In Qin Xiaoxia’s view, the creature looked and acted like a child, so he decided to start with a method for dealing with children.

"Ahem. I know it’s pointless for us to talk to each other right now, but sometimes, you don’t need words to communicate."

With that, Qin Xiaoxia opened his tablet, tapped on a video app, and secretly cranked the volume to maximum.

The video he searched for was titled, *Terrifying! For Kids, Getting a Shot Is Like Purgatory-Level Torture!*

Although the little thief couldn’t move, his eyes were clearly drawn to the screen. He had no idea what the guy who’d used such despicable means to capture him was planning.

Suddenly, a sharp scream erupted from the video.

"AHHHH! I DON’T WANT A SHOT! AHHH! WAAAAH! AHHHHHHHH!"

"Hold him down, hold him down... Stop crying!"

"Sweetie, it doesn’t hurt at all... You, hold his legs!"

"AHHHHHHH... I DON’T WANT A SHOT! AHHHHHH..."

The screams, mixed with the frantic voices of the doctor and parents, made the little thief on the table jump.

Even though he couldn’t understand the words, the fear and pain in the child’s voice were palpable.

The child in the video looked to be about four or five years old, roughly the same size as the little thief.

A person in a white coat, holding a strange container tipped with a sharp piece of metal, advanced on the child step by step.

At this, the child’s wails became particularly tragic, a malicious assault on the eardrums.

The syringe was filled with some unknown liquid, and it definitely didn’t look like a good thing.

"AHHHH!"

With his parents’ help, the child in the video finally received the shot, his crying and screaming having reached the point of soundless, dry heaves.

The sight made the little thief’s scalp crawl.

At that point, the video, just over a minute long, came to an abrupt end, leaving the little thief deeply shaken.

"Heh heh."

A rather creepy laugh came from beside him.

The little thief instinctively turned his head, and in an instant, his entire body went rigid.

Qin Xiaoxia had already opened a first-aid kit and was nonchalantly taking out a disposable syringe to draw liquid from a small bottle of plain water.

By the time he held the syringe up in front of the little thief, the latter was already babbling incoherently, his tough facade crumbling completely.

The little guy was terrified.

’The people of this world actually keep such terrifying torture devices in their homes!’

Watching Qin Xiaoxia advance on him, he knew he had absolutely no way to resist. He also understood that they didn’t speak the same language; even if he begged for mercy, the man wouldn’t understand.

Holding the syringe, Qin Xiaoxia looked at the little fellow huddled on the table and felt he had achieved his goal of intimidation.

’It worked in one go? That’s a bit anticlimactic~’

He took the Gold Coin out of his pocket with his left hand, doing his best to adopt an amiable expression, while deliberately brandishing the syringe in his right.

"You got any more of these?"

The little thief on the table looked from the Gold Coin to the syringe, seemed to understand, and nodded his head like a pile driver.

"Very good!"

"See? We can communicate after all! It would be even better if we could actually understand each other."

’Now, how do I get him to hand over the Gold Coins? Not being able to talk is so inconvenient.’

As he was pondering this, he suddenly heard a series of rapid tones.

Qin Xiaoxia quickly noticed that after the Gold Coin appeared, the little thief on the table was staring straight at it, saying something at a very rapid pace.

"What are you doing?"

Qin Xiaoxia instinctively tried to stop this unpredictable development, but things unfolded faster than he had anticipated.

Before he could slap the tape back over the little thief’s mouth, an emphatic phrase echoed in his eardrums and in his very soul.

Strangely, even though it was still the same language, this time he could understand its meaning.

"Imodo, Fa-sa-lu-lu-man (Wish, Spiritual Connection)!"

GULP!

Qin Xiaoxia felt a tremor start in his heart and spread throughout his body, as if it had originated from the depths of his soul.

Amidst a faint ringing in his ears, the light before his eyes seemed to blur for a moment, then rapidly sharpened into focus again.

No, it wasn’t a return to normal. His vision had become even clearer.

Although Qin Xiaoxia didn’t wear glasses, he was slightly nearsighted, with a prescription of almost one or two hundred degrees, but it never really affected him.

But now, everything before his eyes was preternaturally clear, like swapping a matte screen protector for a high-definition one.

"You little thief, what did you do?"

Qin Xiaoxia instinctively asked the little thief on the table.

"I’m not a little thief! I’m a Saroba Elf, you bumpkin from the Otherworld! I just used a Wish to create a spiritual connection between us!"

He hadn’t expected the little thief to answer, but the little guy suddenly spouted perfect Mandarin!

Qin Xiaoxia was stunned.

"That feeling just now... was that the so-called ’Spiritual Connection’? A Saroba Elf? Saroba? A Mischievous Elf? Wait! How do I know that Saroba means Mischievous Elf...?"

"Of course it’s because of the Spiritual Connection! That’s how you know! Your Visual Sense and Perception Ability are on my level now. And, of course, you know the languages I know, and I can understand the languages you know!"

The Mischievous Elf explained this to Qin Xiaoxia in a preachy tone, but since he was still bound in chains and ropes, the scene was rather comical.

"It’s that convenient?"

In his disbelief, Qin Xiaoxia’s mind snagged on the word "Wish," and he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

The Gold Coin in his left hand was gone.

"What happened to my Gold Coin? Don’t tell me you used it for your Wish?"

"..."

’Holy crap, I knew it!’

"You used my Gold Coin without even asking my permission?"

As he spoke, Qin Xiaoxia brandished his syringe.

The Little Elf visibly flinched. It seemed the Spiritual Connection, while elevating their perception and language abilities, didn’t grant a complete, mutual understanding of each other’s knowledge.

At least, while Qin Xiaoxia had gained the corresponding language abilities, he still knew nothing else, such as the Little Elf’s origins. Then again, who knew if this "Spiritual Connection" was even a fair trade.

"You... You put that Poison Needle away! The Gold Coins... I have more Gold Coins! I’ll pay you back!"

Qin Xiaoxia pushed the plunger, squirting a thin stream of cool water from the tip of the syringe.

’So this little guy really did have more Gold Coins. I went out of my way to entertain him for days and buy him all that delicious food, and he couldn’t even give me a few more!’

But soon, another thought surfaced in his mind.

’Didn’t that little thief just mention a Wish?’

...

After a rather lengthy verbal back-and-forth.

"No means no! Stop having such wild fantasies!"

The Mischievous Elf squirmed on the table, shaking his head like a rattle.

"I already told you, a Wish isn’t as amazing as you think! My Wish Power hasn’t even recovered yet. But even if I could make a Wish right now, it can’t exceed the scope of my own abilities. Plus, the more people it affects, the weaker it gets. If it were really that powerful, don’t you think I would’ve just wished myself an escape route just now?"

"Er..."

Qin Xiaoxia froze.

’That makes sense! The little thief’s brain suddenly decided to start working!’

’I got fooled by the name "Wish." If it could really do anything he wanted, he could have just escaped. If he were a bit more evil, he could have even killed me.’

He gave a subtle shiver.

’I was too reckless this time,’ Qin Xiaoxia thought.

"Ahem! Alright then. You need those Gold Coins to make a Wish, right? How many more do you have?"

Qin Xiaoxia wasn’t in a hurry to figure out the details, like the cooldown on a Wish. The crucial thing right now was to get his hands on the Gold Coins—ideally, all of them, leaving the little thief with none.

The Mischievous Elf glanced at the syringe still in Qin Xiaoxia’s hand.

"I still have... three..."

"Only three? Then where do these Gold Coins come from?"

"I forge them! But ever since I came to this Otherworld, I haven’t been able to make any more..."

’There’s that word again, Otherworld.’

’This guy really isn’t a native species from Earth.’