Chapter 912: Ch 911: Problem Children

Outer Gate 1028— At the Bar, Fourth floor—

Shiroyasha, her cheeks flushed rosy red, let out a hiccup, mumbled a few words nobody could make out, and rolled over on the couch with a lazy shuffle.

Ryo was sitting on a wooden chair he'd dragged over to the balcony. Hearing the movement, glanced back at her and clicked his tongue. "She's sleeping pretty soundly for someone who started all this."

"Ha, that's just how she is. Every time she drinks, she lets the booze go straight to her head and gets completely hammered. It's her way of blowing off steam." The petite blonde beside Ryo chuckled, grabbed a bottle with zero grace, took a swig, and grinned. "Be honest, though. She's kind of pretty when she's not talking, right?"

Ryo's face went blank, a vein practically throbbing on his forehead. "If you're trying to talk me into getting handsy, save your breath. Give it up."

As he spoke, he casually nudged an empty bottle at his feet toward Shiroyasha.

Mid-air, the bottle spun, and inch by inch, from the neck down to the base, it began to vanish until nothing was left.

Clearly, a certain Star Spirit wasn't nearly as defenseless as she looked.

"Coward," Sun Wukong muttered. "And you call yourself the strongest human?"

"Well, humans aren't doing so great these days, so I was the only one left for the title."

Ryo picked up a fresh bottle from the floor, thumbed the cork loose, and took a sip, his expression flat.

Watching him, Wukong let her smile fade. She leaned her right side against the balcony railing, took another pull from the bottle in her left hand, and sighed wistfully.

"If I'd just paid a little more attention..."

She didn't finish.

Arcadia, the community her "student" Canaria had poured everything into building, had been wiped out six months ago. Even for Wukong, that had hit hard.

If she'd only noticed something was off sooner...

Hearing the unspoken apology, Ryo turned his head and looked at her. "What good does apologizing to me do?"

"None at all," Wukong said, shaking her head with a helpless shrug. "Canaria's not around anymore, after all."

For a god or a buddha, rewriting the past wasn't impossible in Little Garden. But it meant challenging every divine and winning over half the Sun Authority. With conditions like that, even the most reckless person would back off.

And rather than drive herself mad trying, it was easier to lie to herself from the start and say "it can't be done."

"Funny. Ever since I took refuge in Buddhism, my heart's gone soft," Wukong said, smacking her lips with a half-smile, half-self-mockery.

Back in her days as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, she'd have grabbed her staff already. She'd have fought her way from Sanzen to the Ouroboros, giving it everything she had to overturn this damn "past."

But...

The more you see and the more you know, the less of that old courage you've got left.

Right then, Ryo spoke up, his tone dry. "If you're trying to talk me out of something, forget it."

Wukong glanced over at him, and a teasing grin spread across her face. "So you are planning something."

She raised her bottle at him. "Come on, spill it."

Ryo's expression froze for a second. Then, in a strange voice, he said, "You don't actually want to get mixed up in this, do you?"

"What do you mean, 'mixed up in'?" Wukong rolled her eyes, then grinned. "I'm just a poor monkey who got used by someone she knows and dragged into something big. Totally normal, right?"

Ryo stared at her, eyes narrowed, and kept staring for a good while until she started to squirm.

"I don't have any low-risk jobs for you."

He'd figured it out. This monkey was bored out of her mind up in the upper layers, sick of the same old routine, and still sore about her Canaria's life work being wiped out. She wanted trouble.

That said, he didn't want her involved.

He didn't want to owe anyone a favor for no reason, least of all one left behind by Canaria.

Besides, Shiroyasha was already enough to handle, and she'd just played him a moment ago. Add someone like Sun Wukong to the mix, and he suspected things would veer way off whatever course he'd planned.

"Aw, come on, we're practically family!" Wukong threw an arm around his neck, drinking as she talked. "Mountains of knives, seas of fire, all it takes is one word!"

Ryo didn't answer. He just gave the monkey a look of deep disgust.

'She looks perfectly respectable, so why is she impossible to take seriously?' he grumbled to himself. Then he said, "Ask Shiroyasha instead. She's the main force here."

Truth be told, he and Wukong weren't that close, so he'd rather pass the ball to Shiroyasha.

Besides, only a problem child knows what a problem child is thinking. Fight fire with fire, as they say.

"Tch, no fun."

Wukong pouted. She and Shiroyasha went way back, and she knew exactly how that greedy woman would handle it: work her like a pack mule. Otherwise, why would she have come to Ryo in the first place?

For one thing, she knew this kid would definitely end up on a dangerous front line, and she wanted to lend a hand. For another, she'd been itching to go after those snakes for a long time.

Still, if Ryo really wasn't on board, she had no way to force the issue. Just from the strength of his body, it was clear he wasn't someone you could push around.

'Canaria picked one scary successor...' Wukong thought, taking another sip. Then she plucked out one of her own long hairs and, without a word of warning, tied it around Ryo's wrist.

"Fine, do whatever you want. This monkey will be wandering the lower layers for a while. If you need me, snap this hair. With my speed, I can still make it in time to help."

Ryo lifted his bottle and thanked her, "...Thanks."

Wukong clinked her bottle against his, laughing. "You're way too polite, kid. Just like Canaria. Not cute at all."

"Anyway, I'll get out of your hair."

With that, she downed what was left in one go. Her body dissolved into rings of light that burst apart and scattered across the floor, and Wukong vanished from in front of Ryo.

He watched her go, quietly took a sip, and hiccuped. "Yeah, I still can't get used to the taste of this stuff."

He tossed the bottle aside. As it tumbled through the air, a bird's claw snatched it by the neck.

"Wasting good liquor is a crime, caw~"

Loki tipped the bottle up and opened its beak, and the liquor spiraled down its throat.

"Hic~ Monkey wine, all right! One of the best! Shame about the packaging, though."

"That monkey's gotten a lot more considerate, at least. She knew to give people their privacy. But when it comes to booze, she's got no taste. A drink with flavor and no presentation won't go far."

Ryo shot it a sideways look. "I left you a mouthful. Can't that shut you up?"

"Heh~ My appetite's way bigger than you think." Loki smacked its beak, tossed the bottle aside, and snickered. "Anyway, they asked me to pass along a message: 'Interested in a Gift Game?'"

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