The Almighty Ring

When Jiang Fei heard the news of his master becoming more and more popular from the martial artists alliance, he was thrown, and then a little excited. The “feat” of Zhuge Shanzhen chasing away three Level 5 Metahumans was all his work! He had never thought that pretense could be so effective!

How ironic. When one tries his best to gain popularity, one would be slammed by others. When others tried to advance one’s popularity, the effect would be exponentially stronger! By the time one tries to deny it, others would only deem one as humble!

Lockwood was not a stupid bugger. He knew that many could never reach the level where he stood. He had always thought that Level 5 was an incredible unique race of humans that only a handful of humanity was able to evolve to. After the incident, Lockwood calmed down and retraced what had happened that day. After thinking it through, he realized that Zhuge Shanzhen was as strong as how he played out in his mind back then. At most, he could be the strongest amongst all Level 5 Metahuman. The problem was with his own words. He was the one that had started the entire chain of rumors, stating that Zhuge Shanzhen was a real Level 6 Metahuman. He would only be throwing away his credibility to the drain if he tried to deny that!

However, Lockwood had clearly heard Zhuge Shanzhen chasing him away like a dog. To be fair, whether or not Zhuge Shanzhen was really a Level 6 Metahuman, running away from that threat would be justified. He was, if Lockwood was right all along, after all, a Level 6 Metahuman. Lockwood would have been lucky to get away alive. He was chased away by the one and only Level 6 Metahuman on Earth! He would have more than enough power to kill him right there and then.

If Zhuge Shanzhen was a real Level 6 Metahuman, Lockwood would have enough reason to not feel ashamed for running away. However, if Zhuge Shanzhen was just another Level 5, Lockwood would not have a thick enough face to remain in society. The only impression of Zhuge Shanzhen being a Level 6 Metahuman came from Lockwood alone! The other two, Mordred and Qin Wuyang were just carpooling, they were not the ones that drove the car! Fortunately, if Lockwood tried hard enough to spread the rumor far and wide, other Level 5 Metahumans would be warned about Zhuge Shanzhen, eliminating anyone from even trying to test the man’s true power lest they would be destroyed!

The stronger one was, the more one would be fearful of losing that power. Lockwood was not the only one that was extremely fearful of death. The other Level 5 Metahumans might be prideful and agnostic in nature, they were only seen as such when the around other Metahumans under Level 5. They too, have emotions and would be fearful of death, as all living beings. Even the Doomsday alien beast was so afraid of dying that it would rather tear off its own limb than to be killed by Ariel wielding the Zhanlu Sword. Even with an immortal body, one would still be fearful of death!

There were many who posted their suspicions about the rumor’s authenticity. However, when asked to challenge Zhuge Shanzhen to find out his real power level, none stood out. One by one, they bit down their pride and confessed into believing that Zhuge Shanzhen was the real deal after all! It was like the case of the pandora’s box. No one dared to open it even though many claimed that there were hidden treasures in the box.

One speaks of lies, hundreds speak of rumors, thousands speak of the truth. Who dared to challenge the authenticity of the rumors when the only way to test it was to challenge the man itself! The best outcome that would satisfy everyone was to admit that Zhuge Shanzhen was a Level 6 Metahuman and be done with it. No one would be willing to disturb him as long as Zhuge Shanzhen did the same. It was better to just be at peace with the man than to wage a war with him.

That was the happy incident that started with a simple act. A simple act of being a person more powerful than anyone else. Overnight, that act became the truth and by the end of it all, the rumor turned into truth and Zhuge Shanzhen was looked up and revered as the real god!

When Zhuge Shanzhen’s position was raised, so did Jiang Fei’s in the martial artists alliance. A few months ago, when Jiang Fei first met Old Hai and the others, he was treated merely as a young student that might someday become a better disciple. When he stepped up and fought against the Bio-Humans in Japan, Jiang Fei became the top student that was treated better amongst the others. When the miracle potion appeared, Jiang Fei was treated as the V.I.P of the alliance. Everyone wanted to be at Jiang Fei’s good side now! Now that Zhuge Shanzhen had risen to the top of the pyramid, how would Jiang Fei be treated then?

Even though martial artists of the alliance were a little slow, they were all treating Jiang Fei as a man that could someday surpass even the strongest fighter in the alliance. Jiang Fei was starting to receive treatments like a Level 5 even when he was only at the Pinnacle stage of Level 4!

While that was going on for Jiang Fei, he had other more pressing matters that needed urgent ramifications. The main problem he had right now was energy. 0542 warned Jiang Fei about it and when he did not want to use the Rebirth Egg as a source of energy, he would have to find another source in less than 500 hours or 0542 would enter its hibernation state.

“Confound it!” Jiang Fei groaned in his room, into his pillow. He had not the slightest clue to where the Main Engine Room was. Finding the Main Engine would undoubtedly require 0542’s help. He would need to spend some energy in order to start searching for the Main Engine Room. As such, the best method he had to temporarily solve the drowning boat problem was to use his potions to trade for Uranium. At the very least, he would have just enough energy to continue his search safely.

After deciding on it, Jiang Fei contacted Shroder on the next day to arrange for the trade. Compared to other Metahuman bodies, the Mutants and America were practically the same body. Recovering their strength was nothing but a good night’s sleep. They would not want to trade their precious alien artifact just for a few bottles of “level-up” potions.

If there was one thing that Han Tianyu had rubbed off on Jiang Fei, it was the spirit of business. If there was something they had that you want, find a way to force them to sell it!

Coincidentally, the Mutants were betrayed by the European Church. Even though both sides would not wage war on each other, they were not good enough to remain passive. Hence, Jiang Fei thought it might be a good idea to rattle the cage by powering up the Mutants, granting them just enough strength to retaliate against the European Church! Once the Church was suppressed, they would want to retaliate! What better way to become stronger than to ask Jiang Fei for more potions! The cycle continued. An eye for an eye! The Mutants would be trashed and would have no choice but to suck up their pride and plead Jiang Fei for the “level-up” potions! When that happens, Jiang Fei would demand for alien artifacts!

Jiang Fei’s method of rattling the cage was truly diabolical. He had only needed to push a few people and the chain of vengeance would unfold itself. Madness was like gravity. All one needed was to push it over the cliff. The European Church and the Mutant Brotherhood would fight each other and the person that would benefit the most was Jiang Fei. To be honest, Jiang Fei did not care about how the fight would escalate, he only cared for the profit of war!

Once he had drafted out the plan, he entered the game with a peace of mind. Today, in reality, he had obtained gold and in the game, he was about to reel in the trophy.

After preparing for so many days, it was high time for Jiang Fei to act against the annoying Evil Laughter. For as long as Jiang Fei could remember, Evil Laughter had attempted to assassinate Jiang Fei countless times. In fact, after every failure, he would even drop a taunting message for Jiang Fei just to piss him off! That was the last straw. Even though Jiang Fei was mature enough to know that they were merely playing a game, the martial artist in him would not let a random kid on the internet to bully him that way! If it was Han Tianyu, he would have hired so many people to investigate who was Evil Laughter in reality and beat the living hell out of him or her!