“Wait, so you were all in on this? OIII, System is that why you have kept quiet all this while?” Jin questioned in annoyance but got no answer. He waited for the girls to also change clothes before continuing their conversation.
“They thought it would fun to make you go cray cray once in a while.” Qiu Yue apologised as she quietly checked if she still had any odour from the sludge on her.
“Cray Cray?” Pei did not know what that was and could only assume the meaning behind it.
“Crazy. A slight slang.” Lynn explained as she typed a message for her penguins to bring some food to Jin’s usual dinner table. That table was left empty in their house for a very long time. (Definitely not eighty years long!)
“System agreed to Bellator Pei’s idea since there was a 54.79% chance that faced with his own mortality and the passage of time, the User would start to be more proactive in procuring the next generation. Any attempts to wake User had been unsuccessful, even the non subtle ones.” The System spoke out while the whole group teleported to Jin’s house.
Everything was the same as it is as if there was no change.
“What do you mean with non subtle ones?!” Jin asked as he started to check on his body. All he knew there were still needle wounds all over his arms, and that was where it ached the most.
“Nothing much to be honest.” Pei answered as she was the first to pull the chair out and sat down as if her burdens were lifted away from her. “I first tried to make you regain by inserting chi in specific points of your body.
After it failed, I tried the same with accupuncture, and even an aromatherapy hoping that certain smells would wake you up. Without any progress, we tried a more modern version by electrocuting you a few times, hoping to excite your brain waves while not short circuiting your heart.”
“And you dare to say it so calmly!” Jin could not believe what he heard and decided to dismiss it since he knew there was no use pondering over it. “So how long was I really out? It honestly feels like it was yesterday to me, but it might just as well have been more than a month.”
“Your timing is impeccable. You sure, you didn’t plan this out? Today’s actually Chinese New Year’s Eve. Well, just the start that is.” Qiu Yue pulled her phone out, and it showed 00:23. Jin quickly checked his phone, and the timing had been synchronised properly.
“Gosh. That means I was out for nearly two weeks or so.” Jin realised as he sat at the end of the table. Soon the penguins arrived, all delighted to see their master was well once more. They had no idea that he was out cold for such a long time and believed what Kraft and the others had said about him being wounded and resting.
Only after the penguins had left, Lynn decided to fill him in and not reveal the truth of the matter to his minions. “… So, we inadvertently told them that you were hidden away in some secluded place to recuperate and create the new dungeon instances for this upcoming Chinese New Year Holiday.”
“Should the System inform Panda Remnant Hou Fei and past Sub System User Yuan about your recovery or does the User prefer being the bearer of good news?” The System asked as it knew that there were a lot of things Jin had to do because of their white lies. While they knew about Jin’s condition, the System felt Jin would need some time to adjust.
“Let’s leave that matter for later. Jin is finally awake, and we should use the time together to have the mini celebration for Jin’s recovery first. Besides, I am really hungry now that I know Jin’s okay. Not to mention Jin, who hasn’t had enough to eat for all that time.” Qiu Yue commented, and the rest felt the same way too. They all felt as if a heavy load had been lifted off their shoulders since all the signs of Jin being unresponsive had been way too abnormal.
“Don’t count us out!” Peppers suddenly chimed in as she came running down the stairs, nearly tumbling over one missed step. Milk had to hold onto the back of her shirt to prevent her from falling flat on her face.
“Same here, after giving Jin so much of my blood, I need some food here. But hehe, at least I know I am now one with Jin.” Milk said with a blush until she got kicked by Peppers in the stomach. Though it was not that painful, it was surprising that Peppers had learned a trick or two from the Monk class Bellator.
“You little rascal! Is this how you repay me after saving you from falling flat on the ground?! Yo- Ooof!” Now another kick to her face which nearly made Milk react with a punch/slap but Jin intervened in time by dragging Peppers away.
“My blood is equally as much as yours in him. It disgusts me knowing that! For the Demonic Sag- Mmhmmm.” Peppers’ mouth was stuffed with a drumstick which immediately pacified her.
“Milk, be a good elder sister. Forgive and forget. She helped you too when you nearly fainted after throwing too much mana into Jin, right?” Pei reminded her and Milk had no choice but to let the little rascal get away with it this time. Fortunately, that anger simmered down the moment a piece of food went into her mouth, and she fell into the laps of heavenly bliss.
“So, what is all this blood thing that you guys talked about?” Jin asked, and Pei informed him that he had been suffering from Chi Death Syndrome, which was why he had been unconscious.
Moreover, Jin was able to preserve his life because of his unique cultivation.
“Sounds bad enough. Sorry to have made you guys worry so much. Also, got to tell you guys something. Remember how…erm with regards to the Loopa Ooofpa, we couldn’t find the summoner?”
“Yeah, we killed all the Banned Emperor lackeys, yet the monster still rampaged on. We looked everywhere but no mastermind who we could have missed.” Milk remembered’ about the incident.
“Not your fault. Apparently, he was controlling the monster from within.” Jin revealed, and the rest looked at him confused. Even the System had certain queries on how he got such a piece of information.
“Oh. Eh fun fact. He fled into me when his life was about to be over. Had to fight him off. Well, I didn’t really exactly best him or anything. Things in my subconscious or unconscious…pssh I dun even know which is which. But anyways, they beat them.” Jin said, and the rest had problems responding.
“Are you okay Jin? Pei, do you wish to check his psych?” Qiu Yue asked as if she did not know whether Jin was blabbering the truth or still suffering from some unknown side effects from the blood transfusion aftermath.
“I …am actually a little apprehensive about the situation. Kraft did tell me that Jin had some special plane of subconsciousness which he used to train himself, but I do not exactly know the details. Unlike him, I had mainly focused on defensive psychic usage, so I can’t really dive into someone’s consciousness. You will have to ask him to do that.”
“Why can’t you just ask the source?” Jin questioned, and Pei shook her head.
“Trust my patient who came back from a near death experience?”
“More like trusting your boss? Just this once?”
“…” Pei sighed heavily and nodded her head slowly. (Perhaps with good food, her mood has been alleviated just like with the other female bellators?) “Fine, let’s assume that it is true. So what actually happened?”
“He invaded my head because there were no psychic or mental defence barriers, thinking that it would be very easy to go through.”
“Welp, that’s partially my fault,” Pei interjected.
“Nah, it’s not your fault. I was the one to agree to your request. No one could have known they had a psychic user amongst them.” Jin emphasised. ” In any case, he thought he could control my body and pretend to be me-” and suddenly everyone went into battle mode. Even Peppers was holding a drumstick as a wand.
“Wait, wait listen. I am myself!” Jin tried to calm the group down, but they were not letting up.
“Kraft. We need you.” Pei said as she was unsure whether this was really a ruse or not since there were some things she could not detect.
“For the beautiful and enchanting Pei to call upon me, there must be some – oh, Master you are back.” Kraft said and bowed towards Jin. “Had a good time training?”
“That’s not the point, he said there was a Banned Emperor Summoner that was inside his psych. We are not sure whether it’s him or that Banned Emperor Summoner.”
“”Seriously guys, if I were a fake, would I be stupid enough to share this story with you all?!” Jin questioned with a stone face.
“How can we believe you? What if you suddenly call out hand tentacles against us?!” Peppers asked and added that maybe Milk might be delighted.
“What?! No! Don’t group me like that!” Milk countered.
Kraft immediately walked towards him to size him up and yet Jin was not afraid. He sat back down and ate his supper while Kraft took slow steps and even released a concentrated amount of chi.
Suddenly Jin was back to a dark room with a lightbulb, with a gun pointing at him.
“What has this period of darkness taught you?”
“Thanks to this darkness, it showed me the beauty of light?” Jin joked a little.
The next moment he was back in the kitchen and continued with the meal. The rest hadn’t even noticed him disappearing.
“How boring. The Jin you talked to is undoubtedly genuine… though I have to say, you’ve changed a lot.” Kraft stated with a slight relaxed smirk.
