"Hello?"
A sleepy, hoarse voice came through the receiver.
Orornado's tone held no room for argument: "Three minutes. Get your ass over here."
His optical computer fell in free fall, crashing into the carpet.
Orornado pressed one hand against the wall, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.
Hearing the commotion, Yuxing stepped out of the bathroom, wiping her face.
Orornado lifted his deep blue eyes, capturing her figure with pinpoint accuracy.
His gaze was straight and scorching.
His Adam's apple rolled heavily, like a shark that had caught the scent of blood.
Whether it was her imagination or not, she felt Orornado looked a bit strange right now.
Yuxing stopped in her tracks, keenly sensing something was off: "Are you... okay?"
She didn't know what was wrong with Orornado, but she knew she shouldn't get close to him right now. So, she turned on her heel and bolted.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as she hoped.
She had barely taken two steps.
A sudden chill crept up her spine, and the next second, a tall figure pressed against her back without warning.
Orornado violently tackled her to the ground, his cold breath ghosting over the back of her neck.
Even through her clothes, Yuxing could tell that Orornado's body temperature was abnormally low.
If she looked back.
She would have seen Orornado displaying a terrifying, inhuman appearance, the black veins on the back of his hand glowing with a fluorescent blue bioluminescence.
Like a monster living in the deep sea.
Wearing a human skin and crawling ashore, but when starved, it still inevitably resorted to the most primitive hunting method: the bait takes the hook.
Yuxing's voice trembled as she tried to use her reason to assess the situation: "Are you hungry?"
Orornado thought about it.
Hungry?
Right, they were starving.
They were screaming frantically inside his body, demanding that he pin down the nape of her neck and make her release more pheromones.
For twenty-nine years.
His rotting world had plenty of burial companions.
He wouldn't mind one more.
All he needed to do was pierce his pet's neck with the sharp arm-teeth on his tentacles, and the warm, fresh blood would erupt, carrying a rush of pheromones.
Yuxing turned her head: "Calm down..."
Before she could finish her sentence.
She saw them.
Several blue-black tentacles extended from behind the master, covered with ancient and mysterious black markings.
The suckers along one side of the tentacles concealed a ring of sharp arm-teeth.
Clearly lacking eyes, they still gave her a sticky, unsettling sensation of being watched.
They rushed forward to wrap around her, as if trying to knead her into their bones and blood, occasionally emitting low-frequency hums that sounded like sighs of satisfaction.
Yuxing's vision darkened repeatedly, a chilling sense of crisis creeping up her spine as a cold sweat broke out across her back.
The temperature plummeted.
The air was shrouded in an eerie, chilling dampness.
Just when Yuxing thought she would be swallowed by the monster-like tentacles, a golden-yellow owl appeared, flapping its wings.
The tentacles snapped upright and lunged at the intruder, but the owl nimbly dodged the flailing weapons of death.
One tentacle, as thick as an adult's arm, tilted its head, shoved past the other tentacles, and charged at the little bug that had dared to disturb a "fish's" sweet dream.
This time.
The owl had nowhere to run. It was hit as if by a speeding sports car and sent flying straight back.
Before being knocked away.
The owl successfully jammed a syringe into one of the tentacles.
The tentacles quieted down, reluctantly retreating back into their host.
The owl slowly transformed into a human form.
He was extremely tall, with blond hair, green eyes, and handsome features. His irises were as green as mint-chocolate.
Leaning against the wall with the corner of his mouth ticked up in a smile, dressed in a black military uniform, his messy hair and the trace of blood at the corner of his lips gave him a battle-scarred look.
"Sorry I'm late. Are you okay?"
The turn of events happened too fast.
Too fast for Yuxing to even process.
She glanced at the Sleeping Beauty (Orornado), then back at the owl gentleman who was coughing up blood.
"I'm fine, but you don't seem too good."
Quinn wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the pad of his thumb: "Used to it."
Yuxing: (￣.￣)
A true hero dares to face a bleak life!
Quinn pulled a pair of rimless glasses from his side pocket, propped them on the bridge of his nose, and did some quick calculations on his optical computer.
"One dose of suppressant, seventy-eight thousand; work-related injury, one hundred and one thousand; let's round it up. Please help me commit perjury, the King owes me two hundred thousand."
Yuxing: "..."
Are you sure your King won't beat you to a pulp when he wakes up?
Yuxing refused righteously: "Shameless, utterly shameless! I, Yuxing, will never sink to your level!"
Quinn froze for a second before bursting into laughter: "I'll split ten thousand with you."
Yuxing said solemnly: "One must be grounded and realistic in life."
Quinn snapped his fingers: "Twenty thousand, not a penny more."
Seeing when to stop while she was ahead, Yuxing agreed: "Deal!"
Orornado: "..."
He had originally been worried that his pet would be frightened out of her wits by him. Little did he expect that not only was she unfazed, but she even dared to conspire with his General to rip him off right in front of him.
Yuxing was busy pondering how to spend those twenty thousand credits.
Turning her head, she met a pair of blue eyes filled with amusement and playfulness. She reached out and covered her master's eyes.
Orornado fell silent for a moment: "You certainly have some nerve."
Yuxing nodded heavily.
Obviously.
If she didn't have a big nerve, she would have been scared to death when the apocalypse arrived.
Orornado lowered his head, letting his pet cover his eyes.
The faint scent of roses lingered in his heart, and the irritability that had plagued him for years suddenly quieted down.
He just stayed there quietly, not saying a word, until Quinn tried to add her on the optical computer as a friend.
Orornado began to grow irritable again.
A tentacle uncontrollably poked out.
Quinn jumped back in alarm.
"Hey? Hey!"
"Why is it out again? Looks like I'll have to make the doctor up the dosage next time."
"Not the face, not the face!"
"Your Majesty, I was wrong! I know I was wrong!"
Yuxing listened in utter confusion: "Wrong about what?"
Quinn clutched his swollen face, his words slurred: "Nee don't wory abowt it."
Yuxing didn't understand, but she was deeply shocked.
Was this the highest realm of a bootlicker?
Master, she finally understood!
Seeing his pet staring at Quinn, Orornado felt an inexplicable irritation well up inside him. He deliberately stepped between the two of them, blocking his pet's view.
"Not curious... why I'm like this?"
Yuxing countered: "If I ask, will you tell me?"
Orornado chuckled softly: "No."
Yuxing gave Orornado a sideways glance.
Knew you were going to pull this crap again!
Orornado calmly accepted his pet's resentment: "Hungry?"
Yuxing rubbed her stomach.
She wouldn't have minded if he hadn't brought it up.
Now that he mentioned it, she was indeed a little hungry.
Orornado swept his pet up into his arms.
Yuxing struggled: "I have legs, I can walk myself."
Orornado used action to suppress his pet's rebellion.
Quinn watched the retreating figures with his jaw dropped in shock.
Was this his rebellious, tyrannical, and volatile King?
Could he have been possessed by some evil spirit?
Every time the King had an episode, leaving corpses scattered across the fields was the mildest outcome, which also meant that maids in the royal palace were in a high-risk profession.
Zero casualties like today was a first for him.
There had been pets in the royal palace before, but without exception, they were all scared half to death by the King's mimicry and didn't even last long enough for him to arrive.
No, he had to follow them and take a look.
Don't ask.
Asking means he cares about the King.
He would never admit he just wanted a free breakfast!