Shen considered the proposition.

If he were immune to these firearms, the mortals would be extra alert when he got nearby. If he weren't, they would be in a position of power over him. It didn't sound so great when put like that, but they weren't the only ones who would get something from that information.

Shen needed to know how safe he was against this small group and how dangerous hundreds of mortals were to him. He needed to determine whether he had a chance of escaping a mortal settlement or should stay away from them.

"Major, we should go to a proper testing range," the Captain said. "We're vulnerable against a counterattack from the Stupid King here; the data won't be precise without the right testing parameters or measurement tools; bullets could ricochet and hurt someone; and shooting an ambassador is illegal even if he agrees to it."

"Excellent points!" the Major said with a lazy smile. "Mister Feng Shen, what do you think?"

"I think I'm not interested in getting into a place controlled by the very people who just threatened to shoot me," Shen said at once. "I accept your proposal."

"Outstanding! Where would you like to be shot at?" the Major asked while already pointing the gun in Shen's general direction.

"Major, I want to remind you again that shooting ambassadors is illegal. Also, the very same reasons he doesn't want to go to a testing range is why we would be extra protected from retaliation there."

"Your concerns are duly noted, Captain. Now, stop patronizing me. Suppose this man is immune to our low-caliber ammo. Would you rather find out here, where only we are at risk, or in the middle of a military installation with more people nearby, some of them much more important than us? You look down on me, Captain, but I am willing to sacrifice myself for this country as much as you. Even if this illegal act lands me in trouble, to me, it's worth it to avoid greater issues." The Captain didn't reply for a while, so the Major looked at Shen again. "Mister Feng Shen?"

Shen thought about where he would like to be potentially hurt. His legs were definitely out of the question because he wanted them in perfect condition in case he needed to escape. His upper body would be a better place, but he would need to remove his armor for that, and he would rather not make himself extra vulnerable. He also wasn't stupid enough to let his head be targeted.

That left him with his arms. Only his elbows, hand, and inner lower arm were unprotected by his armor. He reckoned he could use his spear well even with an injured hand, so he extended his left arm to his side and offered his hand as a target.

"Shoot my hand," he said.

The Major didn't hesitate for a single instant. He aimed and pulled the trigger.

Shen had D- resistance. He was confident an unarmed mortal couldn't even hurt his eye, the most vulnerable part of his body. Now, it was time to see what an armed mortal could do.

The bullet came much slower than he could move. He could see it moving and was confident he could dodge it if he wanted.

It struck his open palm. It stung a little, but that was all. The metal projectile became a thin plate and fell harmlessly to the ground, leaving only a red bruise that quickly disappeared.

"Holy shit," someone said, and many of them raised their weapons at Shen, suddenly feeling much less safe than before.

"Lower your weapons!" the Major barked annoyingly. It was the first time he raised his voice, and the soldiers seemed as surprised as Shen. They widened their eyes and obeyed. He talked much more softly to Shen, "Sorry, Mister Feng Shen. They are not used to seeing something like this outside of a TV screen."

"It's alright," Shen said. They needed to point their guns at him to be at the same level of readiness as he was by merely standing. It was only fair of them to do so in such a tense situation, though he had to admit he appreciated the gesture of the Major in making his troops more vulnerable to gain Shen's goodwill. "Can you shoot again? I want to test something."

"Of course," the Major replied. "Same place?"

"No. Shoot my armor."

The Major complied. The bullet hit Shen's chest and ricocheted to the ground. The armor was only E+, theoretically worse than his D- resistance, but it was created specifically to protect. It had two enchantments, damage and shock reductions, that made it better at its job. Even so, the scale that got hit bent so much it was almost pierced. Fortunately, the last enchantment, self-repair, was unbending it even as he watched. He concluded the armor was about as resistant as his skin.

"Again," Shen said, and the Major shoot.

This time, Shen swung his spear at the bullet. His spearhead found the bullet mid-air. The projectile chipped the spearhead slightly, and the momentum made it a perfect V as it met resistance in the middle.

The bent bullet fell to the ground, and the weapon also repaired itself. Shen was impressed to see the chipped bit float back from the ground and get melded together.

"Again," he said, and when the Major shoot, he filled his spear with Sharpness Qi. He cut the bullet in two, and the two halves missed him.

"Did I just see what I think I did?" someone asked.

"That is enough testing for the handgun," Shen said, extending his left hand sideways again. "Shoot me with the rifle."

"You heard him, Captain," the Major said.

"With all due respect, I refuse to obey this unlawful order, Major," the Captain said firmly.

"It's not unlawful if it doesn't hurt him."

"Yes, it is."

The Major rolled his eyes. "Anyone wanna shoot our guest? No one? Well. Give me your weapon, Captain."

The Captain complied, and a moment later, the Major shot Shen with the carbine.

Shen could barely see the bullet approach this time. It pierced his skin, but that didn't mean it was free to continue unhindered. Even his flesh was more resistant than normal. The projectile tip hit the skin on the other side of his hand and failed to pierce it.

| Feng Shen (D) | 198 / 200 | -2 HP

So he could get shot one hundred times by a light rifle in unprotected places before he died.

Shen pulled the projectile from his hand and threw it on the ground.

"Try my armor," he asked, and the Major delivered.

The bullet pierced one of the armor's scales and stopped when it struck Shen's skin, dealing no damage. He was happy to see the armor itself push the projectile out as it repaired itself. A few seconds later, it was whole again.

He repeated the spear tests too. Without qi, the spearhead was heavily damaged, but it repaired itself. With Sharp Qi, it cut the bullet without taking any damage.

"You should have twenty-nine bullets remaining," Shen said, recalling how many shots the man had said the weapon could shoot. "Please use them all against me."

"Take cover, everyone," the Major said, and the soldiers complied.

Then he unloaded the gun on Shen.

Shen cut the first fourteen bullets using his spear to confirm he could. He effortlessly dodged the next fourteen. And he raced the last one.

He barely won.

Shen was slightly faster than a bullet moving three thousand feet per second.

When the system translated things for him, it also let him understand the mortal measurement units compared to the Eternal Empire's. The race he won proved he could move faster than sound, yet he created no sonic boom. He supposed it was due to his rank. He had felt before how the system was pushing his body beyond all natural limits, and it had also made people have health points, proving it could change or ignore some fundamental rules of Reality. Perhaps the Alliance didn't want their Guardians creating sonic booms for some reason.

Shen looked around, seeing awe and fear in people's faces. They had taken cover from ricochets but still had put their heads in unsafe spots to watch.

"Any chance you would all shoot me?" he asked.

There was a moment of silence before the Major sighed and held the carbine sideways. The Captain approached, took the weapon, and swapped a slightly curved metal rectangle with another, probably reloading. He then stepped back, holding his own rifle.

"The Alliance promised us those who concluded the tutorial would be gods among men," the Major said. "It failed to deliver until now."

"I'm no god," Shen said at once. "I'm a cultivator."

"So is the one ruling over China, and she styled herself a god."

Despite his high learning ability, Shen took a moment to understand what the man was saying. "What?"

"Should we take a seat first?" the Major suggested, and Shen agreed.

Shen's prisoner woke up while they were searching for a place to talk. Shen used the snake's rattling on the boy again and carried him. He also grabbed his E- spear.

The Major and the cultivator entered a damaged building. The Major called it a "five-star hotel." The entrance had once been full of grandeur, with a polished golden floor, a brown and golden reception desk, flags, and comfy seats. Most of it was damaged or dirty, but two sofas, one in front of the other, had been kept intact.

The Major ordered the Captain to secure the area, sat before Shen, and explained what had happened to Earth during the tutorial.

"As the system told you in the Pioneer Tutorial, about three-quarters of the world joined it. We were in awe of free healing and the promise of godhood. It's very hard to not go to a place that promises great power when everyone else you know is going. No one wants to be left behind.

"Some cried foul play, but most agreed that if they could heal us without needing our permission, they could also teleport us away if they had an evil agenda. A few insisted the aliens needed our permission to invade our souls or something of that nature. Most of them went anyway as the cities got empty.

"Those who stayed didn't need food anymore, but suddenly, they were lacking in entertainment, and criminals were having the time of their lives because the police had also left. As the days progressed, people got an extra incentive to get away from Earth.

"The US military issued an order not to join the tutorial unless you got permission first. However, it took too long to come, and many soldiers had already joined by then. Most of the remaining ones disrespected the orders, too.

"Still, the soldiers doing their duty and parents of children younger than fifteen, who weren't allowed in the tutorial, were primarily the ones staying behind in the US and most other countries.

"The criminals mostly just stole things, but some people decided to burn or destroy places they hated. Some people in various countries also decided it was a good opportunity to strike against their enemies. The military was deployed to prevent it, but sometimes they were the issue.

"The US lost many of our bases overseas, sometimes even by the hands of our former allies."

Shen nodded. When the dragon sleeps, the serpent flies. "The city was destroyed because of that?"

Cox shook his head. "Not entirely, but I'll get there.

"In the Pioneer Tutorial, eighty-five percent of the participants were eliminated in the very first stage. They then went through the regular tutorial, which takes one month to complete. Only those who reached F-rank, which was about thirty percent, became Guardians.

"The Alliance's first message to us spoke of humankind needing a hundred million Guardians to survive the first Shift, and we got way more than that. But now we know we can't trust its predictions."

"Shift?" Shen interrupted.

"Yes. Do you remember how the first message also told us Earth will be pushed a little closer to the front lines every two years? We're calling that a Shift.

"So, one month after people disappeared, we returned, and one in five people suddenly had superhuman powers. It wouldn't be too much of a problem if they only had higher physical stats. But about one in twenty were mages, which is a feat already because it was much harder to buy the expensive nanobots in the regular tutorial.

"Oh, by the way, the regular tutorial has a thirty-percent discount.

"Anyway, we returned to see a world that had been ruled by chaos for one month. You would be surprised at how much can burn when there aren't enough firemen around. Military-wise, there were sea craters where our bases overseas had once been.

"Other countries had it much worse. Europe and Asia are a mess—the Middle East is all but gone. Portugal, of all places, was hit with an atomic bomb, and no one has any idea why. Everyone knows why South Korea was almost completely erased from the map though.

"There was panic already, and some revengeful mages made it even worse. They can kill whoever they want in broad daylight, and no one can pinpoint who did it. There was a call for identifying, isolating, imprisoning, or outright killing any mage. Since we can't identify them, it became a matter of citizens versus Guardians. The F-tier Guardians weren't happy, and they were made extra aggressive by the Guardian System.

"You can imagine how things turned out.

"The military-controlled our Guardians, while civilians tried to do that with a lot less success. About half the people remaining in the tutorial returned in the following month, and the others throughout the year. All of them were progressively stronger, and the longer it took for them to return, the higher the chance they had unlocked the mana stat. They also disregarded human life more easily than the first Guardians.

"We decreed martial law to restore order. Many Guardians didn't take kindly to that.

"Guardians organized themselves. Some groups fought politically, others with their stats, weaponry, and magic. We're in Austin, Texas. A group took control of the city here, creating a 'sovereign state' in the middle of the US. They were tolerated as the politicians talked to each other until we got reports of the crimes being committed here three weeks ago. It was a terrible tyranny, a veritable human rights nightmare. Worse than the Nazis— Oh, you don't know who they are. Suffice to say, the Guardians here were scum.

"We made an example out of them. That's the source of most of the destruction you can see. The Guardians lived in the tall buildings while their slaves were kept elsewhere.

"Most US cities are still standing and under control, but many still have some form of insurgency. Only a couple others suffered what Austin did. The surviving Guardians have wised up quickly after seeing how far the US is willing to go to protect freedom and democracy.

"The self-titled Sorcerer King is what remains of the local insurgent group, but we can't find their headquarters. They learned magic to make themselves invisible to our surveillance systems. We are trying to limit magic knowledge spread, but it's a downhill battle.

"We're here looking for survivors. Three days ago, a survivor hit the nearest base and talked about a hidden bunker with more people in this street. We brought him with us, but he died in an ambush by the Sorcerer King's troops.

"No one survived.

"We're here to find the bunker. The survivor said they have less than one week of food remaining. There's also the chance they'll come to us, so we must be around. The Sorcerer King keeps being a pain in the ass."

Shen frowned slightly. "The Captain didn't look for the bunker where I came from, and I had just left the ground, literally."

The Major smiled. "The Captain was following protocol. You might have been a Sorcerer King's spy. We pretend not to consider that as we take them into custody. Lieutenant Parker is a doctor, but she specializes in psychiatry and is very good at profiling people and detecting lies."

"That's wise," Shen conceded.

"For good or ill, we have a lot of experience with urban warfare. Anyway, what the country has gone and is going through explains why the Captain was so forceful about your prisoner. It's our best shot at finding the Sorcerer King.

"The moment you became a combatant, the protocol changed, and you had to be taken in in almost any way necessary. When you refused to comply, he took it to mean you might be an insurgent.

"To be honest, he's lucky he has such an excellent trigger discipline.

"Others would've shot you.

"They would be dead now."

Shen nodded. Indeed, they would, and all for a misunderstanding. He wouldn't regret it though; he would not be turned into an obedient dog just because people were threatening to kill him otherwise.

"That's the gist of it, Mister Feng Shen. The higher-ups asked me to invite you to talk about your identity and how things will proceed between you and the US. Would you like to come to Houston with us?"

"You're forgetting something," Shen said. "Tell me about China's cultivator."