Arknights, Suika's Messenger Journey

After saying that, he jogged over to the bar, pulled a guitar from behind the counter, then stood on top of it and opened his mouth with a stretch of incomprehensible roaring.

Suika felt that whether it sounded good or not aside, he certainly looked very rock 'n' roll.

Unfortunately, when it came to music, she was more of a classical type and preferred more melodious songs, so she simply could not appreciate Emperor's heavy metal.

After singing a few lines, he jumped down from the table and ran back to Suika.

"Can you give me another drink? I feel like my inspiration is flowing endlessly..."

"Sure, but this stuff is pretty strong. Two glasses should be about enough!"

Considering that Emperor was using a wineglass, and one glass held nearly twice as much as an ordinary cup, she was not trying to drink him under the table, so she gave him a reminder.

"No problem! Fill it up..." Emperor said boldly.

Half an hour later, the bar door was pushed open again.

"Boss, boss, we're back!"

The red-haired angel skipped into the room, only to be greeted by her boss lying upside down on the bar counter, asleep like a fat pig ready for slaughter.

"Oh! My God, Boss, what happened to you, Boss?" The angel girl bounced over to Emperor and reached out to pat his face, but there was no response.

"How did Boss get this drunk? Where's Yi Si?" The cool wolf girl who entered behind her, Pocky hanging from her mouth, swept her gaze around the room and asked in confusion.

"I'm here!" Yi Si emerged from the back, still holding a broom and rag.

Texas lifted Emperor upside down like a dead chicken and gave him a shake.

"How much did he drink?"

"Stop messing with the boss, Texas. He only had three glasses." Yi Si said helplessly as he watched Texas show absolutely no respect for her boss.

"Huh? Three glasses? Did he drink three glasses of pure alcohol?" Texas looked unconvinced. Emperor's alcohol tolerance should not have been bad enough for three drinks to knock him out.

"You heard right. Just three glasses..."

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it either."

Yi Si shrugged.

While they were talking, Emperor, having been shaken around by Texas for a while, barely came to.

"Texas... you're back."

"Where's my sworn sister?"

"Yi Si, where did my sworn sister go?"

Emperor raised his eyes and looked around. When he did not see Suika, he turned to Yi Si.

"Sworn sister?" Strange expressions appeared on both Texas and Exusiai's faces.

"Oh, I just became sworn siblings with a sister..." Emperor said happily.

"Is he still not awake?" Texas looked toward Yi Si, while Exusiai beside her nodded in agreement.

"Boss got wasted just now. When he saw someone trying to leave, he insisted on dragging her into becoming sworn siblings with him after burning incense..."

Yi Si recounted Emperor's drunken antics before they returned. After hearing it, Emperor not only failed to deny it, but even looked rather proud.

"That's right. I could tell at a glance that girl was someone destined for great things..."

"You just wanted her bar!" Texas said bluntly. Exusiai reached out and shook Emperor's head.

"The liquor was certainly an important part of it, but the aura around that person was terrifying!" Emperor became a little more lucid after Exusiai shook him a few times.

What he had done earlier was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. As a Beast Lord, the moment he saw Suika, he felt his blood boiling and screaming.

He was not an idiot. Such an obvious sensation could never have come from an ordinary person, which was why he had deliberately approached Suika.

During their brief exchange, he discovered that she bore no ill will toward him, so he had the thought of drawing her to his side.

Unfortunately, she rejected his invitation.

At the time, Suika did not understand why Emperor had invited her, but she had no plans to remain in Lungmen for long, so she rejected him.

After rejecting his invitation, Emperor insisted on becoming sworn siblings with her. Left with no choice, Suika used Drink Invitation to drink Emperor straight into unconsciousness under Yi Si's helpless gaze, then ran off.

Meanwhile, Suika had also returned home.

She could only say that this trip to Penguin Logistics had been insanely profitable.

After Suika rejected his invitation, Emperor directly pulled out a stack of money from behind the bar. At first, Suika thought Emperor was preparing to throw money at her, but he said that since it was rare to drink such good liquor, that stack of money was payment for the drinks.

His only request was for another glass.

How could Suika bear to refuse such a generous boss?

After all, there was as much liquor as she wanted in the Ibuki Gourd, and it cost her nothing. As for what three glasses would do to him, at worst he would sleep for a day and night. For someone with Emperor's physique, that was practically no effect at all.

After accepting the money and refilling his glass, Suika left Penguin Logistics under the excuse that she had something to do, lest he regret it later and ask for his money back.

After returning home, she took the money out of her bag and counted it. There were exactly one hundred bills in the stack, totaling ten thousand Lungmen Dollars.

Suika was starting to regret it a little. If she had known Emperor was such a rich man, she would have gotten more out of him.

As for the money, she did not plan to use it immediately, instead setting it aside for now.

That was because she still had not figured out what categories lay behind the other two types of chains. Even after figuring that out, she would need to study what she actually needed.

Because if she stayed in Lungmen, her current abilities were already more than sufficient.

As an ordinary person, she had no idea what she lacked now or what needed strengthening, so she decided to take things one step at a time.

At this point, she still did not know that several familiar yet unfamiliar "old" friends at Penguin Logistics had taken an interest in her.

Parting in Life and Death

Three days later, Suika selected the letters as usual and prepared to head out.

"Wait!"

Someone called out to stop her again.

Watching the other person jog over while extending a hand, Suika seemed to hear him saying, "Fellow Daoist, please stay."

"What is it?"

Her expression was calm as she looked at the supervisor.

That night after the incident, Hoshiguma had told her about the confessions obtained from those little thugs.

One detail caught Suika's attention: for the past half year, urgent letters at this station had never been assigned to anyone other than those thugs.

She was surprised to hear this, because she clearly remembered that this supervisor had personally handed the letter to her. At the time, he had said that there happened to be no one else available, which was why he assigned her that urgent letter that might earn a substantial reward.

Considering that she had been watched from the moment she left, those thugs had obviously been at the post office, or at least nearby. There was no way he could not find anyone, as he claimed.

After hearing the suspicious point Suika raised, Hoshiguma interrogated the lead thug again the next day, then looked into the relationship between the supervisor and the thugs.

In the end, the supervisor's plan to kill with a borrowed knife naturally came to light.

At the time, Hoshiguma believed that this person had bad intentions, and that continuing to work under him would likely result in Suika being used again.

Suika said she could just ignore him from then on. It was not as though she desperately needed money, and whether she cooked for herself or ate at the restaurant next door, neither cost much.

So long as she ignored his smooth talk and focused on handling the letters on the street, it would be fine.

Faced with Suika's insistence, Hoshiguma could only accept it helplessly.

Now, sensing Suika's distance, the supervisor smiled awkwardly.

"It's like this. Didn't a few little punks cause you trouble before? I heard that their families got them out of the station last night."

"Those people are ruthless and utterly despicable, and their leader is petty too. Remember to take crowded routes when you head home."

"Those guys may be shameless, but they still do not have the nerve to openly commit murder in Lungmen..."

Suika raised an eyebrow. "I understand..."

With that, she turned and walked out.

At the entrance, she saw the lead thug standing there with a livid expression.

Suika gestured at him with her lips.

"You heard that, right? That guy has always treated you as a serious threat."

The man's expression changed several times before finally turning into anger.

"Very good. I'm petty, I'm despicable... very good..."

Suika did not even need to keep stirring the pot. Having heard every word the supervisor said, the man had already devised a complete renovation plan for the supervisor's front door and windows.

No longer caring about the supervisor and the thugs tearing at each other like dogs, Suika continued her happy life as a little messenger.

In just a few days, practically every neighbor on the entire street knew that a very young messenger had arrived here.

Whenever people who had met her before saw her, they would greet her warmly.

By the end of the month, Suika received her first paycheck at the post office. It totaled a little over thirteen hundred Lungmen Dollars.

That was purely because there were indeed too few letters on this street, and Suika had only started work in the middle of the month.

Still, she was quite happy. At least the supervisor had not disgustingly said that since she only began work mid-month, her salary would be held until next month and paid together then.

Of course, the once neatly dressed supervisor had become much more disheveled these past few days, and he had grown noticeably thinner.

He stayed in his office almost all the time and went nowhere. If people did not know he was still inside, they might have thought he had disappeared.

Taking the money from his hand, Suika looked at the supervisor, who had become far more haggard, and sneered inwardly. Sure enough, wicked people had their own wicked people to deal with them.

After collecting her salary, she went to pick up the mail.

After glancing over the shelves, she noticed that there were quite a few more letters than usual today.

But after taking one down, she frowned.

This was not an ordinary letter, but a soldier casualty notification from the Great Yan Military.

Seeing several identical letters on the shelf, Suika could not help but sigh. The New Year was almost here, a time meant for celebration.

Once these letters arrived, these families probably would not be able to have a good New Year.

And with so many letters sent at once, she did not know whether there had been trouble in the north or along the Ursus border.

After looking through them, Suika found that only two of the casualty notifications were for her street, and neither was for Granny Wang's family. That let Suika breathe a sigh of relief.

She remembered that Granny Wang's youngest son seemed to be serving near the Ursus border.

After putting away the letters and packing up the rest of the mail, Suika finally walked out the door.

The moment she came out, she saw a tricycle parked outside the post office. Hoshiguma patted the seat beside her with a smile on her face.

"Your first paycheck. Want to go celebrate?"

Suika sighed.

"Let's deliver the mail first..."

"Today's job... won't be easy."

Hearing Suika's words, Hoshiguma leaned closer.

"What happened?"

Suika opened her bag, revealing a corner of a casualty notification.

Hoshiguma froze for several seconds when she saw it, then sighed as well.

"It's almost New Year's... sigh."

"Yeah, it's almost New Year's, and then they suddenly receive news like this..."

After getting on the tricycle, Hoshiguma said nothing more and merely patted the seat beside her.

"Come on, I'll take you back."

The two soon reached their destination. Looking at the street, which had become much livelier with the New Year approaching, they sighed at the same time.

After hesitating briefly, Suika chose to deliver the ordinary letters first, then walked up to the first house.

A young woman answered the door. When she saw Suika's messenger bag, her face had initially been full of anticipation.

But when Suika took out the letter, her face instantly turned deathly pale.