Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Goblin Prototype (Part 2)
The next day at noon.
George was all set and ready to go, but Ji Ma managed to wrangle an hour and a half of nap time from him, using her recent habit of feeling sleepy and needing a midday snooze as an excuse.
Since being beside George made it easy to get found out while walking through the dream world, the best course of action was to finish preparations in advance—at least a significant part of it.
According to the plan, Litis had already produced several female goblin prototypes.
Without taking off her clothes, Ji Ma went straight to bed, curled up, and fell asleep in the most comfortable position.
Before long, in her drowsy state, Ji Ma regained awareness, finding herself in a black and white dreamscape, flying directly towards the dream seed of Litis, entering her dream.
Litis’s dream was a hazy gray, and Ji Ma was inside it, using her hands to tear through the dream and create an exit. It felt as if she were a silkworm escaping from its cocoon; each step took tremendous effort, and Ji Ma expended a lot of magical energy before the gray and white world around her suddenly burst into color.
As her feet touched solid ground, she experienced a brief dizziness, stumbling for a moment before regaining her balance. This was a side effect of “dream walking,” but it was a small price to pay compared to the ability it granted Ji Ma to traverse great distances in a short time.
When she gathered her senses, she found herself in a dim room, where Litis lay on a straw bed, her red eyes opening as she said:
“Ji Ma, you’ve come? Welcome, welcome, it’s been a long time.”
“Could you put down the long sword in your hand before we talk about welcomes?”
“The most basic caution—anyone who suddenly appears next to a seasoned warrior like me will raise my alertness,” Litis replied, sheathing the sword. “It seems your ability isn’t suitable for long-range assassination.”
“If possible, I prefer to be the mastermind behind the scenes,” Ji Ma said, pulling out a cloak, gloves, pants, and a bird-man mask from an other-dimensional pouch at her lower back.
Once dressed, she looked like a “plague doctor” from the Renaissance.
“What about the surroundings?”
“With your little pup.”
“What little pup? If he weren’t useful, I would have dealt with him long ago. His constant licking annoys me.”
After Ji Ma spoke, she opened the door. The dimly lit hall had the only light coming from a few fist-sized windows, letting sunlight filter in. Lai Wu was sitting at a round table, with two green translucent cylindrical objects on the surface.
Lai Wu turned to Ji Ma and asked, “Who are you?”
Ji Ma changed her voice, saying, “I am Litis’s associate, her superior.”
“Superior?” Lai Wu’s eyes widened, feeling as if he might be tangled up in some cult, a smile creeping onto his face. “You’re joking, right?”
“With your good attitude, I feel reassured,” Ji Ma said, her golden eyes behind the glasses scanning the cylindrical objects on the table. “Let’s get down to business.”
“Wait, your voice sounds familiar,” Lai Wu said. “Do you know a beautiful girl named… Ji Ma?”
“I don’t know her,” Ji Ma shot him a glance, using her lying ability. “Do you really think the Ji Ma you’re talking about would come dressed like this?”
“Impossible,” Lai Wu grinned amiably. “She’s far from here.”
“Typical pick-up line,” Ji Ma snorted, asking, “Why are there two?”
“One is a premium version, the other a low-quality one,” Litis stepped forward, picking up the longer cylindrical object. “This one is premium, hence deeper and with clearer patterns.”
Lai Wu hesitated, but when Litis shot him a glance with her red eyes, he obediently shut up.
Ji Ma took note and asked, “Oh? Is one of the molds for a rosebud?”
“Though Lai Wu is a virgin, I was watching nearby, so I wouldn’t mix up the two holes.”
“Don’t use your mold to deceive me; do you think I’m foolish?”
“Ah, you caught me. Why use the goblin’s?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Ji Ma said. “By the way, doesn’t it hurt?”
Ji Ma had entered Litis’s dream last night and, with her consent, viewed her memories from that day. The screams of the goblins reminded her of the goblin stone projectiles thrown by the dwarves.
“It’s bearable, about the same as dripping wax,” Litis replied. “Not much feeling.”
Lai Wu’s face turned red, likely from some fast-paced events that occurred during the molding process.
“Truly perverse.”
Ji Ma said as she extended her gloved hands to pick up the shorter “prototype,” holding it in front of her for inspection. It looked shallow from the side, and Ji Ma couldn’t tell much else about it.
It would be sold as a product molded by the elf queen to a group of enchanted men.
But people do have brains; they won’t just believe anything.
Ji Ma said, “If I say it was molded by a high elf queen, would you believe it?”
Lai Wu shook his head.
Litis chuckled softly, saying, “I have no intellectual disabilities.”
Ji Ma closed her eyes, channeling the power from rumors of the past few days; she spoke in Chinese:
“As everyone is unaware, goblins and gremlins are simply different translations—one is a transliteration and the other a free translation; the source word is the same. Therefore, gremlin is just another name for goblin.”
“Gremlin and elf both contain the character for ‘精’ (jing).”
“So, the gremlin queen is equivalent to the elf queen.”
“Naturally, merchandise molded by the gremlin queen is equivalent to that made by the high elf queen…”
Ji Ma felt the air stir slightly; the power of the rumors within her was drained, leaving not a single drop, and her magical energy was also considerably diminished.
Suddenly feeling a little hungry, she remembered that she hadn’t gone to George for food in two days. While consuming lust didn’t equal replenishing magic, filling her stomach would help restore her magic. It was like dieting; when she got tired, she needed to eat more meat to have the energy to continue.
Ji Ma opened her eyes, and the goblin queen molded prototype lay quietly in her hand, unchanged. She looked at Litis and asked, “This is molded by the high elf queen; do you believe it?”
Litis grinned and said, “Of course not—”
She suddenly stopped, her red eyes fixed intently on the prototype in Ji Ma’s hand, as if it possessed a certain undeniable magical power.
A look of confusion crossed Litis’s face as she said:
“No, you make sense. It does look like it was from the high queen; otherwise, there would be no reason to capture a goblin claiming to be a queen. Ah, no, that isn’t my thought. I clearly saw the molding process.”
Litis shook her head, thought carefully about her memories, then let out an uncertain sound: “It shouldn’t be.”
Ji Ma was not particularly surprised; after all, Litis was an extraordinary being, and she had witnessed how the prototype was created. The fact that even she was doubtful showed that Ji Ma’s lies were quite effective.
Ji Ma asked Lai Wu, “What about you?”
“This, this is made from the mold of the high elf queen,” Lai Wu exclaimed with wide, fearful eyes. “Can I quit?”
Litis replied, “Wake up; you personally molded the goblin queen. It’s just a beast I picked randomly.”
“She might have been cursed.”
“No, that was a lie I told you. I’ve told you before.”
Lai Wu said, “It’s just too unbelievable; it clearly belongs to the high elf queen…”
Ji Ma, satisfied, placed the prototype on the table and said, “Alright, we can move on to the next plan.”
The next plan involved Ji Ma using Mr. Dong Dong to spread the word about the prototype and then begin selling it.
“Okay,” Litis said, “I’ll ask Lai Wu to produce more.”
“Can you tell me what you’re doing?” Lai Wu asked. “This doesn’t seem like avant-garde sculpting.”
“How is it not?” Ji Ma asked. “Even artists who pursue art need to worry about selling their work; otherwise, they’ll starve. Am I right?”
“But this thing seems designed for that kind of activity.”
“All art is meant to evoke a sense of beauty in the audience,” Ji Ma rambled. “Our art can provide customers with a climax-like beautiful experience; isn’t that beauty in art?”
Lai Wu suddenly got it, feeling that Ji Ma was quite right: “Right, I overthought it.”
“By the way,” Ji Ma said, “Avant-garde art is not understood by the public; if you speak carelessly about it… Ah, we aren’t an evil cult and won’t do anything to you. No need to wear that terrified expression. It’s just that we can leave without a trace, but if others find out what you’ve been involved in…”
Lai Wu gasped and hurriedly said, “I won’t tell anyone!”
“Very good.”
Ji Ma was very pleased; everything was going smoothly, and it was time to head back. She only had an hour and a half remaining, with sleeping time being the bulk of it. If she didn’t hurry back, she might be caught by George, revealing her plans, which would be bad.
“By the way,” Ji Ma said to Litis, “You should take care of that goblin queen.”
“Are we going to kill her to keep her quiet?” Litis asked. “She has her uses; if the mold is used too many times, it will wear out, leading to poor quality, and we’ll need to remold it.”
“She’s quite pitiful; let’s give her a quick end,” Ji Ma replied. “As for wear and tear, it doesn’t matter; as long as it’s made from that mold, that’s all that counts.”
“Tsk, you’re really kind. She’s just a man-eating monster. The finger bones on her crown are all chewed up.”
“Kill her.”
“Alright, you decide.” Litis grabbed her long sword and walked to the door, saying, “Just yesterday, my neighbor complained about disturbances.”
As she pushed the door open, Litis stepped inside but then backed out, frowning as she shouted at Lai Wu, “Where’s that beast?”
Lai Wu went pale, hurriedly running inside. When he turned back, his face was white as a sheet as he said:
“I—I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? The only two people in this room are us! I’ve locked it up tight! What did you do?”
“It, it begged me,” Lai Wu said, “It seemed pitiful, claiming it couldn’t stand because it was in pain, pleading for me to show some mercy and unlock the chains around its neck to take one last breath before dying. It promised me!”
“You believe whatever it says?” Litis rolled her eyes. “I was molded and am still full of life!”
“But it was crying out very loudly yesterday.”
“Crying loudly means it’s about to die?”
Lai Wu lowered his head, remaining silent.
Ji Ma sighed, covering her forehead and said, “Everyone knows goblins are cunning, yet some people still refuse to believe that.”
Lai Wu weakly suggested, “Should we go find it?”
“When did you unlock it for her?”
“This morning while feeding her breakfast.”
“Find? What’s the point? God knows where it’ll hide in town; goblins are the best at hiding.” Litis said irritably, “Pack your things, let’s hurry up.”
“Why?”
“Why else?” Litis looked as if she could hit him, “A goblin with a taste for human flesh, having escaped, is now blended into the town. What do you think it will do? It will definitely kill a child or something like that, venting its anger and stockpiling food. Once the townsfolk find out a goblin is killing people, they’ll surely come looking for us.”
“More trouble than it’s worth,” Ji Ma muttered in Chinese. She said, “Forget it, I’ll handle it.”
“You?” Litis recalled Ji Ma’s abilities, “You’re not planning to get taken down by it, are you?”
When walking through dreams, one’s real self becomes dizzy and disoriented, caught off guard.
“I won’t die; I can’t let goblins go around killing people.” That would draw attention and expose my plans.
“Alright then.”
