"I must say, I quite admire your confidence, Miss Raven."
Rita spoke with leisurely calm as her scythe materialized in a shimmer of dark light. Yet from the corner of her eye, she had already caught sight of something utterly out of place in the alley's grim atmosphere.
A plain earthenware teapot, yellowish-brown and pristine.
No object that new belonged here.
Did it have something to do with those two extraterrestrial visitors?
Still… what rotten luck. Of all people, she had to run into Serpent.
Tch.
"I like your composure too. I hope you can keep it right to the end."
Raven's hood shadowed most of her face as she extended a crimson gauntlet tipped with razor-sharp claws from beneath her cloak, her expression ice-cold.
Clang—!
[Cooking attempt completed successfully. Cooking skill unlocked. Current Cooking level: 1]
[Roasted Weeds (Food / Medicine): Are you sure this even qualifies as food? Healing effect: 1]
"…"
What else could he do with only this on hand? Weeds weren't exactly lethal, right?
At least the attempt had unlocked the cooking skill… though, predictably, it started at level 1.
Hm?
Wait a second.
[Current Skills]
[Cooking lv1 (You'd be better off sticking to instant noodles. Food palatability +0)]
[Charisma lv10 (MAX) (Undeniable fact: the vast majority of people in this world are face-connoisseurs, and you are the very object of their pursuit. Any lifeform with human aesthetic standards will have massively increased initial favor toward you. Social success rate doubled.)]
His Charisma… was maxed out?
"Liu Bai sir… it's burnt."
Firefly's soft voice drifted into his ear.
"Ah!"
Snapping back, Liu Bai hurriedly used a stick to fish the grass leaves out of the pot.
What had started as roasted weeds had now become charred roasted weeds.
Still, the weak medicinal property remained.
"…Firefly, eat something."
Even as the words left his mouth, Liu Bai felt his own resolve waver.
Could these half-black, half-green things really be edible?
"Eat… R-Right, I understand." A flicker of hesitation crossed Firefly's face, but it quickly hardened into determination. With the air of someone marching to their doom, she accepted the stick and swallowed the grass leaf in one bite.
"Mmph! So hot!"
Firefly stuck out her small tongue, cheeks puffing into a tiny "<" shape.
"And so astringent… so bitter…"
"It is a bit astringent… cough, I mean, it just came off the fire, after all."
Liu Bai awkwardly averted his gaze from her.
How to put it… that little tongue really was… cough. And that soft, adorable expression genuinely made people want to bully her a little.
"But you actually ate it without the slightest hesitation. You startled me."
Feeding someone grass felt like the height of absurdity, yet Firefly had downed it with such decisiveness.
"Eh… well… we need to build up our strength right now, don't we?" Firefly scratched her cheek sheepishly. "And… Liu Bai sir, you wouldn't have any reason to trick me, would you?"
The girl really did come across as the same slightly naive, sweet type from his memories—but Liu Bai could never forget the warrior-like resoluteness in her eyes the very first moment he saw her after crossing over.
So… did she actually have a mech, or not?
"Hm… feeling any better now?"
"Huh? It seems… actually a little better? Does the grass here have some kind of magic?"
At his words, Firefly's eyes widened in sudden realization, shock spreading across her features.
What was happening? Since when could eating grass heal wounds? Was the grass magical… no—it was the person in front of her who was extraordinary.
She could still feel herself inexorably sliding toward the end, yet it was as though someone had forcibly dragged her back two meters.
A strange sensation.
At first she had only wanted to honor his kindness and not let it go to waste.
But now…
Both this space and those freshly roasted weeds…
It seemed she had saved someone truly remarkable.
Was this power Preservation? Or Abundance?
Liu Bai glanced at Firefly's updated status.
[Firefly]
[Current Health: Blood Loss (Moderate), Entropic Decay (Mild), Bone Fractures (Wrist, Ribs…), Internal Organ Rupture (…)]
[Expected Time of Death: 7 hours]
The bleeding had begun to stabilize. But the most lethal injury right now—aside from the currently untreatable Entropic Decay—was the internal rupture.
Liu Bai was honestly astonished that the girl had managed to drag him along while carrying wounds this severe.
Still, the situation was manageable now.
Healing potency might only be 1, but weeds were free.
"Firefly." Liu Bai placed both hands solemnly on her shoulders.
Her shoulders jolted; her expression turned bewildered and helpless.
"Eh? Here!"
"Today… let's try living like a little sheep."
"…Eh?"
"It seems you're not particularly skilled at close-quarters combat, Miss Raven."
"…"
Rita's scythe had just barely sliced past Raven's brow.
…Not skilled at close-quarters?
Against a long-reach weapon like a scythe, closing the distance was inherently difficult.
And Rita was hardly some helpless small fry.
What?
You say the alley restricts the scythe? Just cut the walls along with everything else.
Yet Rita's scythe never committed to aggressive pursuit; she maintained a safe distance, steadily wearing Raven down through attrition.
"Twenty minutes."
A smile played on Rita's lips—the exact kind that grated on Raven's nerves.
"In twenty minutes, Schicksal reinforcements will arrive. At that point… I shall extend certain courtesies to Miss Raven in the prison cells."
That irritating smile suddenly veered into something faintly nauseating.
Raven immediately leaped backward, breaking out of Rita's range.
She had to admit—if Schicksal's main force showed up, she might actually be in trouble.
"…The extraterrestrials have vanished anyway. Consider this your good fortune today. May that luck stay with you for life."
"I truly admire Miss Raven's unyielding spirit—such as remaining defiant even after cremation?"
Raven retreated; Rita made no move to pursue, instead sliding smoothly into the trash-talk phase with a delighted smile.
For Rita, the goal was simple: drive Raven off, then secure that peculiar teapot.
"Hmph!"
Raven clearly had no interest in bantering from a disadvantaged position. With a cold flick of her crow-feather cloak, she launched skyward like a genuine raven, vanishing over several swift bounds.
"Phew… World Serpent. What a headache."
Rita sighed toward the distance.
The World Metropolis had always been Schicksal and Anti-Entropy's stage. At some point, this organization called World Serpent had simply appeared.
Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, World Serpent… and now the missing extraterrestrials.
The storm was gathering; the wind already howled through every tower.
Still sighing, Rita used the tip of her scythe to lever up a piece of rubble—or what remained of the alley's corner brickwork.
"…?"
Beneath the tile lay bare ground.
Rita's wine-red pupils contracted.
"Where is my teapot!?"