Wood

Xiao Xun has more than 70,000 points available. Of course, he is not going to spend it all or he would stay helpless, but even spending tenth of that is supposed to be enough to buy a little city.

As long as he will be gone for several years, he can excuse his ooc by a variety of ways, even just the lack of the search expedition his parents wouldn't send (with a pretty high certainty, if he had to guess) would be enough to excuse assassinating them as an adult.

He waited until midnight, somehow surprised and unsurprised simultaneously that no one had come to check on his condition in more than twelve hours.

Xiao Xun locked the door and, after some thought, stuffed a pile of pillows inside his sister's former bed instead of his own.

Even if someone checks on him (he was quite sure they won't leave the only key in the company of a seven-year-old), they probably will leave him be when they see him in his sister's bed, afraid he would ask to see her.

Xiao Xun was surprisingly good at knowing the brain functions of perverts.

[Jeez, I wonder why.]

"Ho, shut up; I'm revoking your access privileges."

Each system was automatically given access to the host's thoughts, so that they could take action independently in times of danger without the need to waste unnecessary seconds giving orders.

Unfortunately for everyone in this equation, Xiao Xun's system was so useless and, at the same time, an insufferable spendthrift that he revoked most of its other privileges one by one. Now, its only reason to hear his host's thoughts was for the sake of entertainment.

[Please, I will act nice; I am so bored without the usual streaming options and you canceled most of my subscriptions.]

"Most of?"

[...]

Whatever.

Xiao Xun didn't really care that a creature that physically and mentally can't hurt him in any way will know what he thinks, nevertheless, even though he refuses to ever think that out loud, they did bond a little over the years.

He is sure he would have mourned him for at least two days, if not three.

[Amazing, only for this thought you have earned a subscription to Hulu.]

They argued and stung each other as Xiao's current body dropped through the window.

A little boy's body is definitely a curse. 

Although with the reincarnations Xiao Xun learned to adapt to the new dimensions of the bodies quickly, it was still near impossible for that weak body to successfully hold itself using only his arm's muscles.

Halfway through, Xiao Xun fell with a thud to the hard ground. 

He didn't know how much it would have hurt if it weren't for the painkillers.

He just started to run towards the wood, hoping to fix his broken body when the mansion will be out of sight.

After some running, Xiao Xun has found himself deep in the forest, nowhere near any human-made building.

With relief, he sat near a large tree, planing to spend most of his points for healing his slowly dying body.

"Who is this?" A thin voice tried to say firmly, "I warn you, I have a sword!"

Although he tried to thicken his voice, it was clear that it was a child.

[Does he want to be attacked? Any immoral person will simply take the sword from him.]

Xiao Xun, in an unexpected move, decided to be as honest as possible.

"I'm Edmund La Mort! I'm seven years old, I'm injured... Can we talk?"

[Why are you doing this?]

"It'd be an ooc to kill this little guy, and I don't want any failed attempts before you'll read the whole contract. Beside, being a child is problematic, as long as I'll be pitiful enough and his parents will agree to adopt me I'm kidnappers-proof. I don't want to be killed the second people hear that I'm a child with no background and a lot of money."

"Hey, are you..." The second the boy held the torch in his hand in front of Xiao Xun, he was stunned. He tried to tell himself he was stunned by this boy's clearly serious injuries, but he knew it wasn't the case.

Those gray-cloud eyes staring at him, contain only him in his look.

He wanted this moment to stay forever, let this boy to never leave him out of his eyes reflection.

[Are you sure about your plan, boss? This little fella is literally drooling, I think he has brain damage~]

The boy blushed and started stuttering, "You- You... You're Ed-mund? I'm- I'm Cecil. I love... meeting y.... You."

[Does he actually have a problem? Let's find someone else.]

'Don't be a jerk.'

Xiao Xun smiled weakly at the boy, "Can you tell your parents I'm injured? I feel bad and need a doctor so I can feel better." His voice was soft in a way that didn't match his usual character.

Cecil looked very anxious, pacing frantically back and forth, "I- I do-don't k...know, my pa-parents are.. not... Here." 

Thinking about that, not a lot of little children are wondering around in midnight when their home lives are perfect, 

"Where do you live? Can you take me there, please?" He said in his soft voice, this time with a little pity mixed in it.

If Cecil was blushing before, now it looks like he is painted crimson red, "I- I- I can, I can do that. Let me do-do it." He crouched before Xiao Xun, expecting him to get on his back.

Xiao Xun looked at the boy's thin back and his already loaded hands with a short knife, a torch, and a pile of wild currants. He looked not much older than Edmund.

He decided that he didn't have the audacity to burden this former toddler anymore. 

Instead, he asked the boy to give him a strong branch.

Although Cecil wasn't really good with words, he was very hard-working. Not lond after he returned with a branch as high as Edmund and thick as an adult's arm, Xiao Xun thought that even in his original body it would be difficult for him to carry it.

"Thank you... Could you maybe find something smaller?"

"Sorry... I'm so so- sorry, I didn't mean to get you some- something you didn't..." Cecil became very anxious in a second, are children so sensitive nowadays?

[You know this is not now- holy shit!]

The boy broke the branch on his knee without any hesitation. Amazingly, the thick branch broke in two very smoothly.

'System, Find out if there are any varieties of hollow trees nearby, fast.'

Things were getting weirder and weirder, that's not something a little kid should do, yet he doesn't seem to be trying to hide it. Is he not aware of the anomalies in the matter? Or is he just planning to kill him anyway so he doesn't bother to hide it?

"Are- are you okay? Can you walk?"

He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but Cecil's stuttering seemed to improve the more they talked.

[There are no varieties of hollow trees in this forest according to the world book, but there are very violent woodworms in this world. They gnaw the wood from the inside until it becomes easy to break, Some of them are in the tree you are leaning against.]

Xiao Xun quickly leapt forward from the tree he was resting on in disgust.

The boy suddenly started crying, "Why don't you answer? Why are you running away? Do you ha-hate me too? Don't hate me, please?"

"Shhh, I don't hate you."

"So- so why're you not letting me carry you? You hate me?"

Somehow, despite the 30,000 point pill, Xiao Xun had a headache.

"If I'll let you carry me, will you be quiet?"

[The host is being warned: 0.8% ooc, second violation and deduction will start at 10%.]

Xiao Xun ignored the warning as he tried to put his weight in a way that wouldn't strain the boy. At the same time, Cecil tried to pick up Xiao Xun in a way that wouldn't hurt his wounds.

In quite perfect cooperation, Xiao Xun climbed onto Cecil's back rather quickly and unharmed, and the boy began to run.

[This is definitely not something he is supposed to be able to, why will you not kill him?]

'I don't want a second warning until the contract is figured out, more than that,' he looked at the boy's hairy nape, a small part of his uncut hair. 'It's kinda cute how he cares about me.'