Hell's Handbook

Chapter 18: Trivial Matters

The thing that the God brought out was something that Su Jin recognized. Those were the skeletons of Auntie Li’s family members. He brought the skeletons to the wooden fence and broke their skulls apart in front of Su Jin. A smooth black stone was hiding in each skull and these stones looked just like eyeballs.

“These are the eyes of my real body. Both of us shall have one each and I will transfer my power into them. In other words, this will serve as the Spirit Power battery I mentioned earlier. If you run into any dangerous situation, you can break it and it might be able to help you survive,” said the God very solemnly to Su Jin before throwing one of them out of the gate.

Su Jin picked up the eye. It felt like it was made from metal and was also pretty heavy. It wasn’t as smooth as he thought it would be and upon closer inspection, this eye was actually translucent. But it was a very dark color, so everyone thought it was a stone.

He kept it inside his Handbook as well and some text immediately appeared.

“Demon Lord’s Eye. It contains the Demon Lord’s Spirit Power from the body of a powerful demon. Accompanying skill: Discernment of the Demon Lord. Requires 50 Spirit Power. Each time you use it, you can retrieve a certain amount of information from the other party and it will be reflected in the Handbook. You may use it only once on each person and it cannot be used on other Handbook owners. Current Spirit Power level: 3000/3000.”

“That’s a pretty good skill!” Su Jin was pleased with the accompanying skill that the Demon Lord’s Eye came with. He was always happy to have more information because he believed that having sufficient information would increase his chances of surviving future challenges. Discernment of the Demon Lord was a skill that was perfect for him.

“The amount of Spirit Power inside isn’t much, though. Is 3,000 points going to be enough? I guess I’ll probably end up using it all. Looks like my plans to become a tycoon aren’t going to happen,” sighed Su Jin. This item was almost perfect, but it couldn’t last long.

“What plans to become a tycoon?” The God was rather confused.

“Nah, it’s nothing. Do you have anything else you can give me? Maybe a Demon Lord’s Arm or a Demon Lord’s Calf or a Demon Lord’s Rib? Something like that?” Su Jin looked the God up and down as if he was hoping to steal a body part from him.

The God’s expression darkened and started chasing Su Jin away. “Humph! I’ve given you everything that I can possibly give! I hope you won’t disappoint me. Go look for a way to help me regain freedom!”

Su Jin waved and turned to leave. Since they had finally come to an agreement, there was no point in sticking around.

Then he heard the God call out after him, “Remember our deal! Remember, you’re dealing with a God! If you dare to cheat me, you will be duly punished!!” The God’s voice grew fainter and fainter and finally vanished into the night.

Su Jin stopped walking and turned around to look back at the house again. The house was still standing, but in the ten odd seconds he had spent walking away, the entire place had become completely dilapidated and the God was nowhere to be seen. It was as if Su Jin had been the only one here all along.

“So, this is how you’re going to keep me in check?” Su Jin started playing with the Demon Lord’s Eye he held in his hands. The God clearly had a backup plan. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he agreed that both of them ought to have a backup plan. Without that, both sides would feel uneasy about the entire deal.

He kept the Demon Lord’s Eye away in the Handbook. This deal was a gamble for both Su Jin and the Demon Lord, actually. When Su Jin first arrived at Fengxi Town earlier, he wasn’t really sure if the Demon Lord would be waiting for him here. The Demon Lord himself also seemed unsure if Su Jin would turn up.

“I think it makes sense for me to be unsure about whether he would turn up or not, but why was he unsure if I would come?” Su Jin felt like something wasn’t quite right and this was a point of concern. But after thinking it through for a while, he gave up. Trying to find an answer through pure speculation wasn’t going to get him the right answer.

After he left Fengxi Town, he checked into a hotel in a nearby town for the night. His phone started ringing and it turned out to be his younger sister, who was still schooling.

“Qing? Why did you suddenly think of calling me?” Su Jin lay on the bed in the hotel room and the smell inside the room made him feel a little uncomfortable. His tiny cellar in S City was small, but it was very clean and felt a lot more comfier than this place.

“Brother, I suddenly have an additional $5,000 in my account.” Su Jin’s sister, Su Qing was still in high school, so she was at the peak of her teenage years. Su Jin doted very dearly on this sister who was a number of years younger than himself.

“Oh wow! Did some rich man’s son fall for my dear sister and he’s now trying to impress you with his money?” asked Su Jin as he laughed loudly.

“Can you be serious? I know the money’s from you. Why did you transfer so much money to me? I still have enough for my living expenses, and I’ve not needed to pay for anything else recently either.” Su Qing chided her brother for being so cheeky.

“My company just gave us our bonuses. I figured that you’d be busy studying soon, so I thought I’d just transfer you enough money all at once, then I won’t have to disturb you during the year. Plan your own finances and decide what you need yourself.” Su Jin had transferred this money to Su Qing’s account as well as another $800,000 to her other account, but the card to withdraw from this other account was at home with his parents and not with Su Qing. He had deposited the money there in case he suddenly died in a challenge. This was money for his family.

Su Qing didn’t really find anything amiss about Su Jin’s answer, but from what she knew about her brother, Su Jin was someone who planned his finances very carefully. He wasn’t being stingy. Their family was just really very poor.

Su Jin went on to ask his sister about how school was and life in general, chatting for more than an hour before hanging up. The next morning, Su Jin rushed back to S City. Now that he had some money on hand, he wanted to move houses. He didn’t have to stay in that tiny basement anymore.

S City’s property prices could be terrifying. If Su Jin had exchanged all his points for money, he might have been able to buy something here. But since he didn’t, he decided to just rent a place.

“You want to rent a place? No problem. We’ve got plenty of available rooms and houses on hand. Is there something you’re looking for? I’ll get you the place that best fits your requirements,” said the young middle aged property agent as she patted her fairly full bosom.

“My requirements? Hmm. It’ll be great if it’s near to C Road, on the quiet side, and as for the size… I just don’t want somewhere that’s like ten square meters,” said Su Jin casually.

“You’re such a humorous person! Well, even if you wanted to find somewhere that’s just 10 square meters, our agency wouldn’t have any on hand. But if you want something near C Road… it’s going to cost you,” said the agent with a smile as she looked Su Jin up and down. Most people in her profession judged their potential client’s wealth from the clothes they wore.

Su Jin knew what she was driving at, so he smiled and said, “Don’t worry! My company’s paying for it, not me.”

“OH! In that case, no worries! I’ve got a few places in mind, so if you’ve got the time, why don’t we go take a look at them now?” The agent was no longer worried once Su Jin said that the company was paying the rent and even wanted to bring him around right now.

Su Jin happily went with her, and they looked at five different places in one morning. Every apartment they saw was a place that Su Jin could only dream of in the past, but when he actually had to choose one, he wasn’t sure anymore.

“Mr. Su, what do you think? You don’t like these apartments?” asked the agent anxiously when she noticed the perplexed look on Su Jin’s face.

Su Jin shook his head and said, “They’re not bad, but I don’t find them quiet enough. I would like a quiet place.”

She was a little puzzled for a while. It was common for people to look for a place in a particular area, but it wasn’t common to come across someone in the city who wanted somewhere quiet, since it would mean that such a place would be more inaccessible. After thinking about it, she said, “There is a place that’s quite quiet around here, but the rent is three times the ones we saw earlier, and you need to pay one month in advance plus three months’ deposit. I think that will come up to about $60,000 or so.”

“$60,000? No problem. Let’s go look at it!” said Su Jin with a nod. In the past, that would have been equivalent to his company bonus, but money was meaningless to him now. Living his life well was more important, since he really had no idea how long he would live from now.

The agent led him further down the road and the area was a lot quieter than where they had walked from. She eventually stopped in front of a double story bungalow. This bungalow had six or seven rooms, was fully renovated and had a number of well-kept decorative plants in the yard too.

Su Jin immediately took a liking to this bungalow and said, “This place is not bad! Now the rent sounds cheap!”

“The house is really nice, but the location’s a little inaccessible, so it’s not very convenient when you need to buy groceries or shop for things. But if you’re the type who stays home most of the time, this won’t be a problem!” said the agent with a smile.

Su Jin looked around and eventually settled on this place. After paying the initial deposit, the agent said he could move in anytime, so he returned to his cellar and packed his things immediately. He realized that he really had very few things. If he ever had to escape for whatever reason, he wouldn’t even need a suitcase.

He moved into his new house that very night since the house was fully furnished anyway. The next morning, he woke up at his usual time. He had asked Brother Li to help him to apply for three days of leave, but surprisingly, everything was settled within just two days. Since everything was already settled, he decided to continue going to work.

Even though Su Jin didn’t actually have to work anymore if he didn’t want to, he felt that it was better to work anyway. It wasn’t really for the money but more for the sake of having some human interaction. When he thought about how his future interactions would either be with Handbook owners like himself or some monster in the challenges, having interaction with normal human beings would become very precious to him.

But when he arrived at the office, he realized that his entire team was out. He smacked his forehead and muttered under his breath, “You idiot! The company gathering’s today! How could I have forgotten?”

He quickly called a colleague to get the address of the restaurant they were eating at, and he quickly hopped into a cab to rush there immediately. The moment he entered the restaurant, he saw his direct supervisor, a woman that he and his colleagues nicknamed “Your Worst Nightmare” standing in front of him and glaring straight at him.

“Good morning, Miss Tang!” Su Jin greeted her cheerfully.

“Do you know what time it is? Don’t you know how to call to take a leave on your own? How could you get someone else to take leave for you?” she shouted angrily at him.

“Your Worst Nightmare” - The original Chinese literally means one whom even a ghost dreads seeing