Even though this cramped little room of mine hadn't gained or lost a single thing in its layout compared to before I started the simulation—
Now that Lunelle's consciousness had returned to reality, she could clearly feel something odd had changed in the world before her eyes. It just didn't look the same as she remembered.
"Weird… Why does the world look different now than usual?"
It was as if her eye level had suddenly dropped—like someone had chopped off a chunk of her height out of nowhere.
Huh?
Wait… Chopped off part of her height?
"Don't tell me… I've gotten shorter!?"
Only after unconsciously connecting the dots to height did Lunelle belatedly realize a crucial detail she'd been somehow overlooking all this time.
Sure, Lunelle had only been living here for less than three days since crossing over.
And her daily routine mostly amounted to eat, sleep, bathe, then sleep some more—a dull, laid-back lifestyle if there ever was one.
So it wasn't entirely impossible that Lunelle simply hadn't fully familiarized herself with this rented space yet, leading to this kind of oversight right under her nose.
But Lunelle was, after all, someone who could confidently claim to be "seven feet tall"—figuratively speaking.
Of course, her actual height wasn't anywhere near as terrifying as the ancient standard where one chi measured over thirty centimeters, adding up to over two meters—practically a giant.
Still, the original Lunelle did stand at a neat, round one hundred and seventy centimeters tall.
And the world seen from one-seventy, compared to the one seen from one-forty-nine…
Even without experiencing it firsthand, just imagining it was enough to grasp how glaring the difference would be.
Logically, such an obvious issue should've been spotted in seconds by anyone with half a brain.
Anyone normal would've instantly realized the strange shift in perspective was due to their own height suddenly shrinking.
But when Lunelle replayed the scene in her mind now, she noticed something eerily unsettling.
To think she'd miss something so basic… It felt less like a sudden, forced bout of stupidity or forgetfulness, and more like…
Some bizarre force had subtly, seamlessly warped her subconscious into accepting this new, lower vantage point as perfectly natural—as if it had always suited her better.
And this kind of imperceptible cognitive distortion could only come from the [True Self] talent she'd brought out of the simulation!
After all, the most terrifying aspect of [True Self] was how it initially reshaped Lunelle—optimizing her completely in ways that aligned perfectly with the very core of her soul.
And because this transformation was utterly beneficial to her soul and consciousness…
Even though many parts of Lunelle had become drastically different, she herself felt nothing out of the ordinary.
"Just as I thought… nothing in this world comes free."
"While binding with the [True Self] talent has given me unimaginable benefits, the side effects are probably more frightening than I ever imagined!"
Having caught a glimpse of the talent's horror, Lunelle had no choice but to accept the cruel reality: her former one-seventy height had quietly been slashed by over twenty centimeters.
But with [True Self] now active, Lunelle's stamina attribute had skyrocketed.
Before, it took a full 14 points of Honkai adaptability to pitifully convert into just 1.4 stamina.
Now, it was like trading a musket for a… ahem, let's keep it civilized—a mechanical ascension!
In short, the conversion rate had multiplied tenfold. With 26 points of Honkai adaptability, Lunelle now gained a full 26 points in stamina!
Add that to her original base stamina of 3, and Lunelle had quietly grown into a formidable being with a stamina stat of 29!
So what did 29 stamina actually mean?
On paper, it roughly equaled the combined stamina of six average adult men from the Honkai world.
Considering that a lazy shut-in like Lunelle—still an adult, but not exactly robust—only rated a stamina score of 3…
It was clear the simulator's benchmark of "5 stamina for a normal adult male" held decent weight.
To be conservative, let's equate one adult man's strength to about 110 pounds.
(A/N: A normal adult man should be able to manage 110 pounds of force, right?)
Plugging in Lunelle's sixfold multiplier, that meant she now wielded a terrifying strength of roughly 660 pounds!
Who would've thought that just three days ago, Lunelle was genuinely weaker than the average grown man—a true softie.
Yet in such a short time, thanks to the simulator's talent boost, she had evolved into a powerhouse with an estimated 660 pounds of strength?
For context, world-class weightlifting champions, at their peak, push close to 1,100 pounds.
And here was Lunelle, standing just one-forty-nine tall, already reaching three-fifths of a world champion's level—all from Honkai adaptability conversion.
This terrifying rate of physical enhancement finally gave Lunelle a bit of survival capability against lower-tier threats in the Honkai world.
Take the zombie grunts transformed from most men, for example. With her current strength, as long as she avoided getting bitten…
Lunelle was absolutely confident she could give those zombies a "relocation surgery" for their heads with one solid slap!
And considering zombies were just failed attempts at turning into Honkai beasts…
Given Lunelle's current Honkai adaptability, even if she did get bitten, it'd probably just sting a bit.
After all, the Honkai energy in a mere zombie was far from enough to infect someone like her now!
But with the simulator in hand, even just clearing the safety net each time…
Lunelle could now grind attribute points at over ten times her previous efficiency!
Daydreaming about carving her way through the Honkai world in the future, Lunelle suddenly felt her stomach rumble again.
In good spirits, she used the hot water she'd stored earlier to fix herself a cup of instant noodles.
She even splurged, adding a sausage and a marinated egg.
After draining the broth completely, a peculiar urge to pee washed over her.
Not thinking much of it, Lunelle habitually got up to head to the still-intact bathroom for a quick relief.
But when she instinctively moved to stand as usual—
∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?
Σ(°ロ°)!!!
That's when it hit her. That's when Lunelle finally realized what had really felt off and strange all along.
"Where the hell is my little brother!?"
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.