Chapter 27: Monthly Pay
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Clutching the buzzing mobile phone, Hao Ren was very much agitated. His thoughts jumbled, heck, even his hands felt like a wobbly mess. All this while, the old Nokia was vibrating furiously in his hand.
A normal phone call wouldn't have elicited such a reaction, but god knows how Raven12345 did it, the buzzing of the phone was akin to a boombox. Much of it was to make sure Hao Ren did not miss her call, but the buzzing could even be heard a few blocks away.
"Hello?" Hao Ren took the call, weary of any pranks Raven12345 would pull to scare the daylight out of him.
"Yo! Hao Ren, still alive? Did ya take good care of the new guests?" Raven12345 spoke chirpily. It seems like she was still her usual self. "I messed up the other time. It seems that you are not the only one to have a furball of a werewolf at your place. I think you have someone from the Blood Clan as well, is she there? How's things going? Nothin' wrong I hope? Was out doing stuff earlier, oh, let me tell you about the Blue Horn Nebula...."
Hao Ren was pretty much floored by the pace Raven12345 went about blabbering. Thankfully he still held on to his wits and interrupted the loony Goddess "Hold on, hold on, I need to see you about something!"
"Something? Wazzit?" Raven12345 sounded puzzled. "Oh, you mean your salary? I haven't actually thought about that... Oh wait, or is it about your benefits? It's not even the end of the month yet....'
'Can you please let me speak?!' Hao Ren finally snapped and yelled at the phone. He regained his train of thoughts not long after and quickly cowered. He had just raised his voice at the loony Goddess. Some random thunderbolt would probably be striking him down any time now.
Lucky for Hao Ren, the sky was clear. At least he won't be zapped by a thunderbolt this time around. Raven12345 demurred for a moment and chirpily went "Oh, sorry bout’ that, got all excited from that trip. Go on, hehehehe."
Hao Ren wiped off his cold sweat, thanking lady luck for Raven12345's apparent good mood. "Right... I still can't make heads of tails after you left so suddenly. I ran into something really weird, and there's that dream too..."
Raven12345 was silent, for once, when Hao Ren told her about the reality-altering dream that he had. Well, until Hao Ren finished talking at least.
"Oh...slurrrrppp.... You had a dream like that huh? Slrrruppp... That complicates things a bisssslurrrpp... Why not you drop by my plaissslurpppp..."
"What's going on over there?" Hao Ren wondered at the distorted speech.
"Huh? Slurrrrppppp, oh I'm having cup noodles!' Raven12345 continued eating "I forgot about breakfast earlier."
Good lord above, did she just went to prepare her cup noodle when he was talking about the dream?!
Hao Ren recollected his thoughts, and after confirming with Raven12345 the meeting spot, he went out after changing into a more proper attire. Vivian was preparing some light snacks for Rollie and saw Hao Ren getting ready. "Heading out to see her?"
Hao Ren nodded went on "Oh yea, I might be late. If Lily's back by then, just grab your meals outside, or you can have food delivery. The number's on the calendar, that's the only shop that delivers up to here."
Vivian heard Lily's name and frowned, before she could speak Hao Ren went "Oh don't give me that. Your food is being paid for by Lily. You're already piss poor as it is."
Vivian was silent. The vampire who had lived for ages, the one who fought with Acherus had a surprisingly mild temper. Hao Ren felt that he understands her better now and the sense of awe and fear he had for her before have pretty much faded away.
After reminding Vivian to feed Rollie lunch, Hao Ren left home and was headed for the Space Administration office at Bastard Barrio.
The imposing white villa was the same as a few days before. The servants in the house kept the building spick-and-span while the owner was away. Hao Ren was running all the way under the hot sun, and gave a sigh of relief when he was teleported to the fountain in front of the villa. As the building was in a different dimension, it was neither hot nor cold, and the air was surprisingly fresh, Hao Ren did entertained some thoughts about staying longer.
"Oh, you're here!" Raven12345 appeared behind him.
Hao Ren quickly turned about and saw the silver-haired lady holding an odd-looking giant blade walking out from the garden. Her clothing was stained with mud and grass.
"I was trimming the hedgerows" Raven12345 said with an accomplished grin while lifting the two meter long silver blade. Hao Ren was fixated at it and she chuckled "It's awesome yeah? This blade is a momento you know. There's nothing like it amongst the Ravens." She turned around and waved at Hao Ren to head in into the house "Let’s head in and talk about the stuffs you had ran into.
Hao Ren nodded and quickly followed behind. Both of them walked into Raven12345's office. It was pretty much the same, except for the pile of empty noodle cups piling up by her desk. Hao Ren really wondered if he should be taking Raven12345 seriously at this point, for such a godly being, she sure ain't eating like one.
Raven noticed Hao Ren's gaze and brushed it aside "Well, I'm done eating those~"
Hao Ren sighed and went to sit on the sofa facing Raven12345 and pulled out a small case that contained a ball of black fur.
"This was what I told you about. It had just appeared in my hand when I woke up from that nightmare. Lily took a good sniff at it and was sure it wasn't something from the human world.'
Raven12345 took the ball of fur and snapped her fingers. A series of bright blue lines appeared out of nowhere and quickly assembled themselves into a container. The black fur floated within the container and slowly let out a puff of grey smoke.
Hao Ren was taken aback by the scene. "Well, I guess she ain't all bluster" he thought to himself. What he just saw clearly looks way stronger than Vivian's blood arts, at least when it comes to the magic circle formation.
"Ah... so it came from that world...." Raven12345 mumbled as she looked at the last of the fur being disintegrated.
"From where you say?" Hao Ren interjected.
"The Dream World. But it doesn't concern you now, at the very least. You won't be able to deal with this sort of matter anyway, not at your level." Raven12345 shook her head, looking serious. "I'll pass this on to those at the Shadow City HQ. This world is nothing but trouble and the guys over at the Administration had been keeping a watchful eye on it for a long long time'
She saw Hao Ren's perplexed look and pulled out a silver hexagonal item and pushed it towards him. "You clearly don't know much. Take it, it's an investigator's Mobile Data Terminal, M.D.T. Just got it for you earlier. It's pretty much like Wikipedia. You can find out more about the SOPs, the dimensional navigation map and table... and oh, your access level. Hmmm... You’re still under probation, so I guess much of it is still beyond you. But it's good to read up in advance."
Hao Ren snapped out of his stupor when he saw the silvery item flying his way and caught it just in time. After digesting what Raven12345 just said, he realized, "Well, at least I've got my monthly pay this time."