Chapter 1458
Dinosaur Man: I'm Crying with Fear!
The dinosaur people have been integrating into the human population quite quickly recently.
I don't know if it's because they were originally Earth creatures, but now everyone is used to the presence of dinosaur-like people around them.
You can even see a dinosaur-like man arguing with an old lady while buying groceries!
The market was bustling with activity in the early morning, filled with the sounds of bargaining. Adam, a dinosaur-like man, stood in front of a pork stall, his enormous claws gripping a piece of pork belly, his eyes gleaming with a discerning eye.
"This meat isn't fresh!" Adam's voice was gruff, his tail swishing impatiently. "It's all white! Leftovers from yesterday, right!"
The woman selling meat was a plump woman in her fifties, her apron stained with oil, carrying a cleaver, and her eyes were even fiercer than Adam's.
"You don't know anything! This was just slaughtered this morning! It's white because it's fat! Fat is the best! Don't you dinosaur people love to eat fat?!"
"We prefer meat that's alive and kicking!" Adam slammed the meat down on the cutting board, his paw nearly cracking the wood. "This meat's stiff! I need a different piece!"
"Change what?! This is it! Take it or leave it!"
"I don't want to buy it! Give me my money back!"
"What refund?! It hasn't even been weighed yet!"
"Then don't weigh it! I won't buy it!"
"Why are you touching it if you're not buying? How can we sell it if you get it dirty!"
The two argued heatedly, their faces flushed. Adam's tail swished loudly, sweeping the vegetable baskets beside him across the floor. The old woman's cleaver pounded loudly on the cutting board, splattering bits of meat.
The human customers around them calmly picked out their vegetables, occasionally glancing up before continuing to choose tomatoes.
"It's the dinosaur man arguing with Aunt Wang again."
"I'm used to it. Just last week, a dinosaur-like man got into a fight with a fishmonger over whether a ribbonfish was fresh."
Who won in the end?
"It's a fishmonger. That dinosaur-man got slapped in the face by a ribbonfish and didn't even fight back."
"What?"
"The fishmonger said he wouldn't sell to him if he fought back, but he had been craving that ribbonfish for three days."
The dinosaur-men don't consider themselves any kind of overlords. They just feel great that they can live a normal life now and don't have to worry about being shown off as snacks by monsters!
Adam eventually bought the pork belly, muttering as he walked away, "Humans are so stingy, they won't even trade it for a piece of meat..."
Yi Wu, who was following beside him, rolled her eyes and held her tail high: "You're too picky. When we were underground, where would we get meat? We ate ore all the time."
"No ore smells as good as meat!" Adam held the pork belly to his nose and sniffed. Although dinosaurs' sense of smell was different from humans', he just thought it smelled delicious. "Now we can eat meat, go shopping, argue, and even..."
He paused, scratched the back of his head with his huge paws, and a glint of happiness flashed in his eyes.
"I don't have to worry about monsters showing off their snacks anymore!"
Yiwu laughed too, her tail wagging like a metronome: "Yeah, back in the underground, monsters would come along all the time, swallowing us whole, and we couldn't even run away fast enough. Now it's much better, we have TPC, Ultraman, and Storm One..."
"And humans!" Adam suddenly stopped, his massive body casting a shadow at the market entrance. He opened his arms as if to embrace the entire city. "I love humans!"
His voice was too loud, too clear, and too sudden.
The entire market was silent for three seconds.
Then--
"Are you crazy, you dinosaur man?!" The vegetable vendor didn't even look up.
"What are you shouting for so early in the morning!" The fishmonger shook the water off his hands.
"You're blocking my sun!" An old man sat in a recliner, squinting.
Adam remained frozen in the embracing posture, blinked, then slowly lowered his paws and awkwardly scratched his head.
"...Humans are so indifferent."
“You’re too noisy.” Yi Wu grabbed his paw and dragged him to the side. “Hurry up, or Aunt Wang will come out and scold you again.” “But I really love humans…” Adam walked away while looking back, his voice as aggrieved as a large, abandoned dog. “They sell me meat, they sell me vegetables, and they even argue with me…”
"Is this love?"
“This is love!” Adam nodded earnestly, his tail wagging high. “Back underground, who argued with me? Monsters just ate me. Now, someone is willing to argue with me—that’s equality! That’s respect! That’s—”
“Love,” Yi Wu replied, a smile curving her lips. “Alright, I know, you love humans. But could you please whisper your love a little quieter?”
"……Oh."
Adam lowered his head, his huge claws gripping the piece of pork belly as if it were some precious treasure.
The two continued walking and passed a candy stand. Adam suddenly stopped, staring at the colorful candies with his eyes shining.
"what is that?"
"sugar."
Is it sweet?
"sweet."
"I want to eat."
"purchase."
Adam pulled out his wallet—his salary card from TPC—and awkwardly swiped it. Then, clutching a large bag of candy, he wagged his tail wildly like a large dog that had just received a new toy.
"Humans are so kind!" he wanted to shout again, but seeing Yi Wu's warning look, he quickly lowered his voice, "...Humans are so kind."
Yi Wu rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth curved into a smile.
Yes, humans are wonderful.
You can argue, you can buy groceries, you can buy candy, and you don't have to worry about being shown off as a snack by monsters anymore.
This is the greatest happiness for the dinosaur people now.
Simple, direct, and effective.
And it's a little sweet.
But all of this is contingent on Choi Myung not standing behind the two of them with a long face.
Adam was holding the bag of candy, wagging his tail wildly with delight, muttering, "Humans are so nice." Iwu rolled her eyes beside him, but a smile played on her lips.
Then Adam suddenly felt a chill.
A chill ran from the base of his tail straight to the top of his head, as if he had been targeted by some ancient ferocious beast. His tail instantly stiffened, and the scales stood up in a whooshing sound, like a bursting dandelion.
Adam slowly turned his head.
Choi Myung-jung stood behind him, hands in his pockets, a scarf covering half his face, his gaze as indifferent as if he were looking at two stones. Behind him followed Asuka and Rei Ayanami, the two girls carrying shopping bags, curiously examining the enormous dinosaur-man.
“Mr. Cui… Mr. Cui…” Adam’s voice trembled, his grip loosened, and the candy bag almost fell to the ground. “You… what are you doing here?”
Cui Ming looked at what he was holding.
A bag of osmanthus cake, a bottle of oolong tea, and a packet of strawberry-flavored candy for Asuka. He shook the bag, his voice flat: "Bringing someone to buy things."
Asuka peeked out from behind Choi Myung, her blonde twin tails shimmering in the sunlight, her blue eyes sparkling with laughter that stretched to her teeth: "Adam! Ima! You guys are shopping too! Choi Myung is off today, so he brought us out to buy things!"
She held up the bag in her hand, which was filled with all sorts of snacks and clothes, like a hamster hoarding its stock. She wore her signature red coat, the hem of which swayed gently with her movements, making her look like a burning flame.
Rei Ayanami stood to the side, her short blue hair falling to her ears, her red eyes calm and expressionless. She held a cup of milk tea in her hand and nodded expressionlessly: "Yeah, on vacation."
She was wearing a white dress and stood there like a delicate porcelain doll, even her blinking was a beat slower than normal.
Cui Ming's sullen expression vanished, replaced by a rare smile that curved his lips. The smile appeared exceptionally gentle in the sunlight, provided one ignored the ever-present, vengeful glint in his eyes. (End of Chapter)