Chapter 91: This Is a Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo… |
"Want to give it a try?" Samuel extended an invitation like he was logging out of QQ. "If you can't change yourselves, that's fine—I can help you change."
He gave a thumbs-up. "It'll look absolutely amazing, and you can do whatever you want with your bodies afterward."
"Don't worry, I won't laugh at you. I've tried it myself."
Falson chuckled but didn't respond. He'd gotten used to Samuel's way of speaking by now.
Under Samuel and the System's barrage of nonsense, he'd become fully capable of tuning out these ridiculous remarks.
As for Grill, there was no way he'd let someone use extraordinary abilities on him.
"Maybe next time," Grill said casually. "I'll give it a shot when there's another chance. Right now, the situation's a bit inconvenient."
He was actually somewhat interested, but he'd need to be absolutely sure Samuel was trustworthy first.
At the end of the day, curiosity was only human.
They'd never admit it out loud, but most guys couldn't resist the idea of turning into a gorgeous girl.
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"Fair point." Samuel nodded, accepting the reasoning. "Let's just talk for now, then."
"You've been watching from the sidelines for a while. There must be something you want to say."
Grill's earlier observation hadn't escaped Samuel. "Players" were experts at manipulating attention, so naturally, they were highly sensitive to being watched.
Those with six Marks or more were even more hyper-sensitive. Someone didn't even have to look—if they so much as thought about Samuel within a certain range, he'd feel it.
"Shouldn't we wait for others?" Grill glanced around at the broken walls and rubble. "Maybe someone else might be interested in this 'tea party'?"
"Probably no one else is coming." Samuel shook his head.
Their group here clearly had the "numbers advantage"—it looked like a tight-knit team working together.
The chances of someone else approaching were pretty low.
If Grill hadn't overheard Samuel's earlier words, he wouldn't have come over himself.
"Alright." Grill held a sandwich in his hand but didn't eat it.
"My name is Grill Yellos." He pointed at his badge. "As you can see, I'm a sheriff."
"You probably already knew that."
Samuel and Falson nodded.
"Samuel Gavris."
"I'm Falson Burroughs."
The two introduced themselves in turn.
Grill nodded, indicating he'd remembered.
He took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair, and turned his head to survey the surrounding ruins.
"You've both seen what happened today, right?" he said to Falson and Samuel. "This place is dangerous."
He pointed at the massive, translucent golden shield not far away.
"If not for that Sacred Law Knight stepping in and absorbing most of the damage, that explosion just now could have easily wiped out all of Liant Town."
"I tried leaving yesterday—we can't get out directly right now. That means if that explosion had actually landed, we'd probably be dead."
He turned to Samuel.
"You're strong. I can't gauge your power."
"But one person's strength is limited after all. In a strange place like this, instead of going solo, we could cooperate."
Grill extended his invitation again. This time, Falson nodded.
"Yes. I think we can work together."
Grill glanced at Falson with slight surprise, then shifted his gaze back and forth between Samuel and Falson before finally settling on Falson's face.
"I thought he'd be the one making the call." He tilted his head, gesturing toward Samuel.
"Of course," Falson replied. "But I talked to him about it at noon."
"He said he hoped I'd work with you."
"Is that so? Just you?" Grill caught the issue in Falson's words. "Mr. Samuel isn't joining in?"
"As for me," Samuel smiled, "I'm easy. Cooperating or not—it's all the same to me."
Grill didn't quite grasp Samuel's meaning, but he understood it as a half-refusal.
"Did you mention the terms I offered to your companion?" Grill turned to ask Falson.
"I did." Falson nodded.
While recounting what had happened earlier, he'd casually mentioned the conditions Grill had proposed to the maid, Irina.
"I see." Grill said with a hint of resignation. "Then I guess there's no need for me to repeat myself."
Falson nodded.
"Are you sure you can protect yourself?" Grill asked Samuel. "I don't just mean here."
"My terms still hold significant value even outside this place. Wouldn't it be great to let unofficial Law Seekers exist openly?"
"Well… of course." Samuel nodded. "But I have zero interest in becoming an official informant."
"Is that so? That's a shame."
"As for my strength…" Samuel waved his hand, and a sudden idea popped into his head.
"Do you know about 'sacrifice'?" Samuel suddenly lowered his voice, leaning forward. The two soft masses on his transformed body pressed against the table as he spoke mysteriously.
"Sacrifice?" Grill thought for a moment, then nodded.
Many churches had sacrifice rituals—both official churches and cults.
Most of them were fake and useless, but there were definitely some that actually worked.
"No, no, no." Samuel wagged his finger. "The sacrifice I'm talking about might be different from what you're thinking."
"Is that so?" Grill said noncommittally.
Samuel continued.
"In legends, there's a kind of creature called 'Soul Beasts.' They're similar to animals and plants, but they possess extraordinary abilities. And one of their abilities is called sacrifice. They can condense all the power of their lifetime into a Law Mark and sacrifice it to a Law Seeker. The older the Soul Beast, the more powerful the Law Mark—a thousand years, ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, even a million years…"
Samuel's voice grew lower and lower.
This was something Grill had never heard of.
Falson blinked.
Why did this sound vaguely familiar?
It felt like one of the System's novels had a similar setting.
"So, do you have a Law Mark from a Soul Beast's sacrifice?" Grill lowered his voice too.
He'd never heard of anything like this, but he didn't outright deny its existence. The world of Law Seekers was constantly evolving. Those [Ultimate Wisdom] Law Seekers were tinkering with all sorts of strange things every day. Developing a technique to extract Law Marks from animals and plants wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility.
Besides, drawing powerful strength from animals or plants that had lived for a million years and were clearly extraordinary seemed pretty logical to Grill.
"Oh, I don't." Samuel's voice returned to normal.
Then, he pulled a bamboo shoot out of thin air.
"Do you know what this is?"
"A bamboo shoot?" Grill asked.
He couldn't sense anything special from it.
"No, this isn't an ordinary bamboo shoot."
Samuel said.
"This is a ten-year solitary bamboo. Its specialty is toughness—weak on offense but decent on defense."
"Hmm… so your point is… make it sacrifice? Does it have any special ability?" Grill asked.
He genuinely wanted to know, since this was something he'd never heard of.
He was still skeptical about the truth of it all, but Grill was definitely intrigued.
"I don't know." Samuel shook his head. "I've never tried. But probably something like pole-vaulting ability."
"Uh… and what good would that do?" Grill frowned, sensing that something was off.
Whether it was real or not, pole-vaulting was way too useless.
"If I were to absorb it… completely useless." Samuel replied.
"But…"
"If someone pisses me off, I'll just make this ten-year solitary bamboo sacrifice itself and take up one of their skill slots."
"Uh…" Grill was stunned.
Samuel pulled out another bamboo.
"For example, you. You're a four-mark right now, aren't you? If I made two ten-year solitary bamboos sacrifice to you, wouldn't that mess you up?"
"This is called bamboo deterrence."
Long live the ten-year solitary bamboo.
Grill frowned and asked.
"Let's not even talk about whether this is real or not. Isn't this just provoking your enemies?"
"So what?" Samuel said matter-of-factly.
He was in version T0 mode right now.
"May I ask, what are your Law tendencies?" Grill suddenly inquired.
"I'm [Absurdity], and he's probably [Elysium]." Samuel answered.
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"Oh… Absurdity…" Grill fell silent for a moment.
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Tch…
After a long pause, he finally nodded.
"Alright. Finding one partner isn't bad."
"You're pretty open-minded." Samuel rested his chin on one hand and leaned forward.
"Can't be helped." Grill shrugged. "If you don't want to cooperate, I can't force you."
Grill looked into Falson's eyes.
"Since that's the case, let's make a [Law Pact]."
"[Law Pact]?" This was the first time Falson had heard that term.
"Yeah." Grill nodded matter-of-factly. "We need to give each other some guarantee, right? Conveniently enough, my Law tendency is [Restraint], which can strengthen the pact. You can rest assured I won't break the [Law Pact]."
Seeing Falson's expression, Grill hesitated and asked.
"Uh… you don't… know what a [Law Pact] is, do you?"
Falson honestly shook his head.
"Sigh… a newbie?" Grill pressed.
"I became a Law Seeker just two days ago." Falson continued to nod honestly.
"Oh…" Grill suddenly understood.
"I see…"
"Ah… not bad, not bad."
Grill stroked his chin.
"Alright, I'll give you a free lesson then. Consider it a small gesture of goodwill for our cooperation."
"To put it simply, think of it as a contract."
"It's a contract with people, and also a contract with the Law itself."
"What's the principle behind it?" Falson asked.
"I don't know." Grill shook his head. "It's like common sense to ordinary people—something that's always been common knowledge in this world. Like gravity. It exists, it's common sense, but as for why… no one knows."
"Mm." Falson listened attentively.
Grill continued.
"The [Law Pact] can be made with others, or with yourself."
Falson asked curiously.
"I understand making one with others, but what does 'with yourself' mean?"
"Well." Grill thought for a moment.
"Let me give you an example."
"Suppose I have an ability that can restrict others' movements."
"Then I can make a [Law Pact] with myself, paying a certain price to enhance my own power."
"Or, I set some kind of restrictive rule for myself and gain greater power by strictly adhering to it."
"The more you give, the more you get. Conversely, if you break your [Law Pact], there's backlash. It could be getting weaker, or getting hurt."
"For example: I can't move either, but I get more control over others."
"Or, I turn my ability into a chess piece. Whoever gets the piece can use my power. I lend out my ability this way. The catch is, if the enemy grabs the piece, they can use it too."
"I see. I understand now." Falson felt his Law knowledge expanding.
Grill extended a hand, making a gesture for a handshake.
"Think it over. Once you've decided, make the Law Pact with me."
"What do I do?" Falson asked.
"Just shake my hand," Grill said. "Both of us need to acknowledge this [Law Pact], then we shake."
"First, establishing a [Law Pact] requires both parties to clearly and unmistakably understand and know the terms of the [Law Pact] while fully conscious."
"Then we shake hands, making spiritual contact, and establish the pact."
"And… what if someone doesn't have hands?" Samuel asked curiously from the side.
"It's just a formality." Grill explained. "Handshaking is only one way to express it. Any form of contact works."
He didn't think Samuel was asking because he didn't know. He was more inclined to believe Samuel was indirectly teaching Falson.
He'd already pegged Falson as Samuel's student.
Mm, even though he was [Absurdity], at least he was barely a responsible teacher.
…………
Reins, Eastern District.
Celt walked down the street, holding Sereia in his arms.
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There were plenty of pedestrians on this street, but no one noticed the Nether-Floating Jellyfish in Celt's hands.
"Why didn't you tell me you could turn invisible?" Celt stepped lightly, chatting as he walked. "I would've taken you out to play sooner."
Sereia wriggled in his arms, as if puzzled by why Celt would even ask.
Wasn't that common sense?
What normal creature could see souls with the naked eye?
The new boss was pretty dumb.
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This wasn't the same as a Player's Psychological Invisibility. It was simply a case of not being seen.
Ordinary human eyes couldn't see souls, and the same went for Soul-Essence Creatures, which were mostly made of soul-stuff.
Generally speaking, there were only five ways to see a Soul-Essence Creature.
One: The Soul-Essence Creature actively reveals itself, wishing to be seen.
Two: The observer is also in a soul state—like a human soul after death.
Three: The observer has at least one eye with soul-related traits, or something similar.
Four: Observing on a spiritual level, like using spiritual vision. This doesn't require being a Law Seeker, though. Ordinary people have spirituality too, just less of it. In extreme situations like facing death, spirituality can spike like adrenaline, making it possible to see Soul-Essence Creatures.
Five: Observing through some extraordinary ability.
The jellyfish and its owner walked down the street, heading toward the Eastern District's slums.
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