Chapter 60: Michael Wakes Up
Of course Raphael isn’t dumb enough to use too much force and kill Michael on the spot. His years of ’babysitting’ experience are enough for him to know how much force is just right.
"Don’t worry, I guarantee he won’t die. To wake him up..."
Raphael glanced around and spotted a bucket of water he could use. He first popped Michael’s jaw joint back into place, then dumped a cup of water right onto the ’poor kid’s’ face.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Caught off guard by the water, Michael coughed and choked. Some water also spilled into his body but it wasn’t a big deal.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Raphael’s gaunt face. Without thinking, he lunged forward, throwing a punch. This situation clearly meant he still wasnt awake so he got slapped again right on the jaw.
Michael had just opened his eyes and now he was lying on the ground, drooling in pain. The jaw that just got popped back in was dislocated again. He passed out again with no sign that next time he’d be fully conscious.
"Uh... is this really okay to keep doing like this?"
Leo’s eyelid twitched a few times. If this kept repeating, Michael would die before he even woke up... Okay, maybe not die but his jaw would definitely fall off.
"I’m not sure. But I’m sure he won’t die from a slap. So we keep going until he wakes up."
And just like that a scene of child ’abuse’ started, repeating dozens of times in a row. The more Raphael slapped, the weirder he felt, not sure if it was a good weird or bad weird.
If Michael becomes a god in the future, wouldn’t he go down as the ’great’ demigod who could be knocked out dozens of times in a row by some slaps?
...
And so it went for another few dozen times, so many that Leo couldn’t even be bothered to count. He just noticed that Michael’s recovery ability in this state was really good.
Getting his jaw dislocated that many times, and after popping it back in, it still looked like nothing happened. You can’t call that normal recovery ability.
And Michael’s transformed state is seriously weird. No matter how many times he got knocked out, he still didn’t turn back into human form, which really surprised Leo.
"Why hasn’t he turned back into his human form from your hits?"
Around here Raphael is the only one to ask, and he’s also the only one who understands contractor stuff, so if not him, then there’s nobody else to ask.
"All contractors with shapeshifting abilities won’t turn back into human form no matter if they get knocked out or seriously injured. They only turn back when they want to, or when the energy in their body drops below the minimum needed to maintain their transformed state."
Raphael kept slapping Michael while explaining a bit about similar situations to the both of them. Of course it’d be weird if Michael actually heard any of this.
"So that’s how it is. This isn’t a flaw at all. It’s actually a really good advantage."
On the battlefield, being in a transformed state is the best form for contractors like him and Michael. If they suddenly got knocked back into human form, they’d be way more likely to get seriously hurt.
Not long after, Michael opened his eyes again and saw a bony hand about to ’lightly swipe’ his face, then it suddenly stopped.
Raphael realized at that moment that Michael had stopped being crazy. His eyes were still bloodshot but the madness was gone.
"You bastard! Why do you keep slapping me like that?"
The moment he regained consciousness, Michael started yelling like crazy, leaving both of them dumbfounded.
???
Clearly earlier you were like a rabid dog, so how could you remember what we did? This is way too weird.
"So... you weren’t actually unconscious earlier?"
Leo hesitated a bit but finally spoke up. He wasn’t sure if Michael would hold a grudge over the ’abuse’ from earlier.
Even though Raphael really didn’t mean to torture Michael, the two of them couldn’t think of any better way.
"Unconscious my ass!"
Michael immediately yelled at Leo. Even though he couldn’t control his body earlier, he felt every single slap extremely clearly. On top of that, he got water in his throat... like dozens of times in a row.
If he didn’t know these two were his teammates, he’d think this was enemy torture to get intel out of him.
"Hold on, Michael can’t speak clearly so he’s probably still not conscious. Let me slap him one more time to wake him up."
Raphael had just said that and hadn’t even raised his hand yet, and Michael went completely silent. More precisely, he went quiet in a very resentful way.
’Damn it, I’m a genie, an actual god. You guys don’t worship me, fine, but you slap me and tell me I don’t get to have an opinion? What kind of logic is that?’
As resentful as he was, he could only speak up inside his head. He was in the wrong earlier. He attacked Raphael first.
[What kind of genie is this pathetic? Just a tiny little demigod. Even if you can’t beat him, you can still yell at him like crazy. He won’t dare kill you, so be brave.]
???
The system rarely spoke up to encourage Michael, but was this really encouragement? It was clearly telling Michael to start trouble so Raphael would beat him up.
Sure, Raphael has no reason to kill a god-tier talent who can’t betray him and also happens to be his lifesaver.
But not killing him doesn’t mean he won’t dare beat Michael until he’s bedridden for half a month.
’Shut the hell up. You only talk nonsense. When I actually need you, you pull your silent act.’
Seeing how badly behaved the system was made Michael feel both resentful and pissed. The systems he read about in novels back in the day gave out lots of rewards and were super useful.
Compared to that, this damn thing that occasionally chatters in his head just to annoy him is completely different. What’s worse is he’s forced to listen and can’t just mute the system.
