Chapter 25: About The Other Kind
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
For three consecutive nights, Hao Ren did not have a bad dream and he firmly believed that the Eight Trigrams Vivian gave him had nothing to do with it.
First of all, he knew for a fact that the tablet of Eight Trigrams was not an amulet but a tool to map Feng Shui energy. Second of all, he found a small print at the edge of the trigrams. It was the name of the manufacturer, which appeared to be from the Sichuan province.
However, he kept mum about it.
Although he was relieved by the absence of bad dreams, the mystery of the wolf fur still hung over his head. He had a feeling that unusual creatures could be watching him in the dark. Nevertheless, he was an optimist and decided to meet Raven 12345 again to talk it over. Until then, he resolved to let nothing bother him.
In fact, he had attempted to look for Raven 12345 a couple of days ago but he did not manage to see the weird Goddess.
Hao Ren followed the same route—he took a bus to Bastard Barrio and reached the telephone pole with the Chinese medicine bill on it. He was then teleported to the inverted mansion somewhere in another dimension. So, he figured that since he could come back to the mansion the same way he did the first time, it was not a dream. However, he did not manage to see Raven 12345. There were only a few blue, foggy figures patrolling the property. It was obvious that they were slaves working for Raven 12345. The blue, foggy figures seemed to be highly intelligent creatures but they spoke no human language. Naturally, there was no communication between them.
One of the blue, foggy figures then handed Hao Ren a note. It was from Raven 12345. She said that she went on a business trip to the Centaurus constellation for a few days. If she found the trip enjoyable it might be a few years before she would be coming back.
Right after that, Hao Ren was ushered out of the mansion.
"She’s being absurd."
He browsed some magazines in the living room with the air-conditioning on full blow. His mind was still on his last trip to the Bastard Barrio office of the Space Administration. The trip left a bad taste in his mouth. He could not wait to see Raven 12345 to clear all his doubts. He felt like he was being engulfed by a thick fog. He had lost all direction, and just did not know where to start. Raven 12345, the nutty Goddess, was the only person who could help clear his head.
Her obsessive compulsive disorder would have driven him crazy if not for his good emotional intelligence.
While Vivian and Lily were around, he had the opportunity to learn a thing or two about them and ‘the other kind’.
‘The other kind’ was a term Hao Ren randomly chose to refer to Vivian and Lily the day he met them. They both seemed to be comfortable with it.
It was not possible to trace back the origin of ‘the other kind’. They existed alongside human civilization and there were various records as well as legends about them. They were brutally persecuted by the church during medieval times as well as by the Chinese dynasties. Their stories were then incorporated into literature and folklore. For people living in this modern age, creatures like vampires, werewolves, monsters and spirits of the dead are merely fictitious characters in horror stories and thrillers .However, they appeared in the flesh and were seen by various eye-witnesses during the earlier periods.
‘The other kind’ were treated as a threat to humanity. Though there was no account of the earliest conflict, the war between ‘the other kind’ and humans began long before recorded history. In spite of that, stories of friendship did exist. During the Caveman era, they were depicted in the drawings of monsters, Gods or half-beast, half-human creatures on the cave walls. Some of them were results of creative exaggeration and humans with structural birth defects due marrying their cousins. The rest were truly ‘the other kind’.
They were a part of early human history; their role was that of the antagonists.
Vivian was from that early era but, her memory was messed up probably because she was a bit long in the tooth. Nevertheless, she still recalled bits and pieces; one bit which Hao Ren heard about was that of Zeus—God of the skies and thunder.
During the early ages, ‘the other kind’ had many unfair advantages over human kind; they had super perception, longevity, nine lives and were also highly intelligent. The rise of human kind’s absolute rule however, had driven ‘the other kind’ into becoming monsters of terror. Despite that, there were exceptions. The exact cause of their fall was not clear but there were three possible reasons: firstly, as human kind became more civilized and developed, they started developing various tools as well as weaponry, becoming more united and powerful. The widely scattered creatures were no match for humans on their own. In the end, they were defeated one by one. Secondly, their downfall was due to some mysterious entity and thirdly, the emergence of monster hunters.
The third factor was also the most impactful.
Monster hunters had a partial human lineage but no one could accurately tell their exact origin. Their emergence saw a worldwide hunt for ‘the other kind’. The term ‘monster hunter’ did exactly exist in the beginning. It was only coined by the European Council during the medieval period and popularized thereafter. The European continent was the last place on earth still ravaged by ‘the other kind’ then. Most of them had already been wiped out from the rest of the world by the human-monster hunter alliance. Terms for various species which constituted ‘the other kind’ and the term, ‘monster hunter’ were finalized during that time in Europe.
From being kings of the world to fugitives, ‘the other kind’ were edged out from the world’s history.
This alternate history completely destroyed Hao Ren’s worldviews.
He then started to show more interest in the two super girls in his house.
Lily was a relatively young werewolf—dozens of years at most. She was all brawn and no brains She did not have much stories of werewolves to tell. Vivian on the other hand, was on the opposite end of the spectrum; she was from the prestigious Blood Clan who had lived as long as the existence of human civilization. Oddly, she barely remembered her own stories except bits and pieces of them. Also, she slept anywhere she felt like. She was unlike her kind which were hell-bent on terrorizing humans. She spent most of her time battling her own bad days. Suffice to say, as far as vampires went, she was the black sheep of the Blood Clan.
To human kind however, she was a human-friendly girl.
All in all, she fell between two stools.
Chapter 26: Let’s Keep in Touch
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
For a moment, Hao Ren imagined his everyday life would be undone by the arrival of his two special guests; his idyllic and simple life, gone with the wind. Images of him fighting off combat police or superheroes replayed in his mind again and again.
However, after a few days, things remained the same. Nothing seemed to have changed.
The arrival of the two ladies did zilch in changing his routine.
Lily's daily routine mainly consisted of sleeping, eating, more eating, even more eating, getting into a brawl with Vivian, and writing stuff—the lass was quite an accomplished columnist after all. Basically, her life was simple yet colorful and she seemed to be enjoying it up to that point.
As for Vivian, well, she had a more exciting tale compared to Lily. Sleeping, eating, fighting with Lily, job hunting, getting fired, job hunting again and getting fired again…ad infinitum. To be frank, Hao Ren could only sigh at her streak of bad luck. Three new jobs in the span of three days, imagine that.
Yet, Hao Ren could not help but be amazed by her resourcefulness. Getting a job that quickly in such an unfamiliar place was no easy feat. That said, the longest she managed to hold a job thus far was about three hours.
It was a shame that Hao Ren did not have the chance to witness her bad luck unfold. Only towards the end of the day, when she came home looking worse than a sack of potatoes that he knew she screwed up somewhere. He thought he could maybe peek in at her workplace sometime, just to see how she would end up getting fired.
Living with the two ladies up until that point was about as normal as one could get. Sure, they had their quirks but they were not outrageous enough to rattle Hao Ren.
One would think that a vampire like Vivian would be out bloodletting every now and then, or a werewolf like Lily would be howling at the moon and be out chasing rabbits. Yet, neither of this actually happened. Quite the opposite, they actually went on about their lives as how you would expect normal human would. It seemed to be their way of life since they were young.
In a sense, Hao Ren was both disappointed and grateful. At least he did not have to contend with any combat police or superheroes.
Although the effects of the weird dream had somewhat dissipated, it still left Hao Ren with goosebumps whenever he recalled it. There was nothing much he could do but wait for the return of the weird Goddess. At the same time, he also slowly got used to the routines of his new guests at home.
Lily was already up and about in the morning. She was busy choosing her outfit of the day. This lass may have seemed a little dumb at times but she was pretty much what you would expect of a usual girl. Maybe except when Rollie decided to pounce on her. She would end up on all fours in a fright.
"Going out?" Hao Ren asked out of curiosity as he saw her milling about.
"Yep! I got a patient to see today," Lily replied as she tidied her dress. "Things seem to be going on pretty nicely in this town. I’ve been doin' good in my writings, rental's easy peasy and I got my first patient too…"
Vivian who was tidying up the guest hall, perked up when she heard Lily. "You? A doctor?!"
Hao Ren realized that Vivian did not know that Lily was actually working. She was not around when Lily first introduced herself. Aside from butting heads every now and then, both of them never actually took the time to know each other. Hao Ren thought it was a good time to clarify things. "Lily's a freelance veterinarian."
Lily suddenly turned towards Vivian. She stuck her chest out and with gusto said, "I'm a certified professional ya know?" She grinned. "Been so for about 10 years now. I'm also a bona fide columnist. I’ve been writtin' from the time of the Republic*. You know Zhou Shuren? I'm a good friend of his! Heheh!"
Hao Ren was slouching on his chair and reading some magazines at that time. The shock he received from Lily's proclamation made him topple with a stunned look. "What?!"
"I'm a professional?" Lily blinked at the sight of his reaction. "When I was living in the midst of human society, writing was my rice bowl... I only became a vet some years back. I have actually done some treatment before ya know?'
"I'm not talking about that!" Hao Ren said. All this while, he thought Lily was not the sharpest tool in the shed and did not pay her much attention. "You said, from the time of the Republic...?"
"Yep, I did write a lot then. Did the people of the Republic not read?" Lily titled her head. "I've been alive for... quite some time already. Don't tell me you’ve forgotten all about that?"
Hao Ren was stuck in a stupor. He only came to realize how different these special beings were compared to humans. Even for the dumb werewolf... her past was quite a revelation!
True, he actually heard Lily and Vivian talk about their past before but he never paid much attention to them as their stories sounded more like fairy tales more often than not. It was only then, did he actually realize the vast gap between their generations.
Seeing how stunned Hao Ren was at Lily's past, Vivian, a very much older being was naturally unhappy about it. She forcefully dragged Lily to the side and sneered, "Listen now, you furball. Have you actually fought with Acherus* before, or kicked Woday* and Kaiser* into a moat? Have you kicked the Flame Emperor into... wait, I haven't done that yet. And oh! The Yellow Emperor, what a man!"
Hao Ren sighed deeply. The conversation between the two supernatural beings was clearly much more engaging than any book in the world.
Lily did not even blink when she heard Vivian's achievements. "So what? Did fighting with Acherus earn you money? Did kicking Woday and Kaiser into the moat fill your pockets?"
"Why not?! I charged for that!"
"Then where's your sack of gold?"
"…. lets talk about something else."
Hao Ren was now having cold feet. The conversation that took place that day clearly could not be disclosed anywhere else. The world would be in a riot at such a revelation. Vivian may have acted like a potato sack but she was definitely no slouch during her heyday. If the tales of their past were true, what else had the history of human civilization been neglecting?
Vivian's Achilles heel was clearly her luck with money or anything related to it. Even Lily, the idiot picked up on it and quite happily reveled in the schadenfreude. Vivian knew she had no second word when it came to that so, she just quietly went about cleaning the house.
Hao Ren was actually surprised that Vivian actually asked him for that. At least she was aware of her bad luck and did the housework to shave off part of the food and rental expenses.
Her attitude was another pleasant surprise for Hao Ren. He did have his doubts about letting her do such menial jobs but Vivian was adamant. Well, it was not cheap to have a live-in maid let alone, such a pretty one. Thus, it was a win-win situation for Hao Ren.
Lily was by then, out and about. Hao Ren did not even have the chance to ask her how she got a veterinarian gig in a place foreign to her. However, he could pretty much picture Lily squatting by the local strays and chatting with them, almost kin-like. With such talents, it was no wonder why she was such a spectacular vet.
After all was said and done, Hao Ren proceeded to get back to reading his crumpled magazine when his mobile phone rang.
Hao Ren felt that something was evidently off. When he grabbed the device, the only thing that appeared on screen was a series of numbers.
"00000012345."
The loony Goddess finally decided to show up again.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
10 Power
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