Chapter 34: Why Does My Class Panel Have an Anime Art Style?

After all, no one knew just how many bugs were hiding in this pitch-black environment.

Sure enough, two faint skittering sounds quickly reached Li Ang's ears.

He made his choice almost immediately.

He couldn't fight inside the cell — the space was far too cramped, with no room to dodge at all.

But the problem was, Li Ang had no idea how many bugs were outside, and rushing out blindly was genuinely dangerous.

Fortunately, Reverse Birth: Three Layers wasn't his only skill — with a subtle shift of his feet, he arrived at the Xun-position of the bug corpse before him.

'Xun Character · Wind Appraisal.'

An almost imperceptible current of air swirled through the cramped cell and the narrow corridor outside.

'Two of them.'

After gathering the rough intel, Li Ang's heart steadied at once, but he didn't get cocky — he simply waited quietly for the right moment.

One second. Two seconds.

In the pitch-black prison, the white Grim Reaper launched a thunderous strike.

Bang bang—

In the narrow corridor, two more bug corpses lay twitching their limbs in front of Li Ang.

After confirming they were thoroughly dead, he stepped closer to examine them.

'The blood isn't corrosive, but the temperature is strangely high.'

'Good thing the only real threat is those sharp forelegs.'

A moment later, Li Ang had a rough idea of these bugs' strength, though he didn't think these three were necessarily representative of the world's bugs as a whole.

Just as he lifted his foot to leave, he suddenly spun around, stepped forward, and threw a punch — then abruptly stopped himself.

". Holl?"

Li Ang looked at the pale-faced brown-haired man in front of his fist and called out the other's name in quiet surprise.

To guard against bugs ambushing him, Li Ang had kept Wind Appraisal running the whole time — which was how he'd noticed someone sneaking along behind him.

That person was his cellmate, Ivan Holl — the intel tool Li Ang had previously used to fish for information about this world.

Holl stared at Li Ang with a pale face, swallowed hard, and said: "B-brother"

"So you're a Professional."

As he spoke, he glanced at the bug corpses on the ground.

Bullshit 【Prisoner】!

You tell me a 【Prisoner】 can do that?!

It wasn't as if he hadn't seen, in recent days, how these bugs slaughtered civilians — yet now these terrifying creatures lay on the ground like stray dogs.

And recalling Li Ang's deathly pale appearance, then feeling his own face sting from the punch's wind — if this guy wasn't an energy-bearing Professional, Holl would eat ten tons of shit!

Right now his heart was full of dread; if the other man hadn't pulled his punch just now, he'd probably look just like those headless bugs on the floor.

Thinking of this, the brown-haired man put on a fawning smile: "Brother, can I stick with you for a while?"

"?" Li Ang's brow furrowed slightly, and he stepped back to put some distance between himself and Holl. "See you around."

He wasn't stupid — in this situation, dragging along someone who couldn't even protect himself was just asking for trouble.

Besides, who knew what the guy was thinking — what if he stuck a knife in his back?

Seeing his lifesaver about to slip away, Holl panicked at once: "Brother, name your price — anything I can do, I'll do it!"

Hearing this, Li Ang couldn't help but laugh: "You're a prisoner just like me — what conditions could you possibly meet?"

"I'm not into that."

Holl's face stiffened instantly; Li Ang's words had struck right at his sore spot, leaving him with no idea how to retort.

But then he threw caution to the wind: "Brother, I can scout ahead for you!"

"In this situation, you don't want to just walk straight out there, do you?"

At this, without waiting for Li Ang to speak, Holl laid out his abilities to prove his worth: "Brother, actually I lied to you before — I'm not a civilian. My class is 【Thief】, with a lockpicking skill and a breath-control specialty."

Combined with what the brown-haired man had said earlier about being locked up for theft, this explanation struck Li Ang as fairly credible.

No wonder he hadn't noticed Holl's presence at first.

Though this 【Thief】 probably sat at the same table as 【Prisoner】 — a far cry from trying to scam a 【Qi Refiner (Sanyi)】.

After a brief deliberation, Li Ang finally agreed to Holl's request.

But before heading out, there was one more thing he had to do.

Looking at Holl's casual clothes, Li Ang said: "Take me to where they keep the stored belongings."

Every prisoner had to store their belongings before being locked up, though usually it was just clothing.

Led by Holl, Li Ang arrived at the dedicated storage area.

After finding the Adidas King shoes he'd穿越'd over with, he swiftly swapped out his Sanyi Sect Daoist robe.

Once changed, Li Ang said to Holl:

"You walk in front."

Holl obediently took the lead, and Li Ang followed three to five meters behind him.

That distance ensured he could react in time if anything unexpected happened.

But by the time they reached the main gate of the cell block, neither of them had run into any danger.

Along the way, Li Ang casually asked Holl a few questions. According to him, since there were no clocks, he wasn't sure how long it had been since the chaos started — he estimated about a day.

And during that time, no staff had returned to the cell block; the situation outside was obvious.

As for why Holl wanted Li Ang to take him out—

The answer was simple: if he didn't get out soon, he'd starve to death — the powerless cell block clearly couldn't supply 'Nutrient Solution'.

At this point, the one walking ahead, Hol, spoke weakly: "That's all I know, buddy."

"Aren't we supposed to get out now?"

As he spoke, he gestured toward the prison cell block gate, now shattered beyond recognition.

Li Ang had already intended to leave; staying in this prison indefinitely wasn't a solution. Without hesitation, he said: "You go out first."

Hol naturally had no objection. He shrugged his shoulders, then tiptoed out through the cell block gate, vanishing from Li Ang's sight.

Moments later, his voice came from outside: "It's safe out here, buddy, hurry up and come out."

Yet upon hearing this, Li Ang suddenly furrowed his brows.

Something was off.

Li Ang didn't believe Hol was a good man. If it were truly safe outside, Hol would've run off immediately. Yet now, contrary to all expectation, he was warning Li Ang that it was safe.

There were two possible explanations.

One: Li Ang had misjudged Hol. Though he'd ended up in prison for stealing, he was genuinely good—and it really was safe outside.

Two:

'Did the bugs threaten him?'

'Do bugs in this world have that much intelligence?'

Recalling the three bugs with pointed heads he'd just encountered, Li Ang fell silent.