Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Aggressive Speech
’He just left? Just came by to take a look? He didn’t ask a thing and let me pass that easily... Does a big shot like him also have to abide by that "Don’t Think Too Much, Don’t Ask Too Much" principle?’
Lloyd muttered a whole slew of questions to himself, finally adding:
"But what did he mean by that last sentence?"
As he was puzzling over this, he suddenly heard the sound of hurried footsteps from outside, and an unexpected person rushed in.
’It’s that Drunkard administrator?’
She made a beeline for Weiya’s bed, touched Weiya’s forehead, and then asked in confusion:
"She’s actually okay?"
With that, she quickly strode over to Lloyd and grabbed his hand.
Lloyd immediately felt a few hair-like strands of inspiration drill into his body through his arm, tickling him.
After two seconds, the Drunkard let go of his hand and asked, still confused:
"How come you’re fine too?"
"What’s that supposed to mean? Was I supposed to be in trouble?"
Lloyd retorted irritably.
"Sorry~ A bad girl like me has always been pretty direct."
The Drunkard said without a hint of sincerity, letting out a sarcastic laugh.
"Heh heh~ You two are really lucky... Not just anyone can escape from a situation like that completely unharmed..."
"But your inspiration and Spiritual Power are truly strong. No wonder that not-quite-human, not-quite-ghost Chief Judge thinks so highly of you... Tee hee, what an interesting fellow."
As she spoke, her eyes, hidden behind a mess of seaweed-like hair, studied Lloyd intently, as if committing his face to memory.
Then she pulled out her flask and staggered away, GLUG GLUG GLUG-ing as she went.
She also didn’t ask for any details about what happened to Lloyd, putting on the same ’Don’t Think Too Much, Don’t Ask Too Much’ air.
"Psycho..."
Lloyd muttered under his breath.
The words had barely left his mouth when he saw a fluffy little kitten scoot in through the door. It wriggled over as fast as an inchworm, climbed onto his hospital bed, and asked with concern:
"Meow meow meow?"
Lloyd scratched its round little head, smiled, and said:
"I’m fine. Go keep her company. If you want to become a mature little kitten, you should start by taking care of humans."
But the little kitten didn’t listen. It was still meowing and flailing its paws, seemingly venting some kind of dissatisfaction.
Only then did Lloyd remember. When he and Weiya went down to floor -6, he had told it to wait for him outside the elevator. In his haste, he had completely forgotten...
"Uh... sorry, sorry, I forgot about you. But the situation really was tense back then."
After Lloyd’s explanation, the little kitten finally climbed, satisfied, onto Weiya’s bed. It began to roll around cutely by her pillow, as if trying to make Weiya get better sooner this way.
***
Lloyd rested for a little while longer. Feeling that his Spiritual Power had mostly recovered, he got out of bed and left, leaving the little kitten to look after the still-unconscious Weiya.
’Speaking of which, my Spiritual Power recovery rate is surprisingly fast. I thought I’d be laid up for a long time.’
He clenched his fist and muttered to himself.
According to the knowledge he’d gleaned from books, the recovery speed of Spiritual Power was related to multiple factors: basic constitution, inspiration strength, mental state, mood, and so on.
But generally speaking, without the help of external aids like potions or Orbits, it would take about five days for an Extraordinary Being’s Spiritual Power to go from completely depleted to fully recovered.
Although Lloyd hadn’t completely exhausted his Spiritual Power, and it hadn’t fully recovered yet, regaining most of it in such a short time was indeed quite fast.
’Since I have Spiritual Power to splurge again, and there’s nothing else to do right now, why not go test my new skill? I should see how much of my Key Immortal power I have left.’
With that, Lloyd left Tower Nine and began to wander around the vicinity. He happened to brush past a Priest he didn’t know, so he quickly called out to him, starting with a polite apology:
"Excuse me, I don’t mean any harm."
Before the man could react, he activated his skill and delivered a Zu’an-style greeting.
Then he quickly took a few steps back to avoid a physical attack.
But the other man just stared blankly, a look of confusion and daze on his face for about two seconds, before asking:
"Hello? Can I help you with something?"
"I just wanted to ask where the nearest convenience store is."
Lloyd made up a random excuse to brush him off.
The Priest kindly pointed him in a direction and then took his leave.
’Hmm, that wasn’t very aggressive, was it? He basically didn’t even notice...’
Lloyd mused, then continued to wander. He soon found a handyman sweeping up.
Again, he opened with an apology, then activated his skill and let fly a classic piece of vitriol.
The man froze, a clear look of bewilderment on his face. It took him more than ten seconds to snap out of it, after which he looked at Lloyd suspiciously.
’So the "aggression" just makes people dazed?’
Lloyd continued his tests. He came across a passing Priest in black robes and, using [Probe], discovered that his Rationality value was a few points higher than the previous Priest’s.
Same as before, he apologized first, then seamlessly followed up with a string of British profanity.
The man stopped, glanced at Lloyd, and silently walked away.
His gaze was full of pity and regret, which made Lloyd feel quite awkward...
And so, while using [Probe], he tested the effects of [Aggressive Speech]. After testing it on a few more passersby, he came to some general conclusions.
The higher a person’s [Rationality] and the lower their [inspiration], the weaker the skill’s effect; it barely affected them at all. Conversely, against those with lower [Rationality] and higher [inspiration], the effect was quite noticeable, leaving them dazed and bewildered for several seconds.
Furthermore, no matter the type of person, none of them realized they were being insulted, nor did they pay any mind to Lloyd’s opening apology.
"Isn’t this skill a bit too weak? It has no offensive power at all! You can’t even get into a proper argument with it..."
Lloyd gave it a rather low rating. Then he noticed a worker on the side of the road painting a damaged wall, who looked like he’d been hired from outside.
The results of [Probe] showed that he was already in a state of [Mild Madness].
’I’ve only tested it on people with normal mental states so far, never on someone like this...’
Lloyd moved closer, offered a sincere apology, then activated his skill and unleashed a string of abstract nonsense.
The worker froze on the spot, the paint roller falling from his hand. His pupils contracted violently, as if he had just seen something utterly terrifying.
