Seeing the Mischievous Elf break down and cry out, a subtle smile played on Qin Xiaoxia’s lips.

’You’re still a little too green for this, little guy!’

Once the distraught Mischievous Elf had mostly calmed down, Qin Xiaoxia patted him gently.

He then took out a key, first unlocking the several locks on the chains binding him, and then cutting through the elastic bands and untying the ropes.

The elf dazedly rubbed his sore spots. Far from trying to escape, he seemed completely bewildered.

He pushed the now-cold golden fried rice on the table over to the little guy.

"Go on and eat. It’s cold, but it’s still delicious!"

The aroma of the fried rice wafted past his nose. The little guy subconsciously picked up the box, spoon in hand, but didn’t take a bite.

"I only tied you up to let off some steam. After all, you’ve been causing trouble in my house for so long and eaten a lot of my food. But I’m not angry anymore."

"Oh, right. You’ll compensate me for the Gold Coins you used up, right? Buying food these past few days has cost me a lot of money."

The Mischievous Elf nodded hurriedly, the pointy tip of his hat flopping back and forth.

"That’s good. Now eat up. There’s water here, don’t choke."

After saying this, Qin Xiaoxia went about gathering the chains and ropes, "casually" tidying up the living room.

Meanwhile, the Mischievous Elf picked at the golden fried rice, taking a bite now and then.

"You can leave after you finish eating."

The Mischievous Elf choked on his food at that sentence.

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..."

He frantically pounded his chest, then grabbed the cup of water and guzzled down a few mouthfuls.

"I... I haven’t paid you back for the Gold Coins yet..."

"Obviously! Of course you’re going to pay me back for the Gold Coins before you leave!"

Qin Xiaoxia shot him an annoyed glare, then continued his pretense of sweeping.

Over this period, Qin Xiaoxia had seen the Mischievous Elf’s way of eating many times via the surveillance camera.

Normally, his eating speed was about three times that of Qin Xiaoxia.

But now, even though Qin Xiaoxia had already untied him, he’d been eating the golden fried rice from the takeout box for over ten minutes and still hadn’t even finished half of it.

The little guy was fidgeting, taking tiny bites with his spoon and occasionally stealing glances at Qin Xiaoxia.

The Mischievous Elf, Ma Gulu, was feeling extremely anxious.

When he came to this world, he had been nearly killed in that illusory-yet-real "World Isolation Zone," blocked by the Power of the World.

His constitution was nothing like those monsters.

Thankfully, he could grant some mediocre wishes. The rules of a Wish seemed to be one of the rules least restricted by any world. As it happened, his own "weakness" had been a huge help, allowing him to "bluff" his way in.

After hiding in Qin Xiaoxia’s house for a while and feeling safe, his mischievous nature, combined with the temptation of delicious food, took over, leading to the scenes that had played out recently.

He had originally thought that the person who caught him was a detestable, evil villain, and at first, that had indeed seemed to be the case. But he never thought he would have been so wrong about him.

This big guy had only captured him to vent his anger and let him go once he’d calmed down. He verbally demanded compensation but didn’t take any precautions to stop him from escaping.

But that was just a minor issue. The biggest problem was this excessively dangerous world.

He had never seen creatures like humans before. There were no humans in Magson World. Even in the rumored other worlds he had heard about, he had only heard of some similar-looking beings, but they were all more or less different from humans.

These beings all had one thing in common: they liked to live in groups, form all kinds of "large societies," and enjoyed oppressing creatures weaker than themselves.

But the races he’d heard about before paled in comparison to the one in this world that called itself human!

This was one of the most intelligent races Ma Gulu had ever encountered—at the very least, their food was the best. But terrifyingly, they were also the most brutal sapient race he had ever seen, bar none.

Ma Gulu didn’t even dare to imagine what attitude a race so terrifying to its own kind would have towards an outsider.

And the words that guy had just said—like slicing, culturing, bloodletting, and carving up flesh—each one made his heart jump into his throat.

Although their spiritual link didn’t share memories or deep understanding, he could roughly grasp the consequences of being caught by scientists just from the literal meaning of the words and Qin Xiaoxia’s descriptions.

Not to mention how utterly shocking the footage from the restricted videos Qin Xiaoxia had found was.

The delicious fried rice before him suddenly seemed as tasteless as wax.

He just kept poking his spoon into the rice, turning the grains over and over.

"Um... My name is Ma Gulu."

"Oh, so you have a name. It certainly has a non-human ring to it... I’m Qin Xiaoxia. But since you’ve been sneaking around here for so long, you must have overheard my name already."

As if tired from his work, Qin Xiaoxia sat back down at the table, poured himself a glass of water, and drank it in one gulp.

When the little guy hesitantly took the initiative to speak, Qin Xiaoxia knew he was almost there.

Qin Xiaoxia put on the same kind of solemn look that Old Qin used to have when he was alive.

"Little guy, just say what’s on your mind. For the sake of the Gold Coins, I’ll help if I can. But I’ll say this upfront: you can’t stay here!"

"Why?"

In his anxiety, Ma Gulu blurted out the question with his mouth full, spraying grains of rice all over Qin Xiaoxia.

He quickly brushed the rice grains off his body with a look of disgust.

"Why? There are three reasons."

"First, I don’t know the first thing about you. To me, you’re a stranger."

"Second, all that trouble I was just talking about, especially those crazy scientists—if they found out you exist, they might just grab me for research too. I might not make it out alive!"

At this, Qin Xiaoxia gave a violent shudder.

"Third, and this is the most critical reason, I can’t afford you, little guy... What you’ve eaten these past few days costs more than my usual budget for half a month. I’m not rich enough to keep a ’prize pet’ yet."

’Letting go in order to catch... what a great saying. Zhuge Liang’s grasp of psychology must have been incredible!’

The Mischievous Elf was starting to look a little desperate now.

He didn’t even realize that the situation was no longer about him being captured by Qin Xiaoxia, but had reversed into him trying to stay and not being accepted by the master of the house.

"I... I’m a Saroba Elf! I can... I can grant a Wish..."

"Right. With only three Gold Coins left, a weak and unstable Wish Ability, and on top of that, you can’t even make new Gold Coins right now, can you?"

"The rules of this world are a bit different, and-and I don’t have the materials, right! I... I’ll definitely figure out a way to forge new Gold Coins!"

The Mischievous Elf was now so focused on how to stay that he even forgot about his half-assed invisibility ability; if he just stubbornly refused to leave, there might not be much Qin Xiaoxia could do.

Although Qin Xiaoxia wanted to hold his composure and tease the little guy a bit more, he was also afraid it might backfire. It was time to quit while he was ahead.

He pulled out some tissues, sighed, then shook his head and handed them to the Little Elf.

"Sigh! Wipe your face. Your snot is about to drip into the fried rice."

"My biggest weakness is that I’m just too soft-hearted~!"

The Mischievous Elf subconsciously took the tissues, still unable to wrap his head around Qin Xiaoxia’s words of profound compassion.

"Oh, and from now on, no randomly turning invisible and disappearing. You also have to help with the chores, got it?"

Qin Xiaoxia added.

Hearing this, the Mischievous Elf’s eyes instantly lit up.

"So, you’re saying I can stay?"

"You can stay for a while, on probation. If you keep causing trouble for me, I’ll kick you out!"

The little guy started nodding his head like he was pounding garlic, muttering nonstop, "Mhm, mhm, mhm..."

It was as if he had been granted an immense favor that moved him to his very core.