Step Back! Master is Here! - Chapter 40
Chapter 40: A Self-Exploding Truck
“What did they do to make you hate them so much?” asked Tang Luo.
He could tell that Sun Ang had a very strong desire to pour his woes, or rather, show off. Because even if the restrictions on Employees of Gods and Demons had been relaxed, it didn’t mean that he could reveal his identity to others.
The identity of an Employee of Gods and Demons was still a secret to outsiders.
The sudden appearance of Tang Luo, a colleague, had come as a shock to Sun Ang. However, right now, it had basically turned into surprise.
One should show off after making it big, after all. Otherwise, who would know of his achievements, right?
Since showing off in front of a newbie could put him in a fantastic mood, why not?
Of course, Sun Ang wasn’t in a hurry to speak. He turned and glanced at the bed. Then, he lifted his arm and beckoned. The identity card which Tang Luo had left on the bed flew into his hand.
Upon seeing the astonishment, caution, and forced calmness on the face of the man in front of him, Sun Ang felt even more satisfied.
“Tang Luo. Alright, I know your identity now.” While laughing lightly, Sun Ang tossed the identity card aside.
The address registered on Tang Luo’s identity card was indeed his current place of residence.
“You still haven’t told me why you killed them and what they did to make you so furious and hateful,” said Tang Luo after he walked over to the bed and took a seat.
“You want to know?” asked Sun Ang.
“Yes, I’m a listener,” replied Tang Luo.
What was one to do when they got bored during cultivation?
The grapevine of the Gods and Buddhas was here to help. Gossiping and listening to gossip were great ways of passing the time. One must strike a proper balance between work and leisure even when it came to cultivation, after all.
During the intervals of break time between his cultivation in the past, Tang Luo heard a lot of first-hand information from Thousand-Mile Eye and Wind-Accompanying Ear[1].
Later on, he even wrote My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute[2] in Yang Jian the Erlang Shen’s[3] way of speech.
It became widely popular and was widely circulated among various immortals and Buddhas who fell over each other in their eagerness to read it. It greatly enriched those fellows’ impoverished spiritual and cultural lives.
It also received a high degree of acknowledgment and passionate support from Yang Jian, the reference whom the main character was based off.
He had chased Tang Luo around for a good 100,000 miles.
Τripitaka, the number one literary giant of the Three Realms of Existence[4] and Victorious Fighting Buddha, whose back view alone could attract countless fans—that was Tang Luo, the man himself.
While staring at Tang Luo, Sun Ang asked with a smile, “Is it because I plan to spare your friend on account of you being a colleague that’s making you mistake me for an agreeable person?”
Wouldn’t it be a huge disgrace if he told Tang Luo just because the other party wanted him to?
“Hmm.” Tang Luo mused for a moment. “I’ll add a please, then. Please, tell me about it.”
“Hahaha!” Sun Ang burst into laughter. “Kid, you’re very interesting. Who knows? You might just make it big in the future.”
Then, he added, “Alright, you suit my taste pretty well. In that case, I’ll impart some of my experience to you as a senior.”
Originally, his visit’s purpose was actually to warn Tang Luo not to poke his nose where it didn’t belong.
Just like what he had said, he didn’t hate Zhang Yuchou. There wasn’t any conflict between them.
Since another Employee of Gods and Demons had unexpectedly interfered, Sun Ang didn’t mind letting him off the hook.
Killing someone discreetly was one thing. Two Employees of Gods and Demons getting into a confrontation and having a huge fight as a result and blowing the incident out of proportion was another thing altogether.
Of course, if Tang Luo didn’t know what was good for him, Sun Ang didn’t mind being vicious and killing him either. If he was in luck, he might even get some equipment.
Newbies who received equipment in a huge stroke of luck existed too.
Sun Ang mildly suspected that the accessory hanging around Tang Luo’s neck might be a piece of equipment.
He was very confident in his own abilities and skills.
At least, when it came to assassinations, he was certainly very skilled. There was no harm in taking the time to chat and judge the situation before making a decision.
When the identity of an Employee of Gods and Demons was taken away from him, Sun Ang was a normal human. His family wasn’t poor, but it was nowhere near great either.
The only thing that was slightly more outstanding about Sun Ang was that he had found himself a rather pretty girlfriend when he was in university.
The two of them had continued dating even after they graduated from university.
They had chosen to stay in Xihang City together to fight for a good future and even worked in the same company. However, because the company forbade office romances, Sun Ang and his girlfriend had decided to keep their relationship a secret.
After graduating, the stress at work and troubles of daily life led to a rift in their relationship. Of course, this was a more politically correct way of saying it.
In Sun Ang’s words:
“That slut wanted to move out after just a small fight! Fine, so be it! But not only was I unable to convince her to come back, I even paid a month’s rent for her!
“It hadn’t even been a few days when that slut and Qi Zixuan, that piece of sh*t-eating crap, actually started to make eyes at each other!
“Just because Qi Zixuan was an assistant manager and his dad’s the boss and had some stinking money?!
“If it weren’t for the restrictions, I’d be richer than them now!”
Sun Ang couldn’t help being somewhat worked up at this point.
If one were to look at this purely from the perspective of skills, even if there weren’t any restrictions, it wasn’t that easy for Employees of Gods and Demons to use their skills to make big money legally and logically either.
Whether one could achieve this or not depended on the individuals, as well as how suitable their skills were.
Simply put, this was just someone’s cuckold story.
While the situation between Sun Ang and his girlfriend was bad, Qi Zixuan swooped in and stole her.
Before that night’s supernatural confession, which didn’t look like it would succeed no matter what, Qi Zixuan and Sun Ang’s girlfriend had already gotten into a clandestine relationship.
Rather than calling it a confession, calling it staking one’s claim and a display of power was more apt, just like how one would raise and display their flag after occupying a piece of land in war.
It was a shame that they had messed with the wrong guy. This action had set the demon in Sun Ang’s heart free. Hence, the occurrence of everything that had followed.
Apart from the adulterous couple mentioned by Sun Ang, the other two dead coworkers also had conflicts with him.
One liked to talk behind other people’s backs and had spoken badly about Sun Ang. The other had framed Sun Ang and gotten him into trouble before by pushing his own mistake in work matters onto Sun Ang. He had even struck first by tattletale!
Yet because he had done a good job at sucking up to others all this time, their superior had believed him and given Sun Ang a nasty scolding.
Upon realizing that he hadn’t disappeared or gotten erased after murdering someone, Sun Ang had decided following the adage, “In for a penny, in for a pound.” Thus, he would vent all the anger in his heart.
As for Zhang Yuchou, he was just a bonus.
Whether he wanted to kill him or not depended on Sun Ang’s mood.
After going on a killing spree in the real world, Sun Ang’s state of mind had already undergone a complete change. Like how many Employees of Gods and Demons were full of themselves and completely treated the people in mission worlds as NPCs[5], Sun Ang also saw people of the real world as NPCs.
He went from the desperate loser[6] to another extreme.
“Have you seen a certain movie?” asked Sun Ang with a smile. “It’s about a company in the assassination business. In the end, the male lead wiped out the entire company.”
To him, he was that assassin who killed every single one of those goddamn bastards.
What a fantastic feeling.
“No.” It had been many years since Tang Luo had last watched a movie. If he searched through the depths of his memories, perhaps he might find information about it. But there was no way Tang Luo would check what kind of movies he had watched two months ago because of this man.
“Pfft.” Sun Ang got up, looked at Tang Luo, and said, “I’ve already told you everything I should. You should know what to do, right?”
Tang Luo nodded.
After staring at him briefly, Sun Ang opened the door and left.
At that point, just a warning would suffice. Should this seemingly little noob take any action, Sun Ang didn’t mind teaching him how to behave.
He would observe him for a while first. Like Zhang Yuchou, Sun Ang was also being secretly protected. If he wanted to kill him, he couldn’t possibly do it in the hotel room.
After watching Sun Ang, the self-exploding truck[7], leave, Tang Luo picked up his identity card and glanced at it.
He walked into the bathroom and turned on the showerhead. An almost indiscernible light flashed across the Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit on his neck.
Invisible ripples went through the surroundings.
The Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit disappeared from within his clothes and appeared above Tang Luo. Then, it cast a tassel-like light, allowing Tang Luo to enter the state of invisibility.
Although Tang Luo was certain that Sun Ang hadn’t done anything to him, he couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t tampered with other things in the room.
In comparison, it was safer to enter the state of invisibility.
Tang Luo opened the door of the room halfway, turned, walked out, and closed the door.
Tang Luo walked briskly on the soft carpet and left the hotel in no time, trailing behind Sun Ang.
Sun Ang didn’t have any plans to take any form of transportation. He walked down the streets leisurely, his gait light and his demeanor brazen. His attitude was reminiscent of how Spider-Man had behaved after turning to the dark side in the first Spider-Man movie trilogy.
He was close to breaking into dance even while walking.
Sun Ang was exactly close to such a state, just a little more restrained.
After walking for about half an hour, he suddenly changed the direction he was walking in and walked toward the park on the roadside.
He started to go deep inside.
When he reached a part of the park that was still under construction, where even people out exercising late at night wouldn’t pass by, Sun Ang stopped in his tracks and said aloud, “Come on out. You’ve already followed me for so long.”
Tang Luo raised his eyebrows slightly and looked around him.
There was someone else who was also following Sun Ang aside from him?
Could it be the police?
This tailing technique was pretty impressive. Even he didn’t realize anything.
As for he himself being discovered?
The possibility of that was lower than 0.0001%.
It was impossible for Sun Ang to discover anything amiss under the Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit’s state of invisibility.
Despite the number one literary giant of the Three Realms having a great number of fans, he had never been successfully mobbed and had no problems moving around. The contributions of the Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit in this was undeniable.
As Sun Ang stopped walking and spoke out loud, the surroundings remained quiet.
Tang Luo looked around expectantly for pursuers to appear.
Two awkward and silent minutes passed…
“No one, huh.”
Sun Ang laughed softly.
This was a test. He was trying to see whether that newbie was tailing him or not.
The outcome was out. No—the form of that newbie appeared in front of Sun Ang!
In the instant he saw Tang Luo, severe pain came over all four of his limbs.
Before Sun Ang could even scream, Tang Luo’s right palm had come up from below and smacked Sun Ang’s chin.
Sun Ang’s scream turned into a muffled grunt. His body flew through the air and landed heavily on the ground.
The whole world spun and shook madly.
Pain, nausea, and dizziness overcame him, while a huge spread of black spots flickered in his eyes.
“No, actually, there’s someone here.” Tang Luo looked at Sun Ang and asked, “Surprised? Amazed?”
“It’s you?”
As Sun Ang’s vision was hindered, he couldn’t really see what the person who had assaulted him looked like.
Nevertheless, he managed to identify him from his voice. This person was the newbie from earlier!
‘I’ve actually made such an absurd error?’ Sun Ang was filled with regret.
At the same time, fury rose within him.
‘I let him off, but this bastard doesn’t know to be grateful! He actually has the guts to repay my kindness with enmity?’
[1] Characters from Journey to the West. Thousand-Mile Eye can see everything within 1,000 miles while Wind-Accompanying Ear can hear everything within 1,000 miles
[2] A Japanese light novel series written by Tsukasa Fushimi
[3] A Chinese God with a third truth-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead. In Journey To The West, he is known as the greatest warrior god of heaven
[4] A Buddhism term referring to destinations for karmic rebirth
[5] ‘Non-playable character’, characters in games that are not controlled by a player
[6] The Chinese term used here is literally ‘licking dog’. Internet slang for people who fawn on a love interest without any limit or pride even though they know very well that the other party is completely disinterested
[7] A term referring to people who ‘self-destruct’ by accidentally revealing sensitive or inappropriate information about themselves on air under another person’s baiting
