Watching the toad close in step by step, Xu Le knew that if he refused...
The steel fork that had impaled the ghost would almost certainly end up in his skull.
The gap in their strength was enormous. Xu Le wasn't even sure whether the gods here were anything like he imagined.
Choosing to lie about something he didn't understand himself would be stupid.
So, time to come clean!
"I absolutely don't mean to refuse, Lord Golden Toad. I really don't know how to offer tribute. To put it plainly, I don't know how. If you're willing to believe me, please take it yourself. As for the earthworms, please give me some time. I'll find enough within a few days."
Xu Le had next to nothing to boast about in terms of other abilities, but he could think on his feet.
After all, he'd spent years writing novels. Although he was still a flop, he had plenty of practice with words.
He spent a lot of time being a keyboard warrior, too, so he was fairly quick with his tongue.
The Golden Toad hesitated.
"Why should I believe you?"
Xu Le was about to make up some excuses, but when the words reached his lips, they wouldn't come out.
Xu Le felt his body stiffen.
He suddenly entered that state of feverish concentration. The toad before him began to distort, and the pixelated images appeared again.
His mouth opened of its own accord:
"Golden Toad, you know I'm different. So you have no choice but to believe me!"
The low, somber voice instantly echoed through the hollow room.
It sounded like a prayer from the god of death.
The honorific was gone, and his words even carried a hint of menace.
Xu Le didn't know how he'd produced that voice, but that no longer mattered.
What mattered was that the toad seemed very susceptible to this approach.
After Xu Le displayed this attitude, the toad actually grew somewhat afraid.
"Understood, young spirit medium. I will serve as your shikigami and protect you until dawn. Once you've gathered enough earthworms, you can use this mark to find me."
As the toad finished speaking, pain flared in Xu Le's palm, and a mark of the Mouth of Gluttony appeared there.
A shikigami, a mark!
He rubbed the mark. The moment he touched it, Xu Le distinctly felt that feverish heat.
"How do I use it?"
"You know how."
Xu Le didn't press further, lest his rambling questions stir up something else.
"Thank you, then, Lord Golden Toad."
"You're welcome. Ours is a transaction, not worship."
With that, the toad turned away and stopped looking at Xu Le.
The toad walked to the doorway, holding the steel fork in one hand and a fresh cigarette, produced from who knew where, in the other.
With practiced ease, the toad lit up.
Hiss! Hah!
"Cigarettes are wonderful. Humans really know how to enjoy themselves."
"Yes, humans really know how to enjoy themselves."
Xu Le stood there, mulling over the toad's words. A transaction, not worship?
A sudden distortion below him interrupted his thoughts.
Xu Le looked down. Old Zhou's corpse had caught his attention.
Through his distorted vision, he saw something black on Old Zhou's chest.
"Can an anomaly's corpse turn into another anomaly?"
Xu Le had no answer to that nesting-doll question.
After wrestling with himself for a while, Xu Le decided to take a look.
The toad had said it would protect him. Surely this fell within the scope of that protection?
He bent down and began searching Old Zhou's corpse.
Before long, he found the object giving off the black glow.
It was a medal wrapped inside a wallet-a medal of honor awarded to a retired soldier!
Suddenly, lines of text resembling the earlier distorted messages appeared beside the medal!
[Veteran’s Soul] Gundo Relic-TU-Class. Experience: your shooting and fighting skills improve slightly. Soldier Soul-effect 1: physical attributes improve slightly. Soldier Soul-effect 2: release the Veteran’s Soul to temporarily strengthen yourself. The relic is destroyed after use. Description: to use this relic, you must fulfill Zhou Ke's final wish.
Xu Le stared blankly at the still-writhing text.
A Gundo Relic? TU?
This thing actually had something going for it!
Uh, he wasn't just stating the obvious. This thing looked... genuinely impressive!
After another moment of hesitation, Xu Le finally reached for the medal.
As he picked it up, a wave of dizziness washed over him, followed by vivid memories flooding into his mind.
These memories felt static, like all the objects sitting around your home.
They were clearly there, but unless you actually saw them, you wouldn't remember them.
Soon, Xu Le's expression began shifting, growing increasingly complicated and even uneasy.
The memories kept rewinding, and clear images appeared before Xu Le's eyes.
A few hours earlier, Zhou Ke-
Old Zhou, the corpse that had been lying on the floor all this time, was staring at the wall with shining eyes.
A multicolored fruit patterned with strange auspicious clouds had actually grown out of the shabby wall panels of the little house.
The fruit had no roots or support, yet it protruded straight from the rock. It was very strange.
"Le, is this one of those legendary Guyinduo Fruits? And it's multicolored!"
Zhou Ke's voice trembled with excitement.
Behind him, however, the original Xu Le's gaze kept flickering after he spotted the fruit.
"It is a Guyinduo Fruit, but the proper name should be a Seed of Gundo. Supposedly, they form when spores scattered across the world by the Gundo Mother Tree absorb natural energy. Still, finding a Seed of Gundo here really is unbelievable."
The original Xu Le's voice was deep and strange, like sand scraping against a tray or an off-key gramophone.
It sounded sinister, nothing like the voice someone his age ought to have.
"Is it worth a lot?" Old Zhou was already itching to get his hands on it.
"A great deal, but it has to remain perfectly intact. You must be careful. It can't have even the slightest damage."
"No problem. Hold this for me. I'll pick it."
Old Zhou handed his firearm to the original Xu Le and scrambled up onto the floorboards above.
Then he carefully picked the fruit.
The original Xu Le looked at the firearm in his hands, his eyes narrowing slightly. His fingers whitened around the weapon.
While Xu Le watched tensely, Old Zhou used his agile movements to retrieve the Guyinduo Fruit and carefully climb back down.
"Not a scratch on it. Le, we've really struck it rich this time. We'll split it fifty-fifty when we get back, uh..."
Shunk!
As Old Zhou climbed down, excitedly cradling the Guyinduo Fruit, Xu Le drove his dagger straight into his back, piercing his heart.
He shoved Old Zhou, then raised the gun in his hands and aimed at the man, whose body had stiffened as he slowly turned around.
At the sight of the muzzle, Old Zhou's expression grew even stiffer, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
His weathered face took on a forlorn expression.
"Did you really have to?"
"Stop moving."
The original Xu Le's voice remained low, even lower than before.
He stepped forward, keeping the gun trained on Old Zhou as he took the Seed of Gundo from his hands.
With the Seed of Gundo in his possession, the original Xu Le spoke expressionlessly.
"Old Zhou, some things can't be shared."
Old Zhou lowered his head slightly and gave a bitter, self-mocking smile.
"I... shouldn't have given you the gun, should I?"
"There's no point talking about that now!"
Faced with the original Xu Le's cold resolve, Zhou Ke could do nothing. Blood poured from the wound in his back, and he began to weaken.
"Cough, cough... Le, when you get back, could you spare Tingting and my wife...?"
Zhou Ke knew that with this injury, he probably wouldn't make it back.
Xu Le was too ruthless. He feared that once Xu Le returned, he wouldn't spare his wife and child. They were his only remaining concern.
The original Xu Le shook his head slightly.
"You're in no position to bargain with me."
Zhou Ke had still underestimated Xu Le's viciousness and cruelty.
The original Xu Le backed away a few steps, putting a safe distance between himself and Zhou Ke, then immediately swallowed the Guyinduo Fruit with a frown.
Then he raised the firearm, ready to erase Zhou Ke from this world for good.
The original Xu Le didn't give Zhou Ke the slightest chance.
Click!
The trigger clicked, but the gun didn't fire.
"Huh?" Xu Le, using a firearm for the first time, was visibly stunned.
His hesitant reaction naturally couldn't compare to that of a veteran like Zhou Ke.
Zhou Ke lunged forward and delivered a savage kick to Xu Le's stomach. Pain twisted Xu Le's face, and the kick knocked the firearm from his hands.
After falling to the floor, the original Xu Le looked up in fear, only to see that Zhou Ke had already retrieved his firearm.
Here, the veteran's decisiveness showed itself.
There was no hesitation, and he wouldn't give Xu Le any chance, either.
Safety off, bolt back, fire.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, and Xu Le felt a heavy blow slam into his chest.
Then his vision spun wildly.
The firearm's impact briefly robbed him of all ability to think.
Before he died, the original Xu Le seemed to see the wall writhing, its red bricks and white plaster turning into a mosaic.
But his consciousness had already begun to blur.
He didn't know whether this was real or an illusion.
All he could do was let the entire world turn into a kaleidoscope before his eyes.
Before you continue