Chapter 198: Replacement Candidate

“Ah! I get it!”

“It’s about tearing out the weed by the root, to prevent any future trouble!”

Half a minute later, when Bai Ya, who was standing behind him, exclaimed in sudden realization, Lu Wei’s expression finally softened a little.

‘Hmph, looks like she’s not a lost cause after all.’

‘It took her this long to figure it out, but that’s still better than having no Comprehension at all.’

“Finally figured it out, have you?”

Turning around, Lu Wei lectured her with a stern expression, “To be honest, I thought you would have realized this long ago. I didn’t expect you’d need this much time to think.”

“That’s right. For many things, there’s no middle ground. You either do nothing, or you do it thoroughly. You can’t leave any loose ends.”

“Because for your enemies, mercy won’t make them grateful. You have to crush them with the most brutal methods to minimize the chance of retaliation.”

“Alright, since you understand the principle now, I won’t say any more.”

“Just don’t make a similar mistake again.”

After adding a few more brief comments, Lu Wei looked away, feeling much calmer.

But then Bai Ya lowered her head in shame, fidgeting with her fingers as she quietly confessed:

“Um, actually, I didn’t get it just now…”

“It was Aryan who reminded me…”

?

Lu Wei froze and immediately looked at Aryan.

Aryan, who probably didn’t expect to be “sold out” by Bai Ya, let her mouth fall slightly agape.

After a few seconds, she admitted in a small, awkward voice:

“I was the one who said it…”

…

‘I knew it!’

‘Points deducted!’

Lu Wei took a deep breath and, without a second thought, deducted all 10 points he had just given Bai Ya that afternoon.

At the same time, he added 10 points for Aryan.

With that, Aryan’s score reached 42 points, only 18 points away from the passing mark for a girlfriend.

‘Maybe I should hire Aryan to manage the general store.’

‘Or maybe recruit her into the Mushroom Squad.’

‘After all, Mirana left a spot open when she quit, and Aryan knows medicine. She’d be a perfect fit for Team Doctor.’

‘Attributes can be raised slowly, combat Experience can be cultivated over time, and Skills can be learned gradually.’

‘But Intelligence… that seems really hard to improve.’

‘Furen and Bai Ya are both too dumb. The team can’t function with me as the only smart person.’

Gazing at Aryan’s flushed cheeks, Lu Wei thought this over for a moment before confirming once more:

“You really do know how to cook, right?”

…

…

About ten minutes later, the three of them waved goodbye at the entrance to Daffodil Lane.

After confirming that Bai Ya wasn’t injured and didn’t need to take any “sedatives,” Aryan headed back to her small clinic.

The moment she was gone, Bai Ya, who had been holding it in the whole way, immediately grabbed Lu Wei’s sleeve.

“Captain, why did you ask Aryan if she knows how to cook?!”

“Are you sick of me?! Do you want to replace me?!”

‘Well, well, look at you turning into Sherlock Holmes all of a sudden.’

“The Mushroom Squad is an elite team. We can’t tolerate useless members.”

Lu Wei shot her a sideways glance. “Based on the current situation, Aryan is indeed a better fit than you.”

“Huh? I’m useless…”

Bai Ya swayed as if she had suffered a critical blow.

“Don’t be discouraged. I didn’t say I was definitely replacing you.”

Lu Wei patted her shoulder. “Comparatively, you have your strengths too.”

“For example, you’re a good cook, and… uh…”

Suddenly, Lu Wei was stuck.

Seeing this, Bai Ya grew even more dejected and said with her head bowed in dismay:

“You can’t even think of two strengths…?”

“Hey, is that my fault?”

Lu Wei’s face hardened. “With someone like you, it’s a miracle I can even think of one.”

“But I’m also very hardworking…”

“Aryan is more hardworking. She’s responsible for basically all the chores at the clinic by herself.”

“Th-then I’m stronger than her! I can kill goblins and Kobolds!”

“That doesn’t count for much. After all, you were just as weak as her a month ago.”

“Why doesn’t it count?! I also have [Imitation]! My potential is limitless!”

Having finally thought of an absolute advantage, Bai Ya’s confidence instantly returned. She drew a large circle in the air with both hands to show just how big her potential was.

Lu Wei couldn’t refute that, so he could only nod.

“True. In that respect, you really benefit from being slow-witted.”

“I’m not dumb at all! I’m just slow to react!!”

“As everyone knows, ‘dumb’ is just a general term. It doesn’t specifically mean low Intelligence.”

“Huh? Why? I don’t get it.”

“See? That’s what being dumb is.”

…

The setting sun slowly sank behind the church bell tower. Wisps of cooking smoke rose here and there, signaling the end of another day.

The bakery on the street corner was selling its last basket of breadsticks at a discount. A few Adventurers, just back from the forest, were laughing and talking loudly, startling the gray pigeons napping on the eaves.

Around six o’clock, Lu Wei and Bai Ya arrived back at their small wooden cabin, bickering the whole way.

The pool of blood by the door hadn’t dried completely. The soil was stained dark red, and a faint smell of blood hung in the air.

Judging by the amount of blood, one could only imagine how brutally Bai Ya had dealt with him.

No wonder Silas’s body was barely recognizable.

“Hess!”

Ignoring everything else, Bai Ya rushed into the bedroom the moment she got back.

Back then, after Watson had fled, she had immediately gone to check on Hess.

The good news was, the ball was still alive.

The bad news was, it seemed to have gotten a concussion from the fall.

Bai Ya was not a Doctor, let alone a veterinarian, and had no idea what to do.

So at the time, all she could do was carry Hess to the bed and rub some Healing Ointment on it.

Then she had been taken away by Reck, who had arrived on the scene.

Now, several hours later, Hess’s condition seemed to have improved a little.

“PRRR!”

Opening its eyes and seeing Bai Ya, it immediately sprang up from the bed and began to whimper urgently.

Which meant, ‘I’m hungry.’

“Ah, okay, I’ll go make food right now!”

Without a word, Bai Ya immediately ran out of the bedroom, grabbed a large pile of potatoes, onions, and a piece of wild boar meat they had bought yesterday, and rushed over to the well to wash the vegetables and cut the meat.

She didn’t even take the time to change out of her dirty clothes.

‘You’d think Hess was the master here.’

Glancing at Bai Ya squatting by the well, Lu Wei didn’t say anything, considering Hess had, after all, performed a great service today.

He just shoveled some dirt to cover the bloodstains by the door, then went into the small bedroom himself.

“Here, let me see where your fur was pulled out.”

He picked Hess up by the scruff, completely lacking Bai Ya’s gentleness, and spun it around like a basketball.

He finally found an indented spot in the butt area.

Well… strictly speaking, a Fur Ball doesn’t have a butt.

The only organs on its entire body were two eyes and two short little legs.

It didn’t even have arms, a mouth, or ears.

So, a more accurate description would be “the area on the lower-middle section of its spherical body, behind its two legs.”

“This isn’t even that much.”

After looking for a few seconds, Lu Wei pursed his lips. ‘Bai Ya was being too dramatic,’ he thought.

On the way back, she had said “a huge patch went bald.”

But it was just a spot the size of his palm.

‘Hm? By the way, what’s under a Fur Ball’s fluff?’

Suddenly, a strange question occurred to Lu Wei.

He then prepared to investigate, wanting to stick his hand in and feel around.

But the next second, Hess’s body suddenly trembled. It began to struggle violently, letting out a constant, urgent “LULULU” whimper, as if it were extremely embarrassed by this.

“Stop moving. I’m just gonna touch it, what are you afraid of!”

Lu Wei couldn’t care less about the Fur Ball’s “dignity.” He forcefully held it down with his left hand while his right hand plunged directly into the indented fluff.

And then…

‘What a peculiar texture.’

‘Like Jell-O.’

‘A little warm.’

‘It’s extremely malleable and elastic. No wonder it was fine after being flattened by the [Force Field].’

‘Wait, I just had a bold idea…’

A moment later, Lu Wei pulled his hand back, a thoughtful look on his face.

Hess, for its part, had stopped struggling and was now lying on the bed, looking as if it had lost all will to live.

The man and the ball remained in silence until Bai Ya rushed back in.

“Captain, I almost forgot something…”

“Huh? What were you two just doing?”