Ignoring the girl's antics, Lin Guang took a deep breath to calm his emotions, quietly steadying his suddenly racing heartbeat.
The two tentacles in the darkness had almost triggered his PTSD when they got close, making him nearly hallucinate a giant Broad Door Elf lunging at him. He could only force a stoic expression to hold it together.
However, he didn't feel any emotions rising due to the girl's malice and duplicity.
In this world, there are far too many wild Spirit Beasts with tempers bigger than hers and who would rather die than yield. Sometimes signing an Equal Contract is useless; if they can't hurt the Spirit Master, can't they choose to slack off or even commit suicide?
That's why the mainstream among Spirit Master Realm is the Enslavement Contract rather than the Equal Contract, which has more potential to free talents and minds.
Regardless, whether she is the one from Terra World or not, the moment he realized his Talent was activated by her, he signed the contract almost without thinking.
Since he signed the contract, he must take responsibility.
"You don't have to be so reserved... well, this isn't the place to talk." He shook his head, "Let's talk at home."
The girl suddenly froze, her crimson eyes widened: "... Home?"
She stopped walking, taking a few seconds to regain her composure and coldly laughed, "What a joke, not funny at all."
Even a toddler knows that Sakaz have no home.
This statement was about to leave her lips as a retort to his terribly boring joke, but she hesitated just as she opened her mouth.
There was no pretense on Lin Guang's face—it was rather calm, without any sign of guilt—which made it seem like even he subconsciously hadn't realized anything was wrong with what he said.
The girl fell silent.
None of the traffickers could communicate; perhaps anyone who knows the Terran Universal Language is extremely rare.
Forget it, I'll stick with him for now.
With this thought, the girl moved forward.
At that moment, she didn't realize that in such a short time, her Spirit had become much more stable.
The two walked side by side through the dim black market, ignoring the various gazes from obscured figures beside them.
She frowned unpleasantly, suddenly thinking of something, looking at Lin Guang, she said, "By the way, how come I felt you were trembling a bit at the beginning."
"So you were scared by me after all."
Lin Guang looked at the two red tentacles bobbing with her steps atop her head, imperceptibly tensing for a moment, "…You must be hallucinating from hunger."
"Hmph, I don't believe it."
Returning the same way, when they reached the entrance, the manager just happened to arrive, his eyes beneath the mask showing a hint of surprise and disdain.
Someone actually wanted to contract this kind of Spirit Beast, and despite their clear warnings, are all young people these days crazy?
If he comes again next time, absolutely no more loans, who knows when he might have a mental breakdown.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk..."
His tone seemed a bit regretful, yet he said nothing, instructing the big masked man to bring over the card machine, and after confirming the funds were transferred, he turned and left.
Under the big man's guidance, the two entered a staircase different from the entrance, and they climbed the steps together.
Reaching the top of the long staircase, pushing open the door, a small alley hidden between the buildings came into view.
The clutter looked inconspicuous.
The big man casually grabbed a cloak from a roadside cart and tossed it to the girl, then pointed a direction to Lin Guang, "This alley lets you go straight to the road without having to go through the interior of the mall again."
Lin Guang understood, "So this is your internal supply passage."
"Yes, well, good luck to you... you both."
He left a phrase with a meaningful tone, turned, and walked back.
Glancing at the big man's departing figure, the girl looked down at the cloak which could completely cover her, with a mocking smile on her face.
Ha, supply channel, huh.
As expected, in these people's eyes, I'm just like those exotic animals...
However, at that moment, Lin Guang suddenly snatched the cloak from her hands.
"If you hate it, then don't wear it."
"..."
Stunned for a moment, the girl's amber eyes narrowed, looking at Lin Guang's profile, "Aren't you afraid I'll be discovered?"
Lin Guang folded the cloak in his hands, put it in the bag with materials, and said, "You've already signed a contract with me, and as long as you haven't done anything against my principles, I, as a Spirit Master, have the responsibility to protect your basic rights."
"As long as the contract exists for another day, no one can take away your right to walk under the sun."
"..."
"Big words, who knows whether this Equal Contract you're talking about is real or fake."
The girl pretended to be disdainful, then after staring at Lin Guang for a moment, suddenly turned her face away, not letting him see her eyes, speaking in a strange tone:
"But this is better, I don't want to wear that kind of thing again."
"Then let's go."
Lin Guang headed towards the exit, and the girl followed closely.
The moment they stepped out of the alley, the sunset greeted them.
After being in the dimness for so long, Lin Guang instinctively squinted his eyes to avoid looking directly at it.
Then he noticed the girl standing in the sunlight next to him, stunned.
She slightly raised her head, those amber-like eyes reflecting the sunset embraced by skyscrapers and the bustling streets nearby.
Even though the sunlight caused tears to trickle down, she remained unblinking, her slightly constricted cross-star pupils held an unknown emotion.
So this is what this world looks like.
Lin Guang didn't speak.
But perhaps because they were both visitors from another world, he strangely felt that he seemed to understand her thoughts at that moment.
Hailing a taxi at random, the two got in. The driver seemed like a talkative northern face but was unusually quiet throughout the ride; perhaps he sensed the low pressure between them.
After seeing the sunset, the girl's business-like fake smile disappeared, and she silently watched the scenery outside the car window. Coupled with not having washed up, she looked quite disheveled and somewhat haggard.
"We're home."
Lin Guang's home was in Haiyue District, Building B, Room 201, with several bags at the door filled with ingredients he had just ordered on his phone.
Click.
The key turned, and Lin Guang slowly pushed open the door.
"The bathroom is on your left up ahead; you can go wash up a bit. The food will take a while, I'll start cooking right away."
With these words, Lin Guang carried the ingredients into the kitchen.
The girl turned her head to look around the room.