Chapter 69

Hao Ren and his group had barely returned home when "Gun" came over following the commotion.

No one knew how this one-foot-long black cat managed to be so well-informed. As soon as Hao Ren sat down in the living room, he heard a series of tapping sounds coming from the window facing the street. Looking up, he saw "Gun" outside, using its tail to vigorously beat against the window frame. At that moment, Izaak was huddled on the sofa, studying the human TV remote with some discomfort. He looked up and saw the little cat, his face showing a hint of surprise: "Is this your cat?"

Hao Ren got up to open the window for "Gun," responding without turning his head: "Yeah, its name is 'Gun.' Don't ask where the name came from; just call it that."

Despite being left to fend for itself for several days, "Gun" looked even fatter than before. No one knew how this amazing creature managed to thrive in the dangerous environment of the southern suburbs. It nimbly jumped onto Hao Ren's shoulder, its plump body snuggling against his neck. Then it noticed the stranger in the living room, and its cat face showed a very human-like expression of surprise.

It wasn't that "Gun" hadn't seen new residents before; it just hadn't seen a creature standing upright at 2.15 meters tall. Everyone had seen dogs, but if you saw a Shih Tzu as big as a fox, your expression would be the same as "Gun's."

Izaak, recalling something, had a nostalgic look on his face: "A pet, I used to have a cat too."

Hao Ren choked on his saliva: "You had a cat?!"

In his mind, he immediately pictured a five-meter-tall flame demon holding a small cat, which was cooked...

Izaak smiled: "There are no cats in the Demon Abyss, but I called it a cat. It was a demon hound, and when it lay down, it was taller than you. But it died later. It could have come with me, but it didn't want to leave."

Hao Ren forced a laugh: "Really, you named your dog a cat..."

At this moment, Lili had already packed her things and came out like a lively little rabbit. She immediately stopped in her tracks when she saw the black cat on Hao Ren's shoulder, respectfully greeting "Gun." Then she enthusiastically introduced Izaak: "Hey, big guy, let me introduce you. This is 'Gun,' the second-in-command here. I'm third, you're fourth, the TV in the living room is fifth, and the bat is sixth..."

Lili was clearly making things up. The dog seemed unusually excited after returning from a different time zone, running around like a puppy that had just come home. She even dared to joke with Izaak (who she originally feared quite a bit). Unfortunately, Izaak didn't understand a word she said. He turned to Hao Ren: "What did she say?"

"Ignore her, she's just being hyper," Hao Ren dryly laughed. "We need to visit Raven 12345 tomorrow to sort out the language issue. By the way, are you hungry? Want to eat something?"

Izaak shook his head: "No, just tell me where my room is. I'll go to sleep and think about how I can help you when I wake up."

Izaak had mentioned that he had spent the past half-month on Earth mostly sleeping. Hao Ren, a young man heavily influenced by novels, immediately thought he understood: "Oh, I get it. You must have expended a lot of mental energy traveling from another world, and now you need to sleep to recover to your peak state, right?"

Izaak gave Hao Ren a strange look: "Why do you always think so much? I just haven't adjusted to the time difference..."

Hao Ren: "...Follow me, there's an empty room upstairs."

Izaak agreed and was about to follow Hao Ren upstairs when Vivian suddenly ran out from the kitchen: "Landlord, are you arranging a room for the big guy? I have something to discuss with you."

Hao Ren looked at Vivian curiously, noticing her somewhat awkward expression: "What's up?"

"Let the big guy have my room," Vivian seemed to feel that her sudden request was troublesome, but she still said it, "I want to move to the basement."

Hao Ren opened his mouth, immediately misunderstanding: "Is it because Lili is pressuring you about the rent? Don't mind her, I don't even care, and I can't kick you out to the basement just because you don't pay rent..."

Vivian quickly waved her hands: "That's not what I mean, I really want to live in the basement—"

The young vampire pointed to the bright sun outside: "I feel lethargic during the day and need a cool place to rest. Although high-level vampires aren't afraid of the sun, it's best to stay away from it. I know you were kind enough to give me a sunny room, but if I keep living there, my endocrine system will be out of whack, and I might even be sunburned to death!"

Hao Ren initially thought Vivian was making up an excuse, but when she mentioned the characteristics of vampires and her expression was serious, he realized she was sincere. He didn't say much more, but he had a bit of a dilemma: "The basement is quite large, and it has water and electricity because it was once rented out. However, it's cluttered with all sorts of things, and it will take some effort to clean up."

"No problem, I'm very efficient!" Vivian looked very proud. "I'm very skilled at making a comfortable place to sleep in various environments!"

Seeing the eager look on the young vampire's face, Hao Ren felt a pang of sympathy: What kind of life did this poor girl have before...

Vivian quickly ran up and down the stairs to clean up, and Hao Ren helped enthusiastically. It didn't take long to switch the rooms. Izaak had no luggage at all, and the demon used magic to handle everything. His belongings seemed to come from some other dimension, so he just needed an empty room. Vivian's requirements were even simpler: a shady place, and she didn't even need it to be dry and well-ventilated (vampires have their own air conditioning), making it easy to arrange.

The large house had a spacious basement that was once rented out. During Hao Ren's "glorious business years," he had a sudden urge to renovate the basement, dividing it into two rooms. One was used as a storage room, and the other was like a small apartment, complete with tiles, wallpaper, furniture, and electrical appliances. It was almost the same as the rooms upstairs, except for the lack of windows, and it was even more spacious. In the past two years, no one had lived in the basement, and the room that was once used for renting had accumulated some clutter, but it was easy to clean up. Soon, all the clutter was gathered and prepared to be moved to the small storage room.

Vivian moved her luggage to her new room and saw Hao Ren squatting on the ground, rummaging through a wooden box. Curious, she approached: "Landlord, are these things going to the storage room later?"

"Yeah, we'll move them later. To be honest, they're not really useful, but it's a shame to throw them away—they're things from my childhood," Hao Ren looked at the contents of the wooden box, his face showing a nostalgic expression. "Look at these, they were all new back then. I even fought with the neighborhood kids over these things. Now they're all so worn out."

Vivian scratched her head: "To me, they look pretty new."

Hao Ren's moment of nostalgia died in his throat: He shouldn't have discussed life memories with an old demoness who carried a six-pound antique as a talisman; it was too easy to hurt his self-esteem.

Vivian noticed Hao Ren's brief awkwardness and quickly changed the subject, pointing to the items in the box and asking Hao Ren to introduce them.

"This is the lunch box I used in junior high, this is the game console I had as a child. Back then, game consoles used these cartridges. I often took the shell off and just inserted the circuit board into the machine, thinking it was very high-tech. This is my desk partner's winter homework... Damn, why is this here? Oh, and there's half a one-yuan note. I used to pick it up and hope to find the other half someday..." Hao Ren introduced each item with a sense of nostalgia, occasionally showing some surprise. Vivian listened with great interest, and the two, with a generational gap of several hundred years, studied the old items together. Finally, Hao Ren found a diamond-shaped metal plate at the bottom of the box, and Vivian's expression changed.

"I don't know where this came from," Hao Ren, completely unaware of Vivian's change in expression, played with the palm-sized metal plate. "It seems to be some kind of craft, and no one recognizes these twisted symbols..."

(Out for a while, came back late... Also, the new book "Death God's School Absence Diary" by the top student is currently climbing the Three Rivers list. Although it's in a dominant position, I still encourage everyone to vote and support it.)