Chapter 79: Leaving the City
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When he got home, Gao Peng went to the guard post to collect his cans of high-energy food. He gave his thanks to the security guard, and even gave him a packet of cigarettes.
The moment he opened his front door, Stripey rushed in immediately.
Entering his home, the first thing he saw was Dumby sitting in a corner, staring absentmindedly at nothing at all. Because Dumby was so tall, it had to sit down in order to not constantly hit the ceiling.
Dumby was chewing on a piece of Yin Cedar Needle, absorbing the fumes that were produced. It was not sad nor lonely. It was simply used to sitting there, watching the sun rise and set from the windows.
Gao Peng placed the box on the table and opened it up. Hearing the sound of the box opening, all the Familiars in the house automatically made their way over. Their eyes were shining with curiosity, full of anticipation for what was in the box.
Da Zi’s antennae were shaking non-stop, as it was evidently very excited. Dumby quietly bent forward and stared dumbly at the box, as though hoping for something to pop out of it. Stripey, being the newcomer, seemed a bit afraid, but fought against its fears to join the rest. Silly on the other hand simply flopped onto Gao Peng’s head.
Gao Peng took out the cans of high-energy food from the box.
The Familiars became uncontrollably excited.
“You can stop looking, since you can’t eat it anyway,” said Gao Peng, patting Dumby on its head. Dumby was entirely made up of bone and was only capable of consuming fumes. It was unable to eat solid foods such as these.
Dumby stared at Gao Peng in response, with eyes full of disbelief, as though it did not expect its owner to tell him such a painful truth. It rubbed its chin, which was empty and had a hole on the bottom. Dumby then turned around and returned quietly to his corner.
Gao Peng opened up one of the cans and handed it to Stripey. It crawled over and started picking up the food with its claws, evidently enjoying it.
Gao Peng opened another can for Da Zi as well. Da Zi lost interest only after a few bites. It still preferred fresh meat or the food prepared by its master. Canned food was not to its liking.
After all the hustle and bustle, Gao Peng lay down on his bed. He had been busy the whole day and this was finally his chance to rest. Fatigue soon overcame him, as he lay sprawled across his bed.
Soon a consistent snoring sound could be heard from the bedroom.
“He bought a villa in the outskirts of the city?” Uncle Liu was troubled when he heard the news. He rubbed his face, frustrated.
Why does this kid enjoy running all over the place this much?
The distance did not bother Uncle Liu. He did not find it troublesome. Buying a piece of land and building a villa nearby was not a problem to him.
The real problem was finding a convincing reason to move over there as well.
There was no way he could just move in the very next day after Little Gao bought his villa, smile at him and say, “Oh, what a coincidence.”
That would be too obvious.
Children would tend to develop their own ways of thinking, and would want to have their own private space when they grew up. Uncle Liu could not help having the “they grow up so fast” kind of feeling.
Behind Uncle Liu, the semi-transparent giant chameleon began to slowly emerge from its camouflage. It silently looked toward Uncle Liu.
Uncle Liu gave his orders and the chameleon nodded in response. Its eyes turned into slits and it hunched over before slowly disappearing into thin air…
The next day, Gao Peng got up as the sun rose. He brushed his teeth and changed his clothes.
Stripey was to stay at home. Gao Peng had taught it how to open cans. Stripey did not find it difficult and managed to learn the new skill after being taught only a few times.
Stripey could open cans with ease now. It just needed to position its leg at the edge of the can, and with a stab and a pull, using the hook on its leg, the can would easily be opened to reveal the delicious high energy food inside.
Currently, Stripey’s mission was to stay home and eat high-energy food in order to grow. At its current level, going out into the wilderness would only make it a burden to Gao Peng.
Today, Gao Peng planned to head out into the wilderness to find Wood Space Hearts. As long as they did not venture too deep in to the jungle, they would not run into too much danger.
Other than Stripey, all the other Familiars were brought along with for the trip.
Silly was weak as well but at least it could fly. Furthermore, it was small and light and was easy to bring around. Most importantly, Silly had its own personal dimensional space that saved Gao Peng the need for a large backpack.
Silly’s internal storage space was about the size of a basketball and could store a good amount of hot food and drinks. Because the space was part of another unknown dimension, there was basically no risk of losing the items stored with Silly unless something happened to Silly itself.
Silly was still only at level 5, which was a very low level. As its level increased, its internal storage space would increase as well.
Da Zi was currently a level 15 perfect grade monster. At this level, it could practically act like a tyrant in the outer areas of the jungle. It was in no real danger unless it ran into a commander tier monster.
Dumby was the strongest out of all of them, being a level 16 epic grade monster. It rarely had the chance to take part in any combat, but its combat ability was undoubtedly very strong.
Gao Peng was not sure if Dumby could hold its own against a commander tier monster. Before seeing Dumby in action it was impossible to know, and Gao Peng could only speculate.
Dumby’s custom-made black robe was kept in the wardrobe. Gao Peng opened the wardrobe and helped Dumby put on the black robe.
The wide hood covered Dumby’s facial features. Only two ghostly flames could be seen. As Dumby moved, the black robe propped up by Dumby’s burly skeletal frame swayed with each step. Dull heavy thuds could be heard each time its foot landed on the floor.
They opened the door and headed downstairs. Throughout the whole process, Dumby had to bend at the waist in order to walk through the corridors. Da Zi was draped around Dumby’s shoulders like a long purple sash.
In the courtyard, there were a few children playing around. One of the little boys could not stop in time and accidentally bumped into Dumby’s leg. He bounced backwards, landing on his bottom, utterly dumbstruck.
The four-meter tall Dumby was like a little giant to the boy, especially up close. Dumby turned around to face the boy. All he saw were two balls of blue flame burning under a pitch-black hood.
The little boy was scared. His face turned pale.
Dumby squatted down, and helped the boy up to his feet. Dumby even patted the dust off the boy’s body.
Long after Dumby had left with Gao Peng, the little boy was in shock, staring at Dumby’s back as they left.
After leaving his residence, Gao Peng had Dumby pick him up and place him on his shoulder. Gao Peng had thought he would be able sit on Dumby’s shoulders in an impressive and intimidating manner. But after sitting down for a while, he found it uncomfortable, as it was rather easy to fall off.
Even though Dumby was 12 feet tall, it was still rather difficult to fit a grown man on one shoulder that easily.
Hence, along the streets, people were looking at a young man, sitting with his legs around the neck of a 12 foot tall, humanoid giant in a black robe.
It was really embarrassing. It was definitely the most embarrassing thing that Gao Peng had done the entire year.
Dumby moved at a very fast pace. With each stride, it could cover a distance of 15 to 19 feet. It did not even need to avoid any small obstacles. With a bend of its legs and a little bit of effort, it could easily jump over them all.
Dumby’s ape-like agility seemed to have found its best use here.
In just half an hour’s time, they reached Chang’an City’s border. Any further outward and they would be in the unknown wilderness. Gao Peng could roughly identify the roadblocks set up by the military just a few hundred meters ahead. There were a number of tanks by the side of the road and even soldiers armed with rifles patrolling the area.
Heading to the outside world was not difficult. He just needed to pay a fixed toll in order to leave the city.
After leaving the military checkpoint, the temperature of the air seemed to drop a few degrees. Gao Peng did not know if he had imagined it.
A damp and cold atmosphere filled the air. In front of him was a large road leading towards the depths of the Dark Ember Forest. Who knew how often this path was actually used. Exposed yellow soil could already be seen on the road. Sparsely distributed weeds had also sprouted out resiliently from the bits of exposed soil.