Neighboring Girl

That night, Xiao Xiao slept soundly.

It seemed that ever since he became aware of his identity as an Outsider, the negative impact of his panic symptoms had been lessening.

It wasn't a complete recovery. Whenever he started to get nervous, the symptoms of time stretching and his mind exploding still appeared, and there were no signs of them diminishing.

However, he was now increasingly accustomed to controlling his focus and thoughts in this state, and gradually adapted to coexisting with this bizarre world in this strange condition.

As such, the pressure gradually lessened.

What a joke. In a world full of monsters, was there really any need to be so tense?

He got up early the next morning to go to work at the docks. As he headed out, munching on an oil pancake his mother had bought, he turned his head and saw the three adorable Demolition Hounds next door, perched on the fence, wagging their tails at him.

His heart stirred slightly. Seeing that no one was watching, he pulled the sausage out of the oil pancake and went over to the fence.

The three adorable dogs were overjoyed to see him coming over. They wagged their tails like crazy, and when they saw the sausage in his hand, they started drooling like waterfalls.

It was a strange feeling. As soon as Xiao Xiao saw these three dogs, he felt a sense of kinship.

He didn't know if it was because, in the deep logic of this city, they already belonged to him, or if it was because they had helped him during the previous cleanup of experimental subjects. In any case, as soon as Xiao Xiao saw them, he felt particularly close to them, a far cry from the impression he had in his memory of feeling inexplicably afraid every time he saw them. It was as if, in some sense, they were now his closest companions.

And this closeness, under the influence of some mysterious force, even made Xiao Xiao feel that they were very obedient to him.

No, not just obedient, but a level above that.

Should he say... they understood his intentions?

He threw a sausage inside the fence, and Xiao Xiao ordered them in a low voice, "Don't fight, share it."

The three dogs, who had been jumping half a meter high, immediately calmed down and each took a bite in an orderly manner. The black and white one seemed a little unwilling, but when the black dog growled at it, it immediately behaved.

"This is amazing..."

The more Xiao Xiao watched, the more amused he became. He leaned on the fence and kept giving commands: "You, bite its tail..."

The yellow dog darted over and bit the black and white one's tail, and the latter screamed as if being violated.

"Sing a song..."

The other two dogs were at a loss with this command, but the black and white one immediately raised its head and began to belt out high notes, its expression even looking like it was enjoying it.

Xiao Xiao felt an unexpected joy and commanded them again: "Go, ride it!"

This time, the command was not executed. The three dogs' expressions unified, and they raised three tangled and resentful dog faces, looking at the excited Xiao Xiao.

They're all males, bro, how can they ride?

"It seems they're not obedient machines. Even as dogs, they have their own personalities and tempers..."

Xiao Xiao thought to himself.

The one with the big head and thick neck, black mouth and yellow face, was tall and mighty, and its fighting style was also brutal and fierce. Once summoned, it would attack without saying a word.

And the big yellow dog with long hair was loyal and shrewd, clearly the strategist among the three dogs.

As for the black and white one...

...Well, it was just plain stupid.

So, was it imperative to enhance them?

Speaking of which, could he get rid of the black and white one when enhancing them?

"Hello..."

Just as Xiao Xiao was standing by the fence, looking thoughtfully at the three frolicking dogs, he suddenly heard a timid girl's voice from the neighbor's yard.

He subconsciously looked up and saw a girl in a white dress walking out, holding half a bag of dog food.

The girl was only sixteen or seventeen years old, at the height of her youth.

She was simply wearing a simple white dress, a baseball cap, and a pair of white sneakers on her slender ankles, and she naturally had a kind of innocent and beautiful look.

Bathed in the morning sun, her skin was as white and tender as a peeled egg. Seeing the three dogs being so close to Xiao Xiao, her expression showed a slight look of astonishment.

These three guys are never this close to me usually...

"...Hello."

Xiao Xiao reacted and greeted the girl with a smile. This was the full-time caretaker of his three dogs.

The girl was called Nuo Nuo, a girl seven or eight years younger than him. They could be considered to have known each other since childhood. In his memory, she, like now, always wore a white dress.

Her personality was very gentle, and she always spoke in such a timid manner. It was hard to imagine why she would raise three such ferocious dogs.

"They're very cute..."

The current situation was a bit chaotic. In the eyes of the city's will, these three dogs had been bought by him, but in a practical sense, they actually belonged to the little girl.

Xiao Xiao felt the embarrassment of being caught having an affair and had to explain with a smile.

"Yeah..."

Nuo Nuo walked over with the dog food and poured a little more than half a bag into the bowl, saying, "They said they were very fierce when we bought them, but they're just silly."

The three adorable dogs turned their heads to look at the dog food, then turned back to look at Xiao Xiao.

But none of them moved, they just continued to turn around and wag their tails desperately at Xiao Xiao.

The girl was stunned. Guarding the dog food bowl, she felt a sense of abandonment. These three dullards weren't fierce at all, and now they didn't even recognize their owner?

"Having silly dogs is the best. They're more fun that way."

Xiao Xiao winked at the three dogs, ordering them to show some respect in front of their original owner.

The three dogs seemed to understand Xiao Xiao's instructions and reluctantly went back to gnawing on their dog food.

The girl lowered her head, stroking the dogs' heads, and nodded silently.

Xiao Xiao was about to say something when he suddenly noticed a coin-sized bruise near the girl's mouth, and a bandage on her slender wrist.

He felt a bit curious. Although he'd known the girl for a while, they weren't close, so he didn't want to ask.

He turned to head back to the docks for work, but Nuo Nuo suddenly looked up and called out to him, "Xiao-ge..."

Xiao Xiao turned back, looking at her in surprise.

He saw that the girl's face had turned red all the way to her ears. As if she'd mustered her courage for a long time, she whispered, "Do... do you have any money on you?"

Xiao Xiao was immediately taken aback. "What do you need it for?"

Nuo Nuo was silent for a long time before saying, "I... could you lend me two thousand yuan? I promise I'll pay you back."

The families in their neighborhood shouldn't be too poor, except for his own.

Xiao Xiao also remembered that this girl's mother was a successful businesswoman who made a lot of money and drove a custom-made car.

It didn't make sense for her to borrow money from him...

Could this be some manifestation of the City Will again? Was she acting under the influence of another will?

Xiao Xiao couldn't figure it out, but he saw that after the girl finished speaking, she lowered her head silently, seemingly afraid to look him in the eye.

The three cute dogs looked back and forth between the two of them before lowering their heads to grab a mouthful of dog food.

Xiao Xiao couldn't bring himself to refuse and nodded gently.

Nuo Nuo was unexpectedly touched. What touched her most was that Xiao Xiao had agreed to lend her money without asking what she needed it for.

She immediately added Xiao Xiao's contact information, promising to pay him back.

Xiao Xiao smiled and agreed, then turned and left the neighborhood to take the subway to work at the docks. Before leaving, he looked back and vaguely felt that his connection with the three cute dogs had deepened on some level.

"Maybe I should really try enhancing them once?"

The thought crossed Xiao Xiao's mind again, but the thought of a hundred Points for a single enhancement still stung a little.

He still hadn't gotten back the hundred Points he owed Yang Jia.

While thinking about this, he had just sat down on the subway when he received a message from the little designer, Ruan Ruan: "Handsome brother, have you checked your Points?"

"I have."

Xiao Xiao had already seen it last night. The Points had arrived, three hundred and three of them. He quickly replied, "Are you sure you don't need me to give you some? Should I return Yang Jia's Points now?"

"No need..."

The little designer, Ruan Ruan, quickly sent a string of messages: "Jiajia-jie isn't short of a hundred Points. I didn't contribute much to this mission, so I won't take any of yours."

"Besides, with these three hundred Points, your enhancement has reached a crucial point..."

"..."

Xiao Xiao was curious. "How so? Do I need to exchange them for something?"

Ruan Ruan replied, "The situation is a bit complicated. I didn't expect you to get so many Points at once."

"In short, with these Points, you can choose to exchange them for a unit of Intermediate Enhancement Element to improve yourself. It's also three units as a whole."

"Now you can choose to buy one first, or you can save up to six hundred Points and buy three at the same time."

"Logically speaking, as a newbie, you should buy one as soon as you can. After all, once you've used the Intermediate Enhancement Element, you're considered a veteran."

"However, you only completed your Primary Enhancement a few days ago, and you used three at once. If you immediately buy the Intermediate Gene Enhancement Potion, the time interval is too short, and I'm worried it will be too much of a burden on your body."

"..."

"That's true..."

Xiao Xiao felt that he understood and nodded silently. "Everything in excess is poison..."

"..."

Ruan Ruan was stunned for a moment before replying, "It's not about that. At most, your body's burden will exceed its limit, your genes will collapse, and you'll turn into a monster or a puddle of blood..."

Xiao Xiao: "...Isn't that more poisonous than medicine?"

"So, my suggestion is, either use these three hundred Points to buy some powerful weapons to use."

"Or, save them up."

The little designer, Ruan Ruan, said, "Save up to six hundred Points and complete the Intermediate Enhancement directly, and in the process, learn about yourself and determine which enhancement route you want to focus on in the future."

Xiao Xiao had no objections to the professional's advice and immediately agreed.

However, Xiao Xiao, who had originally thought that even a hundred Points was too expensive, thought about how he now had more than three hundred Points that he hadn't used...

So, the Demolition Hounds' enhancement, the old record player, and the butcher bound to the chainsaw...

Who's cooking meat? Why does it smell so good?