‘’Okay, why are you staring at me?’’

Of course, the Chief didn’t answer. Only, his smile turned eerie, then fell back into a slightly smug, blank look.

‘’Hey!’’

‘’Shut up for a moment, I’m reminiscing.’’

‘’...of what?’’

‘’Not something of your concern.’’

Another minute went by. Throat and nose itchy, scratching both while keeping his eyes on the Chief, Li Ao decided enough was enough.

‘’Look, fello—’’

‘’Shut up.’’

‘’You can’t just treat a pris—’’

‘’Silence.’’

With an angry blush, Li Ao shot to his feet. ‘’I also have rights as—’’

The Chief raised a clenched fist and Li Ao cupped his hands at the almighty senior.

Back to the previous silence, now intimidated and wholly sitting, Li Ao let the man inspect him for another minute.

‘’...do you know me?’’

For once, the Chief seemed to stop his observation to actively think.

‘’Many do.’’

‘’Many? How?’’

‘’That you should learn yourself.’’

Taking a deep breath, the Chief climbed up to his feet and swept his hand in the empty air. With a pop, a thin yellow envelope floated over Li Ao’s knees.

‘’Take this to Xu Qiu.’’

He caught it mid-air and glimpsed the small writing at its back.

‘’2nd Demon Prevention Army, Aide-To General Zhu Baek, Advisor Chen.’’

‘Advisor? I thought he was a fighter?’

Half-confused, Li Ao caught the implications just a short moment after Chief Chen left.

‘’Wait, how do you know—’’

He was long gone, of course.

Scratching his head, confused, Li Ao noticed that his left hand was dangling beside him. The thick cuffs on his wrists were gone, no sound, no sign, and the door to his cell laid open.

Things had taken a very scary turn.

Caught in a mix of complex emotions, Li Ao thought of the only rational thing and went out.

‘’Hey, bird fellow, I apologize.’’

The bird-man shrank further into his claws, so Li Ao simply shook his head and climbed the stairs. He passed by the dumbfounded prison guards and curious onlookers, left through the door, then took the first wide road pointing toward South.

Bubbles slid down his forehead back to his front pocket and put her arms under her wobbly round chin. The duo walked in that conflicting carefree and cautious manner for twenty minutes and passed through a series of reinforced gates. The guards at their posts shot quite unfriendly glares at his strolling figure.

After leaving the settlement Li Ao walked for a few more minutes and rested on a large boulder facing North.

Five minutes later, he felt a finger poking his cheek from behind.

‘’Hiya!’’

Kertl hissed and threw his satchel and pouches and rings. Meteorite, too, came with them, though Kertl kept fiddling with it like a child.

‘’Don't scratch your teeth with it—''

''I'm testing it!''

''...you are quite quick.’’

‘’I am silent, that’s why.’’

Flexing his scaled limbs, the fellow let out a long hiss, which Li Ao assumed to be of relief.

Had he even understood his sarcasm?

‘’You do seem tired though.’’

‘’I am fine, boy—what’s up with your forehead?’’

‘’What’s wrong with it?’’

Kertl prickled the swelling red on top of Li Ao’s head.

‘’Want me to pop it?’’

‘’Hell no! Do you want to kill me?’’

‘’?’’ Kertl hissed...confusedly? ‘’Why would I want to?’’

‘’Then don’t pop my head!’’

‘’That is a part of your head?’’

‘’Have you never seen a swelling?’’

‘’I hadn’t seen a human until four years ago! What is up with your expectations?’’

‘’...right.’’

He forgot that Kertl was an alien in the truest word.

‘’There are no humans in your world?’’

‘’None. No bipedal animals as well.’’

‘’At all?’’

‘’None at all—hey, we can talk on the way!’’ Looking smug, hissing, Kertl pointed at the squeaking gates of the settlement. ‘’They might change their minds any minute.’’

‘’Holy—okay, lets go!’’

Donning his equipment, Li Ao snatched Meteorite out of Kertl’s hand and leaped above it. With a thought, little bits of his remaining Qi flowed within and his burning form began to soar.

‘’Hey, wait for your senior!’’

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Kertl shot right after him towards the horizon. A few minutes after they left, the chasing group of soldiers stopped where they met, out of breath, cursed, then returned.

*********

As for the duo, their journey began quite pleasant.

For a week they traveled with their respective tools—Li Ao rode upon Meteorite at full throttle, and Kertl caught up with him by the merit of his own power.

They made small talk most of the time— their sole common interest was the weird reviews in the Universal Store, but most of the time they returned to discussing the Kalen Divine Castle. Li Ao learned a great deal of past information—of how the Demonic Realm of Amusement invaded, about who the casualties were...

‘’When space-time is that much broken, these highe realms are no different from a star's light to Void Beings—simply too bright to look at...’’

Kertl hissed. He flew at a rapid pace, almost laborious from his spent breath, yet managed to utter more than Li Ao expected him to do.

‘’That is also the case with Demons. We still don't know how they do locate these worlds, but we do classify Demons in the same category as Void Beings.’’

‘’Beings? Not Void Beasts?’’

‘’Calling them beasts imply they are instinct-driven beings. Hell, us beast folk are still called Beastmen in the universe. But beast part is attributed to Void Beings because of their anatomy, not nature. There is a very distinct difference.''

Glancing at Li Ao’s frowning face, Kertl pointed at the sky.

‘’Void Beings and Demons are outer life forms, we are not. You remember the Value Of Existence, right?’’

‘’Yes.’’

‘’There is a limit to the Value of Existence as well. The highest limit is the Universe itself. After that are our 5-th rank senior agents—then Mythical beings, Legendary beings, so on and on. There can only be a limited amount of anything, and that amount becomes scarce at each improved step.’’

‘’...those two aren’t bound by this rule?’’

‘’Of course not. Scourge of the Universe, Corrupting Influence of the Past, Outer Gods, Demons, Void Beings—they are not born from our universe. Hence, they do not suffer the limitations we intelligent life do. Hence, different.’’

''Well, you can still call them whatever you want. Don't get surprised if you see a non-beast Void Being though.''

That shed light on some questions Li Ao had about the agent system as well.

Senior Dogshit Klein had said himself—there were only sixteen billion first-rank agents available until Universe could expand its influence.

What this influence was, he had no knowledge. Only, this newly acquired knowledge made him feel fulfilled somehow.

Understanding, after all, had a joy of its own regardless of the comprehended matter.

‘’That sounds hopeless.’’

‘’Hopeless...’’ Kertl hissed in laughter. ‘’Well, it does. Our enemy is a force with no upper limit of their strength—Value of their existence isn't bound by any natural law. Yet we know every lacking bit of ourselves.’’

‘’But that is a worthy thing,’’ Kertl continued with a serious gaze. ‘’As I sure as hell know no demon is aware enough to understand themselves.’’

‘’Aware? No, they must have awareness. Humanoid, Non-humanoid, I saw and met many conscious demons.’’

‘’Awareness, consciousness, are they truly the same?’’ Here, perhaps for the first time, Kertl shot Li Ao a ridiculing, serious glance. Then, as if ashamed, lowered his head, set his gaze straight forward, and shot even farther away from Li Ao.

Half-confused, Li Ao scratched his cheeks behind the flaming barrier and shot after the fellow. To his surprise, he could keep up with Kertl’s top speed. With enough momentum, perhaps even go past him.

It took him forty seconds to catch up, but when he recognized how shrank the man stood opted to remain at a distance.

They spoke no words for the following day. By that time they had been out of the desolate north with its gray and brown earth. Now they found low trees and scarce plantation rising between the cracks and crevices—yellow grass ruffled under their passing wind.

‘’The sights here are beautiful.’’

Li Ao nodded at Kertl. Bit by bit, he began to recognize the scenery between North and South. And as he did, he became even more melancholic.

Was the Xu estate where he had wanted it to be?

He hoped for it.

Commander Chen had called that fellow Xu Qiu, after all.

They travelled for another three days, then chanced upon the servant mountain that once bowed to the south. Now, frozen in the sky, Li Ao inspected its destroyed peaks. There was no longer a servant to be recognized.

‘’I once crawled through this entire mountain. We used tunnel—’’

‘’You can crawl?’’

‘’You thought I couldn’t?’’

‘’Hmm...’’ Kertl hissed. ‘’Humans are truly versatile.’’

To that comment Li Ao only laughed. He expected Kertl to be more knowledgeable about such matters.

However, Li so came to realize early on that being a senior agent only provided Kertl the chance to know. Again, this point was made by Karim Shah himself, but not every agent was curious or kind-natured.

All of them were conscripted. The mantle and burden of being an agent was pushed onto them.

To those who wished for no grand life or wealth, for indeed Silver Lion Silvy seemed to be that type, being an agent was just a misery, a forced job they had to undertake at the cost of their lives.

Hence, it was natural Kertl made no attempt to know others. Even if he had the chance, he either had no need for it, or chose to not do it out of some personal feeling.

On this matter Li Ao remained conflicted as well. After all, Kertl did not disclose how he truthfully felt about his situation.

He mildly spoke about it twice—Li Ao did ignore the first one, for they were in the dungeons of that military settlement and, in his confused state, it was better to act quick and escape rather than listen to a complaining rant.

On the second occasion, however, Kertl's persisting joking tone made Li Ao not consider it as the lizard's true opinion.

Only, he did tell that he spent no time figuring out the agents and the system, nor how it worked. Most he knew had been forced into him by Karim Shah and his supervisor from when he first began working.

Apart from that, he enjoyed reading the comments on the Universal Store and the benefits of Friendship System. Latter would either unlock when Li Ao became a second-rank agent or completed two second-grade missions.

What those benefits entailed, no one told Li Ao. He could only guess.

Talking of whatever came up, most of the time reminiscing and telling of his stories, Li Ao and Kertl spent another week until they reached the Lei Province’s flat grounds.

‘’Finally! Come, Ao Boy, come down!’’

Blinking, Li Ao descended near the shaking Kertl.

‘’What’s the matter?’’

Kertl took a deep breath and opened his hands wide.

‘’Look at this desolate, flat landscape! Barely are there any hills, most is earth and stone, isn’t it?’’ He took a deep breath and hissed again. ''Yellow and brown, open and clear, what a sight to enjoy!''

‘’Indeed...but what is the matter?’’

‘’I am sick of flying! So we will travel by land.’’

‘’...I just told you there are slumbering beasts and demonics lurking.’’

‘’Ao boy, listen to yourself for a second. Do you even know how flashy you ride?’’

That was a good point, actually.

‘’Okay, so we just run?’’

‘’No, we’ll ride.’’

‘’Ride what?’’

‘’A motorcycle.’’

‘’...huh?’’

Laughing, Kertl pushed both his claws against the air.

A pop echoed, the space in front of them parted like a dark crevice and sucked in the air.

Within that hideous darkness, a metallic gleam caught Li Ao’s widening eyes.

Like a form of absolute beauty, a two-wheeled vehicle descended before them amidst loud rumbles.

It had black spikes over its front wheel, angled up like a slope, and two small mirrors attached to its long and thick handling bars. There were weird clock-like shapes on its wide front, a very comfy looking pair of seats, and four steel barrels extending from its back.

Laughing, Kertl leaped onto the vehicle’s front seat and grasped both handles.

‘’Hear this—’’

Li Ao leaped back at the bestial roar rising from the vehicle.

‘’What the fuck is that!?’’

‘’A motorcycle!’’

‘’Motor...cycle?’’

Kertl snapped his wrist back and forth to make the metallic beast roar again and again, laughing, while Li Ao watched black fumes escape out of the back barrels.

‘’Is this like a better bicycle? Where is its pedals?’’

‘’A bicycle? Pedals? What age are you living, Ao Boy? This thing here can outrun a hundred bicycles by itself!’’

‘’One bicycle or a hundred, does it even matter? Aren't they all at the same speed?’’

‘’That is not the point!’’ Kertl hissed. ‘’Look, behold its majesty! Not only can it take a strike from me, it is modified to reach twice my speed, almost thirty-eight Lizardia Glegos in an hour! Simply a wonder of modern mach—’’

‘’What the fuck is a Lizardian glego?’’

Kertl closed his slit eyes and let out a tired hiss. ‘’...are you getting on or not?’’

‘’Of course I am!’’

‘’Then don't bitch and hop on!’’