Monster - Chapter 33
Chapter 33: A Community of Shared Destiny
Watching Little Fool wash herself clean with the newly bought towel (of questionable cleanliness), Lin Sandie secretly resolved that she would absolutely never have children in this lifetime.
“Little Rabbit~” Little Fool, pulling at the damp towel around her neck, eagerly squatted down to greet Lin Sandie, who was leaning against a rock on the bank of the pool. She hoped this little rabbit would bring her more interesting experiences.
For instance, when Little Rabbit had gotten exasperated and demanded she scrub her body, she had found that particularly amusing.
“Little Rabbit!” Seeing that Little Rabbit didn’t answer her, Little Fool dropped the towel, scooped Lin Sandie up, and shook her vigorously a few times.
“Put on your underwear,” Lin Sandie warned in a cold voice, seeing that the girl had taken off her animal hide while washing her face and was now completely naked.
“How do I wear it?”
“Pull it up, put your feet through the holes… The other way, not like that.” Patiently teaching Little Fool how to put on underwear, Lin Sandie couldn’t help but sigh internally. She felt her real-world troubles become incredibly distant at this moment, which left her a bit weary, but she still mustered the energy to guide Little Fool in putting her original animal hide back on after the underwear.
Although they didn’t have many points, it was enough to buy Little Fool a few new sets of clothes from the online store. However, any clothes from the online store, no matter how cheap, would likely attract unwanted attention here. Though Lin Sandie wanted to improve Little Fool’s quality of life, she had to give up on the idea for now.
After getting Little Fool cleaned up, Lin Sandie started teaching her how to unwrap the cakes. Before long, the gloom that had always weighed on her heart was replaced by a much stronger emotion.
“Stop eating! You’ve already had three!”
“You’ll get a stomachache!”
“Little Fool!!!”
No matter how furiously Lin Sandie yelled, Little Fool didn’t stop. She desperately stuffed the cake, which was as sweet as a dream to her, into her mouth. Even when she choked and her face turned red, she refused to stop. It wasn’t until Lin Sandie had to use mental intimidation that she finally slowed down slightly. But only slightly. Terrified by Lin Sandie’s mental intimidation, she trembled all over, eating the sweet cake while tears streamed down her face.
Lin Sandie didn’t know what to do with her. She didn’t blame Little Fool; she blamed Pie for giving her a shoddy, counterfeit mental intimidation ability.
She watched helplessly as Little Fool ate six sponge cakes, only stopping when she absolutely couldn’t eat anymore. Lin Sandie was so angry she didn’t want to deal with her.
Little Fool didn’t care about Lin Sandie’s attitude toward her, because, for her, survival was more important.
She carefully buried the remaining sponge cakes in a hole in the corner of the wall, covering it with stones, branches, and leaves. Lin Sandie guessed this behavior was to prevent animals from coming to steal her food.
Seeing her go to such lengths, Lin Sandie’s heart ached for her instead. She didn’t know what Little Fool had been through before, but she must have had a very difficult life.
“Little Fool, hold me,” Lin Sandie said.
Little Fool let out a burp and picked up Lin Sandie with a look of satisfaction, her body still trembling slightly. The mental intimidation Lin Sandie had released still lingered in her system.
After being picked up, Lin Sandie released a soothing sensation and asked in a gentle voice, “Little Fool, do you know what you were just eating?”
“Sponge cake!” At that moment, Little Fool displayed an astonishing memory, as Lin Sandie had only mentioned the term “sponge cake” once.
“Was it good?”
“Good!”
“From now on, there will be many, many more things even more delicious than sponge cake, and I’ll buy them all for you.”
Little Fool didn’t know the specific meaning of Lin Sandie’s words, but she could feel a kind of affection. She happily hugged Lin Sandie and jumped up, starting to hum and sing, as if performing some kind of primitive dance of joy.
Lin Sandie quietly watched Little Fool’s strange, unstructured dance. Everything around them had no connection to modern civilization. When she woke up in the real world, she would have to look up information about the Aztecs first thing.
When Little Fool was forced to stop because of a stomachache, Lin Sandie took the opportunity to study her abilities as a Sentinel.
Scan: Scans for simple data on characters encountered in the Tower World. If permission is restricted, prerequisite conditions must be met to unlock. Scanned character data is saved automatically.
Line [Beginner]: Releases an invisible line that can track the position of a specific living being up to 5 kilometers away.
Pierce [Beginner]: Can release invisible, sharp projectiles. Can create a 1-meter radius space where all piercing damage is enhanced by 50%. Affects a maximum of two people per use. Can only be used once every two hours.
Active Skill [Beginner]: Spirit Separation. Can be used for reconnaissance, attack, and tracking. The spirit form can also be attacked. The strength of this state is dependent on mental power. Remaining separated from the body for too long will cause irreversible damage.
Passive Skill: Sensory acuity, physical ability, recovery rate, sprinting power, and agility are all superior to that of an ordinary person.
“These all seem to be offensive skills that complement mine,” Lin Sandie analyzed internally. “I wonder if Line and Island can be combined. If so, that would be a highly mobile tracking skill, allowing me to perceive the enemy’s surroundings… The description of the passive skill explains why Little Fool hasn’t had any problems despite eating random things, but I can’t spoil her too much. I still need to control her when necessary. Hmm, the skill description doesn’t explain why my mental intimidation doesn’t have the desired effect on her. Is she naturally resistant?”
“That’s also a possibility. Otherwise, how would she dare to live alone in such a desolate place? Maybe she doesn’t even have emotions like fear or dread…” While analyzing, Lin Sandie looked at Little Fool, who was curled up in a ball clutching her stomach, and sighed softly. For convenience, she had just had Little Fool transfer 50 points to her. She now had 50 points, and Little Fool had 246.
Lin Sandie began searching the online store for medicine to treat indigestion. To prevent Little Fool from being tempted by something sweet again, she avoided all kinds of children’s oral solutions and ordered a bottle of stinky, bitter “Intestinal Pills.”
After coaxing and tricking Little Fool into taking two of the Intestinal Pills for her stomachache, Lin Sandie felt like her whole rabbit self was about to collapse. She had never taken care of a child before, and now she was suddenly saddled with a “savage child” who had likely never been exposed to modern civilization. It was seriously overwhelming, not to mention the child also seemed to have significant psychological issues.
Lin Sandie’s mind was now filled with all sorts of information she needed to take out with her:
Search for educational knowledge related to six-year-old children;
Search for information on the Aztecs;
Search for knowledge on children’s mental health
…
She could use points to buy all sorts of things in the store, but points were the most precious resource at the moment. If possible, she didn’t want to waste a single one.
“You can’t eat so much from now on, understand? You don’t have to worry about not having food in the future. As long as I’m here, you’ll always have delicious things to eat, okay?” Lin Sandie earnestly advised the Little Fool lying on the ground. At that moment, she was being held against the girl’s chest, her long, drooping rabbit ears grasped by Little Fool. The girl giggled as she pulled one of Lin Sandie’s long ears over her eyes, covering them, then pulling it away, then covering them again, as if playing peek-a-boo with her.
There’s no way I can do the mission like this… Pulled askew, Lin Sandie’s head rested crookedly against Little Fool’s chin. Her slanted gaze fell upon the statue of the goddess lying on the ground.
“Pie, can I not accept the mission yet? I need some time to teach this fool some necessary life skills.”
“Mission acknowledged. Although the mission has no deadline, you must take action within three days, or face obliteration.”
“…Can’t you be reasonable? You try taking her on a mission! Aren’t you Little Fool’s mother?” For once, the usually composed Lin Sandie became exasperated.
“Heh~~”
“Little Rabbit, are you unhappy?” Little Fool, who had been absorbed in her own play, suddenly asked, her childish voice tinged with confusion.
“Yes. Because you didn’t listen to me and ate too many cakes, which gave you a stomachache. I’m very unhappy,” Lin Sandie replied.
“You’re lying to me?” Little Fool held Lin Sandie’s head, bringing her close to her own eyes, only a breath away. Lin Sandie could clearly see the reflection of her rabbit doll form in Little Fool’s rain-colored eyes.
“Er…” For a moment, Lin Sandie didn’t know what she meant by ‘lying.’ But it was true that she hadn’t had a single happy day since being abused by Yan Ting and seeing the monsters.
“Don’t be sad. We’re partners.” Little Fool pressed Lin Sandie’s head against her neck and began to softly hum the same tune she had hummed when they first met, like some kind of soothing lullaby.
Right, her passive ability is sensory acuity. She probably sensed my emotions because of that… Lin Sandie leaned silently against Little Fool, feeling the emptiness in her heart warm up for the first time in a long while. As she considered the reason for Little Fool’s behavior, her previous irritation began to dissipate. Lin Sandie resolved to treat Little Fool with two hundred percent patience.
It’s not her fault she’s like this. She’s just a pitiful orphan, with no one to raise her. All her actions are because she has to do them to survive. I can’t judge her by the standards of a modern person. Besides, if I don’t take care of her, I won’t be able to survive either. I’ll die. We share a common destiny…
Just as Lin Sandie was engraving the words “shared destiny” into her very soul, Little Fool had already picked her up and stood. She grabbed Lin Sandie and sat her on top of her head. The doll’s long ears drooped down, covering Little Fool’s eyes, which made her giggle with delight.
“This is a head, not a shoulder…” Lin Sandie felt that she and Little Fool still had a long way to go in terms of cooperation.
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