Chapter 240: Wake-Up Call
Just a few minutes later...
"...Me and my big mouth," Uhtred muttered under his breath, dragging a palm down his face.
"Are you talking to me, mighty sir?" a voice squeaked from his side, prompting Uhtred to glare at the newcomer with lethal intent.
The person in question shuddered instantly, their lips snapping shut. They faced forward, careful not to provoke Uhtred any further.
In front of them lay nearly a score of demonic cultivators, all dead, brutally mowed down by Uhtred a minute prior.
He had just said those words of reassurance to himself in the cave less than ten minutes ago, when all of a sudden, he picked up a trace of commotion somewhere in the forest about a mile away.
At first, he assumed his position had been compromised, but he quickly realized the group wasn’t hunting him. Rather, a mob was pursuing someone through the woods.
Uhtred had remained still. He had sealed the cave entrance with a thick slab of earth, disguising it with some shrubbery for good measure. From the outside, the small opening looked like nothing more than a natural mound, virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding terrain.
He had been confident the commotion would pass by cleanly without him needing to do anything.
But to his utmost surprise, just when he thought he was safe again, the commotion suddenly diverted and began to head straight for his position.
Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Uhtred had picked up Nayu An, who was finally beginning to stir. She was on the verge of waking, and carrying her on his shoulder at the speeds generated by Slipstream Stride would undoubtedly jar her awake... but he had no choice.
There was no way he was waiting to find out what the commotion was about. By the time they arrived here, he would be long gone...
...Or so he thought.
Before he could even step out of the cave, he had been hit with a list of Mandatory Interaction Choices. A staggering ninety-two percent of his audience had voted for him to stay put and face the incoming commotion.
The percentage took him completely off guard. Even the seventeen percent of his audience who had previously supported him — those who wanted him to survive so his story could play out naturally — had voted for him to wait and see what was coming!
It seemed his smooth escape and pragmatic playstyle had begun to bore them.
In the end, he’d had no choice but to stay and wait for the commotion to reach him.
Even though he was vehemently against waiting for the commotion to reach him, it was the only choice that even had the slightest bit of logic behind it.
The second choice had come from the degenerates pushing romantic scenario options. They wanted him to wake Nayu An up, return to the An Clan, and settle down with her — an absurd, suicidal option, to say the least.
That group made up the remaining seven percent.
This was the first time Uhtred had received a set of mandatory choices that presented only two paths instead of three or even four!
It was a wake-up call that signaled how he should move going forward. It reminded him that, at the end of the day, his survival was a form of entertainment to the viewers — even to the seventeen percent on his side.
Boring moments were simply not tolerated.
The current situation — with a score of demonic cultivators lying dead on the forest floor and a young man, a kid really, bright-eyed and clearly lacking some mental self-preservation, standing beside him — was the direct result of having no choice but to let the trouble find him.
"So, tell me why I shouldn’t kill you again?" Uhtred glowered at the boy. He was a short, lanky kid. Extremely skittish, yet carrying a bizarre air as if everything that happened was of no serious concern to him.
That strange demeanor, combined with the fact that the kid was the one being hunted by the demonic cultivators, was the only reason Uhtred hadn’t slaughtered him alongside the rest of them.
"Ah! Mighty sir! This one begs you, please do not kill me! I—I can be of great help to you!!"
There it is again... Uhtred hissed internally. That feeling like this kid is just acting and playing with me.
The boy clearly recognized he was in danger. Uhtred wasn’t suppressing his Level 47 Nascent Realm aura in the slightest. It roiled unrestrained across the surroundings.
Yet the kid acted as though he could barely feel the oppression.
No, he can feel it... but it’s almost as if he’s confident I won’t actually harm him...
Uhtred’s eyes narrowed sharply. He recalled that the pursuit had originally been heading away from his position before abruptly altering its course directly toward his hidden cave.
That means this kid definitely detected me from a distance away... But how...? Some sort of ability...? Or maybe another anomaly?
Uhtred was fully intending to find out, but he kept his tone cold and measured, addressing the kid’s plea first.
"You said you can be of great assistance to me?" Uhtred mock-sneered. "And what help can you offer exactly? In fact, why do you think I need your help at all?"
The kid looked up at Uhtred, his bright eyes wide with exaggerated confusion.
"Well, that’s for you to tell me, sir. How would I know yet?"
Uhtred’s left eye twitched, his expression turning deathly cold.
"...It seems you don’t value your life," Uhtred whispered, his voice dropping to dangerous levels. "Do you truly believe I won’t kill you? I don’t care who you are or what your circumstances might be. You’ve seen my face, and I am not one to leave loose ends to come back and bite me."
He stepped toward the boy menacingly, his aura flaring more intensely.
"So, I will ask you one last time. What do you have to offer that makes keeping you alive worth my while?"