Chapter 6

Translator: Mukyuu

Editor : Mikyuu

Proofreader: PenguinStel

His phone rang.

Wang Xiaoming immediately looked away from that contemplative gaze.

It was a call from his older cousin, whom he rarely saw even though they lived in the same city.

He hung up, turned around to look at Baal, and hesitated to speak.

“Spit it out.” Baal hated people who hedged.

Wang Xiaoming gathered his words and said, “My cousin will be coming by this afternoon.”

Baal raised his eyes, and the glint in his eyes terrified Wang Xiaoming.

“Uh, if you think it’s inconvenient…” He hadn’t wanted to agree at first but his cousin said it was about work, so Wang Xiaoming agreed impulsively. Now that he’d calmed down and thought about what happened to Chang Haitao, he was filled with regret.

“Sure.”

Wang Xiaoming looked puzzled and thought this ‘sure’ had a hidden meaning.

Baal’s lips lifted upward, “I look forward to it.”

…

He definitely didn’t feel good about this.

Wang Xiaoming clutched his phone and thought about finding an opportunity to call his cousin and canceling this visit.

“You won’t do anything to ruin my anticipation, right?” The corners of Baal’s lips were sharp, and when they lifted, they looked like death’s scythe.

…

Wang Xiaoming unhesitantly took out the phone’s battery.

Having hurriedly finished lunch, Wang Xiaoming was cleaning up the kitchen when he heard the doorbell ring and saw the door automatically open.

“Xiaoming.” Tony walked in and paused when he saw nobody behind the door. “You didn’t close the door?”

“Ah, right. Because you were coming by, I left it open.” Wang Xiaoming walked out of the kitchen after drying his hands. He turned around to see Baal lounging on the sofa and swallowed any anger he felt.

Tony was startled by the treatment, “What happens if you get robbed?”

Who would dare rob him now? One came, two left 1 Where “one came” is a single entity/human arriving (and dying) and “two left” is two body bags leaving because the single entity was split in half and needed two body bags. – because the person’s body would be split in half. “It’s pretty safe around here.”

Just as he finished saying that, someone stormed down from upstairs and ran as if their life depended on it. Someone chased after them with a glinting knife in their hands and yelled furiously as they ran, “Dammit, don’t let me catch you! If I don’t kill you… I’ll go to hell!”

…

Tony carefully closed the door.

Wang Xiaoming chuckled dryly. “Uh, I mean… our property is pretty safe.”

Tony nodded in understanding. Judging by this, he doubted any robbers would dare come by. “Aunt says you’re about to intern and are looking for a job. Have you found anything?”

“Not yet.” Wang Xiaoming sighed. “My major isn’t popular…”

“Oh. You studied environmental management.” Tony nodded in understanding.

Baal scoffed, “You had to learn how to sweep the floor 2 The pun is based upon a phrase in Chinese 保持环境干净整洁, which translates to “keep the environment clean and organized” where the environment is the space (e.g., office space, room, etc.) around you. Sweeping the floor, wiping tables, etc. would all be part of “keeping the environment clean” or “managing your environment.” ?”

…

Wang Xiaoming rebuked quietly, “I studied information resource management.”

“Oh. Information resource management. Same thing.” Tony waved the difference aside. “That is a hard major to find a job for. Can you speak basic English?”

“Uh, how basic?”

Tony didn’t want to damage Wang Xiaoming’s self-esteem, so he hurriedly said, “Do you know ABCD?”

…

He was a college student after all. No matter how bad his English was, he should know the ABCDs that appeared on multiple-choice questions.

Wang Xiaoming laughed dryly, “I passed level four 3 This likely refers to CET-4 (College English Test Band 4), which is a nationwide standardized test of English proficiency. .”

Tony shook his head. “What use is an exam? When you meet a foreigner, you should be able to at least say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ 4 “Say Hello Goodbye” is written in English in the original text. . I’ve met quite a few people who talked big but could only say ‘hi’ when they met a foreigner.”

Wang Xiaoming probed, “Are you talking about going to a hotel?” He seemed to remember that his cousin worked at a hotel.

Tony didn’t deny it. “800 a month, plus a meal a day. What do you think?”

…

Wang Xiaoming hesitated. Even though he was in a hurry to find a job, 800 a month was less than what he earned every month as a tutor.

“Right now, demand exceeds opportunity and it’s hard to find work.” Tony offered advice as someone who’d been through this. “You get 800 as an intern, but once you join full time, you get 1200. Do it for a couple of years and you’ll get a raise too.”

Baal suddenly interrupted and asked, “How much does a computer cost?”

Wang Xiaoming answered, “Somewhere around two to three thousand.”

…

This meant that even if he didn’t eat, didn’t drink, didn’t spend any money and bought the cheapest computer, he’d still have to wait three months.

Baal snorted and his cold gaze accurately conveyed his attitude towards this job.

Tony couldn’t hear Baal’s voice and just heard Wang Xiaoming say “two to three thousand.” He immediately said, “Sure, there are jobs with two or three thousand yuan salary. But they don’t have anything to do with environmental majors.”

…

His major had nothing to do with the environment either.

Wang Xiaoming barely had the energy to retort in his mind.

Tony thought for a moment and said, “But if you really need money, there’s a place that might… oh, forget it. Forget I said anything. If Aunt finds out that I introduced you to a place like that, she’ll murder me.”

Since Tony had said it, Wang Xiaoming became curious, “What place?”

Tony acted coy and refused to say.

Wang Xiaoming insisted on asking.

In the end, Baal got angry and waved his hand. Tony splattered against the wall like a mural.

…

Upon seeing Tony’s horrified look, Wang Xiaoming apologetically persuaded in a low voice, “Just say it.”

…

Tony rubbed his pained back and finally gave in. “Have you heard of Silver House?”

“I think I’ve heard of it somewhere?” Wang Xiaoming tried to recall.

“It’s the largest club in the city.” Tony described vaguely.

“Ah!” Wang Xiaoming suddenly remembered. Hadn’t the guy from the day before, the one he had accidentally poured Sprite all over, threatened to sell him to the Silver House? He had even spent a long time trying to look up the term.

Tony asked nervously, “You know about it?”

Wang Xiaoming answered, “I heard someone mention it.”

“Even the waiters there earn a minimum monthly wage of 1500, and that doesn’t include tips. The tips at that place are so much higher than what we get at our hotel. It’s no wonder people don’t want a regular old job anymore.” Tony appeared worried.

Wang Xiaoming carefully asked, “You said ‘that place’…”

“There are both male and female prostitutes there… and you can even do male-male or female-female.” Tony shook his head. “Trying to earn money there without being fully equipped is like asking for a death wish.”

Wang Xiaoming asked in surprise, “Men with men?”

Tony laughed when he saw Wang Xiaoming looking like he’d just seen a ghost, “What’s with the surprise? You know about catamites 5 Catamite (n) – a boy kept for homosexual practices. in history, don’t you?”

“I, I was just caught off guard.” Wang Xiaoming struggled to get his expression under control.

Tony assumed he was too innocent and had never heard about stuff like that. He never once considered that Wang Xiaoming was part of that crowd. “In my opinion, 800 a month is decent. There are too many people in the job market right now, and you should just find a job. If you find something better later, you can always change jobs.”

Wang Xiaoming thought about the bomb ticking away at school at that moment and had no idea when the whole thing would blow up in his face. It was a good idea to settle down with a job first so that, no matter what happened in the future, he had a backup plan. Once he considered this, he nodded his head and said, “Then, thanks for the help, cousin.”

Tony clasped his hand in satisfaction. “I’ve got stuff to do, so I’ll show myself out.”

“But I haven’t poured tea…” They had been talking about work the entire time and neither had even sat down.

“I’m just swinging by and have to get back to work in a bit.” Tony took a few steps forward and then, as if remembering something, pulled out a disc from his pocket. “I remember you like playing games. Here, my ex-coworker gave this to me. I thought you might like it.”

“What game?” Wang Xiaoming’s eyes glinted as he accepted the disc.

“Something like… Defeat Baal for a Meal?” The name had been so strange that Tony remembered it quite well.

Wang Xiaoming’s hands shook as they held the disc.

This was a crudely produced disc. Even the cover was hand-drawn.

At the top of the cover were the words “Defeat Baal for a Meal” written in black sharpie.

In the middle of the cover, a group of people of varying heights and hair colors surrounded a middle-aged man tied to a chair.

On the lower right-hand corner was a tiny list.

Game Design: Shi Feixia 6 Exiled Rebels Scanlations translated Feixia’s name as Feisha. This translation uses the pinyin to be consistent with how the other Chinese names are translated in the story .

Game Producer: Layton.

Game Image Models: Isefel, Shi Feixia, Antonio, Layton, Hughes, Gin 7 These are characters in the prequel story Spirit Hotel . They can mostly be read as standalones, but Baal was a side character in Spirit Hotel . .

Crack.

The disc in his hand inexplicably broke in two.

Wang Xiaoming knew without even thinking who would cause this kind of effect.

He slowly turned around to see Baal standing beside him. His normally sullen expression now looked like a gathering February snowstorm – bone-chilling to the extreme!

“… Cousin.” Wang Xiaoming wanted to cry.

But Tony had already left during the time Wang Xiaoming stood around in a daze. As he left, he had even shut the door out of consideration for the occupants.

So there was just a human… and fallen angel in the spirit mode inside the room.

“Shi! Fei! Xia!”

…

Baal bit out the words with deep hatred. With every word, Wang Xiaoming’s heart sank. This was clearly the part of the drama where the main villain gritted his teeth and remained powerless against the hero! According to drama tropes, the next person to enter the story would be cannon-fodder, one who bears the brunt of the anger and then exits in despair.

And the only one qualified to be cannon-fodder would be…

Wang Xiaoming despaired.

“I! Se! Fel!”

The disc turned into powder.

Wang Xiaoming crouched down and protected his head.

…

The powder remained spread out on the ground for quite a while.

And yet, Baal wasn’t doing anything.

Wang Xiaoming couldn’t resist turning his head to sneak a peek at Baal. He found Baal stroking his chin, lost in thought.

Even though Wang Xiaoming knew that if this bomb detonated, he’d be caught in the impact zone… because he could only move around within a 5-meter radius circle around Baal… running away was human nature. So when Baal came back to himself, he saw Wang Xiaoming squat walking slowly toward the kitchen.

“Your cousin knows Shi Feixia?” In a flash, Baal had moved in front of Wang Xiaoming.

Wang Xiaoming lifted his head and smiled appeasingly, “He probably bought it somewhere?”

“Hng. This is not some game available in the mortal world.” Baal said, but then he wasn’t sure. Even though Isefel was a fallen angel and couldn’t leave Noah’s Ark, Shi Feixia was human and he’d be able to sell things in the mortal realm.

…

But this also meant that, aside from meeting up with Noah’s Ark once a week, Shi Feixia was living by himself in the mortal realm for the other six days. An evil smile flitted across Baal’s face and he demanded, “Help me find this Shi Feixia!”

Wang Xiaoming looked at the powder on the floor, “Can you restore this?”

“What for?”

“Because the contact information should be on the disc.”

“… You didn’t see it?”

Wang Xiaoming’s mouth twitched and he managed to splutter, “I didn’t have time to.”

Baal silently looked at the pile of powder. “Can you patch it up?”

“Maybe before it got destroyed a second time.”

“…” Baal lowered his head and thought about what other spells he knew aside from destruction and warding.

1

Where “one came” is a single entity/human arriving (and dying) and “two left” is two body bags leaving because the single entity was split in half and needed two body bags. 2

The pun is based upon a phrase in Chinese 保持环境干净整洁, which translates to “keep the environment clean and organized” where the environment is the space (e.g., office space, room, etc.) around you. Sweeping the floor, wiping tables, etc. would all be part of “keeping the environment clean” or “managing your environment.” 3

This likely refers to CET-4 (College English Test Band 4), which is a nationwide standardized test of English proficiency. 4

“Say Hello Goodbye” is written in English in the original text. 5

Catamite (n) – a boy kept for homosexual practices. 6

Exiled Rebels Scanlations translated Feixia’s name as Feisha. This translation uses the pinyin to be consistent with how the other Chinese names are translated in the story 7

These are characters in the prequel story Spirit Hotel . They can mostly be read as standalones, but Baal was a side character in Spirit Hotel .