What a headache... I sighed, massaging my forehead, somewhat regretful for having stopped Theo.
Of course, we would find out what this colossal mana was anyway when our Rankers A and S came here.
But no, I wanted to show competence and curry favor with my superiors, trying my best here, and all I got was an ugly, annoying bastard...
Why?
Why, Bianca? This isn't even your job; we were supposed to do the reconnaissance and leave. That's all.
Now we're here with this annoying smile...
Sigh.
"Get out of here, Lydia... Tell someone to bring some clothes for this trash."
I simply glanced at Lydia, who shuddered before letting go of me and leaving the tent.
Stupid girl...
It's not even been half an hour since this guy woke up, and you're already like this...
Anyway, focus, Bianca.
"Name, who are you, and what were you doing here?"
I asked impassively, watching him relax on the bed again.
"Well... Where do I start?"...
Annoying. Annoying.
He really didn't seem to be afraid of me at all, as he hemmed and hawed over his answer.
It was as if he had all the time in the world...
Unbearably annoying.
I'm not usually this impatient.
But everything about him seemed to irritate me somehow.
His mockery...
His lack of fear and respect.
Ignoring me.
Just as I was about to do something, my hand itching, he continued, but maybe it would have been better to have done something...
"Lucca. My name is Lucca. I'm from Minas, but I grew up in São Paulo with my grandfather, so I'm not very close to my hometown, you know? And think of a naughty old man...
Not to mention that my parents also came to São Paulo later. So, zero attachment, really."
.
.
.
"Enough..."
"Can you believe that my first and third girlfriends cheated on me? Yeah, right, you can't believe how unlucky I was with women as a teenager...
But then again, I was all weird, spending more time fixing old stuff than with them. My grandfather beat me when he found out. I had to go through his training...
The old man took me to every brothel..."
.
.
.
"You know what? Once I visited Bahia and tried acarajé... And I didn't like it.
Please don't tell anyone. I'm only telling you because it's you, okay?"
"That's not what I want to know..."
.
.
.
"Oh, come on, who can blame me for not liking brigadeiro? Of course, I'm talking about brigadeiro with sprinkles. Yuck. Sprinkles are horrible. Who likes that?"
.
.
.
"Man... I think one of the worst days of my life was at my first job. You won't believe it.
My boss, a guy almost two meters tall... He tried to eat me...
It was traumatic. I quit on the spot and ran away. Of course, nothing against those who like that kind of thing, but I'm out."
"..."
.
.
.
"And you know what was worse? I needed that job, so I went back a week later, offering my friend as a sacrifice. Gabriel really enjoys that kind of thing.
And the damn job paid really well, and you know how it is, my family had a lot of debt because of the cracks and stuff.
A huge debt at the bank. Then we lost the house, the car, and everything else. We even received government assistance, but it was temporary, and then the loan sharks came. It sucks."
"Interesting. Tell me more..."
.
.
.
"Then I woke up two years ago. I was really happy, but it turned out my body was shit, so you know how it is. I stagnated at Rank F, but even so, I couldn't work like or with normal people anymore, and all I had left were these dangerous jobs as cannon fodder.
So I decided to become a zone explorer, which is relatively safer and also has great compensation for the death of the employee. Cost-benefit."
.
.
.
"Of course, I didn't want to work in this shit myself, but as a good son, I ended up listening to my parents' pleas, even though they were basically asking me to put my life at risk, but what could I do? The loan sharks were getting impatient.
Can you believe they broke my father's leg and wanted to make my mother prostitute herself? That's not right. I had to do something."
.
.
.
"Anyway, I've been to about eight zones already. They were all fine, a scar here and there, but no big deal. I managed to handle it; after all, they were underdeveloped zones.
Of course, with the increase in mana in the world, they started to get a little more dangerous, so much so that in the one I was exploring, the fauna didn't develop, but the flora did. I thought it was fine, but I ended up finding a couple of chickens... Sigh."
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.
.
"You know how it is, right? I lost my eye and two fingers, but I left those chickens traumatized. You should have seen how I intimidated the big guy, hahah."
.
.
.
"I was awesome there. I was tortured, but I was the one who gave them the middle finger as I walked away from them quietly."
.
.
.
"But you know what was most annoying during those weeks? That bitch of a constellation in my ear. What an annoying bitch with nothing better to do.
Sure, she gave me a little help, but it was all for my suffering, so fuck her."
.
.
.
What is life? What am I doing now?
Why am I even listening to this guy?
I don't know when, but at some point I ended up getting involved in his story...
Of course, I tried to shut this son of a bitch up, but it was useless. The bastard wouldn't stop talking.
Sigh... Maybe I was wrong about him.
He's not totally useless, not to mention that now he's telling me information that interests me.
But who calls a constellation a bitch?
No... For starters, why is there a constellation watching this guy?
Not even I have one...
Well... They're only interested in rank A and above. Really, a bunch of bitches...
.
.
.
"I'm still pissed at that snake and that jaguar.
I adopted them even though I was starving, and they abandoned me. How ungrateful... Sure, I would have ended up eating them, but that's beside the point."
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.
.
"Did I mention I caught on fire twice?"
.
.
.
"Can you believe I lost my arm trying to use mana? Damn, Lily... Greed is sometimes good and sometimes not.
Like when that bitch refused to be my patron. Can you believe that? She could have just said no, but she humiliated me too... I had to bark to get the upper hand."
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.
.
"Oh, I really thought I was going to die... But then I saw it.
My light...
I saw you, Bianca. Thank you so much for saving me."
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.
.
Well... Not bad.
That ugly bastard knows how to talk.
He's not so bad...
... What the hell are you thinking, Bianca?
Now I understand what he did to Lydia...
Really. He's far from the trash I thought he was...
"Sorry about earlier..."
Well, when I was about to apologize and ask for details about a few more things...
"Come here, brother. You need a hug."
Someone broke into the tent. Or rather, bringing the clothes I asked for earlier.
Theo?
"Thanks, man. Sure, I'd prefer a hug from the hot Bianca, but this is fine too."
What did that bastard say?!