In the end, the two transformed into ordinary bounty hunters. Aiou gained an X-shaped sword scar on his face and a world-weary look, while Feng Xie looked utterly ordinary-the sort whose face was pleasant enough to look at but forgotten the moment you turned away.
"How boring. Now we look like Extra A and Extra B. You're B," Aiou said, lying inside the energy sphere with a bored expression.
"All the better. Less trouble that way," Feng Xie said flatly.
"How pitiful. So young, yet you've already become a numb, jaded middle-aged man," Aiou sighed.
"If I were still a boy after hundreds of millions of years, I'd have to wonder whether I'd ever grown at all," Feng Xie said calmly.
"Haven't you heard the saying? Men remain boys until the day they die!" Aiou immediately retorted.
Feng Xie gave a disdainful "heh," not bothering to keep trading quips with Aiou.
But a few minutes later, Feng Xie frowned.
Aiou wasn't the sort who enjoyed silence. Why had he stopped talking?
He turned to look at Aiou, and his eyes nearly popped out. Aiou was gone!
He had still been able to sense Aiou just a moment earlier, yet by the time he turned around, Aiou had vanished into thin air, disappearing from his perception as well.
"I knew it." Feng Xie clenched his fists, then slowly loosened them again and let out a long sigh.
Several kilometers away, a few players were examining a Slime. It felt incredibly soft, and its temperature was unusual: when you felt hot, touching it revealed an icy coolness, but when you felt cold, it became warm and cozy.
"Do you think there's money in this?" one player asked the others, poking the Slime's flesh.
Just then, a world-weary man with an X-shaped sword