Hearing that it had gone quiet outside, Chloe released Amber and tiptoed to the door, peeking out through the crack.
After watching for a while, she boldly pushed the door open, stepped out, and returned. She walked up to Amber, whose little face was streaked with tears, and said:
“It’s all over now.”
“Tell me… Ashley… Is Ashley okay?” Amber’s sobs grew louder as she covered her face with her little hands, too scared to look.
“You know better than anyone the consequences of taking the Undying Potion. She’s turned into a retarded loli now. She just goes ‘ah-ba ah-ba’ like a vegetable. Hmm… maybe she always was one.”
“I won’t allow you to talk about her like that! You can’t say that about her!”
Amber screamed and lunged at Chloe like a madwoman. She straddled her, grabbed her throat with both hands, and squeezed until Chloe’s eyes rolled back and her little tongue lolled out. Then she trembled and let go, collapsing limply to the side in exhaustion. She wailed loudly for a while until she had no strength left, her cries fading into soft whimpers.
“When I got there, there was still a spark of intelligence in her eyes, but it faded quickly. In her final moments, she said she didn’t want you to see her like that—as a retard. She wanted to leave the best version of herself in your heart: a sly little trickster, not a dumb loli like you.
“Waaah—!”
Amber clawed at the floor with her fingers, howling in agony.
“I swear on my conscience and professional integrity that I’ll report this exactly as it happened, without exaggeration.”
Chloe sighed, placed a hand on her chest, and spoke in a tone of reminiscence:
“Ashley Jenkins, though born into a criminal family, possessed a heart of gold. Unsullied by the mud around her, she yearned from childhood to uphold justice. When surrounded by vicious thugs, she bravely drank the Undying Potion in place of her friend, safeguarding her friend’s life and innocence. In that moment, she officially joined the glorious and eternal Undying Corps. All the vile slanders forced upon her by the world were washed away today. Her character shone far brighter and more upright than her malicious detractors…”
Hearing these words made Amber’s grief deepen. She wiped at her tears repeatedly with her little hands and choked out:
“Ashley… she’s a good person… I’ve always misunderstood her… But… why don’t I have a chance to apologize… Why did it have to be like this… I really want to apologize to her properly…”
—
[Fountain City – Blackfoot Workshop]
In the newly built plastisteel repair shop, the Demon Flower Mantis cadaver was hoisted up by the lift for maintenance.
Veronica had wriggled out from under Ashley—at least 100 pounds worth—and used the money to upgrade her tools and expand the workshop.
Inspecting a newly crafted cadaver with her new tools in the new workshop made Little Black Feet feel ecstatic.
Once the inspection was done, Veronica said: “Unlike that previous Great Raven, this cadaver’s extraordinary ability is fully formed. It’s equivalent to an extraordinary ability user in itself, and it pairs perfectly with its biological structure. I don’t recommend modifying it with ordinary materials—you’ll need to pay extra.”
“Extraordinary materials, huh… What’s the specific plan?” Ashley asked, arms crossed.
“Its shell has a complex structure with exaggerated curves. Mass-produced armor plates won’t fit properly; they can only cover the chest and abdomen. And once you hammer them to shape or add/subtract material, performance drops. Custom work is too expensive, so I think an extraordinary material coating is the best option—like enamel coating. It hardens after application: lightweight and tough. The downside is repainting after battle damage.” Veronica replied.
Ashley nodded in agreement. Little Black Feet might not care about her appearance, but her professional skills were top-notch. She was also a highly skilled cadaver mech pilot herself.
Piloting the Demon Flower Mantis through supersonic high-G maneuvers would turn an ordinary person’s brains to mush, but she handled it like it was nothing.
Ashley was already well aware of extraordinary material coatings. In this world, wealth came in two flavors: extraordinary and mundane.
The pinnacle of mundane wealth was gold, real estate, stocks, and so on. Pound and shilling coins contained gold, and paper notes could be redeemed for equivalent gold at banks. But gold produced no extraordinary power—it was valuable, yet utterly ordinary.
That said, mundane wealth wasn’t completely useless for acquiring extraordinary items. Deep dive teams salvaged extraordinary materials regularly, and the wilds birthed natural extraordinary powers, like those absorbed by the Great Raven and Demon Flower Mantis.
But there was a ceiling to such exchanges. The common consensus was that Numbered Relics marked the limit. Unless someone was obsessed with mundane wealth, 5 pounds a month covered a comfortable life—maybe add a few-thousand-pound standalone villa at most.
Owners of D-grade or higher Ancient Relics never lacked for that 5 pounds monthly; even renting them out via agencies kept you fed easily. True heirlooms.
The extraordinary item market had a mature valuation system.
Numbered Relics were worth 1-3 points, D-grade relics 10-50, and each grade up multiplied value by ten to twenty times.
Of course, you couldn’t trade a mountain of Numbered Relics for an S-Rank Relic. The system was just a rough estimate—small change never bought big bills.
Ashley had taken something appraised at 100 points from her family vault and consigned it to the Wellspring Bank, the municipal government’s official regional bank, as an intermediary.
Luck was on her side: someone listed a suitable enamel coating at market price. After roughly calculating the coating area needed for the mantis, she spent 51 points to buy it.
Thus, atop the Demon Flower Mantis’s shifting pink-purple hues gleamed a layer of transparent enamel, its body shimmering with crystalline light. When its ability activated, it vanished like a wisp of smoke.
—
That day was Amber’s worst nightmare. Even as Chloe kept consoling her, explaining that if she hadn’t tagged along, there’d be no Undying Potion and things would be worse—Ashley was at least still alive—it didn’t ease her torment.
“Though it’s hard, we have to look forward. I need to get ready. The first article providing guidance to readers is crucial—it has to be quick.”
Chloe nodded slightly, turned gracefully, and left Amber’s home.
She had been in on Ashley’s entire plan. Though there were mishaps—no S-Rank Relic snagged, and an unplanned ambush—they turned it around. They got the Undying Potion and seized the chance for a whitewash. One stone, three birds.
Once the report hit, it would cause a sensation. Chloe could already picture the masses taking to the streets spontaneously, mourning this brave and adorable little loli. She would become a hero.
After the hype died down, they’d reveal that the Undying Potion Ashley took was the youth version. After a period of “recovery,” her retardation improved—her babbling evolved from “ah-ba ah-ba” to fragmented but meaningful words.
Then the whole city would be moved again by Little Hero Ashley’s saga, cheering her on, applauding, praying for her, launching Kongming lanterns scrawled with blessings. And she, living up to expectations, “conquered” her illness, regained her wits, and tearfully hugged Amber—the one who’d stuck by her through rehab—inconsolable.
“Brilliant! If only I could swap places with Amber, but I can’t.”
The thought of this world-shaking scam made Chloe tremble with excitement. As a participant, fooling the entire city felt incredible.
After Chloe left, Amber said nothing. She padded barefoot to the corner.
She curled up in the shadows, arms around her knees, head buried between her legs, motionless.
The wind lifted the curtains, swaying lazily. The slanting sunlight shifted from bright to dim yellow, but she didn’t move.
Her tears had long dried. Her cheeks felt taut and rough, skin peeling slightly from all the rubbing—stinging painfully.
Her mother knocked and called her for dinner. She stayed silent.
When her mother came in with concern, she jumped up and yelled at her, hair disheveled, hysterical. Then she curled back into a ball and cried again until the stars rose, finally passing out from exhaustion.
