Chapter 6: Hurry Up and Sign a Contract with This King
The simple dialogue, of two children hugging each other while crying their hearts out, seemed like it could be composed into a tear-jerking story after some arrangements. The cries that mixed bliss and grievance sounded like the most beautiful musical notes and the most elegant script.
The bald heros’ eyes flashed with a trace of gentleness as he sighed.. He walked towards the girl who was complaining on her way here.
“Tsk, to think that it’s just an F-Class calamity fiend. This tiny bit of points isn’t even enough to fill the gaps in my teeth.”
The young girl was around 15–16 years old. She had a delicate face and had skin as white as snow. She had a ponytail behind her that made her look pretty and charming. Dressed in a white t-shirt and black shorts, her chest was propped up with a full curve, while her slim, straight legs had a graceful curve, showcasing her perfect figure.
Hearing the girl’s complaining, the bald hero smiled gently and asked, “Little Riko, what’s your ranking now?”
Riko furrowed her brow slightly. “Teacher One-Pun, you can’t add the word ‘Little’. Please call your student—Riko.”
One-Pun’s dull eyes flickered with a faint amused look, as he nodded, saying, “Alright, Little Riko.”
“Hmph!” Riko responded with an unhappy snort. However, she did not fuss over the matter any further, presumably because she had failed several times before.
Riko recalled the question One-Pun had just asked and lowered her head to look at something that looked like a watch on her wrist. She immediately sighed in a helpless manner, grumbling, “E-Class Hero. Ranked 321. Ahhh, I’m going crazy soon!”
Following that, she looked pitifully at her bald teacher and said petulantly, “Teacher One-Pun~ Help me capture a S–Class calamity fiend and let me get the last hit. Please, pretty please~”
One-Pun said in a serious manner, “Don’t do that. It’s sickening.”
“Tch!” Riko’s face immediately turned gloomy as she said hatefully, “Others don’t even have the chance to see me act coy. Teacher One-Pun, you really don’t know the blessings you have. Tch! You deserve being single your whole life.”
One-Pun rubbed his round and shiny bald head in silence. He turned to look at the two children who were still crying.
Riko followed One-Pun’s gaze and instantly saw Shi Xiaobai. At first glance, she determined that Shi Xiaobai was not a Psionite. Secondly, she determined that Shi Xiaobai had no serious injuries.
“Wasn’t he just given a fright by a calamity fiend? He isn’t seriously injured, so is it necessary to cry so sadly? Tsk, I hate such cowardly and crybaby boys the most.” Riko, who was in a bad mood, was never one to mince her words.
“That child is very brave.” One-Pun, who had his back facing Riko, said. When he said those words, his expression was no longer a dull one, but of a rare seriousness.
Unfortunately, Riko did not get to see One-Pun’s expression. She retracted her gaze and said, “Let’s go. We came out here to look for people, not to comfort a coward. Those people from [Creation] have apparently found a Psyker. While for us, [Annihilation], we have yet to even obtain a rookie with an A-Class evaluation.”
One-Pun acknowledged her words as he continued staring at the two children not far away.
Riko stamped her feet and said angrily. “Hurry up, you big baldy teacher! As a member of [Annihilation], [Annihilation]’s honor is our honor. We cannot lose to [Creation] even if it’s the annual recruitment in terms of quality! We have to find a rookie that can completely outdo [Creation]!”
Riko noticed One-Pun ignoring her as she said with a sigh, “[Creation] has got a Psyker this year, while we don’t even have one. On this trip out, we have to find a rookie Psyker. Although Psykers were one in a million and would be snatched by various organizations the moment they were awakened, finding one that has slipped through the net is even harder than winning the lottery. I will absolutely not give up easily!”
As Riko spoke, she thought of something that suddenly got her very emotional. “Heavens, why is my life so miserable? Why must I make a bet with that devious bitch!? I absolutely can’t lose! Psyker, oh Psyker, if you were to appear in front of me, I’ll give you my first kiss!”
At this moment, One-Pun turned around with an extremely strange expression.
“What’s wrong?” Riko looked at One-Pun’s expression with an ominous feeling.
“That child.” One-Pun pointed to Shi Xiaobai who was not far away.
“Ya?” Riko was puzzled.
“He is the Psyker you want.” One-Pun explained.
Riko was instantly dumbfounded.
……
……
Shi Xiaobai was crying his heart out. As a thirteen-year-old, he had led a peaceful, carefree but boring life in the other world called Earth.
Having suddenly crossed over to this different world with a similar level of technology, but with a completely different culture, he was initially filled with excitement. Especially when he had learned of the existence of Heroes and calamity fiends from passers-by, making him long for the future.
However, the short experience of less than an hour had made him suffer a torment that felt as long as a century.
He was initially determined to save Little Fatso from the beginning because of the A-level reward, as well as the guilt in his heart. After all, his lies had given Little Fatso false courage.
The second time he chose to save Little Fatso again was because he did not realize that the choices he faced could result in time resetting. He had thought of the first death to be a dream.
And for his third choice, he had struggled for a long time in his heart. His rationality had told him that he should choose [Escape], but the soccer ball that hit the calamity fiend told him of a reality that—when he encountered danger—Little Fatso did not choose to escape. In addition to the information of knowing that a Hero would arrive, as well as acknowledging that he could repeat it all again in the event of death, Shi Xiaobai, who lacked courage, chose [Save Little Fatso] with great difficulty.
However, he was afraid the entire time. If he were to fail a third time, would he still have the courage to pick [Save Little Fatso] a fourth time?
“I would have escaped, I would definitely have chosen escape. I, Shi Xiaobai am already a mortal.”
Just having these thoughts made Shi Xiaobai cry incessantly, only until a fiery voice rang in his head.
“Absolute Choice completed. Congratulations to the Host for obtaining an ‘A-level reward’—’Psy awakening’.”
Shi Xiaobai immediately felt completely relaxed. The terrifying nightmare was finally over. Although he did not know what it meant by ‘Psy awakening’, he knew that an A-level reward couldn’t be too bad.
For some reason, the relaxed Shi Xiaobai felt like crying even more. Hence, he hugged Little Fatso and cried. He cried incessantly as if he was running all the tears in his lifetime dry.
Suddenly, Shi Xiaobai noticed that the bald hero and the invincible girl were walking towards him from a short distance away.
“Badump! Badump! Badump!”
Shi Xiaobai felt his heartbeat race, as the invincible girl was a person who had easily sliced Sahadun into a million pieces.
“If I can learn a move or two from her, I, Shi Xiaobai might also become a Hero!”
With this thought in mind, despite not done with his crying, Shi Xiaobai raised his finger and pointed towards the girl walking towards him, proclaiming loudly, “Girl, hurry up and sign a contract with This King!”
Translator’s Note: One-Pun is modeled after One-Punch Man‘s Saitama, but he is not Saitama, nor is he invincible. There will be a few future characters who will be described to have the looks of certain Japanese manga characters, but they do not have any similarities with the manga counterpart other than looks. The author also stopped modelling characters after manga characters pretty quickly.