“So you can’t go back either?” Tao Fangyi asked the group of fantasy creatures.
The sparkling fantasy creatures nodded as they cried, their tears actually carrying a glittery special effect.
“Eh, that’s strange.” Wang stroked his chin.
“What’s strange?” Tao Fangyi looked at Wang.
“Their style is so retro.” Wang gestured. “This art style where the eyes take up half the head went out of fashion long ago. Kids today aren’t into this anymore.”
“That bunch over there too.” Wang pointed to the group with a distinct martial arts vibe. “No fantasy elements at all, pure wuxia has long been outdated.”
“What do you mean?” Tao Fangyi didn’t understand.
“You don’t need to know what that means. You just need to know they were once extremely popular, but now they’re the abandoned children of the era,” Wang said.
“Really? But I really love reading wuxia novels,” Tao Fangyi said.
Wang faced Tao Fangyi with his eyeless face, saying nothing.
Tao Fangyi paused for a moment, then let out an “Oh.”
That’s right, the things he liked probably weren’t popular in this era anymore.
Tao Fangyi thought of something. He ran toward the large shelf, then told Wang to come and pull everything out from inside.
“We also thought about leaving, but our big brother didn’t come to pick us up.” That fierce-looking man was also wiping away tears. Despite looking like a tough guy, his mental maturity didn’t seem very high.
Wang dug out a bunch of textbooks and homework books.
After flipping through countless notebooks, they finally found the origin of these fantasy creatures — novels written by two children in their exercise books.
Calling them children isn’t entirely accurate, because both notebooks clearly had dates written on them. These were things from over a decade ago.
And these two novels were stored together with a pile of middle school textbooks, so the owners of these two groups of fantasy creatures were probably adults by now.
As Wang flipped through the dark history of two adults, savoring it carefully, he mercilessly said, “You can’t go back. They don’t want you anymore.”
The expressions of both groups of fantasy creatures instantly went blank.
The muscular man rejected this possibility. “My big brother couldn’t possibly abandon us!”
He then pointed at the mass-produced beauties. “He’s not even taking care of his wife?”
Wang: “He probably already has a real wife by now.”
“Wha—what do you mean?!” The tough man in a suit with special effects also couldn’t take it. “Wenwen abandoned me? How could she abandon me?”
“Overbearing CEOs aren’t popular anymore. Even if you fantasize, you wouldn’t fantasize about your type,” Wang continued.
Saying so, he turned a page and suddenly let out a “Ha!” “And there are even vampire elements! Hahaha!”
Wang shoved that page in front of Tao Fangyi. “Her backstory for herself is actually a vampire born in darkness but able to bathe in sunlight, dressing inconspicuously just to keep a low profile.”
“Lifting her hair to reveal her true appearance is also such a classic trope.”
“Is, is that so?” Tao Fangyi hadn’t seen this kind before.
“Go catch up on some early idol dramas and cartoons,” Wang said. “Then you’ll know what I’m talking about.”
“Okay.” Tao Fangyi’s job had just gotten complicated. He needed to make more thorough preparations for this complex task.
The evil supporting female character named Sophia interrupted their conversation. “So who does that commoner love now?”
“I don’t know. But stop worrying and scheming to trip her up. She’s already forgotten you. You can marry your beloved Huangfu now.”
Sophia and Huangfu Yuan spoke in unison, “I don’t want to!”
Wang looked at them, puzzled.
“We—we can’t get married.” Sophia stammered an explanation. “I want to break that commoner’s heart. I want to marry the person she likes now!”
“She might not necessarily have someone she likes.”
“How could that be? Doesn’t everyone have a true love in their heart?”
“Come on, look at that group of glowing men. Obviously each one was the love of her heart at that age,” Wang said, then felt his leg thwacked by Tao Fangyi again.
Tao Fangyi pressed his claws down, signaling Wang to stop talking.
The group of fantasy creatures had already started sobbing. All of this was too cruel to them.
And Wang became even happier after discovering they were secretly crying.
Tao Fangyi took out his phone and asked Wang to recommend TV dramas or literary works. He had to take his job seriously.
“You’re not planning to study, are you?” Wang really liked this mission; he found it especially interesting.
Tao Fangyi brought out a notebook and pen.
Wang stopped smiling. “Are you going to take notes?”
Tao Fangyi opened the notebook, which was already filled with densely packed notes.
“Whoa! Such beautiful handwriting!” Wang exclaimed in admiration.
“Thank you for the compliment.” Tao Fangyi flipped to a blank page, filled his fountain pen with ink, then turned his head, waiting for Wang to recommend relevant works.
Currently, his forelimbs were uncoordinated, so the notebook and pen had been made especially small by him as well.
So Tao Fangyi was really preparing to seriously study this kind of stuff?
Wang casually opened Tao Fangyi’s video app and found an old classic TV drama.
Tao Fangyi actually started watching it with genuine seriousness.
His phone was a bit too big for his body, making it look like he was watching a movie.
The nearby toys and fantasy creatures also crowded around, turning it more into a group movie screening.
Wang felt Tao Fangyi really had the air of a boss. However, after staring at this scene for a while, it became boring.
Wang wanted to find something to do. He randomly grabbed a toy, fiddling with it this way and that.
In the end, he simply emptied his mind and entered a sleep-like mode.
“Wow! How can she be so evil!” A toy pointed at the evil supporting female character on the phone.
Meanwhile, the evil supporting female character beside them snorted proudly, declaring that these commoners truly understood nothing.
The toys watching the drama were really lively. They had a strong desire to discuss and were curious about everything.
Tao Fangyi was equally curious, because this was a completely new field for him.
This doll of unknown age chatted animatedly with the toys of the six-year-old child beside him.
As they chatted, Tao Fangyi noticed Wang had fallen asleep in the corner. He waved his little claws, pressing downward to signal them to be quieter.
Then he reached out to pause the TV and ran over to Wang’s side.
He activated a barrier, and a long-haired man with an obscured face replaced the short-clawed Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The long-haired man took out a single-person mattress from his storage tool, spread a bedsheet over it, and then scooped Wang onto it.
He soothed Wang’s aura, helping him sleep more peacefully.
Then he also pulled out a body pillow and stuffed it into Wang’s arms, carefully covering him with a small blanket.
Wang muttered, “You all just go die.”
Tao Fangyi gently patted Wang’s back, calming him down again.
After finishing this series of actions, Tao Fangyi then returned to the doll pile and continued studying the idol drama.
“Why doesn’t the male lead believe the female lead?!” the robot shouted.
“Shh!” Tao Fangyi hurriedly cut him off.
After he shushed, other toys also started shushing along with him.
“That older brother over there is sleeping. Let’s not disturb him, okay?” Tao Fangyi asked softly.
“Older brother? If we call him older brother, what should we call you?” a toy asked.
“Just call me Uncle.” Tao Fangyi really didn’t want the title of Commander-in-Chief.
The toys froze, then let out a collective “Wow.”
“Uncle~” they said in unison.
They looked at Tao Fangyi with admiration, as if “Uncle” represented authority to them more than the flashy title of “Commander-in-Chief.”
The fantasy creatures thought the same way, treating Tao Fangyi as the true person in charge.
Soon they were calling out “Uncle, Uncle” all over.
“Good, now we have a common goal.” Tao Fangyi raised a claw. “Now we need to find the reason you turned out like this.” Tao Fangyi suspected it was his body fragments that had influenced them, since any anomalies in these last few missions could be related to his true form.
But where were his body fragments?
Tao Fangyi couldn’t sense them.
Could all this be related to his mission target?
Or maybe the problem lay with the mission target’s older cousin brother and cousin sister.
Right, he still had to scare the kid.
Tao Fangyi continued watching the idol drama. As he watched, he came across a plotline where the main character lost their memory.
This inexplicably reminded Tao Fangyi of that old friend who got furious because he had forgotten them.
This sword was an object from over three thousand years ago, and for a long time it had circulated among royalty and nobility.
Tao Fangyi’s Tyrannosaurus face suddenly turned serious.
Could it be that…
He and this sword had met before, had interactions, but he had just forgotten?
After all, he had still been a royal ritual vessel at the time.
“Tsk…” Tao Fangyi suddenly felt something was off.
He had seen plenty of demons and ghosts in the past, many of whom unilaterally considered him a friend. However, Tao Fangyi had no emotional module at all back then.
Under those circumstances, it was very difficult for him to remember people.
Tao Fangyi reached out to cover his head, but his claws were too short.
【Wooden Cauldron.】
It seemed someone was touching his true form.
【Do you dream?】
Tao Fangyi: …
Tao Fangyi: “Yeah?”
So there really was such a person!
Wang was woken up by waves of “Uncle” calls.
He had slept soundly. After waking up, he stretched, then looked at the extra body pillow in his arms.
It was a mummy with a round head and round brain, seemingly an enlarged version of Wang’s toy-like form.
Wang was momentarily stunned. Then he got up, and the small blanket slipped off him.
These items had all been enchanted with spells, so ordinary people couldn’t see them.
Wang picked up the small blanket and sniffed it.
It had a faint scent of cleaning agent.
As expected, so gentle!
Wang felt an urge to lick the small blanket.
But why were these toys still active? It was already dawn.
Wang’s mind hadn’t fully woken up yet.
After a moment of confusion, he let out a soft “Oh.”
A six-year-old kid has to go to first grade.
Wang rolled over on the bed, his gaze searching for Tao Fangyi’s location in the toy room.
His body twisted like a pretzel, already prepared to call out that syrupy “Commander-in-Chief.”
But after looking for a long while, he still couldn’t find Tao Fangyi.
Finally, he looked toward the toy gathering area. The toys were calling out “Uncle” while at a loss, surrounding a puddle of brownish-yellow slime.
Wang: …
What? He woke up and his dinosaur was gone?!
That blob of slime-like substance twitched slightly.
Wang let out a breath.
Good, good, it wasn’t dead.
It just looked like it had shut itself off.
