Checking In / A Strange Girl ...

This is what it means to stay true to your original intention!

Brothers, flood the chat with tears. (Laughs)

"You..." Raiden Mei had clearly never seen anyone so shameless before. She stared blankly at Ishiu, unable to find anything to say in response for a moment.

In the end, she could only blush furiously and force out a sentence.

"I-Ishiu, may I ask how old you are this year?"

"Eighteen." Ishiu lied without changing his expression.

Raiden Mei silently took out her phone and dialed 110. "Moshi moshi? Is this the police station? I ran into a minor pretending to be an adult on the street..."

"Fine, fourteen." Ishiu surrendered in one second.

This woman actually knew how to call 110. Sure enough, the prettier a woman was, the harder she was to deal with.

"Hmph, that's more like it." Raiden Mei put away her phone with a hint of smugness, then looked Ishiu up and down a few times. Somewhat surprised, she said, "I never expected you to be only fourteen, two years younger than me, little brother Ishiu~"

"...Damn it!"

(PS: Damn you! I'd been saving crystals to pull the Herrscher of Thunder, but that little demon Shorty Looking at the Sky stole them all! And I didn't even get the weapon or Stigmata! Damn you, Dawei!)

Staying at an Inn

After learning Ishiu's true age, for some reason, he felt that Raiden Mei had become more relaxed around him, and a little closer as well.

Perhaps it was because she had always possessed a personality that liked taking care of others.

The two sat on the same bench, eating bread as they talked. However, it was mostly Raiden Mei asking Ishiu questions, such as why he had come out to work at only fourteen, and which school he attended.

Questions like those.

Ishiu answered whatever he could and tried to muddle through whatever he could not.

It seemed that Raiden Mei had not talked with anyone like this for a long time. She had a lot to say and could be a little long-winded, but she did not realize it herself. Instead, she seemed to enjoy it. Ishiu was happy with that too, since it made gathering information much easier.

Unfortunately, Raiden Mei did not seem to know the name Cocolia. Even when Ishiu casually mentioned Anti-Entropy, she showed no reaction, as if she knew absolutely nothing about it.

That was unexpected, yet understandable.

After all, although Raiden Ryoma was the president of Anti-Entropy's external organization, that did not mean he would let his daughter know about such things. Honkai had not been made public yet. Whether it was Anti-Entropy, Schicksal, or other organizations fighting Honkai, they all deliberately kept their operations hidden from ordinary people.

Ishiu was somewhat disappointed. It seemed his plan to use Raiden Mei to get in through the back door had failed.

He should save up some money first, get a fake identity, then take a plane back.

That was currently the most reliable and legal method.

Though getting a fake identity was not exactly legal in itself.

The two talked for nearly an hour. Only after the sky had completely darkened and the streetlights along the road had lit up did Raiden Mei realize that she should go home.

"Ishiu, I should head back now. Thank you so much for today, for being willing to talk with me for so long." Raiden Mei spoke sincerely. After talking with Ishiu, she felt as though the oppressive feeling that had been weighing on her heart had eased somewhat.

"No need to thank me. I had nothing else to do anyway. Besides, when chatting with a beautiful girl like you, Mei, I don't think any man would get tired of it, right?" Ishiu chuckled and winked at Raiden Mei.

"You have no sense of propriety." Raiden Mei's face reddened slightly. Then, putting on the air of an older senior, she reached out and gently poked Ishiu's forehead with a finger. In a gentle, reproachful tone, she said, "Don't forget, I'm older than you. You should call me Sister Mei."

Ishiu's mouth twitched. Why did all these women want him to call them sister? Did he really look that much like a little boy?

"Alright, then I'll be going now." Raiden Mei adjusted her clothes and stood up. However, she did not leave immediately. Instead, she looked hesitant, as though she were making some sort of decision.

"Um..." After a long while, she finally spoke softly. "Can I... see you again tomorrow?"

Ishiu thought for a moment before replying, "Probably. I'll still be working at that convenience store tomorrow, so it won't be hard for you to find me."

"That's wonderful! Then, can we exchange contact information?" Delight appeared in Raiden Mei's eyes.

"I'm afraid not. I don't have a phone." Ishiu spread his hands bluntly. He was broke right now, with only the few thousand yen he had just received as his daily wage. How could he afford a phone?

And even if he bought one, he would need identification to activate a SIM card.

Modern society had its advantages, but it also had its disadvantages. Needing identification for everything was a real hassle.

"You don't have a phone?" Raiden Mei blinked. She seemed to think of something, and the way she looked at Ishiu became full of pity.

In her eyes, a child Ishiu's age working outside must have had a poor family background. When she had asked him questions earlier, he had been evasive. Clearly, he found it difficult to speak because his family circumstances were hard.

She thought for a moment, then took out a pink phone from her bag and handed it to Ishiu. "Um... if you don't mind, you can use my old phone. The model is a little outdated, but it can still make calls and send texts. There's also an unused SIM card inside."

"This... wouldn't that be inappropriate?" Ishiu hesitated. After thinking for a moment, he took out his money, the wages he had earned today. "How about this? I'll consider it as buying your phone. I don't like taking advantage of others."

When Raiden Mei saw this, her affection and pity for Ishiu immediately increased again.

This child must have had a difficult life, yet he was still so strong. What a good child!

Raiden Mei had high emotional intelligence. She did not refuse Ishiu's money, even though she did not lack such a small amount at all. Accepting a little, however, would preserve his pride.

So, she symbolically accepted a few hundred yen from Ishiu, then stored her own number on the SIM card. After saying goodbye to him, she turned and left.

Ishiu had no intention of seeing her off either. What a joke. With that girl's combat ability, even three to five grown men probably could not do anything to her. Why would he need to play protector of the flower?

After that, Ishiu did not stay in the park. Instead, he found a cheap inn nearby, the kind that did not require identification to check in. The environment was terrible, but at least it was somewhere he could sleep.

What gave him a headache, though, was that the middle-aged woman at the front desk kept subtly hinting that they could arrange that sort of thing here.

To be honest, Ishiu was somewhat of a clean freak mentally. He had no interest whatsoever in those kinds of women. So, after decisively rejecting the landlady's hints, he went into his room.

There was nothing much to do at night. Ishiu used the disposable toiletries to wash up briefly, then took a shower as well.

Of course, it was a cold shower. In a cheap inn like this, he should not even dream of hot water. Still, a cold shower did not matter to Ishiu. His physical condition was not quite to the point of being impervious to heat and cold, but his resistance was at least decent.

After his shower, Ishiu sat on the bed and began studying Reinforcement Magic and the Mana cultivation method.

Reinforcement Magic was easy to understand. It was an extremely useful and powerful skill. Its reinforcement could be applied not only to the body, but also to internal organs, weapons held in one's hand, and armor worn on one's body. All of them could be reinforced. As long as one had enough Mana, there was no upper limit to the degree of reinforcement. So long as one's body and Mana could keep up, theoretically, one could reinforce endlessly!

Strange Girl

After carefully comprehending Reinforcement Magic and the Mana cultivation method, Ishiu began trying to cultivate Mana.

Cultivating Mana was simple. With the system's assistance, he did not need to meditate for hours first and sense spiritual energy like in cultivation novels.

The system had directly opened up channels and routes for Mana circulation inside his body, and had also given him a small source of Mana.

As the saying went, everything was difficult at the beginning. Since the beginning had already been handled, the rest was much easier.

Ishiu only needed to calm his mind, mobilize the little Mana in his body, absorb external energy, and circulate his Mana along its designated route.

With each cycle, external energy would be drawn into his body and converted into Mana that he could use.

That energy came from light, heat, electricity, and so on. As long as it was energy, he could absorb and convert it.

It had to be said that the Mana cultivation method given by the system was quite powerful. Ishiu had only cultivated for a while, yet he could already feel that his Mana had increased by twenty percent. As Mana circulated through his channels, it also slightly strengthened his body. The effect was small, but if he kept repeating the process, Ishiu estimated that it would be even more effective than physical exercise.

More importantly, Mana could strengthen his internal organs and nerves, making him stronger in every aspect. Muscle training could only make his body stronger; it could not strengthen his organs, brain, and nerves at the same time.

Having tasted the benefits, Ishiu naturally continued cultivating without pause. However, his cultivation was soon interrupted.

Because strange sounds came from next door.

The walls in cheap inns like this were thin, so soundproofing was out of the question. Once night came, all sorts of strange noises echoed throughout the building. As for what kind of noises they were... those who knew, knew.

"Damn it!" Ishiu gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath. He knocked on the wall twice with his fist, signaling for the people next door to keep it down.

Who would have thought that after he knocked, they would not quiet down at all? Instead, as if encouraged by something, they became even louder.

Those seductive panting sounds echoed beside Ishiu's ears, making his blood boil.

There was no helping it. Any normal man would react.

"Fuck..."

Ishiu stepped out of his room, intending to go next door and tell that adulterous pair to quiet down. But just as he reached the door, a woman in her forties hurried over from the other end of the corridor.

The woman looked rather ordinary. Although she wore thick makeup, it still could not conceal the marks of time on her face.

Ishiu watched as she rushed to the door he had been about to knock on. Without another word, she kicked it open.

With a loud bang, the poor-quality wooden door flew open from her kick. The woman then rushed inside, and what followed was a familiar scene straight out of a television drama.

Catching a mistress.

The commotion quickly attracted all the inn's guests, and everyone came out to watch the show.

Ishiu had not seen many scenes like this in real life, so he simply treated it like watching a play.

He had assumed the group would leave after making a fuss, but unexpectedly, the woman made a phone call, and soon another group of people arrived, apparently her relatives.

Then the situation escalated. In the end, someone called the police. The sound of police sirens rang outside, and a group of officers came up and persuaded everyone to leave.

Normally, the matter would have ended there, and the remaining people should have returned to their rooms. However, one of the guests turned out to be a fugitive robber, and one of the officers recognized him.

The robber was arrested, and because the cheap inn had no record of anyone's identity information, the police kept everyone behind to take simple statements and collect their contact information.

It was a perfectly normal procedure, but the problem was that Ishiu had no registered identity!

Right then, Ishiu truly wanted to murder the entire family of that adulterous couple. Damn it, they came to a cheap inn for an affair? How broke were they? Would renting a hotel room kill them?

There was no way Ishiu could let the police catch him. He could only use the excuse of going to the bathroom, then jump out through the window.

By coincidence, Raiden Mei sent him a goodnight text right then, complete with an emoticon.

So Ishiu could only walk through the freezing night wind and send a tearful goodnight reply.

It was December, the coldest time of the year. Even if Ishiu was not afraid of the cold, no one wanted to be blasted by freezing wind, right?

With no other choice, Ishiu found a nearby park and prepared to make do there for the night.

It was already completely dark, and he was unfamiliar with the area. Rather than waste time looking for another cheap inn, he might as well spend the night in the park. At least he had taken a shower.

But after entering the park, he unexpectedly noticed that someone seemed to already be lying on one of the benches.

At first, he thought it was some homeless person. But when he got closer, using the moonlight overhead and the park's sole streetlamp, he could barely make out from the figure's shape that it seemed to be a girl.

When he reached the bench, Ishiu finally confirmed that the person lying on it was indeed a girl. She was also a very pretty girl with a rather good figure.

However, before he could take more than a few looks, the girl who had been sleeping soundly suddenly opened her eyes and kicked at him with a whip-like leg.

With Ishiu's current strength, how could he possibly let her hit him? He immediately shifted his footing slightly and easily dodged the kick.

"Huh? You actually dodged that?" The girl seemed somewhat surprised that her kick had missed. But she quickly attacked Ishiu again. "You pervert! You actually tried to sneak up on me while I was asleep! Watch me kick your balls apart today!"

As she spoke, she had already jumped down from the bench and threw a straightforward punch without any flourish.

Ishiu raised an eyebrow. From that punch alone, he could already see that the girl before him was no ordinary person. The force and speed behind it were both nearly perfect. If an ordinary adult man took a punch like that, he would probably be knocked out immediately.

Unfortunately for her, Ishiu was standing opposite her.

Ishiu clasped his hands behind his back and took light, quick steps. His body shifted and weaved as he dodged the girl's attacks again and again.

As they fought, the girl seemed to realize something was wrong. After one kick missed, she immediately retreated and stared at Ishiu warily. Her voice was clear and loud.

"Hey! Who exactly are you? Why did you come to sneak attack me? Did you see how beautiful I am and want to do this and that to me? I'm telling you, don't even dream about it! I don't like men!"

(PS: I'm seriously cursing Dawei's entire family now. I bought ten monthly cards and did a ten-pull, but Mirror still didn't come out. Damn it!)

Kiana Kaslana

Ishiu's face immediately filled with black lines. The hell? Who would want to do this and that to you? Would the great Ishiu really be that kind of filthy scoundrel?

"You're thinking too much. I was just passing through this park and looking for somewhere to sleep. I only happened to discover you." Ishiu explained helplessly. He did not want to be mistaken for a pervert.

"Is that true?" The girl raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips, her lovely figure fully outlined beneath the moonlight.

Only then did Ishiu get a clear look at her face.

She was a very beautiful girl. Her hair was white, and her long, lovely hair had been tied into two braids that rested obediently behind her head.

Her eyes were large and full of spirit. People said that one could tell whether a person was good or bad from their eyes. Ishiu had not really believed that before, but after seeing those energetic sky-blue eyes, he could not help believing it a little.

"Of course it's true. Do I look like a bad person?" Ishiu pointed at his face and spoke with an innocent expression.