Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 498 The Big Stomach

After a long period of silence, Zheng received a call from Jiang Hui.

To be honest, he really didn't understand how the signal base station and other issues were handled in this violent world, even though it was true that his phone could contact people almost anytime under any circumstances thanks to a string of phone numbers.

When Jiang Hui called, he didn't exchange pleasantries or ask any questions. He simply asked Zheng Fan's location and then hung up, saying nothing else.

At this moment, Zheng Fan and Luo Ye arrived at a street that looked quite lively, with various vendors lining the road.

“These kinds of neighborhoods are mostly made up of mixed-race people or groups of people from the capital who band together. As long as you appease the nearby gangs and pay them enough protection money, you can basically live here relatively peacefully.” Luo Ye still attracted attention as he walked down the street.

It's a bit far-fetched to see a beautifully sculpted little girl in a bright red dress appear alone in a violent world.

Fortunately, this is an area with mixed colors, which means that people here are more likely to think with their heads down, so they generally won't have any bad intentions towards such a place.

"Hey, that roujiamo over there looks pretty good." Zheng Fan patted Luo Ye's shoulder and pointed to a small stall.

"I never eat at roadside stalls." Luo Ye made no attempt to hide his disdain for these unsafe vendors.

“Who asked you? I asked you to buy it for me,” Zheng Fan said.

"Why don't you just change it yourself? My card is still in your hands, isn't it?" Luo Ye rolled his eyes at Zheng Fan.

"Don't you try the local food when you go out to play? Hurry up, or I'll pull your hair." Zheng Fan said, already reaching out to tug at Luo Ye's hair, acting quite childishly.

Luo Ye gritted his teeth and went up to order a large roujiamo (Chinese hamburger).

In this violent world, many places rely on barter, but some relatively orderly neighborhoods have a simpler form of currency circulating with the support of multiple gangs.

Although there are many management problems in the gang, since the vast majority of them are illiterate, they are still willing to go through the trouble within their own territory to make things as simple as collecting rent easier.

Luo Ye could easily earn the money he had by simply fishing outside in his current form.

This roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) is quite generous in portion size.

Zheng Fan sprinkled the roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) with the potion that Luo Ye had used earlier and then started eating. Watching Zheng Fan eat so happily, Luo Ye suddenly felt a void in his stomach.

She instinctively clutched her stomach, which immediately caught Zheng's attention: "Didn't I give you toast before?"

"That little bit of toast won't fill you up. Eight years old is the time when you're growing." Luo Ye then made a yawning face.

Zheng Fan handed over the roujiamo (Chinese hamburger): "Does that little girl who doesn't eat from roadside stalls want some?"

Luo Ye hesitated for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the roujiamo (Chinese hamburger): "I'll just have one bite."

Then, she opened her small mouth and took a big bite out of the roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), biting off a third of it. Under Zheng Fan's surprised gaze, she chewed with her mouth bulging and turned her head away.

Zheng retorted, "Your mouth suddenly looked much bigger, didn't it? Are you made of Play-Doh?"

"Hmph..." Luo Ye swallowed what was in his mouth: "Don't ask girls these kinds of questions."

Perhaps it was truly due to the effects of his body shrinking that Luo Ye's emotions fluctuated so dramatically, and he even became much more fragile.

"So cute!" Zheng Fan couldn't help but reach out and rub her round little face.

Luo Ye did not resist and was very compliant with Zheng Fan's physical actions.

Just then, a series of hurried footsteps approached. Zheng, still munching on the remaining roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), noticed that the passersby around him looked nervous and scattered, not daring to linger on the main road.

"The zoo is here!"

What are the zoo doing here?

Before long, a group of people wearing animal masks pushed through the crowd and walked towards Luo Ye with a clear objective, eventually surrounding Luo Ye and Zheng Fan.

Luo Ye glanced around indifferently, and then, while Zheng Fan was looking around, he leaned out and took another bite of the roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) in Zheng Fan's hand.

Zheng Fan also saw Jiang Hui walking out from among these people. His red suit was even redder than a year ago, and he had his hair slicked back. The sharpness in his eyes seemed to have diminished, but in reality, they were even more profound.

Jiang Hui approached Xiao Luoye: "You're Agatha Fisher?"

"Mm." Although Luo Ye didn't want to acknowledge the name, he nodded and accepted it anyway. "He's right next to me. He'll call you."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Jiang Hui's phone rang.

As soon as I answered the phone, I heard the other end say, "Brother Jiang, you came really fast."

From Jiang Hui's perspective, Zheng Zheng pretended to put his arm around him, but Luo Ye glanced at him a few times and then looked away, too lazy to look any longer.

Jiang Hui didn't reply, but instead waved to the people around him, and the zoo staff immediately dispersed and disappeared into the surrounding buildings.

"Demon... Jiang Si told me to call you that." After Jiang Hui had Luo Ye follow him, he finally began to communicate with Zheng Fan in a real sense via mobile phone.

"Okay, whatever you want."

“We’re going to pick up Jiang Si now. She said she’ll be back soon, and Dad asked me to escort her.”

"Haha, she probably doesn't need an escort now," Zheng Fan laughed.

“It’s not that I’m worried about her… no, you can’t say that. I am indeed worried about her, but I wouldn’t have asked her to come back for the New Year in the past.” Jiang Hui carefully considered his words.

"Has anything happened in the violent world lately?" Zheng Fan realized upon hearing this.

“There’s an unidentified group trying to disrupt the fragile balance of the violent world,” Jiang Hui said. “Before the news spreads, the leader of another super gang has mysteriously disappeared. In the violent world, such a mysterious disappearance is practically the same as being dead.” Luo Ye looked up at Jiang Hui upon hearing this, but remained silent.

"Because we had infiltrated a lot of their gang, we were able to react even faster than they were. The ability to make that super gang leader disappear without a word and with few people knowing is something we couldn't do unless my dad did it himself."

Zheng countered, "And the purpose?"

"It's still unclear. Dad didn't say much, but he told us to keep a close eye on things and make sure Jiang Si comes back safely first," Jiang Hui said.

"How could someone as unknown and insignificant as Jiang Si be targeted?" Zheng Fan said.

Although Jiang Si's strength is far greater than it was a year ago, probably not many people in a violent world know this. Besides, even if they did know this, how important Jiang Si is to the Jiang Association is still unknown.

In a violent world, is it a bit too much to expect to threaten a gang leader with hostage tactics?

Upon hearing this, Jiang Hui said, "Mr. Devil, although I don't know what Jiang Si said to you, and it's normal for you to have stereotypes about our world, I still want to say that Dad is different."

“Dad is different from all of us, or rather, only Jiang Si is very similar to the dad she used to be. But precisely because they are similar, it is even more difficult for father and daughter to understand each other... I hope Jiang Si can have a good talk with her dad…”

Seeing this, Zheng Fan could only say, "Then it depends on what Jiang Si thinks. I can't say for sure about her now."

"Is that so? It seems she has changed quite a bit."

Luo Ye listened silently to their conversation, her small face behind her sunglasses expressionless. Suddenly, she frowned: "Someone is approaching."

Zheng Fan and Jiang Hui stopped in their tracks.

"Who is it?" Zheng asked in return.

"The Luo family." As soon as Luo Ye finished speaking, Jiang Hui suddenly kicked the air beside him. A blurry outline suddenly appeared and was hit by Jiang Hui's kick, but the outline only swayed slightly, pushed Jiang Hui away with its backhand and continued to grab Luo Ye.

Luo Ye had already picked up an automatic pistol and fired several shots forward.

The bullets that hit the other person were all deflected, and the blurry figure in front of him appeared for a moment and could be seen as a thin man, but then disappeared again.

A sharp, cold glint flashed in the air, and Luo Ye retreated repeatedly, narrowly avoiding the attack, his red hair being severed.

Suddenly, the person opposite him erupted again, reaching out and grabbing Luo Ye by the neck.

"Hahahaha, Luo Ye!!!" The transparent members of the Luo family shouted excitedly.

To everyone's surprise, although Luo Ye's face turned red from being choked, she suddenly opened her mouth, and the muzzle of an anti-materiel rifle protruded from her throat and pressed against the other person's forehead.

boom!
A close-range shot, accompanied by a loud bang, sliced ​​off the opponent's forehead.

Luo Ye fell to the ground, wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth: "My illusion reserves are gone, but my understanding of illusion magic is far beyond what you trash can compare to."

The opponent's corpse appeared, and the corpse suddenly moved. A humanoid chameleon tore the corpse apart, roaring as it broke free from its long-lost restraints.

"Zheng Fan, please help me!" Luo Ye shouted immediately.

"Okay~." Zheng Fan suddenly appeared next to the chameleon and slapped the chameleon, who had finally managed to break free of control, to the ground.

Luo Ye stepped forward, grabbed the struggling creature, opened his mouth, and bit down on the chameleon.

Click!

The chameleon struggled violently, but ultimately failed to escape and was devoured bit by bit by Luo Ye.

Luo Ye stood up and lightly wiped his mouth with his thumb: "In the past, I would have been too lazy to collect something of this caliber, but I'll just have to make do with it for now."

"...Are all your capture scenes this violent?"

“No, normally one bite is enough, but completing the entire ‘eating’ process makes capturing more efficient. It’s like how reducing the opponent to low health before applying a status ailment increases the success rate of capturing a Pokémon. It makes sense, right?” Luo Ye said with a grin.

Zheng Fan also laughed and said, "It was definitely the right thing to let you eat some weapons in advance."

"It looks like I'll be forced to eat a lot of boring things during this period," Luo Ye said with a hint of helplessness.

Each member of the Luo family has a different way of casting illusion spells, and Luo Ye's illusion spells are of a very high level. In addition, his body has also undergone a lot of modifications to adapt to the illusion spells.

Her "stomach" has no capacity limit; she can eat as much as she can imagine, and she can even eat real food, not just hallucinations.

At the same time, because she often lacked illusion reserves when she was young, she developed her own blood red factor combined with illusion magic, which allowed her "belly" to enhance other ordinary weapons.

However, this function became virtually useless to her afterward, as she relied solely on illusions as her weapon.

Being chased by a group of people, being weak and lacking sufficient illusion reserves, truly reminded Luo Ye of the pathetic days he spent at home and in the Dark World.

but……

Luo Ye's mind flashed back to his true eight-year-old self, crouching in a corner, crying silently. Even in his unconscious state, he was thinking about when the future would change and whether someone would descend from heaven to take him away.

Things are different now...

At this moment, Jiang Hui looked at Luo Ye, still somewhat surprised and uncertain about what had just happened.

Did this little girl just spit out something dangerous, and then eat something she had pressed to the ground?

Even in a violent world, this is a bit too violent.

(End of this chapter)