Shadow of Deception

"Dude, I can't believe it actually rained like that for four days straight without stopping! When it gets too hot, it's bound to rain!"

"Yeah, I thought it was going to flood."

"The heatwave was far better than this."

Mickey walked past the crowded streets with an indifferent expression on his face. Although his house had turned into a swimming pool, he didn't mind.

He preferred to die in a cold place rather than a hot one. Also, clearing out the water from his house helped with his physical workouts.

Now he wasn't sweating after walking more than 10 km. In his past life, when he was in elementary school, he walked such a distance daily; there wasn't a school in the area he lived, and subways hadn't been built.

The government would appear in public shedding crocodile tears about how tough things were while they monopolized the money the country was making. Sometimes they would even plunge the country into debt while they fed their stomachs.

It was the hidden law: the rich get richer; the poor get poorer.

During the time Mickey worked for the Sixpences, he helped them turn the government into a family business. Even the leader of the military was Bruce Sixpence's long-lost son.

'Bloodline says a lot about one's origins. Most organizations are ruled by blood relatives. If one isn't related, they would try by all means to suppress them.'

'Even those who claim they are acting for a righteous cause to save humanity will just send the non-relatives to dangerous places, using all sorts of excuses they can think of.

And, if one is bound by such a faction, they won't have much choice but to comply. If the person refuses, all those people would finally have a reason to kill them.'

'For a half-human, half-vampire like me, things will get tougher when I leave this island.' Thinking about the far future made Mickey's heart sink a bit, 'If I survive, I am bound to be a renegade in the public eye.'

'But who cares about what the public thinks?'

'I want to live a life that is good for myself. What if my actions trouble someone?'

'The best way is to get stronger, so what if they name me a demon because of my own actions?'

'A bad reputation is actually better than a good one.

Why?

There is a saying: two fists can't defeat six palms. What if those fists are holding a knife? The palms won't even dare to come.'

'A bad reputation is such a knife.'

As Mickey walked past the crowded street, someone called out to him, "Oya! Young man, don't you want a haircut?"

"Tsk." Mickey clicked his tongue at whoever that was. Physical beauty may be alluring, but it is not eternal. Such a thing was vanity in his eyes.

'Beauty is something that lasts for all posterity.'

The man in a red t-shirt continued to walk in the street, and the deeper he went, the smaller the crowd became.

This was the border between Book Lords and mortals. Mortals were not allowed into the inner city, but Book Lords were allowed to go anywhere they wanted.

However, Book Lords are prideful and only end up in the border areas unless a beast tide occurs.

Mickey wasn't going to the inner city; he still didn't meet the right conditions to enter.

He looked at the GPS application on his tablet and searched for the biggest pharmacy in the whole city.

With the sound of moving vehicles echoing in his ears, Mickey soon found the place he was going to.

The place was big enough to compare to a high school campus. There were three buildings with slick glass windows that stretched up to the height of four floors.

Mortals would enter the building on the right, Book Lords in the middle, and city elders on the left.

There was a huge billboard at the entrance that read, <<Acoustic Grand Treasure Pharmacy>> Below that were the words, <<Can deal with all sorts of poisons and illnesses.>>

There was even a sultry woman on the billboard wearing a nurse uniform, making one wonder if she worked there.

Mickey didn't enter the gate; he knew his little tricks would be exposed if he tried to be an all-knowing guru inside.

He went over to the traffic lights at the T-junction with Acoustic Grand Treasure Pharmacy's front gate.

He stuck his own homemade billboard on a piece of land in the middle. <<I don't offer a cure, but the way to make cure for any poison>> <<Money first! No refunds!>>

This billboard was a declaration of war against the pharmacy, but do tigers care about one little ant?

No, they don't. They can't even make a meal out of it.

This is why Mickey chose this place to sell some of his wisdom. In truth, one can't even call it wisdom; trickery would be the best word.

His memories of the anime were vague. In his mind, there were barely a couple of poison remedies, and he was going to say whatever seemed logical to the person who came to disturb him.

He was sure someone would come. Not all remedies to poisons were exposed at this place.

If that unlucky person ended up dying, he didn't care. It was their fault for trusting him. This island was going to be destroyed in a matter of years.

Whether he got involved with the main characters or not, it didn't matter. The storyline had already changed the moment he woke up as Gu Mickey.

'What I need is overbearing strength so that all will be ants in my eyes.'

As the seconds ticked by, people quickly noticed the man wearing a face mask made out of a maple leaf. The maple tree was native to the southern region of the city, and everyone immediately knew he was a squatter.

"Surely, lack of money is the root of all evil. Look at this young man marketing his swindling business in broad daylight."

"He is surely a squatter; he must have never heard of that rumored legend. One of the common paragraphs clearly says, the first person worked hard to create men and women. We, like the first human, have to work! It is not a curse; it is just a fact of life. How can he be so shameless!"

"Sigh, young people these days—if they don't get involved in drugs, they will always resort to some law-breaking activity."

"It is such a pity that old lady Bai Run has kindness that can cover oceans. If it were me, I would have chased him away from the front gate of my pharmacy."

Mickey didn't even try to listen to these words as they would ruin his concentration. The other reason he came here was to absorb Qi into his Primeval World.

'In the main story, there was a time when one of the two protagonists of these flashback episodes said, "I don't understand why people keep themselves in closed-door cultivation only to advance a stage. The best times to gather Qi are when the sun is blazing hot and between 11pm to 2am at night. Just as the best way to generate electricity is through the sun, the best way to absorb Qi is through outdoor meditation."'

'Although this method was never used by other characters because, by that time, the person had turned indifferent to the world.'

The sky was clear with no clouds, and the lonely sun was showing its anger on the people below.

Mickey had chosen this place to cultivate; there were no shadows blocking him in all directions.

The purple dust sank into the ocean in Mickey's Primeval World. The process of sending Qi to the ocean of his Primeval World had him addicted that he didn't pay mind to the pain he was feeling.

As time slowly moved like a tortoise and with no one daring to approach him, Mickey's Primeval World had now gotten a new source of light. The ocean now released a faint purple glow.

He even thought of advancing to the next step, but he quickly shook that thought from his mind. Running won't make you reach the destination. Speeding only promotes injuries.

As the sun shone on his back, an arrogant voice suddenly called out to him, "Mister, do you happen to be a Book Lord of some sort, or are you just a nobody mortal?"

Thanks to the maple tree leaf on his face, nobody could tell if he was a mortal or not. The maple tree leaves have the ability to hide one's aura from people of the first three realms.

Although this fact was discovered a hundred years later.

Mickey was able to cultivate because he had another face mask under the maple leaf.

Opening his eyes, he met the sight of a beautiful maiden around the same age as him, sitting in a wheelchair. Her skin was lightly pale, making her resemble a fairy. Her hair was long and silver, matching the sundress she wore. Her eyes were emerald, giving off an alluring charm.

"Pay first, lady."