Chapter 245: Do You Accept Disaster Liquid?

Chapter 245: Do You Accept Disaster Liquid?

Getting kicked out of Jiangli’s office was certainly a confusing experience for Lu Yibei.

Walking out of the gate of the Night Division, he couldn’t help but look back with a frown.

May Mew Mew be with me? Is she trying to hint that she’ll be accompanying me on my task?

Couldn’t she just... tell me? Why continue pretending to be Mew Mew? No... could it be...?

As he was deep in thought, a spark of inspiration ignited within his mind, and he quickened his pace as he left Peony Street.

...

Sitting in the taxi that drove further and further away from the Night Division, and far away from its detection range, he took out the sheaf of papers that were hastily stuffed inside his pocket.

On the now-crumpled papers, written in a neat font, the case held detailed information about the mysterious, premature deaths occurring in the Happy Community.

Noting down a few keywords from the case, he folded it back neatly and stuffed it into his pocket before fishing for his phone.

Tapping on his phone, he discreetly glanced at the taxi driver through the rearview mirror, switching his phone to silent mode. He then turned on his web browser, entered a familiar web address, and skillfully tapped on the skull emoji that was floating about the endless horde of inappropriate advertisements. Then, he tapped into the commissions section of the urban legend forum.

Holding a deep breath, he tapped on the search bar of the forums, entered the query [Happy Community], and tapped on [Search].

As the page loaded, lo and behold, it was a commission that swept away all remaining doubt within his mind.

If I’m guessing it correctly, Jiangli wants me to accompany her in completing the commissions for the urban legend forums, not the other way around.

However, how did they even gain her trust? To make a Night Division Operator tolerate their existence, and even participate in their activities?

There are already too little Operators working in Huacheng’s Night Division, and now, one of their own Operators are hanging around urban legends. Isn’t that a little too...

Plus! I didn’t even agree to that bug’s request yet! Considering that Jiangli had already accepted the commission, am I left with no other choice?

Just as he was busy worrying about it, his phone vibrated, and a notification popped up from the urban legend chat app.

[Genius Mahjong Girl has sent you a friend request!]

...Accept.

[You are now friends with Genius Mahjong Girl. Go ahead! Start the conversation!]

[Genius Mahjong Girl: Are you online? Are you down to work together tonight? ????]

[VACCARIA: No. I’ve got to take a shit later at night.]

[Genius Mahjong Girl: Even if we split the reward?]

[VACCARIA: Listen... I don’t wanna work with the fake Mew Mew...]

[Genius Mahjong Girl: What are you talking about? I am the real Mew Mew! ????]

[VACCARIA: Nuh uh, I’m not buying it, unless you take a selfie with a fork on your nose.]

[Mahjong Genius Girl: Ah. Can’t really do that right now. I’m using a landline, so no photos!]

[VACCARIA: ...?

]

[VACCARIA: Well, I’m not free tonight. Let’s discuss another time.]

Yibei had already planned to go to the ghost market tonight to dispose of his Disaster Liquid and use it to purchase materials to make up for his shortcomings. He had no time whatsoever to accompany Jiangli on her little mission.

Moreover, even if he wanted to, it’s an urban legend with an unknown Threat Level – at the very least, he wanted to make some preparations before going there.

First, I’m going to make up for my weaknesses by reinforcing my runes and purchase some psychic items for self-defence. Then, I’ll accept one or two commissions to confirm the legitimacy of the urban legend forums. After, I’ll investigate the Happy Community, and claim my reward. That is the easiest, fastest process I can come up with.

[Genius Mahjong Girl: When will you be free?]

Yibei frowned as he read the message, looking out the window of the taxi. Then, he swiftly typed out a reply.

[VACCARIA: At least three days later.]

[Genius Mahjong Girl: Alright! I’ll be waiting on you! ????]

...why does she seem more cheerful online than in real life? He wondered, tilting his head. And why does she keep sending this ???? emoji? Is she trying to send me a hidden message or something? I’m getting weirded out!

However, as he thought about the strangely cheerful soul that was locked behind that cold, jade-like appearance of his superior, he couldn’t help but find it cute.

...

In an office labelled with a roman ‘V’, within the endless confines of the Night Division.

Jiangli stared at the chat room opened on her phone, and when she finally received her subordinate’s reply, she couldn’t help but let a faint smile escape from the corners of her mouth.

Holding up her phone, she typed out a simple [I’ll be seeing you then!], added another finger-heart emoji (which was the only emoji available to her in the Recently Used section), and tapped on [Send].

It’s not that difficult to pretend to be a cute girl on the Internet, she thought to herself. All I have to do is send cute emojis!

...

Later at night, gloomy clouds converged into one another, and underneath the large shadows they cast, it seemed to put the entirety of Huacheng to sleep – everything was strangely silent, and in the darkness, urban legends awaiting their prey were ready to move.

The dilapidated streets in the late autumn held a thin fog over them, and yet, business people would appear from every corner of the city, walking through these streets like hazy, wandering ghosts.

It was rare for a lively place to appear after nightfall, and this is exactly where they would gather.

The end of the day was the start of business for the ghost market.

An hour ago, he received information from the urban legend group chat that a member discovered that a certain stall was selling a Divine Artifact that he had been searching for in Huacheng’s ghost market. Hence, he rushed over after reading the message.

With such a sacred opportunity landing itself in his hands, he was both nervous and excited to the point where he wanted to look up to the sky and guffaw.

Staring at the entrance, he patted his face lightly and walked towards the ghost market.

I mustn’t let the seller see that I am too eager to obtain the artifact. Otherwise, they would drive the prices up!

He had suffered this kind of pain countless of times when he first descended the mountain.

...

As the night grew darker, the ghost market grew livelier. All kinds of strange psychic energy fluctuations would flow through the market, from stall-to-stall, to street-to-street.

It was only then when Fu Er, the obese store owner, would ask his employees to open up shop.

If somebody hadn’t reserved an item today, he wouldn’t have wanted to open up shop since his right eyelid has been twitching non-stop since this afternoon, which signified misfortune.

As a veteran who had been in this line of business for many years, Fu Er was well aware of what brings in fortune, and what would bring in misfortune.

If somebody powerful disguises as somebody ordinary, his store will be ripped to smithereens and he would die. Hence, he would keep his guard up at all times.

He studied each person that came and went in his store, and his eyes blurred over time due to boredom. His thoughts would drift back to the time where he was still an errand boy in the ghost market.

At the time, he remembered meeting a man who had nothing but bad intentions. What was his name again? Lu Ming? He’s nothing but a bitch!

I don’t really remember what he looks like, but he looks just like the boy in front of me... wait a minute!



His eyes widened instantly as he stared at the plain boy walking towards him. His obese body trembled slightly, and beads of cold sweat dripped down his forehead. Taking in his appearance to confirm his identity, he took a deep breath.

D-damn it, you scared me! It’s just the son! I thought it was the father!

Is he the reason why my eyelids have been twitching all day today? Reanimating the body of a human is scary enough...

...but reviving the body of a psychic, or an urban legend? That’s way more terrifying! The most likely outcome of a psychic or urban legend resurrecting is corruption!

In truth, Fu Er was afraid that Lu Ming would be reanimated – if he did, what would he do?

Seeing Lu Yibei walking up to him, Fu Er retracted his thoughts and wiped away his sweat and smiled, “You came alone today? What brings you here?”

“Well, Shui isn’t free today, so he asked me to come by myself. I’ll contact him once I’m done here,” Yibei explained, making sure to emphasize his godfather’s name.

Fu Er seems scared of Shui, Yibei thought to himself. If I mention his name, Fu Er might not be brave enough to trick me. After all, it is my second time here, and I’m unsure of the customs...

“I see,” Fu Er smiled. “Did you come here to buy or sell something?”

“I’m here to sell things.”

“Oh? And what is it that you would like to sell?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as he sat straight up with considerable difficulty.

“...do you accept Disaster Liquid here?”

“Disaster Liquid? Depends. If you have too little, we won’t accept it.”

To Fu Er, Lu Yibei is merely a boy who had just obtained his runes to become a rookie psychic. If he accidentally came into contact with Disaster, he wouldn’t have that much to begin with.

Even though Yibei inherited both Lu Ming’s and Shui’s striking appearances, favors will remain as favors, and business will remain as business.

If this new precedent of accepting too little gets spread in the ghost market, wouldn’t he simply go out of business?

Just as Fu Er was deep in thought, Yibei rummaged through his backpack and plopped five bottles of Disaster Liquid on the counter, and pushed it towards him, “Is this enough?”

Fu Er was speechless.

“Is this too little?” he frowned. “It’s okay, I understand – I have a little more with me in my bag.”

As he spoke, Yibei plopped five more bottles of Disaster onto the counter.

Looking at the ten bottles on the counter, the corners of Fu Er’s mouth twitched slightly, and he remained speechless.

“Ah... still too little? I guess I have no choice but to...” Yibei frowned, reaching into his backpack again.

Seeing him reach into his bag again, Fu Er’s tiny eyes widened in severe shock, as if he had just gotten plastic surgery to make his eyes become bigger.

I-if he takes out five more bottles... I’ll show him! I’ll show him what a real heart attack looks like! I dare you! I fucking double-dare you! Fu Er trembled.



His face looks weird, Yibei thought, nodding in enlightenment as he unhanded the various bottles inside his bag. I get it! He’s testing me! I’ll just...

Yibei only took out one additional bottle from his bag, placing it gently on the counter.

“If this isn’t enough, then I’m stumped,” Yibei sighed helplessly. “I got nothing left.”

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

EDIT: Just realized this is an older version of the chapter... literally just fell to my knees in the middle of the grocer. It should be all fixed now. My apologies for not realizing it was an older version.

(CHANGELOG: From the section where Yibei visits Fu Er’s store, he no longer shows up as Witchbei, but as Yibei. Dialogue is altered to reflect this change.)

So... guess who binge-read the entire manhwa of I Became A Witch... me! It’s pretty nice seeing how the characters are portrayed! It gives me a greater idea of how they look – to be honest, Jiangli looked exactly how I imagined her, so the author did a great job at describing her! On the other hand, the plot is drastically shortened in the manhwa, seeing that they’re finishing up the Slaughterhouse arc now – pretty nice for those who want summarized versions of the story, but updates to the manhwa are pretty slow ^^”, understandable considering the art is really good.

If you’d like to support the translation, you can do so at /slicedbreadsbakery. Any amount helps ^_^!