Curse the Mainframe! 445 Can't Leave Him Alone

Chantelle breathed deeply, the fresh air flowing into her lungs like a shot of adrenaline. She placed her hands on her hips, laughing gleefully. She instantly forgot all her worries.

The hole they had to crawl through was truly too small to be able to even stoop. It was undignified, and there were even traps along the way, which she had to get rid of with much difficulty.

But, at this moment, she didn't care about anything else.

"Haha, this lady is finally out!" She tilted her head up for the sunshine to hit her delicate, if dusty, skin. "The air is so fresh; the sun is so warm-"

She hadn't finished speaking yet when she was unceremoniously booted from behind, causing her to flail and plant her face in the dirt without being given a chance to flail.

"'Sun is so warm' my foot! Stop blocking the way with your big behind!"

Chantelle clawed herself off the ground with a look of rage on her face. "Youuu-!"

The two untrained house cats fought each other in an almost playful manner. Behind them, Le Xuan crawled out of the hole, her face long-suffering.

Behind her was Ye Sha, who looked quite happy to be out as well.

Finally, Alec came out, looking no worse for wear compared to the rest of them.

Ye Sha eyed his friend. Why the hell did he look like he came out from a photo shoot instead of having crawled through the same space as the rest of them? The heavens were truly unfair. He looked sparkling clean compared to the rest of them who looked like grimy street rats.

The System glanced at the rest of the group, then back at Alec, and concluded that it must have something to do with seals.

Ye Sha pawed at Alec, trying to find something, only for Alec to bat away his hands. Alec smiled. "What are you doing?"

Ye Sha shrunk away. Alec could almost see his ears and tail drooping.

Alec's lips twitched.

"What do you want now?" Alec asked again.

"What did you use to keep yourself looking so pristine? Hand it over!" Ye Sha's words might have been threatening and angry, but his tone was anything but.

Alec's lips twitched again. He handed over a single seal, and Ye Sha happily pasted it on his face.

A second passed.

Nothing happened.

Ye Sha looked at Alec with betrayed eyes, actually causing Alec to crack a smirk. "You're supposed to paste it on your clothes, not your body."

"Oh."

Ye Sha pasted the seal on his clothes.

Nothing happened.

Once again, the System slowly looked at Alec with betrayed eyes.

Alec spread his hands; his face serious. "Seals are a one-time use thing."

Ye Sha glowered at him, then held his hand out. "Hand it over."

"I don't have any more."

"Argh," Ye Sha said, sinking down into a crouch. He clutched his head.

At this time, they had attracted the three females over.

"What's this?"

"It's a seal that repels dirt, apparently," Ye Sha said in a sad tone. He slowly pulled out a packet of chips, eating sadly.

Katherine held a hand out towards him. "Hand it over."

Ye Sha slowly put the bag of chips in his hands on her hand.

Katherine's forehead throbbed. This was the time that he was going to share chips!? She wanted the seal, not the chips!

Wrong time!

Ye Sha seemed to feel that Katherine was about to explode. He hurriedly took the chips back and shoved the seal at her.

She looked at it curiously, her mind sifting through her theoretical studies about seals in the past month. "How interesting…"

As she said that, she actually pulled out a bunch of talisman papers from somewhere and started seriously drawing under the others' eyes.

Alec raised an eyebrow. He could actually have drawn it in a few seconds, but it looked like Katherine wanted to try it, so he didn't say anything.

"Done," Katherine said smugly. She whipped the seal and stuck it on Ye Sha's clothes, only for the shirt to explode into smithereens.

Their faces were all stunned.

Alec hastily smothered his laugh, turning it into a light cough. He had to bite down on his teeth to stop himself from smiling.

"No, I don't believe I can't do it!" Katherine said, her face dark. She hurriedly drew another one, then stuck it on Ye Sha's pants before he had time to do anything.

This time, the pants directly slid off his frame like there was no friction at all.

The females politely turned their eyes away. Ye Sha's face started to flush, and he hurriedly grabbed his pants.

Alec struggled, blinking rapidly.

"Wait, wait, stop!" Ye Sha said, "This is equal opportunity. How can you only use it on me?"

"Oh," Katherine said, "you're right."

Ye Sha heaved a sigh of relief, ignoring the two glares coming from Le Xuan and Chantelle.

"Why aren't you using it on Alec as well?"

"How can I bear to use my experiments on my teacher?"

"But aren't we your friends too!?"

"Good friends help each other out," Katherine said faintly.

There were various cries and pleadings of mercy, which were promptly ignored.

After a few more disastrous rounds, Katherine finally managed to complete a proper seal.

The two ladies and a system were fighting to keep their dignity and they were in tatters.

Suddenly, Ye Sha froze. "Alec could have checked the seals before application…" he said faintly, his gaze vacant.

Katherine looked thoughtful as she thought about what she did wrong previously.

"No," Alec said peacefully, his tone calm, "she has to see the results of her failures before she can ponder about what went wrong. Of course, I could have pointed it out, but this is better for her growth."

Still, what he meant was 'he could have done it'. The three of them wanted to cry but had no tears to shed. Their energy had all been used up by Katherine.

By the time Katherine managed to produce three proper seals without any errors, the two ladies and a System looked like they were deeply grateful – grateful that their fate of being human guinea pigs were over, that was.

Alec came back with a mutated slug, causing Le Xuan to lean back in disgust.

"Why did you bring that back?"

Alec glanced at her. "Naturally, there is a use for it."

"What use?" Chantelle said blankly. She clutched her clean clothes to herself, feeling drained. She didn't know why she was still hanging around these psychos. She was already free from that place…

"Naturally, we cannot just leave that Grand Meister alone."

As Alec's words fell into their ears, it suddenly sounded very pleasant, and they all regained their energy.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

"Let's go, let's go!"

"Let's fuck up that bastard!"

Katherine smirked. "Then I can test some seals on his corpse later…" she whispered in an evil tone.

The three of them 'normal' people hurriedly took a step back, eyeing her with great caution.

Alec patted Katherine's head. "Okay."

He ignored the three people's look of horror directed towards him, screaming that he was an enabler inside.

Then, they went back inside the hole that they just crawled out of…

Chapter end

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