Mein Date mit einem Zombie III

Kapitel 6

"Because that guy was really outrageous. He's so old but he still acts like he's young. Back when we were at the Illusionary Demon Academy, I thought he was the same age as me, and I admired his abilities immensely... But I never expected that he had already founded the Byte Academy back then, and he was someone I had always admired..."

"Worship? Admire?" Unbelievable...unbelievable! Someone would actually worship a freak like Byte? Admire someone? That's truly the second wonder of the world...hmm? What's the first wonder? Of course, it's the extent of that guy's freakishness!

Beren rested his head on his paws again and said slowly, "I don't know his age, but he wrote a masterpiece like 'On the Origin of Vampires' a thousand years ago. It has been reprinted more than five hundred times in the past thousand years, and it is still used as a reference book. When I first saw it, I was absolutely in awe. I thought I was seeing a genius, a genius who was not of this world..."

If that book really was Bytti, Lou Lifan would also consider him a genius, but only if he could distinguish between that guy's abnormal behavior and the perception of "genius".

"I knew his name when I saw him at the Illusionary Demon Academy, but because he was such an abnormal person, although I thought of him, I didn't connect him with that genius at all. I just thought he was really amazing, knowing so many things that we, as novice demons, didn't know..."

...That's why the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. When he realized that this pervert was the very person he had always admired... his illusions shattered...

Lou Lifan felt as if he could hear the sound of his poor, fragile heart shattering.

"But we rarely saw each other after graduation, and I couldn't vent my resentment until I saw him at this meeting. I couldn't help but teach him a lesson. But what surprised me was that he fell into my trap so easily. He probably didn't expect it either, so he looked really pitiful standing there. He only remembered to cry after he signed the contract, but it was too late."

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [17]: Lou Lifan could hardly trust anyone from the perverted academy, so he specifically contacted his sisters and parents. Their response was the same as Hai Shenlan's: that pervert really sold himself, and only remembered to hug his creditor's leg and cry after signing the contract of servitude...

"Hahaha..." Lou Lifan chuckled dryly, "He really is stupid..."

Beren smiled casually: "That's right, but that guy does have some brains after all, he knew to send someone to steal that contract."

Lou Lifan's heart immediately stopped working.

"Then...then...then..." He really wanted to say that he didn't come to steal...but that would be the same as saying "Wang Er next door didn't steal anything."

“Unfortunately,” Beren continued, oblivious to his unease, “I haven’t yet discovered which student or teacher in the academy he sent. If I had found out…”

What would happen if they found out? Kill them? Skin them? Or… I can't even imagine…

"Haha...hahaha..." Although Lou Lifan's heart had resumed functioning, his voice remained stiff and unable to relax. "Chairman, you're so smart, you must have hidden something so important in a secret place, right? Even if that pervert came to steal it himself, he couldn't, right? So it's okay, hahahaha..."

Beren laughed along with his voice: "Yes, I wear that contract around my neck."

The world suddenly fell silent.

After a long while, Lou Lifan finally managed to utter a sound: "...Huh?"

Beren slightly raised one of his front paws, letting him see the pendant that always hung around his neck: "I used spatial fusion to integrate it into this pendant, so I never take it off. Just like you said, even if he comes to steal it himself, he can't take it away."

Lou Lifan, male, 20 years old, this is the first time in his life he has ever known how to write the word "despair"...

"No... but that contract of servitude... you must be joking, right?" Lou Lifan's smile was somewhat forced. "In any case, buying and selling people is illegal..."

“He is not a ‘human’ person.”

"...That...trading monsters too..."

"He's not a monster either."

Not a monster?! Could it be... "He's a demon!?"

"He is not a demon either."

"...!?" It's not human, not a monster, and not a demon, so what is it!?

"Hehe... Actually, he is..."

Suddenly, a dark object swooped down and slammed into Beren's head with a loud thud. The sound was so loud that Lou Lifan thought his head would be cracked open.

The "thing" seemed to be disoriented by the impact, yet it unexpectedly burst into maniacal laughter: "Hahahaha... Beren, you idiot! Are you dizzy? Hahahaha... My head is so dizzy..."

Was it an illusion? Lou Lifan felt as if he could see the veins bulging on Beren's head. It slowly stood up, its gray-blue wolf eyes gleaming with intense killing intent. The terrifying pressure made Lou Lifan, who was not even in his line of sight, involuntarily start to tremble.

"Damn--the--blood--bat--" Beren's voice was gloomy and terrifying, with demonic energy surrounding his entire body, tinged with a faint black.

Generally, demonic energy and spiritual energy are invisible to the naked eye unless a special method is used to materialize them. However, if the energy can reach a certain limit, there will be no such restriction. As long as the owner of the energy wants, they can make their energy visible or invisible at any time.

"I'm going to...kill you!!!"

Beren charged at the bat that was still flapping its wings and laughing triumphantly, the ground beneath its hind claws being turned upside down by the force of its sudden burst of energy.

He rushed towards the cliff, and Lou Lifan couldn't help but gasp. However, Beren was Beren after all; it wouldn't fall so easily. When it stepped onto the precipice, it was as if it were walking on transparent glass, continuing to chase the frantically fleeing bat as if it were flat ground.

"I'll kill you!"

"Hahaha... I can't catch him, I can't catch him~~~"

"When I catch you, I'll tear your tendons out! I'll skin you alive! I'll rip your wings off and roast them to eat!"

"La la la la～～～～"

"Don't you dare run away!"

Lou Lifan stared dumbfounded in the direction he ran off to, unable to accept that Beren, who usually seemed so self-controlled and calm, would act so childishly.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [18]: After Beren chased far away, Pei Linhai ran from his hiding place to Lou Lifan's side and hurriedly asked, "How is it? Did you find out? Where did he hide the things?"

Lou Lifan stiffly pointed to his neck, and Pei Linhai touched it, puzzled: "Nothing's wrong?"

"Damn it!" Lou Lifan punched him, bruising one eye socket. "Who told you to touch my neck! I meant he hid something in the pendant he was wearing around his neck!"

Pei Linhai immediately remained kneeling there and turned into a fossil.

"It's over... I'll probably have to live as a demon for the rest of my life..." Lou Lifan clutched his head, tearing at his hair in anguish. "It's on his neck... Even if that pervert came to steal it himself, he probably couldn't have done it! He actually entrusted us with such a troublesome matter! Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

He looked up, and Pei Linhai was still frozen in place. He kicked him and said, "Hey! Come back to life! Don't just die like that!"

"What...what are we going to do?!" Pei Linhai cried out, "I don't want to live as a demon! It's too hard! I don't want to!"

Lou Lifan punched him in the other eye, leaving a bruise: "Don't be so mournful! I haven't completely given up yet!"

Pei Linhai wiped away the few tears that had barely escaped her lips, and looked at him hopefully: "Then... do you have any ideas?"

"No."

Pei Linhai lay on the ground again, wailing, "Then we're doomed! I don't want to!!!"

Lou Lifan grew impatient, picked up a stone from the ground, and slammed it into the back of his head with a thud: "I said stop crying! If you cry, I can't think of any other way to help you!"

"What to do..." Frustrated... frustrated... Why were only the two of them able to learn qualitative transformation back then...? On the other hand, if only they hadn't learned it so quickly...

"...Let's discuss it with the school again."

It's that poor little phone booth again. Although the fault was reported through the fault system, it's too remote here, and the repairman won't be able to come for several days. So now the poor monitor is still sitting there broken and dilapidated—of course, it's unusable.

"On his neck?" After saying this, Hai Shenlan remained silent for a long time before hesitantly continuing, "Then... do you have a way to remove it?"

"If I had one, I wouldn't have asked you for help!"

“…Sigh,” even Hai Shenlan’s sigh sounded unusually weak, “I’m telling you…I can’t help it either…”

"What!!??"

"So... please figure out a way yourselves. As long as you get the items back, your household registration can be restored."

"If even you can't do anything, what can I do!" Lou Lifan roared hoarsely. "I'm not doing this anymore! If you're so capable, send more people yourselves! I quit! I quit! Damn it! I'm a student! I'm your student! You bunch of irresponsible bastards—"

*Smack*

"?" Lou Lifan looked at the silent communicator in his hand, then at the power cord... "Ah, it's broken..."

In his excitement, he ripped the phone line off the connector.

Lou Lifan looked at Pei Linhai, and Pei Linhai looked at Lou Lifan. The two of them showed smiles that were more like crying.

"It's broken..."

"yes……"

"The other phone booth seems to be over a hundred kilometers away..."

"Hahaha...hahahaha..."

The two of them squatted there, not wanting to move an inch.

"Maybe we should just be monsters for the rest of our lives," that's what they're thinking now. Why was this impossible task assigned to them? Why are they being forced to do this? Why aren't they even allowed to refuse...?

I feel like crying...

"I still want to cry..."

Crying won't help. Although they have extreme ideas, they don't want to turn into demons so inexplicably, so they have to keep thinking of ways to solve the problem.

There's a saying, "A desperate man has a bright future," and another, "A cornered dog will jump over the wall." Whether it's wisdom or jumping over the wall, when the two were driven to the brink, the goddess of wisdom finally lifted a corner of her skirt for them...

In the dimly lit room, the oppressive atmosphere between the two was darker than the darkness itself.

The pen tip slowly withdrew from the scribbled paper, and the voices of the two pitiful figures were muffled: "...In short, these are the only methods of combat...If they don't work...then..." Then they'd just have to accept their fate...

Strategy 1: Beren needs to take a bath eventually, but he can't take that thing with him while he's bathing, right? As long as he takes it off, we can release Pei Linhai's cats to bring it back—Pei Linhai's cats? That's right, those five seemingly useless shikigami cats.

Result: Beren bathes in a lake near the school, but unfortunately, he never takes off his clothes while bathing... because he always reverts to his original form and jumps in to splash around...

Strategy Two: Pour dirt on his ornament. He'll definitely take it down to wash it. Then, they can grab it to wash, and you can take the opportunity to escape.

Result: Pei Linhai spilled a whole basin of soup onto his chest, leaving everyone in the canteen—including Lou Lifan, Pei Linhai, and Beren—stunned. Beren was stunned because Pei Linhai had actually tripped on such a flat surface, and in such a clumsy way. Lou Lifan and Pei Linhai were stunned because the soup had spilled all over him uncontrollably…and it was so hot… Although Beren allowed them to volunteer to wash his clothes and clean his ornaments, he kept talking about how agile he was in his youth, how he could catch a rabbit in a minute, and so on, while they were doing so, giving them no chance to escape.

Strategy Three: Lou Lifan pretends to be very scared and jumps into his arms, then, as quickly as possible, uses Pei Linhai's "copying" ability to create a fake pendant to exchange for the real one.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [19]: Result: First, Pei Linhai, who proposed the method, was beaten up. Although Lou Lifan eventually adopted the suggestion, he only realized after rushing into Beren's arms that the pendant was wrapped in a silver chain in a strange way, which was a kind of curse. He simply did not have the ability to untie it and exchange it instantly. So when he returned, Lou Lifan, whose face was red as blood, pinned Pei Linhai to the ground and beat him up again.

Combat Method Four: ...

Combat Method Five: ...

Combat Method Six: ...

"I can't take it anymore! You can die with me! I quit!" Lou Lifan grabbed the pitiful Pei Linhai by the neck and shook him violently, not caring whether he was really going to die. "This kind of thing can never succeed! Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely! It can't succeed! Am I wrong, Pei Linhai!"

Pei Linhai rolled his eyes, making intermittent clicking sounds in his throat. It wasn't that he was agreeing with him, but rather that he was pleading for help.