CHAPTER 252: CHAPTER 252: CAN YOU BE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ME?

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

The dark night enshrouded Central Park in Manhattan. In the lonely depths of the dense forest, far from the streetlights’ reach, warm light emanated from a food stand.

Sitting atop the table, the Little Nine-Tailed Fox cocked its head, gazing at the female proprietor, then suddenly leaped over, landing on the woman’s shoulder and sniffing around.

Little Nine-Tailed Fox: "It’s a familiar scent."

The voice of the Little Nine-Tailed Fox was peculiar, resembling that of a dog, yet also a cat, but it clearly wasn’t human speech.

However, when it spoke, text would appear in a dialogue bubble above its head. From the way the earlier customer acted, it was apparent he could understand what the Little Nine-Tailed Fox was saying.

"Charming Voice" perhaps...

The Nine-Tailed Fox once had an evolution called "Charming Voice," which allowed it to understand others and speak in a way that directly conveyed its meaning to listeners, perfectly bridging language barriers.

The current state of the Little Nine-Tailed Fox was very similar to "Charming Voice." Naturally, Ren Suo thought it might be retracing the Nine-Tailed Fox’s evolutionary path, re-grasping its lost evolutions.

Yet, the Little Nine-Tailed Fox being so affectionate with the female proprietor was beyond Ren Suo’s expectations; he didn’t remember designing the Little Nine-Tailed Fox to be such a clingy little animal.

"It’s that one-sixth of a scent," the Little Nine-Tailed Fox continued to sniff. "It’s the scent of green, though very, very faint."

Ren Suo blinked, quickly realizing what the Little Nine-Tailed Fox was talking about—

During the fight with the Mumbai boss, the female proprietor had equipped "Struggle Warrior (Incomplete)" and had not yet taken it off. This ability, originating from one of the six trump cards of Devouring the Spirit of the World, actually had such high identifiability that the Little Nine-Tailed Fox recognized it at first glance.

Ren Suo quickly asked, "You noticed it that easily? Is it that obvious?"

The Little Nine-Tailed Fox shook its head. "Not obvious, but this feeling, I won’t forget. It’s the trace of the Supreme Overlord."

Supreme Overlord...?

Ren Suo asked, "Do you still remember what happened to you in the past?"

The Little Nine-Tailed Fox shook its head again. "At first sight, New York."

The memory of Devouring the Spirit of the World residing within the Nine-Tailed Fox, enchanting all beings, had not been passed on to the Little Nine-Tailed Fox. It had truly started anew.

And it was clear that the Little Nine-Tailed Fox wasn’t doing too poorly; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been able to intimidate a Half-Demon with just a peep.

The Little Nine-Tailed Fox jumped from the woman’s left shoulder to her right, and then onto the table in front of her, asking, "What’s your relationship with the Supreme Overlord?"

The female proprietor replied, "I know him."

The Little Nine-Tailed Fox nodded and didn’t pursue the question further, but instead asked, "Do you want my help?"

At this moment, the game prompted:

"’Nine-Tailed Fox’ is willing to assist you with your Ghost Walking activities tonight. Do you accept?"

"Nine-Tailed Fox (Combatant, Mascot): Demon Species customers will favor your Ghost Stall more, customer satisfaction +20%. Customers weaker than the Nine-Tailed Fox will give it face, leaving a gift even if the food isn’t good, and won’t fight."

Without a doubt, Ren Suo chose to accept the assistance of the Little Nine-Tailed Fox. He watched contentedly as the Little Nine-Tailed Fox walked back and forth behind the counter or sat on the dining table playing with its tails. Ren Suo asked, "Don’t you eat?"

"I don’t need that sort of thing." The authoritative tone in the Little Nine-Tailed Fox’s speech made Ren Suo, who had been scheming to mooch a meal, feel a tinge of envy.

"What’s your name?"

"I don’t have a name."

"How do you like the name Little Jiu?"

The Little Nine-Tailed Fox tilted its head, glanced at the female proprietor, and nodded. "Little Jiu likes it very much."

While they were speaking, another customer sat down. Ren Suo glanced over and immediately knew this was a customer of the Demon Species—among Demons and Ghosts, Monster Types were unseen, Demons didn’t pay, Ghost Class members resembled living people, and only Demon Species... were small animals.

They would hurriedly come over, sit down, and indicate their urgency with a variety of small movements, urging the female proprietor to cook quickly. Some animals couldn’t even speak, like a certain mouse that squeaked the entire time, yet the dialogue box translated its speech anyway.

Their identities were also plainly revealed in their talk. Only a year since the revival of Spiritual Energy, they had spent more time as animals than as demons. Their conversations were filled with common everyday occurrences from the streets, and even their troubles were as trivial as "that cat won’t go into heat with me" or "that dog won’t wag its tail at me..."

Demon Species were easier to serve than Half-Demons. Many Demon Species led short lives with simple desires and no psychological shadows, just some unresolved frustration. Then the female proprietor would tell them the most important thing about being a demon was to be joyful, and giving them something to eat would basically settle everything.

Real trouble-making Demon Species wouldn’t harm many people before being caught and sent for research—countries all over the world took Demons and Ghosts very seriously and were in dire need of research materials. Nowadays, with so many surveillance cameras, tracking the traces of a small animal was not difficult at all.

Now that the Demon Species had finally awakened their sentience, they were even more eager to know more, to learn more. Having hidden their identities for so long, they could finally find the female proprietor to chat with, talking as rapidly as machine guns.

With the Little Nine-Tailed Fox serving as security today, Ren Suo didn’t have to spend any Krypton Gold, managing to serve the Demon Species customers by himself.

Even if occasionally he didn’t cook well and the Demon Species customers felt like acting up, the Little Nine-Tailed Fox would let out a HMPH, and immediately they would stop talking and obediently leave their gifts behind.

「Two hours later.」

A very strange customer arrived.

He was tall, his red windbreaker stretched taut, and he wore a red fedora. In the dark of night, he bizarrely wore sunglasses and carried a briefcase as he walked up to the food stand.

The man in red sat down without specifying what he wanted to eat, simply saying, "I’ll have something bloody."

He was half-ghost, half-demon.

Unlike other Ghost Class members, who were special creatures awakened by a sudden mutation during the resurgence of Spiritual Energy, he was resurrected through his own awakened spells—blood control. His heart had already been destroyed, but relying on the relentless circulation of his blood, he nonetheless maintained his life status.

According to him, he was an Assassin from an organization and had undergone various harsh training from a young age. Originally, his life was supposed to have ended during a botched assassination, but everything changed with the revival of Spiritual Energy.

To be precise, his life changed after the claim of ’Stealing Heaven’s Technique Awakening Method’ appeared on the internet, which gave the Killer Organization a new idea.

What could be better than Awakening an Assassin who was already proficient in various killing techniques? As for control issues, the Killer Organization had long since planted bombs inside the Assassins’ bodies and wasn’t afraid at all.

So, these newly trained Assassins were thrown into the painful trials of Awakening. Out of dozens, only a few made it through.

But when these few tried to escape the training base, they faced the organization’s firepower. Even though they used their Awakening Abilities to neutralize the bombs inside their bodies, no one survived.

Only the man in red managed to escape using his awakened spells.

Carrying the blessings and hatred of the dead, the man in red’s face suddenly turned cyanotic, and black wings faintly gathered behind him.

"I want vengeance! I want them to pay for their blood debts with blood!" the man in red declared with hate.

The female proprietor nodded and pushed the prepared pig’s blood over to him.

The man in red ate the pig’s blood with a spoon and soon finished it. Wearing sunglasses, it was impossible to tell what was on his mind. He fell silent for a while, then removed his necklace.

He walked to the back of the food stand, knelt on one knee, and presented the necklace to the female proprietor. A gold ring hung on the necklace.

"Will you date me?"

The Little Nine-Tailed Fox tilted its head. ???

Ren Suo, watching from behind the screen: ???