---o---
"Then I'll head out first. You two be careful. Caelus, protect March."
With that instruction, Dan Heng left the hotel alone. March 7th watched his retreating back, her hands on her hips, feeling a little indignant.
"What do you mean, you protect me? Obviously, I'm protecting you!"
"Yes, yes, yes. Then I'll have to trouble Miss March to protect me."
Caelus chuckled and started walking out of the hotel. March 7th quickly followed, still muttering behind him.
"Speak properly! Why does your 'yes, yes, yes' sound so perfunctory?"
As soon as the two of them stepped outside, Caelus made a beeline for the trash can at the hotel entrance. He completely ignored the strange looks from passersby and plunged his hand right in.
March 7th caught up just in time to see Caelus already rummaging, with quite a few pedestrians stopping to watch. Her face immediately flushed red. She turned her head away and urged him in a hushed, anxious voice.
"Caelus, hurry up! Everyone's staring at us!"
"Don't rush me. You have to be meticulous when looting a treasure chest."
Caelus replied casually. When he pulled his hand back, it held three heavy gold ingots.
"Not a bad haul."
---o---
In a very good mood, Caelus whistled and casually tucked the gold ingots into his bag. Although gear crafted from gold ingots wasn't the best, this was the real world, and gold could serve as universal currency.
At the very least, when they didn't have any local currency, it was extremely useful.
The surrounding pedestrians who had stopped to watch were all dumbfounded when they saw Caelus pull a large, heavy chunk of gold from the trash can.
What was going on? They had only ever heard of people finding enchanted cakes or flowers made of cash in trash cans on Valentine's Day, but they'd never heard of anyone finding gold! And it wasn't even Valentine's Day!
March 7th felt the stares from the crowd becoming increasingly strange. She quickly stepped forward, grabbed Caelus's hand, and started pulling him away.
"Let's go, quickly!"
After the two had left, one of the pedestrians finally couldn't resist. He walked up to the trash can and stuck his hand inside. He had to see if there were any of those flowers left in there.
Perhaps that young man had found gold because some noble had been rejected and thrown the gift into this very trash can?
As a result, his hand sank into a sticky, gooey mess. He immediately pulled his hand back. When he saw it was covered in pixelated vomit, he couldn't hold it in and turned his head to the side to throw up himself.
What just happened? Forget not finding any flowers, how did that young man manage to stick his hand in and pull it out perfectly clean? Was he a magician?
---o---
Meanwhile, March 7th had originally been the one pulling Caelus, but somewhere along the way, Caelus took the lead, pulling her to the front of a milk tea shop.
"Want to get something to drink?"
Caelus looked back and asked March 7th. She nodded, leaned toward the menu, and after carefully selecting an item, she pointed to it and said to the clerk, "I'll have the So-Good-It's-Explosive Pupu Meimei Milk Tea."
Such a weird name, but if it says it's 'so-good-it's-explosive,' then this young lady had to try it!
The clerk nodded, wrote it down, and then looked at Caelus.
Caelus glanced at the menu and said, "I'll have a bucket of fresh milk."
The clerk nodded again, picked up his pen and paper to record the order: "One So-Good-It's-Explosive Pupu Meimei Milk Tea, one bucket of fresh milk... a bucket?!"
The clerk looked up at Caelus, completely bewildered, and then asked with an awkward smile, "Sir, did I mishear you just now?"
"Nope." Caelus said very seriously. "You heard right. A bucket."
As he spoke, he pulled an iron bucket from his inventory and placed it on the counter. "Here. No need for your cups, use mine."
The clerk's face immediately showed hesitation. He'd never had a customer like this before.
"But sir..."
Caelus casually broke down a gold ingot and placed one of the gold nuggets on the counter. Under the sunlight, the nugget shone with a brilliant golden light, exceptionally dazzling.
"Keep the change."
The clerk immediately became respectful, wiping the awkward smile from his face.
"I understand, sir! One bucket of fresh milk, coming right up!"
March 7th, standing to the side, felt her mouth twitch. However, after spending this much time with him, she had become somewhat immune to Caelus's unconventional behavior.
---o---
The two of them went to sit at an outdoor table in front of the shop. After chatting for a while, the clerk came back, struggling a bit as he carried March 7th's milk tea in one hand and Caelus's bucket of milk in the other. He carefully placed both items steadily on the table.
"Here are your drinks. Please enjoy."
After the clerk left, March 7th held her milk tea with both hands and sipped it daintily through the straw.
"Can you drink such a big bucket?"
"It's not even enough for one gulp."
Caelus replied, then pulled a cup filled with coffee from his bag and placed it in front of him. March 7th glanced at it, feeling that the coffee cup was very familiar.
"Wait a second? Isn't that Himeko's cup? Don't tell me what's inside is..."
Caelus nodded.
"That's right. It's Himeko's coffee. I specifically asked her for some before we left."
March 7th was instantly choked, coughing several times in a row.
Just a moment ago, she thought she had become immune to Caelus's absurd actions, but it seems she had overestimated herself.
"What kind of weird stuff did you bring with you off the train!"
Caelus, however, had an expression that said 'you just don't get it' and wagged his index finger.
"This is where you're mistaken. Himeko's coffee is amazing."
"Amazing... how?"
"For interrogation. I was planning to use it on Sampo as a last resort, but I didn't expect him to be so cooperative. Alas... the world has one less lucky person who gets to taste Himeko's coffee."
"Sampo's crimes didn't deserve that..." March 7th retorted weakly, then asked with some curiosity, "So why are you taking it out now? Sampo's not here..."
Then, as if she realized something, she covered her body with her hands in terror and shrank back.
"Don't tell me you want me to drink it? Waaah, Caelus, and I even wanted to protect you! You're actually trying to murder me!"
Caelus rolled his eyes, speechless. "What are you thinking? This is for me to drink."
March 7th blinked.
"That's even more messed up."
Caelus didn't reply to March 7th. He didn't have any masochistic tendencies. He took out Himeko's coffee now simply to verify if the bucket of milk he just bought could remove negative statuses like it does in Minecraft.
Since they had determined that Cocolia was very likely a fake, there was a high chance they would have to fight her later. Therefore, they had to be fully prepared before that confrontation.
Milk that could remove negative statuses was, naturally, indispensable.
Then, Caelus picked up the coffee and downed it in one go. The familiar triple negative BUFFs of Poison, Blindness, and Nausea were instantly applied. He then immediately grabbed the bucket of milk beside him and started chugging, finishing it completely in just a few large gulps.
The Poison, Blindness, and Nausea BUFFs in his status bar immediately vanished.
The milk works!
---o---