“Have you decided?”
“I have!”
“At the price of ninety Ghost Coins per month, you are leasing ‘Curse Snake No. 93.’ If you’ve decided, press your fingerprint on the contract.”
This hell world had no sun and no true daytime.
Only grayish-white days and pitch-black long nights existed. Especially during the transition between the two, without a watch it was nearly impossible to tell which period you were in just by looking.
The Thousand-Handed Demon still remembered a friend who had dozed off not long ago, accidentally stepped into a place that only existed during white day while it was long night, and was casually swatted dead by an awakened horror.
Compared to his own life, trading ninety Ghost Coins a month for a guarantee of survival was obviously a good deal no matter how he looked at it!
Under Bai Tang’s relentless sales pitch, the simple-minded Thousand-Handed Demon ultimately could not resist the low-price temptation and pressed his fingerprint at the signature line of the lease contract.
Before he could examine the contract terms in more detail, the parchment was snatched away with a swish.
She rolled up the parchment so quickly it seemed she was afraid he would change his mind.
“Please wait a moment, customer. I’ll prepare the matching implantation service right away.”
“Oh, okay.”
The girl’s professional demeanor left the Thousand-Handed Demon stunned.
She did not make him wait long. Moments later Bai Tang finished all preparations and signaled the Thousand-Handed Demon to roll up his sleeve, place his forearm palm-up into a rectangular iron basin.
To be honest, keeping a snake under the skin of his wrist as a timekeeping tool was a first for the Thousand-Handed Demon.
He could not help feeling a little nervous.
“U-um, miss clerk… really can’t use a different knife? That rusty one won’t give me tetanus, right?”
Bai Tang blinked at the small knife covered in rust in her hand.
“You get what you pay for. Just raising one curse snake usually costs around three hundred Ghost Coins. Right now I’m only charging you ninety. What more do you want for that price?”
“Then anesthesia…”
“None. This is a general store, not a clinic.”
With that, Bai Tang’s face turned completely serious. Without another word she pressed down on the Thousand-Handed Demon’s wrist.
“Don’t move, or I can’t guarantee I won’t cut something else.”
The knife rose and fell. The rusty blade sliced through the wrinkled skin of the Thousand-Handed Demon’s wrist, landing precisely beside the artery.
Accompanied by their heavy breathing, black blood slowly seeped from the cut and dripped into the iron basin below.
Seeing this, Bai Tang set down the rusty knife, quickly picked up the glass jar beside her, unscrewed it, and poured the chopstick-thick black snake into the basin.
“This step lets the curse snake get used to your blood ahead of time. Once we confirm there’s no reaction, we can proceed with implantation,” Bai Tang explained.
After confirming compatibility, she gripped the curse snake’s flat head with tweezers and, under the gradually paling face of the Thousand-Handed Demon, slowly pushed it into the bleeding wound.
The moment Bai Tang released the tweezers, there was a whoosh. A slender black shadow shot under the skin.
The snake’s head bit its own tail, forming a perfect loop around the wrist.
From a distance, it really did look like he was wearing a watch!
“All right, that should—”
Bai Tang was about to put the tools away when the curse snake looped around the Thousand-Handed Demon’s wrist suddenly vanished right before her eyes.
Not only that, the wound that should have been there—the one she had cut open with the knife—had completely disappeared as if it had never existed.
The girl froze for a long moment.
Only after quite a while passed and no quest completion notice appeared before her eyes did she belatedly realize she had been scammed.
“Where’s the item?” Bai Tang’s expression turned cold.
Although as a general store clerk the transaction was technically complete at this point, the Eye of Breaking Delusions quest still had not been finished!
“The item?”
It was only to be expected from the Thousand-Handed Demon who had shown open malice the moment he saw Bai Tang. His chaotic-evil alignment guaranteed his inherently despicable nature.
Now that he had gotten what he wanted, where was the politeness from before?
“I followed your instructions the whole time, miss clerk. I didn’t make any movements at all.” The Thousand-Handed Demon shook his empty arm, as if inviting Bai Tang to perform the implantation again. “Did I space out? Have you started yet, miss clerk?”
Only then did Bai Tang recall the Eye of Breaking Delusions’ introduction for the Thousand-Handed Demon—cunning, bullies the weak and fears the strong, loves taking small advantages.
Watching Bai Tang suddenly become flustered, the corners of the Thousand-Handed Demon’s mouth curled into a cruel smile.
If he had not misheard earlier, one curse snake cost nearly three hundred Ghost Coins. With his methods, tonight he was going to strike it rich!
“Miss clerk, we signed a contract!”
Bai Tang stared at the Thousand-Handed Demon for a long while, still wondering exactly how he had managed to spirit the curse snake away right under her nose. Then the Eye of Breaking Delusions updated its evaluation of him once more.
[Race: Thousand-Handed Demon]
[Evaluation: A natural-born pickpocket of the hell world and absolute winner of Macau casinos. Not because of any exceptional skill, but simply because if he gets caught, his hands get chopped off—yet he possesses a full 998 spare hands ready to replace them at any time.]
So that’s how it is.
Really now… if Teacher finds out I got scammed and lost the store’s money, she really might eat me.
The corners of the girl’s mouth lifted into a sickly arc.
Since he had used Macau sleight of hand to take advantage, he could not blame her for responding with Myanmar tactics!
“Please wait a moment.”
Just as the Thousand-Handed Demon was secretly gloating over his success, Bai Tang turned around and took another curse snake from the shelf.
“Hurry up, I’m in a rush!”
Completely unaware that danger had quietly descended, the Thousand-Handed Demon only widened his eyes when a cold glint flashed before him.
At some point the small rusty knife in the girl’s hand had been swapped for a boning knife as long as a forearm!
The blade rose and fell. Half an arm was brutally severed and rolled across the floor with a thud, black blood spraying everywhere.
“You… argh!!”
The Thousand-Handed Demon screamed in pain, his eyes instantly filled with terror.
“Dear customer, please stay calm. This is merely the standard bloodletting step to check compatibility with the curse snake. No need to panic.”
Just as Bai Tang had expected, in mere moments the severed stump grew a replacement arm.
She pretended to be surprised.
“Sorry, my aim was a little off just now. This time I absolutely won’t disappoint you, customer!”
“No… argh!!!”
The knife rose and fell again. Another hand rolled onto the ground.
Bai Tang had not wanted to do this, but in this hell world where humans could be eaten at any moment, the girl had learned one truth.
If weakness was an unchangeable fact and malice existed at every turn, caution was nothing more than a way to delay death.
To truly be safe—at least on the surface—she had to make herself look like something no one could simply pinch.
Seeing the bizarre being that had wanted to eat her moments ago now screaming under her knife, it seemed her act had been correct.
“Hehe… hehe… sure enough, nothing feels better than dealing with you Thousand-Handed Demons!” Bai Tang let out a ferocious laugh that did not match her cute girl appearance at all.
“Two, three, four… thirty-one…! Nine hundred and eighty-eight spare hands—one grows back for every one I chop off. There really is no end to it!”
What does she mean by “you” Thousand-Handed Demons? She even knows the racial trait!
An icy chill wrapped around the Thousand-Handed Demon’s entire body. He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
Could it be that before him, others of his kind had already fallen into this human girl’s hands?
No! This was definitely not a frail human!
It was a terrifying demon wearing the skin of a weak human, using it as bait to hunt!
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