ATAPOW Chapter 25
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Chapter 25: What kind of development is this?
“You’re the new blood that the four-eyes was talking about?” The eyes of the white-dressed loli carried traces of disdain. After sizing the newbie up, she gave him an overall assessment. “You really give a whole new meaning to poverty.”
‘…I’m incapable of refuting her words in every sense.’
The edge of Ji Bai’s mouth twitched. Just as when he wanted to ask Lin Tuo on the line something, he realized that he had hung up the call a moment ago.
“Your body’s constitution is actually pretty good~.” She said as her eyes stopped for a moment on Ji Bai’s thin sweatshirt, the loli then nodded her head and revealed an approving gaze.
“Follow me~” The loli didn’t waste her words. After she motioned to Ji Bai, she began to head towards an old, shabby building outside the bus stop called ‘Starlux Building’.
‘?? Didn’t she say we were going to one of the order’s branches? Why are we heading towards this decrepit building?’
However, no one was around to explain the doubts that Ji Bai was having. The loli, in particular, who was trotting ahead, continued on with no intention at all to erase his uncertainties.
There were already quite a few issues with this chivalric order. Why would they assign a seemingly young twelve-year-old girl to be his contact? Even if he placed aside many of the questions in his head, the impression that this small girl had given him was quite peculiar; It was like a vodka being the go-to beverage of fat otakus1. Her appearance was a complete mismatch for her personality, this had obviously made him feel that there was so much more to her than what meets the eye.
However, sadly, reality didn’t give Ji Bai any time to think. Just when Ji Bai’s thoughts began to wander slightly, he suddenly came back to his senses just to realize that he only had a small black dot left of her silhouette in his vision. If he didn’t catch up to her quickly, he would probably lose her trail.
After looking at the sweet in his palm, Ji Bai quickened his pace and went after her. In all reality, the speed at which the girl moved her feet wasn’t fast, because of her size, the distance she took for each step was very small, it was like she was going for a stroll. And yet, Ji Bai was utterly baffled; The distance between them felt as if it was widening even when he moved with the speed of an adult.
Feeling bewildered; Ji Bai quickened his pace even more. Moving his feet at a speed that was practically running, he eventually managed to get close to her.
“Say… What are we doing entering this department? Is it possible that this so-called branch your chivalric order is built underneath this building? Maybe at the negative 100th floor or something?” Ji Bai, who had spent a large amount of effort to finally catch up to the girl, tossed out his doubts.
“You’ve watched too many Science Fiction films, haven’t you Uncle?” The girl replied without ever as much turning her head.
“U-Uncle? Come on… be honest here, am I really that old? ” The edges of Ji Bai’s mouth twitched. He felt that he would lose a few years of his life out of anger if he were to exchange a few more sentences with this loli.
“Right! What’s your name? We have met each other for almost a minute now and you haven’t introduced yourself.”
“Milan.” The girl replied indifferently in a half-hearted tone.
“Oh, speaking of which, do you want…”
“You’re very noisy. We’re just strangers, aren’t we?” Milan’s voice carried a trace of impatience as she knitted her eyebrow and stared at Ji Bai.
“Erm… I was only just wondering whether or not you wanted this candy. It’s of no use to me even if I hold onto it.” Ji Bai opened his palm, revealing the sweet that was in his hand.
“This sort of wrapped candy sells for less than 30 fens a piece. I’m quite afraid that it will give me diarrhea if I eat it.” However, what awaited Ji Bai was an extremely scornful look from Milan. Moreover, almost as if she had thought of something, she slipped into a daze the very next moment.
“This candy of yours…did you get it from a sliver-haired girl wearing worn-out clothes?” Milan suspiciously asked.
“Ehhh? How did you know?” Ji Bai was shocked as he asked instantly.
“Pfft…! Hahahaha…You, You actually bought it?!” Milan, who always had a cold expression over her face, unexpectedly let out an eruption of a loud and hearty laughter. What’s more, she was doing it without caring about her image in the slightest, all the while pointing her finger at Ji Bai’s hand.
“…What are you laughing at?” Ji Bai suddenly felt somewhat at a loss.
“Pfft…It, It’s nothing~ Speaking of which, how much money did you spend to buy this candy~?” Milan stopped her laughter and forced out a serious look as she asked this.
“No idea, I don’t really know.”
“That means a lot?”
“I guess.”
“Pfft…I take back the words I said earlier. You’re really a tycoon, a true tycoon! If there were more people of your type around in this world, there would definitely be a very big market for the badger game.”
“Are you trying to say I was scammed??” Ji Bai was slightly shocked. He recalled that the poor girl was shivering in the cold wind, he just couldn’t simply believe that it was all a front.
“Oh well~ Forget it. You will probably understand more in the future. Follow me for now.” After laughing, Mi Lan’s expression returned to normal. After she motioned for Ji Bai to follow her, she pushed open the glass door of the building and entered.
The shabby building was quite very desolate at the moment. Inside showed the cracked walls as well as its old fashioned floor tiles, it clearly hinted that it had been a long time since someone was responsible for managing it. A gust of cold wind blew past as it swept around some of the bits of waste paper scattered around the floor.
‘Under this type of weather, even people that relied on collecting waste papers would all be unwilling to go out, right? Then again, I’m quite sure that there are some beggars at this era that have more money than me.’
‘So… What did Milan bring me here for?’
“Follow me and enter.” Without answering any of the questions in his mind, Mi Lan brought Ji Bai to the toilet. There was only one toilet on every floor and the door plate of this particular toilet had already dropped off a long time ago.
“?! My god! This is…“ Ji Bai was suddenly astonished as his gaze flitted between the doors of the toilet and Milan.
‘Dang! She’s bringing me into a toilet! Is that ‘kind’ of development going to happen next? Could this possibly be…’