In the dim kitchen late at night, under the old hanging lamp, a young man in striped pajamas held a cleaver high with one hand, his lips curled into an extremely brilliant smile.
The light shone into his dark, deep eyes. The surface of the cleaver in his raised hand had a faint red tinge, like blood stains that were difficult to wash off after years of use.
In the shadow of the cleaver, the upward curve of his lips seemed to take on a mad and twisted flavor.
At this moment, the young man who had just leaped out of bed due to an accidental “ghost encounter” and stumbled to the kitchen to find a cleaver for protection, seemed to have suddenly become a different person.
The “ghost” who had found his panicked appearance amusing and had swayingly followed him out, only to face a double kill from the cleaver and now almost flattened into a paste-like ink: …QAQ Help!
Bai Yi, who hadn’t received an answer, frowned slightly in distress. “Hmm, it seems Ink Sauce, you have a different opinion.” He drawled, with a hint of casualness, “Could it be… you think these short few minutes aren’t enough for us to get to know each other and establish a friendship?”
“Oh, I get it—”
As he asked and answered himself, he had a sudden realization and swung his hand heavily. The cleaver in his hand followed the motion of his arm and slashed down heavily from mid-air, once again chopping the barely squirming blob of ink on the chopping board.
Ink: “…!!!”
Bai Yi ignored it, only showing an excited and joyful smile, talking to himself. “…Although I think we hit it off instantly, but if you still have doubts, then let’s get to know each other better, starting with you, Ink Sauce~”As he spoke, he lifted the cleaver from the chopping board once again. Then, his wrist flipped…
“Swish swish swish swish swish!”
A series of blade flashes were so fast they seemed like afterimages. Ever since obtaining the card of Pei Hefeng, the world’s top martial arts expert, Bai Yi automatically possessed the experience of using various cold weapons including knives and swords, effectively becoming a master in this field. Although these experiences didn’t include cleavers, all knives in the world are pretty much the same, right? Just a bit of adjustment and it can be used.
He used a speed that was almost imperceptible, slashing out eighty-one cuts in an extremely short time.
—This was the last move from the “Nine Stunning Blades” technique that Pei Hefeng had once seized from a demonic sect. It could unleash eighty-one blade flashes at once, an ultimate move combining nine times nine. It was said that those with profound skills could directly slice a person from head to toe into a human stick, only taking their last breath when the final cut fell, considered to be extremely cruel and cold-blooded.
And now, Bai Yi had innovatively applied this technique in a different way.
By the time he put away the cleaver, the chopping board was covered with a layer of evenly fine black viscous particles, looking like finely chopped guiling paste or a layer of paste spread out.
This black “paste” stubbornly squirmed once.
Bai Yi couldn’t help but pick up a particle and taste it with his tongue.
Then, he frowned, his whole demeanor changing. “Ah pooh pooh pooh, why does it taste like ink?”
“Non-human species, has self-awareness, difficult to eliminate with physical attacks, although it doesn’t taste good it’s edible…” Bai Yi put down the cleaver, raising a finger for each point he made, his tone full of interest, “Just don’t know if it can regenerate… In terms of vitality, so far, I’d call you the strongest.”
From the moment he picked up a jelly-like particle and ate it, the layer of “ink sauce” smeared on the chopping board started trembling. When he mentioned it was edible and speculated about its regenerative abilities, the “paste” trembled even more violently under his interested gaze.
Then, it heard the devil’s voice slowly rise. “After such an in-depth exchange, we’re not strangers anymore, right? So, let’s get along well, roommate!”
Saying this, Bai Yi extended a hand with a smile.
In this short moment, it had already started to coalesce, gradually turning back into a jelly-like ink-colored gelatinous substance. It tremblingly extended a small corner, slowly rising from the chopping board, like a little foot, and rested on Bai Yi’s open palm. It seemed to be indicating agreement.
Bai Yi, with a face full of smiles, solemnly shook this small corner, considering it a handshake with his new roommate.
The two roommates thus reached a friendly consensus.
The atmosphere became harmonious.
“1, 2, 3… 10.” Bai Yi, pinching a corner of the ink, started counting, until he suddenly asked after counting to 10, “So, the task isn’t completed yet?”
The task he referred to was, of course, the sub-task – to get along well with his roommate.
After a few seconds of silence, lines of blurry black text appeared in mid-air, burning into his retina.
[Task completion assessment in progress…]
[Friendliness of [Painting Spirit-Ink]: 0]
[Your sub-task is not yet completed, please keep trying.]
[Hint: Painting Spirit: A spirit related to the art of painting, unique to this world. The essence of painting in this world lies in attracting Painting Spirits through one’s talent and skill while painting, receiving their blessing to give the artwork transcendent spirituality. The higher the talent, the stronger the spirituality. Those favored by Painting Spirits are geniuses in the art of painting. Those without talent, completely disconnected from the art of painting, won’t attract even a bit of attention from Painting Spirits, even if they’re nearby.]
Probably worried that Bai Yi might pull some strange moves again, the system directly planned out the clearance method for him—
[Players can cater to [Painting Spirit-Ink]’s preferences. Once its friendliness is raised to 100, your paintings will receive spiritual enhancement from [Painting Spirit-Ink], gaining a certain degree of talent boost. For example, when painting ink wash paintings, you will possess stronger talent and skill.]
“Painting Spirit?” After reading the system’s explanation, Bai Yi showed understanding, “Isn’t this just like the elemental spirits in novels?”
He had read quite a few novels. In those fantasy magic novels, wasn’t magic just magicians manipulating elemental powers from nature? The higher the talent, the more elements they could attract and manipulate. If one could get the blessing of a special elemental spirit, their magical energy would be almost infinite.
Replacing the concept of elemental spirits with painting spirits, and magicians with painters, it became easy to understand.
—In other words, as long as one could get the blessing of a painting spirit, even a talentless person in painting could become a genius, because talent itself was the ability to attract painting spirits.
So, was it time to start the strategy?
Could this be the legendary dating sim game? The talentless me reaching life’s peak by strategizing with painting spirits???
Bai Yi shook his head. “…Gaining 100 friendliness points, it sounds troublesome. I’ve been so sincere, yet the friendliness is only 0. What happened to getting along well and interacting nicely? What a dishonest roommate.”
“So…” Bai Yi’s gaze fell back on the chopping board, showing eagerness, “Why don’t I just eat this painting spirit directly? Maybe the effect would be better?”
Painting Spirit-Ink: !!!
System: ???
[[Painting Spirit-Ink] Friendliness +1.]
[[Painting Spirit-Ink] Friendliness +1.]
[[Painting Spirit-Ink] Friendliness +1.]
… [[Painting Spirit-Ink] Friendliness: 100.]
In the blink of an eye, a flood of notifications scrolled by. The overwhelming +1+1+1 almost left afterimages in Bai Yi’s eyes.
[Sub-task 1 completed.]
[Sub-task 2: Harmonious neighborhood relationships will help your task. Get along well with the neighbors on this floor.]
The system’s prompts refreshed seamlessly, as if fearing that if it was even a second late, this large painting spirit would end up in Bai Yi’s stomach, completely devoured.
“I didn’t expect you to have such a good impression of me, roommate.” Bai Yi stared at the trembling ink blob for a few seconds, using a friendly smile to indicate that he could never be that kind of person, this was purely the system’s malicious speculation. “I think you must be very willing to take me to meet our neighbors, right?”
…Based on the previous situation, it was clear he could restrain [Painting Spirits], these special beings. But it wasn’t clear if the reason lay in the cleaver or in himself?
Bai Yi didn’t have more samples to explore for now.
The trembling ink blob rolled back and forth in the air several times, large patches of ink continuously spreading, as if painting on blank paper, gradually forming the shadow of a human figure. Finally, it turned into a small boy with black hair and black eyes.
The little boy timidly landed on the ground, tugging at Bai Yi’s sleeve, indicating for Bai Yi to follow him.
“Oh my, I didn’t expect painting spirits to have this kind of human form. Is this perhaps a more advanced form of existence?”
Looking at this scene of transformation before him, Bai Yi stroked his chin, marveling. He followed the little boy out the door without any resistance, his face full of expectation.
First a roommate, now neighbors… The roommate was a painting spirit, so boldly guessing, the identity of the neighbors would be…
When Bai Yi knocked on the neighbor’s door in the middle of the night and saw an extremely angry man who was almost on fire appear at the door, he almost thought his guess was wrong.
And in the body of the character he was using, scattered fragments of memory appeared as text. That was what the landlord had said when this body moved in during the day.
“The residents of this building are all strange unemployed people.”
“There’s a hot-tempered boxer…”
“A melancholic, unrecognized talented painter…”
“A reclusive, taciturn violinist…”
“And a child who appears and disappears like a ghost…”
And the door he was knocking on now was said to be that of the hot-tempered boxer. His special roommate was the “child who appears and disappears like a ghost” in the landlord’s words.
The landlord’s words were actually somewhat contradictory. If these people all had special skills, how could they become unemployed? The original owner of this body, “Joey”, had thought everyone was a failure like him.
And now, with the precedent of [Painting Spirit-Ink] severely mismatching the buyer’s show and seller’s show, he had reason to suspect that the landlord’s words were greatly exaggerated, and the people in this building were probably not normal humans. What painter, boxer, violinist, they were probably just some kind of role-playing game, and their true identity was…
[[Painting Spirit-Red] Friendliness: 0]
The timely system prompt had revealed everything.
As a veteran player of many years, Bai Yi knew very well how to run tasks next. It was nothing more than first understanding this neighbor’s “character setting” in daily life – for example, he might have fallen to this state due to some accident as a boxer – and then provide targeted help and advice, catering to the other’s personality and hobbies to increase favorability.
But now Bai Yi had woken someone up in the middle of the night, and if there were negative friendliness points, it would have broken through the sky. If he still wanted to increase favorability, the difficulty would be about hell level. Of course, he didn’t plan to follow the conventional strategy route either.
“Yo!” Looking at the angry-faced man, Bai Yi raised a hand and greeted him, looking full of energy, “Let me introduce myself, I’m the new resident who just moved into 203 next door. Hello neighbor, nice to meet you, hope we can get along well from now on!”
The angry man: ???
…Greeting is greeting, but what’s with waving a cleaver? Is this a new way of greeting???
Looking at the unclear ink on the cleaver, smelling the scent of his kind coming from it, and then looking at the pale-faced little boy held in Bai Yi’s left hand, his anger was extinguished in a second, and a non-existent drop of cold sweat slowly slid down his forehead.
His face, which should have been fierce and angry, slowly squeezed out a smile. “So it’s a new neighbor…”
…Real hardcore way of making friends.
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