The old man went on and talked some more. It seemed that the bug pets he owned were all from past lovers who in some way, shape, or form, insetted an egg sac and left him. Though their current partner seems like they were staying, good for the old man.
Now with two of the four apocalypse pets, Haseo started to go on his way again. A blind old man was using a weird looking staff to find his way around. When he approached Haseo, he tapped him with his staff and dropped it.
"Oh I am so sorry kiddo. Could you do me a favor and hand me my cane. You see, I would try to find it myself but it takes so long. Please youngin, you don't want to see an old man struggle."
"Oh it's okay sir, let me just get that for you." This old man was a bit weird. First, he made an obvious b-line to Haseo when he was first brought out of the store. Though when he was approached by bug gramps first, the blind old man stopped and was patiently waiting.
The blind man than sped off into his direction, glasses staring straight at Haseo. This man had some way to see, but was blind. As Haseo bent down for the cane, he saw there was only empty voids behind the glasses of the blind man.
With the cane in hand, he lifted it up and tried handing it to the blind man. But when the cane was held in front of him, the size and shape changed.
The blind man's corpse was limp in Haseo's hold. His hand, wrapped tightly around his neck as if it was as skinny as a cane. Trying to drop the cane, the dead blind man's head snapped up to stare him into the eyes and started laughing.
The blind man's corpse started decaying and shrinking, all that was left was a stick made of dead driftwood and a skull on the top.
Eyes locked with the voided eye sockets of the skull, a small pink flame appeared and illuminated the darkness he saw.
A smile appeared on the skull, which sent goosebumps all over Haseo. The reason for this, despite it being common knowledge, you smile with your lips. So how could a skull be smiling?
The answer was, not pleasantly. The bones of the skull started morphing. With the fluid motion of clay and the snapping of bones, the skull reshaped itself to look as if it was smiling.
"Oh no, you murderer me! I won't hold this against you. I feel being charitable, so all you have to do is let me be your undead pet. Seeing as you killed me, it is only right you adopt me and raise me. Unless you can give me back the life I had before."
Haseo looked over at a wall. "I mean, you look like driftwood right now. I bet if I smash that wall over there, you will break before the wall does."
The skull turned over and looked at the wall. It spent a good bit of time looking at it before looking back at Haseo. "And?"
Haseo brushed the skull on the ground. "And what?! I sorta don't want you, so I was going to get rid of you."
The skull shifted to look as if it was sad. It even started having pink blood drip to the ground. "I understand, I wasn't wanted much in life either. Go ahead and deal with me. But do know, this cane turns back to the corpse if it breaks."
Haseo lifted the skull staff and looked at its sandy face. It spat out some sand and cleared its… throat of sand.
"Yeah, so go ahead and break me. The rotting corpse of a blind man will be painting the ground and your visage."
"Something is off. Let me check my system real quick." Keeping the staff in his hands, he poked his wrist to bring up the system. Nothing happened.
He started swiping and holding his finger, still nothing. He went to drop the staff, hoping it was just getting in the way of the system working.
With his hand opening the staff, didn't budge. In fact, it was sticking to Haseo's open palm as if a part of him. "That is a bit weird, isn't it random bone staff guy. You are pretty attached to me. I have lost all my care in the world with struggling with ya. In truth, I am fine with just being handed things."
The sound of a person started scurrying over, Haseo pointed the staff at the person and yelled. "That wasn't an open invitation for number 4 to come at me! You will wait your turn old lady."
"Oh, man." The voice of a sad granny sounded out as the robe figure that was running over, now staring dejectedly at the ground, stopped and started kicking the dirt."
Haseo took a quick step and swung the staff at the wall, shattering the wall and adding a bump to the skull.
"Ah he is trying to murder an old man! Help me, this guy is crazy!" Haseo started spinning the staff, noticeably turning the skull into a greener shade.
"What's wrong? I have decided to keep you as a pet, something you wanted. But it felt off when I hit the wall. Sure your body is pretty strong, enough to destroy that wall, but you are a pet. Maybe I should stick with using you as a gun that shoots out pets or something."
The staff threw up a little and turned back to Haseo. "All the pets are ranged because we are pets! Only scum forces pets to physically fight, they could get hurt. That's why you pick the pets up and pretend to shoot out rockets or whatever.."
Patting the skull, Haseo sighed. "Poor little guy, hmm wait old man? I mean, you are an undead pet, was you being old real?"
The skull grinned and looked at the ground shyly. "You think my bones look old? Oh stop you, I am already your pet. I am a young undead pet. Only a few thousands years of age."
"Hmm, I feel like I have waited enough time. My curiosity of what happens when the 4 pets are combined, are peaking. I can assume I can summon the apocalypse, but there are so many people here with pets. How many apocalypses happen at this place?"
The skull staff looked shocked. "Wait I have so much background information to share with you! I am your pet and you need to know about me!! You lisented to that weird bug laying guy, who was just some loser who gets dumped with the bastard egg laying spawn!!!"
Haseo put the staff away, not understanding where it went. He could finally open his system, now that his hand was open, and went to bookmark the pets tab. At any time, he could check in on his pets. It doesn't seem like they need anything, in fact the UI was scuff looking and didn't feel like a final product.
"Alright I don't have all day. Oh wait, I do have all day. Hmm, right now my life has no time limit. I could relax here for thousands of years never needing to go forward. This could be the last time I ever experience this feeling."
The old woman started crying. "You monster! This nice old lady wanted to gift you something!!" The old woman started bawling harder and started to pound the ground with her small trembling fists.
"You want me to wait for thousands of years?! How could someone be so cruel?" As the old woman started to crawl into a ball shape. Haseo looked over at her.
Seeing the sad old woman, he remembered his thoughts were public, always and forever. Sweat started to soak his back as he made a weird fake laugh.
"Haha, wow just the person I wanted to see. I was just thinking that AFTER I get the pet from you, I could take a small break or something."
The old woman looked up at him. "Are you a pretty boy elf? Thousands of years as a break?" Haseo just blinked and started walking off.
The woman quickly gripped her arm, holding him in place. Wiping her eyes the old woman slowly reached into her purse.
"Oh young man, thanks for helping me walk through that dangerous Hydra Pit. Who knew a place I picked up rocks would have such dangerous beasts?"
"Walk through a Hydra Pit? So much to unpack here, I guess old people are really into role playing? Weird."
A rock that had worms crawling in and out of it was pulled out from the old woman's purse. "There it is, such a lovely rock. I understand why the Hydra Queen wanted it back, no other reason."
The rock was placed in Haseo's hand. Before he could decline it, the rock fell apart and the worms inside dug into Haseo's arm.