Chapter Eighty-Eight: Can’t You Ask Properly?

In the monster tavern, every eye was fixed on Li Changluo.

The attention made him a little uneasy, though he was already used to such things.

The tavern’s monsters were all curious about his origins.

A little goblin like Li Changluo, who could not even take on his true form, was regarded by the monsters here as a freak.

A joke.

Many of them even used him as a warning to others.

Look, if you do not properly fight monsters and complete your tasks, and then grow up, you will end up just like him.

Carrying dishes.

He had long since grown accustomed to those contemptuous looks.

“It is him!”

At that moment, a crowd of monsters suddenly rushed out from the tavern—male and female, old and young, some missing arms, some missing legs. They surrounded Li Changluo tightly, each of them fierce and bitterly indignant as they stared him down.

“Grandfathers and grandmothers, big brothers and sisters, little brothers and sisters, you have the wrong person. I am not that damn monster. My name is Black Boy...”

Li Changluo stood there, a tray of food and drink in his hands, stunned. He could not understand why this group of monsters had suddenly cornered him.

Frantically lowering his head, he quickly avoided those scorching stares.

And yet...

It seemed...

This time, Li Changluo was truly dumbfounded. The furious monsters before him suddenly dropped to their knees in unison.

“Please teach us.”

The leader was an elderly man, past fifty, with a car strapped to his back.

Li Changluo wondered to himself whether this was some old monster trying to scam him.

Was he going to die by a scam?

And yet he heard them clearly: the monsters were shouting, Please teach us.

Teach them what?

Could it be that his feat of challenging the turtle monster alone had become known?

Damn, was this the beginning of fame?

Was he about to blow up?

Should he give his fans a domineering name?

The Shining Path Gang?

Not imposing enough. How about...

The Candy Stick Gang?

“Please teach us how to be proper freeloaders.”

The old man pleaded with Li Changluo, looking at him with utter devotion.

Li Changluo thought he must have heard wrong, and looked at the old man in disbelief.

“Do you not know?” The old man turned back and pointed at the task board in the middle of the tavern. “This month, you are ranked first in points for D-rank tasks.”

Li Changluo hurriedly looked up.

Sure enough, on the task board, in the D-rank task points section, his name was in first place, with Little Green right behind him. The two of them stood out vividly.

And yet...

This task had clearly been completed in a team with Young Master Dragon Seven, but his name was nowhere to be seen.

Also...

Was this points ranking not a bit too casual? The hell, three people completed a D-rank task, and that is enough to rank first?

In truth, when Li Changluo had first arrived in this world, he really did not understand why. D-rank tasks, though considered letter-ranked, were for monsters of this level...

F-rank and E-rank tasks could be completed by several people working together, or even by one alone.

But tasks above D-rank, for little demons still taking letter-ranked jobs, often required even a well-coordinated team to handle.

On the points board, just Li Changluo and Little Green alone, these two obscure little monsters, were nothing but a fool’s dream.

“Exactly. You, a piece-of-trash monster, are actually ranked first. You must have been freeloading off Young Master Dragon Seven.”

“How can one freeload off Young Master Dragon Seven? I want to freeload too.”

“Young Master Dragon Seven, I love you...”

“Young Master Dragon Seven, I want to bear your children...”

...

They had originally come to ask him, but now they were all shouting for Young Master Dragon Seven.

Li Changluo was furious.

What the hell, how had the atmosphere changed so suddenly?

“Everyone, calm down, all right? Weren’t you just asking me to teach you how to be a proper freeloader?”

“If you kneel and beg me, I will tell you.”

“Or you can crowdfund some tuition fees.”

Li Changluo tried to steer the mood back onto the right path.

“Young Master Dragon Seven’s skin is so well cared for...”

“I do not know how Young Master Dragon Seven could bring along this trash.”

“Bah, just a freeloader.”

The scene plunged into chaos. At first they had indeed been asking Li Changluo how to become a proper freeloader...

But now, the more they spoke, the more excited they became, and the more excited they were, the more they wanted to beat this freeloader into shape.

How dare you freeload off my Young Master Dragon Seven? I will skin you alive.

“Let me deal with this despicable little monster.”

A burly, bearded man, broad as a wall, shot Li Changluo a coquettish glance, then...

then tossed a bar of soap onto the floor.

...

Li Changluo stood frozen with the tray in his hands.

What the hell were they doing?

Weren’t they just begging him excitedly a moment ago?

How had they suddenly started fighting?

And also...

Where the hell had the soap come from?

Still, the monsters surrounded Li Changluo so tightly that not even water could have seeped through.

They all waited for his next move.

Fighting was not allowed in the tavern, but nowhere had it said soap could not be thrown.

Li Changluo gave a helpless smile. With the food and drink still in one hand, he bent down to pick up the soap...

“Brother, don’t do this, really, don’t!”

At that moment, a gaunt man in the crowd around Li Changluo suddenly shrieked, trembling all over.

The monsters stared in shock as the bearded brute, as though possessed, suddenly laid a flirtatious hand upon the thin monster’s shoulder...

Then...

He began to preen and pose, breaking into a dance.

The dance was very... flirtatious.

The crowd erupted in uproar. The hell...

Too tense, too thrilling, too beautiful...

Everyone burst into applause and cheers, completely forgetting that their original purpose had been to seek Li Changluo as a master.

Li Changluo had already slipped out from among the crowd. Still carrying the food and drink, he put the pearl back into his trousers.

The liquid in the glass orb was now completely gone. It seemed that next time he would have to gather more liquid by speaking the truth. Li Changluo felt a little pained; the last of it had all been used on that piece of trash.

He carried the food and drink, searching for the table they belonged to.

In the middle of the tray was a card bearing the table number.

But after circling the main hall several times, he still had not found the table.

Was that damned Zheng the Odd trying to mess with him?

But no, that did not make sense. The monthly quota for food and drink was fixed, neither more nor less. If anything went wrong, it would be him who got punished. There was no reason for him to play such a trick.

Only then did Li Changluo remember that the second floor of the tavern actually had private rooms.

Should he go upstairs and take a look?

So Li Changluo quietly made his way to the second floor, carrying the food and drink.

He searched room by room according to the table number in his hand.

The light upstairs was dim. Li Changluo knew that within this gloom, far too many secrets were hidden—just like the two guest rooms he had requested, which had somehow ended up in the very same room.

It was like another world entirely, full of unknown things.

“Uh, mm, ah!”

Then Li Changluo heard a muffled, breathy sound drifting from the deep end of the corridor...

It sounded very familiar.