Chapter 33
Yomi was holding an armful of little trinkets he had picked up. He had finally made up his mind and chosen one path to take, but before he could even step forward, the sky suddenly went dark!
?
Just like during a power outage, he instinctively cried out. Then he immediately heard a familiar voice guiding him, “Go right and you’ll be out.”
He had no time to think about why the sky had suddenly gone dark, or why Anxius knew where he was. Panting, Yomi ran toward the right, almost sprinting the whole way, and then all at once, he stumbled straight into the monster’s arms.
“……”
He was stunned on the spot. Looking up, he saw that the “sky” had brightened again, and Anxius was pulling him out of his embrace.
It was not that the sky had brightened at all—someone had been playing tricks!
Yomi turned his head and finally realized that Anxius had actually used his enormous wings to block the space directly above him!
No wonder it had suddenly gone dark!
He could even scare people now. Anxius had gone bad.
Yomi stared at the monster in a daze. His breathing gradually steadied, but all the strength seemed to drain from his body.
Seeing how wilted he looked, Anxius thought he had genuinely frightened him. After freezing for a moment, he suddenly picked him up, spread his great wings, and swiftly carried him up into the sky.
“…What are you doing?” Yomi had barely recovered his senses before he was back in the air again. His mind went blank, and he was still a little scared.
Don’t tell me he was going to do something bad again—throw him down and catch him for fun like some kind of bungee jump?
…No, absolutely not. If that happened, their relationship really would crack.
Anxius said, “Look at the scenery. Don’t be afraid.”
As long as it was not bungee jumping, that was fine… Yomi let out a sigh of relief. Lowering his eyes, he looked down at the dense forest below. Al Luo was nowhere to be seen now.
His field of vision became incomparably broad. Things that had seemed huge before now looked small, and the frightening beast tracks he had been afraid of were completely invisible from up here… Yomi watched excitedly, and before he knew it, he was thinking of the past. When he was little, he had loved following his parents back to their old home in the countryside, a place with mountains and water. Since he rarely got to experience that kind of environment in daily life, each trip felt like everything there was fun. His grandmother would even scoop up the little lambs for him to see. Back then, he had thought those lambs were so tiny—tiny enough that even a child like him could hold one. Later, after arriving on Sna Star and getting rejected over and over while looking for work, he had always feared that one day he might become a little lamb at the mercy of others.
Luckily, he had a job now, and everything was slowly getting better.
Yomi knew that to the people of Sna Star, he was still very small. But he could clearly feel that he was no longer the little lamb from his memories—he had formed real bonds with the people here.
The happy feelings rose and fell inside him, no different from before.
The water in the forest glimmered faintly. The unseen moss was still growing. Al Luo’s calls overlapped in his ears with the voices of childhood playmates. All of it filled him with satisfaction.
Yomi gazed at this world. His present and his past were tightly connected.
After taking him on a loop through the sky and seeing him smile, Anxius finally brought him slowly back down.
Al Luo was so anxious he was practically stomping his feet. Even though the sight of a robot stomping was rather funny, Yomi rarely did not laugh. He walked over and patted the tall robot. “It’s getting late. Let’s go home.”
Al Luo’s mouth hung open, then he suddenly went quiet, as if the words “go home” had caused some sort of malfunction. Only after quite a while did he slowly follow behind.
After returning to the stone cave, the three of them continued eating the leftover beef from noon. Once they were full, they rested and waited for nightfall to go to sleep.
Anxius went out to throw away the food scraps. Having nothing to do, Yomi sorted through the little things he had picked up from the bush maze. Feathers and stones and such could all be taken back as souvenirs… Ah, right, there was also the black wing the Rain Dragons had given him. Yomi did not know how to deal with it, so he picked it up and kept comparing it against the robot.
Al Luo thought Yomi wanted to fly by himself and shook his head. “Al Luo can’t fly. Al Luo can’t take Yomi into the sky.”
Yomi said, “…This wing can be used as decoration for you.”
Al Luo shook his head. “…Al Luo won’t wear it. Yomi wears it.”
Yomi already had fake horns. Fake wings on top of that would only be too cumbersome, so he shook his head. After smoothing the feathers on the wing, he decided to leave it unused for now.
After Anxius returned, some more time passed, and outside it became completely dark.
All three of them were tired today. Yomi was the first to fall asleep, Al Luo the second, and only after staring at the capsule house for a while did Anxius close his eyes.
Now that it was no longer raining, Yomi did not need Anxius to use his wings as a blanket anymore. He had placed some of the stones and feathers he picked up today into the empty spaces inside the capsule house. Before sleeping, he was bored, so he held two stones in his hands and rubbed them. They were smooth and slippery, and honestly felt pretty nice.
But as he slept, his body started feeling unwell. He was somewhat feverish, though not as badly as if he were actually sick. He kicked off the blanket and changed position to keep sleeping, but he still felt uncomfortable. So he opened his eyes and asked softly, “Are you two asleep?”
The monster at the entrance abruptly opened his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
Al Luo woke up too. Since he was a robot, one call was enough to wake him. “Yomi?”
There was no medicine here, and Yomi felt a little apologetic for waking them. He said, “I can’t sleep. I think maybe I ate too much.” Then he asked how Anxius and Al Luo were feeling.
Anxius shook his head.
Al Luo said, “I secretly ate a yellow fruit today. I think it upset my stomach. My body feels kind of hot.”
It was exactly the same as his own condition! Yomi had eaten that yellow fruit too… though his stomach did not hurt.
“Then are you okay?” Yomi asked.
“I’m fine. I won’t get diarrhea, so don’t worry.”
“……”
Anxius had already picked up on the oddness in their conversation. He got up to light a fire and started boiling hot water.
“Thank you, Louis.” Yomi had no strength to get up anymore. “I probably’m not sick. It shouldn’t affect anything.”
Once the water was ready, Anxius blew on it. When it was no longer so hot, he brought it over to feed Yomi. Supported into a sitting position by him, Yomi drank several mouthfuls of hot water, and the feverish heat in his body seemed to ease somewhat.
The robot did not need to drink water. Hearing Yomi say he felt much better, he went to put out the fire and returned to his nest to continue sleeping.
After feeding him water, Anxius also wiped Yomi’s face, then tucked him back into bed, pulled the blanket snug, and covered him properly. After that, he stayed at the door of the capsule house watching him, from time to time reaching out a claw to touch his face and forehead. Only when he felt no obvious sign of a fever did his expression ease a little.
Yomi soon fell asleep again, his breathing steady.
In the darkness, those golden eyes quietly watched Yomi inside the capsule house. About an hour later, just as the monster was about to close his eyes, he suddenly sensed an unusual fluctuation in the air.
Anxius whipped around sharply.
Not far away, the robot lying there had actually become a complete human figure, with only one arm still retaining mechanical traits.
[Holy shit? Where did Al Luo go?]
[Idiot, Al Luo turned into a complete human form! It should be related to Rhea Continent’s stimulation effect. He originally only had a human face, but now he’s fully human…]
[Not gonna lie, he’s actually pretty handsome!]
[Well, he is a robot. His original data settings were definitely made pretty good. Of course his looks wouldn’t be bad!]
[I never thought we’d get to directly see Rhea Continent’s stimulation effect on the show. This is too shocking!]
[The stimulation effect of Rhea Continent is rarer than winning the lottery. And this might not even be related to Rhea Continent. After Al Luo got a soul, he slowly grew a face. Apparently, having a complete human form was only a matter of time…]
Anxius stared at Al Luo for a few seconds. He was not surprised. It was only a full human form. It was not as though he had never seen such a thing before.
After looking away, Anxius continued staring at Yomi in the capsule house before him.
Over there, after realizing he now had a complete human form, Al Luo’s reaction was not as excited as the viewers had expected. He simply touched his own body, then tilted his head slightly, seemingly not expecting it to happen so soon. In the end, he looked once more at the monster’s back and at that capsule, then closed his eyes again.
[Truly a robot!]
[They’re both way too calm… The way Louis looked at Al Luo was like he was looking at a monkey… Feels like only Yomi will get a shock after finding out.]
[Speaking of which, on this trip to Rhea Continent, will the other guests also awaken abilities? At most, Al Luo’s case only counts as being stimulated into gaining a complete human form, right? It has nothing to do with skills.]
[If a group of guests all went to buy lottery tickets and one person won, that would already be unbelievable. And you’re still expecting the others to win too? Keep dreaming.]
…
The guests were all asleep, and outside everything was peaceful too. No wild beasts approached, so the camera fixed itself at a distance and waited for dawn.
But precisely because of that, it failed to record the sudden change in the monster’s expression afterward.
This time, Anxius was awakened by another strange fluctuation in the air. He immediately looked toward the capsule—and saw that the little person inside had turned into a lamb…
The monster’s whole body shuddered. Yet before he could act, the little lamb in front of him began changing again, becoming big, then small—so small that it almost seemed to vanish! But in the blink of an eye it changed back into Yomi’s original form. The little one began shrinking again, then growing again, but the moment he touched the wall of the capsule, he shrank back to his original size!
Afraid he might disappear, Anxius thrust his head inside at once and lowered his eyes to look carefully. The Yomi in front of him still looked exactly the same as before, without the slightest change.
Even the horns on top of his head still looked fake in his eyes…
No, that was wrong!
Anxius knew it was impossible for him to be hallucinating, yet the completely unchanged Yomi before him seemed to be telling him that everything he had just seen was false.
The monster gently lifted the little one out. Yomi seemed to feel uncomfortable and frowned slightly.
He quickly put him back into the bedding.
The monster lay rigidly on the ground, and a trace of helpless confusion gradually appeared in those golden eyes…
Yomi knew nothing of what had happened that night. He only remembered that after falling deeply asleep, he had a dream.
In the dream, he was no longer a weak human. His horns were real, and he possessed very strong combat abilities. Not only did he attend the Imperial Academy, he also became an interstellar special forces soldier. He could protect everyone… But very soon, he realized it was only a dream, because it was too unreal. So he kept dreaming. In the dream, many people’s outlines were blurred. He returned to the planet that belonged to him. This time, the world had no apocalypse, and his parents had not left early. He went to school step by step, worked, fell in love, got married, and lived an ordinary but happy life…
In the latter half of the dream, his body seemed to drift a little… but never mind. Having a beautiful dream was what mattered most!
When he woke, the sun had already been up for a long time. There were sounds of people moving around nearby. As soon as Yomi opened his eyes, he saw a pair of golden eyes staring at him from close range.
He froze and nearly called out Anxius’s name, but changed it in time. “Louis?”
“How do you feel?” Anxius’s gaze was terrifying.
“I’m okay,” Yomi said, still a little dazed. “What’s wrong with you? Did I sleep too late?”
Before the other could answer, another face leaned in. “Good morning, Yomi. Al Luo made fruit tea for you!”
Before one shock had even settled, another one hit. Yomi stared at this somewhat familiar face in disbelief and said word by word, “You… are Al Luo?”
Aside from some mechanical structure remaining on his right hand, he was completely the image of a handsome Sna Star man: ash-gray short hair, a handsome face, a tall body, blue eyes, a high nose bridge… It was impossible to connect him with the previous robot at all.
“Al Luo obtained a complete human form last night.” Al Luo gave a standard smile. “According to Al Luo’s calculations, it should originally have taken another ten years. Now it sped up, so it should be related to Rhea Continent.”
Yomi was so shocked he could not close his mouth. He immediately lowered his head to look at his own body. Naturally, there had been no change.
But he was still happy—so happy it felt as though he himself had been the one stimulated!
Maybe it would be his turn soon! His heart had already begun bubbling in advance~
“Congratulations…” Yomi ran out and circled Al Luo, looking him over again and again. “You really are exactly like a Sna Star person now, not a robot anymore! You look so good!”
Smiling, Yomi turned back to look at Anxius. But Anxius was not excited the way he was. Instead, he was staring at him, and his gaze seemed… uneasy, almost panicked.
It was the first time Yomi had ever seen Anxius like this.
He paused, then went over and asked, “Louis, what’s wrong? Are you too tired?”
Anxius shook his head. Rising to his feet, he led Yomi to the riverside to wash up.
The sunlight was strong. When they lowered their heads, both of them looked at the faces reflected on the river’s surface. Ripples shimmered, and their features were reflected clearly.
A huge monster with demon-like horns, and a tiny figure with sheep horns.
Thinking of what had happened last night, the monster’s expression darkened slightly.
On the way there, Yomi recalled Anxius’s disability. He assumed Anxius felt down because Al Luo had obtained a human form, and for a moment he did not know what to do either.
Just as the two of them had both fallen silent, Yomi, looking at the water, suddenly got an idea. He smacked the monster’s claw lightly, then abruptly made a silly face at the reflection in the water!
Anxius froze.
The silly face vanished, and Yomi said seriously, “You look really cool right now. You’re not worse than a human form. Really!”
Those were not empty words. There were cool monsters in special effects dramas too, and in his eyes, Anxius was exactly that kind!
“……”
