Chapter 10 Monster in the Fog

"Huh? How could that be? I just graduated from police academy this year and have only been working for less than two months!" Kenji Hagiwara didn't know why she suddenly asked such a question, but he still answered her question 'frankly'.

Seeing that she didn't seem to know much about Japan, he selectively avoided explaining the difference between professional and regular employees in the Japanese civil service system, and didn't mention that he was specially recruited as a professional graduate.

"..." Feng Xing kept his word, but then felt utterly speechless: "Shouldn't your boss be court-martialed? Making a new employee like you do hands-on bomb disposal after only two months on the job? This is simply..."

She, who doesn't know how to swear, ran out of words towards the end.

"The inspector did not violate any rules. Among the team members on duty today, I am one of the people with better bomb disposal knowledge and experience, so that's why I was chosen." -_-|| Kenji Hagiwara felt a little wronged on behalf of the inspector.

He and Kojinpei were able to practice bomb disposal within a few months of joining the force because, compared to the others in their class, they were so-called top students who had graduated from prestigious universities and entered the police academy.

Compared to most of their classmates who apply to police academies after graduating from high school, these college graduates have stronger professional knowledge. Therefore, in the Japanese police force, high school graduates who pass the police academy entrance exam usually start their jobs as the lowest-ranking patrol officers.

Graduates of police academies who apply after graduating from university are in the so-called professional group. They start with a higher position than others, holding the rank of police inspector. Naturally, the work they are responsible for is also more difficult. Moreover, he and Kojinpei are good at taking things apart because of their personal hobbies and their fathers' professions...

These feelings were a bit complicated for Feng Jiang, who wasn't Japanese, to explain, so he decided to leave it for later. He didn't continue the topic and instead told her, "Alright, time is limited, let's find as many roadside treasure chests as possible before dark! Even if each wooden treasure chest yields little, it's good to accumulate them."

"Hmm!" Feng Xingshou and the others sat back in the car and realized that they had spoken too much about someone they had just met. In other words, they had been too talkative. They had just met and yet they had criticized the person's boss. How could they have said such a thing?

No wonder my colleagues said I was a bit dim-witted; how could I have blurted it out like that! Thinking about how I had acted foolishly and made a mistake in my words and actions, I felt extremely remorseful and wished I could turn back time so I could take back what I said.

Just as she was feeling regretful, Hagiwara, who was driving beside her, asked, "By the way, I only introduced myself before. What about you? What do you do for a living?"

With his keen observation, he had already noticed her regret and frustration. Given the social distance in Japan, her previous words were indeed a bit too familiar. However, Kenji Hagiwara himself was a naturally outgoing person and didn't think there was anything wrong with that familiar distance.

Moreover, he could tell that the other person was worried and indignant on his behalf, which was why they said those things. How could he let someone who felt indignant on his behalf wallow in regret and frustration for saying the wrong thing?

"Me?" Feng Xingshou heard him ask this and saw that he didn't seem to mind his previous words and actions at all. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief and made up his mind to watch his mouth in the future before answering, "I work in a restaurant making Chinese pastries."

I'd better not mention that I've been unemployed for the past few months and haven't been able to find a new job. It's easy to start complaining to people about how hard it is to find work these days, and they have no obligation to listen to my complaints since they're not related to me.

"A Chinese pastry chef? He must be very good at making xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)." Upon hearing the name Chinese pastry, Kenji Hagiwara couldn't help but think of his favorite Chinese staple food.

.

Feng Xing Shou was puzzled by his reaction.

Somewhat speechless: "Why is it that when you foreigners mention Chinese noodles, you only think of xiaolongbao? There are many noodles in China that are much better than xiaolongbao. You don't need to be so fixated on this one, do you?"

"A fight to the death?" Kenji Hagiwara asked blankly.

Feng Xingshou then realized that her temporary driver's Chinese pronunciation was not standard, and he definitely wouldn't understand this kind of dialect-flavored speech. It was just as strange as the Chinese "大丈夫？" becoming "没事吗？" inexplicably in Japanese. She could only explain, "It's about being obsessed with this one thing."

Kenji Hagiwara understood the explanation immediately, given his level of Chinese proficiency. He expressed some surprise, saying, "Chinese is amazing; it can often express a great deal of meaning with very short words and phrases."

"Of course, people online say that Chinese is a language compression package! Like..." Hearing him praise Chinese, Feng Xingshou immediately forgot his regret and frustration at having just made a fool of himself, and proudly talked about the advantages of Chinese.

Kenji Hagiwara saw her eyes sparkle again and a smile flickered in his own. Kaze-chan is so easy to understand and so easy to please. He'll probably be spending a lot of time with her in the future. It's good to be around someone with such a good personality to avoid some headaches...

So the two spent the rest of the afternoon chatting about their lives and teaching each other driving tips, during which they also encountered several wooden treasure chests.

They also obtained 30 units of fuel, a 550 ml bottle of water, two 330 ml cans of cola, a bag of bread rolls, a bottle of chewing gum, a 200 g bag of spiced melon seeds, and 30 units of timber.

When it got completely dark, despite the warning in the notice that it was best not to drive at night, the two of them didn't have any intention of doing anything reckless. So they stopped driving as dusk fell and busied themselves eating a simple dinner.

Although neither of them mentioned it, they both knew that the issue of urination was manageable when one was alone, whether in a car or by the roadside, but difficult to overcome when there were other people present, especially someone of the opposite sex.

So both of them subconsciously reduced their food and water intake in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of that situation occurring. At least neither Kazeki nor Kenji Hagiwara could bring themselves to relieve themselves in the car in front of a stranger of the opposite sex.

Unfortunately, nighttime is extremely dangerous. If they felt the urge to relieve themselves, it would be a life-or-death situation if they didn't do it in the car, but went out instead. So, reducing their food intake and lowering their sexual needs became an unspoken agreement between the two of them...

However, when the two of them curled up on the reclined car seats, Feng Xingshou was actually faced with a difficult choice. She thought of her home space, where she, being obese, could not lie down comfortably or stretch out her legs in the cramped car space.

She really wanted to go into the home space to see if it was like the game's home space, with hot springs and wooden houses. If it really was, an acre of space would be enough for her to comfortably spend the night there.

But she wasn't alone now. Although Officer Hagiwara seemed trustworthy, she didn't want to reveal more of her hand to a stranger. At the very least, she wanted to wait until she was more certain that this person could be trusted before making a choice.

So, despite the unbearable night, she chose to endure it, reasoning that although she was fat, her legs were short! It was much easier for her to endure than for the thin but long-legged police officer next to her. He must have had a much harder time enduring it with his large frame!

Time passed second by second. Perhaps it was the comforting presence of someone like him beside him, or perhaps it was his thoughts about the new police officer that made Feng Xingshou fall asleep.

.

Little did she know that after she fell asleep, the man beside her, whose breathing had been steady the whole time, quietly sat up. Using the fluorescent light from the car's dashboard and his excellent night vision, he peered out the window through the ordinary glass that offered no sun protection.

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But outside the car window, it looked almost exactly the same as during the day—still a one-way road, shrouded in thick fog on both sides, showing no sign of danger. However, thinking about the changes in the number of players on the game panel, he felt that appearances can be deceiving; something must be hidden in this thick fog…

Sure enough, just as he gave up sleep and stood guard by the car window, watching the passing minutes, when the time on his watch, which he had adjusted according to the time displayed on the game panel, reached exactly midnight, a dark figure emerged from the thick fog as if with great difficulty.

After struggling to emerge from the thick fog, the dark figure seemed to instantly become more agile, rushing over quickly and lying down in front of the car, sniffing continuously. As it moved from the front of the car to the driver's side window, it continued to sniff.

It even stood upright and scratched at the car body with its claws. Whether its claws weren't sharp enough or the car was of excellent quality, its scratching didn't make any noise and didn't cause any damage to the car body...

With his excellent night vision, Hagiwara was able to make out a giant rabbit in the dim light of the dashboard after the shadow approached the car. It was over a meter long, with blood-red eyes, and its fur looked very sturdy. It could even stand upright on two legs.

Looking at this rabbit, and thinking about the time when it enters the daily dungeon, which also appears at midnight, will it also leave at 12:30 midnight, just like the daily dungeon?

Hagiwara guessed that this might be like a daily dungeon, with limited-time monsters that only appear at night. According to the rules of a normal game, there would definitely be rewards for defeating monsters, and with such a monster around, he simply couldn't fall asleep.

He was curious about how Feng-chan had managed to fall asleep under these circumstances these past two days. He stared warily at the giant rabbit monster outside the car for a moment, then took out his sidearm from his sling, released the safety, and began to push Feng-chan.

However, even as he changed from gently pushing to pushing forcefully, the woman beside him showed no signs of waking up. Instead, she tried to swat his hand away as if swatting a mosquito, muttering something under her breath.

'...If even a tall, leggy police officer can tolerate it, so can I...It's not crowded...The car isn't crowded at all...'

At this moment, he seemed to understand how Feng Jiang managed to fall asleep without being disturbed by the giant rabbit monster that spawned periodically outside the car. He was even a little envious of that quality of sleep. Unfortunately, with that rabbit monster around, he couldn't fall asleep at all. Sigh!

After a silent sigh, he thought that since the rabbit monster was on his side and he had his own gun, he could launch a counterattack while ensuring his safety. So he simply opened the car window a crack.

The moment the gap in the car window appeared, as the giant rabbit monster's claws reached into the car, it also extended the gun barrel through the window gap and pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, the giant rabbit monster was hit at close range in the forehead and instantly fell down.

Upon seeing this, Kenji Hagiwara immediately put away his gun, closed the car window, and looked at Kaze, thinking that he should explain to her that he launched a counterattack only after making sure that the rabbit would not break into the car and attack her.

Unexpectedly, when he turned his head to explain, he saw that despite the loud gunshot, she was still sleeping soundly, showing no signs of waking up at all. Hagiwara was completely impressed by her sleep quality; it was the first time he had ever encountered someone who was in such deep sleep every day.

Just as he was feeling impressed, a message suddenly appeared automatically in front of Feng Jiang: [Congratulations to the survivor for killing a rabbit monster and obtaining a Black Iron Treasure Chest.]

As expected, there's still the same old trick of getting items from monster drops! The treasure chest fell outside the car, and it's too risky to leave the car to get it at night. Let Fuu-chan handle it herself tomorrow! Seeing this comment, Hagiwara thought about Fuu-chan's sleep quality.