Looking at his side, Hai saw a cute little girl of about 6-years-old with long red hair.
She was looking curiously at him as if seeing someone interesting.
Her orange eyes seemed to peer directly into his soul as he could somehow feel her gaze seeing more than what there is to see outwardly.
"Well, hello, my name is Hai. And who might you be, young lady?" Hai felt funny hearing his own words but kept his relaxed smile and calm expression.
The little girl stood still for some seconds before getting up on the bench and slowly walking towards him.
She walked towards him and threw herself into his embrace.
Hai raised an eyebrow and opened his arms.
The girl fell in his arms and hugged him with her small arms.
"Kryn."
Hai raised an eyebrow at this peculiar name but didn't comment on it as it would sound rude.
Not paying attention to it, Kryn kept clinging to Hai showing no intention of letting go.
Hai noticing this, found this little girl a bit funny.
"Well then, can I call you Kryn?" She separated herself for him, looked into his eyes with hers and nodded before hugging him again.
"Okay then. Kryn, is there somewhere you want to go?" Hai thought that it would be better to go around while the war still hasn't exploded yet.
Kryn thought for a bit before looking at him again.
"Ice cream." She said with an expressionless face.
Hai noticed a slight fluctuation in her tone and understood that she probably isn't good when it comes to expressing herself.
The more Hai understood about her, the more he found her strange.
"Let's go, shall we?" Hai spoke before getting up.
He lowered himself to put her down, but Kryn crawled up and hugged his neck.
"Up." She spoke in a low voice.
Hai raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
He saw her ears being slight red after she said her previous words.
"As you wish." As he didn't see a problem, he scooped her up and let her sit in his arms.
"Hm." Kryn muttered with the corner of her lips slightly arced upwards.
Then, Hai started to walk to where he came from while also using his mana sense to constantly scan his surroundings.
While walking, he started to hum a melody again while trying to enjoy the scenery as he searched for the closest place that sells ice cream.
Meanwhile, differently from Hai who was calmly walking around, Kryn was having quite a reaction internally.
[YYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
Kryn's small eyes twitched at the message that filled her entire field of view.
[IT'S HIM!! IT'S REALLY HIM!!!!!]
'Laila, too loud.' Kryn thought when she noticed that her friend wasn't calming down.
[Opsie~! Sorry, Kryn. It's just that I am finally seeing him from up close. And you are even in his arms! How envious~!]
Kryn looked around curiously while ignoring Laila ranting about how she should enjoy being in Hai's arms and all.
As she didn't go out that much, everything was new to Kryn or she had only seen them through pictures and videos.
[And that is why…]
'Annoying.' Kryn muttered inwardly.
[UGH! Why must you hurt me this way(┬┬﹏┬┬)?]
'Dramatic.' Kryn was merciless when talking with Laila.
[You hurt me.]
"Hey Kryn, do you have any specific place in mind where you want to go once you get your ice cream?"
Both Kryn and Laila stopped bickering and paid attention to Hai's words.
Kryn thought for a bit but she hadn't interest in anywhere in particular. Everything was new to her, so she didn't know where to go first.
[How about the sea?] Suggested Laila as she knew that Kryn always wanted to see the sea.
And right on point, Kryn's eyes sparkled once she heard Laila's suggestion.
"Sea." After a few seconds of silence, her words were heard by Hai.
Looking at the little girl filled with excitement, Hai smiled a little.
'Children get excited by the smallest things, huh.' Hai thought while wondering how he would fare as a "babysitter"
Truth to be told, Hai isn't good with children.
When you live in a world where money can literally buy people's lives and working for a corporation is seldom different from being a slave, and to ice the cake, you suffer several times unfairly and has to watch the ones who made you suffer, prosper, then yeah, you aren't the most qualified to deal with children. Mainly the pure ones like the one in his arms.
Walking into a more crowded street, Hai strolled among the people while also using magic to make them unconsciously be at least 1,5 meters away from him and Kryn.
[Kryn, I know that you want to enjoy this day, but you know what you need to do, right?]
Kryn's small eyes flashed with a hint of determination before she nodded inwardly.
"Oh, there it is." Hai muttered after finding a place that sells ice cream.
Kryn looked where they were going and saw a small ice cream machine along some other vending machines leaning on a wall.
"Kryn, what flavor do you want?" Hai asked while verifying the options the thing has.
"Chocolate." She instantly replied.
Hai nodded and ordered a chocolate one.
He paid a few RM and got the thing.
Giving it to Kryn, she immediately started to dig in.
"Slow down, the ice cream isn't going to run away." Hai said after seeing that Kryn was almost gobbling down the whole thing.
"You seem to like ice cream." He commented after seeing she trying to restrict herself to only licking the ice cream.
Kryn simply nodded. She has always liked sweets.
Hai then started to walk towards the beach.
On the way, while he kept scanning his surroundings, he picked something fishy.
There were some movements on the top of some buildings.
Although it seemed unrelated, Hai had noticed that in the last few minutes, they were slowly itching closer to his location and had been maintaining a certain distance from him.
'Already?' Hai knew that they might be targeted and this was exactly his objective, but this was sooner than he expected.
Keeping his smile and a relaxed expression on his face, Hai made sure to keep talking with Kryn from time to time.
[Kryn, we are being followed.] Laila's message flashed before Kryn's eyes.
Eating her ice cream, Kryn kept her expressionless face while reading the message.
'Enemy?'
[Most likely.]
'Huh.'
Hai changed his way from a beach to a coast more secluded from crowded areas.
After some minutes of walking, they eventually arrived at a small area with some trees.
This area was also relatively near to the border of Hong Kong.
There is only one sea in Hong Kong as the barrier has ¾ of land and only ¼ of sea and even this sea is constantly being surveilled by the security of Hong Kong, so there is a limit to how far someone can go into the sea without intruding private area and being arrested.
Walking through the trees, Hai kept paying attention to his surroundings and smiled wryly when he noticed that they were already surrounded with no way of going back without crossing paths with their stalkers.
"Well, they aren't even trying anymore. Anyway, Kryn, how is it?" He asked while stopping at the edge of the coast.
Kryn finished her ice cream and ate the last piece of the cone before raising her head.
Her eyes sparkled when she saw the huge blue sea extending to beyond what she could see.
Although she didn't say anything, Hai noticed her eyes were burning with wonder.
[What do you think, Kryn?] Leila's message flashed before Kryn's eyes.
Kryn nodded.
"Beautiful." Her low voice was a bit louder due to the silent surroundings.
Hai simply smiled and Leila flashed a smiling emoji.
But alas, their small happy moment was cut short.
*RUSTLE*
Hai's smile twitched and he turned his head back just giving a side-glance to the bush where the sound came from.
Then, from there someone came out.
Hai's eyes twitched.
"Jin Meili…" His voice trembled.
Out of everyone possible, how come it's her?
Hai looked at her incredulously.
When Jin Meili heard him calling her name, she rose her head and her eyes become bloodshot.
"You bastard!"
Hai covered Kryn's ears with his arm and shoulder and looked at her as if looking at an idiot.
"There are children here." He said like a parent lecturing an older brother who swore before the youngest one.
Jin Meili got even angrier when he didn't care about her and was about to lash out but a cold voice stopped her.
"That is enough, whore."
Jin Meili stopped cold where she was and her spine straightened.
"Ye-Yes, master!"
Hai noticed her abnormal behavior.
Her body was trembling, not because of excitement but from fear. She was sweating and her legs seemed ready to give in any time by now.
Keeping a small smile, he turned to where the new voice came from.
*RUSTLE*
From there, someone come towards him.
"Well, we need to stop crossing each other like this." Hai said with a small sarcastic smile.
The one who came out of there was none other than Ye Chen.
However, he was a bit different from the last time Hai saw him.
His expression was dark, his eyes held endless killing intent and his body language was that of a trained veteran.
'What happened to him?' Hai thought while also noticing that the aura of the world's will around him also increased.
'So the world's will started to support him again, huh.'
"You mother*cker." Ye Chen muttered while releasing his heavy killing intent on the surroundings.
The flora started to wither away and a red mist started to cover the ground.
However, the mist couldn't even come close to Hai before it was dispersed into nothingness.
The flora around Hai kept well and green as the effects of Ye Chen's killing intent couldn't come closer to Hai.
Still covering Kryn's ears, Hai opened his mouth.
"Hey! Even if it's true, you shouldn't go around telling everyone what I did to your mother. Those are private things, son." Hai yelled with an exasperated expression.
Ye Chen's face become increasingly darker and his killing intent started to suffocate Jin Meili.
'Who is him?' Kryn asked Leila while noticing the eerie aura that Ye Chen was releasing.
[Ye Chen. The most hateful being in existence.] Leila's message contained unbridled hate.
*RUSTLE*
*RUSTLE*
*RUSTLE*
Then, several dozens of people came out of their hiding spots.
'All of them are at least silvers.' Hai concluded but he raised an eyebrow in the next instant.
They all had Nirvana's emblem.
'I see…' He stole a peek at Kryn but said nothing.
[Kryn…]
'Huh. I know.' Kryn's eyes sharpened and her aura changed a bit.
However, she suddenly felt a hand on the top of her head.
She looked towards Hai and saw him smiling.
"Children must be children. Leave those things to adults." Hai rubbed her head and looked towards Ye Chen again.
Kryn's aura calmed down and she nodded.
Then, Hai saw someone he didn't expect to see here.
Bing Qing.
She was standing a few meters away from Ye Chen and looked at Hai with a surprised expression.
Although he found it interesting that she was here with Ye Chen, he didn't comment on it.
"So? Are you going to say why are you here or are you going to just jump onto me and start fighting?" He asked when he saw the soldiers with Nirvana's emblem reading their weapons.
"…" Contrary to what Hai thought, Ye Chen didn't utter a word and only glared at him.
He raised his hand and then swung it down.
Immediately after, the soldiers started firing.
*TATATATATATATATATATATATATATA*
Hai stood still while keeping his smile.
Then, when the bullets arrived at 1 meter away from him, they all simply dropped to the ground, like a pen that fell from atop a table.
After a few seconds of shooting, Ye Chen raised his hand again.
The soldiers stopped firing.
*WHISTLE*
Hai whistled after seeing them stopping.
"You even fired at a child. How low have you fallen, oh hero~" Hai spoke in a dramatic voice while keeping a close eye to the backmost soldiers that had anti-magical fields.
'Now, this might be fun.' He thought while Ye Chen opened his mouth.
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A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Once again, thank you guys for all your support and feedback!
We're almost/ already at the 100 Power Stones mark, so I'll write the bonus chapter and post it later.
So, what do you guys think about this chapter?
Comment what you thought about this chapter. If you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.
Also, join our Discord community, there you can interact with other readers or with me in case you have questions or ideas about/ for the novel.
Discord server: https://discord.gg/NZV2EtdJY8
(The link is also on the novel's synopsis).
...….
Power Stones' rewards:
100 Power Stones = 1 bonus chapter;
200 power stones = 2 bonus chapters;
500 power stones = 3 bonus chapters.
...….
That is all for today, thank you all for reading! 🍷😎