Report
Griffin Scans
Translator – Hero of death
Proofreader – Sleepyhead
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Chapter 21 - Shadow Servent
Kachak
With a faint, papery sound—like cutting through a sheet of paper—the shadow beneath the gray rabbit was severed!
It was truly severed!
As if split into two independent entities, the cleaved shadow, guided by an invisible force, drifted into the palm of Lu Yu’s hand.
And the gray rabbit, having lost its shadow entirely, looked as if it had stepped out of a ghost story.
After losing its shadow, the rabbit’s eyes turned dim and vacant, as if its soul had departed. It staggered and collapsed inside the cage, making the other rabbits panic. They began to scurry around, creating a rustling noise.
Since rabbits often fought and made a fuss, and Lu Yu didn’t make any suspicious moves, the shop owner didn’t think much of it. He continued browsing the latest news on his screen.
Lately, the hottest topic was the attack in the northern district by the "Twisted Spider," which resulted in heavy casualties.
Even with the faces pixelated in the news photos, the grotesque horror still seeped through. The shop owner couldn’t help but sigh in relief that he lived in the eastern district—otherwise, he might have ended up in those photos too.
‘Maybe I should kill a rabbit tonight to celebrate being alive?’
Lu Yu kept observing the changes in the gray rabbit. Its gaze remained vacant, and its body clearly shriveled up, eventually closing its eyes and losing all signs of life.
In his hand, the shadow became lively after the rabbit's death. Under Lu Yu’s will, it quickly reshaped into the shape of an arm.
"By taking its shadow… did I also take its life? No, not exactly—it’s more like I took its soul. Or its spirit. Which then caused its death, and in turn it made the body to wither..."
Lu Yu analyzed the rabbit’s changes and quickly recalled some ancient legends—how a person’s shadow is connected to their soul, that the shadow is a projection of the spirit.
In other words, taking away the shadow is akin to taking away the soul.
No, it’s more than just a projection. There’s a deeper, still undiscovered connection...
Could it be… the physical manifestation of the soul’s core?
This ability reminded him of something from a past-life anime—One Piece—specifically, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea: Gecko Moria.
Moria was the user of the "Shadow-Shadow Fruit" and had the power to extract people’s shadows. He wielded a giant pair of scissors to cut shadows from their owners and implant them into corpses, creating zombies that retained the original person's abilities.
However, the devil fruit powers couldn’t transfer with the shadow. The person who lost their shadow would vanish if exposed to sunlight and thus could only live in darkness. Moria could also swap places with his shadow and absorb many shadows to gain immense power.
But unlike a devil fruit, Lu Yu’s ability wasn't restricted by things like seastone or seawater. And it held seemingly limitless potential.
This world was real, after all. While the skills Lu Yu possessed came from monsters, they were not bound by the logic of a game world.
In games, skills were used mechanically, only as dictated by the game's systems. Even climbing over terrain required completing a specific quest!
But this was different. Everything was real. Though the principles behind using these powers were unclear, Lu Yu could reverse-engineer their essence through usage.
For example, the power of [Shadow Servent] stemmed from shadow; [Hellfire Whip] clearly originated from infernal fire...
Lu Yu didn’t want to be someone who merely cast skills on command. What he truly desired was to use these skills as a gateway to trace their origins—to master shadow, to master hellfire, and eventually develop more powers from that understanding.
One day, when he grasps the essence of shadow, hellfire or even the power of time itself—then even if he lost the system, he would still wield great strength, and control his own fate.
With that thought, Lu Yu turned to the shopkeeper and asked:
“Boss, how much for this whole cage of rabbits?”
Based on his earlier shadow extraction, Lu Yu estimated that this cage counting the dead gray rabbit had thirteen rabbits in total. Their shadows would be enough to craft one Shadow Servent.
Moreover, he wanted to test whether shadows from different creatures produced different types of Shadow servents. He needed a comparison.
The shopkeeper, who had been immersed in the news, immediately perked up. A customer wanting to buy a whole cage? A big spender! He sprang to his feet excitedly—only to smack his shin against the edge of the table. His face contorted in pain.
“Ow, ow, ow…”
He muttered a few pained curses but quickly forced a smile.
“Thirteen in total. Normally it’d be 1,300, but for you, big customer—1,200.”
About a hundred each. Not female rabbits either. Even with the risks of catching them in the wild, that price felt steep. They might’ve even been raised in captivity.
Lu Yu silently noted this but didn’t haggle. He paid without complaint. Although the gray rabbit’s death didn’t look suspicious at first glance, on closer inspection, something was clearly off.
Then Lu Yu requested additional animals—white mice and birds under the pretense of conducting research. The boss, thrilled by the opportunity for more kickbacks, readily agreed.
The combination of shin pain and joy created quite the odd expression on the shopkeeper’s face.
The birds were pricey—200 yuan each and Lu Yu bought 20. The white mice, being smaller with tinier shadows, were cheaper, so he bought 50.
In total, he paid over 7,000 yuan. The shopkeeper, all smiles, even offered delivery. Lu Yu happily accepted—hauling so many animals around would stink to high heaven. No regular driver would take the job.
With all his animals delivered, Lu Yu returned home, bolted the doors and windows, and lined up the cages.
Following the same process as before, Lu Yu began severing their shadows one by one.
Each animal, once stripped of its shadow, became dazed, then slowly died. The once noisy house turned deathly silent.
Three large, inky-black masses of shadow floated in the air, undulating and shifting in shape…
~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter End~~~~~~~~~~~
