The Natives of This World Are So Fierce Chapter 10: Earth Was Dangerous
As the two probed each other, Qin Xiaoxia gradually discovered something.
The Mischievous Sprite not only looked like a child, but actually thought like one in most respects, too.
Qin Xiaoxia had no idea whether the psychology of otherworldly creatures resembled that of Earth's inhabitants, but judging by the current situation, the little fellow's mind was fairly easy to figure out.
And for certain historical reasons passed down through his family, Qin Xiaoxia had some insight into this sort of thing, despite having no formal training.
Although this little fellow was called a Mischievous Sprite and certainly knew how to lie, he clearly hadn't invested enough skill points in the lying branch of his mischief skills. His thoughts were fairly simple, and, most importantly, he was rather timid, which made it easy to coax information out of him.
As they spent more time together, Qin Xiaoxia had the illusion that he had uncovered the secret behind the world's changes.
The Mischievous Sprite had indeed crossed over from another world, though the sprite himself had no idea why.
One day, while inside his own mine, he had suddenly fallen into a hole. Then a suction force had pulled at him, and by the time he realized what was happening, he was already on Earth.
This was also the first time the Mischievous Sprite had crossed worlds in his life, so he was still very frightened. According to his account, he hadn't initially arrived directly on the real Earth.
A layer of rejection from the world had kept all nonnative matter isolated.
Simply put-
Things that crossed over from another world were separated from Earth's actual matter, as though they existed in different dimensions.
Inanimate objects fared better, but living things faced particularly strong rejection from this law of the world.
Qin Xiaoxia had been listening quietly, but the moment the little fellow mentioned rejection, he interrupted.
"You keep saying how powerful the world power's rejection is and how completely it separates everything. Then how did you actually get in here, steal my things, and eat my food? Don't tell me it's because I'm dreaming."
Now certain that the little fellow posed little threat, Qin Xiaoxia was becoming increasingly uninhibited. As he spoke, he reached out and pinched the Mischievous Sprite's cheek, pulling the flesh several centimeters away from his face.
The sprite shook his head, trying to resist, but with his whole body tied up, he could only let his face be stretched like dough.
"Mmph... I... wished my way in!"
Only when the little fellow's face turned red did Qin Xiaoxia let go.
"As Margeson Primordial Beings, we evolved over long ages to possess the ability to forge Wish Coins and cast the coin-based Wish Spell. And the wish only acted on me. Since I'm such a kind, harmless sprite, the power of the wish just managed to cancel out the world power, which wasn't particularly strong against me to begin with."
"You can't even break free of some rope, but you can fool the world power?"
Curiosity and disbelief showed on Qin Xiaoxia's face.
"Hmph! Punching someone and hitting them with a rock do different amounts of damage, but you're still the one hitting them, aren't you? In Margeson, a visit from a Saroba Sprite is synonymous with good luck. Not only are you ungrateful, you even tied me up!"
The little fellow glared angrily at Qin Xiaoxia, while using his tongue to massage the inside of the cheek Qin Xiaoxia had pinched so painfully.
Hearing this, Qin Xiaoxia grew thoughtful. He now had a more concrete understanding of the sprite's wish, and it seemed he didn't need to worry about countless monsters appearing in the world just yet.
"Oh-ho, little guy, still talking tough? You've been freeloading in my home for ages, stealing things and causing trouble nonstop. Where's the good luck in that?"
"I gave you a coin!"
"Right. And then? Where's the coin?"
"I... I used it to grant you a wish..."
Qin Xiaoxia leaned in close, smiling at him.
"Yes, yes, you did mention that consuming a coin to grant a wish requires the coin's owner to make the request. But you exploited a loophole in what I said back then, didn't you? Basically, you used a coin that already belonged to me to fulfill your own wish! You shameless little thief!"
Qin Xiaoxia inspected the Mischievous Sprite from above, below, left, and right.
The little fellow had thought his cheek was about to suffer again, but Qin Xiaoxia didn't touch him. Instead, the nasty fellow was looking at him with a serious expression.
"You've been staying here all this time. You haven't really gotten to know the world outside yet, have you?"
The face of the man before him suddenly darkened.
"Little guy, you don't think this world called Earth is some paradise, do you?"
In that brief span, Qin Xiaoxia had already thought things through.
Even if this little fellow was a visitor from another world with no legal identity on Earth, he couldn't really do anything to him.
Nor could he keep the little fellow tied up like this forever. Who knew what problems that might cause?
Eventually, he would have to release this little fellow, who hadn't actually intended to hurt anyone.
But an opportunity like this was so rare that he might hardly encounter it even in his dreams. He had to find some way to keep the little fellow "tethered" to him.
There was no other choice. He would have to work on his mind. When it came to hoodwinking people, Qin Xiaoxia's talents could be called hereditary.
Just as the Mischievous Sprite began worrying whether this fellow was as evil as certain ghouls in Margeson, Qin Xiaoxia's tone suddenly turned earnest.
"You haven't met many humans before, have you? Let alone humans from Earth?"
"I'll let you go. After all, I don't get my kicks from abusing children. You just need to compensate me for my losses."
Hearing that he would be released, the Mischievous Sprite's eyes immediately lit up.
"But!"
The little fellow's mouth, which had just begun to spread into a grin, immediately drooped again. Qin Xiaoxia found it rather amusing.
"But there are some precautions about this world that I have to explain to you. Otherwise, the first otherworldly friend I've ever made might... die without even knowing why!"
The last words came out forcefully, chilling and menacing. After a brief pause, he suddenly thrust his face close to the little fellow's and barked them out.
Although the Mischievous Sprite was tied up and couldn't move, the hat on his head actually shot upright.
That sort of effect was normally only seen in Stephen Chow's comedies.
"Ahem. Words alone might not give you a clear idea, so let me show you some evidence. You'll soon understand that the injection torture from earlier was just the tip of the iceberg."
The tablet proved enormously useful in Qin Xiaoxia's hands.
At the maximum typing speed he normally used when writing, he searched out all sorts of videos of humans cruelly harming animals.
Whaling ships and shark-finning vessels carried out bloody operations at sea. On land, there were all sorts of dog slaughterers and dog thieves working before the New Year, along with the terrifying people of Huaguo, who ate practically anything.
One video in particular showed fully automated pig- and chicken-slaughtering production lines in Germany, taking the efficient art of slaughter to its absolute limit. Even Qin Xiaoxia himself got a fright.
Even killing chickens is this efficient nowadays?
For the next batch of videos and pictures, he searched for all the traps that existed everywhere in the world, at all times.
Poisons and traps for snakes, insects, rats, and ants were everywhere. There were all sorts of vicious, deadly wild animals, from beasts that tore into their prey to creatures with lethal venom. Even the stray dogs in a residential neighborhood could swarm you at any moment and bite you to death!
If all that counted as the dangers of nature and the dangers humans posed to the outside world, what came next was even worse.
Humans were most ruthless when dealing with their own kind.
Constantly occurring horrific traffic accidents, objects falling inexplicably from high places, terrorist suicide attacks, terrifying shootings into crowds, sinister acts of revenge by poisoning, and mentally ill criminals whose attacks were impossible to guard against and who could appear nearby at any time.
Any of these could leave someone mutilated, or, more likely, take their life.
There was also a profession called child trafficking, which specifically targeted small members of their own human species who were about the same size as the sprite. Once taken away, those young humans never came back!
And even avoiding all of that was no guarantee of safety.
Sudan red, sewage oil, big-head baby poisoned milk powder-eating the wrong things, however tasty they looked, could be just as deadly.
The Mischievous Sprite was already pale with terror, but Qin Xiaoxia still wouldn't let up.
"You think those are the greatest threats? No, those are just appetizers!"
"Our species is a complex whole, and destruction and slaughter make up a huge part of our history. You wouldn't want to get caught up in even the tiniest bit of it."
Qin Xiaoxia searched out humanity's terrifying weapons of slaughter one after another. Some results included footage of wars; for others, he simply selected scenes from war movies and played them.
That torrent of death sweeping across the world was undoubtedly horrifying. More frightening still were the increasingly destructive and dangerous weapons humans kept developing.
"Over the past several thousand years, humans have waged more than fourteen thousand wars among themselves, directly or indirectly causing the deaths of over three billion of our own kind..."
The figure of over three billion frightened the Mischievous Sprite so badly that his entire body went limp.
Before sharing inspiration with Qin Xiaoxia, he had possessed no concept of such a number. Now, however, he understood how staggering it was. It might well exceed all the pebbles and specks of dust he had ever seen.
Whenever a war swept across the world, almost nowhere on the planet was spared.
"Hey, a world war might be a little remote, but the people you should be most wary of are human scientists!"
Qin Xiaoxia gave the little fellow's face two light pats, startling him into a shudder and snapping him out of his terrifying imaginings.
"See that?"
Qin Xiaoxia pointed at the camera in a corner of the living room ceiling.
"That's called real-time surveillance. You thought you were perfectly hidden, but I saw everything. It can monitor anything at any time! And these things are all over the world!"
"You have no identification whatsoever. If you wander around, there's only one possible outcome!"
"Once your existence is discovered, especially by scientists, the best you can hope for is a quick death. Your body, your organs, even your tissues will be sliced up and fought over by the whole world... They might not even let you die. They could cut off a little of your flesh every day, drain a little of your blood every day..."
The tablet provided a timely assist.
Videos showing the cruel processes of various scientific experiments, along with scenes from certain science-fiction movies depicting the dissection of alien creatures, played one after another on fast-forward. Qin Xiaoxia even paused the particularly bloody and horrifying parts.
On the table, the tiny figure had already curled into a ball and was trembling nonstop. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut, too frightened to look at the screen, but the sounds kept pouring into his ears.
"Boo-hoo... Waaah! What kind of world is this?!"