Step Back! Master is Here! - Chapter 37
Chapter 37: Counts as Life!
Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
A few hours later…
Tang Luo stood in front of his house, entered the password, opened the door, and walked inside.
He may have been two months away from the real world, but it was actually many years for Tang Luo.
He returned to his home again.
Fortunately, this house was not on lease, as it belonged to Tang Luo. Otherwise, his things would probably have been gone by now. After all, It had been vacant for two months.
Tang Luo had left so suddenly that even the windows were open. The interior of the house was not clean, dust accumulated in many places, and there were traces of rain pouring in.
He found the phone, which had automatically turned off after running out of battery, on the couch, and charged it.
Then, Tang Luo entered the toilet and turned on the tap.
After letting the water run for a while, the somewhat turbid water turned clear, and he began to wash up.
Fifteen minutes later…
Tang Luo looked at the mirror and stroked his head. A short layer of hair had already grown on it, but looking closely, it wasn’t actually black.
It was white hair—an external appearance of his injury.
Tang Luo tied a bath towel around his waist, walked out of the toilet, and turned on his phone.
Soon, a few missed calls and a bunch of text messages appeared. All the text messages were automatic notifications. These included the monthly 2-Yuan deduction of message fees from the bank, the phone bill of 5-Yuan from the telecommunication company, and many random advertisements.
There were no messages from ordinary humans.
Among the missed calls were ad calls and several friends’ calls.
Before transmigrating, Tang Luo had been a freelancer and landlord, the latter being his main occupation. Thus, he didn’t need to worry about work.
Tang Luo’s family background was a little complicated. His dad had died when Tang Luo was three or four, so he had pretty much no memory of him.
As for his mother, she had remarried when Tang Luo was little. Their relationship wasn’t even that of the most unfamiliar of acquaintances. They may not necessarily meet even once over several years.
Of course, Tang Luo bore no hatred toward her. After all, she had gifted him with a house and a prime-location shop.
The life of a landlord was too good.
Tang Luo had heard some stupid stories about his parents, such as a stupid high school girl from a pretty rich family falling in love with a young gangster1.
One could imagine a similar level of attractiveness to high school girls. Nevertheless, life and films were two completely different worlds.
They had conceived a child before marriage, and their stupidity had pushed them to run away from home, leading them to very tragic ends.
After sobering up, it had become a shameful history that they wished they could delete from their life.
Tang Luo was the most important piece of evidence of this shameful history, and as its product, he was hated as well.
Fortunately, though the girl had rebelled brainlessly and deeply hurt her parents’ hearts, she had done exceedingly well in the business world and found success.
Money could deal with many things.
Thus, Tang Luo had basically been brought up by various nannies when he was a child. His grandmother would occasionally visit him, too.
The year Tang Luo graduated from high school and went off to college, his mother’s side gifted him with a house and a shop before severing all ties with him.
Presently, Tang Luo hadn’t been in contact with them for almost six years. Well, they did text him during Chinese New Year. However, he didn’t know if it was a group message or not.
Tang Luo would always reply with a Happy New Year and then go back to gaming.
It might sound very sad, but many people would envy the freedom he had in his life.
If Tang Luo spent slightly extravagantly but didn’t lead a frivolous life, the rent from the shop would sustain him.
If there were no natural disasters or transmigrations, Tang Luo felt that he could live his entire life in this chill and easy way.
One couldn’t count on a twenty-something youth to plan about their future.
Tang Luo opened the chat app and replied with a message to the several friends who had called, “Went out for a while, hiking and purifying the mind to gain Buddhist enlightenment. I’m home now, what’s up?”
His friends were his college roommates. They were pretty close, but they were not in the same city. Thus, they occasionally chatted and rarely met in person.
It was pretty much the same for his high school friends. Not all of them were in the same city, and they chatted online occasionally.
Tang Luo dropped his phone to continue charging it. Then, he took out Ill Omens, and placed it on the shelf, making it look like a toy gun, a decoration.
He also removed the Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit and threw it upward gently.
The Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit suspended in mid-air, and light radiated from it, spreading in all directions.
It cleaned the whole house, making it tidy again,
Tang Luo was the only person that would consume the power of virtuous merits for something like that.
On that matter, the Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit could be freely brought in, and out of the mission world, so it should be recognized as equipment by default, right?
Tang Luo turned on the computer and went on the Internet.
It wasn’t that Tang Luo had Internet addiction and had to surf the Internet as soon as he was back—he needed to buy something.
After returning from his transmigration, his previous clothes and pants were now too small for him. Hence, they had to be replaced.
More importantly, Tang Luo needed an outfit more fitting for playing the Game of Gods And Demons.
As the Victorious Fighting Buddha, a high Buddha who had achieved the great Dao, of course, he had to have a whole outfit of his own.
Humans relied on clothes to earn respect, and Buddhas relied on golden appearances to earn reverence.
Undoubtedly, Tang Luo needed an outfit for the golden appearance. The kind that would tell people he was an eminent monk without any self-introduction.
Definitely not khaki haiqings1.
Moon-white robes could be considered.
Tang Luo couldn’t care less about whether or not they followed the rules—the Victorious Fighting Buddha wore whatever he wanted!
At their level, they were surely beyond external restrictions. Gautama, the Goddess of Mercy, and other great figures all had hair. Nobody saw disciplinary monks giving them trouble.
He spent about an hour on buying the daily clothes for the future.
As the Game of Gods And Demons’ outfit, Tang Luo thought about it and wisely chose cosplay suits. However cool ordinary monk robes were, they couldn’t compare to outfits like cosplay suits.
Tang Luo browsed through characters of monks, and even Taoists from various animes, games, and TV dramas, as he looked for a suitable outfit.
Why did he even look at Taoists?
Since he would not follow the monk dress code anymore, besides some obvious elements, the cool and spectacular monk and Taoist robes would not differ much.
He spent more than one hour on choosing.
Tang Luo chose quite a lot of clothes, among which was one for a character from the puppet show Pili.
He noted down all types of God, Monk, and Buddha characters that he felt a liking for. There was also a monk outfit set of an online dating game.
Afterward, Tang Luo searched on the web for a shop that specialized in professional customization. He placed orders, gave measurements and requirements, changing all the areas that were extravagant for the sake of visual effects and affected movement.
It took him two to three hours before he finished purchasing outfits.
“I wish I had my Jin Lan Robe1 on back then,” muttered Tang Luo.
The Jin Lan Robe couldn’t be affected by water and fire, couldn’t be stained by dirt or dust, and could even change shape. It was the best outfit for daily use, traveling, or killing demons.
After settling the outfit, Tang Luo picked up his phone and looked at the messages his friends had sent. Most of them didn’t have anything much to say. They had simply called him after he hadn’t responded to random chat messages.
Surprisingly, one of them told Tang Luo that he had encountered supernatural events recently.
If it had been before, Tang Luo would definitely tease him and say, “Hallucinating after masturbating too much, eh?”
However, now, he immediately replied to this friend, Zhang Yuchou, “Supernatural event? Tell me about it.”
Zhang Yuchou didn’t reply immediately.
Tang Luo didn’t get anxious. He wore his pajamas, which were relatively loose and still fit even now, and lay down on his soft bed. Then, he closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.
Five days later…
Tang Luo appeared at Xihang City Station.
“I’m here.” Tang Luo made a phone call, and after ten minutes, he saw Zhang Yuchou.
“It’s you?”
Both were a little surprised when they saw each other—surprised by the other party’s changes.
There was no need to describe Tang Luo’s changes.
Zhang Yuchou had sunken cheeks and a pair of dark circles around his eyes. It looked as if he had not slept for three days and had gotten tied up on the bed and squeezed. He might fall down in the next second.
“You’re sick?” asked Tang Luo, looking at Zhang Yuchou.
“Much worse than sick.” Zhang Yuchou sighed. “What’s the matter with you?”
The two were college roommates.
After graduation, Zhang Yuchou had gone to Xihang City and found a job.
As for Tang Luo, he was already a landlord.
One year ago, four friends had met once, never getting together again.
“I grew taller after working out, but my hair got white,” said Tang Luo.
“You’re almost 30! You can still grow taller!? But you’ve much more than grown taller.” said Zhang Yuchou. “At least, you’re not bald.”
Tang Luo touched the short white hair on his head and smiled quietly. In truth, he had gotten stronger, as well as bald. It’s just that his hair grew out again now. Also, he didn’t plan to adopt a bald hairstyle again, so he had started growing his hair.
Fortunately, his hair follicles had not died.
As for the Game of Gods And Demons, a monk with fluttering white hair was no less cool than a bald monk. And he wouldn’t be called bald. Thus, he happily decided as such.
“What about you, what happened?” asked Tang Luo.
A few days ago, Zhang Yuchou had said that he had encountered a supernatural event.
Tang Luo had contacted him later, but Zhang Yuchou had not talked about it clearly over the phone.
Naturally, a rich landlord went wherever he wanted, so Tang Luo appeared in Xihang City.
Zhang Yuchou was so touched that he came to pick him up straight away.
Zhang Yuchou sighed. “I’ll speak as we walk.”
This was what he said, but as a prosperous, economically developed city by the east coast of China, there were always many people on its mass transit. Also, the time was close to the off-work peak hour, so it was overcrowded. Thus, they didn’t get to talk.
After they arrived at Zhang Yuchou’s packed little, the former lay on the bed at once, looking like he was dying.
Tang Luo wasn’t overly courteous. He pulled a chair, took off his shoes, and put his feet on the bed.
“Are you not working today?” he asked.
It was pretty comfortable to return to his old self.
“I don’t have a job anymore.” Zhang Yuchou turned over and sat up.
“Huh? You’re going to resign and go home?” asked Tang Luo.
Xihang’s prices and consumption standards were at the forefront of the country. If one were unemployed, they would either have to find a job quickly or return home. Otherwise, they might starve to death in the streets.
However, Zhang Yuchou’s family house had been demolished when he had just graduated.
After his family had received the compensation sum from the demolition, they had bought a pre-selling unit that they could only move in to after one or two years. His family was still renting a house.
When Zhang Yuchou went back, he’d probably be on the streets as well.
“I did resign, but I’m not planning to go home now,” said Zhang Yuchou. “The rent is not due yet! There’s a deposit of 4,000!”
“Does 4,000 count as money for you, after your compensation?” asked Tang Luo.
“Of course it doesn’t count as money… It counts as life! My life!”
To an ordinary college graduate, who had just graduated for a bit more than one year and was renting a flat on his own to work, 4,000 was not their money, but their lifeline.