After learning about Alice's Mind Reading Technique, Rui couldn't pretend not to be scared any longer - then, she knew everything? Even Super System? Reincarnation?
"Relax,"
Alice proudly looked at his horrified expression:
"This princess's Mind Reading Technique right now isn't that strong yet - I can only check if you're lying or not, and I'm not able to read your thoughts - like your unrequited love for Jiya, I can't read that."
Knowing she couldn't read his exact thoughts, Rui let out a long sigh, and starting to suspect the authenticity of her Mind Reading Technique. As for the latter part - him having feelings for Jiya - he didn't even need to explain. Jiya was indeed super attractive, but she completely didn't notice him at all. And even if she did, for his dear life, he'd have no choice but to stay away from her - he'd happily let someone else reach the highest realm of sexually active dried skeleton.
"Good! Mind Reading Technique drained a lot of my spiritual power. Once used, this princess needs several days to recover, so I'll let you off for a few days."
Alice stretched herself,
"Someone's very tired, tell her a story!"
But you're the most idle person here, what tired? Rui condemned her inside his head, but it was better believing that she did have Mind Reading Technique than not. This little loli was actually a demoness, he could only go soft on her.
So, Rui told her "The Demon King and The Princess" the extra funny version. This story was actually quite boring, but it suited the little loli's taste, her big two eyes sparkling as the story went on. And when she heard the part where the Demon King suicided himself, her dissatisfaction burst forth; she demanded that the main character and heroine be changed into an evil human and a kind demoness.
Rui scratched his head - he was now Aldaz's "apprentice", which was equivalent to joining Mozu and, to some extent, betraying the human race. All the blame went to his miserable reincarnation - if he'd been reborn in the Surface World instead, he'd be now savoring the wind and sunshine there, or enjoying his luxurious and worry-free life as Arthur the high-status noble.
But this place was, unfortunately, Mozu; therefore, his first priority could only be to protect his dear life, and who knew, maybe later he'd even get the chance to go back to the human world. He could imagine himself, at that moment, with a deep voice, whispering into the little loli's ear: Sorry, I was an undercover spy…
Just then, Jiya brought back a basket filled with fruits. Blue Dragon Fruit looked quite similar to a bigger version of dried walnut, with thinner shell. Rui tried one - it tasted somewhat like a pistachio nut, with a bit of pecan flavor - very yummy; no wonder the little loli'd been so determined to come here.
Not long after that, Athena came back to the mountain top. In her hands were a few fish and two goat-like hunted preys, which were skinned and cleaned carefully. The fish were caught at a stream near the mountain's foot, because no living creature would be able to live inside the poisonous water of Blue Wave Lake.
"Strange - it's only been two months - how come there are so few animals around here?"
An expression of doubt appeared on Athena's face.
"Today I only got this much, don't know if it's enough…"
Six fish with two "goats" is still not enough? Rui was shocked, altogether four people - three women, one man - are they all gluttonous?
Athena and Jiya quickly prepared the food and skewered the meat; sitting around the warm campfire was very comfortable.
When it came to the grilling time, Rui finally had a chance to show his skill. Although he was an otaku, because his parents'd passed away early, his self-care ability was extremely potent. He'd gained the title "The Junior God of Cookery" when he'd been in college.1
The little loli brought a lot of spices. Rui could slightly grasped the effects of them using his previous experience; with a little experimenting, he pretty much understood the uses of these spices. After the three girls tasted the grilled fish made by Rui, it was decided that all cooking duty fell on him. Even Jiya marveled at his cooking, the little loli shamelessly claimed that she'd spotted out Rui's hidden talent with her wisdom, only Athena kept silence, swiftly eliminating food.
Rui now knew why Athena'd said the food might not be enough - at this rate, even all the food wouldn't be enough for only her to eat. While Alice was talking, Athena already swept away a tray of grilled fish. Alice was one step behind, so she could only wait to snatch the skewer Rui was grilling. As she was about to grab the skewer, she caught Rui's strange look in his eyes, and embarrassedly said:
"Y-You eat first. But the next one must be mine."
It was rare to see this little demoness show such conscience, Rui shook his head with a smile, giving her the skewer. Alice sweetly chuckled, took it from him and started munching the fish.
This atmosphere reminded Rui of his picnic with his good friends in college. Too bad life is just like telephoning - if it's not you who hang up first, then it's me who do. He'd already hung up his life on earth - his good friends, or her from that one time - he couldn't see them anymore.
After a few mouthful of grilled fish, Alice happened to see Rui's absentminded expression; she threw him a Jade Dragon Fruit with a haha:
"Rui, I didn't expect you could make such delicious grilled fish. Maybe I can consider making you my favored mistress."
Rui just took his first bite of the fruit, and almost choked himself at her line: Does she really understand the true meaning of "favored mistress"?
All Athena's energy was focused on eating, she didn't react to anything around her. Only Jiya sent a warning glance towards Rui without saying anything. It seemed like this special language the little loli used to speak to others had been accustomed to. After eating for a while, under Alice's threats and bribes, Rui was forced to change from a chef to a storyteller.
Rui chose a popular fairy tale in his past life "Snow White". But as soon as it was finished, the queen in the story was despised by Alice. She evaluated the queen as mentally retarded, especially the poisoned apple, which could be spat out if bitten. If she'd been the queen instead, Snow White wouldn't have had the chance to escape the imperial palace from the beginning. Not only that, she would've also poisoned the prince, raided the neighboring country, united the two countries, and gone down in history.
Athena was most dissatisfied with Snow White. The swordswoman's idea was that even if the queen'd had magic, Snow White could've still choose to practice sword fighting! Even if she couldn't win and had had to fled into the forest, she should've blackmailed and enslaved the seven dwarfs. The story would've continue like this: right at the moment the queen was about to marry the prince, the heroine came to the prince's rescue; after a fierce final battle, she finished the queen off, and then lived a secluded life with the prince inside the forest, composing a legendary book of sword and magic.
Jiya also gave her own point of view. If the magic mirror'd said Snow White'd been the most beautiful woman, then for what reason had she not seduced all the men in the country, dealing with the queen together? Or at least she could've made the two countries fight each other, following the strategy of a femme fatale.
With a head full of sweat, Rui summed up the three versions: firstly, the empress version, with Wu Zetian2 as a representative, 80% resemblance rate; secondly, the chivalrous swordswoman version, with many representatives from various wuxia novels, inestimable resemblance rate; lastly, the demoness version, representatives Daji and Bao Si3, 90% resemblance rate.4
Following the path of Great Grandmaster Wu Chengen, this time Great Grandmaster Andersen5 had tears streaming down his face. As Rui was blushing with shame, all three girls unanimously demanded him to fix the story.
This is the original, fix what? Rui felt helpless under the pressure. He pondered for a moment, and finally modified the ending part, result in a dumb sequel to the masterpiece: at the critical juncture, already knowing the apple was poisonous, Snow White pretended to eat the apple in order to mislead the queen; while playing dumb and feigning madness, she secretly accumulated her strength and seduced the prince of the neighboring country; after uniting the army of the forest and the prince, she made a comeback and overthrew the queen all in one go.
This simplified Hamlet-like6 sequel, even after customized and revised, was still pointed out many brain-damaged parts and details, but luckily for him, it was still given a pass, barely. Rui wiped his sweaty head, and secretly vowed inside his heart, if he somehow went back to earth, he would give much more support to the novels he'd read - it's not easy being an author.
The three girls was still discussing with great enthusiasm, especially Alice and Athena, frolicking frivolously around from time to time. Rui didn't want to interfere… more like didn't dare to, for safety reasons - the further away from them the better, he thought - and earnestly continued the duty of the chef. He was a loyal fan of fiction, the number of fictions he remembered was, if not one thousand, at least eight hundreds. But these three demonesses were such frustrating critic; imagine if each story would be revised like Snow White, just thinking about it made Rui exhausted.
When all the meat was grilled, the three seemed stuffed, as no one came to get more. They lied down in one place together, the sound getting lower and lower, the movements getting slower and slower, and including the most energetic Alice, all three of them fell asleep on the ground.
The beauties were asleep, but the wolf… no, the man was still awake, should he do something?
Rui firmly shook his head - this was definitely that mischievous princess's scheme of getting him into trouble. Knowing only she wouldn't be enough to tempt him, the little loli pulled in both Athena and Jiya. If he were to take any rash action, like escaping, he would fall into her trap. The best solution was to wait until the little loli lost patience, the trap would collapse by itself.
That said, the little loli's acting wasn't good, her breathing was too slow and long, looked totally unnatural - one of the common error in the academy. Athena was no good either, her modeling was too weird, she even tightly hugging the sword; poor little Alan, should've been low instead of noble, ah, no, should've been a sword instead of a demon. Only the succubus maid got full marks, that outstanding curve at her rear, too enticing; and yes, the Oscars this time belonged to student Jiya!
Rui used his professional otaku eyes and started his commentary. But as time went by, he was starting to feel like something was actually going wrong. He put down the barbecue and stood up. The four rhinos also started becoming restless, breathing heavily.
Inside Rui's head rang up the notification sound. The Super System started progressing it's activation process. The pace initially was still quite slow, but little by little getting faster and faster - 20%… 30%… it exceeded 80%!
Even the numerous poisons inside Aldaz's laboratory didn't make the process go over 20%, why on Mozu did this place have such a crazy poison? Over 80% in mere moments?
Getting a boost in the System's startup should be a happy thing, but when his eyes passed through the dead quiet lake, he suddenly thought of one possibility, his cold sweat instantly drenched his whole body.
A soft breeze went by, and besides Rui appeared an extra short-haired man, holding the barbecue in his hand, starting chomping .
Pitch-black hair, brown-yellow skin, vigorous body figure, he was wearing a strange-looking long robe, surrounding his body were strings of bizarre symbols emitting gentle light.
"You've come."
This line made the man surprised for a moment, he asked back:
"You know me?"
Rui directed his glance to the Blue Wave Lake, and probed:
"Poison dragon?"
"It should be The Great Poison Dragon or Your Excellency the Poison Dragon"
The man slightly grinned, revealing his sharp glittering teeth.
Probably referred to the Chinese movie The God of Cookery starring Stephen Chow. ↩ Wu Zetian, or Empress Consort Wu, according to Wikipedia, was the sole officially recognized empress of China in more than two millennia. ↩ Daji and Bao Si were kings’ favorite concubines. They were famous for their beauty bringing a fall to an entire dynasty and nation. ↩ The resemblance rate here probably meant the similarity between the versions and the story of those famous representatives. ↩ Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish author, best know for his fairy tales. His version of Snow White can be found . ↩ The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It’s a very famous piece of literature, focusing on the revenge of Prince Hamlet against his uncle. ↩Actually this is my final year in college, and I am kinda picky for words and phrases so each update can take a long time to come out :(. As I’ll get busy from now on, don’t expect much from me. T_T
After learning about Alice's Mind Reading Technique, Rui couldn't pretend not to be scared any longer - then, she knew everything? Even Super System? Reincarnation?
"Relax,"
Alice proudly looked at his horrified expression:
"This princess's Mind Reading Technique right now isn't that strong yet - I can only check if you're lying or not, and I'm not able to read your thoughts - like your unrequited love for Jiya, I can't read that."
Knowing she couldn't read his exact thoughts, Rui let out a long sigh, and starting to suspect the authenticity of her Mind Reading Technique. As for the latter part - him having feelings for Jiya - he didn't even need to explain. Jiya was indeed super attractive, but she completely didn't notice him at all. And even if she did, for his dear life, he'd have no choice but to stay away from her - he'd happily let someone else reach the highest realm of sexually active dried skeleton.
"Good! Mind Reading Technique drained a lot of my spiritual power. Once used, this princess needs several days to recover, so I'll let you off for a few days."
Alice stretched herself,
"Someone's very tired, tell her a story!"
But you're the most idle person here, what tired? Rui condemned her inside his head, but it was better believing that she did have Mind Reading Technique than not. This little loli was actually a demoness, he could only go soft on her.
So, Rui told her "The Demon King and The Princess" the extra funny version. This story was actually quite boring, but it suited the little loli's taste, her big two eyes sparkling as the story went on. And when she heard the part where the Demon King suicided himself, her dissatisfaction burst forth; she demanded that the main character and heroine be changed into an evil human and a kind demoness.
Rui scratched his head - he was now Aldaz's "apprentice", which was equivalent to joining Mozu and, to some extent, betraying the human race. All the blame went to his miserable reincarnation - if he'd been reborn in the Surface World instead, he'd be now savoring the wind and sunshine there, or enjoying his luxurious and worry-free life as Arthur the high-status noble.
But this place was, unfortunately, Mozu; therefore, his first priority could only be to protect his dear life, and who knew, maybe later he'd even get the chance to go back to the human world. He could imagine himself, at that moment, with a deep voice, whispering into the little loli's ear: Sorry, I was an undercover spy…
Just then, Jiya brought back a basket filled with fruits. Blue Dragon Fruit looked quite similar to a bigger version of dried walnut, with thinner shell. Rui tried one - it tasted somewhat like a pistachio nut, with a bit of pecan flavor - very yummy; no wonder the little loli'd been so determined to come here.
Not long after that, Athena came back to the mountain top. In her hands were a few fish and two goat-like hunted preys, which were skinned and cleaned carefully. The fish were caught at a stream near the mountain's foot, because no living creature would be able to live inside the poisonous water of Blue Wave Lake.
"Strange - it's only been two months - how come there are so few animals around here?"
An expression of doubt appeared on Athena's face.
"Today I only got this much, don't know if it's enough…"
Six fish with two "goats" is still not enough? Rui was shocked, altogether four people - three women, one man - are they all gluttonous?
Athena and Jiya quickly prepared the food and skewered the meat; sitting around the warm campfire was very comfortable.
When it came to the grilling time, Rui finally had a chance to show his skill. Although he was an otaku, because his parents'd passed away early, his self-care ability was extremely potent. He'd gained the title "The Junior God of Cookery" when he'd been in college.1
The little loli brought a lot of spices. Rui could slightly grasped the effects of them using his previous experience; with a little experimenting, he pretty much understood the uses of these spices. After the three girls tasted the grilled fish made by Rui, it was decided that all cooking duty fell on him. Even Jiya marveled at his cooking, the little loli shamelessly claimed that she'd spotted out Rui's hidden talent with her wisdom, only Athena kept silence, swiftly eliminating food.
Rui now knew why Athena'd said the food might not be enough - at this rate, even all the food wouldn't be enough for only her to eat. While Alice was talking, Athena already swept away a tray of grilled fish. Alice was one step behind, so she could only wait to snatch the skewer Rui was grilling. As she was about to grab the skewer, she caught Rui's strange look in his eyes, and embarrassedly said:
"Y-You eat first. But the next one must be mine."
It was rare to see this little demoness show such conscience, Rui shook his head with a smile, giving her the skewer. Alice sweetly chuckled, took it from him and started munching the fish.
This atmosphere reminded Rui of his picnic with his good friends in college. Too bad life is just like telephoning - if it's not you who hang up first, then it's me who do. He'd already hung up his life on earth - his good friends, or her from that one time - he couldn't see them anymore.
After a few mouthful of grilled fish, Alice happened to see Rui's absentminded expression; she threw him a Jade Dragon Fruit with a haha:
"Rui, I didn't expect you could make such delicious grilled fish. Maybe I can consider making you my favored mistress."
Rui just took his first bite of the fruit, and almost choked himself at her line: Does she really understand the true meaning of "favored mistress"?
All Athena's energy was focused on eating, she didn't react to anything around her. Only Jiya sent a warning glance towards Rui without saying anything. It seemed like this special language the little loli used to speak to others had been accustomed to. After eating for a while, under Alice's threats and bribes, Rui was forced to change from a chef to a storyteller.
Rui chose a popular fairy tale in his past life "Snow White". But as soon as it was finished, the queen in the story was despised by Alice. She evaluated the queen as mentally retarded, especially the poisoned apple, which could be spat out if bitten. If she'd been the queen instead, Snow White wouldn't have had the chance to escape the imperial palace from the beginning. Not only that, she would've also poisoned the prince, raided the neighboring country, united the two countries, and gone down in history.
Athena was most dissatisfied with Snow White. The swordswoman's idea was that even if the queen'd had magic, Snow White could've still choose to practice sword fighting! Even if she couldn't win and had had to fled into the forest, she should've blackmailed and enslaved the seven dwarfs. The story would've continue like this: right at the moment the queen was about to marry the prince, the heroine came to the prince's rescue; after a fierce final battle, she finished the queen off, and then lived a secluded life with the prince inside the forest, composing a legendary book of sword and magic.
Jiya also gave her own point of view. If the magic mirror'd said Snow White'd been the most beautiful woman, then for what reason had she not seduced all the men in the country, dealing with the queen together? Or at least she could've made the two countries fight each other, following the strategy of a femme fatale.
With a head full of sweat, Rui summed up the three versions: firstly, the empress version, with Wu Zetian2 as a representative, 80% resemblance rate; secondly, the chivalrous swordswoman version, with many representatives from various wuxia novels, inestimable resemblance rate; lastly, the demoness version, representatives Daji and Bao Si3, 90% resemblance rate.4
Following the path of Great Grandmaster Wu Chengen, this time Great Grandmaster Andersen5 had tears streaming down his face. As Rui was blushing with shame, all three girls unanimously demanded him to fix the story.
This is the original, fix what? Rui felt helpless under the pressure. He pondered for a moment, and finally modified the ending part, result in a dumb sequel to the masterpiece: at the critical juncture, already knowing the apple was poisonous, Snow White pretended to eat the apple in order to mislead the queen; while playing dumb and feigning madness, she secretly accumulated her strength and seduced the prince of the neighboring country; after uniting the army of the forest and the prince, she made a comeback and overthrew the queen all in one go.
This simplified Hamlet-like6 sequel, even after customized and revised, was still pointed out many brain-damaged parts and details, but luckily for him, it was still given a pass, barely. Rui wiped his sweaty head, and secretly vowed inside his heart, if he somehow went back to earth, he would give much more support to the novels he'd read - it's not easy being an author.
The three girls was still discussing with great enthusiasm, especially Alice and Athena, frolicking frivolously around from time to time. Rui didn't want to interfere… more like didn't dare to, for safety reasons - the further away from them the better, he thought - and earnestly continued the duty of the chef. He was a loyal fan of fiction, the number of fictions he remembered was, if not one thousand, at least eight hundreds. But these three demonesses were such frustrating critic; imagine if each story would be revised like Snow White, just thinking about it made Rui exhausted.
When all the meat was grilled, the three seemed stuffed, as no one came to get more. They lied down in one place together, the sound getting lower and lower, the movements getting slower and slower, and including the most energetic Alice, all three of them fell asleep on the ground.
The beauties were asleep, but the wolf… no, the man was still awake, should he do something?
Rui firmly shook his head - this was definitely that mischievous princess's scheme of getting him into trouble. Knowing only she wouldn't be enough to tempt him, the little loli pulled in both Athena and Jiya. If he were to take any rash action, like escaping, he would fall into her trap. The best solution was to wait until the little loli lost patience, the trap would collapse by itself.
That said, the little loli's acting wasn't good, her breathing was too slow and long, looked totally unnatural - one of the common error in the academy. Athena was no good either, her modeling was too weird, she even tightly hugging the sword; poor little Alan, should've been low instead of noble, ah, no, should've been a sword instead of a demon. Only the succubus maid got full marks, that outstanding curve at her rear, too enticing; and yes, the Oscars this time belonged to student Jiya!
Rui used his professional otaku eyes and started his commentary. But as time went by, he was starting to feel like something was actually going wrong. He put down the barbecue and stood up. The four rhinos also started becoming restless, breathing heavily.
Inside Rui's head rang up the notification sound. The Super System started progressing it's activation process. The pace initially was still quite slow, but little by little getting faster and faster - 20%… 30%… it exceeded 80%!
Even the numerous poisons inside Aldaz's laboratory didn't make the process go over 20%, why on Mozu did this place have such a crazy poison? Over 80% in mere moments?
Getting a boost in the System's startup should be a happy thing, but when his eyes passed through the dead quiet lake, he suddenly thought of one possibility, his cold sweat instantly drenched his whole body.
A soft breeze went by, and besides Rui appeared an extra short-haired man, holding the barbecue in his hand, starting chomping .
Pitch-black hair, brown-yellow skin, vigorous body figure, he was wearing a strange-looking long robe, surrounding his body were strings of bizarre symbols emitting gentle light.
"You've come."
This line made the man surprised for a moment, he asked back:
"You know me?"
Rui directed his glance to the Blue Wave Lake, and probed:
"Poison dragon?"
"It should be The Great Poison Dragon or Your Excellency the Poison Dragon"
The man slightly grinned, revealing his sharp glittering teeth.
Probably referred to the Chinese movie The God of Cookery starring Stephen Chow. ↩ Wu Zetian, or Empress Consort Wu, according to Wikipedia, was the sole officially recognized empress of China in more than two millennia. ↩ Daji and Bao Si were kings’ favorite concubines. They were famous for their beauty bringing a fall to an entire dynasty and nation. ↩ The resemblance rate here probably meant the similarity between the versions and the story of those famous representatives. ↩ Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish author, best know for his fairy tales. His version of Snow White can be found . ↩ The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It’s a very famous piece of literature, focusing on the revenge of Prince Hamlet against his uncle. ↩Actually this is my final year in college, and I am kinda picky for words and phrases so each update can take a long time to come out :(. As I’ll get busy from now on, don’t expect much from me. T_T
