The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 228

Chapter 228: A Day on Earth

After Becky had adapted to the huge crowd of people on Earth, Hao Ren began to stroll around in the shopping mall with a bunch of unusual creatures. He thought about it and realized that this seemed to be the first time that he brought so many people out to buy things. Before that, he only went out occasionally with Vivian to buy groceries near home, or accompany Lily to the supermarket to buy food. These unusual creatures usually stayed at home busy their own stuff most of the time.

Anyway, Hao Ren now felt that bringing these people out seemed to be quite… interesting.

Nangong Wuyue was an ordinary girl for most of the time, she was more normal than anyone else, except for some funny acts when she was transforming into a siren. Therefore, she was soon attracted by the crafts and small decorations shops along the way and left the team. Hao Ren continued to walk with the rest of them who were not interested in such things. Becky could not stop looking around and told Hao Ren, “Eh, you see there’re so many people here, imagine if I throw them a Pyroblast…” “Look at that automatic ladder over there, if I place a blizzard at the exit…” “Hey! That’s the best spot to set up an acid trap!”

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat while listening to her and asked, “Why do you always have such a lunatic idea?”

“I’ve no choice, this is my occupational disease,” Becky scratched her hair while talking to Hao Ren, “Usually when I walk in the streets of my hometown I often make such a deduction, like what place suitable for the trap, where is the place for magic, what object looks like it can be disguised as an explosion chest… I’ve been a mercenary for a long time.”

Hao Ren rubbed away the cold sweat and thought to himself that not every mercenary would be as neurotic as this girl!

After they had studied the map of the mall, they decided to help Y’zaks to pick some clothes first. Along the way when they were heading for a men’s shop, everybody avoided them. Y’zaks stuck on the ground like a horrible totem. There were no people in the radius of several meters. Though it was embarrassing, it was a good thing, which was, no matter how many people around them, it was not crowded. There was one thing that they could not control. There were people outside the circle secretly taking photos of Y’zaks and post it social media. Y’zaks’ photo was worth more than 300 reposts without the need for any caption.

Finally, Hao Ren led Y’zaks into the large-scale brand shop and asked the sales assistant nearest to him “Excuse me, can you help the man beside me to pick a coat.”

The young lady was not facing them. She was tidy up the hangers and turned around as she heard Hao Ren’s voice and said, “Welcome, please…”

Then she looked up at Y’zaks and stunned.

Hao Ren could not help but slapped his forehead: again. He waved his hand before the young lady’s eyes and said, “Err, can you help him pick a coat. Let’s not judge a person by his appearance. Although this man looks ferocious, he’s, in fact, a good person…”

Fortunately, the young lady’s psychological quality was better. She did not call the police or turned around to take money from the cash register. She just looked dully at Y’zaks’ figure and said, “This… I’m afraid it’s hard to find such a large coat.”

“Not so tall?”

“…Not so wide.”

Hao Ren suddenly realized that Y’zaks’ stalwart stature was both tall and strong. 2.15-meters giant man did exist on earth, but it was hard to find someone who looked like Y’zaks, with the height of 2.15 meters and whose upper body was almost as big an strong as an inverted triangle. Y’zaks also knew it. He shrugged at Hao Ren and said, “So I said I really don’t want to bother you, my clothes need to be custom-made, otherwise there’s nothing I can wear on earth except for the curtains. I better go home and ‘toss about’ something for myself.”

Hao Ren knew what Y’zaks meant was using magic to condense new clothes, but it clearly was not something that the big demon was good at. The clothes he was wearing now took her two months to create after he landed in England, and it was as ugly as the kind of clothes worn by reform through labor criminals. Hao Ren felt bad for the best fighter of his house to live such a bad life. Therefore, he shook his head, holding the last hope to look at the sales assistant and said, “Just try your best. I guess any clothes you pick for him will be better than what he’s wearing now.”

The young sales assistant had no choice. She felt that the customer with the height of 2.15 meters and whose upper body was almost as big a strong as an inverted triangle was someone she could not afford to offend. Therefore, she had to go and rummage through the store to find the biggest clothes and measured it with Y’zaks body. “… This is the biggest size we have. It was worn by a mannequin as our shop sign. We didn’t expect it to be sold…”

It was a thick long jacket, and Lily was able to use it as a kennel but it looked like a waistcoat if put it on Y’zaks. The big demon shrunk his shoulder awkwardly and said, “I guess it’s OK to put on, but I need to hold my breath for a long time, maybe a sneeze will turn it into pieces.”

Hao Ren looked at the sales assistant expectantly and asked, “no bigger size?”

The sales assistant said awkwardly, “Honestly, even the curtains of our shop could not fit him. For normal clothing manufacturers, if not for the world record, who will design clothing of this big? The problem is not about the height, but the width…”

Hao Ren found it funny. It was not easy to make a trained professional sales assistant to say something like this. And the sales assistant also suggested, “I suggest that you guys don’t look have to look around here, the entire mall won’t have such large clothes. For such a big size, it’s better to custom-made for him.”

Hao Ren also planned to buy Y’zaks a pair of trousers, but now look at this situation, he could only give up. If they could not get a shirt that suit him, let alone a pair of trousers. It was still acceptable if the shirt was slightly tight, but not the pants. There was a sentence that could apply on Y’zaks waist: If his trousers were thrown on the floor and no one was wearing it, you did not even know what that was…

They left the shop in disappointment. When they left, Lily declared one thing very seriously with the sales assistant, “Your window is too small–my curtain is just fit to put around Y’zaks.”

Vivian hurriedly dragged Lily out and said, “Why take it so seriously.”

“Forget it, I better order two sets of customized clothes for you,” Hao Ren look at Y’zaks regrettably, “You can wear this bulletproof combat outfit when ‘working’, but on earth, it’s best to wear something that is not eye-catching. And then now we’ll go and buy Vivian’s stuff?”

Lily had little interest to follow them. In fact, she had been trying to run around since the beginning–as the breed of dog that was nicknamed ‘The-dog-that-will-not-listen-to-you’, you could not expect her to go shopping and follow the team obediently. So now she began to get impatient and said, “It’s so boring! I’m going to see the bags upstairs…”

“Bag? For travel or adventure?” asked Becky.

Lily quickly instill the wrong knowledge into Becky and said, “You’ll know when you see it. It’s not a travel bag. It’s simply for carrying with one hand.”

Hao Ren looked at this situation and knew that he could not stop them. He waved and said, “Okay okay, you can go, but don’t run around, we’ll meet at the exit at noon.”

He then looked at the big demon and said, “Y’zaks, help me to keep an eye on two of them–especially Becky. I remember there is a decorative mechanical dinosaur upstairs. Becky can easily rub a fireball to hit the dinosaur.”

So they split up. Finally, there was just Vivian alone with Hao Ren. She had been curious since they left the house and asked, “What are you going to buy me?”

Hao Ren pointed to Vivian body and said, “Let’s not talk about anything else. First I’ll get you some new clothes, and then give you a cell phone.”

Vivian was now wearing an old-fashioned winter coat. In fact, most of her clothes were old-fashioned, and some were even worn out. Although the vampire lady’s beautiful face could make up for the flaws in her clothes, Hao Ren did not think so. He felt that Vivian should dress more beautifully, more like a legendary, noble-looking vampire aristocrat. He did not know when this idea came up, but he was going to do it today anyway. As for the cell phone, it was a temporary decision when they left the house, everyone in the house had a mobile phone, even Y’zaks also got one for himself, except for Vivian. This was not a big deal for an ‘unusual creature’, but Hao Ren still decided to give Vivian a gift.

Let’s put aside the practicality of a cell phone (for this gang of Supermen, a cell phone’s function was actually limited). Hao Ren just hoped that Vivian, who was still living the most simple and shabby life, could live as good as others in the house. He always felt very uncomfortable to see some of the details in Vivian’s life, and now he was almost unable to stand it.

When the vampire lady heard Hao Ren’s plan, she looked really surprised. But after that, she looked reserved and not sure how to respond, “I… I’m fine now. I’m quite satisfied to live in your place…”

“Don’t mention it,” Hao Ren smiled and said, “Just take it as a present. You don’t have a cell phone yet, do you? At least when we’re on Earth, it’s convenient to have this kind of thing to contact each other.”

“I… used to have one before,” Vivian smiled awkwardly, “I was very fortunate to save a little money and then I was curious and bought a cheap one. But then I couldn’t pay the bill, it was turned off for a very long time. Now it’s still in my suitcase and probably won’t be able to turn on again.”

Vivian was not sure how to react to this unexpected pleasure, but she did not refuse Hao Ren’s kindness at last. She followed him with anticipation and a vague excitement.

As they walked through the shops, there was a woman at the back of the counter who raised her head and glanced at them thoughtfully. This was a woman with a cold and detached look, with a scar near her nose.

Supposedly, a shopping mall like this would have a certain demand for the sales person’s appearance. At least a person with a scar on her face would find it difficult to get a job here, especially when she had a cold and detached expression on her face. However, this woman was sitting behind the counter. Whether it was her smiling colleagues or the fussy guests around her, they all seemed to have turned a blind eye to her.

The eye’s of the woman with a scar on her face followed Hao Ren and Vivian for a while until they disappeared in a shop. She then sat down with a blank expression and continued to sit there in a daze as if she was transparent.

Chapter 229: An Unexpected Encounter

Hao Ren was leading Vivian into a women’s shop. Before Vivian was dazzled by a large variety of ‘luxury’ goods around her, she looked around suspiciously and asked, “Why do I feel that someone’s staring at us?”

Hao Ren looked back strangely but only saw those ordinary customers and shops. “Just an illusion. If something happens around us, the MDT will alarm us.”

“Oh,” Vivian responded. She then turned her attention back to the clothes and her mood quickly lifted. To be honest, she really never thought that she could choose any dresses she liked at this kind of place. As a super poor, miserable and shabby vampire, the most extravagant was just picking up one or two pieces of clothing in a wayside stall or even in the secondhand clothes market. Therefore, when she was dragged here by Hao Ren, she even had a sense of happiness. Just as Hao Ren said, this poor vampire was so easy to be satisfied.

“Can I really choose whatever I like?” Vivian whispered, her eyes were full of anticipation but she looked eager. Hao Ren looked back with a smile and replied, “Of course, as you like. Lily has changed more than 10 sets of clothes for herself since she came here, but what you have are still those old coats. I can’t bear it.”

Without any more words, after a happy little cry, she rushed to the beautiful clothes. She still liked these–it seemed to be unrelated to species, she was a girl after all.

Well, there’s nothing I can say if you really want to argue about her age…

Hao Ren felt that there was nothing he could help now, so he let Vivian choose the clothes inside while he was waiting very patiently near the counter. The young cashier at the back of the counter was looking at this somewhat strange combination with interest for a good while and said, “Your girlfriend is very beautiful.”

“Of course she is beautiful, she…” Hao Ren did not immediately realize something was not right at the beginning and then hurriedly explained, “Err, not my girlfriend, just an ordinary friend, I just bring her to buy some stuff.”

“Is it?” The cashier girl was a little surprised but still smiled and said, “but almost, two of you look very close.”

Hao Ren scratched his hair, not sure what to say. He did not know how others could see that they were ‘very intimate’.

After a while, with the help of the shopping guide, Vivian tried two sets of clothes, and she looked very satisfied. Then, she beckoned him over with a wave at the other end of the clothes rack and asked, “Landlord, come and see if these two sets of clothes look good on me?”

Hao Ren walked toward Vivian, leaving the cashier stunned and muttered, “Landlord? The relationship between landlord and tenant has become so complicated these days? ”

Vivian liked black very much, so even if she had the opportunity to choose her favorite clothes, she would only pick the black one. The two dresses she picked were almost all black. One of them looked like a slim maxi dress, but in fact, it was a special woman’s windbreaker, and another one was a short coat with a string of small cross on the waist and matched with a black cotton skirt. Perhaps these two dresses were the legendary retro Gothic style. Anyway, the windbreaker looked really suitable for Vivian as a vampire, as for another one… Looking at that string of small cross Hao Ren knew that it was Vivian’s special aesthetic view.

You would not find another sane vampire who would surround herself with a string of cross.

“Which one is better?” Vivian asked happily. Her slightly pale cheeks were even blushed with excitement. It was very rare to see a girl who was happy just because she could buy a new dress these days. Hao Ren sighed and waved and said, “Take whatever you like, I got my pay card anyway.”

The so-called pay card was the saving card provided by Raven for all kinds of expenses that Hao Ren used to reimburse the living expensed of these unusual creatures.

Vivian slightly swayed her body with delight but uneasily and asked, “Does it suit me… It’s so expensive, I have never bought such good clothes…

“Eh, you are frugal enough,” Hao Ren sighed, “You just buy two new clothes for the past 6 months, I think it’s too easy to provide for you, Lily’s snacks were even more valuable than what you’re wearing now.”

Vivian said no more. She asked the shopping guide to put away the long windbreaker-like dress, and then held the other one like it was her precious and asked, “Can I put this on first?”

Hao Ren points to the fitting room and said, “Go ahead.”

Then Vivian went in in the blink of an eye.

After waited patiently for a moment, the door of the fitting room was pushed open. Vivian appeared in front of Hao Ren with the new clothes. She turned around with a little uneasiness and asked, “Does it suit me?”

Hao Ren stunned there for three to five seconds and then kept nodding and said, “The designer of this clothes must be born just for you!”

The vampire was still the same old vampire, but it was true that the tailor makes the man. After putting on the new dress, Vivian looked like she was refreshed after F5. The well-tailored women’s winter clothes did not appear plump and was just right to show the good figure of the girl. The black fabric might appear too dull in others, but in Vivian’s feminine temperament, it appeared particularly appropriate. With the slightly pale complexion of the vampire lady, there was a kind of prominent, eye-catching, and even the devil charm against the black fabric. And a string of crosses on her graceful waist let Hao Ren who already knew Vivian well felt that there was a kind of unspeakable… art, yes, it was artistic.

It was totally different from those non-mainstream youngsters who randomly wore a bunch of necklace on their necks, the cross on Vivian was always critical, creative, futuristic, looking for trouble… Anyway, it was full of the spirit of symbolism. Even if Vivian was a non-mainstream, she was the non-mainstream among the vampires.

“Am I looked so good?” Vivian came to Hao Ren happily. She had always been calm, but today she was going to have a good time, she wanted to relax in this dress. Hao Ren kept nodding his head that he felt a little dizzy. “Yes. You look so good as if you’ve been photoshopped.”

Vivian took this delicate description as a compliment and accepted it contentedly.

Some of the other sales assistants were also surprised. They were not just surprised by Vivian’s beauty, but also the kind of temperament that did not belong to a human that she accidentally revealed for a second. Just a little bit of it was enough to shake the minds of ordinary people. A sales assistant confessed that she had never seen anyone fit this outfit so well, just as two things had never been met, but had been prepared for each other from the day they were born. Hao Ren found this exclamation was actually adapted from the advertisement. He thought it was a bit of an exaggeration, but the sales assistant said earnestly, “We’ve sold more than ten of these two sets of vampire-themed clothes but the previous customers looked like the families of the deceased, and we never understand what’s on the designer’s mind…”

Hao Ren then noticed the there were vampire theme words printing on the bag that Vivian was carrying. She felt that this topic was sensitive here, so she hurriedly urged Hao Ren to settle the bill and then left the shop.

Along the way, Vivian hugged her new dress with a dreamy face and said, “Go back and I’ll wear this one first, and then leave the long windbreaker for New Year.”

“Do you have to be so… I’ll buy you a new one for New Year. Now let’s go and buy a new phone for you,” said Hao Ren.

Mobile phone area was just opposite of the apparel area, but because there was not a specialized electronic mall, so there were just three to four mobile phone stores available, and there were not many customers inside the stores. Hao Ren was not very keen on electronic products, especially after having a Mobile Data Terminal, his mobile phone directly became just a watch that he could refer to when he was outside, not to mention Vivian. Therefore, without any target, two of them simply entered a shop that looked nice. There were quite a number of customers inside and there was only one salesgirl who was free behind the long counter, so Hao Ren walked to her and knocked on the glass cabinet and said, “Excuse me…”

The salesgirl behind the counter looked up at him silently and said, “Hello.”

Hao Ren was stunned.

The woman looked cold. There was a shallow but easily notice scar near the bridge of her nose. Although she carefully makeup, Hao Ren could still instantly recognize the scar and the face.

This was exactly the female fighter whom Hao Ren was facing when he had a head-on encounter with the demon hunter for the first time.

For a moment he thought he was wrong, but when Vivian stepped back, he knew… That was her!

Chapter 230: “Old Friends”

The battle with the demon hunters was the first surreal combat experience Hao Ren ever had. The memory was still vivid. For this reason, he recognised this woman—she was the one he had fought that day—the scar was the giveaway. But never had he expected he would come to this place and bump into her—who was now a mobile phone seller!

Vivian remembered the face too as the memory struck her. The ambient temperature dropped as she took a step back. Just when the vampire was about to strike, the female demon hunter waved. “Here… is that okay?”

Hao Ren felt his heart had gotten used to surprises. He quickly calmed himself down and pulled Vivian by her sleeve, telling her to not react hastily. While people around them were sensing the unusual atmosphere, they hadn’t any idea about the strange conversation between them. People were just surprised by the sudden cold draft, rubbing their hands and looking at lost. Some were staring at Vivian though. But Vivian was quick in retracting her move. The situation hadn’t spiraled into a commotion because everything returned to normal very quickly.

Vivian sensed the demon hunter lass wasn’t hostile and hadn’t the slightest intention of getting into a fight. She felt a little relieved now though was still on her guard. She asked quietly, “Are you the demon hunter? I remember you were captured by the arcane servant.”

“I was released.” The demon hunter lass said quietly. It wasn’t known what she had done but everyone including her colleagues were looking elsewhere, no one was paying attention to her, Hao Ren and Vivian. Had Vivian not disrupted the strange energy field she had created, she would still be like in a kind of shield of serenity.

Hao Ren’s mouth was wide open but he couldn’t think of a word to say, he still felt it unreal to meeting his old foe here. “What are you doing here?” He finally found his word.

“Obviously, I’m working here.” The demon hunter lass replied calmly. “I’ve been working here for five years. I was even selling clothes next door not long ago. If not for being captured and held by the blue creature in a strange place, I’d have still been selling clothes here.”

“That’s not what I mean.” said Hao Ren. “As a demon hunter, why are you even here? You should be staying in some underground bunker, appearing in various secret societies beneath the churches, holding the kill orders to go after all the demons around the world, standing on the TV tower watching sunrise, and preserving the peace in the city. That’s what I thought.”

The demon hunter lass said to Hao Ren with a straight face, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. But if I were to live like the way you’ve described without even needing to work, how am I supposed to find the money to live?”

Hao Ren: “…..”

Hao Ren was totally speechless. What she said was totally logical. He was dazed for a while. “Wait a second. Do you mean that all other demon hunters are living just like you—work, eat and sleep?”

Now, Vivian couldn’t bear to listen anymore. She nudged his arm from behind and said, “Doesn’t everyone need to eat?”

The demon hunter lass nodded as she said, “We live among human. I thought you should have known.”

In fact, Vivian had told Hao Ren a lot about demon hunters, including of how they infiltrated and lived among human society. Obviously, Hao Ren had mistaken ‘live among’ as a superficial cover. He had now only learned that these superhumans just live like any human—that was the fault of Holywood; he thought if not fighting with monsters, superheroes should always stand on TV towers and act cool.

While Nangong was a demon hunter, Hao Ren had never treated him as one.

“So it means we need not to fight today, do we?” Hao Ren still suppressed his voice while saying even though he knew people weren’t looking at them. He stared very cautiously at the scarred lady, was still frightened by the thought of being nailed to a wall by a 500mm crossbow. “I didn’t know the psychopath has let you out. I didn’t even know where she had held you. Where was it?”

That day, the arcane servant of Raven came to their rescue, and took every demon hunters along with it—dead and alive. Raven 12345 had said she needed to teach them a lesson. But when Hao Ren reported back to the mansion soon after, he didn’t see any one of them. The arcane servant had told him vaguely that the captured demon hunters would be held in a special spatial dimension; it wasn’t just a jail but an educational facility where Raven 12345 would use her own method to correct these racial extremists. Hao Ren had thought that he probably wasn’t going to see the demon hunters again, but seeing the scarred lady was a total surprise, it gave him an opportunity to know what was actually happening to her after the she was captured.

The fact that the scarred lady didn’t draw her weapon at once when she saw Vivian just showed how successful Raven 12345’s ‘correction measures’ on them.

The demon hunter lass was in thought. Hao Ren could see the exhaustion and aftershock on her indifferent face as if she had been through hell during her captivity. But when she was about to say something, a middle-aged male voice was calling her out at the shop entrance. “Zhao Xi, could you please come—”

The demon hunter lass stood up when she heard the name ‘Zhao Xi’. The male voice was so familiar, thought Hao Ren. As he turned his head, he saw a man, clad in suit, with an ordinary face—if wasn’t for the fact that this man was the leader of demon hunters, he was truly as common as other men on the street.

Vivian was nervous again. But obviously the demon hunter leader didn’t come for a fight; he was surprised too as he waved to Hao Ren and Vivian, half-smiling and half-crying. ” Here we meet again but I’m looking for any trouble today.”

He then turned to the demon hunter lass. “Zhao Xi, tuck your gimmick away. Please come with your two friends.”

The demon hunter lass nodded with a straight face. As she bent down and reached under the counter and took out a rune card before shoving it in her pocket, the surrounding vibes was obviously changing—those patrons and shopkeepers who inadvertently kept a distance from them were starting to wake up and glance at them curiously. There was even a shopkeeper gave Hao Ren a glance and then asked in hindsight, “Zhao Xi, you know him?”

So it was the magic of rune card that had kept people’s attention away.

Hao Ren and Vivian, as well as the demon hunter lass named Zhao Xi cluelessly followed the ‘leader’ into a quiet corner outside the shop. Then the middle-aged man started to reprimand his subordinate. “Can’t you work seriously? You’re making my job difficult if you keep using the rune card so that you could sleep on your job or play with your mobile phone the whole time—you’re dragging the sales down!”

Zhao Xi looked at her superior straight-faced. “My pay’s just a drop in the ocean. Not like what you said.”

The middle-aged man frowned. “But still, you shouldn’t dawdle your life away.”

“Firstly, I’ve a scar on my face.” Zhao Xi pointed at the scar and then her face. “Secondly, my facial nerve was total numbed by the toxic blood of the vampire forty years ago. Tell me, how do I not drag down the sales without having to use rune card magic to draw attention away from me?”

The middle-aged man said, “…probably you’re right, but still, you’ve having an attitude problem at work…”

Listening to such mundane argument between a shopkeeper and her superior bored people to death if not for the fact that the two of them were demon hunters themselves and their conversation had involved a vampire—that was interesting when these the points were considered. Hao Ren gave a cough so that the middle-aged man would turn his attention to them—‘old friends’ whom the middle-aged man was awkward to face with. The middle-aged man said, half-smiling and half-crying, “I’m sorry. Let me introduce. My name’s Liu Sheng—name I’ve been using for decades. I’m the regional manager of the electronic store and home appliance store here. I’m also a…. senior demon hunter.”

Chapter 231: A New Alliance?

The second encounter between Hao Ren and the demon hunters was dramatic. After their surreal battle, they met again but in the real sense of the world: Hao Ren was out shopping with the vampire while they bumped into the two demon hunters who were respectively a mobile phone seller and a mediocre regional manager just like any other office workers. It wasnt’ clear what had happened to them but they clearly looked devoid of the intention to fight.

In a quiet corner between the shop and the emergency exit, Liu Sheng was staring at Hao Ren with his half-smiling and half-crying face as he took out a box of cigarettes and offered it to Hao Ren.

Hao Ren was a smoker in the past, but he quit the habit since the female canine with an ultra-sensitive olfactory receptor moved into his home. “No thanks, I don’t smoke. By the way, I’m surprised to see you here. So demon hunters really live among ordinary humans, huh…”

Liu Sheng lighted up a ciggy, like a normal office worker goofing off and complaining about life, he glanced around and then exhaled softly and said, “Apart from learning from my parents and the seniors, I’d also been to private school, was a certified student before becoming a First-Degree Scholar—almost. I was teacher, a sailor onboard a fleet of private steamers in Zhejiang, and a batch of the old PLR shoes was made during my time as a manager in a workshop a few decades ago. I was a PC parts seller in the city more than ten years ago, but now I’m a little manager of this commercial mall. So what say you—am I living among humans?”

Liu Sheng paused. His eyes swept across them. “Just like how you come out shopping with the vampire; as the world was built by human, no matter how special and how powerful we are, we’ll still have to live like human—eat, work and sleep.”

“I’m not one of you.” Hao Ren waved his hand frantically. “I’m human. Pure human race.”

Liu Sheng smiled without saying a word. He for sure knew who Hao Ren was, he just didn’t bother to look into a lot of things. Hao Ren had noticed a sense of I’ve-seen-it-all and tiredness on Liu Sheng’s face. Zhao Xi had it too albeit not as obvious because of facioplegia. Hao Ren asked curiously, “Are you quitting your demon hunter job?”

“I’d still do my job if evil spirits are harming people.” Liu Sheng looked at Vivian with a half-smiling and half-crying face. “But I won’t bother you guys, I’m too tired.”

“What happened to you guys?” asked Vivian, frowning. “I thought demon hunters are as stubborn as a mule. And they won’t change till the day they die.”

“What if there’s bigger trial than death in this world?” Liu Sheng smiled as he said. “A Goddess once said she didn’t bother to educate a bunch of lunatics with words, so she threw us into a jail—another world to be exact which was specially catered to people like us. In that world, a tiny planet has over forty races, over three hundred organisations of various ideas which are further split into four to five factions. Everyone was condemning the others as heretics, and a holy war erupted every three minutes in the name of justice. Nobody cared what the cause of the conflict, and no one had ever thought of the logic of their struggles because as long as the other was deemed a heretic, that was a good enough reason to start a war. So there we were in a fantasy-like world, switching camp everyday to fight the world’s heretics and at the same time being deemed heretic ourselves by the whole world.

Liu Sheng paused for a moment before letting out a long sigh. “It was said that it was an epitome, a dream created by God to bring together all the stupid internal conflicts and blind wars that have taken place in many worlds. Those soldiers and generals who had lost their sense of logic and were completely carried away by their racial fanaticism were just phantoms—but that makes no sense. It was as real as the real world. We were there for like three hundred to five hundred years, and had seen for ourselves the stupidity of extreme racism.”

Like a stingy folk, Liu Sheng took a last puff on the ciggy which had burned to the filter before stubbing it out in the ashtray on a rubbish bin. “Racism is plainly stupid.”

Hao Ren: “…..”

He had felt the style of Raven 12345 in him.

Vivian was left speechless. “Though it was weird, it’s good. All demon hunters and unusual creatures should be such educated.”

“That doesn’t get to the bottom of the problem, she said.” Liu Sheng twitched his mouth and said, “What she meant was you can’t solve every problem with violence, it stifles the variability and self-correction ability of the human race. I didn’t really understand what she said, maybe she had her own consideration. We were just the unlucky ones.”

Hao Ren understood that meaning of Raven 12345: she had always insisted that mortals should deal with their own affairs, own development, and rectify their own mistakes. If it required the entire civilisation be bulldozed down and started all over again, then let it be as long as the civilisation could keep going, she wasn’t going to intervene. She just had to do some minor fine-tuning which wouldn’t affect the overall progress of the civilisation.

Of course, this conclusion was just an ideal version of which Hao Ren had tried hard to beautify Raven 12345 in his heart. The real situation could be that the Goddess was too busy cooking her instant noodle, she couldn’t care less for this bunch of losers. As the fanatic demon hunters were very upset and causing trouble in the heaven, the female psychopath decided to open the spatial door and threw them into it. All the grand stories ensued were just cooked up impromptu.

Vivian crossed her arms and looked at Liu Sheng and said, “Whatever it is, I don’t like conflict. The current state is the best. Anyway, as far as I know, those demon hunters who were caught in the trouble should be the small group which was passing by, you guys—”

“Just the two of us are local.” Liu Sheng pointed at Zhao Xi. “They were on a reconnaissance mission and passing by. I was the one in charge here so I became their temporary team leader.”

It seemed the education Raven 12345 imposed on the demon hunters was just to cause them to disgust those meaningless struggles and hadn’t changed their stand and professional ethics. This was evident in Liu Sheng’s cautious manner when they were talking about the covert operation of demon hunters. But Hao Ren had guessed what it was. “Was it about The Day of Return?”

“Apparently, you know something.”

Hao Ren smiled. “You don’t have to be so cautious before us. You could even set aside your thoughts on the unusual creatures and the demon hunters. You now know who we’re working for, and we’re obviously non-partisan. Do you think it’s necessary to be so wary of heaven mercenaries?”

Hao Ren made the name ‘heaven mercenary’ up on a whim, and he thought it apt too.

Liu Sheng agreed. “You’re right. The one behind you is simply too powerful. So I’ll be honest with you; were were indeed investigating The Day of Return when a group of shamans and vampires were digging for relics in the north, but now I know they’re not related to you.”

“The north…” Vivian winked but she couldn’t recall any ‘old friends’ of her in the north. Meanwhile, Hao Ren curiously asked, “How much do you know about The Day of Return? We’re investigating the event.”

“No more than what you’ve already known.” Liu Sheng shook his head. “What I do know is, the unusual creatures are very concerned about it. They’re planning to make use of the ancient relics to launch another attack. As the influence of demon hunters has abnormally diminished for the past years and coupled with the fact that it’s not as easy to make war as in the past, we couldn’t monitor the movement of the unusual creatures as easily as in the past. All we know is that they’re studying about The Day of Return in a few places—around the Arctic, Africa, Central America, and a secret location in the Pacific. Werewolves and vampires are the most active. While some shamans have joined the party, it’s not known what’s their intention: there shouldn’t be any relics left to be found.”

“The Arctic… Africa…” Hao Ren mumbled, trying to memorise. “Understood. I’ll investigate who these unusual creatures are. Hopefully I’ll get the intel soon.”

He gave Vivian a glance. She nodded lightly as if saying she would get everything done.

“By the way, we can cooperate.” Hao Ren looked at Liu Sheng as if expecting something. He needed to expand his intelligence operation among unusual creatures and demon hunters; while he had made positive progress among unusual creatures thanked to Vivian and Ebben family which had spread their shelter organisation to other families, he was still at a dead-end on demon hunters. The only source he currently had was Nangong, the half-baked demon hunter, who left him a list of names but had left out Zhao Xi and Liu Sheng…

Anyhow, that fellow who was called Sanba was good at nothing accept warding off evil spirits.

Liu Sheng stared intensely at Hao Ren and then said cautiously, “I’m still a demon hunter and she,” pointing at Zhao Xi. “and I are still pondering what we should do. So we’re not going to commit to anything yet. But… you and I are no longer enemy. And I hope you won’t get us involved in your business with other demon hunters. Don’t put me in that difficult situation.”

The ambiguous reply was good enough. Hao Ren knew though Liu Sheng wouldn’t get involved actively, he wouldn’t decline request for non-critical information. So Hao Ren smiled and nodded, feeling satisfied. Suddenly the MDT spoke into his mind, “News from the administration: homeland of Hilda has been located.”