Chapter 5

In the noisy underground tavern, everyone's eyes kept turning to a figure sitting alone in the corner.

His long black curly hair made his face look even paler. His figure was between a teenager and a young man, slender and tall. Under the dim light, his pair of calm obsidian eyes were deep and cold. Just by sitting there, he became the center of attention.

Jiang Zhulang felt helpless when he noticed people staring at him from all sides.

Isn't it just a teenage version of him with long hair? Is it necessary for everyone to look at him when he walks in?

He took a sip of his malt beer to block out the overly hot view.

After knocking Cross unconscious with a stick, Jiang Zhulang planned to drive away. However, when he returned the same way, he found that the horse pulling the carriage had already broken free from the reins and ran away, leaving only the carriage alone in the place.

He walked into the carriage and picked up the unfinished tea leaves, teacups and teapot.

——These are all bought with money, so we can’t waste them.

He was not worried that such a small "accident" would affect Cross's safety. As a villain throughout the book, he had survived many attempts to steal drugs and was very tough. How could he be killed by a sudden blow?

After drinking the sour beer in one gulp and listening to the commotion coming from the door, Jiang Zhulang knew that the person he was waiting for had arrived.

He was a thin, unkempt young man.

The young man had messy curly hair that looked like weeds. A hint of handsomeness could be seen on the half of his face that was exposed, but his dark circles were ruined by those that were as dark as a giant panda's.

The other half of his face was covered with a mask, and his eye sockets were inlaid with alchemical prosthetic eyes, which looked stiff and motionless, and quite creepy.

The young man was wearing an ill-fitting, shabby robe covered with patches. It looked like it had been passed down for generations and was very old.

In simple terms, it's outdated.

Jiang Zhulang stared at him with a serious expression.

The young man hunched his back slightly, looked around the tavern, and finally walked towards Jiang Zhulang's table in the corner.

This is the only table still available.

He sat down diagonally opposite Jiang Zhulang, took out the notebook he was holding, and started muttering to himself, as if no one was around.

Jiang Zhulang's eyes were burning: I finally meet you, my second male lead, Luo Xia.

Roshia was a precocious and gifted child. When he was five years old, he lost control of his power due to an arcane riot, which not only killed his parents, but also blinded him in his left eye and left a horrible scar on half of his face that could not be healed.

Not only that, the originally powerful bloodline talent will never be activated.

From then on, he kept company with books all day long, remained silent, and became the lonely person he is today.

Jiang Zhulang walked out of the royal capital just to find Luoxia.

According to the comic synopsis, in order to activate his bloodline, Roshia studied meteorites from outer space and eventually developed an instrument called "Microstar".

It can help the Warlock's reserve awaken his talent and reduce the possibility of awakening failure.

Warlock, born extraordinary.

If children on the continent of Nidos fail to detect the bloodline talent at the age of six, the door to the world of warlocks will never be opened to them.

But not everyone who is detected to have talent can become a warlock. It is widely believed that a warlock candidate who has not activated his bloodline by the age of 18 will never be able to explore the secrets of the arcane in his lifetime.

The instrument developed by Roshia can reduce the failure rate of awakening, which is enough to show how valuable it is.

Unfortunately, "MSI" has no effect on him.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Jiang Zhulang. What he values ​​is the additional function of the instrument - painless awakening.

When a warlock reserve activates his bloodline to become a full-fledged warlock, he must endure seven consecutive days of broken bones and piercing pain.

He wanted to activate Lanno's bloodline, but he didn't want to suffer this.

Who would be so stupid as to suffer when you can take the shortcut to the south? I'm not a masochist.

Taking advantage of the moment when Luo Xiya raised his head, Jiang Zhulang spoke to attract his attention: "Your mask is very special. I think it is made of magic stone?"

As an ardent alchemist, Roshia is obsessed with metal and stone refining. Whenever he hears about related topics, he will reply with a few words.

He was a little surprised and reflexively wanted to touch the mask, but just as he raised his hand, he stopped and made two "hmm" sounds.

After a few seconds, he replied: "Yes, oh, I mean, thank you for liking it..."

"People generally believe that the magic stone can only be used to restrain arcane power, but I found in an experiment that it can relieve the pain caused by the loss of control of arcane power."

The speech was incoherent, but Jiang Zhulang didn't mind. Instead, he joined the discussion with great interest: "This is a great discovery. I wonder if you can tell me in detail?"

Luoshia's eyes lit up. He obviously didn't expect to meet someone who also loved alchemy in such a bad environment. He talked to him for a long time.

The more they talked, the more he was amazed at the erudition of the person in front of him.

Although he looks like a rich kid who lives a life of luxury and does not care about worldly affairs, he is actually extremely knowledgeable and can answer whatever he is asked, as if he has mastered the encyclopedia.

Receiving Luo Xiya's surprised and admiring look, and admiring and excited look, a very faint smile appeared in Jiang Zhulang's eyes:

He is the author, how could he not know this knowledge?

Finally, Roshia remembered that he hadn't introduced himself yet: "My name is Roshia, what's yours?"

"Lanno."

"Okay," Luo Xiya nodded and said confidently, "Come home with me. The air here is too polluted, and I feel uncomfortable being around these guys with water in their heads."

The possibility of rejection did not seem to occur to him.

My boy, is your mind only focused on research?

Jiang Zhulang felt helpless.

He relied on his familiarity with Roshia to deliberately make friends with him, just to stay at his house and urge him to develop the microstar as soon as possible, but...

This kid is too naive. He invites a stranger he has known for less than half a day to live with him, and he is not afraid of anything happening.

Thinking of this, Jiang Zhulang replied: "My honor."

In this way, he came to the village of Orlan, the home of Roshia, and started his life as a supervisor with free food and drink.

The village of Oran is a remote little place, surrounded by mountains on three sides. There is only one narrow road leading to the outside, and even horse-drawn carriages cannot pass through.

Therefore, there are only about a dozen households living in the village.

"Look, Lannuo, I joined the core..."

"Bang——"

"Ah, failed, this time I join ..."

"Bang--"

"This time I will definitely..."

“…”

Three months later.

"Boom——"

There was a shrill explosion, and the dilapidated house made of thatch and wooden boards collapsed.

Jiang Zhulang held the "Encyclopedia of Miraculous Herbs" in his hands, raised his eyelids calmly, and turned the pages.

This is the nth explosion.

Ever since he gave some guidance on the development of the blood activator, Roshia has devoted himself to the research, forgetting himself and not even eating. If he hadn't forcefully fed her three meals a day, she would have starved to death.

Oh, no, he won’t die of hunger. He is the second male lead, he can’t die.

But Jiang Zhulang couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart as he watched the character he had designed with so much effort becoming thinner and thinner, with his ribs protruding from hunger.

What's more...

After three months of getting along, he no longer regarded Luoshiya as a rigid and stereotyped paper man.

He likes to eat apples, not vegetables, and is fond of sweet and spicy food... These small details made Jiang Zhulang clearly realize that he was not an NPC, but a living person just like him.

Roshia is not the traditional stereotypical second male lead. Judging from his appearance alone, he looks more like a villain than Cross.

Jiang Zhulang was particularly partial to him.

Compared to Tranno who had a happy childhood and Cross who had great strength, he had nothing.

The face is weird, the body is in pain, the spirit is lonely, and even the final ending is...

Suddenly, he couldn't bear to see Roshia end up like that.

A voice in my head sounded:

You are the author, how can you change the plot?

Be a bystander and watch the characters embark on their predetermined fate.

“Hmm!”

Jiang Zhulang covered his chest and curled up.

It's hard to describe the feeling. My heart suddenly twitched and it felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. The severe cramping pain flowed through my blood throughout my body, and my strength and consciousness quickly disappeared.

His vision went dark and he slowly fell down.

In the blurred vision, I saw Roshia running towards me in panic, freezing his pose in a funny way.

No, why did he die again...

"bite--"

Jiang Zhulang reached out and pressed the button several times before hanging up the phone.

Who is the good guy who made a harassing phone call at four in the morning?

Lying on the bed, he was somewhat speechless:

He used to think that the default ringtone of his cell phone was too noisy, but he never expected it to be so powerful that it gave him a "heart attack".

He rubbed his forehead and thought: Why was it so painful to leave the comic book world twice? Once the throat was cut, once the heart palpitations, if it happened a few more times, wouldn't I have to experience all kinds of death?

What is this, a Hundred Ways to Die trial?

Not knowing if there was a gentler way to escape, he was unwilling to even try to activate the pain of Lanno's innate bloodline. He stayed with Luoshia just to allow him to develop the MSI as soon as possible and awaken painlessly.

Now, it has suffered two heavy blows in succession.

Tsk.