Chapter 18

When Su Xing opened her eyes at eight in the morning, she was somewhat surprised to see Wen Ruyao still lying beside her, deep asleep.

Every previous morning, she’d woken up to an empty bedroom. Wen Ruyao was always an earlier riser. Finding someone still next to her today gave Su Xing a momentary pause.

And more importantly… wasn’t the distance between their pillows a little too close?

Su Xing slept right on the edge of the bed, her posture always disciplined and straight, like a soldier standing at attention. She swallowed lightly and subtly shifted a bit farther away from Wen Ruyao’s stunning face, which was now far too close for comfort.

Wen Ruyao was lying on her side. She must have unconsciously drifted closer at some point, her smooth forehead practically brushing Su Xing’s shoulder. Su Xing’s body reflexively stiffened. Though she was naturally queer, in her twenty-three years of life, she’d never met anyone she’d actually fallen for. She was essentially a closed book, single since birth, and had virtually never shared a bed with anyone—let alone at this distance. Her heart did two very unnatural, rapid thumps. She immediately rolled over the other way and slipped out of bed as stealthily as she could.

The living room was dark and still. All the windows were covered by the heavy blackout curtains, making day and night indistinguishable. Su Xing stood in the doorway for a while before groping her way to the window. Carefully, she lifted a small corner of the curtain and peered outside.

The dense fog had persisted for so many days that she’d grown accustomed to the view beyond the glass being a blurry, opaque white, like a thick layer of foam. But this time, through the pane, she could actually see the building across from them.

She rubbed her eyes and focused harder. Though thin, gauzy wisps of mist still drifted through the air, the balcony of the apartment opposite was clearly, distinctly visible.

The fog was starting to lift! That meant they might have a real chance to escape S City!

Suppressing a surge of joy, Su Xing’s gaze traveled further into the distance through the window—and immediately caught something unusual.

Unlike normal fog, which dissipates naturally and evenly, the fog outside didn’t seem to be “lifting” so much as “gathering.” It resembled the frozen contrails left behind by airplanes streaking across the sky. Massive, elongated blocks of white fog drifted like low-hanging clouds just above the ground, crisscrossing and connecting into a bizarre, sprawling net. Following these eerie “cloud” lines, Su Xing’s eyes widened in stunned realization. The fog was continuously converging and settling, almost as if it possessed a will of its own, coalescing in the far distance into an immense, towering “pointed spire” that soared into the heavens.

The relief Su Xing had felt just moments ago was blown away like smoke by the terrifying scene before her.

The overhead light clicked on. The bedroom door quietly opened. Wen Ruyao emerged and, looking out the window, was equally stunned by the spectacle outside.

From witnessing a living person mutate into a monster before her very eyes to now seeing this surreal landscape, Su Xing felt that from now on, nothing that happened in this world could ever truly shock her again.

At that moment, on the fifth floor of the building directly across from them, a window slowly creaked open from the inside. A man threw a thick rope out the window, glanced around warily, and then climbed out, gripping the rope to descend.

Unfortunately, when he reached the third floor, his strength gave out and he plummeted.

As his heavyset body slammed into the hard stone tiles at the bottom, Su Xing’s heart gave a violent lurch. From her high vantage point, she watched the man lying prone far below, seemingly alive—he hadn’t been killed instantly and was trying weakly to move.

She held her breath, staring down fixedly. Then she spotted something stirring in the bushes not far from the man. In the next instant, a swarm of glossy black creatures, each roughly half the length of an adult human and possessing multiple pairs of legs, skittered out from every direction around him. In mere seconds, they had dismembered him alive. Hoisting his severed limbs aloft like trophies, they formed up into a long, orderly column and marched off towards an unknown destination.

“…Ants.”

Wen Ruyao spoke softly, a tremor in her voice. She stared for a long time at the bizarre “cloud pillar” in the distance, then turned and rummaged through the nearby shelf, retrieving a pair of binoculars.

“Look. I don’t think it’s the only one.”

Wen Ruyao handed the binoculars over. Su Xing hastily took them and pressed them to her eyes. A closer look confirmed it—the towering “Fog Spire” wasn’t alone. On the far horizon, faint white silhouettes, identical in form, were barely visible.

The presence of the unknown was always deeply unsettling. Su Xing’s brow furrowed deeply as she turned her head, about to speak, when she saw Wen Ruyao pressing a hand to her forehead, her slender frame slightly hunched against the wall. She looked unwell.

“Are you…”

Su Xing didn’t even finish her sentence. Wen Ruyao’s face was ashen, her eyes slowly losing focus. Her body sagged against the wall as if all her strength had drained away. Alarmed, Su Xing rushed to support her. “Are you feeling unwell?”

Wen Ruyao leaned weakly against her. After a moment, her voice came out thin and reedy. “Over there… the sofa.”

Su Xing helped her onto the sofa and watched helplessly as Wen Ruyao’s color worsened. After a moment’s hesitation, she reached out to touch her forehead, but found no fever. She couldn’t understand why Wen Ruyao had suddenly become so frail.

If it was an external cause, Su Xing herself felt completely fine. It made no sense that only Wen Ruyao would be affected. It wasn’t a cold or fever either—could it be a flare-up of an old chronic illness?

She stood up. “Is it an old condition acting up? Do you have medicine? I’ll get you some water.”

Wen Ruyao shook her head weakly. A sheen of crystalline sweat had appeared on her pale face as her breathing grew heavier. She feebly pointed to a drawer beneath the television, her voice barely a whisper. “Gas… detector…”

The word “gas” made Su Xing instantly understand her meaning. She immediately hurried over and retrieved a palm-sized device from the drawer.

She pressed the power button to test it. Within moments, the device let out a piercing alarm of sharp beeps. The screen displayed an impossible reading: the oxygen concentration in the air had risen to a staggering 39%!

Normal atmospheric oxygen is around 21%. The safe range for humans is typically between 19.5% and 23.5%. Now, it had almost doubled without them even noticing. Mild exposure would cause oxygen intoxication; severe cases could lead to oxygen toxicity and even death. No wonder Wen Ruyao was stricken.

But why wasn’t Su Xing affected?

She froze for a second, but there was no time to untangle that mystery right now. If this bizarre spike in oxygen continued, Wen Ruyao—already showing severe symptoms—could be in mortal danger. If the female lead died and the world collapsed, Su Xing was dead, too.

Her anxiety spiking, Su Xing’s mind spun at high speed. An idea came to her. She asked tentatively, “Do you have a respirator?”

Honestly, after seeing the binoculars and the gas detector, Su Xing had a feeling this wealthy Miss Wen had prepared for practically everything.

As expected, Wen Ruyao nodded faintly. “…Storage room.”

Su Xing strode into the room piled high with bottled water, searched around, and found the respirator. She brought it back to the living room and quickly helped Wen Ruyao secure the mask over her face.

After a long while, Wen Ruyao lay quietly on the sofa, her condition appearing somewhat improved.

Su Xing let out a small sigh of relief, but unease still gnawed at her. She picked up the gas detector again; the reading hadn’t changed for now.

Frowning, she returned to the window. The distant fog was no longer visible. A long-lost azure sky stretched before her eyes, and warm sunlight streamed through a corner of the window, touching her face. If not for the ominous “Fog Spires” still standing on the horizon and the bloodstains and dismembered bodies littering the ground below, this would be a lovely, sunny day, perfect for a stroll.

She lifted the binoculars and aimed them at the Fog Spire again. Upon closer inspection, the billowing white fog, swirling like dense smoke, seemed to be enveloping something within. Faint glimmers of a cyan light flickered and shifted inside.

The longer Su Xing stared, the more bewildered she became, but the binoculars’ capabilities were limited; this was as clear as she could get from this distance.

Was the oxygen spike connected to the fog’s dissipation?

Thinking back, Wen Ruyao had seemed a bit off for the past couple of days—drowsy during the day, mentally fatigued. This morning, she’d even slept in later than Su Xing. Those were symptoms remarkably consistent with altitude-sickness-like oxygen intoxication.

But why hadn’t Su Xing felt anything unusual?

She pursed her lips and touched the muscle that had just “grown” on her arm over the last two days. She’d been on the track and field team before, had done training; she knew that people with stronger physical constitutions could adapt better to environmental changes. Could it be related to that?

【Of course. You think a weak, sickly office drone like you could still have this much energy otherwise?】

The disappearing-reappearing System popped up again to make snide remarks. When she actually needed it, it was dead silent.

【Well, don’t blame me. I’m incompatible with you to begin with. I can only activate after getting close enough to the Female Lead to absorb energy.】

Fine. Then the very air we need is being compromised, and the Female Lead’s life is in danger. Can’t you give us any hints? Like the kind you gave her at the start?

【You don’t have that authorization.】

【When the Female Lead found me, I was a Protagonist System. Found by you, I can only be a Cannon Fodder Bootlicker System.】

Su Xing’s mouth twitched. She understood now. Basically, the System itself was defective.

【No, it’s you who is defective.】

Su Xing glanced back at the sofa. Wen Ruyao had managed to prop herself upright and was resting against the backrest. She still had the Female Lead Halo protecting her; she wouldn’t be taken out that easily. Su Xing allowed herself a moment of relief.

Is my sudden muscle growth because I assigned points to Strength?

【Obviously. Where else do you think your freakish strength comes from?】

So if I keep adding to Strength, I’ll keep growing muscle?

【Yep.】

…

Won’t I turn into a hulking, muscle-bound freak then?!

【…You can only allocate a maximum of ten points to Strength.】

That little? And after maxing out at ten?

【That’s it. As for your appearance, you’ll look roughly like one of those ripped, inverted-triangle bodybuilders.】

…

Su Xing’s vision went dark.

She understood the need to pursue strength to survive in this apocalypse, but the thought of being saddled with a bodybuilder’s physique… her head swam. Su Xing’s deep-seated aversion to muscles stemmed from her university days, when a musclehead had relentlessly pursued her. He was a sports guy, excessively proud of his physique. All summer long, he’d parade around her in nothing but a tiny tank top, showing off his bulging muscles. The experience had made Su Xing physically recoil from the sight of them.

To think she might one day become that very thing…

【However, considering that being the Female Lead’s bootlicker still requires a certain level of beauty, you can counteract the muscle gain through “physical exercise.”】

Su Xing’s eyes lit up. Physical exercise?

【For example, five hundred push-ups can eliminate the muscle gained from one point of Strength.】

Wen Ruyao braced a hand on the sofa and seemed to be trying to stand. Su Xing rushed over to help. “How are you feeling? Any better?”

“Mm…” Wen Ruyao lifted her hand to the edge of the respirator mask, and before Su Xing could stop her, she pulled it off completely. She held up the gas detector. “35%. The levels are probably unstable. Who knows what it’ll be like later? But… I think I need to try and adapt.”

Seeing the detector, the one she’d stared at earlier with no change, Su Xing raised an eyebrow slightly. When she glanced at Wen Ruyao, she found the other woman looking straight at her.

“You don’t feel any discomfort at all?”

Su Xing felt inexplicably guilty under her gaze. She licked her lips and offered a vague reply. “Maybe… I work out a lot. My adaptability’s just better.”

That was pure bull, and they both knew it. Wen Ruyao had only been at the company for just over a week, but they saw each other constantly. And with their company’s “overtime isn’t overtime unless it’s a lot of overtime” culture, hitting the gym after work was practically impossible.

Wen Ruyao pressed her lips together but said nothing.

A silence fell over the living room. Then, some faint sounds drifted in from outside.

The curtains were drawn, their edges gilded by the bright sunshine outside. Two sharp tap tap sounds rapped against the glass. An enormous black shadow suddenly fell across half the window curtain—judging by the shape, it resembled some kind of giant flying insect.

Both women in the living room clearly saw the silhouette plastered against the window. They stood frozen like statues. After a few seconds of stillness—

A piercing, high-frequency buzzing shriek tore through the air. The black shadow vanished from the curtain in the blink of an eye.

“Su Xing.”

A long moment passed before Wen Ruyao spoke, her voice low and trembling. “It’s absurd, but… this reminds me of a book I just finished reading. It mentioned a period in biological evolution called the Carboniferous.”