Chapter 678

It's just that while he bought them, Kalpas didn't know how to give them, so he could only carry the bag until now.

"…………"

The corner of Kalpas's eye behind the mask twitched, and his fists clenched.

What he was least good at dealing with were people like Bai Ge and Elysia, who could easily see through others' thoughts. Of course, Aponia didn't count; that was the field he hated most.

If his relationship with Bai Ge was a blue line (trust), then his relationship with Aponia was an absolute red line (hatred).

"Hmph!"

Kalpas snorted and walked toward a trash can.

Bai Ge couldn't help but be stunned.

"Uh, Kalpas, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to throw these away."

"Ah, don't! Giving gifts to children isn't something shameful. Just hand them over with both hands, wouldn't that be fine?"

Bai Ge hurriedly grabbed the bag to prevent this guy, who couldn't handle being talked about, from really throwing the gifts away.

Because of managing the Elysia Sect, Bai Bai Bai Mouren was very stingy with money now and couldn't stand such wasteful behavior.

"Bai Ge, not everyone in this world is like you and Elysia (a social terrorist)." Kalpas's body stiffened. He turned his head to look at Bai Bai Bai Mouren and said indifferently.

"To be fair, I think there's still a gap between me and Elysia in the field of social anxiety. Besides, it's just giving a gift; normal people can do this, okay?"

Bai Ge was somewhat speechless. He felt that even if he were to give Elysia an engagement ring in the future, he wouldn't be this hesitant. Kalpas, your irritable tsundere persona is really troublesome.

"Also, don't stay so far away from everyone. People who don't know might think you're a stalker. Getting closer won't kill you. Kalpas, you clearly like children, don't you?"

"... Bai Ge, I'm different from you. There are some things I know I'm not qualified to possess."

Kalpas said, looking at the children not far away. His fists slowly tightened, but the flames in his heart calmed down.

The thing most deeply desired by this man, whose fighting style was like a violent beast and who seemed to be in a rage at every moment, was actually not endless, crazy war.

But something completely opposite to his style, something so simple that countless people would find it impossible to believe.

A home, nothing more.

And since it's a home, there must be family.

After the Herrscher of Ice killed everyone in the village Kalpas stayed in, although Kalpas gained liberation, he also lost his first 【home】, although in Bai Ge's view, that village didn't deserve to be called a 【home】 by Kalpas at all.

After that, Kalpas wandered for who knows how long before arriving at Dusk Street, where he found his second 【home】, and these nursing home children were also viewed by him as family.

Yet Kalpas felt he wasn't worthy.

"Bai Ge, do you think a guy who is always hysterical in his pursuit of battle is qualified to obtain peace? In reality, the people in the Moth of Fire only feel fear toward me."

"I don't."

"... You are a special guy."

Kalpas choked for a moment before saying.

"Then my Elysia, Aponia, Mobius, Vill-V, Prometheus, and Kevin, Su, Kosma—none of them are afraid of you either."

Bai Ge crossed his arms and smiled as he continued to list examples.

"…………"

Now Kalpas was completely speechless. How could this irritable guy who was only good at fighting win against Bai Ge in a war of words? It took him who knows how long to squeeze out a sentence.

"That's because you aren't weak."

Kalpas considered himself a crazy beast. Apart from strong people confident in their own strength and people with mental illnesses, no one would dare to approach him.

In reality, many warriors who had teamed up with Kalpas were scared to the point of trembling by his fighting posture.

Looking at those people's reactions, Kalpas knew he was a terrifying existence, and if someone like him approached the children, they would only feel afraid, right?

Thinking this, he glanced at the crowd in the distance again, and automatically filtered out Aponia.

Precisely because Kalpas cherished these nursing home children, he chose to stay away and not get close.

"Uh, didn't you misunderstand something?"

"Hmm? Bai Ge, what do you mean?"

"I'm saying, Kalpas, don't you really know that you're actually super popular?"

Bai Ge blinked and asked uncertainly.

"???"

At this moment, many question marks seemed to appear on Kalpas's head. He was silent for a moment before asking back.

"... Who did you say is popular?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yeah! You're super popular, Kalpas."

Bai Ge pointed at him with a look of certainty.

And the latter was completely dumbfounded at this moment.

Kalpas subconsciously thought Bai Ge was joking with him, but looking at the white-haired youth's incredibly serious and firm expression, he couldn't voice any doubts for a moment.

"Let me ask one thing first: Kalpas, do you use the internet?"

Bai Ge asked tentatively.

"No, too lazy to learn."

Kalpas said righteously.

He never surfed the internet; at most, he would operate a mission terminal. In the eyes of this irritable guy, the internet was just too messy.

In the past, Kalpas accidentally clicked on some trash website. After seeing some indescribable advertisements and videos, he swore he would never go on the internet again in his life.

After all, the internet—in this vast and chaotic data world, people can ignore distance and hide their identities to communicate. Socially anxious people in the real world might be social butterflies in the internet world; most people like to act crazy online.

In short, Kalpas was not suited for survival on the human internet; the risk of him being angered to death was extremely high.

But as the main means of human information transmission, if you don't use it, even if you don't live in the deep mountains and old forests, it's about the same as being isolated from the world.

Therefore, Kalpas didn't know many things.

For example...

"Here, take a look for yourself. This is your fan website. The number of registered users has already exceeded 20 million."

Bai Ge said, displaying a certain website. On it were Kalpas's photos, information, some experiences, and who knows how many comments from people.

"What, what the hell is this?!"

Kalpas snatched Bai Ge's phone and looked at it carefully.

"Earlier, Elysia proposed to disclose information about us Flame-Chasers to the outside world. Didn't you agree to it back then, Kalpas? Afterward, we uploaded a few combat video records for you. The response was quite good. A masked irritable berserker or something—it instantly got you a lot of fans."

Bai Ge said, clicking on a few videos to show Kalpas.

Although the visuals were a bit bloody and violent, it had to be said that Kalpas's fighting was pure violent aesthetics. Paired with a high-energy BGM, it was simply enough to make people's blood boil.

"And many people want to find you for endorsements. Look, for example, this jeans brand merchant. They even sent an endorsement request to our base back then. You probably didn't even know, right?.... "

"I, know the hell I do!"

Kalpas said, gritting his teeth.

He really had no impression of it at all. Perhaps someone had asked him for permission back then, but he never cared about these things, so it was very likely he had just agreed casually.

At this moment, the eyes behind Kalpas's mask stared fixedly at the comments in his comment section. Unlike the fear he had imagined, almost all the comments were praise and cheers for him.

"Kalpas is a real man! That fight was so satisfying!"

"Although I'm a guy, I can!!"

"Ah! I want to see the face under his mask!"

"To think there is such violent aesthetics in the world, so cool!"

"Who has Kalpas's contact information? Our boss wants to talk to him about an endorsement partnership. Is the Moth of Fire watching? Please give us Kalpas's contact info!"

These comments had already left Kalpas stunned.

He never dreamed that the outside world's view of him would be the exact opposite of what he had imagined. These netizens weren't afraid of his flames and fists at all; instead, they were incredibly excited.

At this moment, Kalpas felt cracks appearing in his worldview. He was silent for a good while before squeezing out a sentence.

"Are these people mentally ill?"

"Normal. Netizens are all like this."

Bai Ge patted Kalpas comfortingly.

At the same time, he hurriedly took his phone back, because this guy had already pinched cracks into his screen.

"Now you know, Kalpas. You had a wrong perception of yourself. There might be many people in this world who fear you, but more people like you. Brother, be proud. You are a great hero fighting against Honkai."

"I, am a hero?" Kalpas's gaze was dull. He had never thought he could be worthy of this word.