Absolute Choice
Absolute Choice - Chapter 7: Girl, Your King is here

Chapter 7: Girl, Your King is here

His face was clearly still covered in tears, yet he had deliberately said the words “Girl, hurry up and sign a contract with This King!” in a dignified voice that was unable to hide his sniffling. That solemn yet sacred expression made Riko involuntarily stop in her footsteps. She even began to ponder over the meaning of this line.

At this moment, Shi Xiaobai said again, “Sign a blood contract with This King and become a servant of The King, and you will obtain a millionth of This King’s power.”

Seeing Shi Xiaobai say such absurd words with such a serious face made Riko both annoyed and amused when she realized what had happened. You even address yourself as This King? You are clearly a cowardly crybaby. With this thought in mind, she gave him a derisive look.

Shi Xiaobai raised his hand to wipe his tears and said seriously, “This King broke through the confines of the void and arrived in this world, and had unfortunately exhausted all of This King’s cultivation. Now, although This King is of a mortal body, one day This King will reign supreme. Girl, don’t let this godsent opportunity slip by!”

Riko rolled her eyes as her impression of Shi Xiaobai added the word idiot above coward and crybaby. With Riko’s temper, if she were to encounter such an idiot, she would usually have cursed with a “screw off”, but it had to be that such an idiot was a one-in-a-million Psyker. He was destined to be a genius crazily vied for by various organizations. Furthermore, it was key to winning her bet.

F*ck, this world is so unfair, isn’t it?

Riko cursed in her heart and pretended not to hear what Shi Xiaobai had said. She began introducing herself. “Cough, my name is Riko Minamiya. This person beside me is Teacher One-Pun. We come from [Gaia]. We…”

“Wait!” Shi Xiaobai said in excitement. “The [Gaia] that you speak of, is it the Goddess of this Earth sitting beneath This King, Gaia?”

“What? You don’t even know what [Gaia] is?” Riko’s reaction to Shi Xiaobai was even more intense. She said in disbelief, “I’m surprised to know that there is someone on this planet that doesn’t know of our [Gaia]! Are you really not a person of this world?”

Shi Xiaobai immediately said with a sneer, “Heh heh, Girl, you’ve finally touched the Door of Truth.”

Seeing that their conversation was straying off-topic, One-Pun coughed and said, “[Gaia] is a global Hero organization.”

“Hero organization!” When Shi Xiaobai heard the word “Hero”, his eyes lit up, but he quickly lowered his head in rumination. He muttered to himself, “Since it’s a Hero organization, then wouldn’t [Gaia] be a rival of This King? No, it might even be an archenemy!”

When Riko heard this, she was instantly greatly disappointed. So this idiot had been taken in by other organizations. Indeed, even if he was an idiot, he was still a Psyker after all. There would still be plenty of people who would fight over him.

“This King’s Xiaobai’s Hero Squad may currently only have two members, but it will eventually stand at the peak of this world. If [Gaia] dares to hinder This King, then don’t blame This King for turning against you!” Shi Xiaobai looked up in high-spirits.

Riko took two seconds to react. She deeply felt like she had been toyed with, but Shi Xiaobai’s serious look made her unsure. It was like someone throwing a rock at you, saying that it was a bomb. It looked unbelievably stupid, but the expression on the person’s face was so serious, as if the rock was truly a bomb.

Riko lost the tiny bit of patience she had in her as her temper flared. She reached out her arm to grab Shi Xiaobai’s collar. She angrily said, “I am inviting you to join [Gaia], are you joining or not?”

Shi Xiaobai was stunned for a moment before silently raising his head to meet Riko’s bright eyes. They stared at each other for a long time.

Riko suddenly thought of her offering first kiss in jest. Of course, she would not uphold such a casual remark. She was a person who would even disavow anything that had to do with a bet if she lost, what more a joke the person involved did not know? But at this moment, while she looked into Shi Xiaobai’s eyes that were as bright as the stars, she felt a strange feeling of discomfort in her heart.

Suddenly, Shi Xiaobai asked softly, “Does joining [Gaia] mean becoming a Hero?”

Caught by surprise, Riko loosened her hand and said carefully, “In theory, yes. Although as a rookie, you will have to go through a period of training and tests to become an official member of [Gaia], but as a Psyker, it shouldn’t be a big problem for you. The passing rate of becoming an official member of [Gaia] in the ‘Hero’s Trial’ has been over 90% over the years. Cough, as long as you put in some effort, the probability of becoming a ‘Hero’ is very high.”

Riko added on in her heart, “But Heroes are separated into classes. An idiot like you would at best be one of the bottom few amongst F-Class Heroes.”

Shi Xiaobai fell silent after hearing this because he couldn’t understand what she had just said. However, that was not the point. Shi Xiaobai had already made up his mind, as he asked, “After joining [Gaia], can This King…Can I also be capable of defeating a calamity fiend like the one before?”

Riko could clearly see the thirst in Shi Xiaobai’s eyes that made one’s heart ache.

“This fool is pretty cute when he isn’t being an idiot,” Riko thought in her heart. With an expression of having been defeated by him, she sneered, “Tch, for that F-Class calamity fiend that can’t be any more trashy than utter trash, anyone in [Gaia] will be able to take care of it easily.”

Although she had embellished her words with some exaggeration, Sahadun was indeed very weak for Riko. In front of One-Pun, it could only flee in fright.

“So the thing I once thought of as the physical form of despair is so weak… …It’s so weak that I can’t help but despair…”

This thought appeared in Shi Xiaobai’s head. As he lowered his head in silence, he whispered a moment later. “I will join [Gaia]. I want to become a Hero.”

His voice was soft, so very soft, and seemed to sound somewhat nasal.

The look in Riko’s eyes gradually softened. Although he was an idiot, he was still a child. As an elder sister, she decided to be gentler to him in the future.

“Wahahaha!”

Shi Xiaobai suddenly looked up and roared with laughter. “There will come a day when This King will let this world’s [Gaia] become a subject of This King! Laugh and be excited, girl. Your King is here!”

Riko could not hold back any longer, as she punched Shi Xiaobai in the head relentlessly.

“Ouch!” Shi Xiaobai immediately cried out in pain and took a few steps back. He bellowed, “To think that you are attempting to smash This King’s Invisible Crown to bits. Girl, don’t tell me you are an enemy sent by the Organization of Darkness?”

“Enemy your ass. Stand still for me!”

……

As dusk faded away, darkness fell. Shi Xiaobai rubbed his forehead in pain, while Riko looked incensed not far away from him.

“Big Brother, I’m going home.” Little Fatso said with his soccer ball in hand.

“We have to leave too.” Teacher One-Pun reminded.

Shi Xiaobai nodded and walked towards Little Fatso. Seeing the rotund face that had been wiped dry of tears, but still had snot hanging by his nose, Shi Xiaobai said solemnly, “Name. Tell This King your name, young Demon King!”

Little Fatso used the back of his hand to wipe his snot and whispered, “Zhu Zhu…”

Shi Xiaobai gave Little Fatso a deep glance and then said solemnly, “Piggy 1, remember, you are the second member of Xiaobai’s Hero Squad, always!”

“Yea!”

Little Fatso nodded his head vigorously.

Author’s Note: I quite like Shi Xiaobai and Riko’s first exchange.

1. Zhu Zhu (朱竹)’s name is a homonym to pig (猪, zhu)