When he looked at Yize again, there was no trace of contempt or coldness.
“Honored guest, please wait a moment!”
Hai’er’s tone became exceptionally solemn. He even bowed slightly to Yize, then quickly turned around to face the huge magic map again.
This time, his operations were even faster, his fingers almost leaving afterimages.
Light flowed on the magic map.
The route that had been closed to humans, passing through the Eternal Forest, was highlighted and enlarged separately.
Hai’er began making fine adjustments and node markings on it.
Lailong watched in stunned amazement, leaning close to Yize’s ear and whispering.
“Holy crap… kid, are you for real? That necklace… you really know the Elf Princess?”
This was the first time he had seen this little elf, who was always arrogant and unfriendly to humans, show such a nearly respectful attitude towards a human!
Yize shrugged without answering.
A few minutes later, Hai’er turned around again.
“Honored guest, I have re-planned and applied for a temporary special route for you.”
Hai’er’s tone was respectful.
“The new route will use a fast passage through the licensed area on the outskirts of the Eternal Forest. The entire journey requires only seven transfers, each span reasonable. The estimated total time is one day. I have set the location for you. Tomorrow noon, you can activate the teleport directly using your identity token.”
Yize was stunned.
‘Are elves all this naive?’
‘Whatever he said, this elf didn’t doubt it at all and actually believed it?’
Taking back what he said, Yize suddenly thought this little elf in front of him was pretty cute.
Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to ask the other why he believed whatever he said.
No need to bring trouble upon himself.
At the moment, what he needed most was to return to Betty Territory as quickly as possible.
Leaving the Teleportation Hub Management Department and walking in the corridor, Lailong patted Yize hard on the back, his face full of admiration.
“Impressive, this is the first time I’ve seen this little elf be so respectful to a human.”
Yize smiled slightly.
Even if he could leave tomorrow at noon, counting today, it had been over two days since he disappeared.
He wondered how Betty Territory was doing.
Lailong noticed the urgency in his expression and comforted him.
“Just one day, it’ll be quick. Don’t just worry during this time; prepare well.”
“By the way, since we’re waiting anyway, come with me tomorrow morning to meet the others in the team?”
Yize thought for a moment and nodded.
‘After all, the teleportation array wouldn’t activate until tomorrow noon. No matter how anxious he was during this time, it wouldn’t help.’
‘Learning more about the Night Raid squad and contacting the truly top human adventurers of Stana might be helpful for the future.’
“Okay, Uncle Lailong. I’ll leave the arrangements to you.”
“Haha, no trouble! We’re family!” Lailong was in a great mood.
The two returned to the exclusive rest area for the Night Raid squad on the second floor.
“Here, that’s our squad’s core activity room. You can move freely today, get familiar with the environment, and look around the guild.”
“Tomorrow morning, probably after breakfast time,” Lailong estimated, “those restless guys in the squad should come by one after another. I’ll call you then and introduce you all.”
“They’re all pretty good people, it’s just their personalities… well, each has their own quirks.”
“Okay, thank you, Uncle Lailong.” Yize thanked him again.
Lailong waved his hand, hummed a tuneless little song, and walked toward his own exclusive room at the other end of the corridor.
Yize stood alone in the quiet corridor, thinking about where to go and kill some time.
“Yi—ze—!”
A familiar voice, lowered in volume but still clearly gritting teeth, came from the shadows at the corner of the corridor.
Yize turned and saw Vivian, like an angry kitten with fur standing on end, stamping out of the shadows. Her red eyes glared at him, her cheeks puffed with anger.
“How dare you abandon us!”
Vivian rushed in front of Yize, tilted her head up, trying to make her gaze more intimidating, but the height difference made the action lack momentum, making it more like a complaint.
“You sneakily went off to enjoy the good life! And joined some… some squad!”
She waved her little fist and continued her tirade.
“What happened to promising to save points together and return to the Olay Empire together!”
“You liar! Traitor! Untrustworthy big jerk!”
Only then did Yize suddenly remember what he had forgotten—he had completely forgotten about this temporary teammate and “bodyguard.”
Seeing Vivian’s aggrieved and angry look, he rarely felt a bit guilty.
“Uh… Vivian, let me explain.”
Yize tried to appease her, softening his tone.
“The situation changed. An uncle offered conditions that could solve our problem of returning to the Aolai Empire the fastest.”
“I joined his squad mainly to obtain high-level internal privileges, allowing free and priority use of the guild’s teleportation array. That’s much faster than saving points ourselves.”
“Free?”
Vivian’s ears perked up instantly, but then she became even angrier.
“Then why didn’t you bring us! We could join too! We’re also very capable in a fight!”
Yize explained patiently, “This squad currently seems to only accept human members…”
Vivian immediately puffed out her cheeks and retorted, “My disguise is flawless! I can count as a human too! Besides…”
Her eyes darted around as she found an excuse.
“Besides, I heard that whatever lion guy, you and him exchanged a couple of moves at the duel arena over there, and he let you into the team, and even gave you such good conditions!”
The more she spoke, the more justified she felt, and her voice grew louder.
“Where is he now? I’m going to exchange a few moves with him too!”
“If he can take my ‘fist,’ he has to let me into the team! And give me the same permissions! Otherwise, it’s unfair! He’s looking down on me!”
Yize was speechless. ‘Let you into the team if he can take your fist? That’s completely backwards.’
Her last words echoed slightly in the quiet lounge corridor.
As soon as she finished—
With a “creak,” the door to Lailong’s room not far away slid open.
Lailong, who had just entered the room to rest, poked his head out, rubbing his sleepy eyes and muttering,
“What’s all the noise about?”
“Which little squirt is yelling out here?”
“Don’t you know this is the exclusive rest area for the Night Raid Squad? If you want to argue, go to the lobby… Hmm?”
His gaze landed on the furious Vivian and the helpless Yize beside her.
Hearing the voice, Vivian immediately turned her head. Her crimson eyes locked onto Lailong, and the anger on her small face grew even stronger.
“Are you that lion uncle?”
It was only then that Lailong got a clear look at Vivian and recognized her as the newbie girl who, like Yize, had cleared the Wind Demon Wolf mission at an absurd speed.
He yawned, waved a hand, and said with a senior’s casual air,
“That’s me. Little squirt, you need something?”
“Want to join the team? The Night Raid doesn’t just accept anyone…”
Before he could finish, Vivian’s figure had already turned into a blur of silver light!
Before Lailong could even fully lower his hand from rubbing his eyes, he felt a vicious wind rushing at his face!
The next instant—
“Thump!”
A dull impact!
Vivian’s solid headbutt slammed straight into Lailong’s completely unprepared abdomen!
“Urgh!”
Caught off guard, Lailong felt a tremendous force. His insides churned violently, pain making him grunt. His eyes flew wide open, his back involuntarily bent, and his hands instinctively clutched his stomach.
“I’m not a little squirt!”
After ramming him, Vivian landed lightly, tilting her small face up and glaring at Lailong with lingering anger.
Watching this familiar scene from the side, Yize couldn’t help raising a hand to his forehead, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
Thinking back to his first “close encounter” with Vivian, he seemed to have been on the receiving end of that same sudden headbutt…
Lailong held his stomach, taking a long while to catch his breath. Wincing in pain, he glared at Vivian with annoyance.
“You… you little squirt, are you cracked in the head? Why do you just headbutt people out of nowhere?”
Vivian put her hands on her hips and said with complete conviction, “I want to join your squad!”
Lailong straightened up, brushed off some nonexistent dust from his clothes, and tried to reclaim the authority he’d just lost.
He looked Vivian up and down—her petite frame and her childish yet stubborn face—and suddenly felt like teasing her. Drawing out his tone deliberately, he said,
“Little squirt, you want to join the Night Raid? It’s not that easy.”
“Everyone in our squad is a tough guy who can go toe-to-toe with A+ rank magical beasts.”
“First, call me ‘Brother Lailong’ a few times. When I’m satisfied, I’ll think about taking you on as… hmm, a probationary member.”
He emphasized the word “brother,” a mischievous grin on his face.
At this, Vivian reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. The flames of anger in her crimson eyes flared up even more.
“Why?! Yize exchanged a couple of moves with you and got to join directly, with such good conditions!”
“But when it’s my turn, I have to call you ‘brother’ first? And just be a probationary member?!”
Lailong laughed heartily and spread his hands.
“That’s different. Little brother Yize’s strength I acknowledged. As for you…”
He looked her over again, deliberately using a dismissive tone.
“Little squirt, it’s not that I look down on you, but even if I used just one finger, I bet you couldn’t even touch my sleeve.”
“Letting you into the team would only be because you know Yize, and even then, you’d be more like a mascot.”
“Otherwise, if I sent you out on a mission to fight, people would think the Night Raid Squad hires child labor…”
“Child… child labor?!”
Vivian’s face instantly turned bright red. Her silver hair seemed to flutter slightly from the sheer rage.
As the ancient Queen of the Bloodkin, she had lived for countless ages. And today, a human uncle was calling her “little squirt” over and over, questioning her strength, and even insulting her as “child labor”?!
Lailong was still grinning smugly, completely unaware that he had set off every single one of Vivian’s landmines.
The next instant—
“Huh?!”
Lailong only saw a blur. Before he even caught Vivian’s movement, he felt his collar grabbed by a small, seemingly delicate white hand.
Then, his massive body was lifted clean off the ground by that single hand, effortlessly!
Before he could react, Vivian’s other small, pink fist started raining down on his stomach like a storm—“thump, thump, thump, thump”!
The fists looked tiny, but each blow was as heavy as a thousand pounds, making Lailong’s abdomen ache with sharp pain. His blood churned, and his internal organs seemed to shift.
“Ow! That hurts! Stop hitting!”
“Stop! Yize! Yize, make her stop!”
Seeing stars, Lailong could only desperately call to Yize for help.
Watching this one-sided “beating,” Yize sighed helplessly.
He had long expected that with Vivian’s proud and irritable temper, being teased like this by Lailong would make her explode.
He shrugged and said to Lailong,
“Uncle Lailong, just… bear with it a little.”
“She hasn’t gone all out. She’s just venting. With your constitution, a few punches like this won’t kill you.”
Lailong: “…” He wanted to cry but had no tears.
‘Another one not going all out?’
“Joining! We can talk about joining! I agree to everything!”
Unable to hold out any longer, Lailong pleaded repeatedly.
“Little lady, stop for now! Let’s talk this over! The terms are negotiable!”
Only then did Vivian’s fists slow down a little, but she still held Lailong’s collar, glaring at him coldly with her crimson eyes.
“How do we negotiate?”
Lailong gasped for breath.
Being held aloft by a little girl while discussing terms was hardly befitting his reputation as the “Thunder Lion,” but the situation spoke louder…
He glanced at Yize, who looked nonchalant, then at the “little monster” in front of him with her freakish strength. His mind was a mix of emotions.
‘What kind of day is this? Why do I keep running into freakish newcomers who don’t follow the rules?’
“Alright… put me down first…” Lailong struggled.
Vivian let out a “hmph” and released her grip.
Lailong fell to the ground with a “plop,” staggering a step before steadying himself, wincing and rubbing his stomach.
“Tomorrow morning, meet the other squad members.”
Lailong finally said, tacitly acknowledging Vivian’s “membership application.”
“Specific permissions and treatment will be decided based on your actual abilities and the squad’s situation. But since you have this… level of strength, the Night Raid welcomes any strong person willing to contribute to the human faction.”
He paused, adding a few words in a voice so low it was almost only audible to the three of them.
“Especially little freaks as absurdly strong as you two.”
Upon hearing this, the anger on Vivian’s face subsided a little, but she still puffed her cheeks and snorted, “That’s more like it.”
Yize clicked his tongue twice. ‘This Queen of the Bloodkin really is like a child—quick to anger, quick to cool down.’
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