It was approaching three in the morning.
The time of extreme yin was the junction when dark clouds gather and darkness shrouds the sky.
A sleeping figure lay curled up on a soft bed. It was Jian Xie who was exhausted from the day’s events.
He frowned while holding his cell phone loosely in one hand, apparently sleeping very restlessly.
Tick.
The hands pointed to three o’clock.
All of a sudden, the person who was originally sleeping opened his eyes.
It was a pair of cold eyes.
There was no trace of sleepiness in his eyes, they were clear as if he had never slept. His originally amber eyes have now turned an extremely cruel scarlet color with a slightly disdainful look. Although it was the same face, his temperament had completely changed. No one would mistake them for the same person.
This was not Jian Xie.
In other words, the consciousness that dominated this body at this moment was not his.
It sat up and looked around Jian Xie’s bedroom with It’s scarlet eyes.
It was so clean and tidy that it didn’t seem like the room a teenage high school boy should have.
Due to financial constraints, Jian Xie sold all his valuables for money. The whole house was actually more like a model house than a model house, except for the ugly handmade doll on the bedside that showed that there was a real person living here.
When It saw the doll, It curled It’s lips and smiled, stretched out It’s hand and pinched the cotton doll maliciously, flattening Pikachu’s round face with two fingers.
It kneaded it for a while until Pikachu was looking at him aggrievedly, and then It withdrew It’s hand with satisfaction.
Then, It looked at the clothes It was wearing.
One could say they were pajamas, but in fact they were just a pair of loose white T-shirt and shorts.
It knew that Jian Xie had actually thought about sleeping naked in his mind because the hot summer had arrived and there was no air conditioner installed in the bedroom, making it really difficult to sleep.
However, he finally gave up this tempting idea when he considered the possible mosquitoes. He didn’t want to be left with lots of little red envelopes from mosquitoes.
Thinking of this, It sneered, held It’s chin, and thought lazily: Humans are really slow.
——It had made it so obvious, how could he allow that kind of lowly creature to leave even a small, insignificant scratch on him?
Even a tiny scratch, a drop of warm blood, or even a short syllable of pain, gasp, or fear, all require It’s permission.
After watching for a while, It lost interest and pushed itself up to get out of bed, but as It got out of bed, the shirt that Jian Xie was wearing slid loosely onto one shoulder due to gravity.
With a casual glance, one could see the exposed collarbone and large areas of fair and delicate skin.
“…………” Tsk.
It’s steps towards the door paused.
It turned back and headed towards Jian Xie’s closet, opened it, quickly scanned the area, and searched inside.
This one won’t do. It’ll show the collarbone.
The calves as well.
These kinds of incidents had frequently attracted sidelong glances from the table in front of him.
……
Finally, It took out a plain long windbreaker that was so loose one’s figure could not be seen clearly, even almost covering the person from head to toe. It put it on with extended hands, carelessly buttoned it up one by one, and then walked to the porch to put on his sneakers.
Immediately afterwards, It opened the window. The wind immediately blew It’s windbreaker backwards, making It’s profile with eyes lowered look extremely cold and ruthless.
It stared out the window with an indifferent expression.
[How noisy.]
Turning It’s sight, It saw the densely packed deformed monsters outside the window. Their entire faces were filled with a single eye, but where the white of the eye should be was now covered with dense teeth. Their ugly, swollen faces made a sticky, crunching sound as they chewed.
“So hungry… hungry…”
“Fragrant……”
“Rumble… Rumble…”
These low-rank C-level monsters have an extreme desire for human flesh and blood. The hunger constantly burnt their stomachs, making their sense of extreme dangers abnormally dull.
They don’t know that the creature standing before them is not an object to be hunted, but an unknown entity that should be avoided as much as possible.
Monsters can devour each other. They are not unkillable, and once they can be killed, they can also be eaten as food.
Just like there is a food chain in nature, this ancient principle is also followed among monsters.
This is also why when the B-level monster discovered that there was another existence in Jian Xie’s body, it screamed “predator” repeatedly in horror—It was indeed the top of the food chain.
“He is… my-my food…”
In the midst of the pushing and shoving, there was unexpectedly a C-level monster lured by the sweet scent of flesh and blood emanating from Jian Xie which uttered a complete sentence.
It was originally watching a show with It’s chin propped up and lips curled, but upon hearing what was said, It’s expression suddenly darkened and It narrowed It’s eyes.
[Scram.]
In less than a second in the wake of It’s anger, a whole dense mass of C-level monsters evaporated on the spot!
It was as if the group of piled up monsters had never existed before. The gloomy atmosphere disappeared rapidly like a tide, and the originally stagnant air began to flow again.
Deathly silence returned to the room.
Soon after, It snorted lowly and without blinking, jumped down from the 17th floor with a push of It’s hands.
*
Jian Xie opened his eyes.
He tried to sit up in bed but failed.
Moreover, he could not feel the range of motion of his arms after a command to raise his hands was issued, so half a minute later, he was still lying on the bed.
“……” Ah, this.
Jian Xie finally realized the consequences he would face after his first late-night stay.
His whole body ached, his temples were throbbing in protest, and he might even be disabled.
His condition was so sluggish that Jian Xie even had an outrageous guess that he seemed to have been beaten up while he was sleeping.
…But that was not the point.
He found that he was actually covered with a thick coat that was only worn in winter.
Jian Xie frowned. This strange scene must be related to “It” whom he met for the first time last night, who, out of bad taste, did not give him direct answers.
So he has to find out the answers himself.
Before falling asleep yesterday, he guessed how the other party discovered that he was in danger. Either It was deliberately observing him, or It was always by his side.
If It were around…
Where would it be?
Was it like a ghost staring at him from behind, or a summon that would only appear when Jian Xie was in danger?
Or… was it inside his body and shadow?
Jian Xie: “…………”
He seemed to have found the most reliable answer.
All the signs had almost laid the truth before him, and It seemingly didn’t bother hiding it.
The call record of ordering a cake made with his own mobile phone, his body that was too sleepy even though he went to bed early, his shadow that suddenly disappeared under the sun, and… the words he wrote in the notebook that no one could see except himself.
Silence.
After a while, Jian Xie decided to ask a question that concerned him the most as a pauper at the moment.
“So how did you buy the watch… using my bank card?”
Of course, there was no response.
Jian Xie was not surprised. He just opened his mobile phone account balance with a bit of hope and took a look.
……Mn.
It was still a very small number, which made him feel relieved and sad at the same time.
That’s right, it was outrageous enough that there was an unknown entity living in his body. He couldn’t expect to become rich overnight.
[Do you want to?] The voice was quite interested.
“No, I don’t want to, ” Jian Xie said expressionlessly.
It was not out of conscience, but because he has read some related novels and watched some movies and TV shows which portrayed that if one did business with non-humans, one must be prepared for the counterproductive effects. After all, there was no such thing as getting something for nothing in this world.
If It didn’t state It’s purpose directly, it means that there must be a higher price waiting for him.
In response to his wariness, It simply laughed lazily and did not respond further to what he said, as if it was just a casual remark.
Jian Xie got up and prepared to change out of his pajamas.
When he was about to take off his clothes in front of the floor-length mirror, he suddenly paused in unbuttoning his clothes after realizing something.
“……”
There was another being inside him.
In other words, no matter what Jian Xie did now, including changing clothes and taking a bath, It could see it clearly through his eyes.
“……”
Jian Xie’s brain froze for a few seconds.
Then he looked at himself in the dressing mirror calmly.
The teen, who was in puberty, had just started to grow physically and was already 1.75 meters tall.
His face was slightly pale compared with people of the same age, his delicate mouth corners were slightly turned down, his eyebrows were exquisite, and his expression was somewhat nonchalant, but there was a faint shadow of lack of sleep under his eyes which made him look extremely weak and fragile.
Although Jian Xie was used to being stared at on the street, he now felt… uncomfortable being stared at by It.
Because that kind of gaze was extremely invasive.
But thinking further, It did not reveal It’s appearance yesterday, but just stayed behind him and even stopped Jian Xie from turning around.
So, Jian Xie guessed that “It” might have a non-human appearance, just like the monsters he had encountered before.
Perhaps, It was more interested in flesh and blood than in skin.
So, even if my entire body is seen, it probably doesn’t matter…?
Jian Xie was convinced by himself.
Thus, he unbuttoned his clothes and moved his hands down again, continuing the action that had just been interrupted, and exposing his back and fragile neck to the air without any precautions.
The author has something to say:
If this were the ABO world…
