Symbiotic Contract

(This chapter is free.)

Pagliu snorted coldly. "The strong are respected. I spared your lives, and in return, you become my servants. It's that simple. There's nothing to discuss."

Chen Rui calmly shook his head. "Our fates are already bound together. Killing us would be the same as driving yourself into a dead end. Therefore, ours is an equal relationship of trade and cooperation. There can be no master and servant between us. We prosper together and suffer together."

Pagliu said dismissively, "All I know is that your little lives are in my hands. Giving you a way to live is already tremendous mercy. If you keep babbling, Lord Pagliu will eat all of you right now!"

Chen Rui stared at Pagliu for a while, then his voice suddenly rose and fell with emotion. "What joy is there in life? What is there to fear in death? From the moment I accidentally fell into the Demon Realm, I had already thrown caution to the wind. I may be a weak human, but I am still a real man. I will never abandon what little dignity I have left just to stay alive!"

Athena's eyes suddenly lit up. The closer one came to death, the more clearly one could see a person's character. That frail human back seemed to become towering. This was true courage! If it had been Allen or that Joseph from the Alvin Family, their legs would probably have gone weak from fright long ago.

What looked like a towering mountain from the front could look like a sharp peak from the side. In Pagliu's eyes, this human was clearly acting like a scoundrel—I was unlucky enough to fall into the Demon Realm, where I could die at any time. My life is worthless anyway, so I'll drag this out with you today.

Chen Rui had experience running a shop. Online, there were people who deliberately gave stores the worst possible reviews in order to extort them. They were known as professional negative reviewers. Sellers, especially those with new shops, were at a disadvantage in such situations. Chen Rui had encountered several of these people before. After dealing with them, he had lost money, but he had also learned a great deal.

He had correctly judged that Pagliu was caught between a rock and a hard place and wanted to use him to escape his predicament. That was why he deliberately assumed the posture of a barefoot man unafraid of wet shoes, reversing his disadvantaged position. If he had not seen the situation clearly, even if Chen Rui had been given ten thousand times the courage, he would not have dared to gamble with his own life.

Sure enough, the Poison Dragon did not fly into a rage. Instead, he frowned. Chen Rui seized the chance to add, "I, Chen Rui, swear upon the dignity of the humans of this world that I sincerely wish to help the Poison Dragon Pagliu break his seal. If I violate this oath, may my body be shattered and my soul dispersed."

Hearing such a grave oath, Pagliu showed surprise. Little did he know that the very first phrase had been full of loopholes. Chen Rui was not originally a human of this world. To put it bluntly, he was swindling him—no, swindling a dragon.

"Pagliu, I am willing to help you break the seal. But I do not merely want to survive. I also hope to gain your friendship and assistance. To show my sincerity, I can tell you my greatest secret: why I am immune to poison."

If the earlier negotiation had been a stick followed by a carrot, this was medicine for the wound after the carrot.

The Poison Dragon watched Chen Rui for a moment before finally nodding. "Human, your eloquence far surpasses your strength. If you can truly show sincerity, Pagliu may consider signing an equal contract with you."

Watching Chen Rui leap from an absolute disadvantage into an equal position in an instant, Athena found it unbelievable. He was facing a Dragon!

Both wise and brave—those were the only flattering words she could think of to describe this human. Chen Rui had no idea that he had inadvertently established a lofty image in Athena's heart. Her favorable impression of him was enough to look down on that General Allen at the city gate.

Chen Rui's "sincerity" was nothing more than retelling that Grandmaster and Primordial World story, with a few details adjusted and a structure far fuller and more polished than the hastily cobbled-together version from before. The Poison Dragon was clearly much harder to fool than Aldas. He kept pondering in silence, while Athena listened with fascination.

To further win the Poison Dragon's trust, Chen Rui presented a novel little game.

He drew a board in the mud with three rows and three columns, thirty-three spaces in total. He pressed a hole into each space except the center one, then picked up some stones and placed them in the holes as pieces.

The Poison Dragon stared at the thing in surprise. With his thousands of years of experience, he had never seen anything like it. Using a Grandmaster's alchemical deduction tool as a pretext, Chen Rui explained the rules of Independent Diamond Chess.

This game was said to have been invented before the French Revolution by an aristocrat imprisoned in the Bastille, and it soon became popular everywhere. Its rules were similar to checkers, except it was played by one person. A jumped piece was removed from the board. The game continued in this fashion; the fewer the moves and the fewer pieces left behind, the better the result. Based on the number and positions of the remaining pieces, there were six ranks, with the highest being the Grandmaster rank Chen Rui had defined himself.

Independent Diamond Chess, Huarong Dao, and the Rubik's Cube were hailed as the three greatest incredible wonders of the puzzle game world. Athena was not very interested in such brain-racking things, but the shrewd Poison Dragon was different. He immediately became interested. If not for the equal contract, he would have already been impatient to try it.

"I do not want a third person hearing what comes next. Woman, do not try anything as foolish as escaping." The Poison Dragon glanced at Athena. Chen Rui gave Athena a look, and she nodded before walking over to Alice and Jia and sitting down in front of them.

The Poison Dragon used a soundproofing method before asking solemnly, "I am Pagliu Sandro Achilkass, the Poison Dragon. Human, tell me your name."

From the way Pagliu had solemnly stated his full name, his attitude had changed greatly. In truth, the Poison Dragon was also in a difficult position. These people were not easy to kill, nor could he let them go. If the human truly possessed a mysterious and powerful inheritance, perhaps he could break the seal.

"My name is Chen Rui." Chen Rui finally breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Only now had he truly completed this difficult public relations task.

"Chen Rui, you have successfully won Pagliu's trust," the Poison Dragon said. "There are some matters that I can only tell you after we complete the equal contract. I have considered it carefully. I wish to sign a Symbiotic Contract with you. In other words, our lives will be connected. If one day you abandon my friendship and trust, you will lose your own life as well."

The proposal of a Symbiotic Contract was beyond Chen Rui's expectations. His thoughts raced as he shook his head. "I have no great ambition to become some dragon-slaying hero. But if it is a Symbiotic Contract, then if I meet with an accident or die of old age, you will die too?"

"One important characteristic of a Symbiotic Contract is shared life," Pagliu explained. "The Dragon Race has an extremely low birth rate, but exceptionally long lifespans. Some can live for hundreds of thousands of years. I am fourteen thousand years old now, which is equivalent to a human in the prime of life. After signing a Symbiotic Contract with me, you will share my life, so there is no need to worry about dying of old age for the time being. Besides that, your constitution will also gain certain benefits in some respects."

Shared life! Chen Rui was stunned. Throughout China's history, countless emperors and nobles had racked their brains seeking longevity and immortality, yet none had succeeded. And he could obtain tens of thousands of years of precious life so easily!

Even the royal families of the Demon Realm generally lived only one or two thousand years if nothing unexpected happened. Ordinary demons lived a few hundred years, while the humans of this world had even shorter lifespans. Unless they became powerful to a certain degree, they could not compare at all.

"If death comes through an accident, then there is nothing to be done. Just as you said earlier, we prosper together and suffer together." Pagliu shook his head. "If either of us dies unexpectedly, the other will find it difficult to escape as well. To tell you the truth, my power is damaged, and I can only sign a contract with one person. To keep the matter of the Ancient Rune Language secret, I originally intended to kill you and make that Scythe Succubus my servant. However, your intelligence and potential changed my mind. You could also say that your scheme has succeeded."

That had been close! Chen Rui wiped away a cold sweat. So he truly had just walked past the gates of hell.

This was the safest approach for the Poison Dragon. Their lives were connected, their interests shared, and their risks shared. Thus, Chen Rui would be even less likely to neglect the matter of the seal. Helping the Poison Dragon live better was also a guarantee of his own long life.

"I need to remind you that you are taking a greater risk than I am. As a weak human, I will encounter many dangers in the Demon Realm." Chen Rui considered for a moment before speaking. "If you understand this and still insist on signing the Symbiotic Contract, then I agree."

The Poison Dragon nodded and revealed a meaningful smile. "Then let us place our trust in the inheritance of that God Level Grandmaster for now."

Chen Rui smiled as well. Daydreaming was one thing, but reality could not be like those novels where the protagonist alone was a genius while everyone else was a brainless idiot. Those who treated others as fools were the greatest fools themselves.

Though he did not know how much Pagliu believed that mysterious and unfathomable story, one thing was certain: this powerful Poison Dragon had become his first true ally since his rebirth.

The sensation of signing the contract was extremely strange. It was like signing some sort of agreement with the other person on a spiritual level, except this agreement took effect automatically and was overseen by some mysterious "law." Unless one reached the God Level, the power of that law could not be reversed or altered.

After successfully signing the Symbiotic Contract, Chen Rui clearly felt a strange change within himself, as though his vitality had expanded enormously. Pagliu, on the other hand, showed no signs of weakness or anything similar.

"Chen Rui, we are now symbiotic Companions, more closely connected than blood brothers," Pagliu said, no longer bothering with pleasantries after signing the contract. "First, I need to understand one thing. Is that Scythe Succubus truly your woman? That woman belongs to the Greater Devil race and possesses a mutated bloodline. Her potential is immense, and she may very well reach the level of a Demon King in the future."

"No. We cannot even be called friends, but I cannot afford to offend her." Chen Rui shook his head. Athena was certainly beautiful, but this was not a joke he could make. The tragedy of the Kongming Lock was right before him.

The Poison Dragon revealed a meaningful smile. "Then I suggest you win her over. Female Greater Devils are the most loyal women among demons. As long as you truly gain both her body and heart, she will follow you wholeheartedly and never betray you. Unless you die, she will never look at another man. Otherwise, there is no way to guarantee our secret."

Only then did Chen Rui learn that Athena's race possessed such a trait. However, the difficulty rating of this task was simply far too high.