Sunlight slipped through the gap in the not-quite-closed curtains and landed right across Kiana's eyelids.
Her lashes trembled. She let out a soft little sound, like a kitten stretching in its sleep, curled up on the sofa, then slowly unfurled again.
The loose, languid feeling of waking up naturally made everything feel almost unreal.
No nightmares.
No snide, yin-yang mockery from the Herrscher of the Void.
And none of that nerve-racking tension where even turning over a little might set off some red-alert warning.
This felt so good...
Still half asleep, Kiana rubbed her face against the cushion, a faint smile hanging at the corner of her lips.
That cup of bitter melon juice last night had tasted awful, but the effect had been amazing.
The Herrscher who had been making a racket in her head nonstop was probably still marinating in bitter melon extract and hadn't recovered yet.
Praise Auntie. I'll never say your taste is terrible again.
Out of habit, she reached out, trying to grope for the person who should have been sleeping on the bedding beside the floor—
She grabbed empty air.
She froze for a second, and that sudden hollow feeling drove most of the sleep from her mind.
Wait.
This wasn't the bedroom.
Kiana opened her eyes. What came into view was the familiar ceiling—the cheap flush-mounted light, the slightly yellowed corner of the wall.
This was the living room. She had slept on the sofa last night.
Oh.
Right.
At home, the distance restriction between her and Su Yu had been lifted.
She no longer had to cling to him at all times like some hamster trapped in a cage.
Kiana lay there on the sofa, staring at the ceiling in a daze.
That odd-eyed little kitten called Chongchong had curled up at her feet at some point, purring in its sleep, its fluffy body rising and falling with each breath.
Freedom.
The word rolled around in her head, carrying a strange kind of unfamiliarity.
Ever since she had crossed into this world, she had been forced to get used to that annoying restriction.
Eat beside Su Yu, sleep beside Su Yu, and for things like using the bathroom or bathing, depend on those pitiful thirty-minute "experience cards"...
And now all of that was over.
She should have been happy.
So why...
How should she put it? She just wasn't used to it.
Kiana lifted one hand and looked at her palm.
She hadn't turned into some transparent ghost. She didn't feel that frightening sense of her body dissolving, either.
Everything was normal. Everything was safe.
She smiled faintly.
That idiot was probably still asleep, right?
Kiana pushed herself up and set her bare feet on the cool floor.
She wasn't wearing socks, and the moment her toes touched the wooden boards, she felt that particular chill unique to the early morning.
She shivered lightly, then slowly made her way toward the bedroom with a certain anticipatory mischief in her steps.
She was going to see whether that lazy bum was still dreaming.
If she got lucky, maybe she could catch him drooling in his sleep. Then she'd have leverage to threaten him into giving her extra food.
She had already decided what she wanted for lunch.
The bedroom door was half open.
Kiana pushed it open.
The bed was empty.
The blanket had been tossed aside, revealing the wrinkled sheets underneath.
A shallow dent remained on the pillow, proof that someone had slept there.
But where was he?
Su Yu was gone.
Standing in the doorway, Kiana blinked.
She turned toward the bathroom.
The door was open. No sound of water. No movement.
She went to the kitchen.
The stove was spotless. There was no sign that anyone had cooked.
She even checked the balcony—the morning breeze drifted in from there, carrying a trace of early summer warmth, but aside from a few rather average-looking potted plants, there was nothing.
In the entire apartment, only she remained.
And the cat, still sleeping blissfully on the sofa.
A strange feeling began spreading in her chest.
Standing alone in the middle of the empty living room, Kiana unconsciously clenched the oversized T-shirt she was wearing.
It was Su Yu's shirt, the one she'd borrowed as pajamas last night.
The collar hung crooked, revealing a bit of collarbone, but she couldn't spare any attention for that right now.
Where had Su Yu gone?
Since arriving in this world, this was the first time she had woken up and not seen him.
Before, even with the restriction in place, she had always been able to feel his presence nearby—that sense of security forced on her by the system, humiliating though it was, had undeniably been reassuring.
But now...
What if something had happened to him?
The moment that thought appeared, it spread like wildfire.
That idiot was so weak he probably couldn't even beat a chicken. What if he ran into some hooligan on the street?
He didn't have her reflexes. He couldn't even run very fast...
What if he got bullied?
Or maybe...
An accident? Hit by a car? Kidnapped? Or—
Kiana shook her head hard, trying to throw all those ridiculous thoughts out of her mind.
Her breathing grew quicker. Her heart started pounding faster too.
She could feel her palms getting sweaty, that familiar pre-battle tension quietly crawling up her spine.
No.
This was a peaceful world.
No Honkai beasts. No Herrschers. No zombies.
Su Yu was just an ordinary person, living an ordinary life, in an ordinary city.
He had probably just... gone out.
Maybe to buy something.
Maybe for a morning run.
A wave of frustration suddenly welled up inside her.
I shouldn't have wanted this stupid "territory freedom" thing in the first place.
Irritably, Kiana raked a hand through her hair, turning the already messy white strands into even more of a disaster.
If that restriction were still there, I'd be able to follow him right now. I'd know where he was. I'd know whether he was safe...
Instead of sitting here like this, knowing nothing, doing nothing...
She went back to the sofa and dropped down heavily onto it.
Freedom, huh.
In the end, all that had changed was that she had gone from being at Su Yu's side to being trapped in this fifty-square-meter "birdcage."
She found herself thinking again—if one day, someday, all her restrictions were gone, if she could even go outside and enjoy this world's sunlight...
What would her life look like then?
She didn't know.
But somehow...
If freedom meant being alone,
then that kind of freedom
felt... a little sad.
The sofa creaked softly. Chongchong stirred awake, opened its odd-colored eyes to glance at her, yawned, then buried its little head back into its fluffy belly and went right back to sleep.
Kiana picked up the phone from the coffee table. The screen protector on it sat slightly crooked.
Su Yu had insisted on putting it on himself, boasting that he didn't need any tools and could absolutely make a living at a roadside stall applying screen protectors.
Then once he was done, he had stared up at the ceiling and sighed, saying, "Maybe I should just become a novelist instead."
As everyone knew, when a person failed at everything else, they often started thinking about becoming a novelist.
Kiana lit up the screen, intending to call that idiot and ask where he was—
A new unread message popped up.
Sender: [Idiot Su Yu]
The message was short:
What kind of buns do you want? Meat buns? The owner's about to close up, reply ASAP.
Kiana stared at the screen for three full seconds.
Then the corners of her mouth curled upward before she could stop them.
That idiot...
So he'd gone out to buy breakfast.
She leaned back into the sofa, held the phone above her face, and tapped rapidly at the screen.
Meat buns. Two. And soy milk—hot, and sweet!
Send.
Then she added another message:
Come back quickly.
After sending it, she suddenly felt that sounded a little odd, so she hurriedly added one more:
Chongchong's hungry.
Even though the white cat was very clearly still sleeping soundly.
What Kiana herself did not notice was that after sending the messages, the smile on her face only grew wider.
About fifteen minutes later, the lock clicked.
Kiana sprang upright from the sofa.
The movement was so sudden it startled even her.
She quickly composed herself and sat back down, arranging herself into a lazy pose: one arm draped over the armrest, the phone still in her hand, pretending she was looking at something.
The door opened.
Su Yu walked in carrying two plastic bags—one filled with buns, the other holding two steaming cups of soy milk.
His hair was a little messy. Clearly he had gone out without really fixing it after getting up.
But he was perfectly fine.
No scrapes. No bruises. He hadn't even broken much of a sweat.
He was simply an ordinary person who had gone to the breakfast shop on the corner and come home again.
As Kiana looked at him, the heavy stone hanging in her chest finally dropped with a solid thud.
"So, you're back."
She did her best to make her voice sound casual.
"Yeah. Got the buns." Su Yu set the plastic bags down on the table, then glanced at her. "Why are you up so early? Usually you sleep until the sun's halfway up."
"...Who says I'm not allowed to wake up early?"
Kiana hmphed and looked away, pretending to admire the scenery outside.
Sunlight had already flooded the living room completely, turning that narrow strip of light into a golden carpet.
That little kitten Chongchong had finally woken up too. It stretched, then followed the smell of buns over and rubbed its fluffy head against Su Yu's calf.
"Fine, fine. You're always right." Su Yu opened the bag of buns, and hot steam billowed out. "Here, eat while they're hot. Meat buns, five of them. Is that enough? If not, I'll go downstairs and buy more."
"It's enough."
Kiana took a bun and bit into it.
The filling was juicy and savory, the skin thin and soft—it was the unmistakable flavor of that old shop on the corner.
She still remembered the first time she had eaten there. Back then she had timidly hidden behind Su Yu, still wary of everything in this world.
But the elderly couple who ran the shop had been kind. According to Su Yu, they had been selling buns on that street for over ten years. Their little shop was small and shabby, but everything was kept neat and orderly.
The grandmother had chatted cheerfully with Su Yu, then casually praised Kiana for being such a pretty girl and slipped her an extra bun, saying young girls needed to eat more while they were still growing.
Ever since arriving in this world, Kiana had received so, so much kindness.
No one had treated her like a monster.
No one had looked at her as the culprit who would bring Honkai upon the world.
Of course...
Kiana stole a glance at Su Yu beside her. He seemed to be chatting with someone on his phone, seated less than a meter away from her—this had become his habit lately.
Even after learning that they no longer needed to worry about that delicate distance rule inside the apartment, he still instinctively stayed close to her.
Idiot.
Kiana felt the tips of her ears heating up. Quietly, carefully, she edged a little closer to him. This time, the distance between them shrank to half a meter.
How strange.
Before he came back, she hadn't felt like she was about to disappear just because she was alone, but that panic had kept circling in her chest anyway, like a stone suspended in midair, refusing to fall.
And yet now, at this very moment, she felt something like relief.
Like a drifting boat that had finally found a harbor.
"What's wrong?" Su Yu turned when he noticed her staring blankly while biting into her bun.
"...Nothing. The buns are really good."
Kiana lowered her head and took another big bite.
"They're really good."
When Su Yu's attention shifted back to his phone, she scooted a little closer again, even if it was only by five centimeters.
There's no red warning anymore, after all. I can be as close to you as I want.
Maybe this is what freedom really means.
After finishing all five meat buns,
Kiana wore a look of complete satisfaction.
Cradling the cup of sweet soy milk, now nearly empty, she narrowed her eyes at Su Yu sitting next to her.
Somehow, something about him felt off today.
It was one of those things that fell squarely into the territory of a girl's sixth sense.
"So..."
Su Yu cleared his throat, his gaze flickering about like a cat that had just stolen a fish.
"How are you feeling today? Did you sleep well? Did you have any weird dreams?"
Kiana found that a little suspicious.
The collar of Su Yu's shirt was slightly rumpled. He had clearly run a little water through his hair, but a few strands still stuck up. And on his face was that unmistakable guilty smile of someone who had done something behind her back.
He had definitely met someone while he was out this morning.
"What bad thing did you do behind my back?" Kiana asked bluntly, skipping any warm-up entirely.
Su Yu's shoulders jerked, just slightly—but to Kiana, that was basically the same as writing I HAVE A PROBLEM across his forehead.
He coughed twice, then began explaining in an overly deliberate tone of casual ease, "It's nothing major... I just, uh, happened to pass by that convenience store while buying buns this morning, and then I ran into... Fu Hua."
When he said the name Fu Hua, his eyes darted toward Kiana, sneaking a look at her reaction.
He looked as if he had just uttered some forbidden spell rather than a person's name.
Watching this nervous idiot in front of her, Kiana suddenly felt a warm tide rise inside her chest.
He was worried that name would touch the wound in her heart.
That kind of overly careful gentleness might have been a little unnecessary, but it did make her feel cherished.
"And then?" Her tone was calm, even a little teasing. "What, did you think I'd suddenly burst into tears? Or fly into a rage?"
Su Yu froze, then awkwardly scratched his head. The helpless look on his face made Kiana's lips curve upward.
"Idiot Su Yu," she said softly, her gaze drifting toward the golden sky beyond the window. "I know what you're worried about. But it's okay now. The Fu Hua in this world... she's just a counterpart, right? If that's the case, then I should treat them as two different people."
Even as the words left her lips, Kiana felt a little surprised at herself.
It seemed that everything she had gone through these past few days really had been changing something in her, bit by bit.
Those names and memories that used to leave her gasping for breath still felt heavy, but at least they no longer pressed against her heart like a knife at every moment.
As long as Su Yu was beside her, she felt like she had something she could lean on.
Su Yu's eyes lit up. The careful tension in his face finally loosened.
A smile tugged at his lips, and he let out a long breath, as if setting down some invisible burden. "That's great. Actually, there's something else I need to tell you..."
"Fu Hua... seems to have misunderstood something."
"She thinks you're a direct disciple of the Taixu Sword School, some incredible master, and if we go by sect seniority..."
He paused, apparently thinking about how best to say it.
"She might have to call you her little martial aunt."
"Pff—!"
Kiana had just been about to finish the last sip of soy milk.
She almost sprayed it straight out.
She fought desperately to hold it in, but still ended up coughing so hard her eyes watered.
What the hell?
Little martial aunt?
As she coughed, scenes connected to the name "Fu Hua" flashed through her mind.
That perpetually stern class-monitor type with the red-framed glasses, the one who always had "discipline" and "rules" on the tip of her tongue...
That Fu Hua was supposed to stand there respectfully and call her martial aunt?
The mental image was so beautiful it felt downright life-threatening.
"Y-you're serious?" Kiana finally managed to stop coughing. "That Fu Hua? The class monitor who always went around saying please obey school regulations?"
"Completely serious." Su Yu spread his hands helplessly. "In this world, Fu Hua is a successor of the Taixu Sword School. Her family runs a martial arts gym called Cixin Martial Arts Hall. She also has seven disciples older than she is... anyway, it's complicated."
"In short, she saw that police-station video of you and decided your martial arts are the authentic Taixu lineage, so by seniority..."
"She has to call me martial aunt."
Kiana repeated the words, then could not hold it in anymore and burst out laughing, clutching her stomach.
There was no malice in that laughter. She just genuinely found it hysterical.
The person in her memory who had always worn that expression of I'm busy, don't bother me, the class monitor she both respected and feared, actually having to bow to her and call her martial aunt in this world—
This plot development was absurd.
Watching Kiana laugh so hard she doubled over, the stone Su Yu had been carrying in his heart at last came down too.
It looked like she really was getting better. At the very least, she could now separate the name "Fu Hua" from the weight of the past.
"All right, all right. That's not the main point."
Only after Kiana had laughed enough did Su Yu continue.
"The system released a new mission. Long story short, if we can help the Fu Hua of this world restore the lost ultimate arts of the Taixu Sword School, we can unlock the complete Taixu Sword Qi and use it to help you suppress the Herrscher of the Void."
The laughter slowly faded from Kiana's face, replaced by seriousness and expectation.
A power to oppose the Herrscher of the Void.
Just hearing those words instinctively made her understand what it meant.
That second personality that could appear at any moment, that ticking time bomb that kept her from sleeping soundly night after night—if it could really be suppressed...
"But the problem is..." She frowned, looking troubled. "Even if you keep saying Taixu this and Taixu that, I don't know any of those mental methods. When I fight, I just go by instinct. I don't know any techniques or口诀."
Sending her off to beat up Honkai beasts was one thing.
Asking her to be a teacher? That image was a disaster.
"Don't worry. I've got cheats." He repeated the system's original explanation. "You won't need to teach anyone. At the early stage, all we need to do is record battle footage and send it to Fu Hua."
"Our game needs a lot of motion-capture data anyway."
"There are so many disciples at Cixin Martial Arts Hall—they can serve as mocap actors. We just need to gather the Dragon Balls—uh, I mean, gather the Taixu disciples and record enough data. Once there's enough, the system will automatically assign us a teacher who knows the Taixu ultimate arts."
Kiana listened in complete bewilderment.
Data? Automatically assign? Why did this all sound like some heavenly scripture she could never hope to understand?
Forget it. She wasn't going to try.
She simply gave up on understanding and chose the easiest solution.
"So what exactly do I need to do? Just tell me directly. Do I need to go beat someone up?"
If Su Yu said it, she would just do it.
After all, this idiot senior brother had never tricked her before...
Probably.
Looking at the girl in front of him with I trust you practically written across her face, warmth surged in Su Yu's heart.
That kind of wholehearted trust was more precious than any verbal thank-you.
"It's simple."
Su Yu stood up, pulled out his phone, and waved the message Vil-V had sent him—the one complete with explosive special effects.
"No time to waste. Let's start recording video right now. Later we'll head to that crazy inventor's basement and pick up the equipment."
"Okay!"
Kiana jumped off the sofa and rolled her wrists.
"I've been wanting to move around for ages! After drinking that bitter melon juice last night, I'm bursting with energy!"
"? Didn't you say you hated bitter melon juice?"
"That's not the point—hurry up and get started! Come on, come on!"
....
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