“Master, I heard that you and the girl next door…” Dorothy peered cautiously at Wang Yue’s expression before whispering, “Are you two in a relationship?”
“No,” Wang Yue replied curtly, her hands busy with her task.
“Are you packing your things?”
“Yes. I’m moving into the room next door for a few days.”
“Ahhh!” Dorothy let out a panicked cry. “What are you going to do with her?!”
“Quiet.”
Wang Yue gathered her rolled-up bedding, her mood a tangle of conflicting emotions.
Now, her goal had shifted from ‘fulfilling Lilith’s final wishes’ to ‘helping Lilith acquire enough Humanity.’ To put it simply, she had been played like a fiddle by the Headmaster.
If Lilith were just an ordinary student, this wouldn’t be a problem. But Wang Yue had discovered that Lilith possessed a slight sadistic streak.
Wang Yue was certainly not a masochist. Her previous tolerance had been built entirely on the premise that Lilith was at death’s door. Now that she knew Lilith’s frailty was merely a curse from the Headmaster—designed to sap her strength without actually threatening her life—things were different.
Hmph.
There was no longer any need to be so indulgent.
Wang Yue walked into the neighboring room and laid her bedding down where Prima’s bed used to be.
Beside her, Lilith rolled over, her messy blonde hair spilling across her back. Her gaze pierced through the veil of her lashes as she teased, “How obedient.”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Wang Yue said, her face flushing a deep red. “No biting, and… you’re not allowed to touch me wherever you want.”
She still had her principles.
Even though she had transformed and was currently surrounded by a bunch of little girls, she never proactively sought physical contact with them. She maintained a cold, distant persona specifically to keep them at arm’s length. Her attitude was beyond reproach.
But she was helpless against Lilith. This girl followed no rules, constantly pushing Wang Yue’s buttons and testing her limits. Out of moral consideration for a “sick” person, Wang Yue hadn’t been able to fight back, leaving her stuck in a state of passive resistance.
“Are you scared?” Seeing her hesitation, Lilith grew even more excited, her fingers twitching restlessly.
***
Despite moving into Room 204, Wang Yue’s study and life routine remained unchanged. Once the day’s classes ended, she buried herself in her books within the study cubicle.
Aside from preparing for and reviewing her schoolwork, she also had to summarize the information synchronized from Ed-Bear at regular intervals.
This information was vital.
Part of it involved Explorer techniques, which she needed to compile into notes for Prima; she was also studying them herself. There were also surveys of the natural environment and biological communities surrounding Fishmouth Town.
To facilitate this, Ed-Bear had constructed a small laboratory to preserve samples and records. Since live samples carried the risk of escape—which could harm the townspeople—Ed-Bear had reinforced the walls, roof, and windows with steel plates and I-beams. Entry and exit were restricted by a five-centimeter-thick Iron Hatch.
Additionally, Ed-Bear had taken the time to return to the eerie house on the cliff. While the worms had scattered, the broken Music Box was still there. It had been brought back for research and tracing.
Beyond the technicalities, there were snippets of daily life.
The beautiful receptionist at the Explorers’ Guild had been pursuing Ed-Bear. After multiple failed attempts, she had changed tactics and was now targeting the “little girl,” trying to earn Prima’s favor as a roundabout way to get closer to Ed-Bear.
Prima was growing up fast in the face of adversity, acting like a little adult. She helped with bookkeeping, sweeping, and tidying the yard, and she had even tried to cook for Ed-Bear.
The meal was a success, technically, but the resulting fire had charred a corner of the lab. Sample 008 had escaped in the chaos, though Ed-Bear had caught it just in time upon returning.
Wang Yue smiled to herself. Her avatar’s life was far more lively than she had imagined. She believed Ed-Bear would find its own sense of joy and purpose in those moments.
Yet, beneath the peace, dark currents were swirling.
Ed-Bear had discovered a pile of strange embers in the lakeside forest south of the town. Judging by the outline, they looked very much like a Soul-Eater Bird, a creature that lived around Tumor Lake.
Soul-Eater Birds were massive, nearly as tall as the surrounding shrubbery. They usually fed on lake fish, though they inadvertently consumed a vast number of dead spirits in the process. Their bodies were covered in bone-white skeletons, housing semi-transparent shadow matter within. Tangled black hair sprouted from their insides, and the shrieks of the dead echoed from their hollow chest cavities.
By the time Ed-Bear found the remains, this suspected Soul-Eater Bird had been reduced to something resembling furnace slag—a mass of pitch-black, filthy, porous glass. Furthermore, terrifying trails of light snaked through the remains, emitting a sinister, dark red glow.
Shortly after the discovery, the carcass disintegrated into ash right before Ed-Bear’s eyes, leaving only a scorched mark on the ground.
Over the next few days, Ed-Bear discovered several more instances of these “Slag Embers.” It concluded that a terrifying malice was lurking around the town.
Though the matter was reported to the Explorers’ Guild, and they had sent people to investigate, they found nothing. Instead, they had the gall to ask Ed-Bear for samples.
Ed-Bear sensed danger. In a moment of hesitation, it thought of the choice Marcus had made. Thus, after finding another patch of Slag Embers, it attempted to approach. In an instant, the lingering malice incinerated nearly half of its body!
If it hadn’t severed that portion of its form in time… it wouldn’t have died, but the head housing the Gaze Worm would have been forced into an emergency ejection, like a cockpit shooting out of a crashing starship.
Ed-Bear reached a new conclusion: this malice was unlike any monster in the Crimson zones. They weren’t even on the same level.
When Ed-Bear asked White Fish about it, it was overwhelmed by a mountain of retrieved data. There were many similar cases, but none matched perfectly, making an accurate judgment impossible.
Unlike the fabricated Lead-Scurf Disease, this was a very real, tangible, transcendent power.
Wang Yue closed her notebook and rubbed her fingers, which were sore from the high-speed writing. She planned to create a sandbox map of the terrain and biological clusters around Fishmouth Town. Analyzing the locations where the embers were found alongside the map might yield some clues.
It was late; time for bed.
The mere thought of it gave her a headache.
She procrastinated until midnight before finally turning around. Lilith was already posed on the bed, watching her with deep interest, her small face flushed with an unusual radiance.
Why are you so excited?!
Wang Yue was speechless. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and went to take a shower first.
As she left the washroom, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Soft, tender skin, damp black hair, and lips that looked like they were made of supple silicone—the upper lip slightly thin, the lower lip full and incredibly inviting. Then there was the vast expanse of porcelain-white skin at her chest…
No wonder Lilith couldn’t control herself.
Wang Yue shuddered. Thank goodness it wasn’t her own psyche being measured. If she ever lost the strength to resist, something truly disastrous would happen.
She purposefully put on a sturdy pair of pajamas—the kind with lots of buttons that were difficult to undo. The moment she lay down, Lilith rolled over and latched onto her like an octopus.
“You really don’t hold back, do you?” Wang Yue grumbled.
Lilith didn’t even bother to speak. She got straight to work, her small nose twitching as she leaned down to sniff Wang Yue’s neck. Her breath brushed against Wang Yue’s soft hair, sending a ticklish sensation through her.
A fire burned in Lilith’s chest, yet she seemed confused, not knowing how to vent it. She simply hugged and rubbed against Wang Yue instinctively, letting out low, beast-like growls.
This couldn’t go on. Wang Yue decided to put a stop to it.
“Let’s… let’s tell ghost stories!” she suggested.
One of the joys of a sleepover was late-night ghost stories.
Seeing Lilith’s attention waver, Wang Yue quickly started. She told a story about a woman living in an apartment who, while cleaning the bathroom drain, found hair that didn’t match her own.
The woman’s hair was chestnut brown, but the drain was tangled with several strands of vivid, blood-red hair. It was chilling.
At first, she thought it was left by the previous tenant—perhaps a girl who dyed her hair red. But every time she cleaned the drain, more of the eerie red hair appeared.
She was terrified, but having signed a three-month lease and being a broke recent graduate, she had no choice but to endure it.
One night, she woke up and vaguely heard the sound of running water in the bathroom. Through the frosted glass door, she saw a humanoid silhouette swaying, as if someone were taking a shower.
Trembling with fear, she rushed to flip the light switch.
Everything returned to normal. It turned out it was raining outside, the pitter-patter hitting the glass. The swaying “figure” was just a shirt she had hung in the bathroom, moving in the draft.
Just as she sighed in relief, thinking it was a false alarm, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Countless strands of blood-red hair were crawling out of the drain in a thick, writhing mass!
