Grotesqueries of the Old Domain

Chapter 39: Adults

Upon hearing Song Jianguo’s words, Zhang Wenda, whose face had turned ashen, reached into the pocket of his school uniform and eventually pulled out the last Lollipop.

Although he had found a solution, unfortunately, there wasn’t enough material.

He looked up at the dozen or so monsters before him and gave a bitter smile.

“I’m afraid I can’t convince them to take turns licking a single Lollipop.”

At that moment, the distant monsters also spotted the black cat boat and began to converge with roars.

“What should we do?” Zhang Wenda looked at the now completely empty red core.

It seemed he had only one option left now, even though he knew the side effects of this method were terrifying.

He stood up from the cat boat, reached out to grab a nearby bookshelf, and said to the shelves, “Give me knowledge, give me the knowledge to resolve the current situation!”

As he spoke, a book fell from the top shelf.

Zhang Wenda caught it and saw the title on the cover.

However, the title shocked him immensely: How to Become an Adult Overnight

Zhang Wenda froze upon seeing the book.

At that moment, he suddenly understood something.

He held the book and shouted around, “You’re alive too, aren’t you? Right? Library!”

“This was a trap from the beginning, wasn’t it?! No matter what I choose, whether I read the books or get caught by these things, the result is the same, isn’t it!!”

Zhang Wenda’s voice echoed through the empty library, yet there was no response.

Looking at the approaching monsters, Zhang Wenda knew it was time to make a decision.

Would both of them become adults, or would only one turn into an adult and take the other out?

This seemed easy enough to consider.

Zhang Wenda gritted his teeth, slapped the book into Song Jianguo’s hands.

“Come on! It’s up to you. You can do it!”

Song Jianguo was stunned.

She looked at the book, then at Zhang Wenda’s smiling face.

Even though she didn’t fully understand, after spending so long in the library, she knew opening this book wouldn’t bring anything good.

Her face immediately turned angry, and she was just about to start cursing, but then her mouth twitched, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I knew it, I knew it!! You brought me here, and you’ve never been this kind!!”

“I can’t beat you! Fine! I’ll accept my loss!!”

She fiercely snatched the book from Zhang Wenda and was about to open it, but a hand snatched it away first.

“Ah, I was just messing with you, look at how scared you are, even crying—you're still just a little brat after all.”

Song Jianguo stared in disbelief at the book in Zhang Wenda’s hand, seemingly unable to grasp what was happening.

“Why?”

Zhang Wenda looked at the book in his hand and recalled past memories.

“No matter how unruly you are, it only means you need a beating and discipline.

Even if you're thrown in jail, it doesn’t mean you should be betrayed at will or have your dignity trampled on.”

“Besides, I’m much older than you.

If something really happens, I won’t let a little brat take the fall.”

The noise was growing louder.

Seeing the monsters gradually closing in, Zhang Wenda calmly and slowly opened the book.

“After all, I’ve already grown up long ago.

Now it’s just returning to where I was before.

Honestly, I’m curious what the adult world here is like.”

Just as Zhang Wenda read the words, the entire content of the book began to float rapidly and emitted a yellow glow.

Eventually, beside Zhang Wenda’s red core, another yellow scar appeared, just like the absorption of a Special Ability.

Not only did Zhang Wenda fail to react in time, even the monsters stood stunned at the scene.

“Huh?” Zhang Wenda looked at the now blank book, then at his unchanged body.

After thinking quickly for a moment, he coughed lightly and spoke.

“Cough~ um, this book’s expired. Bring me another one to check.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the surrounding monsters charged with roars.

Zhang Wenda anxiously stared at the yellow core on his forearm.

“How do I use this thing? How do I use this thing?”

A copy of Beginner’s Guide to Yellow Cores appeared before Zhang Wenda.

As the sky dimmed, two massive canes came swinging toward his head.

Just as they were about to hit Zhang Wenda’s face, he pressed down hard on the yellow core.

“Pop pop”—two rolled-up newspapers slapped Zhang Wenda on the head, followed by the din of a marketplace argument.

“Beating an elder! He’s beating an elder!”

“Give me candy, give me candy!”

“Ai yo, the world’s going to hell, people these days...”

Looking around, Zhang Wenda saw that everything—monsters, library, even Song Jianguo—had completely vanished.

Though it had been night, now it was clearly midday.

With cicadas chirping in his ears, he stood at his original height in a densely wooded park, surrounded by seven or eight old men standing akimbo, glaring at him.

They pointed fingers and tapped him with newspapers as they repeated their lines.

“Meow~” A small black cat with a collar circled Zhang Wenda’s ankles.

“Everyone, everyone, please hold on, everyone.” Completely confused, Zhang Wenda spread his hands, trying to explain to these old men—who seemed like transformed monsters.

Yet no matter what he said, the old men and women seemed not to hear and just kept repeating their lines.

At that moment, a man carrying a badminton racket ran past.

He saw the scene and said, “Don’t bother with them, you can’t reason with them. They’re all Prefabs.”

“Pre...fabs?”

Hearing that, Zhang Wenda looked closely and realized these people really didn’t seem alive.

Stiff expressions, repeated speech, even their faces looked almost identical.

Ignoring the crowd’s encirclement, Zhang Wenda scooped up the black cat with one hand, pushed past them effortlessly, and chased after the man with the badminton racket.

Everything was happening so fast, he had too many questions to ask.

“So this is the adult world? This is the adult world?”

Zhang Wenda hugged the cat and looked around.

Everything had changed.

“Jianguo? Are you Jianguo?” Zhang Wenda lowered his head and asked the little black cat loudly.

But the cat only meowed timidly and trembled in fear.

“What are Prefabs? Are they not even human?” Zhang Wenda looked at the old man on the ground intently eating candy, struggling to comprehend.

Too much had happened, too quickly, and his mind couldn’t keep up.

As he followed the man out of the park, the sight before him made him freeze on the spot.

He saw a city.

A high-tech city entirely built by Prefabs.

The Prefabs formed the bricks of elevated roads and magnificent towering skyscrapers.