My Avatar is Becoming the Ultimate BOSS

Ji Minghuan shrugged his shoulders, interrupting him: "Why are you in such a rush? I meant let you team up with Mario to fight zombies, not let him blow your head off."

He paused: "It's like father and son playing VR games together, isn't that great? Parent-child time can help improve relationships, right, Shigeru Miyamoto?"

Shigeru Miyamoto is the real-life name of the "father of Mario."

Hearing this, the Mentor fell silent.

After a moment of silence, Mario suddenly said, "The Mentor said you don't like it here, so he wants me to take you to London for a walk, and execute a mission along the way."

"Do you like it here?" Ji Minghuan retorted.

"I think there's nothing bad about this place. There's food, drinks, and people to help clean. You can lie in bed and play games all day long, sleep when you're tired, it's basically paradise."

"I get it, only kids who don't do well out there would like it here. But for someone like me, a little tyrant from the Welfare Institute, how could I ever have experienced such stifling feelings?"

"No matter how good you were at the Welfare Institute, you'd still need to find a job later." Mario said, "Once you start working, you'll realize it's better to while away your time at the Salvation Society."

Ji Minghuan sighed, thinking to himself, could this kid be any more pessimistic?

Sure enough, the Salvation Society recruits these self-loathing, self-destructive kids. Sun Changkong accidentally slaughtered a village, Filio ate his mother, and Mario killed his classmate as if he were playing a shooting game when he first awakened as a Celestial Driver.

But from the sound of it, Mario was bullied at school, so killing his classmate should not have made him feel guilty.

"Is it simply his nature, just purely liking the environment here?"

As he was thinking, the metal door rumbled open, and three blurry figures walked through the dazzling curtain of light.

Voices arrived before the individuals did.

"You bumped into me!" A somewhat domineering voice said.

"Sorry, sorry..." A voice even more timid than a girl's replied.

"Be more careful next time, if you bump into little Ling's tail, it'll be disastrous."

"But... she stepped on my tail."

"Little Ling stepping on your tail is a reward, don't be ungrateful."

"Oh oh oh."

The conversation got closer, and finally, the three walked in with their eyes closed. After all, the blazing white light from the ceiling was too dazzling, and no one dared to open their eyes.

As a white-haired girl at the end crossed the threshold, the metal door slowly closed behind them.

Mario turned his head, glanced at them, then withdrew his gaze and continued playing games.

The three slightly opened their eyes, gradually adapting to the sudden light, and then looked curiously at Mario, who had his back to them.

"Ji Minghuan, we are here." Filio said with a smile.

Kong Youling wrote in a notebook, holding it up to Ji Minghuan: "We're here."

Seeing the strangers in the cell, Sun Changkong raised an eyebrow, then put on a baseball cap and came over to ask:

"Is he Cat-rio?"

"It's Mario, not Cat-rio." Mario said. He seemed to know some Chinese, presumably the Mentor taught him a lot.

"Oh, I am Sun Changkong." Sun Changkong said.

Mario suddenly fell silent, seemingly uninterested in responding to her.

"Boss lady, he just said your name sounds like a monkey's," Ji Minghuan muttered to complain.

"What?" Sun Changkong was stunned, then angrily turned to look at Mario, pouting and showing little canine teeth, "Who are you calling a monkey?!"

"The first impression your name gives is a monkey," Mario said, "Do you want me to lie? It's boring."

Seeing the two about to start quarreling, Kong Youling stepped between them, wrote in a notebook with a pencil, showed it to Sun Changkong first, then turned to show Mario:

"Don't quarrel, NO quarrel!"

She puffed up her cheeks, her red eyes looking seriously at both of them from above the notebook.

Seeing her like this, Mario was silent for a moment, then turned to Ji Minghuan: "She can't speak?"

Ji Minghuan walked toward the TV in the corner and explained: "Her name is Kong Youling, she's a Penguinian from the M78 Nebula. In a fit of anger, she can transform into a giant penguin to fight monsters using her divine light rod."

He paused: "Penguinians usually communicate with brainwaves, but because her divine light rod was sealed by the Mentor, she's forced to use writing to communicate with lower-level humans like you!"

Mario was taken aback and looked at Kong Youling again: "You're a Penguinian?"

Kong Youling was also stunned. She buried her head in the notebook, scribbling and drawing, then turned it to Mario. The notebook displayed a doodle of a silly little penguin with a line of onomatopoeic writing next to it:

"Gugu Gaga!"

"Wow, you really are a Penguinian... It's the first time I've seen one." Mario mumbled.

"Hey, don't change the subject, say it again, whose name sounds like a monkey?" Sun Changkong furrowed her fiery red brows, still fixated on the issue.

Mario looked at her expressionlessly, sarcastically saying: "From this perspective, the person looks more like a monkey than the name."

With that, he glanced at Filio, "I could've sworn I just walked into a zoo... There's a penguin, a monkey, a wolf, are there actually any humans here?"

After speaking, he lowered his head again and continued playing his handheld game console.

Filio rushed over, holding back the about-to-erupt Sun Changkong, and persuaded, "No fighting!"

"Boss lady, ignore him, let's watch TV." Ji Minghuan also persuaded.

He sat cross-legged in front of the TV, lowered his head, focusing on picking DVDs.

"What should we watch today?" Kong Youling sat beside him, writing in the small notebook to ask.

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." Ji Minghuan said, "Because tomorrow we have to go to London to carry out a mission, so we can only watch halfway today, and continue another day."

Sun Changkong finally calmed down, Filio's wolf ears tickling her face made her almost laugh out loud. She pouted, let out a cold hum, and then stopped paying attention to Mario, striding boldly towards the TV.

Filio breathed a sigh of relief, patted his heart, then turned to Mario to introduce himself:

"My name is Filio."

Mario did not respond, his blue eyes reflecting the screen of the handheld console. Filio didn't make a fuss.

The three kids sat down in front of the TV obediently, watching intently as Ji Minghuan selected from the mountain of movie DVDs.

Kong Youling put down the notebook, clapped her hands excitedly.

Sun Changkong was taken aback, thought it was some sort of trendy ritual, and before the movie could start, one had to clap, so as not to look like a bumpkin, she clapped as well.

Filio wagged his tail, a slight smile appearing on his face.

Only Mario remained sitting silently in the back, playing his PSP without a word.

Ji Minghuan reflected on picking DVDs: "Speaking of... if the Salvation Society put Cezar in too, wouldn't it make a complete squad of darkened kids?"

Shaking off the random thoughts, he gathered his focus.

"We're going to London tomorrow, are you guys nervous?" He suddenly asked.

"It's fine." Sun Changkong scratched her nose absentmindedly.

"A little bit." Filio nodded.

"With you here, I'm not nervous." Kong Youling wrote, holding up the little notebook.

"Oh, I see... then let's come up with an inspiring slogan." Ji Minghuan seriously suggested, "It'll help boost morale."

"What slogan?" Sun Changkong asked blankly.

"You think, Ji Minghuan." Filio said.

"Darkened kids..." Ji Minghuan said rhythmically, "Assemble!"

Sun Changkong and Filio looked at him speechlessly, and a silence fell over the cell. Only the "tap tap" noise of Mario's gaming could be heard.

Ji Minghuan pouted, diverting his gaze from their faces, looking silently at Kong Youling.

His eyes seemed to say, "You won't not support me too, right? Surely not, surely not?"

Kong Youling blanked out. She turned to look at Sun Changkong's expression, then glanced at Filio's expression again.

Faced with Ji Minghuan's intense gaze, Kong Youling hid her head behind the notebook, tilted it slightly, her white hair swaying gently.

On the notebook was a doodle of a silly little penguin, with the caption:

"Gugu Gaga?"