"Shit, girl…"
I took a deep breath, even though it was of no use to calm down my beating heart.
"For a moment I thought you were a robber or something."
The adrenaline still blazed in my veins, my fight or flight instinct fully awake.
The sun coming from the doors and Claire's words proved I'd just pulled an all-nighter, and yet... Every fiber of my being was bristling, ready to fuel the one thing I knew how to do perfectly well - to throw a straight, simplistic punch out.
But all of this energy, all of this adrenaline-powered force… had no way to go.
For it wasn't a home invader… but the very girl that made it hard for me to concentrate for likely half of the night I'd just pulled!
"What?" Claire barked, somehow taking my reaction for the weird part of the scene where…
Where she literally kicked my doors open to make her way in.
"I…"
Before I could even mention it, her eyes dashed around my room, only to soon lock on the phone that faithfully remained on the makeshift stand I'd prepared for it before I started the work.
The recording was to serve as my teaching material, a way for me to go back and study the secrets of the abilities I've showcased during my meditation. Reference material of sorts that was to allow me to better study the ins and outs of my strange ability, all in hopes of perfecting my ability to craft consciously.
Having a part of me that I couldn't control, as great and beneficial as it was, just rubbed me the wrong way. Until I claimed those crafting abilities truly for myself, I innately just couldn't rely on them as much as I wanted.
Still…
Claire's eyes flashed, her eyelids rising up a tiny bit only to then contract as she locked in on something in my room.
I couldn't even see her rush forth. Her hand just… appeared on the far end of my narrow room, grabbing my phone and smashing it against the table.
"Okay, what the fucking hell?!"
Weirdly, as I jumped up in righteous anger… I somehow felt strangely justified.
It was as if… just saw the kind of thing someone in a relationship would have to deal with. It felt like… Spending my whole life single as a pringle didn't seem all that bad if that was the stuff I've avoided.
"You moron!" Claire, rather than coming back to her senses, pressed on into her craze.
"The fuck are you talk… No, what the fuck are you doing?!" Already up on my feet, I finally found the voice to protest. "First my doors, now my phone? What the hell is wrong with you? Even if…"
My face suddenly tensed up.
'Less for the doors, maybe she thought…'
On one hand, what were the chances of a cultivator like Claire suddenly finding lapses in her memory, unable to recall if my phone was recording back when she… happily mingled with me?
But on the other hand, if that's what she thought in the heat of the moment…
'Which still doesn't explain the doors…'
"Haaa…!" Even when Claire breathed out… it somehow came out aggressive.
And it was finally the moment, with how things happened, for me to address the fact of Claire… Wearing both a mask and a deep hoodie! Sure, she looked adorable in those… But with an addition of a mere pair of black glasses, she would be sporting the prime "poorly masked person" fit!
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Claire exploded again, snapping her hands to rest them on her hips as she leaned forward, acting as if… I was the one in the wrong?
But her deep frown only continued to grow.
"Aaah!" Claire raised her hands to her face as she groaned and leaned back.
'Okay, that's enough.'
"Again, what the fuck are you talking about?!" I lashed back. "You come in storming, literally break my door fucking open…!"
Claire's hands clawed down on her face as if me merely daring to retort was akin to insulting her entire lineage.
"Wait!"
Claire froze for a second before rapidly breaking her hands off and reaching down to her pocket. She then hurriedly pulled out her phone and quickly scrolled…
But as her eyes flashed up in a mix of shock, panic, and urgency, my hand shot forward…
Just in time to intercept her fist on course for my phone!
"What the hell do you think you are doing?! No matter what you think happened, it did not…"
"You are live, for heaven love!" Claire cried out in what seemed like an outburst of a righteous yet powerless fury.
"Of course, I'm fucking alive!" I retorted, still holding back her wrist… Only for the girl to easily wrestle it out by pulling her hand off to the side and then throwing both her arms, not to strike me, but...
But to drop her hands down on my shoulders.
"You are on a live stream!"
…
…
…
I took a moment to process what she just said.
It was just… so out of the ordinary, so much outside of the range of my expectations…
…
"Oh…"
For a moment, we both froze.
Claire then grabbed my shoulders… Before attempting to shove me aside, likely to… reach my phone?
'Wait…'
Bit by bit, things started to click. And once they did…
'No, wait, what the hell? What? How?'
An array of questions exploded in my head, and all the while Claire continued in her attempts to move me, only to fail over and over again.
"Turn it off!" she screamed once she somehow ended up coming to terms that a cultivator like her… couldn't move a newbie like me.
Likely, the physical benefit of the last five years that I've spent doing nothing but standing in place and mastering my punch. And standing perfectly still to maintain the form was just one of the many elements I've mastered in my hopes of breaking through the meditation barrier.
But it was also right as Claire shouted that another figure appeared in the frame of my now broken doors.
It was a huge, no, massive man, hardly able to fit through the entrance. He wore perfectly white, thick robes of a practitioner… And looked at me as if I was the source of all evil in the world.
Then again…
I've finally managed to process what was happening.
'Claire came because apparently I'm on a stream.'
'What stream?'
'I wasn't streaming, so…'
'A bug? Malfunction?'
Sensing that the time before this heavy yet perfectly athletic man would snuff the life out of me with a single punch was drawing near, I shot my hand up as if to stop him in place with just a gesture. Then, I took the risk…
And looked him straight in the eye, all the while keeping my mouth perfectly shut.
For a second, we just stared at each other…
And then I turned my head over my back before carefully picking up the phone Claire just smashed against the floor before pressing its power button down for a few seconds only for the short signal to announce it was now turning off.
Now then…
'Who is this man?'
'He's with her?'
'Much older. More… not even more powerful… he's just… more than her!'
'Who?'
'Father?'
Seeing me turning my phone off, Claire finally dropped her left hand off my shoulder and reached to check her own phone again.
And only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, the look of agitation and rage slowly washing off her face.
"Dear…" the man in the doors threw a quick glance at my place before turning his eyes over to Claire as his face steeled. "Who is this young man?"
Keeeeeek
"Dear... Who is this young man?"
I raised my eyes to the huge man still standing right within the doorframe that formerly housed the doors to my apartment... The very doors that Claire kicked in and sent crashing into the wall of my place.
'Yeah, it seems to be her father...' I thought, connecting enough dots to arrive at this conclusion.
But, despite having Claire rest her right hand on my shoulder... it wasn't the fact of her father catching us in this potentially problematic position that worried me.
'Didn't she mention how she herself wasn't in a spot to break the taboos?' I thought, gulping my saliva down while alternating my eyes between Claire's likely dad and the girl herself. 'And that man is a cultivator, he's one for sure. And quite the strong one at that!'
Bit by bit, things started to make more sense.
"Claire..." the man spoke out again, this time his voice growing colder.
But the girl... didn't seem to have any interest in replying.
From the man's perspective, she simply lowered her head and stood frozen with her hand on my shoulder. But from my perspective...
'Wait, could it be...?'
Looking down at Claire's suddenly panicked face, I realized that in her bid to rush to my place to stop the stream... she likely failed to consider the possibility of her father following her here!
"Dear, I've asked you a question."
There was no hostility in the man's voice... just yet. His cold and focused expression alone, however, was enough to fully transmit maybe not his intentions, but the mood the situation before his very own eyes was putting him in.
"T-this..." Claire gulped her saliva before picking her chin up and peeking at my face as if searching for inspiration in my confused expression. "The encounter I've talked about..."
"What the hell is going on here?!"
As if the situation wasn't messy enough, yet another voice joined in on the fray. And as weary and high-pitched as it was... just the tone of this voice was enough to send a chill down my spine.
'Oh shit...'
Behind the man, a tiny, old woman suddenly appeared with the look of heaven's fury written all over her wrinkled face.
And in this single flash in which I've noticed her, the handbag in her hands... It no longer looked like a simple article of woman's clothing but a mighty weapon ready to smite the gods themselves!
A point that the old woman rushed to prove after merely taking a glance past the kicked-in doors.
"YOU!" Shrieking, the woman waved her hand before slamming her handbag straight into the man's side.
Not only did she take him by surprise, despite openly telegraphing her attack, but her strike proved heavy enough to actually make the massive man... twitch in response to it?!
"Who the..." Claire was just as surprised as me while lacking the same level of terror that was present in my soul.
Right... while she was merely surprised by the appearance of someone gutsy enough to attack her likely-to-be father, she missed the crucial knowledge that was the source of my terror.
This old, oriental lady was no one else but my landlord! She was both the owner and the manager of this entire building. And now that she saw one of her precious doors broken, kicked off its frame... With the might of an angered lioness, she proceeded to defend her heritage with a total disregard for her own safety.
"Who do you think you are to bash my doors in?!" The old lady screamed out from the bottom of her lungs while her handbag continued to fly all over the place, striking the man's body whenever he showed even the tiniest opening.
His thigh, his side, his arms, and even his face - the old lady accurately struck them all, not giving the poor man even a second to rest or to explain himself.
"What business is it of yours what the young-uns are doing at their own place?! Your daughter is her own person, not some tool for you to use and control as you desire!" The old lady continued with her chastizing, likely crafting the story of what happened from just a few details she noticed before going full rage mode.
It wasn't the landlady's fury that was the biggest surprise for the moment, though. In fact, I knew this granny well enough not to be surprised by her reaction almost at all!
But the same couldn't be said about Claire who, while watching her father getting mercilessly beaten up by the old lady... smirked.
"That's what he gets for trying to stalk me!" Claire suddenly announced with joy, only to then burst out lighting.
And it would all be great... if not for her vivid smile only serving to remind me of the events of yesterday's night.
"Okay, that's enough!" Either due to his patience running out or maybe prompted by his daughter's reaction, the man at the doors finally moved.
For a moment I was worried he would strike the old lady down, snuffing her life out with an off-handed slap...
But no, he still controlled himself and merely grabbed the bag while it was heading straight for his face again.
"I have no idea what kind of misconception you have, Grandpa, but I merely chased after my daughter when she made me drive her here and then stormed out of the car. As for what's going on here, I'm as clueless as you are!"
Despite holding the old lady's bag, Claire's father didn't use it to retaliate against all the beating he suffered from her weary hand. Instead, he just held it in place as he stared the granny down, only letting go once the expression on her face softened up.
"Oh..." the landlady muttered, taking a step back as she realized she just tried to beat down an innocent man merely worried about his daughter's antics.
But then, as soon as her eyes turned over to the broken doors... The rage in her eyes reignited.
"I can tell it was my daughter who destroyed the door, so I will be sure to compensate for all the damages..." Claire's father quickly added, easily reading the expression of the granny and the meaning hidden behind it.
"Hmph!" The old lady scoffed before raising her chin and looking up to the man's face along the line of her own nose, acting all high and mighty despite the tip of her head merely reaching up to the man's solar plexus.
"And with that said..." Claire's father finally turned his eyes back to the insides of my apartment. For a moment, his eyes lingered on Claire, who continued to tremble under the aftershocks of her outburst of laughter, only to then move his eyes to scan my room again before finally locking his sights down on me.
Yet, right as I got myself ready to address whatever accusations he was about to levy my way...
"He's the gu... He's the encounter I mentioned last night," realizing that the time for laughter was gone, Claire quickly recomposed herself and came up with the answer to the question her father posed all the way before his showdown with the old lady.
"I see..." the man muttered, only for his eyes to sweep the insides of my apartment again. As they locked on the very device that I properly finished during my unconscious meditation, it actually lingered on it for a moment.
'So that's what he's going to ask me about, huh?' I thought, preparing myself for the series of questions that were likely to follow.
For who else could Claire have in mind when mentioning how she herself was blocked from freely breaking the cultivation taboos if not her cultivator father?
'I wonder if I will have to get the police involved,' I thought, suddenly starting to regret my decision to turn my phone off earlier.
"So that's how it is..." the man muttered once again before shaking his head and turning his eyes over to the girl. "Now then, how about you explain why you kicked the doors to this poor man's apartment before barging in as if you owned the place?"
Hey guys!
It's finally time for me to adress the elephant in the room.
How about making a deal? Would you like to see more chapters posted daily on this novel? You wouldn, wouldn't you? Tsk tsk tsk, I know how it feels to catch up to the releases and then be forced to wait a whole day just for one more, short chapter to appear...
So how about this, for as long as we get to and maintain top10 rank in Power-Stones ranking for the novel, I'm going to do my best to provide 2chapters per day instead of just one!
Obviously, that applies to the current timeframe of the ranking this novel belongs to, so for the next few days, its still monthly PS ranking but after that, it's going to be the seasonal PS ranking.
Then again, it's not like voting with PS costs you anything but literally a few seconds of your time! And on the other hand, it can help bring this story out to more readers which directly translates to my motivation to grit my teeth, ignore the pain and write it!
So how about it, do we have the deal? :D
Anda mungkin juga menyukai
Komentar Paragraf
Fitur komentar paragraf sekarang ada di Web! Arahkan kursor ke atas paragraf apa pun dan klik ikon untuk menambahkan komentar Anda.
Selain itu, Anda selalu dapat menonaktifkannya atau mengaktifkannya di Pengaturan.
MENGERTI