Monster - Chapter 35
Chapter 35: The Trade
After three days of trekking through the jungle with Little Fool, Lin Sandie still showed no signs of returning to reality. Their bond, however, had grown considerably. While teaching Little Fool to read and write, they trained their respective skills together, fostering mutual understanding and coordination. Lin Sandie's cooking skills also improved visibly, making Little Fool increasingly dependent on her.
Fearing she might suddenly return to reality with no control over the timing, and that disappearing for too long would cause Little Fool to panic, Lin Sandie solemnly told her not to worry if she suddenly stopped speaking. As long as Little Fool kept the rabbit doll with her, she would eventually return.
"Little Rabbit, the chicken is ready." Little Fool walked over, carrying a turkey half her height. She had hunted it that morning using her skills. The bird had already been bled and plucked, a task she had completed all on her own.
"Okay." Perched on Little Fool's shoulder, Lin Sandie, still just a rabbit doll, replied woodenly. She felt a certain resistance to processing the jungle-hunted turkey.
It was the first time she had seen this kind of turkey. Its body was covered in colorful feathers, but its neck and head were a bare, sky-blue. It had a pair of protruding red eyes surrounded by many small, yellow wattles. She harbored deep doubts about whether the creature was edible, but the moment Little Fool had spotted it, she had chased it down like a hound and successfully killed the bird, which was half her size.
As Lin Sandie clumsily handled the large turkey in her Spirit Separation state, Little Fool keenly sensed her difficulty. Using the small knife Lin Sandie had bought for her, she deftly bled the turkey. Then, using the hot water Lin Sandie had boiled, she helped pluck it. Though her work wasn't perfect, it was far better than that of Lin Sandie, a modern woman who was squeamish about even killing a chicken.
Backed into a corner, Lin Sandie could kill monsters, but when there was no pressure, she truly couldn't bring herself to kill a chicken.
Once the bird was prepared to this stage, Little Fool handed it over to Lin Sandie, looking forward to her cooking.
"How do you want to eat it?" Lin Sandie suppressed her internal resistance and began carving the meat off the bone, cutting it into small pieces.
Lin Sandie's Spirit Separation was still in its initial stages, so she needed to rest for a while after each use. During these periods, her thoughts would become sluggish. Fortunately, with diligent practice, the duration of this defenseless state was gradually shortening.
"The fragrant, crispy, spicy kind." Little Fool sat to one side, her hands on her knees, watching intently as the black fog prepared the chicken.
"You mean fried chicken…" It seemed that no matter the world, human children had a love for such unhealthy food etched into their very DNA.
"Mhm, fried chicken!"
"Turkey meat can be pretty tough. Let's marinate it for now, and I'll fry it for you tonight." Lin Sandie had rather high standards for fried chicken, so she decided to let it marinate for a while.
Hearing the words "fry it for you tonight," Little Fool's face immediately fell.
"Marinating it will make it more delicious," Lin Sandie kindly explained. She placed the small pieces of chicken into a plastic bag, added ginger, scallions, garlic, and chili peppers, then poured in soy sauce, cooking wine, and other seasonings. After tying the bag shut, she tossed it into her space bag, leaving the remaining turkey carcass to the side.
!
Just as Lin Sandie was about to get other ingredients to prepare lunch for Little Fool, an arrow suddenly flew toward them from a short distance away. The "Island" she kept active only had a ten-meter diameter, but it was enough for her to react the moment the arrow entered its range. Upon detecting the projectile, a hand shot out from the black fog, grabbing Little Fool by the waist and pulling her out of its path.
A series of strange clicks and cries, made with teeth and tongue, echoed from all around them like some kind of rallying call.
Immediately after, Lin Sandie heard a clamor. Using her "Island" in coordination with Little Fool, who had already subconsciously released a "Line" toward the attackers, Lin Sandie saw seven or eight Aztec people running toward them. Their faces were smeared with white or blue paint, and they wore headdresses of upright feathers. The woman in the lead wore a necklace made of many shells and a geometric bone piercing between her nostrils. She looked coarse, primitive, and dangerous. Her eyes were fixed on Little Fool, and she had already nocked another arrow.
Fully aware of the woman's actions, Little Fool took the exquisite child's compound bow Lin Sandie had bought for her from her back. She moved into the archer's blind spot, nocked an arrow, and prepared to counterattack.
"…Can you shoot the ear of the person in the lead?" Lin Sandie asked hesitantly. Although Little Fool had been practicing archery, and her excellent Sentinel abilities ensured she never missed, Lin Sandie wasn't sure of her true skill. Still, as the adult in the situation, she felt they should try to negotiate first.
"I can, Little Rabbit," Little Fool replied softly. She hadn't known many words initially, but Lin Sandie had been teaching her for days. As her vocabulary grew, her accent had even started to sound a little like Lin Sandie's.
"Good. After you shoot her ear, shout loudly, 'I am not your enemy.'"
"I am not your enemy!" Little Fool shouted as the arrow flew from her bow. Using her "Island," Lin Sandie saw that a corner of the lead woman's left ear had been shot off, and blood was streaming from the wound. The woman was still holding her own bow at the ready.
The footsteps were close now; Lin Sandie knew she and Little Fool were surrounded. The woman with the painted face clutched her bleeding ear, staring at Little Fool in disbelief. "Then why are you wearing the clothes of the white-skinned people?"
"Tell her: These are not the clothes of the white-skinned people. They were bestowed upon me by a god, and my power is also a gift from that god."
"These are not the clothes of the white-skinned people. They were bestowed upon me by a god, and my power is also a gift from that god." Little Fool repeated Lin Sandie's words without hesitation, like a parrot, her face showing no trace of fear.
This sudden turn of events was something Lin Sandie had anticipated, so she had already devised a strategy.
The Aztec people were composed of different groups who worshipped a multitude of gods. The Tlaxcalans, for instance, worshipped Camaxtli, the god of the hunt and the stars, while the Mexica worshipped Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. Regardless of which specific deities they revered, it was clear that religion was an extremely important part of their lives.
Every family had an altar for simple daily prayers. But during festivals, the people would pray with the utmost piety, offering their finest material goods—usually items that showcased the best of local craftsmanship. In Tenochtitlan, the city-state the Mexica built in the middle of a lake, numerous temples and magnificent, towering pyramids were constructed. Every year, a great number of living people were sacrificed to the gods. This devout faith, however, would also lead to their catastrophic ruin.
According to legend, the feathered serpent god had left a prophecy: "He will return from the distant eastern waters." This led some Aztecs to mistake the Spanish expedition arriving from the sea for their god. They offered these invaders food and women, treating them with great hospitality.
But these sea explorers from Europe were nothing more than robbers. In their eyes, the Aztecs were just savages living in the jungle, like monkeys. They coveted the Aztecs' gold and jewels, especially those of the wealthiest and most powerful city, Tenochtitlan. Having heard that even the roofs of the houses in the Mexica-built city were inlaid with gold, the Spaniards—after being welcomed into Tenochtitlan with a friendly attitude—began to intimidate the locals with cannon fire. This terrified the Aztecs, who had never had much contact with the outside world.
They became increasingly convinced that these Spaniards were gods who brought "lightning and thunder."
The Spaniards then began to openly accept all sorts of offerings. In the eyes of the Aztecs, these "gods" were incomprehensible, but they attributed this to their own ignorance. They held the most devout faith in these "gods" and began preparing a grand sacrificial ceremony to please them and demonstrate their loyalty.
However, due to the language barrier, the Spaniards saw the sudden, strange behavior of these savages with peculiar face paint as a prelude to war. Perhaps out of a guilty conscience, they launched a preemptive attack, massacring the royal palace and killing the king…
In short, using the concept of a "god" to explain Little Fool's unusual abilities had the highest chance of success.
The woman listened to the child's words, her expression still wary. She saw that Little Fool was only six or seven years old and indeed looked Aztec, yet she was so clean and delicate she seemed to be from another world.
"Can your god save our tribe?"
"Tell her: That depends on what price your tribe is willing to pay," Lin Sandie instructed, though she thought to herself, If it's smallpox, there's really nothing I can do.
The smallpox virus had been eradicated in her reality fifty years ago, rendering the cowpox vaccine practically worthless. As a result, no pharmaceutical company produced it anymore. The online mall had only appeared in recent years, and naturally, it didn't stock the vaccine either. Lin Sandie had asked a pharmaceutical company in the mall if they could produce it. The answer was that it wasn't difficult, but since there was no demand, setting up a dedicated production line would be extremely expensive. The light screen automatically calculated the cost for her: it would take at least 15,000 points and a minimum of three months to establish a production line.
Lin Sandie and Little Fool had less than 300 points combined, and they certainly didn't have that much time to wait for a vaccine.
After Little Fool repeated Lin Sandie's words, she did something unexpected. She raised her bow, aimed it at the woman, and said, "Don't surround me."
The slightly relaxed atmosphere immediately grew tense again.
The woman watched Little Fool in silence for a long moment before waving her hand, signaling the others to lower their weapons. Only then did Lin Sandie notice that aside from one adolescent boy, the rest of the group were all women.
"Our tribe can trade some gold and feathers with your god for food," the woman said. When she had fired the first arrow, she had seen from a distance how the child dodged in a completely unnatural way, as if someone had lifted her out of its path. This made her keenly aware that there was something about this child that was not normal. Though she didn't understand what it was, she chose to respectfully refer to it as the "god" the girl had mentioned.
As for revering gods, ever since the Spaniards had hanged the king of Tenochtitlan, they had become wary of all foreign things. If this child hadn't been an Aztec with the same skin color as them, the woman would have killed her long ago simply for wearing such strange clothes.
"Agreed." After a moment of silence, the child, who was only a few years old, nodded her assent.
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