Chapter 51 - Requirement of Long Lan's Mother

Proofread by Claire.KK

Kain’s car is hired from an auto company. He wanted to rent it for only one day, but he didn’t come back last night. And plus today, it’s already one day overdue. He must add a lot of money. He needs to return the car back before the garage is closed. Otherwise, it will cost money for another day.

Cang Yan drives following Kain and goes to the auto company to return the car.

The manager of the auto company keeps watching the time, only waiting for the time to come and to go home from work. But just two minutes before the closing time, someone comes to return the car. His temper suddenly goes bad.

When he goes through the formalities, he actually requests an extra 600 federal currencies. The reason is that overtime use of the car requests double compensation. In addition, the car is dirty, and the blood is everywhere. It also requires a compensation.

Kain is very angry, but he still smiles on his face. Only the smile is not as warm as it is at other times. He doesn’t argue with the manager.

After going out, he embraces Bai Xiaoli who’s standing outside the door, whispers some words in his ear, and then leaves.

Bai Xiaoli follows. When passing the car, he gives a neutral kick at the vehicle wheel, as if he’s venting his dissatisfaction. And then he gets on the car and leaves.

Having a glance at that, the manager puts the extra money in his pocket and swears while murmuring.

“Poor wretch, if you can’t afford a car, then don’t drive! Screw around!”

When the manager cleans up and plans to leave, the car which is just returned back suddenly leans aside and a rear wheel pops out.

The manager: “…”

***

When Long Lan arrives home, it’s already dark. The house is brightly lit. It’s obvious that someone is at home.

Usually, it’s Long Lan and Bai Xiaoli who are at home. Doreen rarely stays at home. She is in charge of one part of the Carter family’s business and is very busy every day. She is a fairly successful business woman.

Opening the door and entering, Long Lan finds Doreen wearing an exquisite makeup, in a white dress, sitting on the sofa and drinking tea. Apparently, she’s waiting for Long Lan at home to come back.

“Mom, you call me back at this time; is there something wrong?” Long Lan is still wearing the outdoor suits. He leaves his backpack on the car and lets Bai Xiaoli bring it back to the dormitory for him.

Doreen looks up at her son and frowns at first glance, “How do you make yourself so dirty?”

After going through the numerous hardships in the wild for two days, how can he be clean? Long Lan doesn’t care and is very excited. He also becomes a person who has adventured in the wild and hunted a mutant beast. And the most important is that he comes back alive.

“I …” Just as he wants to tell this news to his mother, Doreen waves at him.

“Okay, time is limited. I have something important to tell you.”

Long Lan pauses, “Oh …”

Doreen raises her chin to the tea table, “This is for you.”

There is a rectangular box on the tea table. The box is about one meter long. The box is very ordinary and there is nothing special about it.

“What’s this?” Long Lan says and opens the box. When he sees what’s inside, his whole person gets stunned. And then he’s ravished with joy, “This is … Hopetoun Shoulder-mounted cannon?!”

This shoulder-mounted cannon is developed by a person named Hopetoun in the Dark Age and is a type of “conductive weapon.” In honor of him, the later generations name this shoulder-mounted cannon after him.

The conductive weapons are weapons that human beings have researched from conductive runes.

By cultivating the power of stars in the air, star practitioner can obtain star power which can be used by human body. Star power improves the strength, speed, endurance, coordination, flexibility and sensitivity of human beings. Unless he’s a star-awakening practitioner, he can directly use the star power combining with his attribute of water, fire, wind, etc. Otherwise, ordinary star practitioners who want to release his star power need to use conductive weapons.

After all, there is only a minority of star-awakening practitioners. Except ordinary people and some very few people with special abilities, almost all are star practitioners.

Conductive weapons are different from ordinary weapons. When facing with abnormal defenses of alien beasts and mutant beasts, ordinary weapons may not help. But conductive weapons are different. They are aimed at enemies, who have unbreakable defense and are difficult to kill.

Long Lan strokes gently the body of the cannon with excitement, just like stroking a treasure. Obviously, he likes it very much.

“Mom, how many marks of rune debris are in this conductive weapon?”

Conductive weapons are developed by printmakers with conductive runes. Only when printmakers print the copies of rune debris at a conductive weapon can it have some of the rune power left on the print marks. On the whole earth, there may be only one or few complete conductive runes with all the fragmentary rune debris pieced together. So it’s almost impossible for someone to find a complete conductive rune. Thus human can only use the found rune debris for printing. The more debris are gathered, the higher the rank of mark will be, and consequently the stronger the conductivity of the weapon will be.

However, these are not the key points for Long Lan. The main point is that a person can establish a connection with and thereafter possess a conductive weapon by adding a drop of blood to it. After that, a “weapon mark” will appear on the weapon’s master. The conductive weapon can be put into the “weapon mark” and summoned out at any time when the master needs it.

The rune power is mysterious and unpredictable. Each type of rune has a different power. The runes that human have known so far are not too much.

“Three marks. This is the highest-rank of rune mark that I can find. This is also what I find after searching for a long time. The printmaker lives in a prosperous and faraway city. I deliberately go to ask him for help.” Doreen takes a sip of tea and says slowly.

“Thank you, mom. It’s already very high. And I know how hard it is to find three pieces of the same rune debris.” Long Lan lifts the Hopetoun cannon on his shoulder to have a try. He’s smiling from ear to ear.

“Mom, could my conductive weapon be the one of the highest-rank in Tianjing City?” Long Lan is very happy.

“The three major big families of Tianjing City will definitely muster all their strength to fight hard for this World Rune Competition. But even if they can take out a conductive weapon on high-rank of rune mark, it will not be better than yours. At best, it will be on the same rank as yours.” Doreen says.

The strength of the three major big families is indeed not small, but Doreen spends a lot of financial and material resources, planning for this matter since a few years ago. It is necessary to let his son stand firmly in the Carter family.

“Even if it’s not the highest-rank, I’m already very satisfied!” Long Lan smirks with his teeth all exposed and eyes squinted.

Doreen puts down her tea cup and says, “Since you like this gift very much, let me talk about my requirements.”

“What?” Long Lan gets stunned. A mother gives her son a gift to require something from him?

“I spend so much effort that I almost exhaust all the money and resources at hand to get you this conductive weapon, but it is not for you to take it out and show it. I know about you very much. I give you the best conductive weapon that I can get. Consequently, I want you, no matter what method you use, to join the team formed by your cousin Yu Cheng.”

“His team will play in the name of the Carter family. As a member of the family, if you want to fight for a status in the family, you must join this team to win glory for the family.”

Long Lan is completely dull. He doesn’t expect that his mother’s request will be this.

Long Lan says perplexedly: “Mom, it’s not that I don’t want to join them. But … they will not let me in at all. My star power is too low and my qualification is poor. They won’t want me in.”

He will not only be refused, after the meeting, but he will surely be ridiculed by those people in Yu Cheng’s team. From an early age, he is always bullied by those guys.

“Of course I know.” After her words, Doreen has another square box in her hand.

“Your qualification is not good, but you can use the beast cores to make up. Originally, I wanted to use these beast cores to help you get a shot when you couldn’t get into the Tianjing College. Since you can pass the exams yourself, my beast cores are saved. Now, I give you these alien beast cores, you have to improve your star power as much as possible. Plus this conductive weapon in your hands, I think that you still have a good chance for joining them.”

Long Lan looks at the beast cores in the crimson box, and there’re more than a dozen. He’s silent.

Hunting an alien beast is much more difficult than hunting a mutant beast. The prices of an alien beast core is completely different with a mutant beast core, and naturally there is a big gap between the star powers inside them.

With so many beast cores of Level I, his mother must have spent a lot of money.

There is also a conductive weapon with three marks…

After a long time, Long Lan says again, “Mom, I already join a team.”

“Leave it.” Doreen orders without allowing Long Lan to explain.

“Mom, I finally find a team to accept me. Besides, Xiaoli is also in this team, and our team will definitely win.” Long Lan may not have thought this before. After seeing the real strength of Bai Xiaoli, Long Lan is very confident.

Of course, this “win” is about winning other teams in Tianjing College. He doesn’t dare to think about others.

“Don’t tell me this; you just need to do what I require.”

“You exalted Bai Xiaoli to the sky, but I didn’t see any value in him. You are different persons. What you have to do now is to improve your star power and join the team of Yu Cheng. Then you try to perform as good as possible in the team and strive to let the family’s elders see your excellence.”

Doreen says in a strong tone and stands up to leave. Long Lan holds himself for a long time and finally says, “I don’t want to join the team of the Carter family.”

Doreen turns to look at him with a very serious look, “You don’t have the right to refuse. You have to do this to get a foothold in the Carter family.”

Doreen finishes her words, stepping on high heels, and goes out without looking back.

Long Lan sits on the sofa and is a little disappointed, staring at the ceiling in a daze.

His mother never knows what he’s thinking and what he wants. Gaining a foothold in the Carter family has always been her own obsession. But it’s not his. His mother always imposes her obsession on him. But In fact, he doesn’t want to have any relationship with the Carter family at all.

Long Lan sits alone quietly at home for a while. Looking at the whole big house, empty and vapid, he doesn’t stay at home and returns to school that night.

…

The prey obtained through this hunting out of the city is fully handled by Cang Yan and Joyce. For the earnings obtained, Cang Yan doesn’t decide for them, but let them to distribute themselves.

The mutant beast horned ox is hunted by Long Lan, Kain, and Rovel together. It’s Rovel who carries the horned ox all the way out of the mountains. Finally, the earnings is divided into thirty, thirty and forty percent. Both Long Lan and Kain agree, but it actually makes Rovel a little embarrassed.

After that, the long-toothed brown wolf is completely hunted by Rovel and Kain. Long Lan doesn’t participate in the hunting, but he carries the long-toothed brown wolf a long way. For this reason, Kain and Rovel also distribute ten percentage of the income to Long Lan. Long Lan doesn’t shirk and cheerfully accepts.

Cang Yan, Joyce and Bai Xiaoli just watch them dividing the spoils … No, the money.

This distribution is very fair. Even if they’re teammates. As long as it’s not a team activity, it needs to be distributed according to how much effort is devoted by a person. If you want to gain something, you must work hard. If you want to fish in the muddy water, you can only get muddy water at last.

After discussing with Bai Xiaoli, Cang Yan decides to sell the alien beast spine porcupine of Level II.

The price of the alien beast is much higher than that of the mutant beast. According to Bai Xiaoli, he can’t bear to sell it. He wants to cook it directly and eat it in his stomach. Then it will really belong to him.