Chapter 3: The Demon King’s Bargain

‘Tsk…’

Luo Jia felt a hint of helplessness as he gazed at the smug, twin-tailed girl before him. While the ‘sugar baby’ fee was quite generous, he couldn’t shake the feeling that…

‘He was the Demon King, after all!’

Not to mention, this woman was still calling him ‘little puppy’ every other word. A fake Saintess, yet she carried herself with such arrogance.

‘However, perhaps… this was also a good opportunity to gather information on the Hero and the new Saintess?’

‘Hmm…’

The silver-haired youth pondered for a moment, then directed his gaze towards the contract Allyrose was slowly extending to him.

Despite being the Demon King with terrifying power, Luo Jia was, in truth, an extremely cautious individual.

This was evident enough from the fact that he was still in this dungeon, chatting with Allyrose.

He would rather endure some discomfort to ensure every action was executed perfectly. Especially concerning the annihilation of his current greatest enemy, the Hero Jason, Luo Jia would only act when he possessed absolute certainty.

In such circumstances, Allyrose’s proposal seemed… perfectly aligned with Luo Jia’s intentions.

Lost in thought, Luo Jia took a deep breath. Amidst his hesitation, his eyes inadvertently flickered towards the playful girl before him.

Her foxy eyes sparkled with mischief, and her delicate feet swayed gently.

The silver-haired youth quickly averted his gaze. When he looked back, he found his hand had already picked up the pen, hovering over the signature line of the contract.

‘This…’

‘How—how could this be? My hand just moved on its own!’

Luo Jia awkwardly coughed twice. After a long moment, he silently reassured himself.

‘It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just a little excited about finding such an opportunity. I’m only signing this contract to get closer to and defeat my enemy.’

‘It definitely… has nothing to do with this woman in front of me!’

With his resolve firm, and having glanced over the contract’s contents, which roughly matched Allyrose’s earlier explanation, Luo Jia silently signed his name.

“Hehehe, successful acquisition~ Oh, it seems you’re quite short on money, little puppy. So eager to become my boy toy, are we? Well, since that’s the case, I’ll keep my promise~ Here, big sister’s allowance for you this month~!”

Allyrose wore a look of ‘plan accomplished’ as she handed Luo Jia a stack of 100,000 dinar gold notes. Her heart began to pound wildly with anticipation.

Finally, the moment the money landed on Luo Jia’s lap, a sudden electronic chime, audible only to Allyrose, echoed in the air.

[Ding-dong, host detected to have completed a sponsorship of the Demon King’s army, receiving a reward of 10,000 sponsorship points.]

[Ding-dong, congratulations to host for completing the novice mission, receiving rewards: 100,000 sponsorship points, and the gold-tier item ‘Holy Light Absorption Bracelet’!]

‘Got it!’

Hearing the mission success notifications, Allyrose nearly jumped with excitement. She had truly exploited this bug!

Hmph, and the system had given two notifications: one for completing the system mission, and the other, presumably, the reward for sponsoring an enemy. It seemed spending money to ‘keep’ the white-haired boy really did yield rewards!

A total of 110,000 sponsorship points. Allyrose wasn’t in a hurry to redeem them. At this very moment, what truly thrilled the twin-tailed little fox was the gold-tier item: the Holy Light Absorption Bracelet!

Gold-tier quality was the highest grade of item in this novel’s world. Allyrose quickly checked the item’s description in her mind.

[Holy Light Absorption Bracelet, Passive Effect: When the wearer suffers fatal damage, it will shatter and be rendered useless, blocking that damage once for the wearer. Active Effect: The wearer will automatically absorb surrounding holy light energy and convert it into their own body.]

‘Holy crap!’

‘This… this thing is practically a divine artifact!’

Allyrose blinked, barely daring to believe it. This golden bracelet could not only save her life once, but also… automatically absorb holy light energy?

Holy light energy, in this world, was akin to mana or spiritual energy. If she could continuously absorb it from her surroundings, wouldn’t that be like activating an auto-leveling cheat?!

‘This is too strong! Who said this ‘Sponsor the Enemy’ system was useless? It’s amazing!’

Ooh~ In her excitement, Allyrose almost wanted to give all her worldly possessions to the white-haired boy…

But, ahem, on second thought, she decided against it. Giving it little by little was more appropriate; after all, she couldn’t live on air.

‘But, wait a minute…’

As she watched Luo Jia, who still seemed reluctant to take the money, a peculiar idea suddenly sparked in Allyrose’s mind. After a moment, she slowly reached out again.

Under Luo Jia’s astonished gaze, she took the money back and tucked it into her… pocket.

[Ding-dong! Warning! Warning! Host detected to be withdrawing sponsorship! Please cease this action within ten seconds, or the system will reset all host’s sponsorship points and directly declare the mission a failure!]

‘Holy crap, no!’

Allyrose hurriedly put the money back. Then… with a slight blush on her face, she gave two soft coughs. ‘Ahem… it seems trying to trip myself up won’t work. Darn it!’

A moment later, Allyrose composed herself. She turned back, and seeing Luo Jia’s ‘are you an idiot?’ expression, she immediately pouted.

Then, she extended a slender finger with a long red nail towards him, beckoning him closer with a mischievous, narrowed-eyed smile.

“Hmph, I was just teasing you~! Hehe, let me tell you something: since I’ve paid, I get to thoroughly stomp on little puppy’s dignity and enjoy it~ Come on, bark like a little dog twice, get used to your new identity. Woof woof woof~”

…

‘This wretched woman!!!’

Luo Jia abruptly inhaled deeply, and the magic that had just dissipated from his arm surged back instantly.

He stared intently at the arrogant Allyrose, grinding his teeth. After a moment, he saw Allyrose frown in displeasure and speak.

“What’s wrong? You’re unwilling? Tsk, you stinky dog, get this straight! Big sister here gave you 100,000 dinar! One hundred thousand! Do you even know what that means? You’re so ungrateful! If those playboys spent 100,000 at a succubus brothel, those women would agree to any R18G game, even if it meant being ‘broken,’ they’d fight to earn that money! And all I’m asking is for you to bark like a dog, and you’re unwilling?”

Allyrose then let out an unhappy huff. Then… she revealed another smug smile, picking up the contract from earlier as she spoke.

“However, little puppy, you were careless~ This contract isn’t just a simple piece of paper, you know. It’s a… magical contract imbued with a curse! As long as you’ve signed it, and I uphold my end, if you ever disobey, I can simply snap my fingers and take your life, little puppy!”

‘What? A cu—curse?!’

‘That contract was actually a magical contract with a curse?!’

A flicker of panic immediately crossed the silver-haired youth’s eyes.

However, after a brief moment, the Demon King calmed down. The youth tilted his head. ‘Wait, something’s not right.’

‘What curse? Why did I feel absolutely nothing? What level of curse could I possibly not detect?! Even a nation-destroying curse would have triggered my defenses!’

The Demon King quickly injected his consciousness into his magic defense system, pulling up the operation logs. He then discovered that there genuinely were traces of a curse, from just a few minutes ago!

‘Except, this curse was…’

‘Entry-level…’

‘Entry-level…’

‘Entry-level…’

It had been instantly refined by his curse immunity system within the first millisecond of its invasion, akin to a rock being pricked by a silver needle. So much so that Luo Jia hadn’t even noticed he’d been ambushed by this sly, wicked woman.

‘This…’

Luo Jia fell silent, watching Allyrose ostentatiously make snapping gestures, as if threatening to snap her fingers. The silver-haired youth couldn’t help but gasp.

‘No, I can’t. Calm down first!’

‘At this moment, if Allyrose were to snap her fingers and nothing happened to me… the one left embarrassed would likely be her!’

‘Someone who’s been a Saintess for over a decade wouldn’t be that foolish. If she discovered the curse had no effect on me, anyone would start to suspect my identity. My subsequent plans would likely be impossible to carry out!’

‘So… so, to be safe, hmm…’

After a moment of hesitation, the Demon King reluctantly closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and mumbled two sounds from his mouth.

“Woof… woof!”

…

“Pfft—!”

After a long silence, just as Luo Jia felt he might explode from embarrassment, Allyrose finally couldn’t hold back a snicker, clutching her stomach as she burst into laughter.

Luo Jia, speechless to the point of exploding, silently watched Allyrose cackle wildly, her feet swaying.

After a good while, she finally giggled and waved her hand, then reached out to pat the somewhat speechless Luo Jia’s head, barely stifling her laughter.

“Pffthaha, well, that was a cute bark. Little puppy isn’t dumb after all, quite obedient, aren’t you~? That’s right, that’s exactly how it should be~ Hmph, you can only blame yourself for being too naive. Don’t just sign contracts strangers give you willy-nilly. It’s only because big sister here is so kind~ I just made little puppy bark twice~ Learn your lesson! Hehe, now that you’ve taken my money, you’d better be obedient~ After all, I paid for it, so of course I want to… have some fun~ So… you’d better be good~!”

‘This… this arrogant little b*tch!’

The Demon King, whose head was being patted, silently gritted his teeth. However, a moment later, due to his extreme caution, he ultimately held back.

‘If it weren’t to get close to the Hero and the Saintess, I would have long since… Tsk, I’ll, I’ll endure for now!’

‘I’ll definitely get my revenge in the future, ahhh!’

After thoroughly enjoying herself, Allyrose reined in her playful mood. After all, it wouldn’t be good to torment her ‘little puppy’ too much; she still needed his help.

The girl then patted his head again and spoke reassuringly to the stone-faced Luo Jia.

“Well, of course, I’m not that scary, really. After all… boy toy, I want to sponsor the Demon King’s army! So your main job is to help me contact the Demon King, deliver letters, express my loyalty to him, and so on! You should have a way to get letters to the Demon King, right? I feel like… you’re not so simple, boy toy~ Perhaps you’re… a scout or something?”

“Ahem… This… it can be done, yes…”

Luo Jia scratched his head. Delivering letters to the Demon King… that task was indeed a bit too simple for him.

‘Of course, because as long as Allyrose hands the letters to me, the task is already accomplished!’