"Finally out of that dark station."
A woman's voice rang out.
"Oh, I can't wait to see the world outside."
Another male voice.
Ruminas frowned, she had heard this voice before, and Renji and Aoi also immediately turned around because they recognized the woman's voice. Achlys, who was sitting far away, opened her eyes slightly to look at the man.
"It's her again!" Aoi shouted.
"Be quiet, I am enjoying the view. Don't make any noise," said the woman.
It was the woman with the torn mouth and Jack the Ripper, NPCs they had met in the quest, but only Achlys had met Jack the Ripper so the rest didn't pay much attention.
"How long do you plan to stay in there?" The woman with the torn mouth asked.
Just as the others still didn't understand what she meant, a woman suddenly appeared from Ruminas' body. She was wearing a black kimono, holding a red umbrella, tilted just enough so that others couldn't see her eyes.
"Wow, what's inside you, Rumi-chan?!" Aoi fell backwards.
Ruminas did not reply, only watqing the woman holding the umbrella slowly walk over and sit next to the other two.
"Are they all NPCs?" She thought to herself.
Suddenly, the woman holding the umbrella turned to look at Ruminas, smiled, and said, "Remember, don't break your promise—" She paused for a moment, then whispered a few words, "My pet."
Ruminas' face instantly darkened.
"So who are you guys? How did you get here? And what are you guys doing here?" Aoi asked repeatedly.
"So many questions, but I'm too lazy to explain. You speak." The woman with the torn mouth turned to the woman holding the umbrella.
She just kept silent, turning to look at Jack the Ripper.
"It seems that you ladies don't feel like talking, so I'll explain the situation."
Jack the Ripper put the teacup away and stood up, walking towards the group. He turned around, letting his cloak flutter, and spoke in a confident tone.
"We, the ones who were summoned to this world to support 'players' like you, but any living being has their own wishes and we don't want to have to support you all our lives. That's why the 'Judge' assigned us guard missions in some places to test the players and when the mission is over, we are free to do as we please—"
Jack the Ripper was speaking when the woman with the torn mouth interrupted: "Hey, aren't you afraid of punishment for revealing the judge to these people?"
"Punishment? Fear?" Jack the Ripper repeated the words and laughed. "A gentleman like me cannot have the word 'fear' in his vocabulary. 'Judge' is just a title, in reality we are all equal."
The woman with the torn mouth sighed.
"It's up to you, when trouble comes, you'll have to deal with it yourself." She said and turned her head to look at the scenery outside, but the subway was still in the tunnel, so it was only black outside.
"Tsk, I can't see anything." The woman with the torn mouth grumbled and then turned to look at the crowd and said: "You guys should quickly accept your mission, otherwise this train will just keep running in the tunnel."
"There's more to that?" Aoi asked again.
"Of course, once you all finish viewing the quest, it can begin and the next location will appear."
"I see. But why? It's fine to just let it run like this, we just went through a stressful mission and now we have to continue the mission right away?" Aoi retorted, her attitude no longer as fearful as the first time they met.
"You brat, don't think you can talk to me like that!" The woman with the torn mouth growled, her murderous aura causing Aoi to immediately become scared and hide behind Ruminas.
"Rumi-chan, she's bullying me," Aoi said softly.
Ruminas just kept silent, what could she do? Fight them?
"I don't really care, I have a lot of time so you can start whenever you want," Jack the Ripper said and sat down again.
"So… will you guys be coming with us?" Aoi asked softly.
"Who has the time, this is just a ride but I'm sure not all of us think so" The woman with the torn mouth said softly, turning her head to look at the ghost.
"Devil, are you going with them?" she asked.
The Parasol Lady did not reply, only turning to look at Ruminas.
Ruminas felt uncomfortable again, she knew this guy wouldn't leave until she fulfilled the contract but she didn't want to do it now.
"This is so embarrassing…" Ruminas thought to herself.
After a moment of silence, the Parasol Lady nodded slightly.
"Is that so? Then we are not at a crossroads, but going with you is still boring," the woman with the torn mouth replied indifferently.
The atmosphere then fell into silence as no one spoke anymore, each with their own things to do. On the NPC side, Jack the Ripper took out a book to read, the woman with the torn mouth continued to look outside, and the Parasol Lady sat motionless from beginning to end.
On this side, Renji and Achlys each had a corner and were resting, they closed their eyes but didn't sleep too deeply, only Aoi was still lying on Ruminas' lap like last time. As for herself, she was thinking about some of the things that had just happened.
"Is that green qi of his special ability? Was he able to completely cover and replace the white qi? How did he do it?"
Ruminas wondered and then looked at the golden qi in her palm, which could only be said to be pitifully little.
She tried using the golden energy again, when she created the sword to finish off the snake she had no difficulty using it but now it was not easy to control it.
"Try again"
Ruminas focused as much as she could, she had already trained to control the white aura before, now she could also…
But then she failed.
"Mainly the amount of air is too little…"
"There is currently no way to transform black qi, and white qi cannot blend with yellow qi… Why can't they blend…?"
Ruminas started thinking about this, when she let the yellow and black qi come into contact, one of the two sides would be swallowed, but with the white qi, it would only repel them and not have any further interaction.
"That can't be, it's all my qi so there must be some way… Maybe I should ask him later"
Ruminas shook her thoughts away, closing her eyes to rest a bit but suddenly realized the air around her was dropping causing Aoi who was sleeping to shiver a few times from the cold.
She looked over and saw the woman holding an umbrella sitting next to her. She was folding the umbrella but her long hair was still enough to cover her eyes.
Ruminas didn't say anything, she just took off her coat to cover Aoi who was shivering underneath, leaving her now wearing only a thin layer of armor inside.
Then she turned to look at the woman and asked: "What do you want?"
"What… is your name?"
"Huh?"
Ruminas looked at the woman with slight surprise.
"What are you asking? I thought you already knew?" Ruminas asked back.
"All words are meaningless if they are not said by you"
"Why?"
"I don't trust anyone but you are doing business with me so I can distinguish your words"
Ruminas swallowed, she didn't know if she had said something wrong before.
She stared at the woman holding the umbrella, trying to read her expression through the hair covering her eyes, but to no avail. The woman revealed absolutely nothing but a vague smile on her lips.
"Ruminas." She replied, simple and short.
"Ruminas…" She repeated, her voice slightly drawn out, as if tasting a new wine. "Nice name."
Ruminas did not reply, just silently observed.
"What about you?" she asked back.
"Pets shouldn't ask so many questions," she smiled slightly.
Ruminas didn't say anything more. "It's really impossible to communicate normally with these people." She sighed inwardly.
Then she turned to look at the woman and softly said: "The transaction… can we postpone it to another time? I don't want to break my promise, but it's not convenient right now."
The woman smiled again.
"If you want to make more requests, you have to pay more."
Ruminas was momentarily at a loss for words.
The woman looked at her for a long time, then smiled and said, "Okay." Then she snapped her fingers.
[NPC: The Parasol Lady has proposed a quest for you. Do you accept it?]
"Mission…?" Ruminas hesitated a bit before clicking accept.
[Ghost Quest: Special]
[Description: A mysterious woman with a blood red umbrella, it is said that if she is interested in someone, she will pursue them and you are the lucky one]
[Completion conditions]
+Become a pet for the Ghost for 7 days (0/7)
+Witness the story of the Parasol Lady (Unfinished)
[Reward: 1000 EXP, 10 Random Stat Points, Maximum Demon Clan Favorability]
"Huh? I understand the first request, but what about the second one?"
Ruminas frowned at the Parasol Lady but she still didn't react. She wanted to ask but stopped. If it was a request then she would do it even though she had no clue.
Ruminas let out a small sigh, secretly worrying about what would happen next in the future, but now that she had taken another step forward after completing the second part of the quest, she had no choice but to continue moving forward.