Looking at the wheelchair that had fallen apart, the girl sobbed in the dim alley, sounding utterly helpless.
"This... this was my fourteenth birthday present. Chuchu spent so long collecting scrap to sell so she could buy it for me..."
"And... there's still such a long way to go. How am I supposed to get home?"
Bai Chen lay quietly on the ground, listening to the girl murmur through her tears.
Chuchu must be the younger sister Lin Luoluo mentioned, right?
This girl was at least eighteen now. The wheelchair hadn't been much good to begin with, yet she'd somehow kept using it for four whole years...
Bai Chen had gained a deeper understanding of Lin Luoluo's family circumstances, and he felt even more sympathy for the resilient girl.
He looked at Lin Luoluo, her little face scrunched up in distress, then at the pile of metal frames that was now completely beyond repair.
A wheelchair? That thing was too slow.
With him here, what did she need a wheelchair for?
A thought flashed through his mind. The next second, Bai Chen moved.
His jelly-like body turned into a mass of pitch-black shadow and began to wriggle, silently making its way to Lin Luoluo's feet.
Lin Luoluo was lost in her grief and didn't notice him moving at all.
Then a strange sensation came from her ankles.
Bai Chen's body flowed like liquid, climbing and spreading upward from the girl's white-socked feet.
"Huh?"
Startled by the sudden movement, Lin Luoluo looked down and her eyes widened.
"Xiao Bai, you..."
Sitting on the ground, she watched the pitch-black substance slowly cover her legs as though it were alive.
Although the nerves in her legs had long since died and she couldn't feel anything at all, watching her lower body being wrapped up like this still made the girl's cheeks flush.
This felt so strange!
The black substance didn't stop. It continued upward, past her waist and over her chest.
Once it reached her waist, Lin Luoluo could actually feel its icy touch, as though a pair of big hands were massaging her body.
The black substance stopped abruptly at her chest, leaving the girl's face red with embarrassment.
But the next second, Lin Luoluo let out an even more uncontrollable cry.
"Ah!"
Several thick tentacles suddenly sprang from the black substance enveloping her body and planted themselves firmly on the ground.
Then the tentacles pushed!
Whoosh!
A powerful force held up the girl's body, lifting her from the ground and onto her feet in an instant!
Lin Luoluo's field of vision shot upward, and the scenery around her changed in an instant.
This was... what the world looked like standing up?
She had never experienced this feeling again after the accident she'd had as a child.
She had always sat in a wheelchair, looking up at the world.
The long-forgotten feeling left her deeply unaccustomed to it, yet an irrepressible excitement welled up in her heart.
Bai Chen was now like a tailor-made black dress, wrapping snugly around her and providing her powerless legs with incredibly firm support.
Before Lin Luoluo could fully adjust, the tentacles beneath her suddenly pushed off again!
"Whoosh—!"
Lin Luoluo's vision blurred, and she shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow!
"Waaah!"
She squeezed her eyes shut in fright. The wind howled in her ears, and the scenery flew backward, becoming patches of blurred color.
This was too fast!
Faster than any vehicle she had ever ridden in!
Using his tentacles in place of her legs, Bai Chen ran a lap through the narrow alley this way, then returned steadily to where they had started.
He stopped, several tentacles still braced firmly against the ground to keep Lin Luoluo standing steady.
Lin Luoluo clutched her chest and gasped for breath, her heart pounding so hard it felt ready to leap out of her throat.
"Xiao Luoluo, how was that?"
Bai Chen's smug voice rang out in her mind.
Although the girl couldn't move her legs, he could carry her while he ran. Wasn't that much faster than the lousy wheelchair? And who knew how many times safer it was!
Lin Luoluo opened her eyes, still shaken. When she came to her senses, she immediately understood what Bai Chen had intended.
So Xiao Bai was... helping me walk!
No, this wasn't walking anymore. This was running! Running, something I wouldn't have dared imagine even in my dreams!
"Xiao Bai, you're so good to me..."
Lin Luoluo's eyes grew warm as she spoke gratefully.
She reached out and hugged Bai Chen, who had now become her clothes, and rubbed her soft little face against Luo Bai's body.
Bai Chen smiled inwardly. He had spent a whole year struggling in the perilous Contract Spirit world, with hardly any interaction with intelligent beings.
Now that someone depended on him, the feeling was really quite nice.
"Xiao Luoluo, the wheelchair's broken, but that's fine. I'll be with you from now on, and I'll be your wheelchair. Once we've earned some money, we'll be able to cure your legs one day!"
"Now just lead the way and tell me where to go," he replied in her mind.
"Mm!"
Lin Luoluo nodded vigorously, the emotion in her heart continuing to wash over her!
"Just follow this road, turn left at the intersection ahead, then right, and go straight for another half hour and we'll be there!"
"Okay."
Bai Chen answered and was just about to set off when he heard the girl speak again, a hint of pleading in her voice.
"Xiao Bai, could we... could we take the wheelchair with us? Even though it's broken, it was a gift from Chuchu..."
Bai Chen fell silent for a moment.
A pitch-black tentacle detached from his body and affectionately ruffled Lin Luoluo's silver-white hair.
He didn't refuse.
A broken wheelchair wasn't all that heavy anyway. It wouldn't hinder his movement at all.
Another tentacle stretched out, gathered up the scattered wheelchair parts from the ground, and secured them firmly to one side of his body.
A moment later, they were ready.
The girl, looking as though she wore a black tentacled battle suit, sped through the dim alley once again.
The wind whipped through Lin Luoluo's silver-white hair.
Mentally prepared this time, she was no longer as frightened as before. Instead, she found it a little thrilling.
But Bai Chen seemed to be getting faster and faster.
"Xiao Bai, slow down, fast, too... too fast!"
The girl's cries were drowned out by the roar of the wind. By the time Bai Chen perceived them, they had become broken and somewhat distorted.
"What? Not fast enough?"
Bai Chen's understanding was just a teensy bit off.
A trace of competitiveness stirred in him.
Back in the Monster Forest, before he had even reached S-Rank, he had already been faster than many First Tier Devil Beasts that ran on four legs. Now that his strength had improved, he hadn't properly tested his top speed yet.
Today, I had to show this girl what real speed and passion looked like!
And so Bai Chen pushed harder!
Magic faintly flowed over the surface of the black substance enveloping the girl, and every time the tentacles beneath her pushed against the ground, they unleashed astonishing force!
Their speed was now several times faster than before!
Three minutes later.
Bai Chen finally stopped at the entrance to a street lined with old shacks.
As soon as he released his possession and turned back into a mass of black shadow on the ground, Lin Luoluo's legs gave way, and she fell straight to her hands and knees.
"Urgh..."
Her face was pale as she braced herself against the corner of a wall and retched repeatedly. Her whole stomach felt as though rivers and seas were churning inside it, and not a trace of color remained in her little face.
Bai Chen was at a loss. He extended a tiny tentacle and gently patted the girl on the back, apologizing in her mind, deeply embarrassed:
"Um... sorry. I thought you were saying I wasn't fast enough..."
Lin Luoluo waved her hand to show she was all right. After retching for quite a while longer, she finally recovered.
She slowly pushed herself upright and leaned against the wall, choosing not to blame Bai Chen.
Quite the opposite: her clear eyes were now sparkling with excitement.
She had always worried that her crippled legs would burden Bai Chen and affect his fighting strength.
But now she realized she had been wrong!
If she and Xiao Bai could work together like this, not only would she no longer hold him back, but their speed would even surpass that of many Contract Spirits known for their speed!
This wasn't just a way to get home; it was a completely new way to fight!