Chapter 252: Chapter 252 – Can You Be In a Relations.h.i.+p With Me?
At night, in the middle of the dense, isolated forest in Manhattan’s Central Park, a warm glow from an open-air food stall emerged in the darkness, away from the streetlights in the distance.
Little Nine-Tailed Fox sat comfortably atop the dining table and tilted its head slightly as it looked at the female stall owner. Then, it suddenly leaped onto the female stall owner’s shoulder and began sniffing.
Little Nine-Tailed Fox said: [It’s a familiar scent.]
The sound Little Nine-Tailed Fox made was very strange, somewhat like that of a dog but also like that of a cat, though it was obviously not speaking a language humans could understand.
However, when it spoke, the dialog box which appeared above its head would display, in words, what it was actually saying. Moreover, based on the behavior of the ‘customer’ from before, it was very obvious that he could understand what Little Nine-Tailed Fox had said.
“Is it the effect of [Voice of Charm]…”
Nine-Tailed Fox once acquired an evolution [Voice of Charm], which allowed it to understand what other people were saying while being able to communicate with them directly without speaking. It was thus able to perfectly overcome language barriers.
The present state of Little Nine-Tailed Fox was very much in line with the effect of [Voice of Charm]. Ren Suo naturally wondered if it was following the evolutionary pathway of Nine-Tailed Fox and was mastering its ‘lost’ evolutions again.
Little Nine-Tailed Fox was quite intimate with the female stall owner, and that was something that Ren Suo had not expected. He did not recall himself making Little Nine-Tailed Fox such a clingy little animal.
Little Nine-Tailed Fox continued to sniff the female stall owner and said: [It’s one-sixth of that scent. It smells like a green scent, although it’s just a tinge.]
Ren Suo was stunned, but he soon realized what Little Nine-Tailed Fox was talking about—
When the female stall owner was battling against the boss in Mumbai previously, she was equipped with [Combat Fighter (Partial)] and had not unequipped it ever since. That was one of the abilities of the six Trump Cards in The All-Devouring Soul, so Little Nine-Tailed Fox certainly possessed an extremely acute sense of recognition that it could identify it in one glance.
Ren Suo quickly asked: [Is that obvious and easily identifiable?]
Little Nine-Tailed Fox shook its head and replied: [No, it’s not obvious, but this feeling is something I will never forget. That is the mark of the Supreme Master.]
The Supreme Master…?
Ren Suo asked: [Do you remember what happened to you in the past?]
Little Nine-Tailed Fox shook its head and said: [When I first opened my eyes, I was in New York.]
The memories of the All-Devouring Soul charming all creatures when it attached itself to Nine-Tailed Fox were not inherited by Little Nine-Tailed Fox. It was a completely fresh start.
Ren Suo could also tell that Little Nine-Tailed Fox was surviving well, or it could not possibly have utterly shaken a half-demon the moment it spoke.
Little Nine-Tailed Fox jumped from the left shoulder of the female stall owner to her right shoulder, then jumped onto the table in front of her. It looked at her as it asked: [How are you related to the Supreme Master?]
The female stall owner replied: [I know him.]
Little Nine-Tailed Fox nodded. Instead of probing further, it asked: [Shall I help you?]
At that juncture, the game prompted:
[‘Nine-Tailed Fox’ is willing to a.s.sist you in fleeing ghost activities tonight. Do you wish to accept its a.s.sistance?]
[Nine-Tailed Fox (combatant, mascot): Spirits will be more enticed to visit your fleeing ghost stall and the satisfaction of spirit customers is increased by 20%. Spirit customers which are weaker than Nine-Tailed Fox would respect it and would still leave a present behind and not engage in battle even if the food was unappetizing.]
Ren Suo obviously accepted the a.s.sistance of Little Nine-Tailed Fox without hesitation. He watched contentedly as Little Nine-Tailed Fox pranced around on the table divider or sat on the table and wagged its tail. Ren Suo asked: [Do you not want to eat?]
Little Nine-tailed Fox replied: [I don’t need that sort of thing.] Its words were packed with dignity and splendor, making the troubled Ren Suo, who was thinking hard about how he could enjoy one such meal, slightly envious.
He asked: [What is your name?]
Little Nine-Tailed Fox answered: [I don’t have a name.]
He said: [What do you think of the name Xiao Jiu?]
Little Nine-Tailed Fox tilted her head slightly to one side, then glanced at the female stall owner and nodded, saying: [Xiao Jiu likes the name very much.]
As they were talking, another ‘customer’ sat down. Ren Suo glanced at the ‘customer’ and immediately knew that it was a spirit—amongst the various types of monsters, he had not encountered a beast, demon-humans did not pay (tell their life stories), ghosts looked like living humans, while spirits were the only kind of monsters which… were just small animals.
Spirits would rush to sit down and would express their thoughts or ask the female stall owner to prepare their food quickly through various small actions. Some of the animals did not even know how to speak—for example, a mouse ‘spoke’ by squeaking throughout the entire meal, while the words in the dialog box translated what it meant.
In addition, their ident.i.ties would be completely revealed when they retold their life stories. It was less than a year since Reiki rejuvenation began, and they had spent more time as small animals than spirits. As such, their life stories were all very typical, and the troubles they faced were mostly along the lines of a cat not wanting to mate with it or a dog no longer being happy in its presence…
Spirits were much easier to tend to than half-demons. Many of the spirits lived a short life, so their desires were simple and they had not experienced any psychological trauma. They just felt slightly angry or upset. Consequently, the female stall owner would simply tell them that being happy was the most important when living as a spirit, then cook a bowl of noodles for them to eat, and the meal would usually be complete.
Spirits who actually caused trouble would not have harmed many people before they were caught and sent to research inst.i.tutions—nations all around the world were placing great emphasis on researching monsters and they lacked research ‘materials’ at present. With the many surveillance cameras around, it would not be hard to track down a small animal.
On the other hand, the Reiki roots of the wisdom of the spirits were finally activated, so they were more eager to know more and learn more. After concealing their ident.i.ties for such a long time, they finally found the female stall owner whom they could talk to, so they all rattled on like machine guns.
With Little Nine-Tailed Fox as a ‘security guard’ that night, Ren Suo did not even need to spend any merit points as he could tend to the spirit customers by himself.
Even when he did not season the food accurately at times and the spirit customers were about to explode, Little Nine-Tailed Fox would give a snort, and the spirit customers would immediately turn silent. Then, they would put down their gifts obediently and leave.
Two hours later, a strange ‘customer’ appeared.
He was tall, and he stood extremely upright in a red windbreaker. He wore a red top hat and even donned a pair of sungla.s.ses in the dark of the night as he walked towards the food stall with a doc.u.ment envelope in hand.
The man in red sat down and did not specify what he wanted to it in detail. He merely said: [Give me something with blood.]
He was half-ghost, half-demon.
Unlike other ghosts which were special creatures that suddenly experienced changes and Awakened due to the rejuvenation of Reiki, the ‘customer’ was resurrected by his own Awakened Ability—Blood Control. His heart had already been destroyed, but the continuously flowing blood in his body kept him alive.
According to him, he was an a.s.sa.s.sin in a particular organization. He received all sorts of rigorous training ever since he was young. Originally, he had already lost his life during one of the a.s.sa.s.sinations he was involved in, but everything changed with the rejuvenation of Reiki.
To be more accurate, after discussions on the “Nature Exploitation Technique to Awakening” emerged on the Internet, the a.s.sa.s.sination organization suddenly had a new idea.
Would it not be perfect for an a.s.sa.s.sin who was already proficient in various a.s.sa.s.sination techniques to also be Awakened? The a.s.sa.s.sin organization had already planted bombs within the bodies of all its a.s.sa.s.sins, so they were not concerned if the Awakened a.s.sa.s.sin went ‘rogue’.
Consequently, the newly trained a.s.sa.s.sins, including the ‘customer’ were subjected to torturous Awakening methods, and only a few dozens of them survived.
However, when the few of them tried to escape from the training base, they were stopped by the organization with firepower. Even though they managed to defuse the bombs within their bodies using their Awakened Abilities, almost no one was spared from being killed by the organization.
Only the man in red managed to escape, with the help of his Awakened Ability.
Burdened with the blessings and hatred of those who were killed, the man in red suddenly became cyanotic, and a pair of black wings appeared faintly behind him.
The main in red exclaimed, his voice full of hatred: [I want revenge! I want to make them have a taste of their own blood!]
The female stall owner nodded and gently pushed the bowl of pig bowl which she had prepared to the man.
The man in red ate the pig blood with a spoon and quickly finished it. As he was wearing sungla.s.ses, Ren Suo could not tell what he was thinking. The man remained silent for quite a long while, then took off the necklace he was wearing around his neck.
On the screen, Ren Suo watched as he walked to the back of the food stall, knelt on one knee, and handed the necklace to the female stall owner. It was a necklace with a gold ring.
He asked: [Can you be in a relations.h.i.+p with me?]
Little Nine-Tailed Fox tilted its head slightly to the side: [???]
Behind the screen, Ren Suo was also speechless: [???]