Chapter 10: Don’t Pat Kids on the Head
“Hee-haw! Using Haki isn’t a big deal,” Ivankov said, having seen plenty of Haki users before. What surprised him was Ian’s age!
Haki was a latent power inherent in all humans, existing like an instinct. However, most people couldn’t awaken this power, or they went their entire lives without manifesting it. Under normal circumstances, only through arduous training and tempering could one master its application, so Haki users were typically adults.
Yet today, Ivankov witnessed an exception—Ian. Judging by his height, he looked at most twelve years old, maybe even younger. But such a small child had erupted with the fluctuations of Haki.
So at that moment, Ivankov looked at Ian as if he were a genius… no, a monster.
Ian, meanwhile, crouched on the ground, clutching his head for a while until the pain eased slightly. Before he could ask the system what was going on, a series of notifications rang out.
“You have defeated an opponent stronger than yourself. Gained 500 experience points.”
“You have received an achievement reward: First use of Nen skill in combat!”
“You have acquired the Basic Nen Training skill. Current proficiency: 0!”
What’s going on? Ian endured the headache and checked his mind.
The sudden surge in experience points was easy to understand. In fact, Ian had had a little scheme from the start. He chose a Revolutionary Army soldier as his opponent not only to test the Flash Slash skill but also to see if he could defeat him for experience. He figured that, as a kid, the opponent would go easy on him, giving him a chance to win.
In short, that Revolutionary Army soldier had been tricked by Ian.
But he hadn’t expected that defeating a stronger opponent would yield so much experience. Now, Ian’s experience had risen to 750 points, close to leveling up, which would bring another boost to his stats.
After using the Flash Slash skill, Ian also received an achievement reward. Opening the achievement interface, he saw the reward was five Experience Books!
These Experience Books weren’t for Ian himself but for leveling up his cards.
Besides this achievement, Ian noticed other rewards in the achievement interface, like “Defeat 10 opponents,” “Defeat 100 opponents,” or “Reach 50 Doriki,” “Reach 100 Doriki.” The rewards varied: common ones gave Experience Books, while higher ones offered Evolution Stones and Diamonds. Diamond rewards were the rarest, and Ian wasn’t surprised—he knew the game system was stingy, and these small diamond rewards were really just bait to get you to spend money…
What surprised Ian most was the newly acquired Basic Nen Training skill. When he first saw his Basic Swordsmanship skill, he wondered if there were other basic skills, and now one had appeared.
[Basic Nen Training: Increases the hourly recovery rate of Nen value. Current recovery rate: 1 point. Current proficiency: (0/1000)]
Reading the description, Ian understood—this skill was for recovering his Nen value! After all, skills from cards almost always required Nen to activate, and his Nen value was limited. What would he do when it ran out? Now, with Basic Nen Training, even if he exhausted his Nen, he could slowly recover it by resting.
But he wondered how to increase the skill’s proficiency. Maybe by continuously consuming Nen? That seemed likely, especially since its proficiency requirement was much lower than Swordsmanship’s.
After Ian’s Swordsmanship skill advanced to Basic Swordsmanship, the proficiency needed to reach Intermediate Swordsmanship had skyrocketed to one million! When he first saw that, he gasped. Compared to that, the Nen Training skill’s requirement seemed manageable.
Perhaps it was the slow recovery effect of this skill that eased his headache. Just as he was thinking this, he noticed someone in front of him. Looking up, Ivankov’s face filled his view.
Up close, that face was even more terrifying. Ian startled and scrambled back two steps, asking, “What do you want?”
“Hee-haw! Boy!” Ivankov seemed in a good mood, spinning on the spot again. He said to Ian, “How astonishing! What’s your name?”
“I’m Ian!”
“Ian, my little candy!” Ivankov said. “How are you feeling? Need me to treat you?”
“No, I’m better!” Ian quickly waved his hand.
He dared not accept Ivankov’s kindness. This guy, who had eaten the Hormone Fruit, was someone Ian couldn’t even tell if he was male or female. Right now, he appeared male, but he could transform into a female at will. Facing someone who could freely manipulate hormones, Ian firmly decided not to let him touch his body. Who knew if he’d use healing hormones or gender hormones during treatment?
“Alright!” Ivankov nodded. “Don’t worry too much. Your headache is probably just a side effect of awakening Haki. It’s nothing serious. By the way, do you know what Haki is?”
If anyone familiar with Ian in Shimotsuki Village had asked this, he would have pretended to be clueless. But since it was Ivankov, Ian didn’t need to hide anything. He nodded directly and said, “Yes.”
He understood that Ivankov might have mistaken his Nen ability for Haki, hence the question.
But Ian knew his own situation. Lately, he had been pondering his Nen ability. In his judgment, Nen and true Haki had some differences. While the essence might be similar, their manifestations weren’t necessarily the same. Nen wrapped around a sword could mimic Armament Haki, but abilities like Conqueror’s Haki might not be replicable.
Ivankov had probably planned to give Ian a long explanation about Haki, but Ian’s single word cut him off. Ian noticed him trembling, looking like he was holding back a lot.
Finally, Ivankov said, “You know? Ah, impressive indeed. Then I don’t need to explain. Just rest more for the next few days!”
“Who are you?” Though Ian already knew Ivankov’s name, he pretended to ask.
“Hee-haw! I am Emporio Ivankov!” Ivankov spun around and said, “You can call me Iva or Ivan. Names or titles are trivial. Even calling me ‘poop’ is fine…”
Then suddenly, Ivankov shouted angrily, “I don’t want to be called poop!!!”
Ian stared at him speechlessly. I didn’t call you anything…
At that moment, the other Revolutionary Army soldiers gathered around, looking at Ian with amazement. They probably knew about Haki too but hadn’t developed it. They were shocked that someone so young could use it and felt a bit inadequate, so they praised Ian loudly.
Everyone liked praise, and Ian was no exception. But the problem was, as they said, “Kid, you’re amazing!” they also tried to pat his head. That was unacceptable!
Just as Ian was about to snap, the Revolutionary Army soldier he had fought walked over. Seeing him wince in pain, Ian felt a bit guilty and asked, “Are you okay?”
That soldier, feeling embarrassed—losing to a kid was bad enough—forced a smile for the sake of adult pride. His white teeth gleamed, and then he, too, patted Ian’s head.
“Can you take us to the dojo now?” the soldier asked.
Damn, patting my head again!
Ian blinked, nodded obediently, and turned to leave. The others quickly followed.
But they didn’t realize that under Ian’s lead, they wandered for a long time without reaching the dojo.
“Strange, I feel like we passed by here before?” one soldier scratched his head in confusion.
“Impossible, you must be mistaken,” Ian said without looking back.
They had no choice but to keep following him, unaware that Ian had led them in a full circle around the entire village…
This was a small revenge from a man with a grudge against head pats.
In fact, Ian had already shown mercy. Originally, he planned to lead them around a dozen more times…