Chapter 176 - How to Distract Kid 101

"How is it? It's good, right?"

Seeing the kid went quiet for a moment there, Sheila couldn't help but asked him with a teasing smile on her face. She was quite surprised as she didn't expect the kid to really fall to her candy trick. Honestly, aside from his obvious short height, the kid seems to carry an air of a mature person around him, so she thought her trick might not work on him. But who would have thought that it really did? 

When the kid was rushing toward her, it seems the wind pressure caused the cloak that covered his head to fell perfectly around his nape, which now shows the people of his true appearance. His facial structure still looks a bit childish, which is understandable for people to assume him as a kid, but upon a closer look, one can tell that his eyes said otherwise. Those didn't seem like the eyes of a kid, but more of an a.d.u.l.t who had experienced a lot of things in their life. If Sheila were to guess his age based on that, it might be around the same as hers. 'He might be one of those people who have been abandoned by their growth phase at such a young age,' so she thought.

Though her voice is pretty faint, it is fairly enough for the kid's ears to pick it up due to an appropriate distance that brought him back to his senses. He came to realized what had just happened to him and now felt very embarrassed yet angry at the same time. To make it even worse, he can still taste the candy despite it already gone down his throat. Because he is self-conscious about his short built, he has been trying his best to portray himself as a mature person to others. But all his effort now wasted just because of a mere candy.

"Y-You! You dare to do this to me!"

Following his rage, a bloodthirst aura started erupting from the kid, giving the people an impression of a huge predator stood right behind him with its mouth wide open, clearly showing its sharp teeth to them. As someone who had killed people personally, Sheila was surprised. The murderous intent in his aura is a lot more evident than her own. This indicated that he must have killed way more people than her, most likely a thousand or so. In the current peaceful society, it's almost impossible for the kill count to amount to that much unless he started up a war or something. Although the country she lives in is now free from war, it doesn't mean the others aren't at war even at this very moment.

Though medias portrayed the current world as peaceful, there are still wars somewhere on the other side of the world. Everyone knows of this information, yet none tried to stop the war, do we? Why is it? The answer is given, it's none of our business, neither our friends and family. Humans tend to look away when it's none of their problems, that is just how it is.

'Although I don't want to believe it, the information I have in my hand is enough to point toward 'that route.' Isn't this too early for them? I have a feeling that it will take a year or two before meeting them, but now it has only been a few months. It is way too early based on my assumption! And if I had to guess this kid's level, it might be somewhere around 30, which is three levels higher than me. I don't even know whether I can beat him, then what if they decided to gang up on me? I need to defeat him before that happens, but will they truly let me kill that kid? Definite not.' thought Sheila after witnessing the kid's aura.

Before the kid could rush toward her, he was once again stopped by the thing in her hand. His keen sense of smell is telling him that the 'thing' in the guy with a half-face mask's hand is the candy that he ate a moment ago. Seeing him stopped on his track again, Sheila smiles before tearing the candy's package, which caused the smell from within to spread to the surrounding. The kid widens his eyes once again as his keen smell got overwhelmed by the sweet yet sour scent from the candy's package in her hand. It's real. He didn't mistake it for something else.

"T-That! What is that thing in your hand?! Is it the candy I just ate a moment ago? No way! I won't be tempted! You can't tempt me with that!"

"...before you speak, why don't you wipe off the drool on your mouth first?"

"!!!"

Though he isn't willing to admit, the candy truly does taste good, heck, it's even better than the meal he had in his hometown. It has only been a few days, so he didn't really know much about this world other than the fact that their technology is very advanced. Of course he didn't investigate it himself but instead, someone told him about it. 

So, it wasn't really his fault for falling to her trick since he had never eaten such a sweet candy as that, never in his entire life. Actuality, ever since he had crossed into this world, he had only eaten grilled meat, cooked personally by him. He also had to hunt the meat himself in the forest. Fortunately, he appeared deep in the wild forest, not in a crowded city.

If he had appeared in the city, it won't only end as mere 'chaos.' There would be too many deaths if that happens, after all.

"Do you want this? Ah, this candy is really good."

"Ah!"

Sheila said before throwing a few pieces of candy from the package into her mouth. The kid is visibly stunned by her action, which one can tell by just looking at his face. It's like each candy she throws into her mouth, he received damage cause of it. Honestly, she finds it funny as though he said he isn't a kid, his action told otherwise.

"Hmm? Why don't you say something? I mean, if you're not going to speak, I might finish this package on my own."

"W-Wait! Let's sit down and have a talk!"

"Talk? I thought you were going to kill me for ruining your plan, is that a lie? Because of your threatening lie, I'm scared, you know? As payback for that, I'll finish this candy right in front of you."

With that said, Sheila immediately throws more pieces of candy into her mouth without any consideration for the kid. She slowly demonstrates it to the kid how good the candy is by expressing it in a body language since she can't show her face to them, even while in disguise. After all, the woman/girl standing behind the kid might be able to tell if she can sense her within the shadow. If their level is the same or above the kid, it makes sense that they can see right through her disguise.

"S-Stop! Fine, I will let you live! I don't care anymore about our goal or whatever, j-just...give me that."

The kid admits defeat immediately the moment he started to imagine the candy is no more. Though he is talented in combat, everything else is a mess to him. If he had used his brain and thinks properly, he might have found out that one can easily buy the candy, so long as they go to the nearest convenience store. But the kid never uses his brain other than fighting, so it's useless. At the moment, his thought is in disarray as the only thought in his mind is about the candy and nothing else matter. He believes that if he takes too much time to consider everything, the masked guy might end up emptying the package of candy himself, leaving him none.

In fact, the plan is to stay hidden from the spotlight until they have fully blended themselves into this world. And so, if he were to fight against someone as strong as the masked guy in front of him, the barrier protecting this building might not be able to hold on once it happened. And if that happens, obviously it will bring them to the spotlight that they didn't want. A wise decision is to sit down and have a proper talk with each other. Fighting is bad! 

If the people behind him came to know about his thought at the moment, they would have been so shocked that they will lose unconscious. His nickname 'Battle Maniac' is not just a nickname for a show. 

Sheila smiles after witnessing the kid raising the white flag to her and thought, 'And here I thought he won't bite the bait the second time since he sounds mature, but who would have known that it happened again?'

"Oh, is that right? But, I can't give this to you just yet, I mean, who knows, you might attack me right after getting your hand on it. I can't trust the word of someone that had threatened me a moment ago, would I?"

"Kuh!"

It seemed he really have the thought to do that, but unfortunately, she had seen through him. 

"So, how about this? You will follow me until we leave the building, leaving your group behind. Only then, would I give you this, your choice?"

She suggested. The kid took a moment to turned his head and look at the 'Old man' before both of them nodded their head, accepting her suggestion, which is very surprising to her since she thought their answer would be the opposite instead. Though she finds it suspicious that they are willing to let her go just like that, she didn't care. Whatever they are planning, once she reached the exit, she would immediately take off, leaving the kid behind. By the look of it, the leader of the group is the 'Old man,' yet the kid seems to hold a high position too, seeing how the others didn't disagree with their decision. 

"Alright, follow me."

With that said, Sheila immediately walks toward the exit of the restaurant. She didn't need to look back as her awareness had already picked up the presence of the kid following right behind her. When the two entered the elevator, no word was exchanged between them, only pure silence. It was only when they reached outside the building did the kid finally spoke to her.

"You know, with your strength and abilities, I think you're fit for our group. Why not join us? For your information, we don't take just anyone into our group. If that was the case, we would have plenty of members by now instead of a selected few. As for benefits, there are a lot. You have seen the sealing ball yourself, didn't you? You did steal it from that man, after all."

"Ah, that P0K3B4LL. Yes, I have it with me. What about it?"

"We have plenty of that, ready for use. And that's not the only thing we have, as I said, there are too many benefits for you to gain by joining us. This might sound strange to you, but this world has no way to produce our item despite having an advanced in the technology department. This is nothing but the truth. If you join us, all these mystical items would be available to you, doesn't that sound tempting?"

There was a bit of pride in his tone when he spoke. Sheila nodded her head in agreement before saying.

"Indeed, that does sound nice."

"Right? So, what are you waiting for?"

"But...too bad, I didn't like you guys the moment you all appeared in front of me."

"What? Is that really your reason for not wanting to join us?"

"Yes."

"Sigh, well whatever. It's your choice."

Sheila raised her brows but didn't say anything and instead, she pulled out another package of candy from her pocket before giving it to the kid. Once that is given, she immediately walks into the crowd, leaving the kid looking at the package in his hand with drool on his mouth. 'This is! Oh, wait! I forgot to use that sealing ball on him! Damn it, he used the candy to distract my mind! I'll get him later for this, that sly guy! But for now, I'm going to enjoy this candy to the fullest. Sooner or later, we will definitely meet each other again, so it doesn't matter.' With that thought in mind, the kid went back to the building with a happy look on his face.