After sizing Hyacine up, the brawny man slowly stated the price. "Ten thousand Credits a day."
Hyacine's brow furrowed slightly at the figure. "Is this room made of gold, or is the furniture? Ten thousand Credits for just one day?"
"Heh." The man looked completely indifferent, shrugging his shoulders. "Look around. Besides this hotel, where else are you going to find a place to stay? Our price has always been this high. If you think it's too expensive, don't stay. Go sleep on the street."
Then, he flashed a lecherous grin, his eyes roaming crudely over Hyacine as he continued with ill intent, "Besides, sleeping on the street isn't comfortable, girl. You'll just end up getting 'picked up' by some corpse-collector. I'd say, why not just sleep in our room? It won't cost you a cent, and I can make sure you're very... comfortable..."
"Doo-doo!"
Before he could finish, Little Ica—who had been floating beside Hyacine—wore an expression of rage. It let out several cries at the man, cutting him off.
"Huh? What the hell is this?"
His speech interrupted, the man looked annoyed at the little white pony floating in the air. "Some kind of lifelike robot horse? It looks pretty real, but why stick two wings on its back? And why design it so fat?"
Driven by curiosity, the man reached out, intending to touch Little Ica.
"Doo-doo!"
Little Ica flew backward, dodging his hand, and let out another angry cry.
Hyacine stood by, translating Little Ica's words: "Little Ica says it's not a robot horse, and it won't allow you to touch it. Otherwise, it won't be polite to you."
"Won't be polite? Hahaha! How is this little thing going to be impolite? Is it going to fly over and ram me to death? Right, guys? Hahaha..."
The man burst into laughter, and the other gang members in the lobby joined in.
Once he'd had his fill of laughing, the man snorted coldly and glared at Hyacine. "Since this little thing won't let me touch it, you'll just have to come here instead!"
He reached out to grab her. Seeing this, Hyacine sighed and softly spoke three words: "Little Ica."
Before the sound of her voice faded, the white pony instantly transformed into a streak of iridescent light. It slammed into the man's stomach before anyone could react.
The man's face contorted, his eyes bulging. The immense momentum sent him crashing through the hotel wall. He didn't stop until he smashed into a house on the street behind the hotel, falling unconscious instantly.
[Commanded Little Ica to flatten xxx. Stellar Jade +10]
Hearing the system notification, Hyacine paused and asked in confusion, "Didn't it give thirty Stellar Jade before? Why is it only ten now?"
[Strength mismatch.]
Fine, I guess there's a price difference between a minor extra and a slightly stronger extra...
Learning this, Hyacine let out a sigh. She had originally thought taking someone out was a faster way to earn Stellar Jade than saving them, but for only ten Jade, she'd rather stick to healing.
She turned to Little Ica. "Little Ica, let's go. I feel like finding a place to open a clinic would be more profitable."
Hyacine turned to walk out of the hotel.
"You think you can leave after offending us?!"
The gang members in the lobby finally realized what had happened. They stood up and drew their weapons, glaring at Hyacine with fury.
"If you don't want to end up like that guy, then don't stop me from leaving."
The gang members hesitated. Some glanced at the man who had just been launched. Every bone in his body was likely shattered, and his midsection was visibly... thinner, flattened by the impact.
Seeing his wretched state, the members swallowed hard. They exchanged looks, but no one dared to move. They could only watch as Hyacine left the hotel. After all, they were just low-level members; no one wanted to lose their life over this.
As she stepped out, Hyacine glanced at the map. She planned to return to Song Lin's gang. Since looking for trouble didn't yield as much profit as she'd hoped, she wanted to see if they could help her secure a shop for a clinic.
For Hyacine, saving people was much simpler than killing them.
However, after taking a few steps, she paused. She quickly spun around to look behind her. Aside from a few stray people on the street, there was no one suspicious.
"A hallucination?" Hyacine murmured before turning back and continuing toward her destination.
"Whew... whew... So sharp. I almost got caught."
A young girl was currently leaning against an alley wall, suppressing her breathing and panting in small gasps. "It's fine, I'm an expert at hiding. As long as I don't court death, she shouldn't be able to find me..."
After comforting herself, the girl cautiously poked her head out to see where the pink-haired girl had gone. But when she looked, the girl was nowhere to be seen.
The girl's eyes widened. She quickly pulled back, looking around warily. According to her experience reading novels, if you're almost caught once and lose the target the second time, the target has likely teleported behind you to say ominously:
"Are you looking for me?"
After checking left and right and seeing no one, the girl breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, I just lost her, I wasn't discovered."
The girl crept back out. Ensuring no one was watching, she slipped out of the alley. Losing the target wasn't an issue; her sense of smell was incredibly keen. As long as she caught the scent, she could find the girl's trail.
Arriving at the spot where the girl had disappeared, she took a light sniff.
"Blegh~ it's still so stinky here. I really hate using my nose to track in this place... As for that girl's scent... wait! Why is the scent so close!"
She realized with a shock that the fragrance from the girl was extremely near, which meant...
"Doo-doo~"
A cute cry sounded from directly behind her.