Chapter 125: Precision Strike

As she finished speaking, Su You pointed in the direction of Residential House 4.

Hearing her words, Meike paused for a moment, but didn’t give a clear response. Instead, he simply strode straight toward the place Su You had indicated.

To him, it didn’t matter where he checked first. He was a high-level mage, absolutely confident in his own strength, so he wasn’t afraid of Su You plotting against him.

In any case, today he was determined to dig three feet into the ground if he had to—he was going to find that ‘black bug’ that dared to mock him!

Su You followed behind. When the two of them arrived in front of Residential House 4, Su You happened to see Lyle pushing the door open and coming out of the room.

“My lord, the thing inside looks like a black snake... but it’s really fast, I couldn’t catch it.” Lake looked apologetic, a bit helpless and frustrated.

In fact, he’d almost caught the little black snake several times just now, but the snake was extremely clever, often making fake moves to mislead Lake’s judgment, causing him to lunge in the wrong direction while the snake darted off in the opposite way.

“That’s no ordinary black snake. It’s normal that you couldn’t catch it.” Meike glanced at Lyle. Although he was just stating the truth and didn’t mean to mock, his words still made people feel uncomfortable.

But Meike clearly didn’t care what others thought. After all, as a high-level mage, he could do as he pleased. With absolute power, nothing else really mattered.

After saying that, Meike ignored the two of them.

Now that he knew the black snake was inside, he pushed open the door to Residential House 4 and went in.

“My lord, this gentleman is...?” Although Meike’s words just now weren’t pleasant, Lyle didn’t take it to heart, nor did he feel upset because of them.

After all, the other party was a powerful mage, not someone he could afford to offend. Besides, Meike was just telling the truth—the black snake was indeed formidable, and his own skills weren’t much to speak of. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so flustered trying to catch a snake.

What Lyle cared about most now was what exactly this mage wanted, and whether he might pose any threat to the territory.

Su You saw his concern and explained what had just happened, even showing him the gold coin Meike had given her.

“This mage just wants to settle a personal matter. He’s not the type to attack people at random. You don’t need to worry so much.”

Seeing the gold coin in Su You’s hand, Lyle reluctantly accepted that this mage might actually be a relatively ‘kind’ one.

After all, from everything he’d heard, mages were all proud and arrogant.

If it had been a more arrogant mage in this situation, they’d just have to consider themselves unlucky. Compensation would be out of the question; if the mage didn’t take advantage of them, that would already be merciful.

This mage might seem ill-tempered, but he was reasonable and even generous... Not that Lyle had any choice but to believe it.

“So after—” Lyle was about to ask Su You if there was anything they needed to do after Meike caught the snake, but before he could finish, he heard the sound of a door opening behind him. Then, something suddenly whipped hard against his calf.

It hurt—a lot. While it wasn’t enough to cause real injury, Lyle was sure that if he rolled up his pant leg, there’d be a big bruise where he’d been struck.

But he didn’t have time to worry about that, because he saw the black snake shoot out like lightning. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but he thought the snake paused in front of Su You, then darted straight to her side, trying to climb up her leg.

“Get back here, you little pest!” came the furious shout of the mage from behind. Before Lyle could help Su You catch the snake, he saw his lord bend down with a calm expression and simply ‘pick up’ the little black snake.

That’s right.

She just picked it up.

Lyle: ...My lord is amazing!

He wasn’t exactly afraid of snakes, but catching a cold-blooded animal like this usually required some mental preparation—especially since this black snake was clearly no ordinary creature.

What if it bit her?

What if it was venomous?

But none of those ‘what ifs’ mattered now, because after Su You picked up the snake, she noticed something odd—the snake didn’t struggle at all, nor did it try to attack her.

Su You had only grabbed it so casually because she recognized it wasn’t poisonous, but now it seemed this snake wasn’t just harmless—it might actually be... a bit dim-witted?

Had Meike hit it silly? It didn’t even know to struggle?

The moment Su You locked eyes with the black snake, she frowned. Then she heard the snake speak—

‘You lousy cook! Your food is disgusting and you won’t even let people say so. If your cooking is so good, why don’t you eat it yourself? Don’t you have any (censored) idea whether it’s good or not?’

‘Saying it’s bad is already being polite! Who knows how long I was puking in the trees after eating that garbage you made—I almost died from your cooking!’

‘Even if I turn into roast meat today, I’m not letting you be the one to cook me! If I become roast snake, I refuse to be some charred, disgusting snake meat!’

Su You: ...

Lyle: ...

Su You wasn’t surprised to hear the snake talk—this world was full of strange things, and she couldn’t judge it by the standards of her previous, ordinary life.

But after hearing the snake’s mocking tirade, even though she didn’t know it, Su You couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious for it.

Wow!

Just wow!

Even a data snake can talk back like this these days?

Honestly, the first two lines weren’t so bad, but that last one—‘Even if I die and get roasted, I won’t let you cook me, because your cooking sucks’—was a precision strike.

To be honest, if Su You were Meike, she wouldn’t be able to swallow that insult either.

And as it happened, even though she wasn’t Meike, Meike himself clearly couldn’t take it.

He charged out of the room, pulled out his magic staff, and glared menacingly at Su You... or rather, the snake in her hand.

No doubt, if he weren’t worried about accidentally hurting Su You, he’d have blasted the snake with a fire spell right then and there.

“My lord, hand it over to me and this matter will be settled,” Meike said, doing his best to calm himself.

(End of chapter)"

"126. Do We Know Each Other?

Su You didn’t hesitate at all. She stepped forward, dragging the black snake with her, ready to hand it over to Meike.

Although she admitted that everything the black snake said was true, that didn’t affect her decision to side with Meike.

It wasn’t just because she wanted to recruit Meike—more importantly, she really couldn’t afford to offend him right now.

Even though Meike definitely wouldn’t attack her at the moment, if she showed even the slightest intention of speaking up for the snake, things would get complicated.

Besides, Su You had no interest in lowering Meike’s initial favorability or loyalty toward her and her territory just to save a snake.

The black snake seemed to sense her intentions. It had been limp and lifeless, but suddenly began to struggle desperately.

As it thrashed, some wounds on its body—which had been barely noticeable and seemed to be healing—split open again, fresh blood dripping out.

‘I can die, but I want this human to kill me. If I’m going to be roasted, I want her to do it!’

Su You: “???”

Su You was stunned for a moment, glancing at the black snake in confusion. She didn’t understand why this suddenly had anything to do with her.

Meike sneered, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. You just want to use this chance to escape, don’t you?”

The black snake rolled its eyes—literally rolled them, and Su You saw it with her own eyes.

‘Oh, please. As if I could run away. I just want to die at this human’s hands. At least she can cook, so my meat won’t go to waste. I’m a hundred-year-old snake spirit, after all. If you waste my meat, I’ll die with regrets!’

There was so much to unpack in the snake’s words that Su You didn’t even know where to start. But right now, her main concern was the same as Meike’s—

“We know each other?”

“You two know each other?”

The black snake snorted, sounding rather imposing, but its next words carried a hint of grievance.

‘How could we not know each other? I gave you those stones! And that boar!’

Su You froze, then suddenly realized what was going on.

So this black snake was the “mysterious creature” who had traded her stones for roasted berries and later tossed her a wild boar?

But…

Su You looked at the snake in her hand—it wasn’t even as thick or as long as her arm. She just couldn’t connect it to the “mysterious creature” that had caused such a commotion before, wiping out stone monsters and killing a wild boar.

Sensing Su You’s doubtful gaze, the black snake instantly bristled—well, not literally, since it had no fur.

Its scales stood on end, clearly agitated by her skepticism.

‘What’s with that look? If I hadn’t… if I weren’t so badly injured, would I be like this?’ In a way, the black snake was actually pretty good at reading the situation.

It hadn’t expected this mage—Meike—to care so much about cooking skills.

Previously, it had kept mocking him because it figured it wouldn’t survive anyway. If it was going to die, it might as well go out cursing!

But now things seemed to be taking a turn, so it wisely stopped provoking Meike.

Su You didn’t know what the snake was thinking, but she did start to feel a bit more inclined to keep it alive.

As long as it didn’t affect Meike’s favorability, of course.

Between the black snake and Meike, Meike was definitely the higher priority. The only reason she wanted to keep the snake was because of a certain respawn mechanic.

The respawn mechanism for creatures like the black snake was similar to that of mines: each area had a limited number of resource points, which included not only minerals but also biological resources.

If the black snake really was the “mysterious creature,” then it was actually a “boss beast”—a special resource. Killing one would yield a lot of loot, and, judging by her previous experience with the fire demon boss, maybe even a treasure chest.

But these creatures weren’t easy to deal with. The only reason the black snake was in such bad shape was because it had fought another boss beast and both sides were badly wounded. Then it tangled with Meike and ended up like this.

If the black snake had been at full health, Meike might not have been able to beat it—at best, it would have been a draw, and the snake might even have had a slight edge. The odds would have been about sixty-forty, with the snake at sixty.

A creature that even a high-level mage couldn’t easily defeat—that said a lot about the snake’s combat power.

The respawn mechanic for boss beasts was: each area had a fixed number of them. As long as one lived, it remained the “boss” of the area. Only if it died would a new boss beast spawn to take its place.

The black snake wasn’t exactly friendly to her, but at least it was neutral. Having a neutral boss beast around was much better than having a new, aggressive one that might attack humans on sight.

Su You weighed the pros and cons, then handed the black snake to Meike. At the same time, she spoke up:

“Mage, I am the lord of this territory. I’d like to invite you to join us.” Before Meike could respond, Su You continued, “I know, given the current state of the territory, it’s impossible to expect a high-level mage like you to join. But I might have something you want.”

Meike took the black snake. He’d planned to leave the territory and deal with the snake elsewhere, but after hearing Su You’s words, he turned to her, signaling her to go on.

He didn’t think Su You’s invitation was naive—he’d heard countless such invitations before and was used to it.

In the past, he would have ignored such offers and left straight away.

But maybe it was the black snake’s comment about the lord’s cooking that got to him, so Meike was willing to stay and listen.

Maybe you could call it a soft spot for good cooks.

“You seem to enjoy cooking? I happen to have a book about it.” As she spoke, Su You took out a high-level cooking skill book.

She held it with the back facing Meike, so he couldn’t see the title, but he could guess what it was.

(End of chapter)"

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