Evil God-chan Appears
"Hello? Hello? Is anyone in this shop?" Not long after the network had opened for business, the first visitor, to Chen Luo's surprise, wasn't Venti but a stranger—or rather, a strange snake.
She had a lazy voice and a smug expression. She wasn't wearing anything at all, but her long golden hair covered her chest. That magical hair kept her from exposing anything despite her lack of clothes.
Her lower half, meanwhile, was a snake tail.
"Hello." Chen Luo, who had been sitting nearby flipping through the Simple Spiritual Power Extraction Manual, stood up.
Chen Luo immediately recognized that she wasn't human!
And indeed, she wasn't human.
Her upper body was that of a cute girl, while her lower body was that of a cobra. Two light-blue butterfly hair ornaments were tied atop her head.
It looked like Evil God-chan!
"What does your shop sell?" The moment she entered, she rudely picked up the apple cider Chen Luo had placed on the bar for Venti.
Chen Luo had assumed Venti would arrive as soon as the place opened, so he had prepared it in advance. He hadn't expected someone else to snatch it first.
Still, Evil God-chan really wasn't shy around strangers, and she was genuinely shameless—on par with Venti.
"Our shop sells alcohol and food. We have every kind of drink and meal, from appetizers and desserts to a full imperial banquet."
"Then do you have Hammer Snake?" Evil God-chan tilted her head and asked.
"Yes," Chen Luo answered immediately.
The so-called Hammer Snake was a creature from Eastern Land legends—the "Tsuchi-ryu." Its scientific name was the Borudotsuchi Eel, a rare marine delicacy that was almost impossible to find.
Chen Luo had always thought it was merely a legendary creature, since he had never seen one. Yet the cooking shop really did have it.
"Where is it? Can you give it to me for free?" Little Evil God asked shamelessly.
Ding! You have a new commission! Hammer Snake: Little Evil God wants a Hammer Snake as a collectible. Reward: 50 Primogems Difficulty: One star
"What you want isn't a real Hammer Snake, but a Hammer Snake toy?" Chen Luo found the request a little troublesome after seeing the mission requirements.
The actual Hammer Snake would definitely cost far more than a Hammer Snake toy, but this evil god didn't want the real thing.
Still, was this what one should expect from an evil god? The reward was surprisingly generous.
"Obviously, I want a Hammer Snake toy. Who wants the real Hammer Snake? So, do you have one or not?"
"Yes! I really do!" Chen Luo slapped his thigh.
Chen Luo really had one of those things.
It was a capsule toy that his father had spent tens of thousands of yen to get while touring the Eastern Land.
He had pulled three complete sets in total.
According to Chen Luo's father, collecting things meant having three sets: one to keep hidden away as a collection, one to display reverently, and one to put out on display.
One of those sets included a Hammer Snake.
Thinking about it, he could bring over the display set to deal with this emergency, then buy another one online later. His father had three identical sets anyway.
"Perhaps this guest has noticed that this tavern connects to different worlds, and I am someone from another world." Rather than accepting the mission immediately, Chen Luo spoke to Little Evil God first.
"Someone from another world? So what?" Little Evil God said indifferently.
"I have a complete set of limited-edition capsule toy collectibles from another world at home! They're incredibly rare! Once you miss this chance, there won't be another, because these are collectibles from another world. Even if your luck is terrible, you might still pull something from your own world. But no matter how lucky you are, you can never pull a series of collectibles from another world! In other words, they're out of print!"
Since he was giving them away anyway, giving one or giving a whole set didn't really make much difference.
"Besides that, I can also throw in a huge snack bundle, including but not limited to pudding, ice cream, cola, and more..."
"I want it! I want it! I want it!" Little Evil God, who had been wearing a lazy expression, suddenly had sparkling eyes.
Ding! You have a new commission! Different World Collectibles: Little Evil God wants a complete set of out-of-print limited-edition collectibles from another world as her most precious and one-of-a-kind collection. Naturally, she also wants the huge snack bundle. Reward: 100 Primogems + Little Evil God Flying Kick (Skill) Difficulty: Two stars
"Of course I can give them to you, but those are my favorite collectibles." Chen Luo suddenly put on a pained expression.
"How much? I'll buy them! I have 100,000 yen here!" Little Evil God somehow pulled out a wallet and slapped ten 10,000-yen bills onto the table.
"This should be the household money you use to buy groceries, right?" Chen Luo vaguely remembered that Little Evil God seemed to be responsible for buying ingredients for the household meals.
"Will it really be okay if you lose this money?"
"..." Little Evil God's body stiffened.
"I hope your family or friends aren't too hot-tempered. If they find out that an entire month's living expenses—or perhaps expenses for a much longer period—are all gone, they'll probably be very angry."
"!!!"
When Little Evil God imagined herself possibly being thrown into a meat grinder, she couldn't help shivering.
Bai Liling really was capable of doing something like that, wasn't she?
"I-I don't want it anymore... No, damn it, I still want it so badly..."
"Guest, don't be so quick to give up. How about this? I won't take your money, but can you give me something else?" A peculiar gleam flashed in Chen Luo's eyes.
"What?"
"A section of your tail," Chen Luo said.
"No!"
"I'll add an extra-large snack bundle!"
"Still no. It hurts..."
"We have painless methods here."
The cooking shop had an ingredient harvesting function that could handle it painlessly.
"Th-this..."
"Plus, whenever you come to this shop in the future to buy alcohol or food, I won't charge you any yen."
Chen Luo had never charged money anyway.
"Deal!" Little Evil God had no reason to refuse such favorable terms.
After all, when had Bai Liling, that demon, not cut off her tail? Sometimes it happened more than a dozen times a day.
One section of tail could be exchanged for free food and drink for a long time, and it would even be painless. This was a huge win!
Exchanging things from a bar that had never cost him money for a section of an evil god's tail that sounded incredibly awesome—this was also a huge win!
Chen Luo didn't know what evil god meat was useful for, but he was definitely making a profit.
At the same time, in the same place, different people both felt they had gotten the better deal.
"Then wait here. I'll be right back." After saying that, Chen Luo left a large packaged bag of snacks and a huge bucket of cola on the counter before leaving through the tavern door.
The reason he had to leave something behind was that Chen Luo knew exactly how unreliable Little Evil God was.
If he didn't use something to keep her hooked, she might leave the tavern five seconds after Chen Luo was gone.
Never expect Little Evil God to have any sense of contractual integrity. This lousy snake was as shameless as they came.
Not that it was impossible.jpg
Little Evil God and Mobius
After taking a complete set of limited-edition capsule toy collectibles from the study, Chen Luo happened to see Herrscher of Knowledge sitting in the first-floor hall as he passed by on his way to the second-floor balcony.
"Little Knowledge, back from foraging?" Chen Luo raised a hand in greeting.
"Yeah, I'm back," Herrscher of Knowledge said lazily as she sprawled on the sofa.
"What's wrong with you? You look so listless."
"I ate too much. People in modern society may look glamorous on the surface, but they seem to be under a lot of pressure, so everyone has a lot of negative emotions. I keep getting stuffed." Herrscher of Knowledge complained.
After consuming the Inner Demon Lure, Herrscher of Knowledge had gained the abilities of an inner demon and could grow stronger by devouring negative emotions and negative energy.
That was why Herrscher of Knowledge often went out to forage at night these past two days, slipping through the subconscious sea shared by everyone and entering the minds of people with negative emotions to absorb them.
This did not harm people. On the contrary, once the negative emotions disappeared, it made them feel happier.
"That's precisely why, in the new millennium, inner demons—which had always been weak and unable to grow into peerless great demons—could thrive in modern society. Most people in ancient times weren't highly educated, and under the influence of things like the court's exploitation, they gradually became numb to and accepted their miserable fates."
"So, those inner demons had a hard time drawing large amounts of negative emotions from ordinary people. They only got some harvest when unjust cases occurred, so they mainly focused their efforts on high-quality cultivators. But doing that was risky, since they could be slapped to death directly by an elder of their sect."
"But modern times are different. Who hasn't received nine years of compulsory education? And how many people in modern society have no pressure or negative emotions? An inner demon in modern times is like a competitive eater walking into an all-you-can-eat buffet."
Chen Luo had his own understanding of these matters, and the book explaining the basics had included similar information.
In short, modern society was especially prone to breeding inner demons, and it was an excellent feeding ground for their development.
As a result, three great inner demons—once a rarity even over a hundred years—had appeared in just the past twenty years.
Tsk, tsk...
"Hm?" Just as Chen Luo was about to hurry back to the tavern so he wouldn't disturb Herrscher of Knowledge's rest, he suddenly sensed something.
"Little Knowledge, interested in meeting an old friend?" Chen Luo called down to Herrscher of Knowledge on the first floor.
"An old friend? Mobius, the one you mentioned yesterday?" Herrscher of Knowledge raised her head upon hearing Chen Luo's words.
Because of her foraging, Herrscher of Knowledge had not gone to the tavern these past two days.
"Yes, Mobius. I just sensed that she came to the tavern." Chen Luo nodded.
"Then of course I'm going." Herrscher of Knowledge nodded, stood up from the sofa, lightly jumped, and flew to Chen Luo's side. Her figure then overlapped with his and vanished from the spot.
After consuming the Inner Demon Lure, Herrscher of Knowledge's ability to hide inside someone else's body had greatly improved.
According to Herrscher of Knowledge, even if she went to the Honkai World now, the Honkai Consciousness would have a hard time recognizing her.
Chen Luo pushed open the door and saw four green figures.
Venti, Little Evil God, Mobius, and Klein.
Though Little Evil God's hair was golden, her tail was green.
"I've brought the things." After entering the tavern, Chen Luo went straight to Little Evil God and placed one of his father's collectible sets onto a small nearby table.
His father had an outrageous number of collectibles, so losing one strange set probably wouldn't be a problem.
"Wow, it really is a complete set of collectibles. Although they're a little different from the items in our world, I can tell they're genuine. I'm very satisfied with these." Little Evil God leaned over to inspect the goods and expressed great satisfaction.
"As long as you're satisfied. And here is the snack bundle I promised you. Consider that bag of snacks from earlier a free gift. These two large snack bundles should be taken home when you leave later." Chen Luo directly bought two large snack bundles from the cooking shop and placed them on the stools.
There was no more room on the table.
For some reason, it seemed that anything edible could be considered bar snacks by the bar snack shop.
Ding! Mission completed
After Chen Luo had given everything he promised, the mission was completed.
"Then, the meat I want..." After hearing the notification, Chen Luo looked toward Little Evil God.
"If you can guarantee it won't hurt, then take it." Little Evil God nodded, then flopped onto the floor as if she had given up on life.
"..." Little Evil God's action left Chen Luo at a loss for a moment.
Why were you lying on the floor?
Had you gotten so used to being treated like snake meat on a chopping block?
Whatever...
"Then I'm taking it."
Before you continue