Then, the two of them encountered a major problem.
[System Notification: Current Mission "Sharing a Room and a Pillow" Difficulty: S-Rank]
[Warning: Host, please be mindful of your sleeping posture. If rolling over causes the distance to exceed 100cm, the Valkyrie will face the risk of Phase Loss and falling into Imaginary Space.]
[Suggestion: For the Valkyrie's personal safety, it is recommended to adopt the "Tight Embracing Protocol".]
Looking at that line of advice on the light screen, filled with a twisted sense of humor, Su Yu felt his temples throbbing violently.
Tight embracing, my ass!
This System wasn't just a matchmaker; it was practically an outlaw, wasn't it?
After eating and drinking her fill, that biological instinct known as "drowsiness" finally crawled sluggishly up Kiana's nerves.
She had wandered in Arc City for too long. During those nights sleeping fully clothed amidst ruins and under overpasses, every second was spent guarding against Honkai Beast attacks and the searches of Schicksal mechs.
But now, in this room filled with warmth, the faint scent of body wash, and the purring of a cat, her eyelids began to feel as heavy as lead.
But what followed was a problem even more severe, even more suffocating than using the toilet.
Sleeping.
Su Yu's rental apartment had only one bedroom and one bed.
Although it was a standard double bed, for a lone man and a lone woman who had known each other for less than three hours, this was no different from an execution ground.
"Um..."
Su Yu glanced at the bed, then at Kiana, who was sitting on the carpet hugging her knees, her head already bobbing like she was pounding garlic. He spoke dryly.
"You sleep on the bed."
She subconsciously looked around. "Then what about you?"
If she didn't stay within one meter of Su Yu, she would disappear.
This meant Su Yu couldn't go sleep on the sofa in the living room, or even be too far from the bed.
Su Yu sighed and pulled a spare cotton quilt and pillow out of the closet.
"I'll make a floor bed beside the bed."
He pointed to the narrow aisle between the bed and the wardrobe.
"I'll sleep right here, less than half a meter from the bed. As long as I don't sleepwalk and roll into the living room, you should be safe."
Kiana opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say something in rebuttal, like "I'll sleep on the floor" or "I'm not sleepy, I'll sit up all night."
But physical exhaustion and that incredibly soft-looking bed made her swallow the words hovering on her lips.
As Su Yu deftly laid out the floor bedding, he spoke without turning his head.
"You're the wounded one, and a girl at that. If I let you sleep on the floor and Ah Hua finds out tomorrow, she'll think I'm abusing you. Besides..."
He patted the pillow he had just set down, turning his head to reveal a somewhat helpless smile.
"If you sleep on the floor and I accidentally step on you while getting up at night, what then? With that monstrous strength of yours... I'm afraid I'd lose half my life."
Kiana pursed her lips, looking at the simple floor bed already settled by the bedside.
In the end, she did not insist further.
The lights went out.
Darkness instantly swallowed the entire room, leaving only the sound of rain outside the window and the faint spots of light cast by streetlamps through the gaps in the curtains.
Kiana lay stiffly on the bed.
The mattress beneath her was as soft as clouds, and the quilt carried the dry scent of sunlight.
This was the first time in months she had lain on a real "bed."
It was so comfortable it made her want to cry.
But she couldn't sleep.
Because less than half a meter below her lay a strange man.
In this silent rainy night, she could even clearly hear Su Yu's steady breathing.
Inhale, exhale.
At this distance, that hormonal scent belonging to a male drifted vaguely into her nose, causing every muscle in her body to tense up.
Awkwardness.
Shame.
And a kind of... inexplicable peace of mind.
"...Su Yu?"
In the darkness, Kiana suddenly called out softly.
She didn't yell "Hey," nor did she shout "Pervert"; instead, for the first time, she called his name.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Su Yu's somewhat groggy voice came from the floor bed; evidently, he hadn't fallen asleep yet.
"Does the wound hurt?"
"No..."
Kiana turned onto her side, pulling the quilt up to cover half her face, revealing only a pair of eyes that shone faintly in the dark.
She looked at the blurry dark shadow below the edge of the bed.
"If accidentally... the distance exceeds one meter, what will happen to me?"
"You'd probably be like Cinderella's glass slipper—disappearing as soon as the clock strikes twelve?"
Su Yu cracked a joke that wasn't funny, then rolled over to face the direction of the bed.
"Don't worry, I sleep very soundly. And... this light screen keeps warning me. It would be hard for me to roll away even if I wanted to."
That damned red warning box hovered in mid-air like night vision goggles, displaying the distance between them in real-time:
[Current Distance: 65cm. Status: Extremely Stable.]
"Oh..."
Kiana gave a murmur of acknowledgment and spoke no more.
Darkness settled in, with only the faint streetlamp light filtering through the curtain gap.
The rain continued, pattering against the glass.
"..."
Kiana stared at the ceiling, her fingers gripping the corner of the quilt tight.
After a long while, she spoke.
"You won't... disappear in the middle of the night, right?"
Her voice was very light, carrying an unease she hadn't even noticed herself.
In the darkness, Su Yu's voice came in response.
"I won't."
Brief, calm, as if stating a fact.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Kiana did not answer.
But the hand gripping the corner of the quilt slowly relaxed.
Chongchong had jumped onto the bed at some point, finding a spot by her feet to curl into a ball, emitting a soft purring sound.
The sound of the rain outside the window gradually lessened.
Kiana closed her eyes, her consciousness gradually drifting away.
That night, she did not dream of fire.
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