Restricted Fantasy Invasion

Chapter 36

Yan Huan picked up the exquisitely finished cloth bundle from the desk and handed it to Ye Shiyu beside him for inspection.

Ye Shiyu took it, examined it for a moment, then nodded.

But since she didn't say anything, Yan Huan kept looking at her, so after a pause, she finally opened her mouth to comment,

"It looks nice."

Only then did Yan Huan look away, and casually asked,

"Aren't you going to write your name on it, Sister Shiyu?"

"."

Hearing this, Ye Shiyu didn't look at the little cloth bundle in her hand but instead turned her gaze to Yan Huan's profile.

Her eyes lingered on his neck and Adam's apple showing between his collar, as if searching for a possible empty spot.

It wasn't until Yan Huan turned his head to look at her again that she withdrew her gaze, shook her head, and said,

"No need, we made this together."

"Is it okay for you to keep it, Sister Shiyu?"

"Mm."

In a bit, they'd have to hand the little cloth bundle to the teacher for grading. Glancing around at the other classmates' handiwork, most of them looked downright tragic.

In this class, Ye Shiyu was absolutely dominating; her wealth of experience in handicrafts was no joke.

After finishing the cloth bundle the teacher required, she even had spare time to make Yan Huan a yellow pet scarf at his request.

You could say Yan Huan really lucked out-getting an A for the final should be no problem.

For Yan Huan, he always nailed the main subjects that required exams, but all these quirky, confusingly graded electives were the real challenge.

"Alright, class is almost over. No matter how your projects turned out, everyone put your things down. I'll come check, and then you can leave the classroom freely."

"Okay~"

Yan Huan sat at his desk, took out his phone, and snapped a picture of the little cloth bundle.

Just then, a message came through-

"Something's up tonight, the bar won't open, you get a day off."

It was Tong Yingtong.

Yan Huan sent back a 'got it' sticker.

He originally wanted to open the mahjong club group chat, but after thinking for a moment, he went back to Sister Tong's chat and typed,

"Sister Tong, what's up? Your family bugging you to get married again?"

The other side was typing...

"Grown-up business, kids shouldn't ask. Be good~"

Well, he already knew that's exactly the kind of reply he'd get-shouldn't have bothered asking.

Sister Tong was actually pretty mysterious, often disappearing and not opening the shop, always saying she was busy.

Yan Huan figured, most likely she just didn't want to get out of bed, so she gave herself a day off.

As for Tong Yingtong, Yan Huan only knew she came from Longguo to Linmen to study a long time ago, even attended Linmen's college-she was basically a top student.

Don't be fooled by how she's basically lying flat now-smoking, drinking, sleeping all day, or getting nagged to get married by her parents far away in a foreign country.

Actually, Sister Tong was quite well-off.

That street-facing bar of hers, even though it's in the southern district, was still a hefty sum in land-scarce Linmen.

And she didn't rent it for business-she bought it outright.

She was generous with pay too, handing out bonuses and red packets on holidays to Yan Huan and the others.

She said all this money was earned from stock trading in earlier years, but who knows how she managed it with her reputation as a legendary idea queen.

Does it really take someone as capable as Sister Tong to make waves in a stock market full of chives?

Yan Huan was thoroughly puzzled.

Whatever, might as well go home and study today.

He'd gotten Learning Conqueror and hadn't even really used it yet, and just happened to have an idea he wanted to try.

"Mm, this group did pretty well."

The teacher came over, examined their project in detail, and gave this praise-mainly thanks to Ye Shiyu.

"By the way, Sister Shiyu, are you in any clubs?"

As Yan Huan was packing up, he turned and saw Ye Shiyu also putting away her things to go home, so he asked out of curiosity.

Ye Shiyu shook her head expressionlessly and asked back,

"What's the point of joining a club?"

"Well, it's not super useful, but personally, you get to do activities with classmates who share your interests."

Yan Huan folded up the pet scarf Ye Shiyu made while explaining,

"From a more practical angle, if you join a club, you'll have a faction in the Club War. If your club places, you can even get rewards and stuff."

"Rewards?"

Ye Shiyu's eyes flickered upward, and she pictured what competitions were like back in Longguo.

Did placing come with any rewards?

A certificate.

That's it.

Then her eyes showed a clear lack of interest, but since Yan Huan was still explaining, she let him continue,

"First place gets to make a wish to the school board, second place gets a big club budget and the right to host all-school club activities, and third place just gets funding."

A wish, huh.

Ye Shiyu thought for a moment, suddenly finding herself a bit interested, and abruptly asked,

"Is the student council under the school board?"

"Ah, strictly speaking, no. We're pretty independent. Things like the Club War, sports meet, and lots of other events are entirely our responsibility."

Hearing this, Ye Shiyu looked away in disappointment, clearly losing all interest in the Club War.

But she didn't rain on Yan Huan's parade, just said,

"I'll look into it later."

"Okay, Sister Shiyu."

Yan Huan finished packing up and got ready to leave. Knowing Ye Shiyu would soon take the bus home, he parted ways with her and prepared to take the school bus back to the southern district.

There weren't too many or too few people on the bus. Yan Huan found a quiet spot-the last row where no one else would pay attention.

"Meow-chan."

"Meow~"

After a soft call, a plump black cat suddenly leaped up from who knows where and sat primly beside him.

Yan Huan then took out the yellow fabric scarf Ye Shiyu had made and said,

"Look at this, Meow-chan, I got you a scarf to wear."

The plump black cat tilted its head, reached out a paw pad to touch the scarf, and asked in confusion,

"Um, what's the point of this, meow?"

"Mainly, you're all pitch black. Sometimes at night, I can't see you at all. With a yellow scarf, you'll stand out more-and be even cuter."

"Meow?"

Meow-chan looked at Yan Huan speechlessly as he wrapped the scarf around its neck, then tied a neat knot on one side.

The magical thing was, once the scarf was on Meow-chan's neck, it seemed to become ethereal too. Unless Meow-chan wanted, no one would notice it.

Mm, this little cat is just too adorable.

Yan Huan held Meow-chan in his arms and looked out the window. The vehicle was starting up, and the sound of the engine came through.

"Oh right, Yan Huan, yesterday I found this in the shop where you work-"

As Meow-chan sat, it suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Yan Huan.

Just as Yan Huan looked over curiously, it suddenly lowered its head and started dry heaving.

"Hrk hrk."

It looked a bit like a kitten coughing up a hairball.

"What's up?"

Yan Huan was afraid it would vomit something unspeakable on him, so he tried to move it to the seat beside him.

But the next second, a scale shimmering with a milky white glow was spat out.

That scale was completely ethereal-Yan Huan couldn't touch it at all.

"What's this..."

"A modifier fragment, meow. It's the same thing as the modifier you got from Ye Shiyu before," Meow-chan explained.

"Huh?"

Hearing this, Yan Huan was shocked.

He had wanted to pick up the snake scale and look at it, but when he reached out, his hand went right through-it was completely untouchable.

"Told you, meow, I can't interfere with the world. Since these dropped fragments are things I can interfere with, that means you definitely can't touch them."

"...Is that so."

Yan Huan blinked, then rubbed his chin in confusion,

"Wait, could this be the modifier that Bai Yi dropped yesterday? Even though I gave her the recognition she wanted, the impact shouldn't have been that big, right..."

"I don't know either, meow, but this fragment looks a lot bigger than the one I swallowed last time. It must be a serious blow to the modifier."

Meow-chan circled around that fragment, then looked up at Yan Huan with those big adorable eyes, wearing an expression that said, "As expected of you."

No, no, no.

The main thing is, I really don't remember anything about it!

Yan Huan honestly didn't think what he did to Bai Yi yesterday was all that effective-at best, it was just an emergency fix, not even as good as what he did to Ye Shiyu last time.

But now, with such a big fragment dropping, it really doesn't look like the result of his own actions.

"Why does this fragment look so much like an animal scale? Like a lizard, or a snake or something. Was Ye Shiyu's fragment last time like this too?" "A scale?"

Meow-chan tilted her head, looking at the fragment in front of her with a hint of confusion, then suddenly seemed to understand,

"Ah, that's because the modifier is essentially the power of a deity from another world. You humans can't comprehend its true form. So when you see it, it turns into something you can understand."

Meow-chan gagged a little, then spat out a tiny bit of illusory material that looked like spider silk,

"Look at this-this is the fragment Ye Shiyu dropped last time. It's quite different from this one, right?"

"Yeah, to me this one looks like spider silk, and this one looks like a snake scale."

As Yan Huan kept looking, he seemed to realize something and said to Meow-chan,

"Wait a second, according to what you said, Meow-chan, the modifier can't be detected, right?"

"That's right, meow."

"Then is it possible that someone else, under that premise, still did something to the modifier's host or the modifier itself, causing it to drop a fragment?"

"In theory, it's possible. But to pull that off without knowing anything at all, that person would definitely..."

Hiss.

That's no joke, that's a real expert.

But the problem is, when Bai Yi left the bar yesterday, she still looked like she hadn't recovered. Yan Huan didn't think this fragment was dropped by Bai Yi.

Which means, there may have been another modifier present at the bar earlier.

Was it the fourth one, or the fifth one that still hasn't shown up?

And besides, who else could have shown up there?

Sister Tong?

Just thinking of this made Yan Huan shiver.

If that girl Tong Yingtong got her hands on a modifier, with her terrifying genius, wouldn't that mean-

There'd never be peace ever again?!

Thinking of this, Yan Huan hurriedly opened plane and sent a message to Tong Yingtong.

"Sister Tong, are you there?"

A kitty emoji.

But the name on the other end didn't move at all, and after a long while, there was still no reply.

Ugh, so annoying.

Plane is just like WeChat from my previous life-you can't see if the other person has read your message!

Well, I guess that's not really a problem, especially when your boss messages you in the middle of the night to ask if you're asleep...

Yan Huan put down his phone, rubbed his brow, and started to sort out his thoughts.

Don't panic.

So far, there are three known modifiers.

Spencer's plundering system.

That thing is super powerful-not only can it alter people's consciousness, it can also create bizarre sealed spaces. The only problem is the host seems kind of dumb.

Ye Shiyu's Hypnosis APP.

Yeah, that's strong too. That kind of sudden, overwhelming control is almost impossible to dodge. But after my intervention, Ye Shiyu's possessiveness has been nicely suppressed (I think?).

Then there's Bai Yi's Indifference.

This one feels the weakest. I have a lot of room to maneuver, and I've gotten to know the host a bit. Let's just say, the future looks promising.

So, what about the other two?

One is the modifier that ambushed me at noon today, and seems able to manipulate pleasure.

The other might be the one who dropped this snake scale at the bar-possibly related to Tong Yingtong?

Sister Tong, please reply. I miss you-and not just because of the modifier.

"Forget it."

Tong Yingtong still didn't reply. I even tried calling, but she didn't pick up. Maybe she's asleep.

Yan Huan had no choice but to give up and turned to Meow-chan,

"So this fragment can strengthen my modifier too, right?"

Meow-chan nodded and said very happily,

"And this fragment is even bigger than last time! So the boost will definitely be even greater! You'll see on the weekend-I'll keep it safe for now."

"That's good. Honestly, I barely even used Learning Conqueror last time. I just felt super refreshed after studying for a bit. I've got more free time this afternoon, so I want to see just how strong the full effect is."

"Meow~"

After patting Meow-chan on the head, Yan Huan was just about to open his phone and watch some videos when the school bus suddenly stopped.

"Beep beep!"

It wasn't just the school bus-every car around had stopped, and the clueless cars behind were still honking impatiently.

"What's going on?"

"Looks like the road up ahead is closed."

Yan Huan frowned and looked ahead.

He saw the school bus had stopped before an intersection, which was already blocked off. Several traffic cops were guiding vehicles to take a detour.

"Emergency traffic control. The intersection ahead is closed. Please detour to either side. Thank you!"

Yan Huan leaned against the window and glanced at the blocked-off intersection, and saw that a floor of a building on the street had caught fire. The fire department was working to put it out.

Not only had the Linmen fire department come, but ambulances, the criminal police, and traffic police were all there too.

What happened?

One stretcher after another was carried out of the building, with quite a few people covered in blood-and you could vaguely see they were holding knives or something similar.

"A gang fight?"

Yan Huan raised an eyebrow, thinking that.

Linmen's southern district used to have a lot of gangs. It wasn't directly related to being poor now-it was due to geography and history.

The southern district is by the sea, and when Linmen was first founded, a lot of illegal immigrants snuck in to live here.

There were tons of people from all different countries and cultures, so naturally they formed their own groups and created gangs to fight for interests.

It was a lot like Hong Kong before the handover in my past life-for a long time, the entire southern district was run by gangs.

It's much better now. Once Linmen developed, the government immediately cracked down hard.

Tons of gangsters were executed, and even the eggs in their hideouts got scrambled for you.

If you ask whether there are still thugs in the southern district these days-

Of course there are. Otherwise, why did I tell Bai Yi yesterday not to wander around the alleys outside?

But it's rare to see them in big groups anymore.

Pretty much everyone went to work-after a couple days of hauling bricks, they settle down.

I never expected that after all this time, I'd still see such a massive gang fight today...

Guess that means the hair salons near Sister Tong's bar won't have much business for a while.

Yan Huan shook his head and took the detour with the school bus, getting home twenty minutes later than usual.

He didn't cook-just had some fried rice downstairs, watching the news with his earbuds in.

"Linmen urgent update: At 15:23 this afternoon, a fire broke out on the third floor of Sterling Tower, Longyang Road, southern district.

"Eyewitnesses say there was a violent conflict before the fire started. Insiders say it may be related to the Yu Gang, a gang made up of people from Longguo in the southern district. Linmen police are taking it very seriously and have set up a special..."

Yan Huan didn't finish listening before he paid the bill and bought some juice, cat treats, and canned food before heading upstairs.

Sitting in front of his computer, he stretched his fingers and opened the desktop version of plane.

He typed in the keyword "side job-Zhangsun Studio (ghostwriting)" and opened a chat window, starting to type,

"You there?"

A kitty emoji.

After a while, the other side showed "typing..."

"Here."

After a bit, they typed again,

"But there's no work lately. We rarely take those easy papers you could do anymore-everyone uses AI now."

Yan Huan sipped his juice and replied,

"No, I don't need that. I just wanted to ask if you have electronic versions of college math textbooks and courseware-send them over if you do."

"OK, actually, I just got some advanced math courseware from top universities. As for textbooks, I've got calculus, linear algebra, statistics and so on, but they're from different countries. There aren't many from Linmen, so just make do."

"Thanks."

Sent a kitty nodding in thanks emoji.

Not long after, the other side sent over a bunch of courseware and digital textbooks.

The other side also sent a "smirk" emoji,

"You're really a grinder, damn, isn't your part-time job busy enough?"

"It's fine, not too tiring."

"Alright, let me know when you finish reading. There are tons of math orders, especially from Eagle Country. They dump all their exams, homework, and quizzes on us. Do you know how much you can make in a semester?"

"You can even cover exams?"

"If there's a market, we do it. Especially now with so many online courses and online exams. They just want a degree for convenience, and we get to make some cash off those young masters and young ladies. Who cares about academic integrity?"

It had been a while since Yan Huan last chatted with him, so the boss of the ghostwriting studio was being extra chatty today,

"Knowledge is power, my babies. Let me know when you've finished studying, and I'll send you some orders. You'll have it easier by then."

"Mm, I'll take a look first."

"No rush. When the time comes, I'll set you up with a test to check your level."

"OK."

Yan Huan replied perfunctorily, then downloaded all those documents one by one and sorted them neatly into folders.

He took a sip of juice, his handsome face illuminated coldly by the glow of the PPT.

In his eyes, lines of text, symbols, and theories shimmered.

Invisibly, a mysterious force activated, drawing him in completely, and his clever brain began running as efficiently as a high-powered engine.

Ability: Learning Conqueror, activate!

(End of this chapter)