Chapter 3 - Self-esteem
Translated by Oxy
Unedited
"Mission: Kill the Water Hyacinths. [Coordinates]
During a bird migratory season, an alien species of Water Hyacinths were introduced into the lake. Due to the lack of natural predators, the plants are overpopulating the lake, causing large amounts of fish and other aquatic life to die due to the lack of oxygen, destroying the lake's ecosystem. Please kill the Water Hyacinths!
Reward: 20 Balance Points."
"Mission: Root out the cause of poisoning in a river's creek. [Coordinates]
Malicious travellers polluted the creek with poisonous substances, poisoning the water, causing animals who drink it to die one after another, destroying the creek's ecosystem. Please solve it quickly!
Reward: 10 Balance Points."
"Mission: Hunt down the Spirit Wolf King. [Coordinates]
A Wolf King inadvertently has awoken its potential to cultivate. It absorbed the world's spiritual force, and transformed into a Spirit Beast, turning berserk. It is now massacring various living creatures for its own amusement, destroying the forest ecology. Please put an end to the Spirit Wolf King!
Reward: 150 Balance Points."
"Hahaha! Luckily this world's ecosystem is intact. It can't even be compared to my previous world!" Bai Xiao excitedly said, pacing back and forth.
Why was Bai Xiao excited? It was actually because of the change in the rewarded balance points. In his previous, crumbling world, the system could only reward just one percent of the points he is getting now. Often desperately struggling to complete a mission, yet only to be rewarded with a single balance point. For the sake of achieving his goal to transmigrate to another world, which needed ten-odd thousand of balance points, only he knew how much suffering he went through. But now, even getting rid of the source of poisoning in a river's creek, a relatively simple mission, would net him 10 balance points. Now Bai Xiao could feel that the good times are just getting started!
However, there was a thing that needs to be said in regards to this matter. Like the status stats, the balance points were also to the nearest whole number. But there was no change of colour to represent the decimal points. It means that a point was precisely just a point. For example, if Bai Xiao needs a toothpick, he needs to exchange one balance point for it. If he needs a pack of toothpick instead, it still costs one balance point. Even an entire box of toothpicks would still cost one balance point. Only in larger quantities would the balance points required be two. In other words, if one balance point is worth a thousand toothpicks, and you only exchange it for a single toothpick, the remainder would just disappear.
This was very unfair as far as Bai Xiao was concerned, but that was just how the system is. Love was useless! There were also some advantages for Bai Xiao, and that was precisely the rewards!
The rewarded balance points, even if it was less than a point, the system would still treat it as one point, instead of not counting it at all. Back in Bai Xiao's previous world, even if the rewards were just one one-hundredth of the original, it would still be one point, no matter how small the original amount was, and not some fraction of a point!
"Bai Xiao, it's time to return. There are still classes later!"
An aged voice brought Bai Xiao back from his musings. He turned his head and saw a somewhat ugly old man with a walking stick slowly limping towards him.
"Yes, great-granddad!" Bai Xiao replied cutely while taking a quick glance at the rising sun. Even though he had spent half of his life polishing a sophisticated appearance, acting like a child was still a piece of cake for him.
Great-grandfather calmly looked at Bai Xiao and nodded with satisfaction. He held out his wrinkle-covered black left hand, and Bai Xiao cutely held onto it. All of his actions were completely natural, casting an image of a loving pair of a grandfather and his grandson.
"Let's go, it's time to go home."
"Alright, great-grandad!" A glimmer of warmth flashed in his eyes.
Great-grandfather was the person who raised him up, and was also his most intimate relative!
The lengthy mountain trail they were on was narrow and rugged, so they could only walk slowly. But they were still able to return back to the village before class started.
Great-grandfather beamed at the little boy standing outside their house. Looking at how Bai Xiao seemed to be afraid to leave him, great-grandfather felt amused.
"Go! I will cook some roast lamb for you tonight." Great-grandfather lets go of Bai Xiao's hand and lightly patted his back, encouraging him to leave.
"En! I'm looking forward to it!" Bai Xiao laughingly said while he left the house.
A boy saw Bai Xiao leaving his house, and very excitedly trotted towards him, with a face full of smiles.
"Don't make such a fuss! Come, let's go to school together!" Bai Xiao jokingly scolded, grabbed the boy's hand, and they walked towards the east of the village.
The boy, Bai Conan, was the same age as Bai Xiao. He is Bai Xiao's playmate, and they share a tight brotherhood. Bai Xiao did not break off the relationship he had with that little imp. Since he went through all these work to be young again, he decided to embrace a mentality of a child as well. However, no matter how hard he tried to act as a child, the feelings he had for Bai Conan could not be the same as before. Now, Bai Xiao treated him as his little brother.
Conan! This name… Bai Xiao wanted to laugh. Although there was nothing to laugh at before, now that he regained his memories, it became quite funny. (TN: Reference to Detective Conan.)
The school was huge, and it gave off a flourishing aura as well. From this, one could see how much the Bai people value education. The school separated the students into different classes. Bai Xiao was in the Junior Class.
"Oh my! Isn't this the great child prodigy? You are obviously smart enough already, yet still so hardworking, how do you expect us to keep up?" This immature-sounding string of words came from the Tyrant of Junior Class, Bai Kai. To the teachers, he was one of the hardest students to deal with.
That child prodigy was naturally our main protagonist, Bai Xiao. After all, he had a soul of an adult person. Even if his memories were sealed, his learning capabilities were still incomparable to children his age.
Bai Xiao pulled Conan aside. He then saw those bunch of hooligans act like some big shot gangsters, trying to intimidate everyone around them.
Bai Xiao shook his head and ignored those idiots. When he was in high school, he saw his fair share of delinquents looking to cause trouble, trying to act like gangsters they read in comics.
This bunch of wannabes were very immature, yet unexpectedly, the class seemed to have bought their act. Even the eyes of the famous detective next to him… *cough* Conan, were gleaming as well. Bai Xiao could not stand it anymore. Alas, Generation gaps…
"You! Bai… Conan, come over here and massage my leg. I was very busy recently, my leg is a little bit sore." Bai Kai initially wanted to call out Bai Xiao's name, but after considering Bai Xiao's towering height, along with his title of being the school's top prodigy, did not dare to do so. He could only switch his target to the one next to Bai Xiao, Conan, in order to find a way out of this embarrassing situation.
"This…" Conan felt some hesitation. Even though he totally bought Bai Kai's act, he was unwilling. Why? Because a tiny shred of self-esteem hidden in his heart faintly reminded himself that this was wrong, and that he must not go through with it!
"Hm?" Bai Kai saw Conan hesitating, nasally sounded a groan.
Conan’s eyes flashed with a trace of panic. The Tyrant of Junior Class was famed for his fighting prowess, causing fear to penetrate into his very being. This fear led to him being unable to go against Bai Kai's orders. Feeling helpless, he hastily ran towards Bai Kai and was prepared kneel down to massage his leg. Observing Conan's actions, Bai Kai flashed an arrogant smile and snorted haughtily.
But just when Conan was about to kneel down, a person suddenly appeared in front of him, standing between Conan and Bai Kai.
"Bai Xiao…" Conan muttered, looking at the figure of Bai Xiao's back standing before him.
"Bai Xiao, what is the meaning of this? Do you want to die?" Bai Kai furiously pushed his subordinates aside and shouted at Bai Xiao. Originally, he wanted to give Bai Xiao face and not let him massage his leg. Yet, not only was he not grateful, Bai Xiao even prevented Conan from massaging his leg! Did Bai Xiao think that he did not have any temper?
Bai Xiao glanced at the inexplicably flustered Bai Kai, then he turned around to look at Bai Conan. He said, "Conan, matters like these are not for you to do, you are not just some lowly servant!"
"There are some things that one must never do. Once you did, your morals would start to degenerate, causing you to start compromising and make excuses for your actions, leading to a downward spiral to depravity. Once you did it for the first time, it will leave scars in your heart. Next time you encounter a similar situation, you would feel that since you already did it the last time, it would be nothing if you did it again. The second time would lead to a third, then a fourth… Over time, you would get used to being cowardly, making it a habit. Your life will subsequently lose all meaning." Bai Xiao did not care whether or not Conan understood, he just lectured what he wanted to lecture, and left it at that.
Conan looked at the somewhat unfamiliar Bai Xiao, feeling somewhat shocked. He was still tender in age, how could he understand all those words? He only felt that Bai Xiao was right and that he must not back down and cower!
Conan then started to sob uncontrollably, baffling Bai Xiao. The reason why children cry was very simple. Other than displaying discomfort, they do not know of other ways to express themselves. Tired? Cry! Pain? Cry! Sad? Cry! Worried? Cry! Guilty? Cry! Moved? Cry! Bored? Cry as well!! …
"There, there." Bai Xiao patted Conan's head somewhat helplessly, but he knew that Conan was not being consoled that much, if at all. That was because children were unreasonable creatures. If a child was crying, the more you try to console the child, the fiercer the child would cry. Why was that? Ah! Who knows…
"You son of a bitch!" The ignored Bai Kai felt that he was provoked, angrily cursed. There were some kids in Bai Kai's gang that felt somewhat uncomfortable after being ignored as well.
Bai Xiao turned his head, only to see a Bai Kai that looked like he was ready for a fight. Little children willing to die to save face! bai Xiao found this situation to be somewhat laughable.
"Are you challenging me to a fight?" Bai Xiao said. He did not mind giving the children, who thought gang fights were fun, a lesson.
Bai Xiao was very confident of his strength and fighting skills. He did not believe he was no match for this little delinquent.
Hm? Bullying children? Are you kidding me? He was also a child now, too!
"Please don't fight, guys. Don't fight!" A few girls that were watching from the side, noticing that something serious was about to happen, tried to calm them down. Some of them ran out to find a teacher as well.
Pity, the girls did not know that any mediation on their part, were not even the slightest bit useful. Rather, it might even stir the boys up even more.
The situation was at a deadlock. Bai Xiao did not want to make the first move, Bai Kai's gang were waiting for Bai Kai to make a move, and Bai Kai was motionless. Why was he motionless? He did not dare to move first…
Finally, this farce of a 'battle' ended when the teacher entered the classroom.