Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  A moment later, in the God’s Kingdom, Sui Xiong unfroze the giant demon ape, and he removed the vow of the God of Aristocracy from his body.

  “I’ve solved your worries,” Sui Xiong said casually. “Now, can you tell me what is going on?”

  In the face of a real god, a powerful and famous god, this demon beast certainly did not dare keep silent. He immediately knelt and said everything that he knew respectfully.

  In fact, there was nothing to say about the incident. This demon beast was an aquatic race that was not very rare—the Water Apes. Originally, they had lived in the deep sea. Once, this beast had lost to a powerful legendary demon beast in a territorial battle, and he had been seriously injured. In the deep sea which was full of dangers, that was equivalent to being sentenced to death.

  Of course, he wasn’t willing to die. After careful consideration, he was determined to come to the shallow sea in peril. He had lived near the Mifata Federation.

  The shallow sea was much safer than the deep sea. There were no powerful monsters, so a seriously injured Water Ape could live too. However, the risk in the shallow sea was different from that in the deep sea. The shallow sea was close to the influence sphere of the land races, so the strongmen from the land always patrolled the shallow sea, being alerted to attacks from the sea.

  For example, when Garth City had not formed an alliance with the Storm Sea yet, Leon had patrolled the shallow sea near Garth City from time to time. He patrolled along the coastline which was about 1,000 miles long. In this range, once a powerful monster appeared in the shallow sea, Leon would go to that the monster. He would negotiate with the monster, asking the monster not to attack the coastal residents and ships, or he would use an impolite way to persuade the monster back to the deep sea. If the monster didn’t want to go back, he would simply kill it with his sword.

  The Water Ape hadn’t been very lucky. He had lived in the shallow sea for less than half a month and then had been found by a patrolling legendary mage. At that time, his injury had recovered only a little. In the face of a legendary mage who had been on guard, he had had no way to fight back. He was arrested and became a prisoner.

  Fortunately, the legendary mage was not a cruel person. After thinking for a while, he had signed a contract with it. He had asked the creature to work as a golden gladiator in an arena in a big city, so the Water Ape could save money to buy back his freedom.

  And he had worked for a few years.

  Honestly, in the past few years, he had done a good job. He had a flexible method of combat, and he had a clever judgment on various strategies and tactics, so he obtained a name, “Smart.” The Water Ape had almost saved enough money, so he would be able to be free again half a year later. He had been ready to return to the deep sea and become a local overlord again.

  However, just at that time, an archbishop of the God of Aristocracy had found the owner of the arena. He had taken out a lot of money to buy the remaining work hours of Smart.

  According to the original contract, this kind of transaction must be approved by Smart himself. However, facing the threat of, “If you refuse to cooperate with me, I will send legendary advanced strongmen to participate in the combat,” Smart really had had no choice. He hadn’t wanted to take risks, and he had wanted to spend the rest of his time safely and peacefully. However, he didn’t want to die!

  Under such circumstances, the transaction naturally had been successful. Smart had changed to a full-time thug of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, and he had been paid only when he had finished his tasks.

  The contract was absolutely terrible. Smart had lived in the Church of the God of Aristocracy for nearly four months, but he hadn’t gotten any tasks. Not only had he failed to make money to redeem himself, but he had owed a lot of living expenses. He had been so anxious that he scratched his head and cheeks, not knowing what to do.

  Not long ago, he had finally gotten a long-awaited task. The same archbishop had asked him to come to the Four Towns in the Northwest to temporarily accept the commands of those big men who hadn’t wanted to merge with the Republic of Northwest. He was asked to fight with Felix.

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  Ordinarily, it was not a big deal, but it was strange that the archbishop had cost a lot to cast a powerful God Descending Spell. He had planted a vow in his body with the help of Divine Power. The vow had ordered him not to reveal anything related to his origins.

  Smart had suddenly felt that something was wrong. After thinking, again and again, clever Smart had thought of a solution to the problem.

  Although the contract hadn’t said it at the beginning, it was a rule followed by every organization that organizations must give pension to the dead in battles. As a legendary demon beast, the number of his pension was naturally large, far enough to offset the remaining ransom. Therefore, as long as he was “sacrificed” in this task, his debt would naturally be offset.

  From then on, he could be free. As long as he didn’t stupidly return to the sea near the Mifata Federation and hid in the deep sea of the northwestern area quietly, no one would find it!

  As for the vow of the God of Aristocracy…… Well, why should he think about that? He could think about it after being free again.

  With such ideas, he had cheated in the battle with Felix. The battle looked fierce, but in fact, he hadn’t used his true strength. Water Apes were never known for being fierce. Compared to other demon beasts whose muscles grew even in their brains, his race was good at winning with skills and wisdom.

  Smart had cheated while using magic to protect his internal organs. He had quickly been “defeated” and wobbled down to the ground under the indiscriminate bombardment of Felix at her full power. He had pretended to be burned with smoke rising from his body.

  Seeing this, anyone would believe that I’m dead, he thought.

  The result turned out to be counterproductive—he didn’t fool Felix at all.

  But in general, the results were still good.

  Sui Xiong removed the vow from his body. As for the remaining redemption expenses in the contract, Sui Xiong expressed that as long as he was willing to work in the Void Mask Land, the land could lend him some money to pay for the expenses. And there was no interest.

  After listening to Sui Xiong’s statement, Smart couldn’t help but ask, “Such good conditions? Aren’t you worried that I’ll flee?”

  “Why would you flee?” Sui Xiong asked, confused. “Is the Land not good?”

  Smart was stunned. He didn’t expect that he would get such an answer.

  “We offer good accommodation. Life here is easy and stress-free, and we can keep you safe. Favnier, who was ordered to work to pay off debts because of some trouble, has fallen in love with the life here, saying that he wants to spend his rest life here. Do you have any special requirements for life? Or do you want to live in the sea after all?” Sui Xiong asked.

  Smart thought for a long time and found that he really had no special requirements.

  As a legendary demon beast, he mainly relied on absorbing the magic of the natural world to maintain his livelihood, which was conducive to his strength. However, if there was not enough magic in the outside world, it wouldn’t be bad to eat food.

  As for accommodation, as long as he could be full and sleep well, Smart was not picky. He wasn’t picky about food. He could eat both meat and vegetables as long as the food wasn’t rotten. Although he had been a golden gladiator in the arena for many years, his living conditions weren’t very good. He could tolerate the gladiator life, but then why couldn’t he work in the Land?

  he had heard that the Void Mask Land was the most prosperous, the most interesting and the safest place in the world. If he could live in the Land for a long time, it would be beneficial to his life.

  So they made a deal, and a new gatekeeper appeared in the Land. Gerald also now had a co-worker to change shifts with.

  The new guard was eight feet tall and had a waist circumference of about eight feet as well. The guard had a strong body, wearing a short shirt. He always carried a big iron bar that looked really heavy. He was never energetic, always napping lazily.

  Some people who knew demon monsters judged that the new gatekeeper wasn’t a human being. Nonsense. Only from his appearance could people tell that he was not an Orc or a giant. He was a very rare creature on land called the Water Ape.

  Such a horrible demon beast should have been huge like a hill; now he looked so small and polite. As for why, they thought that maybe the Void Mask had recently returned to his old home and brought a youngster from the sea.

  After all, the Void Mask was a jellyfish, and jellyfishes lived in the sea.

  “Hey, Gatekeeper B, did you know someone of your race was also called Smart?” a businessman who was very knowledgeable and experienced asked curiously. “A few years ago, there was a Water Ape in the arena of the Highest Tower. But he was much more powerful than you. His finger was almost as thick as your arm!”

  Smart rolled over and showed that guy his ass.

  What terrible eyesight! Are you blind? With such poor eyesight, how can you go out and do business? You haven’t gone bankrupt yet? What a peaceful world of the land creatures. However, just like what His Majesty, the Void Mask said, the Land is really calm and peaceful!

  Peace is good!

  Thinking so, the legendary demon beast, who had changed to a smaller size, yawned in the warm sunshine. He soon began to snooze lazily.

  he couldn’t really fall asleep during working hours. If he was caught, his salary would be deducted.

  However, the sun was warm, and the wind was very comfortable. The happy sounds of the little children in the Land seemed to be getting farther and farther away, echoing vaguely in his ears like waves.

  Ah! So good! So comfortable!

  Snore, snore.

  At the end of the month, when seeing the salary sheet, Smart was so depressed that his ears were drooping.

  [Name: Smart. Position: Gatekeeper. Working days: 30. Work situation: Fell asleep during work hours 25 times, so deducting the bonus of this month and the salary of 25 days.]

  In the end, the salary he got was only enough for him to eat a few meals from the cheap food stalls.

  Eating simple pancakes and barbecue and drinking cheap ale, Smart drooled when he smelt the scent of the high-end foods and wine floating from the nearby restaurants.

  “Next month, I won’t sleep during work,” he announced loudly after making a decision.

  Then, the next month, he fell asleep 26 times during work.

  Smart lacked biological knowledge, so he would never know that for deep-sea races, “now safe” meant “he is time to sleep.”

  This was the instinct that was imprinted in their blood, passed from generation to generation.