Chapter 2: Ultimate Genius

In the dilapidated alley, the atmosphere was tense and volatile.

Fang Can met the four thugs' furious stares with not a trace of fear on his face.

But the mood of the men across from him was far from good.

Hand over your valuables… and take off your clothes…

'He… he's using my own words! Who's really the robber here?'

The man who had just scrambled to his feet felt a bizarre sense of absurdity.

'What, is what I said that hard to understand?'

Fang Can impatiently rolled his neck; for these fools daring to rob him, he saw nothing wrong with turning the tables.

Though there were five of them, they were all starving lowlife scum—how could their physical conditioning possibly match his own, shaped by proper diet and training?

And… before his transmigration, he had been a special-class superhuman at least at the "county" level.

Now he was just dealing with a few petty thugs—what was there to fear? Could these trash even kill him?

'Once I deal with these bastards, I'll go study that white panel,' Fang Can thought, sidestepping slightly to avoid a diagonal slash from a thug wielding a rusty dagger.

'They have weapons?' Fang Can's eyes gleamed with satisfaction—after knocking them down, these tools would be his.

'Kill him!' the gang leader shouted, clutching his agonizing abdomen and pointing at Fang Can.

At his command, the thugs each pulled knives and sickles from their belts and charged toward Fang Can.

Rusty metal blades could inflict long, easily infected wounds with just a light graze; a strike to a vital spot could trigger an instant kill effect.

'Then I just won't get cut.'

As the thought arose, Fang Can felt his body undergo a radical transformation.

Simultaneously, within the hidden panel's description field, a long string of characters began to emerge.

Description field:

Detected host in extreme hostile environment—Talent 1 【From Despair to Fortune】 triggered.

Hidden attributes increased (Intelligence↑ Tendency↑ Luck↑ Intuition↑ Willpower↑ Logic…↑)

…

In an instant, Fang Can felt as if he had undergone a monumental metamorphosis.

The entire world simplified into something easily comprehensible in his eyes—the difficulty of life's game dropped instantly from hell to easy mode.

Under the pressure of crisis, his fleshly body, long accustomed to mediocrity, shed its cocoon and became a butterfly in an instant.

This leap was like upgrading a basic mobile phone to a 4090T—an inner-to-outer transformation granting him a sense of omnipotence.

Different disciplines described this state in different terms.

Taoists called it merging with the Dao; Buddhists called it enlightenment.

Terms like Zone, Gene Lock, Sixth Sense, Sword Mind Clarity, Unity with Heaven and Earth, Divine Domain—all had different outward expressions, yet all described this same power.

In common, everyday terms, it was called Genius Realm!

'Finally surfaced… this mental enhancement triggered by near-death—haven't felt it in years.'

Looking at the enemies just a few steps away, Fang Can's eyes flickered with the sweet relief of returning to Genius Realm.

With his talent enhanced, countless things he once couldn't do now came effortlessly.

Efficient muscle control boosted his power output by several tenths; his mastery of martial arts let him instantly recall countless combat techniques he'd witnessed; his instinctive sense of danger let him react without thought…

No need to think—or rather, defeating these trash didn't even require wasting a single brain cell.

Fang Can's right hand shot out, grabbing straight for the incoming dagger.

'Suicide!'

Seeing the outstretched hand, the dagger-wielding thug's eyes lit with triumphant excitement—how dare this fool try to disarm him barehanded?

But the next instant, he felt searing pain in his wrist.

With a sharp crack of shattering bones, Fang Can's palm clamped tightly around the thug's dagger-wielding arm and twisted it violently, driving the blade deep into the thug's shoulder.

'Puff—'

Flesh pierced—steel erupted from the thug's clavicle, staining the dagger red with blood.

One hand gripping the dagger, the other clutching the thug's waist.

The next moment, Fang Can's entire body tensed—muscles sharply defined, a ferocious aura bursting from within.

Amid the thug's agonized screams, Fang Can lifted his body clean off the ground.

Using the bloody corpse as a shield, Fang Can's eyes flashed with ruthlessness as he charged toward the remaining thugs in the alley.

'Quick… get out of the way!'

Watching the two figures barreling toward them like a wild bull, the gang leader tried to shout.

But in the narrow alley, there was no space to dodge.

'Pssht.' Another scream rang out as the dagger protruding from the first thug's clavicle pierced another man's body.

With a muffled groan, the two were skewered together on a single blade, pinned to the alley's brick wall.

Fang Can released his grip and fixed his gaze on the three remaining thugs, a warm smile spreading across his lips: 'You refused the cup of wine—now you've got the punishment. Only three left.'

'Y-you don't come any closer!'

Watching their moaning companion, the three thugs wanted nothing more than to flee as far as possible.

But behind them stood a dead-end wall of stone—no escape, no cover—only helplessly watching this plague step closer.

…

Two minutes later, five thugs lay scattered and unrecognizable in the dead-end alley.

But Fang Can frowned at the fallen thugs before him, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

Because the buff enhancing him, though weakened, had not vanished entirely.

Clearly, after knocking these few down, the danger should have vanished completely; could there be hidden threats lurking all around?

Fang Can glanced around, then raised his eyes as if spotting a surging, mighty tiger perched atop the wall.

With a slight lapse in focus, he saw a burly, broad-shouldered giant standing on the wall, staring at him fixedly.

Just now, his intuition had failed to detect anyone nearby?

In the instant their gazes met, Fang Can felt as though he were being stared down by a prehistoric tyrannosaur, his whole body prickling as if pierced by needles.

His intuition, which had just malfunctioned, now screamed warnings about the danger posed by the man before him.

"Hmph." Suddenly, the giant's lips curled slightly upward; he leaped lightly from the wall, the entire motion utterly silent, producing not a single sound.

"You have never practiced martial arts." Looking at Fang Can, the giant stated his question with absolute certainty.

"What's the problem? And who are you?"

As he spoke, Fang Can scrutinized the other man closely.

Standing nearly two meters tall with a burly build, his facial features sharply defined; his well-tailored long robe could not conceal the bulging muscles beneath, and faint tiger-shaped embroidery was visible along the lapel.

"Li Fengtian, Hall Master of the Tiger Fiend Gate." The giant stated matter-of-factly, offering no explanation of what the Tiger Fiend Gate was, as if it were common knowledge.

"Tiger Fiend Gate... never heard of it." Fang Can spoke the plain truth.

'Never heard of it...'

Li Fengtian's tone faltered; looking at Fang Can's ill-fitting attire and black short hair, he said, "So you young man must not be from this county."

"Why ask so many questions, Uncle Li? And what's with all that sneaking around and spying? You wouldn't be planning to avenge them, would you?" Fang Can smiled and pointed his thumb at the five unconscious men lying on the ground.

'Who would care about such scum? Right now, what I care about is you.' As he spoke, Li Fengtian's gaze locked tightly onto Fang Can.

(End of this chapter)