What should you do if you encounter a human Hero?
Of course—
Hide Puji well and do nothing!
From what had just happened, it seemed the other party hadn’t noticed the scout Puji at all. After all, with so many people in the tavern and Puji being quick at hiding, it was unlikely.
Even so, Lin Jun still felt awkward. The awkwardness came from the fact that the Hero was completely different from what he had imagined.
From what Dylan and Inanna had said before, Heroes were supposed to be those big shots from hundreds of years ago who defied heaven and earth, slew Demon Kings, and annihilated demon clans.
Every time he thought about that, Lin Jun felt maybe one day he too, as a “Hero,” could be that impressive.
But now suddenly seeing a Hero who was only LV18, serving as a garrison commander on a slave island… how to put it… the gap was way too big.
And how come there were other Heroes besides himself?
Lin Jun even suddenly suspected—could it be that the so-called Heroes were like some kind of gu-raising competition [a practice where many poisonous creatures are raised together until only one survives], where a bunch of them are made, and only the one who finally succeeds is the true Hero?Though he couldn’t figure out why a Hero would appear here, Lin Jun had no intention of getting involved with that one. Just imagining it felt troublesome.
So he didn’t even mention it to Dylan, only told him to avoid that garrison commander.
…
After leaving the tavern, Dylan followed the address given by the shorty and found a secluded basement with only a red flower symbol as its sign.
The moment he pushed open the door, the sweet, cloying smell of smoke in the air made him wrinkle his nose.
The basement was tiny, little more than a narrow corridor. At the far end sat a counter, and behind it, a woman smoking.
The woman glanced up at Dylan, looking somewhat surprised. “A guest, of all things.”
As she spoke, whether intentionally or not, she tugged her neckline lower.
【Name: Mengya】
【Race: Succubus】
【Level: 36】
A real succubus!
But Lin Jun didn’t say anything to remind Dylan.
Seeing the coquettish woman before him, Dylan’s brows furrowed deeper—could that shorty have been making fun of him, giving him the address to a brothel?
Still, Dylan decided to test it and said the passphrase: “Half a sea-fairy flower?”
“Ahhh—” Mengya sighed suddenly, her voice listless. “So it’s that business. Fine then, what do you want to know?”
Dylan gave her a strange look. “So… your line of work also includes taking customers?”
“Interested?” Mengya looked at him, seeming far more eager for that kind of business than information dealing.
Dylan firmly shook his head.
“I’m here to ask about someone. Her name is Bella.”
To Dylan’s surprise, the moment he said the name, Mengya pulled several files from under the counter and tossed them in front of him, as if they’d been prepared long ago.
“Two gold coins.”
Dylan frowned. Such a cheap price—it looked like these had been sold many times already…
After handing over two gold coins, he began reading the documents right there.
The information was detailed, recording exactly when Bella arrived on the island with which ship, and what she had done there.
Only now did Dylan realize—the person who killed Glossa’s secretary was actually Bella!?
And at the end, it read: Escaped. Whereabouts unknown.
This left Dylan both worried and relieved.
Then came the last page. When he turned it over, it contained information on a silver-rank middle-aged adventurer named Dylan, with a note that his relationship to Bella was “father and daughter”…
Not good!
Dylan’s hand went for his sword at his waist, but when he looked up he was met by a pair of violet eyes.
Those eyes were like whirlpools; once caught in them, he couldn’t look away. His grip on the sword slackened.
【Status: Charmed】
“How strange. Why would someone like you appear on this island? You don’t mind telling me, do you?”
As she spoke, the succubus owner’s hand slid across Dylan’s face—but halfway, she suddenly stopped.
Mengya frowned and yanked her hand back, leaving a bloody scratch on Dylan’s cheek.
Once injured, 【Mimicry】 failed, revealing Dylan’s green face, crawling with mycelium.
“A demon? Parasitic type!”
In her moment of shock, Dylan’s backpack suddenly sprang open. Before she could react, its straps coiled around her limbs, tightening around her neck and hoisting her into the air.
What!?
Mengya tried to resist. As long as she gave the order, the “charmed” Dylan would help her!
But the tentacles were too tight, and growing tighter still. Agonizing suffocation mixed with pleasure flooded her mind.
Unable to maintain her disguise, the small wings and thin tail on her back were exposed.
Just as Mengya was about to faint, a shadow holding a dagger dropped from the ceiling.
But the scout Puji, as if expecting it, only used three tentacles to restrain Mengya, while the fourth lashed upward, striking the dagger away and snaring the attacker.
【Name: Stinky Fish】
【Race: Goblin】
【Level: 26】
【Status: Aged (All basic stats reduced by 20%)】
The succubus was already rolling her eyes from lack of air when the goblin, barely able to move in the grip, suddenly cried out:
“Spare me, lord! Spare me! A misunderstanding! Let me go and I’ll tell you everything!”
Not only did he beg fluently in the human common tongue, he repeated it in demon-speech.
A goblin and a succubus.
Lin Jun found the pairing bizarre.
Mengya finally fainted, and at that instant Dylan snapped back to his senses.
Only then did Lin Jun release the two, though he kept the succubus’s limbs bound.
The goblin dropped to his knees the moment he hit the ground, kowtowing repeatedly.
“Thank you, lord! Thank you, lord! It was all a misunderstanding—Mengya was blind and failed to recognize you were Imperial demons too!”
After a while of that, Stinky Fish slapped Mengya awake, dragging her down to kneel at the side.
Lin Jun ignored the two’s furtive glances at Puji and instead had Dylan search for rope—keeping the succubus tied up by fungal tentacles wasn’t convenient.
Sure enough, Dylan found rope under the counter… along with whips and all sorts of other dubious things.
“Which duke do you serve under?” Through Dylan, Lin Jun spoke with the air of a demon among demons.
By now Mengya was fully awake. She shot Dylan and Puji a glare, then turned her face away in indignation.
“Hmph!”
Not cooperating, huh… fine, then—
“Oh come on, granny, what’s the point of acting tough!”
The goblin, left unbound since he posed no threat, kicked Mengya in the rear, making her squirm resentfully.
Then he rushed to a wall, pulled open a hidden panel, and took out a stack of intelligence files. Dropping to his knees before Puji again, he presented them.
“Great lords, we are under Duke Night-Kiss! We’re all on the same side! Forget her, whatever she knows, I know too! Surely you’ve come here on a mission—please, take these, they’ll surely help!”
Seeing the goblin’s overwhelming survival instinct, Puji nodded gravely, pretending to be satisfied.
Still, Lin Jun felt conflicted.
He hadn’t expected the information dealers here to turn out to be demons. It was a bit too blatant—hard to believe no one had discovered it.
And now Dylan had learned news of his daughter. What to do with these two?
The goblin was so cooperative though…
…
When Dylan left, Lin Jun thoughtfully locked the door behind them.
The two demons lay unconscious in a basement thick with hallucinogenic spores. Unless someone forced their way in, they’d likely stay out for a whole day.
He hadn’t killed them because of the shorty from the tavern—Dylan’s coming here had a clear trail. Killing them might cause unnecessary trouble.
If information dealers turned up dead, the other side would likely investigate. But if they simply got robbed by competitors, they’d probably swallow the loss.
And since they’d be leaving Silver Sand Bay soon, he wasn’t worried about petty revenge.
The two demons’ intelligence files covered all sorts of things about Silver Sand Bay.
But what truly caught Lin Jun’s attention was one of their newest assignments—monitoring Silver Sand Bay’s new garrison commander, Tian Qi.