Chapter 71: Surrounded
Although it could take to the skies at any time, it was already too late. Now, if he had taken to the sky after being seen with Hiro, there wouldn\'t have been any lack of people gunning for his life.
Since he already joined this game of influence and prestige, he can only bear with it.
The petite demoness in Hiro\'s arms started to struggle frantically, her desire to escape from her predicament quite strong.
Alas, she was severely injured and couldn\'t muster up demonic energy anymore, and by solely relying on her physical strength, she couldn\'t extricate herself.
As for Hiro, escaping the encirclement of a few low-intellect goblins wasn\'t challenging at all. In less than five minutes, and with the black raven leading the way, they successfully escaped.
"Don\'t let your guard down," the black raven advised while flapping his wings. "The big players are yet to join in on the fun, they\'re probably negotiating with each other while little guys like us are fooling around!"
Hiro gave the black raven a curious look of intrigue while thinking, This little guy\'s brain isn\'t half bad.
"How much time do we have to prepare, then?" Hiro asked.
"Caw! It\'s evening," the black raven looked up at the darkening sky. "They should be having a banquet now, so their orders will be passed down after dawn hours. Until then, small fries like us can fight all we want."
The raven flapped his wings and moved from one of Hiro\'s shoulders to the other, craning his head to look down.
"Caw! Aren\'t you curious about what she looks like? Caw!"
"Now that you\'ve mentioned it," Hiro suddenly recalled that he was holding onto the game\'s ultimate prize.
He dropped the demoness on the ground and pulled her gray robe, revealing what lay beneath.
She was very short, about Hiro\'s chest in height if and when she tiptoed. Her skin was deep blue, curved spikes jutting from her elbows, and she had four eyes.
Hiro couldn\'t figure out her bloodline, and so he asked the raven. Sadly, the raven was just as clueless.
"Caw! Don\'t ask such a stupid question," the raven was angry and insulted.
"How many bloodlines are there? Tens of millions! We demons conquered many pocket dimensions, planes, minor realms, and great worlds! How many sons and daughters have we sired all these years? Who bothers to keep count?"
Hiro felt that it made sense. Other than the 108 ancestral bloodlines, all other demons were a product of mixed breeding.
It was either between the ancestral bloodlines or between demons and other races, further diversifying the already muddy waters.
With that in mind, it would truly be a waste of time to study the current encyclopedia of bloodlines in the demon race.
It\'s like someone trying to summarize every last name that existed in the current period of human history, just a waste of time.
At the end of the day, all of them are humans, just like how all of these are demons.
Then again, some demons must have been very desperate back in the day; how else would offspring like birds and dogs would populate the realm?
Seeing the weird look in Hiro\'s eyes, the raven was hopping mad, but it couldn\'t say anything about it.
It could only tolerate these disgusting assumptions in silence while cursing those deprived ancestors.
"Why are you so calm?" Hiro shook his head and asked the girl—she was no longer struggling.
The girl pointed at the raven.
Hiro understood; she must have overheard this guy\'s analysis and felt like her current situation was just temporary.
Someone else would take her at any given time now, so fussing about it wouldn\'t help.
She might as well conserve her energy.
"Caw! This lass is smart," the black raven calmed down, his brown eyes taking in the girl\'s appearance. "What\'s your name?"
The girl didn\'t answer. She stood there, silently waiting for Hiro\'s next course of action.
Hiro looked around and asked, "Hey, I\'m curious about the two families and their respective bounties. Tell me about it as we walk."
Hiro wasn\'t in a rush either.
Even if he couldn\'t complete this bounty, it was fine as long as used this opportunity to understand the situation in the stronghold.
He didn\'t have to make enemies out of the two families with a great demon lineage.
He couldn\'t afford to offend an ordinary local lord family here, let alone two local overlords.
"It\'s a waste of my breath even if I explained it to you," the raven grumbled.
"A friendly advice, don\'t gossip about these families even if you\'re locked up in a cell in the depths of the earth. If they want to know something, they will know."
"Are you scared?" Hiro taunted the raven while walking through the unfamiliar alleyway.
"Caw! Yes, I\'m very scared! Caw!"
"Tsk!"
Hiro was disappointed, as he couldn\'t do anything about it if the raven was this traumatized.
"What if I take the initiative to hand this girl to one of the big players?" Hiro suddenly had this idea.
Walking in front of Hiro, the girl\'s petite body shook a little. On his shoulder, the raven was also a little surprised.
"That… That\'s actually a pretty good idea, I didn\'t think about it… Wait, how do you plan to do that?"
"It\'s simple," Hiro smiled. "If we just hand her over, they wouldn\'t think much of it. However, if we make them suffer some losses first, then offer her up, I\'d get the most benefits."
Hiro didn\'t feel bad about selling demons or treating them like property with a set value.
Even if he didn\'t have any sense of involvement or attachment to the humans of this world, he was still a human.
Moreover, he wasn\'t yet qualified to act all kind and benevolent to a stranger, especially a demoness.
Since that was the case, he might as well fish out for the most benefits in these troubled waters. However, to do that, he needed to increase his arsenal.
Relying on the Infinite Sword Matrix alone wouldn\'t cut it. Hiro touched his chin and mumbled internally.
I have a little over 2,500 points left, it\'s not enough… Hiro felt what it was like to be broke all over again.
Although he was tempted to return to the human world and get his hands on quick achievement points, he tempered down this temptation.
He shouldn\'t rely on the system\'s easy path to power too much. With his current tools, establishing a foothold in the demon realm shouldn\'t be a problem.
System, can I use the laws extracted from the game to gain Sitri\'s skills and abilities?
[Notice: Yes, but the system doesn\'t recommend it. If you merge the laws into the core of a dimension, all creatures within that dimension will gain a certain chance to comprehend the abilities. It\'s not worth it to use the laws to empower yourself.]
Hiro pursued his lips. That makes sense, but I\'m very tempted.
Hiro realized that the habit of attaining easy profits had grown on him. So, he quickly shook his head to get rid of these funny ideas.
The system\'s implied meaning was that there was a certain possibility for Hiro to get his hands on multiple pocket dimensions.
Understanding this, Hiro was no longer anxious about using the law extract to increase his individual strength.
At any rate, his Sitri character was already a top-tier fighter, so his life wasn\'t in any danger no matter what.
The black raven was confused. This guy stopped all of a sudden and started zoning out, is he okay?
The demoness was also confused, but she had other things to worry about. Her eyes darted around, thinking about how to escape.
"They\'re over here!"
A shout from the intersection ahead snapped Hiro back to his senses. He turned around, but it was too late.
Floods of demons in all shapes and sizes rushed into the tight alleyway from the streets, the rooftops, and windows.
Hiro cursed, "Fuck, we\'ve been led into a trap!"
As Hiro looked up, he noticed a group of avian-type demons in the air.
Hiro glared at the raven and berated, "Are you stupid?! What\'s a bird like you doing down here? You should\'ve stayed up there to give clear warning signals!"
The raven was tongue-tied, feeling wronged and angry. "Caw! I… I…"
How should he explain that he feared losing sight of Hiro? If he could enter the stronghold unnoticed, he could leave unnoticed just the same.
"Hand the girl over!"
A huge, three-headed vulture descended from the sky, brandishing its talons.
Hiro looked up and shouted, "Scram!"
Boom!
Two lumps of hellfire demonic energy condensed into swords before lashing out with great force, slicing off two of the three heads.
Screech!
The vulture\'s last head cried out in agony as blood spilled on the ground, the buildings, and the madly rushing demons.
Although killing wasn\'t allowed, Hiro could still beat them up so badly they didn\'t dare approach.
Hiro wanted to step up and bathe the place in blood, but he soon noticed that the petite demoness was clinging to his right leg, her head buried into his abdomen.
Obviously, she was scared.