It seemed I was right to come today. "So, can I hear the lies you've been telling?"
I looked at her expression. "It's simple! You're so stunning and moving that I felt I wasn't good enough for you, so I gave up on the idea myself. That's all, very simple!"
Camearra said, "That sounds like a terrible cop-out!"
Hearing what she said, "Knowing full well I had no chance, why struggle? I'm not the kind of shameless person to cling on. Clean and crisp, isn't that better? It saves me from lying to myself and tormenting myself—that's never a good habit."
I asked, "Anything else? If not, you should head back! I just got here, the place is modest, so I won't host you for long."
She criticized without the slightest restraint. "You really do keep your word! Throwing me out just like that?"
I looked at her pretty face. "Knowing there's no chance, why waste my energy on a losing proposition? With that time, I'd rather study new skills and improve my own strength—isn't that better?"
Instead of leaving, she sat down beside me. "I don't know what you've been through before, but what I said is true. I came today with two purposes. First, to deliver crystals; second, to get in touch with you. If we hit it off, living together shouldn't be a problem at all. But you—you won't give me even the slightest chance! You misunderstood what I said this morning, but I really wasn't lying."
This caught me completely by surprise. Oh well, if she wants to play, I'll just play along. Right now, I really have no interest in any of this, so why take it seriously? When it all falls apart in the end, the one who gets hurt will still be myself.
I perked up and said, "Fine! What do you want to know? Go ahead, and I'll introduce myself properly."
Hearing this, she didn't hesitate at all. "Let's start with what you know best!"
Hearing that, I wasn't surprised either, and dug out the self-introduction speech I used to rattle off like a quick-verse rhyme: "My human form is called Yang Lifeng; gender, male; height, one meter eighty-two; I eat plenty of things and I'm never picky."
"My Giant form is called Secia, sixty-one meters tall. Weight, speed, arm strength, and all that messy stuff—I've never measured it. Aside from researching and learning skills, I just spend my time fighting. My practical combat experience isn't top-tier, but at least it's not bad. Weapons: two Head Sluggers, two Arm Blades, and one Long Sword. As for combat power, you've seen it—it's decent. I won't go into the rest."
In truth, the rhyme from my past life was much longer, taking over a minute to rattle off in one breath. But many of those details weren't appropriate to bring up here, like my ID number, home address, and so on. In this lifetime, I hadn't even lived in human form for more than a few days anyway; it wouldn't fit.
Seeing me stop, she let out a chuckle. "You're really something! Who introduces themselves like that? You're just blurting out all your weapons and equipment—aren't you afraid of leaks, or of enemies targeting you?"
I didn't care in the least. "What's there to be afraid of? In battle, as long as you actually use them, you can't hide them anyway. If I really lose because of that, I can only blame myself for lacking skill. If I die in battle, who else is there to blame?"
She listened intently to my answer. "You really are a peculiar person. You don't care at all about your secrets leaking, and your confidence is rock-solid. You aren't even afraid of death—how on earth did you train yourself to be like this?"
Remembering the boredom of the pendant space, I instinctively reached for my neck, but felt nothing. Inspecting myself, I found that the object no longer had a physical form, though there was now a pendant tattoo on my neck. I was certain I hadn't lost it, but what was going on? I couldn't make heads or tails of it!
"In this world, there are things far more terrifying than death. Once you've experienced them, death is no longer worth fearing. Unable to live, unable to die—that is what I consider truly terrifying."
She asked curiously, "What on earth happened? What could make you so terrified, with an expression like that? Can you tell me in detail?"
I shook my head and fell silent, calming my emotions. Even now, I never wanted to experience that again. Even if I had to choose suicide, I would never go through that again. That was the true meaning of being unable to live and unable to die—that was the ultimate terror.
She could see that my mood was currently too low to continue chatting, so she patted my shoulder. Comforting me, she said, "It's all in the past. A new life is waiting for us. Let go of the unpleasantness, and tomorrow will be better. Take your time to adjust; I'm heading out now. See you tomorrow." With that, she ran off.
Sigh! Was this woman here just to mess with my head? As expected, I'm the one who ends up getting hurt! Forget it, I can't play this game anymore. Next time I won't play at all—I'll just flat out refuse, won't I?
I lay back down, but it felt uncomfortable. Rolling over, I found a comfortable position. I summoned the Monster Heiren; only it could shrink down to the size of a palm at will. With it standing guard, I would be safe. Curling up on the bed, I fell fast asleep.
I didn't wake up until Monster Heiren shook my head to rouse me, signaling that someone was knocking at the door. I rubbed my eyes, walked over to the door, and opened it.
It was Camearra, a familiar face. "What brings you here?"
I heard her say, "Tiga found some teammates, and I've come to drag you over. We're getting ready for a mission. How long have you been sleeping? What kind of state are you in?"
I replied casually, "Ever since you left, all the way until now."
"Ah! That's been two and a half days! You really can sleep. Can we get going now?"
"Hold on, let me grab my things." I went back inside, put away Heiren, and stepped out of the room. "Let's go find him." With that, relying on Telekinesis, I began to transform.
Arriving at the camp with her, I finally cleared my head completely.
Seeing us arrive, Tiga walked over with another Giant of Light. He called out, "You're here. This is our last teammate, a friend of mine, the Giant of Light, Bate."
Bate stated bluntly, "This time it's distribution based on contribution—kill more, get more. No one has any objections to that, right?"
Camearra's tone wasn't very friendly. "What? Afraid we'll take a cut of your hard work? Don't think that just because you're of Upper strength, you're guaranteed to harvest more than us if it comes down to a real fight!"
That wasn't the nicest thing to say, but coming from her to a Giant of Light, I wasn't surprised in the least.
As the organizer and team leader, Tiga shared his view. "This works too; it avoids unfair distribution later that could lead to disputes, which wouldn't be good. What do you think?" Tiga asked, turning to me.
I nodded. Nothing wrong with that—kill more, get more. It was a very fair distribution plan.
Seeing that I agreed, Tiga continued, "Then let's move out." He took the lead and flew toward the monster gathering grounds.
We stopped in a concealed location. Tiga asked softly, "Shall we work together to form a detailed plan, or should everyone operate on their own?"
Camearra asked, "Do you have a good plan?"
Tiga began explaining his plan. "I'm thinking the four of us can pick one direction to break in from and slowly push inward. It's slow, but given our strength, finishing the job is just a matter of time, and it's quite safe."
Camearra voiced the problem Bate was most worried about. "That makes it very easy to end up with uneven distribution. If someone doesn't pull their weight, won't the others get the short end of the stick?"
In truth, if everyone were a Dark Giant, things wouldn't be this complicated. Even an even split would be fine, but the crucial point was that there was a Giant of Light here. The friction between both sides was already showing; it was only because there were plenty of monsters that everyone was exercising restraint. If there weren't any monsters around, they would have started brawling long ago.
Bate chimed in, "That's what I wanted to say, too."
I also offered my perspective. "Since everyone is worried about this, let's pair up and operate independently. There are nineteen in this area total; two teams will strike from different directions, and once we're done, we'll distribute the spoils based on contribution. How does that sound?"
Bate said, "I'm familiar with Tiga, so the two of us will go together."