HSB Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Regardless of who the little one learned the sleeping position from, in fact, Jellal, as someone who had obsessive-compulsive disorder, couldn’t stand seeing the cute little girl sleeping in such an indecent position. At the very least, her feet should be resting flat on the ground!

He rolled Bambi over, and put her soft little body in a normal sleeping position. After doing all this, he nodded his head in satisfaction.

Then his eyes swept over the colorful origami animals next to him. Picking up a pink piglet, Jellal studied it carefully and then looked at the colored pencils, the drawing book, and some scratch paper scattered about. He didn’t even have to think about it to figure out what had happened.

The little one became tired and fell asleep during the process of folding origami.

This was the gift for him?

[This gift for Daddy is a product of Bambi’s hard work. Please don’t disdain it.]

The corners of Lord Jellal’s mouth faintly raised. Of course, he knew that a game character who was set by the System as a five-year-old child, even if the character gave the player a gift, wouldn’t give a very valuable gift.

What he was looking forward to was what kind of gift the little one would give him.

Unexpectedly, she really gave him a big surprise.

Soon, his attention fell on the unfinished green dragon. It was such a coincidence that there were dragons in the Dragon Clan who possessed wings, leading Jellal to recognize the half-finished product as a dragon at a glance.

Whether it was a coincidence or a deliberate setup by the System, when Jellal saw this green dragon, Jellal’s expression became slightly startled before he gave a chuckle.

Suddenly, from the childish game of raising a child, Jellal felt a strange feeling that even he was surprised by.

The feeling was like when he heard Bambi call out “Daddy.” The feeling was somewhat intangible, yet felt so real, and it subconsciously affected how he felt about the game.

hearing Bambi’s “daddy”, some

Jellal took two steps and sat on the ground next to Bambi. He picked up the half-finished green dragon, and with the flick of his beautiful slender fingers, the half-finished green dragon was disassembled by him.

Then his fingers moved quickly, and after a moment, a completely different green dragon appeared. Its body was lengthened, some unnecessary parts were torn off, and there were no wings. There was the addition of two pairs of claws, each with nine clawed tips.

It was the exact image of the nine-clawed Azure Dragon.

Ordinary azure dragons only had three claws. The dragon king had five claws. Only Jellal had nine claws, representing the greatest power and the purest bloodline.

However, after folding it, Jellal studied the little azure dragon at a distance. His brows furrowed tighter the more he looked at it.

It didn’t look as mighty as the dragon Bambi had folded for him. The nine claws that were a key indicator of its identity were nestled underneath its abdomen. It looked rather…dumb.

Jellal thought for a few seconds, and finally tore the claws off expressionlessly, and then the nine-clawed azure dragon that he personally folded looked like a dumbfounded green snake.

Lord Jellal, who was so confident in his origami technique, fell silent.

Just as Jellal was about to destroy it, Bambi woke up. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. She saw the “nine-clawed azure dragon” floating in midair.

Bambi was dumbfounded.

Seeing that the little one had woken up, Jellal, who lost the opportunity to destroy his masterpiece, had no choice but to give up on the idea.

“Mr. Invisible, you’re here!” Bambi

soon realized that the invisible man had come, so she called out to him joyously.

Call him Daddy!

“Mr. Invisible, did you fold this little snake? It looks so pretty!” The little girl didn’t know that her words made the corners of a handsome man’s mouth twitch.

Mr. Invisible’s action of dismantling the green dragon that she had folded and folding it into a little snake didn’t anger Bambi. It made her happy instead because Mr. Invisible could fold small animals too, so it meant he wouldn’t dislike the animals she had folded.

Bambi offered up her previously finished products like she was offering up a precious treasure. “I don’t know what to give you. I only know how to fold little animals. In the past, Grandpa would fold small animals for me to make me happy. Every time I got a new animal, I would be so happy.”

“Mr. Invisible, I hope you like it.”

The little girl unconsciously held the teddy bear tightly in her arms, clenched her small hands into fists, and looked in the direction of the “little snake” with big grape-like eyes.

Mr. Invisible was there.

In the face of the little cutie’s expectant and longing gaze, it was difficult for anyone to resist this unintentional cuteness attack, and obviously, Lord Jellal couldn’t resist either.

After two seconds of silence, he picked up the small finished products the little one had folded, then glanced with disdain at “himself” that he had folded with his own hands. Finally, he handed “himself” to Bambi, resigned to his fate.

“Thank you, Mister.”

Jellal could send real-world weapons into the game, but he couldn’t bring things out of the game. Him holding all the little animals there was like as if he was not accepting her gift.

At that time…

Jellal looked into Bambi’s black and clear eyes again. He feared that she would start to cry.

Jellal sighed inwardly, got up, and took the origami animals with him as he left the room.

Bambi watched the door open and close. She was stunned for a moment and then realized that the invisible man had left.

However, confirming that the mister liked the gift she gave, her mood instantly became happy. She was busily fiddled with the little snake in her hands.

Although the little snake was a little ugly, Bambi still solemnly put it in the second drawer of the bedroom, along with the small animals that her grandfather had folded for her.

Walking out of the room, Jellal was thinking about how to deal with the origami animals. If he was to tear them up, he was a little reluctant to do so.

Looking at these little animals that seemed particularly childish to an adult, Jellal thought for a moment, then lifted his eyes that fell on the metal wall, with an idea in mind.

He approached the metal wall, stuffed the small animals into the hole, and said nonchalantly, “It is most appropriate for you to keep them safe.”

At this time, several reminders from the System popped up with a ping.

[A high-level zombie can evolve further. Once it evolves to a certain extent, some of its self-awareness will be restored. Would you be willing to help Hugh evolve successfully and restore him to his senses?]

[You have two options. One, help with evolution. Two, give up on helping.]

[Attention! Successfully evolving to Level 5 restores 10% of self-awareness. Hugh’s current level is Level 4. The higher the level, the more difficult it is to evolve further. The success rate of leveling up is only 20%. Once leveling up fails, Hugh dies. Choose carefully.]

Jellal read the System prompts that popped up one by one.

‘Is this a little side story for the players?’

‘True, if an ordinary cub-raising game just revolves around the cub’s daily life and there is no other plot to unlock, over time, the player will get tired of it sooner or later.’

 

However, Jellal played this game purely based on the throb of emotion caused by the little one’s call of “daddy.” He was only interested in the little one and was completely indifferent to the side plotlines. He didn’t want to waste time on this side plotline, so he chose [Give up on helping] without hesitation.

The System seemed to have expected this result, and the next second, a window popped up.

[Attention! Janet and Jared, on the way to the base, were hunted down by the Dragons Gang. The two lost. Jared escaped, injured, while Janet was caught by the Dragons Gang. In order to save herself, Janet not only told the people of the Dragon Gang that there was a lot of food in the Central Supermarket, but she also brought up Bambi. At this moment, they were heading towards Central Supermarket. They are expected to arrive in ten minutes.]

The supermarket that was vacated before Ivan left was called Central Supermarket.

[The leader of the Dragon Gang, Leo Frazier, is a B-class ice power user and is very powerful. He has gathered a group of power users in his command. He is fond of young girls. If he is to discover Bambi’s existence, Bambi’s life will be in danger. As her father, please protect Bambi.]

Jellal’s face instantly darkened.

“Leo, look. We’ll be at the supermarket soon. Can you let me go now?” On a heavy-duty truck on the street more than a dozen miles away, Janet smiled flirtatiously as she spoke to Leo who was sitting opposite her.

She never expected that she would be so unlucky and encounter the Dragon Gang.

Previously, she and Jared encountered a D-class power user surnamed Frazier who didn’t have a clean mouth when he talked to Janet and even touched her inappropriately. Jared taught the other a lesson but didn’t expect that the other party was so weak that he died directly.

Later they learned that the perverted man was Leo’s younger brother. The two naturally didn’t dare to provoke the Dragon Gang, and hurriedly eliminated all criminal evidence and accelerated their speed towards the base. In the process, they coincidentally passed by the Central Supermarket and found Bambi inside.

At that time, Jared wanted to take Bambi to the base with him, but Janet found a reason to stop him, thinking that they would be able to reach the base smoothly, but unluckily, they came face to face with the Dragon Gang.

Jared escaped. Janet didn’t have high hopes that he would come back to save her. Currently, Jared was just a C-class, amongst the weakest. Even if he did come to save her, he would merely be signing his own death warrant.

 

If she wanted to save herself from Leo, she could only rely on herself.

An idea popped into her mind at the crucial moment. She knew that the people of the Dragon Gang were not welcomed by the bases because of their bad reputation outside. Hence, their supplies were limited. She immediately thought of the leftover food in the Central Supermarket.

 

…as well as that pretty little girl.

She concluded that the little girl, if nothing had happened to her, was either living in the supermarket or living in a nearby building.

Janet used to read novels. Other people either transmigrated over into idol dramas and became the sweet heroine, or transmigrated into other normal worlds as the protagonist, yet she had the terrible luck to transmigrate into an apocalypse novel.

And an apocalypse novel with a male protagonist, at that.

It was as cruel as it could possibly get.

She has to survive. The most basic principle to surviving in the apocalypse was that one can’t be soft-hearted, and especially cannot become a saint.

So….that little girl named Bambi, if she was still alive, should hide far away. Otherwise, she couldn’t blame her if she’s found.

……

Leo stared at Janet grimly and replied, “You’d better not play any tricks.”

“How would I dare?” Janet looked at him carefully, her eyes red. “Believe me. If I lied, I…I would have just run away with Jared. Why would I stay and join you? Central Supermarket and that little girl are a show of my sincerity…”

“You are so wise and powerful. If I lie to you, isn’t that just asking for a death warrant?” she choked up and said, appearing quite pitiful.

Leo enjoyed the adoration and awe shown to him by women. Before the apocalypse, he was a wandering beggar who didn’t want to go to work to earn money so he pretended to be pitiful every day to beg for money.

He often took the money he got from begging to eat in restaurants. Because of the dirty clothes he wore, he was kicked out of the restaurant. He suffered a lot of discrimination, which gradually darkened his heart.

When the apocalypse arrived, he miraculously awakened his powers and became powerful. Five years later, he advanced to the B-class and established an organization, the Dragon Gang, and recruited a group of power users for his own use.

He shot his subordinates a look, and immediately someone loosened Janet’s bindings.

……

A few minutes later, several cars stopped in front of the Central Supermarket.

Janet was pushed out of the car. When she saw that the supermarket was almost completely empty, her eyelids jumped and her face turned pale.

“That’s the plenty of food you were talking about?” Leo, who got out of the car and swept a glance around the supermarket, grabbed Janet’s neck with a fierce look in his eyes, making Janet’s body almost leave the ground.

Janet couldn’t breathe. The pain of suffocation made her struggle instinctively. Death was imminent.  She struggled to squeeze a sentence out of her throat. “Little…girl…”

As soon as Leo’s hand loosened, Janet fell weightlessly to the ground, coughing violently. Her face was blue. Her body trembled unconsciously, and she looked at Leo with fear in her eyes.

“Where is the little girl?” The fury on Leo’s face lessened a little and then he said lightly, “Think carefully over your words before you speak.”

“If we don’t find anything, or from the very start, you lied to delay time…” He licked the blade of the knife that appeared in his hand unawares, his eyes full of cruel excitement. “I will hang you upside down over a charcoal fire, bake you, and eat you slice by slice.”

……

At the same time, Bambi, who thought that the mister had left, touched her deflated little belly and prepared to boil water to cook noodles to eat.

Suddenly, she heard a female voice outside, coming from downstairs.

“Bambi, where are you?”