Hana had to get back soon. She glared fiercely at Gu Yuqi’s figure on the video screen. Otherwise, the pests buzzing around Sheng-chan would only multiply!
Meanwhile, on Liang Sheng’s end, she was deep in discussion with Akino Kazuko.
“Kazuko,” she said, “does this Favorability System of yours cap out at 200?”
Akino Kazuko shook her head and spread her hands. “I’m not entirely sure. You’re the best host I’ve ever had. The previous one also hit over 200, but she still ended up dead. Of course, she… well, she was you.”
“Cut the nonsense and get to the point,” Liang Sheng reminded her, noting how the conversation had veered off track.
Akino Kazuko continued, “Your previous incarnation didn’t rack up Favorability as high as you have, but a few girls did get over 100 with you, and the permissions still reached past 200.”
“Mm~ Not bad at all,” Liang Sheng said, stroking her chin with satisfaction as she nodded.
But something felt off. She wasn’t the original Liang Sheng, was she? That meant the previous soul in this body had some real skills~
“Go on,” she urged. “What about the one before that?”
Akino Kazuko opened her mouth to speak, only to suddenly double over, clutching her chest in agony.
“Kazuko?” Liang Sheng quickly pulled her own System into her arms.
Just like that, Akino Kazuko fainted in her host’s embrace.
Who had been the host two cycles ago? The moment Liang Sheng asked about the one before last, Akino Kazuko instinctively began to recall. But she couldn’t catch her breath.
Who? Who was it? In a hazy blur, Akino Kazuko glimpsed a familiar silhouette.
“Kazuko, next time… you have to pick me again…”
That familiar voice, those labored gasps, the blood pooling on the floor.
“Hah!” Akino Kazuko’s body suddenly convulsed violently in Liang Sheng’s arms.
“Kazuko? Kazuko! Don’t scare me like this!” Liang Sheng panicked and began pinching her System’s philtrum to revive her.
“You… who are you?” Akino Kazuko felt the agony of disintegration once more. She struggled to ask this familiar girl who she was.
With great effort, she blinked, but her vision remained a blur of crimson.
The scene shifted.
Akino Kazuko sat on a bench, with a white-dressed Liang Sheng beside her.
“Thank you,” that Liang Sheng said with a serene smile, like moonlight on a quiet night. “This time, I won’t let you down. For my sake, for yours, and for all the girls trapped here.”
Ah… Akino Kazuko’s eyes widened.
A metallic tang of blood wafted in, and her vision flooded red once more.
“He… Zi… please…” came a rasping voice.
This time, Akino Kazuko’s sight finally cleared.
The girl lying in a pool of blood had disheveled green curls, and wounds multiplying across her body. She was enduring the punishment for a failed conquest.
“Liang Sheng?!” Akino Kazuko gasped in a lungful of air and opened her eyes.
“Here!” Liang Sheng, already on the verge of tears and puckering up to give her host mouth-to-mouth, jolted at the sudden shout.
“You’re awake! You scared me to death, waaah…” Tears streamed down Liang Sheng’s face as she enveloped her System in a massive bear hug.
Akino Kazuko let out a choked “hic,” her already labored breathing nearly cut off by Liang Sheng’s death-grip embrace. “Stop! Let go first! Give me a second to breathe. There’s something important I need to tell you.”
She struggled to remember more.
A stabbing pain lanced through her head, but Akino Kazuko, desperate to uncover the truth of her past, ignored the throbbing agony and pushed on with her recollections.
“No way!” She seemed to hear her own voice.
“It’s happened twice already! One more time, and your soul will take damage!”
“If it gets damaged, what happens to me?”
“…Your soul won’t be whole anymore. I’ll have to find someone else.”
“No! No way! I don’t trust anyone else. Kazuko, please, just one more chance! Is there any other way to mend a soul?”
“Then… there’s only one method left.”
“What?”
“It’s…”
Akino Kazuko couldn’t recall any further. She was on the verge of passing out from the pain.
“Haaah~~” She let out a long sigh.
“Are you okay?” Liang Sheng pulled out a tissue to wipe the sweat from her System’s forehead.
Akino Kazuko dodged the tissue and waved her off. “No need. Give me a moment to sort my thoughts. There’s something really important I have to tell you.”
As Akino Kazuko caught her breath, a nagging voice echoed in the back of her mind: “Don’t tell her the truth.”
Why? Why? From the start, whenever Akino Kazuko tried to share what little truth she remembered with Liang Sheng, this voice would interrupt. She’d always assumed it was a warning.
But today, listening closely, she realized it was her own voice.
Should she say it? Would there be punishment? These questions swirled in Akino Kazuko’s head, leaving her torn.
She gritted her teeth. Better to tell her! Even if there was punishment, the worst was just a shock. She’d been disintegrated nearly twenty times—would she fear a little zap? She’d been shocked before anyway.
I, your father, am super brave, okay! Akino Kazuko took a deep breath.
“Listen, Liang Sheng,” she said, grasping her host’s hand. “What I’m about to say might completely shatter your worldview.”
Liang Sheng swallowed hard, tensing up. “Go ahead. I’ve been dying to know the truth about this world.”
“More precisely, it’s just one part of the truth about this world. Actually, maybe not even a full part—probably like one percent,” Akino Kazuko estimated.
She thought for another moment, deciding she could explain clearly, then began. “My host two cycles back? That was you too. I think I mentioned that before.”
“Yeah,” Liang Sheng nodded. “And?”
Akino Kazuko’s expression grew grave. “Your soul… it might already be incomplete.”
“Wh-what? What do you mean?” Liang Sheng’s face drained of color in an instant.
Akino Kazuko sighed. “Because your last attempt—and the one before that—both failed. You took the punishments. After the first failure, you begged me to pick you again next time, and I did. After the second, you begged once more, but I told you, ‘No more—your soul will shatter.’ And yet, here you are, still my host.”
“Y-you… y-you…” Liang Sheng began to stutter.
Akino Kazuko laughed in exasperation. “How can you hear something this serious and still look so smug? You’ve got some nerve!”
