved his hand away, Tom's expression shifted to fear.

Was there even a need to guess? Although Adrian didn't have mind-reading abilities, Tom's face was quite expressive. Adrian playfully acted like he wanted to see the cards that fell, causing Tom to squirm and use his rear to shield them from view, turning around only after picking up the cards.

In the end, Adrian won the hand with a grin, drawing a good card.

As a result, Tom reluctantly closed his eyes, allowing Artoria, who had discarded her cards first, to draw a line on his face.

The three of them played for nearly an hour. Tom's nose, eyes, mouth, and the area around them were covered in circles drawn by Adrian and Artoria, far exceeding the number of Olympic rings.

Adrian's face sported an additional "王" (king) character, six fake beards, and various other patterns – some drawn by Tom, some by Artoria. In the end, Tom received some final touches that could make him pass for a tiger with dentures.

Only Artoria's face remained pristine. She didn't draw any king cards, and she rarely drew the king even while dealing.

After one game, Artoria basked in the joy of victory, while Adrian and Tom were left nursing their wounds.

With a sufficient break, Adrian and Tom didn't wash their faces. The patterns were supposed to serve as punishment and would be saved for the evening.

Adrian went to the yard and swung his sword, not to vent his frustration but to fill his energy. He practiced until his energy was replenished, then started the lottery as usual.

To Adrian's astonishment, his energy instantly decreased by 90%, and the screen transformed into countless specks of light that formed a one-meter-wide magic array in front of him, this time in white.

The white light in the yard caught Tom and Artoria's attention; they knew it meant a new companion was arriving.

As the white light faded, a figure appeared in the center of the magic array:

Wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and a red checkered shirt tied around the waist, this tall, refined figure had delicate features. Thick black hair was tied into a high ponytail, and a diagonal fringe covered half of the right eye. Strangely, the overall impression was somewhat timid.

Adrian stared for a few seconds but couldn't recognize the newcomer.

Rubbing her eyes, the newcomer looked around, her gaze landing on the two humans and a cat. She began, "Hello, I am... huh!?"

Fear flashed across her face as she took a half-step backward.

Are you serious with that half-step back, miss? While I may not have a face handsome enough to make people fall in love at first sight, I'm not that scary, right?

Adrian touched his face and realized his fingertips were stained black. He remembered he still had a tiger face on and quickly said, "Don't panic, I'm a human. Let me wash my face first! Artoria, could you please welcome our new friend?"

"Sure, come inside with me first," Artoria nodded and led the newcomer into the tavern.

Adrian and Tom went to the bathroom to wash their faces and also checked the newcomer's information:

Name: Rui Mengmeng

Aliases: Star Blade, Riven

Bio: Hailing from the Super Seminary, she comes from Rui

Family Village in the Grand Canyon City of Ping County. She possesses a super gene known as the Star Blade. Before arriving here, she was working at a restaurant and encountered a harasser. Her super gene awakened, and she slapped the harasser, sending him to the hospital.

"Super Seminary?" Adrian remembered that place had a complex power structure, relying on genetically engineered superhumans and their "Void Engines" to manipulate reality. It all felt more fantastical despite being driven by technology.