When I first saw a flying boat, I was amazed. Then, they became kind of boring after seeing them so often. I didn’t think I could be impressed by a flying boat ever again, but now that I’m in this flying boat called a jet, there’s only three words that can express my thoughts: I’m impressed! Ah? That’s two words? Nonsense, I just said them really fast, so it sounded like two. I’m a math expert as long as the numbers stay lower than three.
Ahem, moving on. This flying jet is really impressive! According to the ruler, it travels faster than an average immortal, but that’s not the impressive part. There’s this button I can press that can increase the speed up to twenty times! That’s almost like five times the speed if it was sped up by four times! Not only that, but there’s this jade screen—
“It’s not jade.”
Hmm. The ruler’s touching my tail right now. Can she Soul Scour me through my tail? Ah, who am I kidding? What can’t this woman do? Anyway, there’s this not-jade screen here, and I there are little lights in the shape of cute objects, and when I press on one of them, something happens. Sometimes the screen gets new pictures, and other times, the ship does weird things! The last button I pressed looked like a bunch of circles drawn inside of each other, and that made the ship roar extra loud.
“It sent out a shockwave.”
It did that too. Anyway, I already know I’m not the best at discovering little things because my mind is oriented towards solving bigger problems, like punching people Ilya can’t beat with her brains alone. That’s why, I invited those people from the Blazing Sun Sect up here. I’ve been on a lot of adventures, and there are some things I’ve noticed through those years of experience. Side characters, err, I mean, the unimportant bystanders usually have lots of random knowledge. Even if I don’t know what something is, other people will! I’m sure one of these two bright individuals knows everything about this ship. Then, when I need help getting the ship to do something, I can just Soul Scour them for the solution.
“You’re definitely more squirrel than human.”
Aw, shucks. If the ruler compliments me that much, I’ll get embarrassed! Mm, why’s she reading my mind so much anyway?
“I’m monitoring your thoughts in case any mental demons are lingering inside of your head,” the ruler said. “The Forlorn Angel Pill has that kind of side effect.”
I knew the pill was going to be important when the ruler gave it a name! Alright, I’ll ask since she’s going to know I have the question in my mind. “Why’s it called the Forlorn Angel Pill, and what’s with the side effect?”
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The ruler beamed at me. “The Forlorn Angel Pill was made by one of my good friends, the Eight-Legged Mauler. She used to be one of the sweetest spiders and—still is—one of the best alchemists out there. One day, she fell in love with a human after he saved her life. Things happened, and the human ended up being killed by other humans because of his relationship with her. The Eight-Legged Mauler was so distraught that she created the Forlorn Angel Pill, a pill that increases one’s strength immensely. Her motto was ‘if my lover is no longer of this world, then there’s no need for the world to exist.’ While she was creating the pill, some of her thoughts were subconsciously sent inside of the cauldron during the pill-forging process, and as a result, there’s a bit of a bloodthirsty will lingering within each pill. It’s possible for the will to overwhelm your mind, so I’m keeping a close eye on it. If I’m not around, and you suddenly feel like you want to kill someone you normally don’t want to kill, just tell yourself not to.”
Oh, that’s, uh, interesting.
“What’s with that expression? You’ll be fine,” the ruler said and patted my tail twice. “What do you think all the meditation practice is for? It’s to keep your mind focused in situations like these.”
Meditation was for situations where I’d want to kill someone but had to stop myself? Mm, well, as long as the side effect isn’t going to hurt me, it’s not too bad. It won’t affect my relationship with Sophia, right? I’d never want to kill her no matter what she did. “How long does this side effect last?”
“Forever. You really shouldn’t worry about it though,” the ruler said. The way she was speaking certainly didn’t reflect the seriousness of this matter. Why do I have to suffer from a forever-long side effect!? “The foreign will of bloodthirst resonates with your Path of Slaughter, so you already have some experience with controlling your desires. In fact, it should make your Unrelenting Path of Slaughter even stronger. Don’t think about it as a side effect; think of it as a passive enhancement ability.”
A passive enhancement ability. I ate a strange pill the ruler gave me, and I obtained a passive enhancement ability after it wore off. Huh. What do you know? It really does sound better than “I ate a pill, and now I’ll suffer from a side effect for the rest of my life.”
“See?” the ruler asked and stroked my tail. “Now, maybe you should greet your guests.”
Ah, right. I almost forgot about them after they came onto the boat! Mm? If the boat was moving so fast, how did I notice them? That’s easy. The flying jet records images of interesting things as it moves, and I can press buttons to go through them all. Isn’t it amazing? “Hey, buddies, where were you headed to? Wherever you were going, feel free to check out my super-cool boat, and try out all its functions. I definitely won’t Soul Scour you afterwards to figure out what you learned!”
The man that I had robbed earlier cleared his throat. “Sorry, my eyes are still blinded. I think I’ll refrain from touching your boat in case I accidentally ruin something.”
Hmm. What about the chick?
The serious-looking woman went up to the jade screen. She pressed on a few buttons, and the jet glowed with a golden light. This never happened before. What’s going on?