Chapter 426: Blood-Nosed Rat

Regarding his nickname "Blood-Nosed Rat," Jieli felt very contradictory.

On one hand, as a name others in the port called him, this nickname could not be called very majestic, and the source of it made him feel a bit ashamed even now.

The specific origin was a street fight three years ago, where he was punched in the nose by that robust Half-Orc on the opposite side, breaking his nose; he didn't even have time to stain the dagger he was clutching with blood before he fainted directly, and he wasn't woken up by his companions until the dispute was over.

Later, when he was taken to the tavern by his brothers to drink, the blood under his nose hadn't been wiped clean, and coupled with the fact that he had lost his parents since he was a child and grew up hungry in the alleys of the Saltwater District, basically never having eaten his fill, naturally being a head shorter than others when he grew up to adulthood, and his figure being much thinner, standing in the crowd like a rat, he was given the nickname "Blood-Nosed Rat" by a certain adventurer at the next table.

Originally, Jieli didn't take it to heart, just treating it as a joke by others; after all, his performance in that street fight was indeed clumsy.

But what he didn't expect was that none of the majestic titles he gave himself on weekdays were remembered by anyone, but this nickname that made him embarrassed and ugly had been called until now.

But on the other hand, three years had passed, and he had to admit that it was precisely this vulgar and unbearable name that gave him some fame among the bottom-level thugs in the Saltwater District, and he even recruited three or two subordinates because of it.

Occasionally when drinking in the tavern, even a few adventurers recognized him and could call out his nickname "Blood-Nosed Rat."

This made Jieli couldn't help but feel complacent in his heart, as if as long as those big shots with excellent equipment called him that, he could sit on an equal footing with them, full of prestige, and even his head was raised higher when walking, as if he had also become a big shot roaming the ocean.

Of course, having grown up in the alleys of the Saltwater District since he was a child, he also figured out the latent rules of this place through stumbling:

——Little people like him were not qualified to take that kind of serious nickname that looked majestic at first glance.

They were basically dominated by names with obvious derogatory and discriminatory meanings like "Rat," "Bug," or "One-Eyed," "Lame," "Rotten Teeth."

Otherwise, if it were slightly positive, it would easily cause trouble.

And if one didn't have sufficient strength, taking this kind of nickname was even more of a dead end.

After all, if you took something like "Saltwater District White Shark" or "Tiger of the Pier," the "One-Eyed" and "Mute" in the tavern would hear it, and they might have to come over to "greet" you to see what was going on with you and why you were a head higher than others just by your nickname.

In this situation, his nickname "Blood-Nosed Rat" was just right, not too high-profile, and clearly distinguished from the "Wry-Mouthed" and "Squint-Eyed" at the wine table.

It even carried a "Blood" character, looking quite imposing at first glance.

To this day, except for feeling embarrassed about the source of this nickname, the other parts were completely satisfactory.

Jieli was a local of Shoal Bay.

His dream when he was a child was to be able to eat his fill every day, and it would be best to eat a plate of fried eggs every week—he had seen adults eat it at the door of a certain restaurant, and the rich fragrance emitted by the oil burning at high temperature was enough to become a sweet dream that a hungry child couldn't forget for countless nights;

Later, when he grew up a bit, he, who was mixing on the streets, hoped that he could become those majestic gang leaders, walking on the street casually on weekdays with dozens of little brothers behind him, and no one would dare to look down on him again.

Even today, his dreams remained the same.

It was just that compared to before, years of street experience made him much more pragmatic.

At least he no longer fantasized about suddenly becoming a big shot whose name resounded throughout Shoal Bay, but intended to start from the bottom and climb up slowly step by step.

Today, Jieli took a solid step toward his beautiful future in his dreams.

Even though he didn't participate directly like in the past, just standing by and helping to keep watch, he got the promise of that friend who had some dealings before and was doing quite well now.

Once this trip was completely over, he would end his years of wandering on the streets and become an official member of the "Horned Shark Gang."

Jieli was very excited and had even started to fantasize about his gang career that was about to begin.

He also couldn't help but want to do something for the Horned Shark Gang to increase his sense of presence.

At the moment, having just finished the action, although he didn't know what the big shots in the gang had done, after separating from the main force, he consciously took on the "protection money" collection work for the gang this month.

"Damn it, opening in this kind of corner, what kind of customers can there be on weekdays?"

"If it weren't for the fact that I grew up in the alleys since I was a child, I'm afraid ordinary people would only get lost to get to this ghost place!"

Turning his head and spitting into a sewage puddle on the ground beside him, Jieli showed disdain, pretending to complain roughly.

Seeing the two little brothers behind him who were much taller than him fawning and echoing, he couldn't help but show a satisfied smile on his face.

Swinging his arms back and forth significantly on both sides of his body, he deliberately showed an arrogant appearance of being sloppy and swaying while walking.

Waiting until he arrived in front of the shop door of the "Salmon Roe" grocery store, he paused slightly, thinking about giving the shopkeeper a blow to his spirit.

Jieli wrinkled his eyebrows inward hard, tightened his expression, brewed his emotions in his heart, and then...

Lifted his foot and kicked the shop door hard!

"Bang!"

Ding-a-ling—

The tightly closed wooden door was kicked open violently, and the loud noise made by the collision between the boot sole and the shop door surface, mixed with the shrill sound of the doorbell shaking violently, suddenly exploded in the air.

"Who is it!? Give me..."

The words had only just been spoken halfway, and for some reason, just like the cold wind blowing from behind when getting up at night, Jieli shivered inexplicably; the draft he had already prepared hadn't had time to be spoken yet, and it was frozen in his throat.

Even the body that had kicked the door and entered staggered twice, almost falling.

"Cough, cough..."

Coughing twice deliberately as if to cover up his embarrassment.

Jieli held onto the door frame, his peripheral vision subconsciously glancing at the faces of the two little brothers who had fallen half a body position behind him, and seeing that they didn't seem to have any special reaction, he felt slightly relieved.

Then he shifted his attention to the grocery store in front of him.

There were three people in total.

Two standing inside the counter, one old and one young, their features looked somewhat similar, and they should be the shopkeeper of this grocery store and his junior.

And that one standing outside the counter...

"Yo, this ghost place actually has someone who doesn't have eyes to come and buy things; hey! That, that little, little boy over there, be sensible and hurry up..."

The pretending-to-be-fierce shouting became lighter and lighter, and by the end, it was stuttering and stuck.

One could see Jieli's pupils trembling slightly, revealing the violent fluctuation of his inner emotions, and even the muscles on his face trembled with it, giving people a stiff and stunned feeling.

Not good!

Jieli was an orphan, and although the road was bumpy, having grown up alone in a place like Shoal Bay, let alone anything else, just his eye power was already beyond the vast majority of ordinary residents.

The black-haired youth standing outside the counter in front of him was most likely an adventurer, and the condensed aura he exuded... he had only seen it a few times in the tavern.

At that time, even those few familiar adventurers whom he usually thought were big shots and could crush him to death with a casual move were subconsciously silent and didn't dare to say much when facing figures who exuded the same condensed aura. ===== CHAPTER 427 =====