Becoming a god in a low-key way in the supernatural world

The big white cat, who had tried to help three times but was politely asked to leave by the customer each time, looked bewildered and muttered unconsciously, "This is too strange, too strange..."

“Yeah!” Youjia looked at the clear sky, her eyes also filled with confusion: “I understand girls coming to look at handsome guys, but what’s with all these guys?”

With a serious expression, Qingkong said, "They must be here to buy coffee for their girlfriends; they are the real customers of the store."

Yujia was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously shook her: "Don't run away from reality, Qingkong... There's this guy I've seen at least five times!"

Sachiko Amamiya was still questioning her cat existence, looking down at her own hands: "Humans are so strange..."

Around 7 p.m., after the coffee shop reluctantly closed, Kotegawa, stretching his slightly sore shoulders, frowned and asked, "Not serving dinner today?"

So he was the only one who did the work today?

The big white cat remained silent, turning her head to look at the kitchen behind her, where she seemed to see several cats huddled together purring.

Yujia stared at him blankly: "You're really too weird."

Kotegawa was also taken aback, then raised his hand and flicked her forehead.

Am I to blame? It's the world's fault, not mine!

...After making a ruckus in the coffee shop for a while, the three of them changed their clothes and went home together, with Kotegawa still clutching an envelope in his hand.

Although he didn't intend to take the money, he wouldn't be able to sleep if he didn't take it tonight.

The three of them returned home smelling of coffee beans.

Uncle Jian stood at the door with his hands in his pockets, waiting for them.

They greeted each other and entered the foyer together with Uncle Jian, who opened the door.

Kotegawa told the two girls to go wash up first, while he went to the kitchen and presented the envelope in his hand to Aunt Akiba as if it were a treasure.

"A letter to parents?" Aunt Qiuye was visibly nervous.

Kotegawa choked for a moment, then shook his head: "It's today's wages."

"Hmm, is it at a coffee shop?" Aunt Akiba became interested, opened the envelope, and took out three 10,000 yen bills.

She paused, then asked suspiciously, "How many days' wages is this? Is the manager so kind that I can get an advance on my wages?"

"No, it's for today," Kotegawa said with a hint of reserve.

Aunt Qiuye looked down at the money in her hand, examining each bill to confirm that it was three 10,000 yen bills, not three 1,000 yen bills.

She thought for a moment, then looked at Uncle Kenji who was standing to the side with his hands in his pockets, and asked uncertainly, "What was Qingkong and Youjia's hourly wage again?"

“1500,” Uncle Kenji replied.

Aunt Qiuye responded with an "oh".

Kotegawa explained, "There were a lot of people buying coffee today, and I did most of the work in the shop, so the manager gave me extra pay."

Qingkong, who had just come out of the restroom, explained, "That's right, more than 90% of the customers tonight specifically asked Kotegawa to make their coffee. He worked very hard today and supported the entire store's business tonight."

Yujia, who was standing nearby, took out her phone and mysteriously leaned close to Aunt Qiuye: "Auntie, take a look at this."

"What? What?" Aunt Qiuye looked down and exclaimed in surprise, "Is that Kenji? He looks so handsome in his butler uniform! He's so much more handsome than Kenji was when he was young!"

Uncle Kenji, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, leaned over.

Kotegawa chuckled and went to the restroom to wash up. While washing his face, he heard Yuka muttering, "Look, isn't the line strange? Kotegawa is really something else, he's got everyone, young and old! Today, we've only sold a tiny bit of the ingredients..."

Kotegawa, wiping his face with a towel, fell into deep thought. He wondered if he could bring his younger brother over to work as well. Although his younger brother was a little less handsome than him, if he were to cook, customers would probably be willing to pay.

But before that, we need to deal with his problems first...

Tonight's dinner was stewed pork ribs and stir-fried pork with garlic chives, which Kotegawa ate most of by himself.

After seeing that he earned 30,000 yen in just three hours of work, Aunt Qiuye and Uncle Jianji felt reassured about him, knowing that he had the ability to earn money, wouldn't starve, and wasn't living off a woman.

At that moment, Kotegawa, who was chewing meat with gusto, suddenly looked up and put down his chopsticks.

A car suddenly pulled up outside his house, and an unfamiliar voice got out and was about to knock on his door.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the doorbell rang outside the gate.

He wiped his hands, shook his head at Qingkong who had put down his chopsticks, and said, "They're probably asking for directions. I'll go check it out."

The clear sky nodded in agreement.

He stood up, walked to the door, opened the foyer door, and stood at the front door. Looking at the man standing outside wearing sunglasses, a black shirt, and a half-exposed tattoo on his neck, he asked, "What is it?"

The man in sunglasses and black outside the gate was taken aback, probably not expecting that the guy who had just knocked on the door would have such a strong presence.

He raised his hand and pointed to the house next door: "Excuse me, do you have the contact information for the owner of that house?"

Kotegawa glanced over, pointing to the house between this side and Takanashi's house, and casually asked, "What's wrong?"

The man in sunglasses said coldly, "We want to find the landlord to rent to us for a period of time."

At that moment, the car door behind him was pushed open a little, and someone peeked out.

Kotegawa glanced over and saw several people wearing gray cloaks with indifferent expressions.

He shook his head: "I won't rent that house."

The man in black and sunglasses paused for a moment, then asked, "Was it the homeowner who instructed you to do this?"

Kotegawa nodded and said, "That's right, that's what the head of the household said."

The man in black and sunglasses opened his suit jacket, took out an envelope, and raised his hand, saying, "There's 100,000 yen in here. I'm buying the homeowner's contact information. We'll talk to him."

After a moment's thought, Kotegawa gave up on his plan to swindle the 100,000 yen and said to him, "I am a member of the household, and that house is not for rent."

The man in black and sunglasses stared at him for a while before finally saying, "Three hundred thousand, for a week's rent!"

Kotegawa waved his hand: "If you really don't want to rent it, please leave."

The man in black and sunglasses looked at him for a while, then stopped bothering him, put away the envelope, and got into his car.

The person sitting inside the car stared at him coldly through the car window.

Kotegawa calmly watched the car leave the street.

Gangsters and bounty hunters—a rather strange combination.

"Xiao Jian, who is it?" Uncle Jian's voice sounded behind him.

She probably came to check on him since he hadn't gone back.

Kotegawa turned around and said, "They've come to inquire about the residents in the neighborhood. They don't seem like good people."

Uncle Ken nodded slightly: "Go back."

Chapter Thirty-Five: Luring Him Out

In an alley near Shirakawa Shrine, several cars quietly turned off their engines.

The people on the bus cast their gazes through the windows toward the torii gate of the shrine not far away.

In the darkness, whispers could be heard: "It's confirmed, the target is inside the shrine."

"Send someone to keep an eye on them, and once the target appears, immediately find an opportunity to take action."

"The goal is to become a full-fledged priest, possessing shikigami (spirits/spirits), but not..."

"There must be a foolproof retreat route."

"Gentlemen, the 'Grey Wolf' has arrived. We must seize every opportunity..."

A few minutes later, the two cars drove out of the alley, passed the shrine entrance, and headed north towards the commercial street.

……

In the past two days, Kotegawa has encountered at least three groups of people who wanted to rent his house. They all looked fierce and menacing, with an attitude of "I'll kill you if you don't rent to me."

He couldn't help but reflect on himself, wondering if he was too kind in his usual manner of speaking, making him seem a little easy to bully.

But why have so many gangsters been loitering around here these past two days?

I've never seen this before...

Under the warm sun, Kotegawa stood by the roadside, gazing towards Takanashi's house.

He planned to act tough this time; if any gangsters dared to ask him if he wanted to rent a place, he would grab one and question them about what was going on.

Now let's see who the lucky one is.

He waited for more than ten minutes, but instead of the underworld boss, he received a call from Hu Tao.

On the phone, Hu Tao's sweet and gentle voice came through: "The underground bounty in Heian-kyo is confirmed to be real. There have been people stalking my door recently, and quite a few hunters may have already come."

Kotegawa said thoughtfully, "I've also encountered several groups of bounty hunters and yakuza in the past few days... Is this probably the same thing? The attraction of fifty million is really that great."

"What do you think? That's fifty million! And you don't even have to pay taxes!"

Kotegawa chuckled softly, turned his head and glanced at his house. Through the window, he could see Uncle Kenji and Aunt Akiba watching TV and chatting in the living room.

He asked, "Won't these hunters directly attack the shrine?"

"If they dared, they would have done it already, but they definitely wouldn't! We also have divine messengers in our family."

Messenger of the gods... It seems that the messengers of the gods in Tokyo are not very strong. Last time, one or two of them were killed by the Oni Princess. Unlike in Hokkaido, the messengers of the gods are at least oni kings of the level of evil oni kings. Well, strictly speaking, he can also be considered a messenger of the gods now... a messenger of the gods with the title of "True King".

Kotegawa thought for a moment and decided not to delve into how powerful the Shirakawa family's divine messenger was, as long as it had a deterrent effect.

He began, "Since they don't dare to storm the shrine, let them wait two more days. Once most of them have arrived, we can deal with it together..." He paused, then continued, "Let's have a peaceful New Year together, and then go to Heian-kyo after the New Year to resolve this matter."

He and Hu Tao were already family, so it was only natural for his younger brothers to step up.

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Hu Tao smiled slightly. "Tomorrow is the birthday of the gods. So, have you prepared a gift?"

Gifts... Kotekawa immediately thought of the pile of things under his bed: gold, demon energy pills, yin energy pills, protective armor, adrenaline... Last time he gave her the Sky Gold Nuggets, she didn't seem to like them very much. And indeed, gold nuggets are a bit too primitive a gift... Maybe he should just make a few pairs of gold bracelets.

"Of course I'm prepared. Please look forward to tomorrow," he said confidently.

Hu Tao's soft laughter came from the other end of the phone; it was clear she was looking forward to it.

After hanging up the phone, Kotegawa continued to wait for his destined acquaintance in the underworld, but perhaps because he hadn't checked the almanac before leaving home, he waited for an hour without seeing anyone.

He decided not to waste any more time, feeling a little regretful, and turned to go inside.

Meanwhile, just across the street, in a restaurant, the yakuza figures that Kotegawa was looking for were all gathered for their annual meeting. Just like in a TV drama, in the long, narrow room, several rows of people sat cross-legged at a long table, their faces downcast and solemn.