(This chapter is only to apologize to my friend Zhan Zhouzhou. If you don't like it, you can skip it. It basically doesn't affect reading.)
The light screen dispersed, and Li Zheng immediately surveyed the room and looked for the player's figure.
The room wasn't big and still had a metallic style. In front of a capsule dwelling at its center, a bald figure was holding a long sword, seemingly practicing swordsmanship just now.
After locking his eyes on that player, the detector provided the person's identification information.
[Name: Zhan Zhouzhou
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Height: 165 cm
Weight: 48 KG
Status: Healthy
Equipment: Tungsten Steel Longsword (Black Iron Level), Tungsten Steel Armor (Black Iron Level)
Ability: Agile Moves, Swordsmanship Mastery
Genetic Ability: Electric Light Sword (Gold Level)
Modifications: None
Exploration Attempts Left Today: 0]
"Zhan Zhouzhou?"
Upon confirming the other party's identity, Li Zheng breathed a sigh of relief. Barely an acquaintance, there shouldn't be any unpleasant occurrences.
"Hello!"
Li Zheng walked over with a smile and greeted.
Zhan Zhouzhou was originally immersed in practicing swordsmanship. Upon sensing someone opening the metal door, she sheathed her sword and stood there.
"You, Li!"
Upon seeing Li Zheng's face, Zhan Zhouzhou's eyebrows immediately knitted in anger, and she marched up furiously, menacingly holding up her sword.
"I'll chop you to pieces!"
She almost gritted her teeth uttering these words, accelerated, and raised her sword to strike Li Zheng.
The sharp blade glistened with a cold light, sending chills down Li Zheng's spine, making him dodge to the side and curse, "Are you freaking crazy? Slashing at someone just after meeting?"
[Safe.]
The Desert Eagle slid into his hand. Li Zheng was about to turn around and fire, but his eyes caught these words on the detector's lens.
"What the heck! Is the detector broken? This woman is slashing at me with a sword, yet it still says safe? Uh…ow~"
The evasive movement was too much, aggravating his rib injury, causing Li Zheng to groan in pain, "No way, if this continues, my injury will worsen."
"Stop her first!"
Enduring the pain, Li Zheng rushed forward some distance, turned, and pointed the gun at Zhan Zhouzhou, warning, "Hey, don't say I'm bullying a woman, if you attack me again, I won't be courteous…cough cough…"
Before he could finish speaking, the injury caused him to cough uncontrollably.
With a gun pointed at her, Zhan Zhouzhou didn't show the slightest panic, and her pretty eyebrows arched curiously, "You're injured?"
Saying so, she took a step forward.
"Zoom!"
The Desert Eagle adjusted to a special shooting mode, firing a shot to the ground in front of Zhan Zhouzhou, scattering the Snake Grass Needle into powder, leaving a finger-thick shallow pit on the metallic floor.
Li Zheng clutched his chest, his face twisted with pain, "If you take another step forward, I won't hold back!"
"Heh."
Zhan Zhouzhou snorted coldly, halted her steps, and suddenly asked, "Have you heard of a saying?"
The shift in her topic was abrupt, causing Li Zheng to hesitate slightly, responding inquisitively, "What saying?"
"Beyond seven steps, the gun is faster."
"And within seven steps?"
Li Zheng suddenly felt an ominous premonition.
"The sword is faster!"
Before the words finished, Zhan Zhouzhou abruptly steadied her previously disordered sword stance, advancing two steps rapidly, her wrist subtly trembling, and the Tungsten Steel Longsword snapped at Li Zheng's hand with a speed hard for the naked eye to see.
"Ding~"
The clash of metal, Li Zheng only felt a strange force hitting the gun, causing his fingers to slip, and the Desert Eagle dropped to the ground.
"Oh crap!"
Disarmed, Li Zheng's face changed color, retreating several steps to widen the gap.
"How about that?"
Zhan Zhouzhou retracted her long sword, cocking her attractive eyebrows, and inquired, "This move, Passing Swift, I've trained it for over ten years. You're not the first to be disarmed by me, nor will you be the last."
"..."
Li Zheng remained silent. If it weren't for the detector not alerting danger, knowing the other party had no intention to really harm, he wouldn't have given her the chance to strike.
However, seeing Zhan Zhouzhou's swordsmanship like this, if it were serious and without using the Platinum Level genetic ability, victory or defeat remains uncertain.
Now that he was disarmed and carrying injuries, he had become like meat on a chopping block, defenseless.
"..."
"..."
Li Zheng stared coldly at her, with a sort of unyielding spirit.
"..."
"Tch~"
Zhan Zhouzhou stayed silent for a while, eventually pouting and saying, "Alright, considering you're injured, I won't bully you."
"But…"
With that, the Tungsten Steel Longsword disappeared from her hand, replaced by another tool that began to hum softly once its switch was flicked.
"Oh no…"
Upon identifying the tool, Li Zheng's face changed on the spot, and he turned to flee.
"Stop right there!"
Zhan Zhouzhou, unhampered by injuries like Li Zheng, moved much nimbler, grabbing the collar of Li Zheng's shirt after just a few steps.
"Trying to run?!"
Li Zheng struggled in vain, gritting his teeth and shouting angrily, "Zhan Zhouzhou, we have no enmity, whether you kill or thrash me is up to you, but to humiliate me is crossing the line!"
"Pah! You're full of yourself!"
Zhan Zhouzhou spat lightly, saying, "You think we have no enmity, but the hatred between us is immense!"
She pointed at her bald head, questioning sternly, "You think I chose this hairstyle? It was all because of you!"
"That's nonsense!"
Li Zheng cursed, "This is our first meeting, how could I have had the chance to shave your head bald!"
"Remember the Flame Flower we traded previously?"
"I remember, the transaction was settled, you can't just because you failed to develop a genetic ability, hold such a grudge against me?"
"Heh, if it was just the failure to develop a genetic ability, I'd accept it."
"Then you…I guess...could it be this tragic?"
Seeing Zhan Zhouzhou's shiny bald head, Li Zheng thought of a possibility.
"That's right!"
Zhan Zhouzhou gritted her teeth and said, "It's such a disaster! My beautiful black hair was burned off because of the side effects triggered by your Flame Flower!"
"Huh?????"
Li Zheng realized and immediately said, "But you agreed to exchange it yourself, so what has it got to do with me? You can't blame me for this, can you?"
"Hmph."
Zhan Zhouzhou lifted her chin and said, "I'm a girl!"
"So what if you're a girl? Being a girl means you're exempt from side effects? Means you can shave other people's hair whenever you want... Hey, stop right there!"
"What I mean is, are you actually trying to reason with a girl?"
After saying this unreasonable statement, Zhan Zhouzhou stopped talking, raised the hair trimmer in her hand, and pressed it against Li Zheng, forcibly taking action.
"Bzz bzz bzz..."
Three minutes later, Li Zheng was sporting a bald head just like Zhan Zhouzhou, as if they both got styled by the same Tony teacher, feeling totally helpless.
"This is too barbaric, too overbearing!"
Zhan Zhouzhou released Li Zheng, examined him for a moment, and said with satisfaction, "So clean, I never realized I had this talent before. Should've opened a barber shop long ago."
"You opening a barber shop?"
Li Zheng rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, brushed off the hair clippings from himself, and said speechlessly, "Which barber shop only gives people bald heads?"
"Why not?"
Zhan Zhouzhou put away the hair trimmer and said confidently, "At most, I'll shave heads only for middle-aged Mediterranean men."
"Then you'd lose money for sure."
Li Zheng couldn't be bothered with her, picked up the Desert Eagle and packed it away, walked over to a corner, sat down, and took out the trembling little Sakura from his pocket, grabbing two Luoshen Flowers, and shared them with his pet, each eating one.
Intentionally not sharing one with Zhan Zhouzhou.
"Tsk~ A grown man still upset over this?"
Zhan Zhouzhou leaned over, glanced at the Luoshen Flower in his hand, pouted, and went back to her capsule dwelling to get a piece of grilled meat: "Here, have some meat."
"Ha."
Li Zheng let out a cold laugh, gestured towards the little Sakura with his mouth and said, "Can't you see there's one more here? Just giving one piece of grilled meat, how can it be enough for anyone?"
"Pet?"
Zhan Zhouzhou looked at little Sakura and asked.
"So precious!"
Li Zheng scoffed at her, "What else could this be besides a pet, a toilet? And does your toilet look like this?"
"Squeak?"
The little Sakura, initially focused on its food, suddenly raised its head, three question marks flashing across its mind.
"Wait right there."
Zhan Zhouzhou dropped this phrase and returned to her capsule dwelling, emerging with three pieces of grilled meat.
Standing in front of Li Zheng, she tossed two to him: "Here, considering the little one's share, I'm giving you one more piece."
"That's more like it."
Li Zheng shared some with little Sakura, took a bite himself, and frowned slightly: "Why is there no taste at all? Can't you buy a bottle of salt at the exchange hall?"
"Gimme a break."
Zhan Zhouzhou sat down next to him, teasing little Sakura while saying in a dismissive tone, "Even a beggar doesn't complain about stale food. Be glad there's something to eat."
"Bleh~"
Little Sakura hugged Li Zheng's finger, made a funny face at Zhan Zhouzhou, then turned its backside towards her.
"Little guy, I'm not talking about you."
Zhan Zhouzhou found it amusing, gently flicked it with a finger, and stopped teasing it.
"Squeak squeak!"
Little Sakura called out loudly, remembering that Li Zheng couldn't stand up to this bad woman, rubbed the spot where it got flicked, feeling aggrieved.
"Alright, this little one was just born recently, easy on it." Li Zheng said affectionately, moving his hand away.
Zhan Zhouzhou looked at Li Zheng's bald head and couldn't help but chuckle, "Alright, I won't hold you accountable for that lousy flower.
Hm, we're even."
"Pah!"
Li Zheng spat out, "I didn't owe you to begin with!"
Zhan Zhouzhou laughed without arguing, falling into silence for a moment.
...
"Hey? I just saw your swordsmanship was quite impressive. Where did you learn it?"
"Passed down from family."
"Whoa? In modern society, there are still people practicing this stuff?"
"Ignorance!"
"Tell me more?"
"Well, let me introduce myself, I'm from Zhejiang-Hangzhou, Swordsmanship Family, Zhan Zhouzhou."
"Oh~~ I've heard a lot about you!"
"Heard a lot my foot!"
"Isn't that how people say it in Wuxia dramas?"
"Our family mainly participates in various swordsmanship tournaments, bringing glory to the country, and you actually compare us to folks from the Jianghu?"
"Swordsmanship tournaments? Have you taken part?"
"Duh? I've won the provincial swordsmanship championship three times already!"
"Wow! Didn't expect you're quite awesome."
"But all three times there were only three participants..."
"Uh... that's still pretty impressive."
"The other two were my dad and my grandpa..."
"Uh-oh... Are you three stuck there bugging each other?"
"Excuse me? I defeated them with skill!"
"Yeah yeah, I believe you."
"Believe it or not."
...
"Hey? Do you think I have the talent to practice martial arts?"
"You?"
Zhan Zhouzhou looked Li Zheng over, chuckled disdainfully twice: "Hehe."
...
Half an hour later, the two parted ways.
Li Zheng chose a metal door marked with blue safety (material), swiped his card.
As the door opened, he resolutely stepped into the beam of light.