Chapter 69: Alcohol and Fire

Chen Fengshi continued to just watch the show, and of course he had no problem with that.

However, he was quickly disappointed.

This time, Little An did not intentionally provoke a large group of Fungal Demon Parasites and then put on a flashy fight against a whole crowd.

Little An simply and directly knocked down the stall owner selling spicy hot pot by the roadside, then devoured the Fungal Demon inside his body completely, and left immediately after finishing.

So much so that Chen Fengshi could not help but ask curiously, “What is this verifying?”

“Not sure yet, let’s talk about it later.” Little An said this, and Chen Fengshi was not so impatient that he could not wait, so he silently accompanied her, making it seem like he was supporting her. The two of them changed places again and again, attacking one Demon General after another.

And every success, in turn, proved the accuracy of the Map Program used by the Mutual Aid Association.

They were constantly attacking Demon Generals, but they were not the only ones taking action.

Little Huo and Alcohol from the Mutual Aid Association, as a team of two, were also riding a motorcycle speeding through the night.

They chose their targets more carefully, changed targets several times in a row, and finally chose a middle-aged uncle who was selling fried noodles alone by the road.

In this kind of place, there was little foot traffic. Selling fried noodles here was usually because the nearby neighborhoods with more people had strict management, so they set up stalls on this road specifically to do business with taxi drivers. But now was not the time for good business. Setting up the stall so early and waiting was nothing more than hoping for some possible passing trade.

Little Huo was a young big boy, just a freshman in a technical college, with a lean and tall body, wearing a helmet; Alcohol was a mature beauty of twenty-six, originally a public relations manager of a certain company. After the Demon Extermination Association was founded, she quit her job, spent her days drinking, and especially liked to play brief games of passion, living for the moment and never liking to think about long-term things.

After getting off the motorcycle, she hugged Little Huo’s arm, pressing her soft body right against him. Little Huo tried to break free helplessly, but Alcohol whispered, “You’re getting a bargain, still showing off?”

“…Thank you, but I already have someone I like.” Little Huo was truly not interested in this kind of bargain. Although he admitted that Alcohol was very attractive, he only had his goddess in his eyes, and he thought to himself that under the influence of this mental effect, he really could not muster interest in other women.

“No rush. A one-sided fool like you who is willing to be a spare tire will one day drink and cry while lying on my bed.” Alcohol said leisurely, and then added, “After dawn, you’ll still stick to me like a lifesaver. As for others, I would make them get lost, but for you, I can reluctantly comfort you for a few more days.”

“You are so nice to me, thanks.” Little Huo had a good temper, did not argue, and was not disgusted by her curse-like prophecy.

The two ordered fried noodles and stood to the side, talking softly like a couple.

The stall owner was busy frying eggs and noodles, and did not notice the fiery red mist spreading from Little Huo’s body. The color looked similar to the red mist of the Fungal Demon and Little An’s Primordial Power of Life, and it had already covered a patch of road beneath the stall owner’s feet.

Under the cover of the red mist, that patch of road suddenly seemed to melt, turning into a liquid state!

The smell made the stall owner look down and see it, and then, the Demon General Core lurking inside his body suddenly activated, instantly taking control of the stall owner’s body.

When he turned around and leaped up, trying to pounce on Little Huo and Alcohol—his nose suddenly caught a pungent smell, so his body went limp uncontrollably, the force of his leap was greatly reduced, and his raised foot stepped right onto the melted area of the road that he would normally never step on.

That was not enough. His body was so limp that he could not stand, and he collapsed directly to the ground. When one of his hands also pressed into the melted area, the liquid state of that area suddenly solidified, thus sealing one of his hands and one of his feet into the ground.

Little Huo went over, holding a tactical pen in his hand, and smashed the tip against the back of the Demon General’s neck. Finding that he did not faint, he added a bit more force and smashed again, but he still did not faint!

Just as Little Huo was about to smash for a third time, Alcohol, who could not stand watching, came over, picked up a leftover beer bottle from who knows who, held the bottle body with both hands, and forcefully poked the mouth of the bottle against the back of the Demon General’s neck—the Demon General instantly passed out. Alcohol casually threw away the beer bottle, sighed at Little Huo, and lectured him, “A man who is still so gentle at a critical moment will make women think he’s a sissy!”

“You do it.” Seeing that the Demon General was completely unable to break free, Little Huo let Alcohol handle the devouring of the Fungal Demon. As for Alcohol’s lesson, he could only respond with silence. He felt he had to be careful. What if he used too much force and killed the person, or caused severe injury, a concussion, or something like that? How bad would that be? After driving out the Fungal Demon, this would be a normal, innocent person!

He did not feel it was necessary to be so eager at such a moment, and to use brutal force right from the start regardless of the consequences. But this was his thought, and he felt there was no need to argue. Anyway, Alcohol had a more impatient personality and certainly would not agree with his concerns.

Alcohol did not stand on ceremony either, directly mobilizing her Power of Life to begin devouring the Fungal Demon inside the Demon General’s body.

Her Power of Life had no color, or rather, it was a transparent color. It could produce some pungent gases through the ultra-speed Activation of the fungal body. Whether it was just alcohol produced by fermentation was unknown, but the effect was very powerful.

So her codename was Alcohol, which was common and vivid. She herself also liked to drink heavily, and she also liked this alias.

Alcohol’s speed of devouring the Fungal Demon was not fast, not as fast as Little An, nor as fast as Little Huo. It took a full ten minutes before no more red mist was sucked out from this Demon General’s body.

When Alcohol stood up, she was so tired that she hugged Little Huo’s shoulder and leaned on him, not wanting to move at all. “I’m exhausted. Canyue said Number Seven’s Golden Power of Life can expel a Demon General in twenty seconds, so lucky!”

Little Huo had no opinion to express on this. He just silently entered the recorded time into his phone. The road surface, during Alcohol’s expulsion process, had already been repaired to its original state by his peculiar Power of Life.

After Alcohol rested for a while and recovered some strength, they got on the motorcycle.

Before setting off, Little Huo thoughtfully asked, “Do you need to find a place to eat something to replenish?”

“No need, the boss is waiting for the data, let’s hurry and take care of another one.” Alcohol’s consumption was huge. Although she got energy replenishment from the Demon General, her mental exertion was very large. Using the Power of Life continuously for ten minutes, ah! She had never tried this in the past, it simply felt like her energy was completely hollowed out, like working overtime for a day and a night!

The two rushed to the next place, but it was not suitable, so they continued searching until they found another suitable target who ran a small shop alone in an alley of a residential area…

When Little An received the information reported by Little Huo and Alcohol, she had already solved eight Demon Generals.

Every time, she recorded the expulsion time.

Chen Fengshi keenly noticed that the message she just read was related to the information she wanted to verify, so he asked, “Now there are results?”

Little An handed the phone to him. Chen Fengshi saw the information inside, which was two sets of data, respectively ten minutes and six seconds, and ten minutes and three seconds.

“Little Huo and Alcohol needed to absorb Fungal Demon cells today to maintain the activity of their Power of Life. When it was Little Huo’s turn to devour, Alcohol had drunk too much and joked with him, scaring him silly. As a result, he didn’t control his Power of Life well, melted the protective Core of the Fungal Demon Main Body, and devoured the Fungal Demon Main Body inside.” When Little An narrated up to this point, Chen Fengshi’s interest grew even stronger. He felt that the following information would definitely be very interesting.

“Then Little Huo said that he felt his Power of Life seemed to be more powerful than before.” Little An said, taking back the phone and switching to another chat. It was the eight sets of data she had sent to Canyue. The numbers in each set of data were smaller by zero point zero one to zero point zero two.

Chen Fengshi already understood what Little An was verifying at this point. “This is the change in the time you spent devouring the Fungal Demon cells from the eight Demon Generals, right? There are very likely differences among individual Demon Generals, but the time decrease in eight consecutive sets, plus the ones from Little Huo and Alcohol, should be fine as a directional conclusion.”

“Yes. You yourself possess the Golden Power of Life, and you are used to your own power, so having you record the time is no problem, but it is harder for you to capture changes in your own power’s intensity, whereas my Primordial Power of Life can capture more subtle power changes.” Little An was explaining why she had to test it herself, and finally affirmed, “Besides the time to devour Fungal Demons shortening, my power is also increasing, and the activity of the Power of Life can also be improved by devouring Fungal Demon Sub-bodies. This can be preliminarily concluded.”

“Those few people in Yangcheng paid special attention to the Fungal Demon Main Body at that time, did they already know about this?” Chen Fengshi thought of that time and had always wanted to ask, but previously felt it was inappropriate. If they were hiding some secret, they probably were not close enough to talk about it yet.

“No. In the past, the preciousness of the Fungal Demon Main Body lay in its ability to replenish the activity of the companions’ Power of Life. If you don’t devour Fungal Demon cells for a long time, the Power of Life will disappear, did you forget? For me, of course, there are also those uses you know about.” After Little An finished speaking, she said with a slightly mocking tone, “If those few people in Yangcheng had known this early on, they would have snatched it away even by fighting for it.”

Whether those few people in Yangcheng would be this unbearable, Chen Fengshi did not want to guess right now. He was just confused, so he continued to ask her, “Just to replenish the activity of the Power of Life? Is it worth being so nervous?”

Little An pointed her finger at the data recorded by Little Huo on the screen. “Golden Blood—please don’t use your own power as the standard. For you, needing to absorb Fungal Demon cells means you can just grab one, knock it down, eat, and leave; but please consider, what is the situation of a companion who needs ten minutes to devour a Parasite? Moreover, Alcohol’s absorption speed is considered above average!”

Alright, Chen Fengshi could only raise his hand to signal—he knew he was wrong, and he understood.

Little An did not continue to dwell on this topic, and said with special spirit, “I should be able to handle the combat power of the Demon Generals in the fringe areas independently. If we act separately, we can improve our strength together with the highest efficiency!”

Yes, this was such a situation worth looking forward to.

Having a way to improve the Power of Life meant that they could eliminate Fungal Demons faster and more easily!

If the Primordial Power of Life improved to eighty percent of Chen Fengshi’s, no, even sixty percent, or fifty percent, then they would no longer need to rely on Chen Fengshi being around.

“I’ll accompany you first, to see the data changes when you use the Golden Power of Life. How many of these Demon Generals would I have to kill to improve my devouring time by one second? It’s better to help you improve your strength, which is obviously more meaningful.” Chen Fengshi truly thought so.

Little An was a bit surprised… But this was the thing about Chen Fengshi that she found the most unbearable. When he was being stubborn, he showed no sign of backing down, but when he was not being stubborn, he made people feel agreeable, easy to talk to, and quite considerate.

So, just as a bit of goodwill made her grit her teeth, and before her annoyance turned into disgust, she was softened by his kindness again.

“You volunteered and took the initiative yourself. Don’t turn around and say I owe you later, and don’t expect me to feel like I owe you because of this!”

“You’re overthinking it. At a time like this, just silently accepting my kindness is fine. Saying harsh things in advance makes you less cute!” Chen Fengshi did not have those motives at all, but hearing her say this, he instead realized—she actually already felt that she owed him a favor for this.