Life Game In Other World
Chapter 429: Going Home (Big - for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 429: Chapter 429: Going Home (Big Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

As the blade pierced toward the man’s heart, He Ao grabbed a bath towel from the nearby shelf and threw it.

As the dagger pierced the flesh, the unfolding bath towel fell from the sky, covering the man’s body.

He Ao withdrew the dagger and slightly turned to the side.

The man holding the gun leaned forward, falling to the ground.

The bright red blood stained the gleaming floor.

"Dad!"

Anna stared blankly at He Ao’s face, then glanced at the man’s corpse on the ground.

From her perspective, most of the man’s body was covered by the white bath towel, with a bright red flower blooming at its center.

Everything had developed too quickly; she only saw the bath towel flying up, briefly blocking her view, and when the bath towel fell, the man threatening her father with a gun also fell.

"It’s okay."

He Ao smiled and shook his head at his daughter, taking a pack of facial tissue from a shelf, unwrapping it, pulling out several sheets, and slowly wiping the blood off the dagger—as well as the blood that had splattered on his face.

At this moment, the man who had been holding Ennie hostage behind her watched He Ao’s calm movements and, trembling, raised his hand and took a few steps back, leaning against a microwave oven against the wall, stammering out,

"I don’t know that guy well; we were just working together..."

Ennie hurriedly stepped forward, breaking free of the man’s grasp.

At the same time, she turned her head to look back and only then did she realize that the thug who had held her captive was the same man who had paid in cash just moments earlier.

The other party had been scouting the place, not preferring cash, but wanting to see how much money was in the cash register.

Taking advantage of the situation, she quickly broke free and moved beside He Ao,

"Dad, you..."

Ennie stared blankly at her father, suddenly feeling that the man she lived with every day was somewhat unfamiliar to her.

Then it dawned on her that she hadn’t talked with her father in a long time and knew nothing about many things concerning him.

He Ao cut the tag off the bath towel with the dagger, then bunched up the pack of tissues he had used and placed it on the cash register, "Check this out for me, I have a membership at your convenience store,"

At this, he paused suddenly, speaking with some constraint, "Uh, have you had dinner? How about I buy you a boxed meal?"

Pete was not good at communicating with his daughter.

"I’ve eaten, the company provides dinner,"

Looking at her father’s somewhat haggard and constrained appearance, Ennie felt a mix of emotions. The tiny bit of estrangement she had felt just a moment ago dissipated with the wind. Subconsciously, she picked up the items on the cash register and began to scan and check them out.

The cash register was a movable, rotating touchscreen, operational from outside the counter as well, albeit a bit more cumbersome.

"How long have you been working here?"

He Ao glanced around the environment.

"A month now, five hours a day," Ennie paused while checking out, then said softly, "This is the only time I’m free after school, so I can only work during this shift."

The man who had surrendered watched the father and daughter catching up, hands raised, not daring to move.

He noticed that He Ao’s gaze would unintentionally fall on him, and he had no doubt that if he made any sudden moves, he would be lying on the ground next, alongside his accomplice.

"A month..."

He Ao’s gaze quickly moved away from the man as he murmured softly.

In a month’s time, Pete had not realized that his daughter had been secretly working outside.

He sighed softly, "You knew?"

"Yes,"

Ennie, who was calculating the amount, stopped for a moment, then slowly nodded, "Actually, I can earn money too. I make 9.5 federal coins an hour here, which is two hundred eighty-five federal coins a week, Dad..."

Ennie opened her mouth but didn’t continue.

Pete was a man with strong self-esteem, who had risen from a poor community, earning scholarships all the way to a prestigious university and spent many years as an executive in a corporation, middle-class with a considerable income.

He had his own sense of honor.

He Ao didn’t say anything, but instead took out the half-finished pack of cigarettes from his bosom and flipped out one.

He then glanced at his daughter beside him and stuffed the cigarette back into the pack.

A brief silence fell between the two.

Ennie glanced at the body covered with a bath towel on the floor, wanting to ask something, but dared not.

——An hour later——

The manager of the convenience store and the police from Limen City had all rushed over.

Robbery used to be a serious matter, but with the continuous increase in the crime rate, it did not count as a particularly big event nowadays.

The police were not particularly quick to arrive; it was nearly several tens of minutes after the manager came that they finally showed up.

The entire investigative process also went swiftly; with surveillance footage and a living witness (the other robber), just a simple inquiry was needed to reconstruct the incident.

If this had happened two or three years ago, even if He Ao had been acting out of a proven sense of justice and in self-defense, he would have inevitably been taken to the nearest police station for questioning.

But not anymore.

As the homeless population grew and the crime rate soared, Limen City’s prisons and detention centers were full to the brim and the city government’s limited manpower was nearing its breaking point.

The speed at which the police arrived at the convenience store was already fast compared to other places; in the outskirts’ poor districts, nobody would come at all.

The reason the police arrived so quickly here was that nearby were commercial office buildings and apartments where the wealthy lived, contributing the main source of tax revenue and being a key protected group for the city government, so police resources were relatively plentiful.

Under such pressure, police tended to deal with cases in a more abbreviated manner.

A robber being killed in a counterattack, with both eyewitness and material evidence, was considered not guilty under the laws of Limen City.

In fact, a similar case had occurred not so long ago in Limen City and had made the news; a robber was shot to death by the boss in self-defense, and the police deemed the boss’s action as legitimate self-defense, dropping charges against him.

And in the end, as He Ao had expected, after a brief inquiry about the incident, and having monitored the evidence, the police officer who arrived called to consult with his superiors.

After the superiors made a decision, the officer commended He Ao for his act of bravery and after getting He Ao’s contact information, he let He Ao and Ennie leave.

Meanwhile, the convenience store manager comforted Ennie on the spot and then mentioned that he would apply for a compensation prize for Ennie, and let her off work.

By the time everything was wrapped up, it was already close to 2 a.m.

He Ao hailed a taxi and took his daughter home.

The journey was somewhat silent, just like the silence Pete once had at home with his daughter.

As they reached the bottom of the building, Ennie received a text message.

"From the manager?"

He Ao pressed the elevator button and casually asked.

At this hour, aside from a boyfriend, the only one who would send messages to his daughter might be those involved in the recent incident.

Ennie probably didn’t have a boyfriend.

"Mhm."

Ennie nodded her head slightly and glanced at He Ao, "The manager has applied for a consolation prize of a thousand federal coins for me, and asked if I could change my shift, he thinks working the night shift is too dangerous for me..."

Her voice trailed off for a moment, "But I’ve already told him before that this is the only time I can work..."

"Quit the job,"

He Ao took a cigarette, put it in his mouth, but didn’t light it. The elevator doors slowly opened and he walked in first, "He’s implying for you to resign."

"But the manager has always taken good care of me."

Ennie opened her mouth, wanting to contradict her father’s assertion.

"Does he know about your situation? Know why you can’t adjust your work hours?"

He Ao calmly asked.

"I know..."

Ennie paused for a moment and nodded.

"He knows you can’t adjust the time at all, he’s just trying to encourage you to resign by increasing the difficulty of the job. You could send a resignation message to test the waters, see if he’ll try to keep you,"

He Ao sighed, "It’s really too dangerous for you to be on duty alone at that time of the night. If you don’t resign on your own, in a couple of days he won’t schedule you anymore, until he finally fires you outright."

This time, Ennie did not retort. Her father did have a point.

She paused for a bit and sent a resignation message to the manager.

The response came almost instantly. The manager began by expressing many words of regret for the shock she had suffered and said he would try to secure a larger consolation bonus for her.

Then, he accepted her resignation request.

Looking at this result, Ennie didn’t know what to say for a moment.

She knew the manager was actually concerned about her safety. Of course, he was also worried that if something happened to her, it would cause trouble for the store.

"But..." Ennie leaned against the innermost wall of the elevator and slowly squatted down, "I finally found this job."

She glanced at He Ao, then lowered her head, "Dad, maybe I should go to a public high school. There’s more free time there, and the fees are lower too."

Attending a public high school would basically mean giving up on the dream of a good university.

Ennie’s grades were no worse than Pete’s had been back then.

He Ao knew what his daughter was worried about; in the end, it all came down to money.

His daughter wanted to work hard to earn money, to help with the household expenses and lighten her father’s burden.

If she really went to a public high school, she likely wouldn’t continue to university. Instead, she’d start working right after high school graduation to earn money.

Given the current job market pressure in Limen City, the salary she could expect wouldn’t be high, and she’d end up barely getting by—then living a life perhaps even worse than Pete’s parents had.

One illness would be enough to wipe out all their savings.

"You focus on your studies, don’t worry about money. A friend of mine introduced me to a job today."

He Ao squatted down too, to look at his daughter eye-to-eye.

"Dad, you found a job?"

A glint of surprise flashed in Ennie’s eyes, but it quickly dimmed a little.

Having looked for a job for a long time herself, she understood the difficulty of finding work, and she knew the salary at her father’s new job wouldn’t be that high, or else he would have found it sooner.

But to let her father feel supported and happy, she still maintained a joyful expression on her face.

"It’s not permanent, just temp work. I only did a few hours, but it should be enough for our living expenses for a while,"

He Ao said slowly.

"Ah."

Ennie was momentarily taken aback.

How much could a temp job possibly pay?

She thought for a bit, "Dad, how much did you earn this time? Our mortgage is due, isn’t it? I saved a thousand federal coins this month..."

"Not much, just 150,000,"

He Ao said calmly.

The elevator arrived, and the doors slowly opened.

"What?!"

The young girl, who had been conversing, widened her eyes, "That much?"

Then she exclaimed in disbelief, "Dad, you’re that amazing?"

150,000 was more than 15,000 hours of wages for her. At thirty hours a week, it would take her more than 500 weeks—ten years—to earn that much money.

"Hmm?"

He Ao glanced at his daughter and reached out to ruffle her hair, laughing, "You know your dad has always been capable."

"Rubbing my head can turn someone into a fool."

Ennie shrank back and reached out to grasp He Ao’s hand.

"Hahaha."

He Ao drew his hand back and got up, walking out of the elevator.

Ennie tidied up her hair that had been messed up and followed her father out of the elevator.

Although her father’s figure remained somewhat hunched and haggard, his footsteps seemed much lighter now.

It had been a long time since she had seen him walk with such confidence and ease.

And it had been a long time since she had seen her father smile.

It was as if the dark clouds in the sky were gradually dispersing and the sunlight was shining upon the earth.

Ennie wore a smile and hurried to catch up with her father.

"Dad, how are you so amazing? You just took that guy down with a swipe."

"Parents always have some secrets they keep from their children. Just like if it’s not the final showdown, how do you know you’re not a rich second-generation heir hidden for years?"

"What? Dad, am I a rich second-gen?"

"No."

"¿"

The two were conversing as they arrived at their apartment door.

Approaching the door, He Ao didn’t rush to open it. Instead, he glanced at Ennie’s reinvigorated cheeks and asked softly, "Are you scared?"

Ennie knew her father was asking about her feelings on seeing the corpse.

The Federation didn’t have strict network controls, and Ennie had accidentally seen some restricted images through various channels.

But the fleeting videos and the feeling of being there at the scene were different.

Although He Ao used a towel to shield her view, preventing her from witnessing the key violent act and covering the body’s wounds with it, the blood pooling on the floor and the corpse’s pale face still greatly shocked her, a child who had grown up well-behaved.

But she knew her father was doing it to save her, and that if he hadn’t arrived today, she would have been the one lying there tonight.

And her fate would have been much worse than that of the man.

The most important thing was that the person who stood in front of her, committing the act, was her father. His presence gave her a sense of security.

So, although she was a bit scared, she adjusted quickly.

"It was kind of scary, but not that terrifying."

She looked up and smiled at He Ao.

Then she saw He Ao’s hand motion, signaling her to stand behind him.

Her expression became stern; she didn’t know what was happening, but she obediently changed positions. While doing so, she was noticeably nervous.

But sudden silence at that moment would have felt notably odd.

Just as He Ao was about to speak, he heard his daughter ask with a slightly nervous voice, "Dad, you’re so capable. Could your part-time job possibly be..."

"What are you thinking of."

He Ao chuckled and lightly tapped her on the head, his other hand on the doorknob, "Your dad only does things that are lawful and by the book. Most of that money is compensation for emotional distress."

The delicate doorknob was slowly turned.