"Is this the content of the contract then?"
After a pause, Hayakawa Aki then asked Fang Mo: "As long as I don't borrow too much power, you won't carve the moon into a square shape, right?"
"Turning the moon into a square is just a metaphor, it's not necessarily something that has to be done."
Fang Mo said cheerfully: "A true fun-seeker never sticks to the same form of amusement. I can easily come up with ideas that would give you a headache. Look, if I kill the Gun Devil, Makima will grant me a wish. So... what if I have Makima ride a horse naked in Walmart, eating Shaqima while coding?"
(... Ok wtf Fang Mo?!)
"I refuse to imagine such a scene."
Hayakawa Aki directly stated: "The one who will kill the Gun Devil will be me using your power, which has nothing to do with you personally. Miss Makima doesn't need to agree to your conditions."
"So, this guy's dog-training ability is really outrageous."
Hearing this, Fang Mo clicked his tongue: "Sometimes I really want to slap all of you bootlickers to death. With healthy limbs and parents, why do you lick... oh, I forgot you're all orphans, so never mind."
"I still hate you."
Hayakawa Aki looked deeply at Fang Mo: "And if we're talking about orphans, you Devils, born from human fears, are the real orphans. You don't have parents at all, or rather, your parents are us humans..."
"What the heck? How did you come up with such a retort?"
Fang Mo was slightly surprised: "Are you going for critical hits?"
"I just won't allow you to insult Miss Makima." Hayakawa Aki said, "She has done me a great favor. Anyone disrespectful towards her is my enemy."
"A favor?"
Fang Mo had a wicked thought: "What favor?"
"She..."
Hayakawa Aki paused suddenly, realizing he had forgotten this matter.
He knew that Makima had done him a great favor, which was beyond doubt. But what exactly was this favor, how and when it happened, and even how he came to like Makima, Hayakawa Aki couldn't remember any of it.
Of course, it was normal for Hayakawa Aki to be in this state.
Because all these so-called favors, admiration, and likings were fake.
As mentioned before, Makima is a Control Devil. Her power is simple: once defeated by her or if one harbors thoughts like 'I'm inferior to Makima,' they get instantly controlled by her.
This control is generally of two types.
The first type is normal. It's somewhat similar to the hypnotic control often mentioned in R18 H, like brainwashing, personality replacement, cognitive rewriting, etc. It can also be seen as the dōjutsu technique Kotoamatsukami from Naruto, where the person controlled by Makima retains their own thoughts, unaware of being controlled, but they inexplicably feel that Makima is very important to them.
Just like having an overwhelming fondness, these people suddenly became extremely fond of Makima, willing to give everything for her.
Of course, there's also a second state, where the controlled person loses all consciousness, becoming like a puppet with eyes open, absolutely obedient to Makima.
It was clear that Hayakawa Aki was under control, already tamed like a dog.
"Speak up, why can't you say anything now?"
Seeing Hayakawa Aki like this, Fang Mo also started laughing: "You dare to claim you like Makima? Your love is even less than those crazy fans next door watching VR Idols, hilarious…"
"You damn Devil!"
Hayakawa Aki couldn't hold back and roared: "It must be you interfering with my thoughts, right!?"
"Sorry, I really don't like doing that."
Fang Mo slowly shook his head: "Although I am a Devil of Happiness, I don't like using mind control skills. For example, if I like a girl, rather than enslaving her with mind control, I prefer to forcefully…"
"That's still a crime!"
Before Fang Mo could finish, Hayakawa Aki interrupted him: "I will never allow you to do that to Miss Makima!"
"I was just giving an example."
Fang Mo, no longer amused, slammed the table and said: "I am the pure love war god, I've killed at least a million minotaurs with my own hands, okay? Anyway, I didn't influence your thoughts. You're always delirious, your brain messed up, even forgetting your gratitude to Makima, and you have the nerve to blame me?"
"You..."
Hayakawa Aki was so angered by Fang Mo that he clenched his teeth, but said no more.
In fact, he himself felt strange now, wondering why he would forget such an important thing. Could it be due to using too much Devil power?
He had made a pact with the fox Devil, able to summon part of the fox Devil's body to attack enemies, but the price was that each use consumed a part of him. Could it be that this included his memories?
Thinking this, Hayakawa Aki decided to use the fox Devil's power as little as possible in the future.
If he even forgot his own hatred, that would be too pathetic. That was the only thing driving him to live.
"Let's not talk about this for now."
Hayakawa Aki waved his hand irritably: "Didn't you say you wanted to make a pact with me? I agree, how do I use your power?"
"Oh, okay, the pact is established."
Fang Mo nodded and thought to himself how casual the pacts in this world were: "My power comes in many forms, it depends on which kind you specifically want."
"Different forms?"
Hayakawa Aki asked: "What are they exactly?"
"As I said before, I am the lord of Happiness. The place I used to live is called a subspace. There, I had three sleazy colleagues, and we were collectively known as the Four Merchants of Subspace. My main role was selling swords, so I can lend you a powerful weapon."
Fang Mo slowly said, "Of course, besides that, I can also comprehensively enhance your physical fitness, making your body as strong as a Devil."
"If you are not satisfied with these, I can also make you immune to death, learn magic, become a light saw person, or I can stab you with an arrow to awaken some kind of superpower. You might even defeat a Devil, and then I can help you seal the Devil into a sword to become the source of your power. In short, there's nothing you can think of that I can't do."
"So many?" Hayakawa Aki was stunned after hearing this: "Are these all your abilities?"
"After all, the versatility of happiness is too strong."
Fang Mo spread his hands: "There are as many ways humans pursue happiness as there are convenient aspects to my power. By the way, I suggest you first improve your physical fitness."
"Why?"
Hayakawa Aki asked curiously.
"Because right now, you are made up of 50% Batman and 50% Spider-Man. You have neither superpowers nor money." Fang Mo spread his hands: "Even if I give you powerful equipment, you probably won't be able to bring out its true strength, so it's better to enhance your physical fitness first."
"Actually, I do have some savings."
Hayakawa Aki retorted.
"Bang!"
Fang Mo didn't speak, but smashed a large gold brick onto the kitchen table, directly cracking the marble countertop.
"Okay, I have no money."
Seeing this, Hayakawa Aki immediately said: "Then improve my physical fitness, how much will it cost me?"
"About 100 headache points," Fang Mo extended a finger and said: "It's trivial, just like listening to a few hellish jokes more often. It won't cause any harm to the surroundings or affect others."
"Is that so?"
Hayakawa Aki thought for a moment. Although he didn't understand what hellish jokes were, as long as it wouldn't cause harm to others, it should be fine. So he nodded: "Then that's it, please enhance my physical fitness."
"Oh, then eat this."
Fang Mo nodded and then took out some essence berries.
"What is this?" Hayakawa Aki asked curiously upon seeing the clusters of golden-green substances that looked like grapes.
"These are my essence... um, these are my meat slices," Fang Mo initially wanted to say essence berries, but anticipating the follow-up question about what essence berries were, he decided to avoid the hassle and simply claimed they were Devil meat slices. In this world, consuming the flesh of powerful Devils was known to enhance one's own strength.
This point had been mentioned before.
Ordinary Devils become very troublesome after eating the flesh of Gun Devils and the like.
"Okay."
Hayakawa Aki nodded, seemingly accepting this explanation, and began to stuff a cluster of essence berries into his mouth.
"Remember to chew thoroughly, don't swallow," Fang Mo kindly reminded, "Only by doing this can you maximize the absorption of this power."
Hayakawa Aki didn't speak, but obediently bit into the essence berries. The next second, his face twisted in an instant, his facial features crumpled together, reflexively wanting to spit out what was in his mouth.
But the next second, he quickly covered his mouth, forcibly keeping the juice of the essence berries inside.
To Hayakawa Aki, it felt like drinking a thick, cold soup of feces.
His whole body was frantically rejecting what was in his mouth, muscles in his throat and stomach spasming and twitching, trying to vomit out the unclean foreign matter. But in order to gain the power to defeat the Gun Devil, Hayakawa Aki forced himself to swallow it.
Fang Mo, on the other hand, was laughing maliciously.
"Shit taste is powerful!"
Seeing someone else suffer as he did, Fang Mo felt a sudden sense of exhilaration, patting Hayakawa Aki on the shoulder encouragingly, "IT'S GOOD FOR YOU!"
"Gurgle..."
After much effort, Hayakawa Aki finally swallowed the essence berries, then began to retch again, tears streaming down: "Ugh!"
"No way? Is this thing really that disgusting?"
Nearby, Denji saw this scene and, curious, walked over. He casually picked an essence berry, chewed it, and said indifferently, "Hmm, it does taste pretty bad, but... it's okay, right? At least it's food?"
After saying this, Denji swallowed it down.
"Wow? That's awesome?"
Seeing Denji's calm demeanor, even Fang Mo was surprised. Although he knew that this guy had a tough life, having always searched for food in trash bins since childhood, his dry chewing of Essence Berries was a bit too extreme, wasn't it?
However, in the next second, Hayakawa Aki suddenly grabbed the Essence Berries on the table.
"Don't touch my stuff!"
Hayakawa Aki shouted at Denji, then immediately regretted it, looking tearfully and unimposing.
"Huh?"
Denji was stunned by these words, looking at Hayakawa Aki with a gaze that seemed to say, "I wouldn't fight with you over food," even showing a hint of disdain, before turning around and walking away.
"Wow, that's so real."
Seeing this, Fang Mo couldn't help but laugh, patting Hayakawa Aki on the shoulder and saying, "Brother, you might look a bit awkward defending Makima, but you look really cool when you protect your food. How about we change your name... What do you think of Hayakawa Akita? You could even cosplay as the Annoying Dog and the Crying Dog Meme."