Always Ending Up as an Animal Cub

Unlike the previous monsters, this humanoid creature named Uncle Gill moved much more slowly, and its movements were accompanied by the mechanical sound of paper wheels turning.
Combining this with its eyes, which gleamed with an eerie red light, similar to the sheep head pendant and the goddess portrait...
Yu Tong felt he had a pretty good idea of what Uncle Gill was.

He didn’t try to hide himself, standing above Chen Xi and casually whispering in his ear.
After hearing the chick’s plan, Chen Xi looked up at Uncle Gill on the stairs, then glanced down at the giant centipede blocking the stairway.
With a clenched jaw and a stomp of his foot, he abruptly turned and dashed up the stairs.

The overweight man, more than two meters tall, swung the giant axe in his hands, bringing it down heavily toward Chen Xi below.
He was large and powerful, but his movements were slow. Chen Xi had already slipped past him, and the axe only managed to hit the stair rail.
The railing snapped with a loud crack, and the old wooden stairs trembled violently from the impact.

Taking advantage of Uncle Gill’s delayed reaction, Chen Xi hurriedly rushed up to the second floor.
The layout of the second floor was similar to the first, with the only difference being a utility room at the end of the hallway.
This place had been mentioned in the monster manual that Lily had kept.

Yu Tong had a strong impression of the monster in the utility room. Lily knew the creature’s origin, and when recording it, she made sure to write down its story.
"A little girl called Crybaby, who cried too loudly in the dormitory, was locked in the utility room by her roommates. Late at night, the Ice-Cool Trio came to find the child who hadn't gone to bed. Just as Crybaby was about to be killed by the Ice-Cool Trio, a small mouse found her."
"No one knew what the mouse said, but after that night, Crybaby disappeared. And in the utility room, there was a mouse with a human face, crying every night."

The manual said that the crying mouse usually wandered around the cafeteria, picking through leftover food. It only returned to its nest at night, which was the utility room.
So far, every monster in the orphanage seemed to have its own territory. They generally didn’t leave their assigned areas.
The bathroom on the first floor belonged to Ze Di Shen, and it was taken over by the little mushroom.

Monsters that roam the dormitories, there are seven or eight types recorded in the second volume. But only Ze Di Shen and the crying mouse had their own exclusive territories.
Other monsters were mobile and would appear at specific times, running around and killing randomly.
The system asked him if he found Uncle Gill in the manual.
Yu Tong told it that Uncle Gill wouldn’t appear in the manual, as Lily only recorded real monsters.

The system was utterly confused.
With 43 minutes left until class ended, Yu Tong planned to have Chen Xi hide in the utility room until then.
The second floor hallway was filled with blood, and the remains of a little boy’s body lay quietly in the corner.

As he passed by the boy’s decapitated head, Chen Xi’s footsteps paused momentarily.
Yu Tong observed the dead boy closely. "Do you recognize him?"
Chen Xi nodded. "He’s the youngest son of the Royal Knight Captain."

"Oh—got it."
System: ???
[What the hell, he knows the Knight Captain? No, no, wait, what the hell is the Knight Captain’s son doing in the orphanage? Wait, what did you figure out?!]

Yu Tong was about to respond when hurried footsteps suddenly came from behind.
He turned to look, and Uncle Gill, who had been moving slowly before, was now charging toward them, dragging the giant axe like a cannonball.
Yu Tong stepped lightly on the boy’s head. "Move to the side, it can only charge in a straight line."

Chen Xi followed his advice, quickly turning into a nearby hallway.
Immediately after, he saw Uncle Gill, trailing smoke, rush past him with a whoosh, flying down the hallway.
It kept going for four or five meters before slowly coming to a halt.

Chen Xi stared at Uncle Gill’s retreating figure, and the confusion in his eyes gradually faded.
"Gold coin, I know what he is now. It turns out Gill is a human name."
"Yep, that’s right."

[Huh?]
[What???]
——

The monster’s axe was embedded in the wall, and pulling it out would take some time.
Taking advantage of the delay, Chen Xi slipped into the utility room.
Uncle Gill pulled out his axe, and heavy footsteps echoed down the hallway once again.

The power disparity was too great, and Chen Xi didn’t want to make the chick intervene just yet.
He tightly closed the utility room door and used a wooden cabinet to block it.
Having done all he could, Chen Xi moved to the back of the room, hiding behind a pile of old racks. He gripped the chick in his hands and began silently chanting the world’s prayer.

The wooden floor creaked as the footsteps drew closer, eventually fading away in front of the utility room door. The second floor once again fell into eerie silence.
Through the thin wooden door, Yu Tong could faintly hear the sound of gears turning. Uncle Gill was still outside, standing just outside the door.
Yu Tong squeezed through the gap between his fingers, hopping to the cabinet door and warily watching the wooden door.

He hadn’t found enough evidence to confirm his guess.
If he was wrong, Uncle Gill would break in and kill Chen Xi.
One minute, two minutes...

Time passed slowly, and Yu Tong slowly curled his lips into a smile.
After such a long time, Uncle Gill hadn’t kicked open the broken door.
It wouldn’t come in; he was right.

Eventually, the footsteps started again, gradually growing distant until they vanished completely.
Chen Xi’s stiff body finally relaxed, and he sank to the floor, clutching his chest and gasping for air.
His white hair was drenched in sweat, sticking to his smooth forehead. His delicate face was flushed from the exertion, and his lips, marked with small bite impressions, were slightly parted as he gasped in shallow breaths.

The system peeked over for a while before excitedly rubbing its hands. "Hey? Is this a duck sitting? Just judging by the looks, the villain really is a cute little guy, hehe, a little cutie!"
Yu Tong: ...
"Big brother, calm down, he’s only ten."

[What are you thinking? Don’t you want to kiss that cute little kid when you see him? Oh! You’ve never seen him as a little kid, huh? You always look at him like he's an adult, so you don't think he's cute, and then you think I’m the pervert!]
‘... He’s just my Chen Ge, the shell is different, that’s all.’
[No, no, no. The feeling I get from you is that you’re always living in the past. When you look at Chen Xi, you think of the Chen Qing from your memories. So you don’t realize that in a crisis, Chen Xi would make choices that are completely different from Chen Qing.]

‘I don’t.’
[Pfft, you do. Even though they’re both Chen Ge, Chen Xi is still young, and his thoughts are much simpler than Yun Mingchen and Chen Qing. You didn’t expect him to speak honestly with the little mushroom when running for his life. You thought Chen Ge would never make such a silly mistake.]
[If you had realized that, you would have already hidden in a safer bathroom instead of in this utility room, gambling on whether Uncle Gill would come in and kill us.]

Yu Tong remained silent for a while. 'You’re right.'
The system chuckled. "Little Yu, stop living in the past."
‘You were the one who always... Huh? What is this? Why is this happening? Big brother, when did you evolve?’

[You think I wanted to use my brain? Do you know how much Chen Xi’s deviation dropped after the little mushroom yanked his hair and threw him to the ground? From 17 to 10!!!]
[That’s a whole 7 points! How much leeway does a rich family have to handle that? This could have been avoided! Little Yu, we can’t make these mistakes again! We can’t!!]
After the system shouted, it realized Yu Tong hadn’t said anything.

It cleared its throat, feeling a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I was too excited. I didn’t mean to scold you, don’t be upset."
Yu Tong wasn’t upset.
Looking at the boy’s still innocent face, he suddenly realized the system was right.

He had been trying to find traces of Chen Ge in the little villain, but they wouldn’t be exactly the same.
Moreover, Yu Tong’s memories were flawed. The Chen Ge he recalled likely had traces of his own fantasy.
He needed to understand the real Chen Xi.

——
After breathing heavily for more than five minutes, Chen Xi finally regained his composure. The orphanage’s food was so bad that he couldn’t keep up with the nutrition.
The little yellow chick was hopping around near the abandoned shelves, trying to see what was on top.

Chen Xi gently lifted the chick, placing him on the top shelf.
On the highest shelf, there was an old piggy bank.
Earlier, when the system saw the strange light in the corner of the room, it thought the crying little mouse had returned. It turned out to be just an old piggy bank.

The piggy bank had a small hole in its head. Yu Tong stuck the chick’s head inside and saw a dark object inside.
The system curiously looked over. "Ah... Why do I feel like this thing looks so much like a surveillance camera?"
‘Don’t you think the eerie red light in its eyes is a lot like the surveillance camera at your place?’

[Shit! If that’s true, then the sheep head pendant hanging at the dorm entrance, the goddess portrait on the stair landing, and Uncle Gill... are all surveillance cameras?]
‘No, Uncle Gill isn’t a surveillance camera. He’s a robot.’
The system blinked in confusion. "But... but this is a sword and magic world."

‘On the first day we came, didn’t we see a light bulb hanging from the dorm ceiling? Also, the orphanage kids all have pocket watches, which means pocket watches and light bulbs are already widespread. This world isn’t medieval like you think. The technology level isn’t low at all.’
[How did you know I’ve always thought this was the medieval era?]
‘Because you ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ always look at them like they’re from the past.’

[But there are elves, dwarves, and dragons here...]
‘Does their existence affect technological development?’
The system was stunned.

Actually, Yu Tong felt that this world was more like a technological tree gone wrong.
It was a phenomenon common in novels.
A group of warriors with shields and swords drinking and eating meat under electric lights.

Here, wizards were still casting fireballs, while alchemists were making otherworldly versions of phones.
Though they might not call them phones, and their principles might differ, their function wasn’t that far off.
From the moment he first saw the light bulb hanging from the dormitory ceiling, Yu Tong knew this was definitely not just a simple sword and magic world.

But looking at Chen Xi, he seemed unfamiliar with surveillance cameras.
After silently checking the piggy bank, Yu Tong whispered, "There’s nothing useful up there. Chen Xi, I’m going to jump down, catch me!"
Yu Tong shouted and jumped down, landing perfectly in the boy’s hands.

He faintly sensed a slight change in the little villain’s attitude toward him.
As Chen Xi cupped him in his hands and brought him back to the cabinet, Yu Tong bounced to his shoulder, whispering in his ear, "Do you know why the orphanage locks you all up?"
Chen Xi thought for a moment and lowered his gaze. "They say it's to punish us."

"But what’s the real reason?"
"I don’t know. I just know the crime they gave me doesn’t make sense."
Yu Tong tilted his head.

Chen Xi lowered his head, hugging his knees. "You heard it too, those kids called me a stinky fox. Since birth, you’ve never left the orphanage. You might not understand what the word ‘fox’ really means."
"In this world, fox beastmen, elves, and mermaids are considered the most beautiful races. After the beastmen lost to the human empire, their status declined. Hunters often come to the beastmen’s country, abducting and selling them as slaves."
The system didn’t understand how the topic had taken such a turn. It wanted to ask, but Yu Tong stopped it.

"The background of this world will lead to the creation of the orphanage. Do you think the orphanage can hide so many monsters and capture so many kids from decent families? The outside world must be in chaos already."
[Wow, is that how it is?]
Realizing the system had evolved but wasn’t fully there yet, Yu Tong relaxed.

He still preferred the naive, innocent version of the system.
It seemed like he remembered something sad. Chen Xi clenched his hands tightly, and his eyes involuntarily turned red.
"At first, those slave traders only captured beastmen to sell them. After a while, they realized they could use beastmen to breed more beastmen. So by capturing just one pair of male and female beastmen, they could have a constant supply."

"Then the price of beastmen slaves dropped, and what used to be an item only the nobles could afford became something commoners could buy."
"Fox beastmen, being so beautiful, had far more buyers than other races. The buyers were mostly after them for pleasure in bed. So anyone could buy them, and anyone could have fun with fox beastmen, making them..."
Chen Xi didn’t know how to describe it.

He was too young and didn’t understand many things.
After a long pause, Chen Xi finally squeezed out, "In short, fox is a very insulting word. Even when people curse, they rarely use it."
Yu Tong understood what he meant.

Fox beastmen were widely seen as slaves to fulfill desires.
Being cursed with that word was like calling someone a prostitute, someone for everyone to use.
The kids might not understand its true meaning; they just thought it was the harshest thing to say.

Yu Tong didn’t understand how the usually quiet, reserved little boy had provoked those kids.
After hearing his question, Chen Xi shook his head. "I didn’t provoke them. The special meaning of the word ‘fox’ was taught to them by the nuns. They all know what it really means. That’s why they cursed me like that."
"Why?"

"Because they think my mom was like a fox, doing that kind of thing."
Yu Tong: ?