Problem Girls Strategy

Chapter 302 Dilemma

"Uh...ah!!!"

Kailu, who was originally quietly held under Jiang Zao's armpit, suddenly let out a shrill scream. Black mist continued to emerge from her body and soon covered her head. Her hands scratched around, leaving several hideous bloody marks on his arms.

Jiang Zao did not hesitate at all, condensed the [Blade of Resurrection] and stabbed it into Kailu's body. Due to the interference of the black fog, the life force could not form a light film this time. The two fought fiercely on her body like opposing armies.

In pain, Kailu wailed heart-wrenchingly, and then bit Jiang Zao's wrist tightly with her teeth.

"Tsk."

Jiang Zao gritted his teeth and let her bite his hand. Kokoro and her abnormal condition made him anxious. The unreserved explosive attack on [What is Towards Death] just now was not enough for him to maintain the [Elemental Armor] state, and his movement speed also slowed down a lot.

There was no completion message for the mission, which meant that [What Towards Death] was not killed by him. Unable to confirm who it had assimilated with, he did not dare to take the two of them to see a doctor. He could only try his best to speed up and return to the guild hut.

Now at least we can confirm that the companions around us are not assimilation targets, and home is the safest place at the moment.

Kailu's sharp fangs had pierced Jiang Zao's skin, and the blood had dyed her lips a strange blood red. As the force of life gained the upper hand in the confrontation, the pain like her brain was being torn apart gradually disappeared, and she could no longer hold on and passed out.

Pekorim and Huihui waited anxiously for Jiang Zao, whose left hand was covered in blood, and his two unconscious companions.

"Jiang Zao! Are you okay?"

"Who attacked you!?"

“Meihui, is there anyone in the Crimson Demon Clan who is proficient in healing?”

"I'm sorry, there's no... injury on your hand..."

"I don't care about that anymore. Hurry up and pack your things. Let's leave here immediately."

Since the establishment of the Food Palace, it has never been in such a dangerous situation. Everyone hurriedly packed up and left Landsol without stopping for a moment. According to Jiang Zao's plan, they would hide near Maple Sugar Valley for a while to make sure that the two people's injuries were healed before considering the next thing.

......

On the second day of hiding in the wild, Kailu slowly woke up in Jiang Zao's bedroom. Hui Hui, who was looking after her, shouted outside the house in surprise: "Jiang Zao, Kailu is awake!"

Jiang Zao walked in calmly and said, "Thank you for your hard work. Please go out and have a rest for a while."

"Ah."

After calming down, he rethought why [Something Towards Death] attacked Kael and Kokoro, and also knew the location and time where they appeared.

He once again began to doubt Kael's original purpose of secretly monitoring them.

It was he who issued the commission, and Jiang Zao only told his companions in the Food Hall. If the person who had previously instructed Kailu was the target of assimilation, then everything made sense.

That person originally went after Pekorim, but after being assimilated, he may have given up targeting her, so Kael didn't behave strangely before, until the commission attracted the attention of [What's Towards Death], and she received the order and took Kokoro to that place.

Kailu sat up, holding her aching head. The moment she saw Jiang Zao, she felt guilty, but she couldn't remember why she felt guilty about him.

Seeing that she avoided looking at him, Jiang Zao was more certain of his guess: "Kailu, who is the person who ordered you?"

"Order? I...I..."

Kailu's memory was like a movie with many scenes violently erased. The fragmented conversations and large blank spaces even made her doubt herself to a certain extent.

Am I really Kaylu?

Why do I forget so many things? Why did I take Kokoro there?

The more she thought about these questions, the more fear she felt inside, like a burst dam that completely drowned her in negative emotions.

Two completely different voices emerged from deep in my heart and confronted each other.

[You are not Kael at all. The guy who betrayed his companions is already dead! ]

[You are Kael, the one who betrayed her companions and committed a serious crime.]

“No!” Confusion and fear combined to defeat Kailu’s fragile spirit. She hugged her head and screamed and ran to the corner, trembling like a frightened little animal: “I don’t know! I can’t remember! I’m not Kailu... I’m not her!”

Jiang Zao frowned, his eyes filled with gloom. He remembered that when he brought Kael back, the black mist that came out of her body attacked her head first, definitely to erase the relevant memories. If he hadn't used the [Blade of Resurrection] to treat her in time, Kael might have become a vegetable or lost all her memories.

The clue to finding out the true identity of [What is Towards Death] was cut off. Jiang Zao greeted his mother dozens of times in his heart, and then slowly approached her: "Kailu..."

"I'm not Kailu, don't call me by that name!"

"Okay... do you remember who I am?"

"Jiang...Zao..."

Just reading the name made Kailu feel as if her heart was being cut by a knife, and the guilt was about to drive her completely crazy.

"It seems that you at least have some memories. Go back to your room and rest for a while. Maybe you will feel better there." After Jiang Zao said this, he called Huihui in and took her back to her room.

After finishing things here, he returned to Kokoro's room. Looking at the little guide lying quietly on the bed like a sleeping beauty, his anger towards [What is Towards Death] suddenly rose up.

After taking a few deep breaths to suppress it in his heart, he walked to the chair beside the bed and sat down, gently holding her little hand whose body temperature was normal.

Kael, who was directly attacked by the black fog, has already woken up, so why is Kokoro, who was sealed in the crystal, still sleeping?

Maybe it will take some time for her to wake up...

In the following days, Jiang Zao carried the unconscious Kokoro on his back and traveled non-stop with the rest of the group. During this time, he explained the whole situation to Huihui and Pekolim. Although they were also angry, they could not help at all.

After arriving near Maple Syrup Valley, Jiang Zao locked himself in Kokoro's room and refused to go out. Although Kailu was no longer startled, she was like a puppet at the mercy of others due to her amnesia, and even began to refuse to eat or drink.

Pekorim and Huihui saw this and were anxious. The food palace was now like a boat that was about to be torn apart, and they had to face enemies hiding in the sea whose faces were unknown.

As usual, Huihui put lunch at the door for Jiang Zao who stayed indoors. When she was about to get up and leave, the door suddenly opened. She was surprised to think that Kokoro had woken up, but she saw him walk around her and go straight to Kailu's room. He kicked the door open and walked in.

Chapter 303 Blood IOU

Jiang Zao pulled Kailu out of the room. Facing Huihui who was full of worry, he forced a smile: "Don't worry, I won't do anything to her."

"But..."

Without waiting for her to finish her words, Jiang Zao led his men into Kokoro's room. When Pekolim came over following the sound, the door had been heavily closed, and there was even a layer of wind element placed to block out the sound.

The two stood in the corridor, at a loss as to what to do.

In the room, Jiang Zao looked at Kailu, who had a thin face and lifeless eyes. He had no sympathy for her at this moment. He pointed at the unconscious Kokoro and said, "Now... can you give me an answer, when can Kokoro wake up, or is there any way to wake her up?"

The people she was most afraid of facing due to her amnesia were Kokoro and Jiang Zao. She struggled to free her left hand from being grabbed and tried to leave the room and escape back to her bedroom.

Seeing that she was trying to escape again, Jiang Zao couldn't hold back his anger and squeezed out three words from between his teeth: "Answer me!"

Kailu leaned against the wall weakly, her messy black hair bounding her like a spider web, tears streaming from her hollow eyes: "I'm sorry... I can't remember... I don't know anything."

"If an apology is useful, then why would I ask you this?"

The cold words were like a sharp knife stabbing into her heart. In her fragmented memory, she had never heard Jiang Zao speak in such a tone. Tears streamed down her cheeks and seeped into the corners of her mouth, leaving her mouth full of bitterness.

"Okay, you can get out now."

Kailu seemed not to hear him and just stayed there, mechanically repeating the word "I'm sorry".

Jiang Zao was already upset, and now she was buzzing here like a fly, and the anger that was suppressed to the extreme in her chest leaked out a little.

"Oh!"

He slapped the wall behind Kailu with his right hand and pinched her chin with his left hand to force her to look at him. Intense anger burned in his calm pupils: "If Kokoro never wakes up again, or dies like this, then you will be prepared to become my property. I will do everything I can to drain your life, flesh and blood, and spirit to find the mastermind behind this. You'd better pray that this day will never come."

Kailu twitched her lips and gave a miserable smile: "You might as well treat me as your property now. Anyway, I have lost a lot of memories and have no purpose in living."

Jiang Zao clenched his fists and did not vent his malice towards her. He knew very well that she was just a poor chess piece whose memory had been wiped, not to mention that she was also a companion he once trusted. It was meaningless to vent his malice towards her and it was just a waste of time.

"What's wrong? Aren't you interested in me?" Kailu pulled open her collar, revealing her snow-white skin. When she wanted to continue unbuttoning her clothes, she was held down by a big hand. Then she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She clenched her fists and silently endured the pain, as if only by doing this could she relieve the guilt in her heart.

Until the fishy-sweet blood flowed from his teeth to the tip of his tongue, Jiang Zao opened his mouth and stood up. A bloody mark was bitten on Kailu's shoulder. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand and said to her viciously: "This is an IOU. Believe me, you don't want to see the day when it takes effect."

After saying this, Kael was thrown out of the room. Her messy clothes and the bleeding bite marks on her shoulders scared Pekorim and Huihui who were waiting outside.

She refused to bandage her wound and walked back to the bedroom with her weak body.

After that day, Kael started eating. Although she was still like a puppet at the mercy of others, she had a reason to continue living, which was to wait to become a search tool to hunt down the person behind the scenes.

......

Jiang Zao couldn't remember how long he hadn't fallen asleep. Relying on the [Source of Life], he could forcefully suppress the drowsiness coming from deep within his brain, but what was the point of doing so? Even he himself couldn't figure it out.

He just wanted to stay with Kokoro, check on her condition at all times, and use [Blade of Resurrection] on her once every hour.

During the intervals, he would hold Kokoro's little hand and talk to her about some recent events. Although he was locked in the room and did not go out, he still used the elements to observe everything around him, and Kaede was his main focus.

"Pekorim sighed again yesterday. This should be... no, it was the 432nd time she sighed in this period of time. Maybe it's hard for you to imagine, but that lively and cheerful foodie has reduced her food intake by half recently. But this is also a good thing. At least our food will not be consumed so quickly, and they don't have to go out hunting all the time."

"There were a few times when they ran too far away and my mental power could hardly detect them. Fortunately, I still had the magic [Elemental Armament] which could serve as a signal relay station, so I didn't lose track of them."

"Hui Hui...to be honest, I feel sorry for her. She has been in charge of all the housework and other things during this period. She is indeed as her mother said in the letter, very virtuous and caring."

"Kailu... Never mind. She's still the same as always, eating, daydreaming, uh...going to the bathroom, taking a shower. I didn't spy on her. I just used the elements to sense where she went."

"Speaking of bathing... I have to apologize to you first. I have been helping you bathe during this period, so... well, you know, if you are unhappy, you can wake up and scold me. You can scold me in any way you want."

Kokoro still didn't react at all, and looked like she was sleeping soundly. If Jiang Zao hadn't used his life force on her at such a high intensity, she would have become extremely thin considering her current coma and inability to eat.

He placed her little hand on his forehead to silently convey his thoughts. His eyelids gradually became heavy and he seemed about to fall asleep at any moment. Jiang Zao once again used his life force to try to wake himself up.

Perhaps it was because his fatigue had accumulated to the limit and his life force had no effect. He tried hard to struggle in the whirlpool of fatigue, but his eyes went dark and he fell on the bed with his head tilted, still holding Kokoro's hand and refusing to let go.

Coming to the space composed of stars again, Jiang Zao's thinking became very slow. He didn't react for a long time why he was here. The situation did not improve until the vague figure of the goddess Eris appeared in front of him.

He rushed to her without hesitation: "Goddess Eris, you must know a way to wake Kokoro up, right?"

"Yes, I should have sent someone to deliver the relevant items to you, but for some reason the passage to the human world has been unusually unstable recently, so now you have to get it by yourself."

Eris' words cheered Jiang Zao up.

Chapter 304: The Method of Salvation

"What can we do to save Kokoro?"

"This task may be difficult for you now..."

Jiang Zao interrupted Eris and said to her firmly: "Please tell me the target directly."

"Well..." Eris sighed helplessly: "Kokoro definitely doesn't want you to take risks."

"I just want her to wake up. Other things are not within my consideration." Jiang Zao was unmoved and stared at the goddess with firm eyes.

He had handled the crisis very calmly before, why did he become so impulsive now? Is this what they call love?

"What if... one of the conditions for saving Kokoro is the lives of the rest of your companions?"

As soon as Eris finished speaking, the man in black armor placed the blade across her snow-white neck, and said with a hint of murderous intent: "I think you should prove to me that you are the goddess Eris first. If you answer incorrectly, your head will be removed."

"Hehe..." She was not nervous at all, nor did she intend to move the lightsaber away: "This is very similar to my old style. I was just joking just now."

"That's not a good joke, and...please prove yourself."

"Hmm... You are really stubborn. Let me think about how to prove it..." Eris put her index finger on her cheek and lowered her head to think. Her eyes lit up and she smiled: "The ability you chose at the beginning is called... Void Genome, right?"

Jiang Zao removed his [Elemental Armor] and said expressionlessly: "...The answer is correct. Please don't make such jokes next time, Goddess Eris."

"I'm sorry, since you haven't slept all this time, it's difficult for me to contact you this way. If the connectivity interference continues to worsen, this may be the last time I communicate with you before the interference is lifted."

“Is this disruption difficult to deal with?”

"Well... you could say it's interference from the origin of the world. There's not much we can do about it."

"The origin of the world..."

Could this be related to the assimilation progress of [What is Dying]?

As a viral program, it would endanger the safety of the entire world, and it was reasonable that the process of assimilation of native organisms would have an impact on the origin of the world.

If it is allowed to complete assimilation, it is estimated that the connection between this world and the God of faith will be cut off instantly, and all major churches and believers will be in chaos, which is also consistent with the prelude to the destruction of the world.

Jiang Zao kept these inferences in his heart for the time being. The most important thing now was to figure out how to wake Kokoro up.

"How can we save Kokoro?"

"You need to go to the Red Dragon Volcano, defeat the mutant red dragon, obtain the purest drop of dragon blood in its heart, and drop it on Kokoro's hair accessory. That way you can wake her up."

"It's that simple?"

"If you hadn't used that miraculous ancient magic to continuously treat Kokoro, the steps might have been much more complicated, but now only that drop of pure dragon blood is enough."

Eris reminded Jiang Zao with a serious expression: "Although it sounds simple, that mutant red dragon has survived in this world for more than a thousand years. It will be difficult for you to defeat it now."

He was slightly stunned, then frowned: "After more than a thousand years, isn't it the one in the Adventurer's Guild's bounty commission?"