Chapter 10: Symbiotic Contract
Paglio coldly said, “The stronger ones are respected. I spared your life and at its cost, you become my servant. It’s just such a simple thing. There is nothing to discuss.”
Chen Rui shook his head calmly, “Our destinies have been linked together. If you kill us, you will also put yourself in a desperate situation. Therefore, between us, there is an equal relations.h.i.+p with deal and cooperation. It is impossible to have the difference between master and servant. It’s a win-win or lose-lose situation.”
master and servant. It’s a win-win or lose-lose situation.”
Paglio said with disapproval, “What I know is that your lives are in my hands. It is a great kindness to save you from death. If you continued to be pesky, Master Paglio will eat all of you now!”
Chen Rui stared at Paglio for a while and inflated his voice suddenly: “What’s the joy of living; what’s there to fear from dying! Since I accidentally fell into the Demon Realm, I have already risked it all. Although I am just a weak human, I am still a true man. I will never give up the only dignity for my life!”
Athena’s eyes were brightened suddenly. At a desperate moment, one can see other’s true qualities. The weak, thin figure of the human seemed to have grown bigger and taller. That was true courage! If it was Alan or Joseph from Elven Family, they would probably be terrified that they had cold feet.
Seeing it from a different angle; From Paglio’s perspective, this human being was clearly unreasonable – I, unfortunately, fell into the Demon Realm, and I might die at any time. Since it is just a pathetic life, I might as well use it to fight with you today.
Chen Rui had experience in opening an online store. Some people on the Internet deliberately gave the worst rating to the online store to achieve the purpose of extortion. They were called professional bad reviewer. The sellers, especially the sellers of the new stores were at a disadvantage in this case. Chen Rui had encountered several of them. After dealing with them, he lost some money; but he had learned it the hard way.
He knew that Paglio was trapped, and he had the intention to use him to get out of trouble; so Chen Rui deliberately put on a calm stance and turned the tide. If he didn’t read the situation clearly, he would never dare to risk his life as a bet.
Sure enough, the poison dragon did not attack but frowned instead. Chen Rui then added another sentence, “I, Chen Rui, swear by the dignity of the humans in this world that I truly want to help the poison dragon Paglio breaking his seal. If there is any violation, I will die horribly and have my soul vanished.”
Listening to such a heavy oath, Paglio was surprised. He did not know that the first sentence was already full of lies. Chen Rui wasn’t a human in this world. To put it bluntly, he was tricking a man, no, a dragon.
“Paglio, I am willing to help you to break the seal. Yet, I not only want to live but also hope to get your friends.h.i.+p and help. To show my sincerity, I can tell you my biggest secret of poison-resistance.”
If the previous negotiation was a carrot after stick, then now it was giving a medicine after the carrot.
The poison dragon stared at Chen Rui for a moment and finally nodded, “Human, your eloquence is far better than your strength. If you can show me your sincerity, Paglio can consider signing an equal contract with you.”
Seeing Chen Rui suddenly leaped from a totally inferior position to an equal position, Athena felt that it was miraculous. He was facing a dragon!
Equipped with both wisdom and bravery was the only complimentary term that she could think of to describe this human being. Chen Rui didn’t know that he had unintentionally built a strong image in Athena’s heart. Her good impression toward Chen Rui was way pa.s.sed General Alan.
Chen Rui’s “sincerity” was nothing more than repeating the story of the great master and the primeval age. He adjusted some tiny details. The structure was more complete than spontaneous work. The poison dragon was obviously hard to convince than Aldas; he had been keeping silence, but Athena was absorbed by it.
In order to further win the trust of the poison dragon, Chen Rui contributed a new set of toy.
Three rows of vertical and horizontal grids were drawn on the ground, a total of 33 grids. Except for the center, a hole was pressed at each grid and then some stones were placed in the holes as chess pieces.
The poison dragon looked at it in surprise as he had never seen such a thing for his thousands of years of experience. Chen Rui used the grand master’s alchemy deduction tool as a cover to explain the gameplay of peg solitaire.
This game was said to be invented by a n.o.bleman who was locked up in the Bastille before the French Revolution and soon became popular. The gameplay was similar to checkers. It was played by one person. The piece that was jumped over will be removed. As it went, the fewer steps used and pieces left was better. According to the remaining pieces and the position, it was divided into 6 levels, the highest was Chen Rui’s custom great master level.
Peg solitaire, Huarong Dao and Rubik’s Cube were considered as the three incredible miracles in the intellectual game world. Athena was confused with these kinds of nerve-wracking things but it was different for a rather deceitful poison dragon. If it wasn’t for the equal contract, he would be eager to try it.
“What I’m going to say next, I don’t want it to be heard by a third person. Woman, don’t try to do stupid things like escaping.” The poison dragon looked at Athena. Chen Rui signaled Athena with his eyes. Athena nodded and sat before Alice and Kia.
The poison dragon cast a soundproofing trick and asked in a serious manner, “I am the poison dragon, Paglio. Sandro Achilles. Human, tell me your name.”
From Paglio’s solemn statement of his full name, it was certain that his att.i.tude had changed. Actually, the poison dragon was also in a dilemma. These people couldn’t be killed nor released. If this human truly had a mysterious and powerful heritage, he might be able to break the seal.
“My name is Chen Rui.” Chen Rui finally took a sigh of relief. He had finally completed this difficult public relations task.
“Chen Rui, you have successfully won the trust of Paglio,” said the poison dragon. “There are certain things that I can only tell you after signing an equal contract. I have given much thought. I want to sign a symbiotic contract with you. In other words, our lives will be connected. If you abandon my friends.h.i.+p and trust one day, your own life will be lost.”
The suggestion of a symbiotic contract was beyond Chen Rui’s expectation. He thought quickly and shook his head. “I don’t have the ambition to be a dragon warrior but since it is a symbiotic contract, if I have an accident or die of old age, you will die too?”
“An important feature of the symbiotic contract is life sharing,” Paglio explained. “The dragon’s fertility is extremely low but the life span is very long. Some can reach up to a few million years. I am now at 14000 years old, similar to human’s young adult age. After we signed the symbiotic contract, you will share my life; so there isn’t a problem of dying at old age temporarily. In addition to this, certain aspects of your physique can also get a certain benefit.”
Life sharing! Chen Rui was shocked at once. In Chinese history, many emperors were chasing after immortality but none succeed. Yet, he simply got tens of thousands of years of precious life!
Even the royal family of Demon Realm, without any accidents, they generally had a life span of one or two thousand years; ordinary demons had a few hundred years; humans in this world were even shorter. Unless they were a strong one who had reached a certain level, otherwise it was incomparable.
“If it is an accidental death, then there’s nothing I can do. As you said at the beginning, win-win or lose-lose.” Paglio shook his head. “Either one of us have an accidental death, the other’s death is unavoidable. I’ll tell you the truth. My power has been reduced. I can only sign a contract with one person. In order to keep the ancient runes matter as a secret, I wanted to kill you initially and make the female grim reaper my servant. However, your wisdom and potential have changed my mind or you can say that your trick worked.”
So close! Chen Rui sweated. It turned out that he really was at the edge of death.
The poison dragon took the safest way. The lives of two connected together; interests and risks would coexist. Therefore, Chen Rui couldn’t ignore the seal issue. Ensuring the poison dragon to live better was also a guarantee of his longevity.
“Just a reminder, you’re taking a lot more risks than I do. As a weak human, I will encounter a lot of danger in the Demon Realm,” Chen Rui thought for a moment and said, “If you already know these and insist on signing a symbiotic contract, I agree.”
Duron nodded and gave a meaningful smile, “Let’s just tentatively believe in your G.o.d-like great master’s inheritance power.”
Chen Rui also laughed. Fantasy will not be the reality. It is impossible to be like the description of novels. Only the protagonist is intelligent while the rest are all r.e.t.a.r.ded. The person who thinks others are foolish is the biggest fool.
Although he didn’t how much Paglio believed in the mysterious story, it was certain that this powerful poison dragon had just become the first true allies after his rebirth.
The feeling of contract signing was magical. It was like signing a contract with the other party spiritually. It was just that the contract was automatically activated and supervised by some kind of mysterious “law”. Unless reaching a G.o.d-like level, it cannot be reversed or changed.
Chen Rui, who successfully signed the symbiotic contract, clearly felt a strange change. It was as if his vigor had been greatly expanded, but Paglio showed no sign of weakening.
“Chen Rui, we’re now symbiotic partners; even closer than siblings.” After Paglio signed the contract, he was no longer polite. “I have to understand one thing first. Is the female grim reaper your woman? That woman is a great demon with a mutated bloodline. She has great potential, and she is likely to reach the level of demon king in the future.”
“No, we’re not even friends, but I can’t offend her.” Chen Rui shook his head. Athena was a beauty indeed but this joke shouldn’t be said simply as the tragedy of the burr puzzle was there.
The poison dragon then gave a meaningful smile. “Then I suggest that you make her yours. The female great demon is the most loyal woman among the demons. As long as you can acquire her body and mind, she will be loyal to you forever and never betray. Unless you die, she will never look for a second man. If not, our secrets will not be guaranteed.”
Chen Rui only found that Athena’s race had such characteristic, but the difficulty of this quest was too high.
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