"Ahhhhhhhhh!"
Seated atop a rusty crate with legs crossed, Shenxi rubbed his ears with his little finger.
"Stop yelling, for goodness's sake," the red-haired woman was beside him and covered her ears as she spoke. "It wasn't even painful. I made sure to do one clean cut—
"Aaaahhhhhhhh!!" Zhang Ling yelled louder and rolled on the ground, as if still feeling the pain of getting his neck slashed.
"You overdid it," Shenxi said softly while continuing to rub his ears. They were ringing from Zhang Ling's constant screams.
"Why would you think like that? This is a future savior of humanity. Don't you think he needs to grow some balls?" The lady argued.
It was difficult to hold a conversation with Zhang Ling screaming on top of his lungs, but as they were in a close proximity, she somehow managed.
"He's just a kid," Shenxi replied while looking at Zhang Ling with some pity in his eyes.
The lady rolled her eyes. "He's a grown man. When he died he was like what? Almost 40 something years old."
"Still a kid." Shenxi shook his head.
After a minute's intense screaming, Zhang Ling passed out.
Shenxi went ahead and picked him up, carrying him in a piggyback.
As he walked away with the lady, he asked with a complicated expression, "So… you're not a goddess, right?"
There were a lot of thoughts before he asked this.
The lady knew Shenxi was starting to believe her. He accepted the fact that she bestowed the regression powers to Zhang Ling, but of course, he still was refusing to believe that she was a god.
This was acceptable in her opinion.
The lady looked at the clear night sky filled with countless stars through the metal canopy of bridges and towers.
"It depends on what your definition of a god is. If it means being omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent like everyone thinks, then no, I'm not. But if it means being someone who can—"
"Forget it. Save the philosophical talks." Shenxi cut her off. "There are better things to talk about."
The lady's lips curled down. Why was this man so difficult to talk to? No, he wasn't difficult, just spiteful, probably.
"What better things?" She asked.
"Hm, things like… your name. You haven't said your name yet." Shenxi said after some thought.
He wanted to know how he could address her. Calling her goddess like Zhang Ling was definitely not the way.
"Ah…" The lady suddenly realized. She had never said her name and there was no way Shenxi knew of her, even though she herself was well-versed with him.
"…it's…"
The lady suddenly stopped.
Shenxi stopped too and turned to look at her, wondering why she stopped.
The lady fidgeted slightly, her previous cocky demeanor nowhere to be seen.
Shenxi saw a faint red glow on her face, but it was only for an instance. Perhaps it was due to the blinding neon lights of the dangling billboard, he thought and brushed it off.
The lady took a deep breath and calmed down.
She stared into Shenxi's deep blue eyes and said with some nervousness, "Lan Yifei. That's my name."
"Hm…" Shenxi nodded and got back to walking. The name definitely did not sound like a goddess's or noteworthy enough to be remembered. It was common sounding, as if he had heard the name multiple times before.
Lan Yifei let out a quiet sigh and fell into step beside him, switching the conversation to other matters as they walked toward Zhang Ling's apartment.
Unbeknownst to them, a camera tracked their movement. In a dark control room filled with monitors, one screen flashed a single line: [Anomaly detected. Requires manual intervention.]
A chubby guard eating donuts turned his chair towards that monitor. Pressing a button on the dashboard filled with multiple keys, he brought it down to his eye level.
"Almost everything is automated as the AI takes care of it. What could possibly need a manual intervention?" The man said while chewing on the donut, finding the situation somewhat baffling.
He had been in this position for many years. It was a government job and one couldn't get fired easily unless they made major blunders.
Throughout his career, it was the first time he encountered such a situation.
The man checked the footage.
An hour earlier, there was nothing. The alley was empty and not even rats roamed this place.
That was, until an hour ago.
Two figures walked into the frame, one rubbing his buttocks while the other leisurely walked beside him.
They did nothing in particular other than hammer the ground and create a hole, through which a red-haired lady jumped out.
She stood before the teenager but the camera then glitched, going static for just a split second.
In the next frame, the teenager was seen screaming and rolling on the ground while the man on the crate changed his position to sitting cross-legged and rubbing his ears and the woman standing beside him.
"Huh?" The chubby man stopped eating donuts. "What the f*ck is this?"
'Rewind!'
The clip played again.
The two figures walked in. Teenager began hammering. Woman jumped out. Static distortion. Teenager screaming and rolling.
"What the hell is going on…"
It was no wonder the AI asked for manual intervention. This was something even it could not understand!
The chubby man tried to make sense of the situation, but eventually scratched his head.
"Forget it. If even the AI can't understand, how could I? It's better I forward it and let the higher departments handle it."
The chubby man began typing on the dashboard. Once the final button was pressed, he laid back on his chair and wiped the nonexistent sweat off his forehead.
"Phew… hectic day. I almost had to work."
…
Upon reaching Zhang Ling's apartment, Shenxi slapped him awake, making the boy curse him out loud.
They then went inside his apartment and Zhang Ling served them the energy drinks again.
This time, Shenxi popped open the can of Venom Overdrive Ultra(Zero Sugar) and took a sip. It tasted like mellowed-down spoiled wine.
Zhang Ling sat quietly in place with his drink at his side, hugging his knees and trying to process everything. He was in great shock.
Meanwhile, Lan Yifei was about to strike a conversation with Shenxi, but she felt like she was forgetting something.
'Hmm… forget it. If I can't remember, then it probably wasn't important…'