The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician

Chapter 5 - 4 It’s Kiana Time now!
Chapter 5: Chapter 4 It’s Kiana Time now!The next morning at seven o’clock, Jiang Shu was awoken by the unceasing beeping sound from his wristwatch. He activated the Simulated Light Screen, and Wolf’s hairy face appeared before him.

In this world, mobile phones had been replaced by devices like wristwatches, which create a Simulated Light Screen through projection, allowing one to complete all necessary operations with one hand.

”You finally woke up,” Wolf sighed with relief, ”I’ve been calling since six, and you’re only answering now.”

”I was recording statements until midnight yesterday, and now I’m up this early. Do all you police have such vigorous energy?” Jiang Shu said irritably, then got up and dressed.

”Abundant energy is a basic attribute of a policeman, huh,” Wolf chuckled, ”Hurry down, I’m waiting downstairs at your place. I’ll take you to awaken your Character Card, and there’s a bunch of procedures to go through.”

”Just for this?” Jiang Shu walked into the bathroom to freshen up, ”I don’t believe it.”

”Heh heh, once we finish this, the banks will also be open, follow me to the scene,” Wolf continued, ”The bank heist definitely wasn’t done by the fox alone; you have a look, maybe you can find his accomplices.”

”I’ll try,” Jiang Shu didn’t refuse because, since the previous night, he had already joined the police force, becoming an honorary external member of the police.

Moments later, after freshening up, Jiang Shu walked into the kitchen, made sandwiches, heated some milk, placed them in a thermos, left a voice message for Liu Tingruo, and then went downstairs.

Outside the gates of the villa, Wolf had been sitting in the car, waiting for a while.

The vehicle had a sleek, streamlined body with a silver metallic texture. It was genuinely cool, but Jiang Shu still wanted to ask, ”Why a motorbike? Aren’t you a policeman? Don’t police get cars?”

”This one’s comfortable to drive,” Wolf laughed, ”Don’t tell me there are any men who could resist its allure.”

Jiang Shu walked up to the bike, hopped onto the back seat, thought briefly, then grabbed onto Wolf’s shoulders tightly, ”It’s rush hour now, the roads are busy, go slow.”

”Are you underestimating me?” Wolf cocked an eyebrow, donned his helmet, and said with muffled pride, ”So what if the roads are busy?”

”You son of a--!” Jiang Shu didn’t even have time to curse before he plunged into a soul-detaching, lightning-fast ride.

With just an ignition, the bike’s speed hit one fifty within two seconds. Cleverly, Jiang Shu said nothing, and straight away took off his helmet, forcing him to stop the bike.

”Drive slower, I’ve got something to ask you anyway,” Jiang Shu said curtly.

The guy, now a Police Chief, still had such an unrestrained and overfamiliar personality.

”You’re no fun,” Wolf shook his head, dismounted the motorbike, ”Let’s walk for a bit then. I’ll call the police’s service vehicle over.”

He pressed a few times on his wristwatch, and the motorbike drove off on its own to the parking spot he had set, while Jiang Shu nodded and started walking with him.

In this world, autonomous driving was incredibly advanced; if one needed a car, they could simply summon their vehicle via wristwatch. However, under autonomous driving mode, the vehicle’s speed limit was eighty miles per hour.

”What do you want to ask? Go ahead, but there are some secrets I can’t tell you,” Wolf said.

”It’s about the Character Card, you don’t have to reveal any big secrets,” Jiang Shu said.

”You... really don’t know?” Wolf hesitated, living in Lonely City for over twenty years without having or understanding Character Cards was a difficult thing to explain.

”I have amnesia,” Jiang Shu stated plainly. He truly didn’t know anything; without a Character Card, even his internet access was restricted. He had no means of acquiring information.

”Okay,” Wolf seemed to accept this as the only explanation for Jiang Shu’s ignorance in various areas.

”In Lonely City, citizens get to awaken a Character Card for free when they turn eighteen, and after awakening, the system assigns jobs,” he explained, ”There are five conventional job categories for Character Cards: Combat, Research, Production, Entertainment, and Social Sequence. Social Sequence represents professions like Doctor and Teacher, including policemen like myself.”

”Character Cards are also divided into levels, from low to high: T5, T4, T3, T2, and T1. Mine, take a look.” He projected his Character Card onto the Simulated Light Screen of his wristwatch:

Name: Wolf

Character Card·Police Chief (Second Level)

Gradient: T2

Sequence: Social

Mysterious Coefficient: 0.1

Tags: (Hidden)

”Tags?” Jiang Shu noted the long string of hidden information beneath the Character Card.

”Tags, the materialization of professional abilities, are like personal labels that essentially explain what your Character Card does,” Wolf explained, then showed him a few tags, ”This stuff is kind of private, but I can show you a few.”

Tags:

- Passive·Robustness: Significantly improved physical fitness.

- Passive·Precision: When using firearms, accuracy +3

- Active·Insightful Eye: Once activated, sensitivity to clues +3, consumes spiritual power every minute.

(Hidden)

Isn’t this just like active and passive skills in video games?

Jiang Shu was a little surprised, then asked, ”So how does one get promoted? Level up?”

”Tags are categorized from white, blue, purple to gold, corresponding to different values. Accumulate enough Gradient points, and you can be promoted,” Wolf replied, ”I’m now a T2 Police Chief, and with a few more tags, I can get promoted to T1 and become a Police Chief.”

”Just need enough tags to get a promotion? No need to prove one’s worth?” Jiang Shu questioned, skeptical about this method of promotion as it seemed a bit hasty.

”What do you think tags are for?” Wolf sneered, ”The most common way to get them is by completing personal achievements. Tags are like milestone rewards; in other words, they represent your accomplishments.”

Jiang Shu frowned, ”That abnormal acquisition method?”

”Memory USB, extracting others’ memories, storing them in the USB, and when it’s used, input it into the brain to access the entries,” Wolf said seriously. ”But extracting memories can cause brain damage to the subject. At the least, they might lose all other entries, and at most, they can become demented or even die. That’s why such devices are officially banned from trade, and memory USBs are single-use items; their content can’t be copied or pasted.”

”However, entries are just the manifestation of personal abilities after all. With scientific training methods, one can also attain certain entries,” he continued.

”Uh, if someone has no achievements and buys a bunch of entries with money to get promoted to T2, can they just become a Police Chief?” Jiang Shu found it hard to conceive.

”Why couldn’t they?” Wolf gave him a look, ”Isn’t this just the rich and the offspring of officials? They have money and power, why should they start at the same line as you? A parachuted Police Chief is very normal.”

”Hiss—” Jiang Shu drew in a breath of cold air.

What he said... made sense!

If they are parachuted in with entries, and their personal abilities aren’t bad, why shouldn’t they be Police Chiefs?

”As for the last method of obtaining entries, I don’t recommend it,” Wolf sighed, then asked a seemingly unrelated question. ”Have you ever thought about what happens when a promotion fails?”

”Promotion failure?” Jiang Shu blinked, ”There’s a penalty for failing a promotion?”

”It’s not just about official positions; the rank is merely based on your overt abilities — that is, your Gradient level. That’s the responsibility high Gradient characters should bear and the privilege they deserve. But entries...” Wolf became serious, ”are used to explain your character’s profession. If the explanation is not sufficient, that is, if it’s determined that many of your entries are irrelevant to your role, you enter the Mutant Sequence and turn into an irrational monster that only knows slaughter and destruction.”

”And hunting down such monsters and extracting their memories can also yield entries.” Wolf spoke slowly, ”And these entries are often purple or even gold.”

”Under normal circumstances, it’s also the irrelevant purple or gold entries that easily lead to mutation.”

”I see...” Jiang Shu mused, ”So, a Character Card plans a person’s path from the start? If you’re a Police, you’re a Police for life? Are you okay with that?”

”Of course, the Main Brain won’t make mistakes. Being a Police is my will.” Wolf smiled naturally, squinting his eyes, ”Every city is a huge machine, and we are all gears in that machine. If a gear is defective, it needs to be dealt with. Only by doing well can Lonely City prosper.”

”Right,” Jiang Shu responded, not disagreeing, but the subtle coerciveness made him somewhat uncomfortable.

”Don’t be afraid; the probability of mutation is very low, and Mutants are extremely rare,” Wolf consoled, patting his shoulder.

——

”Are you sure Mutants are extremely rare?!” Jiang Shu was baffled. Why did he seem to encounter every possible thing?

As the only person who needed to awaken today, he was placed among those preparing for promotion, and then right after he completed his awakening, before he even had the chance to project his Character Card onto the Simulated Screen for a closer look, the person behind him...

Mutated.

It wasn’t until he witnessed the person in front of him gradually morphing, limbs becoming elongated and unhumanlike, that Jiang Shu realized, what Wolf meant by turning into a monster wasn’t a metaphorical transformation of the mind but a physical materialization.

The Mutant slowly turned around, and his face no longer had features, just a blurred smooth whiteness; then, a cavity appeared at his mouth, and a shrill scream erupted from the depths of his throat: ”Roar—”

”Mutant...”

”Where’s the Violent Terror Mobile Team?”

”Run!”

The Awakening Hall instantly plunged into chaos, as the crowd buzzed towards the exit, with Jiang Shu swept along in the midst of them.

”Civilians, evacuate orderly!” At that moment, an armed man suddenly appeared between the crowd and the Mutant. He didn’t hesitate to shoot at the Mutant.

But the bullets passed through the Mutant’s body with ease. Before the man could react, the Mutant had passed through him, his claws smashing into his body, ripping open flesh, and blood sprayed radially onto the pristine walls and ceiling.

”The Mobile Team member is dead!”

”Get out first!”

The crowd, which had momentarily calmed at the sight of the Mobile Team, was now thrown into new panic, and they fled explosively, with Jiang Shu maintaining his position in the middle of the crowd while observing the Mutant, now covered in blood and even more frantic.

”He gets taken down as soon as he shows up and calls himself security, how does this make sense?” He couldn’t help but criticize while quickening his pace.

The Mutant’s steps were uncoordinated, but he moved swiftly, and then those behind him, one by one, each Promoter was torn to shreds at the first encounter, the fear accompanied by the stench of blood swept through the corridor.

”Jiang Shu!” Wolf appeared at the end of the corridor, passing through the fleeing crowd, pulling out his sidearm, and firing several shots at the Mutant.

But, like with the Mobile Team, the bullets had no effect on the Mutant, as if passing through a phantom.

A phantom? The bloodstains...

Jiang Shu suddenly realized something. He looked up at the blood on the ceiling, recalling the Mutant’s movements; if it was a smashing action, the blood wouldn’t be in these places.

As he looked again, the Mutant’s elongated body morphed, turning into a very small black shadow.

”Attack his legs!” he immediately warned Wolf.

”Huh?” Wolf had just emptied a magazine, and with a hardened glance at the relentless Mutant, he dodged to the side of its claw attack, a pair of Mantis Blades springing from his wrists, slashing at the Mutant’s legs.

This time, the blades hit solid flesh, black blood splattered.

”Roar—” The Mutant screamed miserably, but the next second, it was hacked to death by Wolf’s frenzied blade work.

”He...” Jiang Shu stared blankly at the gasping Wolf; if he hadn’t seen it wrong, Wolf’s move of dodging and slashing conjured countless illusions.

”Now is — Qiayna time!”

Inexplicably, this phrase echoed in his heart.