Wild Oscar, Shrek Snatches Talent?

It really was him!

Hearing the boy before him, who looked only eight or nine, state his name, Luo Fan suddenly understood.

At the same time, Luo Fan carefully looked Oscar over.

At only eight or nine years old, he already had stubble. He really did look unusually mature.

Yet his clothes were thin and tattered, and he wore nothing but a pair of battered straw sandals that left his toes exposed. He looked practically no different from a beggar!

Luo Fan had known from the original story that Shrek Academy was poor, but if all its students looked like this, wasn't that taking things too far?

"Why are you selling grilled sausages alone in the city? Where is your family?" Luo Fan thought for a moment before asking.

"I don't have any family. I'm an orphan from a village outside the city. Isn't today the Lantern Festival? I saw how lively the city was, so I came to sell some sausages and earn a few Copper Soul Coins!" Oscar answered.

Those words made Luo Fan's heart stir slightly.

Luo Fan knew that Oscar was a commoner from an ordinary family.

His question just now had actually been aimed at Shrek Academy's teachers. How could they let him come to the city alone to sell sausages?

But from Oscar's answer, he was presenting himself as an orphan?

Was he deliberately playing up his misery according to Shrek Academy's usual style, hoping Luo Fan would buy his sausages?

Or had Oscar not joined Shrek Academy yet?

If it was the former, he could test him.

But if it was the latter...

At that thought, Luo Fan's gaze involuntarily shifted toward Xue Qinghe beside him!

Although Xue Qinghe had approached him with certain selfish motives, he had indeed done Luo Fan a favor by helping him hunt down his second soul beast, and the hardest-to-find spatial-type one at that.

So giving him an Innate Full Soul Power food-system Soul Master would count as repaying that favor, right?

"Little Brother Luo Fan, why are you looking at me like that? Do you want me to take care of this child?" Noticing Luo Fan's serious glance and how much he had spoken with Oscar, Xue Qinghe guessed that perhaps Luo Fan felt sympathy for him because he too was an orphan from a village.

"If Big Brother Qinghe can take care of him, that would naturally be for the best!" Luo Fan replied.

Then he looked at Oscar and continued, "Although you're an orphan, you should have undergone Spirit Hall's martial soul awakening when you were six, right?"

Oscar nodded. "Yes, but unfortunately, I awakened nothing but a useless martial soul: Sausage!"

When mentioning his martial soul, Oscar looked somewhat embarrassed.

"Then what about your Soul Power Level?" Luo Fan pressed.

"My Soul Power Level was full, but it's only a useless martial soul like Sausage. Even Innate Full Soul Power is pointless, isn't it?" Oscar shook his head.

"Another start with Innate Full Soul Power paired with a useless martial soul?" Luo Fan muttered inwardly.

But immediately afterward, Luo Fan realized something was wrong.

Since when was Sausage a useless martial soul?

"Innate Full Soul Power, with a food-system martial soul? Who told you Sausage was a useless martial soul?" Xue Qinghe could not help but speak up from the side.

Clearly, the talent of an Innate Full Soul Power food-system martial soul had caught his attention.

"Th-the students at the academy in the village said so. There's a place in our village called Shrek Academy, and the students there are all very formidable!" Oscar answered.

"Heh..." Hearing Oscar's words, Luo Fan could not help but laugh.

In the original story, Oscar had been taken into Shrek, but before that, they had deliberately instilled in him the notion that the Sausage martial soul was useless?

What exactly was Shrek plotting? Luo Fan could roughly guess.

It was like in the original Naruto, where the villagers were deliberately allowed to suppress the protagonist Uzumaki Naruto, while the Third Hokage appeared before Naruto every day as a kind grandfather, becoming a ray of light in his darkness.

"Since you have Innate Full Soul Power, once you obtain your first soul ring and become an official Soul Master, you can receive a subsidy from Spirit Hall: one Gold Soul Coin every month. Didn't you know?" Luo Fan said.

For an orphan like him, a monthly subsidy of one Gold Soul Coin was already enough to live quite well!

"I didn't know!"

When Oscar heard that he could receive one Gold Soul Coin every month, his eyes lit up.

There was such a benefit? Why had no one ever told him?

"Big Brother Qinghe?" Luo Fan turned to look at Xue Qinghe.

"Oscar, is it? Are you willing to come with us? We can train you into a powerful Soul Master!" Understanding Luo Fan's meaning, Xue Qinghe spoke to Oscar.

An Innate Full Soul Power food-system Soul Master? They could actually pick up such a top-tier genius?

It was practically like finding a bag of Gold Soul Coins while walking down the street.

Although Xue Qinghe felt that something about this seemed unreasonable, no matter what, he would take the talent first.

"If I go with you, will I be able to eat my fill from now on?"

Becoming a powerful Soul Master was not Oscar's focus. What concerned him most was whether he would be able to eat well and stay warm from now on.

"Of course..." Xue Qinghe nodded.

"Oscar, why are you here?" Just as Oscar nodded and prepared to agree, a man's voice suddenly rang out.

"Headmaster Flender, Teacher Zhao, hello!" Oscar turned his head toward the two men who had happened to approach and greeted them.

One was a middle-aged man with glasses, who looked refined and scholarly.

The other was built as solidly as a bear!

Shrek Academy had actually been built in the village outside the city. Oscar happened to be an orphan from that village, so naturally, he knew the two men.

"Mhm. Oscar, Teacher Zhao just told me about your situation. Haven't you always wanted to join our Shrek? I agree!" Flender stepped forward and spoke to Oscar.

"Really? That's wonderful!" Hearing Flender's words, Oscar's eyes shone as he exclaimed in delight.

To Oscar, Shrek Academy had always been his dream!

"Everyone, this child belongs to our academy, so get lost!" Zhao Wuji, the muscular man beside Flender, grinned as he stared at Xue Qinghe with an unfriendly expression.

Judging by their clothing, they seemed rather well-born. But as a Soul Sage-level powerhouse, Zhao Wuji had always followed Shrek Academy's motto: a Soul Master who dared not cause trouble was not a good Soul Master!

Shrek Academy had actually been keeping an eye on Oscar all along. The headmaster merely wanted to temper his character so that when he was eventually admitted, he would be more utterly devoted to the academy.

But they had not expected that in a moment of inattention, he would nearly be lured away by someone else!

Therefore, Zhao Wuji naturally held no goodwill toward Xue Qinghe and his group!

"What if I say this child must follow me from now on?"

Little Brother Luo Fan had practically placed the food right at his mouth, yet now someone wanted to snatch it away—and even spoke so rudely? Naturally, Xue Qinghe would not agree!

"Hmph, then let's have a little spar?" Zhao Wuji grinned and cracked his knuckles!

Pufferfish Douluo, who had remained in the role of a guard the entire time, naturally could not continue pretending to be invisible when it looked like they were about to fight. He stepped forward two paces...