A black, securely wrapped parcel dropped out of thin air, smacking Nishi squarely on the top of her head.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
Clutching her head with both hands, Nishi glared down at the package on the floor. She tore it open to reveal an assortment of passports and official identification documents. Back in the Survival Space, she had gained a basic understanding of this world's infrastructure by messing around on a computer—though it was a very rudimentary understanding at best. Her computer skills had been learned entirely inside the Survival Space; otherwise, even if given an entire month in the real world, she probably wouldn't have figured out how to hit the power button.
"Is this my official identity for this world?" Nishi sat cross-legged on the floor, flipping through the various certificates, muttering under her breath, "Ah... isn't this a bit overkill? Is living in this world really this much of a bureaucratic nightmare?"
A short while later, Cyan stepped out of the bathroom, using a towel to dry her damp hair. Walking into the living room, she found Nishi still sitting on the floor, intently studying the documents with various international passports scattered all around her.
When Nishi looked up and saw Cyan walking out with her upper body completely bare—water droplets gliding smoothly down pale skin that carried a faint, peach-pink flush from the heat—her eyes widened, and her face flushed crimson. For her, this sudden visual payload was entirely too stimulating.
"Are you going to shower? Once you're done, we need to go buy clothes, a smartphone..." Since Nishi was going to be living alongside her in this world, standard daily necessities were mandatory purchases. Cyan systematically counted the items on her fingers.
"I'm showering!" Nishi scrambled up, practically peeling her clothes off as she bolted into the bathroom.
BAM!
"Ow!"
Cyan heard a heavy thud against the tile followed by Nishi's cry of pain. Evidently, she had accelerated far too quickly and wiped out. The tiled floor was notoriously slick when wet; running at maximum velocity inside a bathroom, if she didn't slip, who would?
Cyan sat down on the sofa, resting her laptop on her lap. Her slender fingers tapped across the keyboard, executing a targeted search for information regarding the video game Super Mario Bros.
Princess Peach? Bowser?
Cyan stared at the digital rendering of Princess Peach and the fire-breathing giant turtle Bowser, both of whom looked completely different from the figures in her memories, and felt entirely dazed. What is going on here? Wasn't it Prince Peach? How did the Bowserette from the game turn into a giant fire-breathing turtle?
The doorbell chimed. Cyan set the laptop aside, walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, and glanced toward the main gate. She spotted Erni standing outside, systematically pressing the buzzer.
"Erni, you look terrible." Cyan opened the door, immediately noticing Erni's highly unstable complexion.
"I'll explain what happened in a moment." Erni shook her head. Her face was deathly pale, yet her lips were an unsettlingly vibrant shade of crimson, and a blood-red sheen flickered deep within her emerald-like eyes. The moment her mind drifted back to the events of the Survival Game, her face grew visibly paler.
"What exactly occurred?" Returning to the living room, Cyan watched Erni sit silently on the sofa, hugging her arms tightly around herself.
"My survival round this time was set in the world of Underworld..." Erni opened her mouth, slowly recounting the harrowing details. Her instance hadn't been a solo trial like Cyan's; there were other Survivors deployed alongside her. They had initially negotiated a cooperative strategy to complete the mission parameters. However, while hunting down the local vampires, she was ruthlessly sold out by her temporary allies.
Not only was she bitten by a dying vampire's final counterattack, but she came within inches of fully turning into a creature of the night. If she hadn't possessed a specialized baseline of Ripple energy within her body, she would have completely transformed. Unfortunately, her internal Ripple reserves were too meager to fully eradicate the corruptive vampiric lineage, leaving her trapped as a mutated, half-human, half-vampire hybrid.
"Cyan, at the thought of having to endure eighteen more rounds of these Survival Games, sometimes I honestly feel like... I'd be better off dead. Staying alive is just so exhausting!" Erni covered her face, weeping bitterly. In front of her family, she had to maintain a perfectly normal, care-free front, acting as if she were just a regular girl playing video games and watching anime.
But this betrayal had forced her to look directly into the terrifying void of mortality. Her limbs had been severed, and she had lain paralyzed on the cold ground, quietly waiting for the sunrise. If the Ripple energy hadn't kept her from turning completely, the exact millisecond the morning sun hit her, she would have been instantly incinerated into ash. Death itself wasn't what terrified her; it was the agonizing anticipation of it—like a razor-sharp blade suspended over your neck, dropping millimeter by millimeter. Part of you wanted it to drop instantly to end the pain, while another part desperately screamed for it to slow down. Enduring that dual torment of body and mind made her long for a quick death, even while she desperately clawed to survive.
"Cyan... could you just kill me?" Erni lifted her head, her eyes veiled in tears as she looked at Cyan with absolute, soul-crushing despair.
"The sensation of death isn't pleasant. Don't you want revenge?" Cyan looked down, her silver eyes locking onto Erni's trembling form.
"I... I want revenge, but I'm too weak..." Erni sobbed, staring into Cyan's calm, silver eyes. She whispered softly, "Can I just hold you for a moment?"
"Okay."
"Thank you." Erni wrapped her arms tightly around Cyan's waist, burying her face against Cyan's stomach.
"You have already grown significantly stronger. If you want revenge, focus entirely on multiplying your strength, and then execute that person. If you can track his biological coordinates down in the real world, the equation becomes infinitely simpler." Cyan could feel the violent tremors wracking Erni's body—despair, pain, helplessness, and total psychological collapse. At this moment, she was like a fragile porcelain doll that would shatter under the slightest pressure.
"Only by staying alive do you maintain a statistical probability for revenge. If you die, you lose all operational capital." Cyan placed her hand on Erni's head, gently stroking her hair as if comforting a small animal. "Your death won't affect him in the slightest... You wouldn't want him to live a perfectly comfortable life after ruining yours so completely, right?"
"Mhm... I will live. I'll find that bastard, and then I'll pay him back tenfold for everything he did to me!" Erni squeezed Cyan tighter, her words laced with absolute venom.
Erni, if you die, it will cause me an incredible amount of logistical trouble... Cyan breathed a silent sigh of relief seeing Erni regain her survival drive. If Erni died, the ensuing headache would fall entirely on Cyan—finding another perfectly optimized, rent-free base of operations would be exceptionally tedious!
Did she fall asleep? Cyan noticed Erni's breathing stabilize into a deep slumber. She lifted her up effortlessly, carried her into the master bedroom, placed her gently onto the bed, and pulled up the comforter.
"Master, what's her deal?" Nishi stood at the bedroom door with her arms crossed, glancing at the sleeping Erni before shifting her focus onto Cyan.
"She fell asleep."
"I can see she's asleep, but why is she sleeping in your bed?"
"This is her house."
"..." Nishi, who had a whole sequence of complaints lined up, was instantly struck completely dumb.
"Once she wakes up, we will execute our shopping objectives." Cyan walked past Nishi, casually catching her by the arm and pulling her back toward the living room.
By the afternoon, the long eyelashes of the girl on the bed fluttered slightly as she slowly opened her eyes.
I am... Remembering her emotional breakdown from earlier, Erni's mind felt significantly calmer, though she immediately buried her face in her hands out of sheer embarrassment. Oh my god! I acted exactly like a toddler begging an adult for comfort!
"Hahaha! That is way too stupid!"
Before Erni even reached the living room, Nishi's booming laughter echoed down the hall. In the main lounge, the master and servant were sitting together watching television, which was currently broadcasting the sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
"You're awake. Do you require pizza?" Cyan glanced over at Erni, gesturing toward the boxes on the coffee table.
"Sorry for causing you trouble again," Erni said, her face tinged with a mix of awkwardness and residual shyness. She then turned her gaze toward Nishi, analyzing her features. "By the way, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to remain anchored to the Survival Space?" Even though her hair color and facial contours had been structurally altered, the only individual who would stick to Cyan like an inseparable piece of medical plaster was this girl.
"It is perfectly natural for me to be by Master's side! On the other hand, you keep bothering Master whenever nothing is going on—what exactly are your hidden intentions?" Facing Erni's scrutiny, Nishi glared right back, refusing to yield an inch of ground.
"This happens to be my house. I can come and go as I please, does it look like any of your business?" Erni smiled faintly, sitting down directly next to Cyan and pulling a slice of pizza from the box. "Cyan hasn't even voiced an objection, yet you, a mere servant, seem to have an awful lot of opinions."
"You!" Nishi was so incensed she looked ready to plant a fist right into Erni's face.
"Nishi and I operate as equals," Cyan suddenly interjected, her eyes remaining completely locked onto the television screen.
"Hehehe~!" Nishi instantly wrapped her arms around Cyan's shoulders, throwing a highly triumphant look at Erni. "Master has never viewed me as a servant~!"
"Hmph." Seeing Erni's smug, gloating expression, Erni suddenly felt the pizza lose all its flavor.
"Eat quickly. Once finished, we will resolve the energetic structural instability within your body," Cyan urged.
"The instability within my body..." Erni blinked, realizing exactly what Cyan meant. A look of profound joy washed over her face as she asked excitedly, "Can it really be resolved?"
"Perhaps." Cyan wasn't entirely certain herself. But since Erni's baseline Ripple energy had successfully halted a full vampiric transformation, it stood to reason that introducing a far more potent, high-density manifestation of Ripple energy could systematically purge the residual corruption and restore her baseline biology.
The Basement
"Is it absolutely necessary to conduct this operation down here?" Erni asked nervously, her hands tightly clasped against her chest. Not long ago, she had actively welcomed the concept of death; now, she was suddenly a bit worried that Cyan was bringing her down to a secluded basement to silence her permanently.
Cyan glanced at Erni but offered no verbal response. She smoothly adjusted her respiratory rhythm, and the massive reserves of Ripple energy slumbering deep within her bloodstream awoke at her call. As her blood surged through her circulatory system, a mist-like golden radiance began to visibly seep outward from her pores.
Cyan extended her hand, pressing her fingertip directly against Erni's forehead. The concentrated Ripple energy flowed seamlessly along her finger and surged straight into Erni's body. At a visible rate, Erni's deathly pale complexion began to flush with a healthy, vibrant rosiness.
As the minutes ticked by, the physical structural anomalies forced upon Erni by the vampiric taint were systematically purified under the relentless pressure of the golden energy, reverting her biology back to its original baseline.
"You've saved my life yet again~!" Erni held Cyan's warm hand, gently pressing it against her cheek.
"As compensation for the logistical and energetic assistance, escort Nishi and me on a shopping excursion. You will cover all financial liabilities," Cyan stated her conditions with absolute, blunt clarity.
"You certainly aren't polite when ordering your tools around!" Erni laughed, though Cyan laying out such explicit, transactional conditions actually made her feel significantly more at ease. "Oh right, do you want to inspect my updated system profile?"
"Affirmative."
"I want to see too!"
Erni immediately projected her personal status panel into their shared visual field.
[Survivor No. 12010 Personal Attributes]
[Strength: 11 | Agility: 12 | Constitution: 15 | Intelligence: 10 | Spirit: 12 | Perception: 12 | Charisma: 10]
[Passive Skills:]
[Mutated Bloodline (Special Passive): A lineage thoroughly purified by Ripple energy. It has triggered a unique physical optimization within your body. All Attributes +5.]
[Self-Healing (Special Passive): Accelerates natural recovery speed post-injury. Regenerates 3 HP per second. Note: If the heart sustains critical trauma, the self-healing efficacy degrades, dropping the regeneration rate to 1 HP per second.]
[Ripple Qigong (Special Passive) | Skill Level: LV1]
[Generates a specialized bio-energy within the bloodstream via a distinct breathing methodology.]
[Active Skills:]
[Vampiric Embrace (Active) | Skill Level: LV1]
[Note: Due to the ongoing purification of the vampiric lineage by Ripple energy, this skill is currently locked. Once the vampiric lineage is entirely purged, this skill will permanently disappear!]
[Kindred Claws (Active) | Skill Level: LV1]
[Note: Due to the ongoing purification of the vampiric lineage by Ripple energy, this skill is currently locked. Once the vampiric lineage is entirely purged, this skill will permanently disappear!]
What had originally registered as a highly dangerous Mutated Vampire Bloodline had shifted into a neutralized Mutated Bloodline due to the purification process. However, the residual vampiric taint within Erni's body hadn't been one hundred percent eradicated yet. Furthermore, her Ripple Qigong level had naturally upgraded from LV0 to LV1. Considering the massive baseline attribute spike she received, this entire ordeal could truly be classified as a massive blessing in disguise.
"The corruption hasn't been completely eliminated... Achieving total purification will require your own persistent efforts," Cyan noted upon reading the status prompts for [Vampiric Embrace] and [Kindred Claws]. She recognized that completely eradicating the deep-seated taint within Erni's body was a threshold her external Ripple energy could not cross alone; it required internal cultivation.
"Mhm! I'll train my Ripple Qigong with everything I've got!" Erni stated with fierce determination. Having her attributes skyrocket by such a massive margin was an undeniably joyous outcome, vastly multiplying her mathematical probability of securing successful vengeance. The moment I cross paths with that bastard in a Survival Game, I am going to butcher him! I need to push myself even harder!
Thinking back to the awe-inspiring sight of Cyan's entire body radiating a brilliant, golden light, Nishi grew immensely eager to achieve that exact state herself. She clenched her fists tightly, straining with all her might for a long moment until a micro-arc of golden lightning crackled across her thumb.
"Do you want to form a party?" Cyan paused at the exit door, turning her head back to extend a formal invitation to Erni.
Erni instinctively opened her mouth to accept, but immediately hesitated and shook her head. "No. If I party up with you now, I'll subconsciously start relying on your strength. If that happens, I'll eventually just become a deadweight dragging you down."
She desperately wanted to be Cyan's true teammate, not a piece of useless baggage. To survive the brutal meat-grinder of the Survival Game world, independent strength was non-negotiable; sheltering under someone else's wing would only breed internal cowardice. She absolutely could not commit the same fatal error twice. Clenching her fists, she swore a silent oath to herself. "Once I become significantly stronger, let's party up then!"
"Understood." Cyan observed the absolute resolve in Erni's eyes, turned around, and walked out.
After leaving the basement, Cyan and Nishi piled into the high-end vehicle Erni kept parked in the mansion's garage and headed to a nearby mega-mall. Following a massive, unbridled shopping spree, they finally returned home.
Cyan held the exceptionally long checkout receipt, staring blankly down at it for an extended period. The absolute financial damage of this single shopping trip completely exceeded her baseline imagination. Fortunately, she happened to have an affluent human tool right beside her whose only notable quality was having more money than god.