Douluo Continent: Gretchen at the start, empowered by the Star God.

Chapter 24 Hotel Conflict

"Brother Lang Lei, you're so naughty~" After leaving Flander's shop, Gretchen poked Lang Lei's face without hesitation while in his arms.

Greta could obviously tell that Lang Lei had taken a liking to the gold-plated metal as soon as he entered the store, and that his subsequent negotiations were nothing more than haggling with the shopkeeper.

However, the method was rather underhanded, and it gave the boss quite a fright.

"Oh dear, little Gretchen, how can you say something is bad when it's consensual?" Lang Lei said with a smile. He had gained something, Flander had gained something, everyone was happy, wasn't that right?

As for why they took this piece of gold...

Given his grudges with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, plus his relationship with Qian Renxue, he was destined to become the opposite of Tang San, the protagonist of the original work. How could he not take the opportunity to weaken the other party?

The Dragon Beard Needle provided Tang San with a lot of assistance in the early stages, so we should try to reduce its power as much as possible.

Even if it just sits gathering dust in the warehouse, it's better than being used by the enemy. Besides, he doesn't need that one gold soul coin.

"Oh~" Gretchen nodded and stopped talking about it.

"So, where do we go next?" Lang Lei hadn't forgotten that he still had a passive ability card he hadn't used.

"Hmm..." Gretchen lowered her head and thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I don't know."

"Let's just wander around and buy some food!" Lang Lei suggested.

"Okay, okay!" Gretchen's eyes narrowed into slits.

"You little glutton, were you too shy to say it just now?" Lang Lei tapped Gretsch's cheek with one hand.

Little Greta's face instantly flushed red; she looked absolutely adorable.

"Brother Lang Lei, I hate it..."

"Waaaaah, little Gretchen actually hates me now~" Lang Lei pretended to be on the verge of tears.

"No, no!" Gretchen burrowed her head into Langley's chest, wriggling in embarrassment and indignation.

"Okay, I know~" Lang Lei was in a great mood and walked briskly, as if he was about to start skipping and jumping. "Let's go, let's eat something delicious~"

-

After satisfying their appetites, Lang Lei and Gretchen wanted to return to their hotel room.

Lang Lei was quite curious about how the passive skill card, whose quality was still unknown, would improve him. After all, his previous passive skill, "Steadfast," had greatly enhanced his endurance. Although he rarely activated his martial soul in fights, strengthening his body with soul power was still very useful.

As for little Gretchen... of course she'll go back to drawing!

Of course, it's also possible that they both wanted to go back early and spend some quiet time with each other...

Just as the two returned to the hotel and were about to go upstairs to their room, the hotel receptionist came up and stopped them. Beside them, a blond man waited anxiously, with twin sisters in his arms, one in each arm...

"Hello."

"Hello, what's the matter?" Lang Lei glanced at Dai Mubai, who was waiting there, and roughly guessed what was about to happen.

However, he still didn't take the other party seriously. After all, without the protagonist Tang San's help and by riding in the protagonist's convoy, the other party's own abilities probably wouldn't have survived until his brother ascended the throne.

His personality was that of a coward who abandoned his fiancée and ran away alone, which made Lang Lei even more disgusted with him.

"Sir, is your room still occupied?" the hotel receptionist asked cautiously.

"Of course I'm staying here. I was just about to go upstairs, wasn't I?" Lang Lei nodded. "I remember paying for several months' worth of rooms all at once. It's only been a little over a month! Even with the recent recruitment for the Soul Master Academy and the increased flow of people in Soto City as one of the main cities, your room rates shouldn't have increased so quickly. It's almost doubled! Besides, I booked a long time ago. Does your establishment ever raise room rates mid-stay?"

"No, no, you've misunderstood..." The hotel receptionist was also a little flustered. "How about this? I'll refund your room fee in full, but could you give up the room?"

"Huh?" Lang Lei tilted his head, a little impatient, but still refused in a relatively normal tone, "No way, you know there are a lot of people now, and hotels are hard to book. Are you going to find us a hotel if we check out now? Also, why are so many guests looking for me? Because I'm small?"

"No, no, it's that blond Soul Master guest." The hotel receptionist wiped his sweat. "He wants to book our best type of room, the one you booked..."

"I remember there are other rooms of this size that I booked, right? Are they all booked?" Lang Lei lifted his leg to go upstairs. He didn't want to argue with the other party about this. If it weren't for Gretchen being there, he would probably have just left after hearing the other party's request, wanting to be a polite older brother.

"Please reconsider!" The hotel receptionist quickly stopped Lang Lei. The other top-class rooms had been booked by regular guests, all of whom were Soul Masters, and he couldn't afford to offend them. He could only try to approach this seemingly young guest.

"Gu...please move aside!" Lang Lei frowned and patted Gretchen to indicate that she didn't need to speak.

"It seems you can't handle my request properly either." At this moment, Dai Mubai, who had been watching from the side, walked over.

"Young Master Dai, please give me a little more time..."

"No need, I'll talk to him." Dai Mubai waved his hand impatiently.

"It doesn't matter who comes," Lang Lei said expressionlessly.

"Kid, don't you recognize me?" Dai Mubai said with a sneer after hearing Lang Lei's words.

"Golden Hair, you haven't been to the Great Soul Arena lately, have you?" Lang Lei was amused by the other party's confident attitude and said in an unfriendly tone.

"Hmm? How did you know? Wait, since you mentioned the Soul Arena, that means... you're a Soul Master too, right?" Dai Mubai roughly judged Lang Lei's age and said confidently, "Let's have a match. According to the rules between Soul Masters, whoever wins stays, how about it?"

"Not so great? What kind of ridiculous rules are these? I've never heard of them before," Lang Lei sneered. "This is my room, but if you want to get beaten up, I'm ready anytime."

"Oh ho, you've got quite the big mouth, huh?"

"Brother Lang Lei..." Gretchen glanced at Dai Mubai with some disgust. She had a magical ability: she could see a person's "color," and she really disliked this man's color...

"Wow, your sister's pretty good-looking." Dai Mubai finally noticed Gretchen's face, which was buried in Lang Lei's arms, and said in a flippant tone, "Have you considered having her stay with me from now on?"

Lang Lei's gaze instantly turned cold, and he looked at Dai Mubai with the eyes of someone looking at a dead man.

"Gresh, go back to your room and wait for your brother for a while. If anyone stops you on the way, just knock them out as you see fit," Lang Lei said as he put Gresh down.

"Okay, sure." Gretchen nodded obediently and ran up. She wasn't worried about her brother Lang Lei at all, because the blond villain on the other side was very weak...

"Alright, I hope you can hold on a little longer!" Lang Lei turned to look at Dai Mubai, his face as cold as ice. "Don't die too quickly, that wouldn't be satisfying..."

(End of this chapter)