Chapter 19: She’s Not Quite Right in the Head
No matter how unwilling he was to accept it, Chaoyang had to admit that Mibao had a “space alien big brother” that only she could see.
If science couldn’t explain it, then it could only be left to the supernatural.
Given Mibao’s limited ability to express herself, it was hard to describe exactly what this “system” was, so Chaoyang had no choice but to accept the existence of an alien.
Hmm…
So, while it looked like there were two people, in reality there were three.
Maybe one day Earth would welcome an alien spaceship, and then a bunch of oddly-shaped aliens would come down.
Perhaps that would be the day the apocalypse finally ended.
Chaoyang consoled himself with the thought.
That afternoon, Bald Man showed up again. He opened the door and carried each of the children—one in each hand—back to the same place they had eaten the night before.
Besides them, Monkey, Old Wolf, and another five or six people were there. On the table lay a hand-drawn floor plan.
It looked a little rough, but the general idea was clear enough.
“Here, this is the map of the armory. The situation with the monsters inside—I can only give you a rough idea,” Bald Man said as he set the children down onto chairs.
Chaoyang nodded, then stepped lightly onto the chair to stand a little higher so he could study the map carefully.
“Lucky for us that one of the families back in the villa had a drone, otherwise drawing this map would’ve been tricky,” Old Wolf said with a squinting smile. Then he turned his gaze on Mibao. “This kid’s obviously from a rich family. The wealthy sure know how to enjoy life.”
Those words made Chaoyang frown ever so slightly, without showing too much.
The man called Old Wolf was a musclebound type, broad and strong-looking, and his gaze was piercingly sharp.
Between the lines of what he said… Chaoyang thought of a single word:
Resentment.
The man probably harbored resentment toward the rich.
And most likely, that resentment was aimed especially at women.
That also made Chaoyang instinctively wary—though Bald Man and his group needed him, they were never the kind to play by the rules. It wouldn’t be surprising if they had some unsavory thoughts.
He subtly shifted closer to Mibao, blocking Old Wolf’s gaze from landing on her.
Noticing Chaoyang’s movement, Old Wolf gave him a chilling, sinister smile before withdrawing his eyes.
Mibao, oblivious, poked her head out from behind Chaoyang with wide-eyed curiosity and peered at the map.
“Big Brother, is this the armory map? But… what’s an armory?”
Chaoyang snapped back to reality and explained, “An armory is…”
And then he got stuck.
Because he had no idea how to explain it to Mibao.
If he put it too vaguely, Mibao wouldn’t understand; if he put it too bluntly, it seemed a little inappropriate for a child.
He couldn’t possibly tell her the armory was where dangerous weapons were kept. If he did, she would definitely ask what “dangerous weapons” were, and then he’d have to tell her they were things that could kill people…
That was far too gory for a five-year-old.
Hmm… well, Chaoyang had once again forgotten that he was also just a child.
[Hmph, of course a kid wouldn’t know how to explain it.]
At that moment, the system suddenly chimed in.
[Mibao, big brother will explain it to you.]
As soon as the system finished speaking, a light screen appeared in front of Mibao’s eyes—something only she could see. On it, an animation began to play, showing all sorts of weapons.
But for the sake of the child’s mental well-being, every weapon was colored pink, decorated with cute stickers and doodles.
And the bullets fired in the demonstration only popped balloons.
Mibao’s mouth fell open as she watched. “Wow…”
Chaoyang: ?
Everyone else at the table: ??
What was she “wow”-ing about?
What was she even looking at?
A whole group of them stared in the direction Mibao was looking, but couldn’t make out a thing.
It was Chaoyang who reacted first—probably Mibao’s so-called “alien brother” was explaining it to her.
“My little sister…” Chaoyang lowered his voice and leaned toward Bald Man, pointing to his own head, “she’s not quite right up here.”
Bald Man: ?
What’s that supposed to mean?
“She imagines having a brother who’s always with her. So right now she’s talking to that imaginary brother.”
The others: ?
Aren’t you her brother? Why on earth would she need to imagine another one?
Chaoyang knew that if he told these people he and Mibao had only just met a few days ago and were “siblings by chance,” they wouldn’t believe him anyway, so he simply made up a story.
“My family favors boys over girls. When my sister was little, my dad sent her away to live in the countryside for a while.”
Chaoyang didn’t even blink while lying.
“But our grandparents in the countryside also preferred boys and disliked her. They often wouldn’t give her food, even beat her and locked her in cupboards…”
Hearing this, even this group of hardened criminals couldn’t help but glance at Mibao with a hint of sympathy.
Are they even human? To abuse such a small, adorable child!
“Over time, because of fear, my sister imagined a brother who would always be with her.” Chaoyang allowed a trace of guilt to show on his face. “It’s my fault—I didn’t protect her well enough.”
“Your dad’s really a bastard,” Monkey cursed, unable to hold back. “Rich folks sure have black hearts!”
Next to him, Old Wolf, who bore a grudge against the rich, nodded in agreement.
Even the hostility he had been harboring toward Mibao eased a little.
“Mm, I also hate my biological father,” Chaoyang nodded. “He was always forcing me to read obscure, difficult books, hoping I’d become some kind of genius.”
“No wonder your brain works so well, kid.” Bald Man chuckled. “Guess your dad finally did one decent thing.”
Chaoyang: “…”
Heh.
While Chaoyang was busy spinning lies, the system had just finished explaining military weapons to Mibao.
Her face was lit up with fascination.
“Wow! That’s so fun!” she exclaimed. “Big Brother, I want one too! I want a pink one, with Crystal Lulu’s picture on it!”
[Then you’ll have to work hard at completing tasks. After exchanging for the master key last night, you hardly have any points left.]
Mibao’s little face fell at once. “Ah… then what do I have to do?”
The system thought for a moment, then began flipping through its manual. After searching for quite a while, it finally found a loophole rule that could be used to accumulate points.
[Found it! You can earn points by completing daily tasks.]
[Ding! System has issued daily tasks. Please select one to complete—]
[1. Dance practice: follow the video and complete the dance five times.]
[2. Song practice: practice singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star five times.]
Since the system had some authority to modify the tasks, it directly swapped out the stage-level videos and songs for the simplest versions.
Mibao instantly became full of motivation. She copied the dance in the video right in front of her, flailing her little arms and legs.
But her dancing was awful—left foot tripping over right, movements so stiff they were almost on par with the zombies outside.
Everyone else in the room: “……”
Yeah, it was pretty obvious this little dumpling wasn’t all there in the head.
So the group very naturally ignored the child’s bout of “craziness” and continued discussing their plan for the armory.
Until…
Mibao started singing.