Chapter 18: Origin of the Ten Thousand Paths
Chapter 18: Origin of the Ten Thousand Paths
Although Han and Night Walker never met and they had only just chatted online via the dark net, Han could still feel that Night Walker was full of passion just from their short chat. Han thought that this was probably the feeling one gets from a mentor, all the achievements Han earned on the dark net, Night Walker was a pivotal contributor.
Soon enough, Night Walker had sent Han a list. Along with tons of medicine, potions and pills, Night Walker also gave Han a free light medicine storage box suitable to carry during combat, a free medical theory textbook, and topped it off with free shipping. The bill only came to a total of 6700 GC.
Han was quite surprised, the Night Walker is a really interesting guy, not only did he pick out the most suitable products, he also gave him a storage box, a book on the basics of medicine, and free shipping.
Han had been doing the index number for this industry for a long time, so he knew really well that the price Night Walker charged him was about half of the market price, it was probably his production price!
Han anxiously refused, “It’s too cheap! I can’t take this deal.”
Night Walker laughed and replied, “Why not? The margin on medicine is pretty high so you don’t have to worry. Making a few thousand more GC won’t make a different to my current financial situation, so just see it as a friend helping out another. Don’t worry, I’m not making a loss at all.”
Han reluctantly nodded, “I guess that’s fine, I will definitely remember your help!”
Night Walker also gave Han a dark net link, “Check this site carefully, it probably has what you need. The owner is a strange fellow, if you approach him yourself you will probably be ignored. But don’t worry, I’ve added you to my list of important clients, he should answer you after he sees that.”
He continued, “The Dark net is very complicated, the majority of the websites need to be introduced between close networks. What you see on the forums are all the smallest of the smallest, the more powerful the website and organization, the deeper they hide on the dark net.”
Han gave his address to Night Walker and thanked him again. Then he turned around and rushed right to the website suggested by Night Walker.
The website was called the Origin of Ten Thousand Paths (OTTP), the owner was called Pathless Origin. It sounded like he was bragging unblushingly that he was the number one in the study of martial arts paths in the entire Milky Way galaxy.
A lot of information on super powers and martial arts could be found on OTTP, and Pathless Origin’s business was just selling different types of instructional devices for martial art styles and equipment.
In the current society, martial arts were sold not as a book but instead as a storage crystal. It uses the data-brain injection method to directly transfer the information into the brain, which makes it impossible to create pirate versions. Each crystal was unique and becomes obsolete after first use.
The martial art crystals and equipment sold by Pathless Origin all had unknown origins. The battle equipment were layered with dust, and a lot of the weapons were covered in dried dark red blood stains.
Han took a look around. The things Pathless Origin sold were all the real deal, and the price was pretty cheap too. A fiber equipment set suitable for two star espers only costed 3000 GC. Han checked out the other stores before and saw that the same set of equipment would have costed at least ten thousand GC.
The weapons were fairly priced too, an enhanced tritanium dagger only cost 1000 GC.
Han’s account still had a balance of 11300 GC, subtracting the 6700 GC from buying the medicines, he still had 4500 GC left over which was just enough to buy a set of equipment and a weapon from Pathless Origin.
But Han wasn’t in a hurry to decide. There were tons of free information here that Han was interested in.
Han started looking carefully through the pile of data, but there was nothing on Void End so he could only look at power immunity which was quite similar to Void End.
Power Immunity was actually a lot weaker than Void End because it could only nullify the enemy’s super power attacks. The higher the level, the stronger the immunity. But Void End could completely deprive others of their power and once the user progresses in level he can also create a void zone in which everyone will be powerless regardless of their level.
Pathless Origin arrogantly calls the things he wrote as “The ultimate review”, radiating the confidence of being a martial art master.
This was what he wrote on the power immunity file, “Stupid people! They all think power immunity espers should use guerilla warfare technique, long ranged attacks, and be agile and flexible. Wrong! Very wrong! Little do they know, power immunity is the cruelest ability in existence, the chosen ones with such ability must practice martial arts!”
“Martial Art users are practicing techniques with their lives on the line! Fight to kill! Hit every punch! Trade eye for eye! Only surrender in death!”
“Without such a mindset, it is impossible to become elites.”
After finishing reading the review, Han was astonished. Fight to kill, hit every punch, trade eye for eye and only surrender in death?! This simple 16 (Chinese) word review captured the essence of the immunity power. Take Han for example. Although he could nullify other people’s powers, what happens after? Even though you don’t have any powers, I won’t have any powers too. The only course of action left was just stabbing at each other with knives or something.
At that moment, the result will be determined by who was better at martial arts, who was more merciless and not afraid of death!
So the espers with an immunity type ability could only undergo the cruelest training method, practice superior martial arts, and rely on the strategy of first taking away the enemy’s power, and then killing them in close combat.
Han took a look at the owner’s review on other powers, and all reviews started with the same sentence, “Stupid People!”. It sounded like as if no one else was competent enough to do reviews and only he spoke the truth.
Regardless of how arrogant Pathless Origin was, it didn’t affect Han’s opinion of him. All his reviews were on point, which showed Han a clear path to follow for the future.
After looking at the reviews Pathless Origin wrote on other powers, Han began to pick the equipment and weapons he needed.