“Mr. Horus…”
Su Xinran stared blankly at the clouds on the horizon, dyed crimson by the blood-red setting sun—a sight even more spectacular and eerie than fire clouds.
“Mr. Horus!”
Mei Keke raised her voice slightly.
“Mr. Horus!!”
Mei Keke jumped up and waved her hand in front of Horus’s blank, costumed eyes, but still couldn’t snap Su Xinran out of it.
“MR. HORUS!!!”
On her tiptoes now, Mei Keke waved her hand at Horus’s chest.
“Ah…”
Su Xinran snapped out of her daze with a start.
“I swear, Mr. Horus, are your robotic light sensors installed in your chest or something…”
Mei Keke stood with her hands on her hips, head tilted, glaring at Su Xinran.
“No! And why are you always staring at my chest, huh?!”
Su Xinran weakly protested, silently vowing to swap out the periscope system immediately after returning.
“I just… this all feels a bit surreal…”
Su Xinran looked at the A-rank hero certification in her hand, feeling a little emotional.
[Ding! Main quest complete. Mission star rating: 3/3]
[Ding! Reward points credited. Current balance: 2004 points]
[Keep up the good work, Host!]
With a generous batch of reward points and an official A-rank hero certification in hand—not to mention the unexpected twist in her favor—Su Xinran needed a moment to collect herself.
She only came to after Mei Keke called out several times.
“MEI! KE! KE!”
Suddenly, a furious and familiar voice rang out from the distance.
Yan Xuan dove toward them, hands outstretched, aiming straight for the tail hanging behind Mei Keke.
But this time, Mei Keke was alert and quickly coiled her tail around her waist, causing Yan Xuan to miss her target and fall short.
“I won’t let you succeed!”
Mei Keke shouted indignantly.
“You little brat! If I hadn’t ducked just now, you would’ve nailed me directly in the face! I almost died at the hands of a terrorist, only to get killed by a damn kid like you?!”
Frustrated from missing, Yan Xuan wasn’t sure if she was mad about the missed tail grab or still holding a grudge from nearly getting headshotted by Mei Keke during the trial.
She pressed her fist to Mei Keke’s head and started rubbing in circles.
“Ugh… stop, stop… I won’t grow tall if you keep doing that…”
Mei Keke pleaded with teary eyes.
“Well, even so, I’m still pretty proud…”
Yan Xuan stopped the rough treatment and looked at Mei Keke with motherly pride in her eyes.
“I thought for sure the cowardly you would wet your pants. Never imagined the weakest student in my eyes would actually charge in to save me with this kid. You’ve grown—yep! The past two years of teaching weren’t wasted!”
“I never wet my pants! I’m over 200 years old, you know! I could call myself a ‘solitary lord’ if I wanted to!”
Mei Keke pouted stubbornly.
“This kid’s not bad either. Keep it up, and a seat as an S-rank enforcer will definitely be yours one day!”
Yan Xuan gave a firm punch to the chest of Su Xinran’s costume as encouragement.
“Oh right, what rank did you get assigned?”
“A-rank, mid-tier. Three-month internship.
During that time, I’m not allowed to handle upper-class Ghost-level or higher threats alone.
My actions during the internship will be evaluated, and if I don’t meet the standards, I’ll be downgraded to A-rank lower-tier…”
Su Xinran explained.
The Volunteer Enforcers Alliance classified Wildborn attacks into four levels of threat: Calamity, Ghost, Cataclysm, and Apocalypse.
Each level was further split into Upper, Middle, and Lower tiers.
The command center dispatched appropriate-ranking enforcers based on the predicted disaster level to minimize unnecessary casualties (i.e., prevent throwing lives away for nothing).
“Oho~ Not bad, kid. Don’t be discouraged.
Sure, you only got a mid-tier A-rank rating despite defeating Gantz, an upper-tier A-rank, but this is already the biggest concession those old geezers could make.
You broke the record for highest entry-level rating, y’know?”
“Ah, no worries, no worries. Anything higher wouldn’t be fair to those senior heroes who fought their way up through real combat.”
Su Xinran waved it off, then looked over at Mei Keke, who was pouting and drawing on the grass with her toe.
“By the way, Keke, what’s your rank?”
“Oh… I’m a trainee C-rank…”
“Trainee C-rank? Not an intern? Why ‘trainee’?”
“Even though she’s technically over 200 years old, by Dragon standards she’s still a minor.
She can’t be a formal hero yet.
A ‘trainee’ means she’s not allowed to join any Wildborn suppression missions on her own.
She must apprentice under an A-rank or higher hero and can only go on missions with her master.”
Seeing Su Xinran’s confusion, Yan Xuan explained.
“Speaking of which, wanna take her on as your apprentice? Apprenticeship missions give you a 20% bonus reward, you know~ Plus, having an apprentice counts as bonus points toward your future S-rank hero evaluation~ And—”
Yan Xuan patted Mei Keke’s head like she was advertising a product.
“This kid’s tail is super nice to pet—are you sure you’re not interested?”
“Hey! Why do you sound like some human trafficker!?”
“What? Did I say anything wrong~?”
Yan Xuan waved her hand casually.
“Sigh… I don’t mind taking her on, of course, but I still want to hear what Keke herself thinks.”
“Eh? Keke’s opinion?”
Yan Xuan was slightly caught off guard.
“What’s there to ask? You’re the first enforcer in the entrance trials to ever get rated as upper-tier A-rank right off the bat.
You’re practically guaranteed to reach S-rank one day—it’s a sure thing.
For her, this is all gain, no downside. Why even ask?
Just agree and form the master-apprentice contract already.”
“No. I want to hear it from her. From Mei Keke herself.”
Su Xinran pressed the “serious expression” button inside the costume.
“I…”
Mei Keke lowered her head.
“Mr. Horus is such a gentle person…”
“I want to become an enforcer like Mr. Horus—gentle, but strong… So… I…”
Her voice grew smaller and smaller.
“Huh? What are you saying?”
Yan Xuan leaned in with slight impatience.
“I want to!!”
Mei Keke shouted, face flushed red.
“I want to be Mr. Horus’s apprentice! I want to become someone as gentle and strong as Mr. Horus!!!”
Her sudden outburst drew the attention of many nearby people.
Having vented her feelings, Mei Keke panted heavily.
“Hey hey… was that really necessary? It’s not like you’re proposing or something…”
Yan Xuan rubbed her sore ears with a wince.
“Well, let her yell if she wants. Seems like she’s never shouted like that before…”
“Huh…”
Yan Xuan looked at the panting Mei Keke and drifted into memories.
“I’ve taught this kid for two years, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her shout like that before…”
Su Xinran carefully studied the control panel for a while, finally figuring out the difference between the “laughing,” “gentle smile,” and “creepy grin” buttons, and then made the costume display a gentle smile.
Sigh, cheap stuff really is no good, Su Xinran cursed internally.
Now that I’ve got some points, I need to go back and check for an upgraded model—with a periscope and manual expression controls for the fingers.
This time I really paid the price for going cheap… I can’t afford to embarrass myself in front of my new apprentice anymore!