The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 55: Rune Circuit

Fat Jun splattered tea out of his mouth. “That’s a man?!”

“I knew it.” Unlike him, Officer Huang seemed rather relieved and kissed the wedding band on his ring finger. “I’m still a good man.”

“Look at him, Electric Mouse. You can learn a thing or two.” Having picked the food she wanted, White Rabbit pressed the call button.

“I should learn from him? I’m known for my devotion to my romantic partner!” Wu Dahai defended himself vehemently. “But first I need a girlfriend!”

A young waiter came to their table. “Evening. Are you ready to order?”

White Rabbit rattled off all the orders without pause, “Large portion of beef short ribs, large portion of pork belly, one portion each of squids, soles, eggs, corns, king oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms...and finally, one portion of spicy rabbit heads. Oh, wait, any of you want it?”

All the others shook their heads, unwilling to try.

Save for Qing Ling. “I’d have one.”

White Rabbit gave her a look of genuine appreciation. “Say no more. From now on, we’re sisters of different parents!”

After they made their order, Gao Yang asked, “White Rabbit, what...”

“What’s going on with Gu Family’s Village? What are Rune Circuits?” White Rabbit cut in. “You’ve been waiting to ask that, haven’t you?”

“Yeah.” Gao Yang was a little embarrassed. It seemed that everyone else was fine with not knowing right this moment, while he was the only one asking all the questions like a curious child.

But he couldn’t help but be hung up on it! He wanted to gather more information and grasp more rules so that he can survive in this terrifying world longer. Nothing wrong with that, right?

“Be a little more patient, would you? I prefer talking while eating.” White Rabbit took off her baseball cap, her short, slightly puffy hair dropping and framing her fair pink cheeks. With her bright, almond-shaped eyes, cute, delicate nose, and the two canine teeth that made themselves known when she smiled, there couldn’t be a more apt description for her than White Rabbit.

Fat Jun couldn’t tear his eyes from her.

Noticing his gaze, White Rabbit said, “What are you looking at? I don’t have Seduction as a Talent.”

Fat Jun lowered his head bashfully.

After a pause, White Rabbit said in realization, “Oh! Really? I’m your type?”

“Well!” Wu Dahai interjected. “Mine too.”

“Piss off. Every girl is your type.” White Rabbit rolled her eyes at Wu Dahai and put her cap on Fat Jun’s head. “Work hard. I may consider you once you become an official member.”

“Really?” Fat Jun’s eyes widened. He thought he had heard her wrong.

“Of course.” White Rabbit gave him a mischievous look. “Chubby guys are cute. Give you a sense of security.”

“Don’t trust a word out of this woman’s mouth, buddy!” Wu Dahai said with pent-up rage. “I was lured into the organization the same way! She’s in charge of recruitment for the organization, and she’s got a quota to fill every year!”

“Ah, is that so...” Fat Jun smiled sadly with resignation, scratching his head. “Of course. How would someone like me...”

“Don’t listen to him.” White Rabbit leaned forward with a hand propping her chin and smiled sweetly at Fat Jun. “You’re not like Wu Dahai. I meant what I said.”

“Okay!” Fat Jun said with renewed hope. “I’ll do my best!”

Gao Yang thought with fear, What a terrifying woman!

“Ah, right.” White Rabbit turned to the others. “As your senior, I’d like to give all of you newbies a piece of advice.”

“Go on.”

“Although monsters are the most terrifying beings in this world, you’re unlikely to run into especially dangerous ones without doing something really stupid. For you people, the greatest threats are actually the awakeners. I’d advise you not to start trouble with awakeners from other organizations. The owner of this restaurant is a good example.”

“Why?” Fat Jun asked. “We’re all humans. Shouldn’t we form a united front against monsters?”

“That’s the case in theory, but the reality says otherwise.” White Rabbit shrugged. “Let me tell you a figure. For every ten awakeners who died, only three were killed by monsters, while all other seven were killed by humans.”

The table fell silent.

Gao Yang was suddenly reminded of a quote he read elsewhere. “There are two things in the world you shouldn’t look at directly. Sun, and the human heart.”

White Rabbit considered Gao Yang’s face seriously. “You aren’t...a long lost brother of our captain, are you?”

“What?”

“You often say very similar things.” White Rabbit smiled, pleased. “It seems that we’ve recruited the right guy this time.”

As they talked, the waiter came to the table with a little cart. He moved the plates of proteins to the table before serving the drinks and beer.

White Rabbit volunteered to be the chef with a pair of tongs, while Fat Jun poured drinks for everyone without being asked to.

“I should explain what Rune Circuits are before going into the deal with Gu Family’s Village.” White Rabbit flipped the beef short ribs on the grill. “Rune Circuits are something all awakeners should know about. There are... Hey, dig in. The meat is really tender. It’s gonna be too charred if left on the grill any longer.”

Wu Dahai took a sip of beer. “Focus on the barbecue. I’ll do the talking.”

“Sure.”

Seeing all the eyes shifted to him, Wu Dahai felt flattered and put away his usual flippant attitude, explaining in a professional tone, “There are twelve Rune Circuits in total: Life, Support, Poison, Buff, Guard, Summon, Damage, Psyche, Element, Knowledge, Time-Space, and Miracle. By the way, Rune Circuit is simply what awakeners call these things. No one knows what they really are.”

“Anyway, the Rune Circuits are mysterious artifacts with many uses. They are certainly not made in our era, and the greatest known use for awakeners is to level up our Talents.”

“Level up?” Qing Ling’s eyes lit up.

“I heard Officer Huang say that you’ve been obsessing over a way to level up.” White Rabbit picked up a piece of beef at just the right doneness and put it in Qing Ling’s bowl. “Here. Eat.”

“Tell me about leveling up first.” Qing Ling couldn’t wait to hear an answer.

“Talents started out at level 1. They can go up to level 2 after repeated uses. Level 3 is a little harder to reach. You have to kill a certain number of monsters with your Talents. If you’re lucky, you may only have to kill one monster. If you’re unlucky, then you may have to kill more than ten. Of course, such a method applies to only Talents that can do damage. Other types of Talents level up in different ways, but let’s not go into all the nitty-gritty now.”

Qing Ling nodded. “My Metal reached level 3 during the fight at Gu Family’s Village.”

“It’s probably because you killed quite a lot of monsters with both Metal and God of Blades.” Wu Dahai raised an eyebrow. “Our organization forbids unjustified killing of monsters, but those at the Gu Family’s Village didn’t count. We left them to you to help you level up.”

“You say that, but we almost died!” Officer Huang couldn’t help but fume when reminded of what happened.

“Hahaha, don’t blame Electric Mouse. It was my idea. We each got what we needed in the end.” White Rabbit quickly picked up a few pieces of meat for Officer Huang. “Let’s put that aside for now, yeah?”

“There’s a bottleneck between level 3 and 4 for Talents, and going past it would make a significant difference.” White Rabbit thought for a moment. “To make an analogy, it’s like the difference between regular rabbit heads and spicy rabbit heads.”

How much do you love rabbit heads?

Gao Yang swallowed the comment threatening to come out.

“The hell’s with your analogy,” Wu Dahai interjected. “I’d say it’s the difference between bicycles and motorcycles.”

They all nodded bemusedly. That was much more understandable.

“I want to level up,” said Qing Ling.

“Patient, girl. Let me finish.” White Rabbit picked up another piece of meat for Qing Ling. “It’s not that easy.”

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