Tell Me, How Should People Like You Change?

Not long after the plane home had landed, Xina had vaguely sensed a familiar yet uncomfortable feeling.

And so far, only one person had ever made the hairs on her back stand up like that: Fu Hua.

Xina thought... if Schicksal truly suspected her of being a Herrscher yet had only sent Fu Hua alone, then it could only mean one thing—Fu Hua's strength was anything but ordinary. She definitely had the ability to hold off, or even kill, a Herrscher on her own.

Thinking of the intense sense of danger she had felt from Fu Hua, something even S-Rank Valkyrie Theresa had never made her feel...

Having confirmed her suspicions, Xina had no choice but to play the good girl for a few days.

The next morning, Xina changed into a fresh outfit and walked out of her house full of energy. She raised her head to watch the sun slowly rise over the horizon, and a faint flush touched her pale face.

Great! That prickling feeling on her back was gone. Fu Hua had left, and she finally did not have to keep up the act so exhaustingly!

Free from Fu Hua, Xina hummed a little tune as she walked along the bustling street.

Maybe it was just psychological, but everything looked especially pleasing to Xina today.

"Hello, one iced cola!" Xina walked into a convenience store, pointed at the cola in the display case, then laid out three coins.

"The refrigerator broke a few days ago, and I haven't had time to replace it. The cola's only at room temperature!" The convenience store owner scratched the back of his bald head awkwardly as he looked at Xina.

"Mm... no more iced cola..." A trace of disappointment flashed through Xina's eyes, but it was soon replaced by a sharp glint. "Forget it. Room temperature is fine. Give me one."

"Sure, here you go!" The owner handed Xina a room-temperature cola from the cabinet. Just as he was about to turn around, his body froze in place.

He must have been seeing things... The bottle of cola he had just handed over had somehow formed a thin layer of white frost in that girl's hand.

After a long while, he turned back and could not help rubbing his eyes as he stared at Xina's retreating figure.

"I've really been using my brain too much lately. I actually forgot I can chill cola myself." Xina lightly tapped the bottle with her fingertip, watching the white frost crawl up and down its surface as an unnatural faint smile spread across her face.

As she passed a park, Xina, who had already walked past it, turned back. She stood there blankly, staring at an old Swing hanging from a tree trunk.

Looking at the empty Swing, Xina's thoughts inexplicably drifted back many years. Back then, she seemed to have loved swings, because... because she had liked the feeling of wind whistling past her ears.

After a while, Xina came back to herself. She looked around, and seeing no one nearby, cautiously walked over to the Swing and slowly sat down...

Sunlight, breeze, the scent of flowers, a Swing, cola...

Honestly, sometimes this world was not so bad, was it?

Just as she was thinking that, a sudden whooshing sound came from behind her ear. Xina leaned aside to avoid the object flying toward her, then turned her head to look in the direction the stone had come from.

When she saw who it was, Xina could not help frowning. The instinctive disgust that rose within her immediately darkened the good mood she had worked so hard to regain.

"Well, well, well. Long time no see, our Freak Girl!"

The leader raised his chin, revealing a disgusting smile.

"Yeah, yeah. It felt a little strange not seeing Freak Girl for so long. But now that you mention it, haven't you noticed our Freak Girl seems to have gotten prettier lately? How about we put in some effort and give her a little makeover?"

The speaker maliciously picked up a stone from the ground and approached Xina with a wicked grin. The others around him wore equally repulsive expressions, forming a semicircle and cutting off Xina's retreat.

No, it should be said that they had cut off their own path to survival.

"Tch. I hadn't even thought of coming to find you, and yet you came looking for me yourselves..."

Xina stood up from the Swing and set the half-finished cola aside. Testing them, she asked, "What are you trying to do? If the cameras catch this, you'll be arrested."

"Hah!? What are you talking about? There aren't any cameras here at all. Even if we cripple you, no one would know..."

Hearing that, the remaining scum gathered in a circle, eagerly watching their "prey," completely failing to notice the golden light flickering in Xina's eyes.

Oh! So there were no cameras here! Then she did not have to worry about Schicksal or Anti-Entropy noticing if she made a move.

Upon hearing the words "no cameras," Xina's previously uneasy heart settled down. Even the fear she had been pretending to show vanished from her face.

"Wonderful!" Xina chuckled, raising her head with malicious intent and coldly staring at the pieces of trash who had come running over to die.

"What are you smiling about, Freak Girl? Did we scare you so badly that something snapped in your head?" The bastard holding a club looked doubtfully at the smiling Xina, thinking she had been frightened stupid.

"No, no, no. I'm happy because I can finally punish you!"

As she spoke, Xina raised her right hand and pointed her index finger at the nearest bastard. With only a flicker of Blue Light at her fingertip, a pale-blue ice sculpture appeared on the park lawn.

"M-Monster..."

Watching their close companion turn into an ice sculpture out of thin air, these cowardly bastards were so frightened that their legs trembled. They did not even have the strength to run.

"Hey, hey, hey. Weren't you shouting so happily just now? Why are you mute now?" Xina looked at the bastards who wanted to run but could not, a half-smile on her face as the chill in her eyes grew stronger.

"I-I-I... I know I was wrong! Y-You... please let me go!"

"No, you don't know you were wrong. You only know you're about to die, and you want to survive." Xina extended a slender finger and waved it before his eyes, teasingly saying, "I can tell from your eyes that I was right."

"If that's the case, then go repent in hell! Remember to behave yourself in your next life!"

The moment she finished speaking, the man discovered in terror that his body was being enveloped by Black Mist from nowhere. In an instant, half his body was corroded into black powder.

With a single gust of wind, he vanished without a trace, as though he had never existed in this world.

The remaining bastards saw the horrifying sight and all fell to their knees, weeping and begging Xina to forgive them.

"Look at you. When you bully the weak, you're so arrogant. But when you meet someone stronger, you turn into this ugly mess!" Xina looked at the sobbing people before her, her face filled with disgust.

"Honestly, if you had been rotten through and through, maybe I could have spared you another glance. But the way you are now is truly hideous—hideous enough to make me sick."

"I swear, I'll turn over a new leaf and become a new man!" One quick-witted fellow suddenly spoke up among those kneeling on the ground. He raised his hand above his head and made a venomous oath, only to receive Xina's clown-like stare.

Xina pressed her index finger to the man's brow and softly said, "Turn over a new leaf? I don't believe that for a second. Tell me, how should people like you change?"

"My answer is: you can't! Only death!"

As soon as she finished speaking, an icy-blue beam pierced through the man's skull, turning the corpse with its "open mind" into an ice sculpture kneeling on the ground.

A few minutes later, Xina carried her unfinished iced cola and swayed out of the park, stepping over shattered bits of ice scattered across the ground.

She had said returning home had not been for nothing. After waiting all these years, she had finally gotten revenge for the grievances she had suffered—and with several times the interest added on.

Xina wandered aimlessly through the streets until evening, when she finally stopped in front of an appliance store. On the televisions displayed in the window, the news was reporting on Singapore.

But strangely, whenever the people on TV spoke of the cause of the disaster, it was as if they had received some kind of suggestion. They either deliberately changed the subject or spoke vaguely around the issue. In any case, not one of them answered the question directly.

That gave Xina a new understanding of Schicksal's influence.

Just as she was thinking about it, rapid breathing and heavy footsteps sounded behind her.

Tch, coming for me again? What a pain! What the hell has been going on today?

Xina turned around and did nothing as an old woman with bloodshot eyes grabbed her collar tightly and shouted in a rage, "It's her! It must be her! My child's disappearance must have something to do with her!"

Disappearance?

At first, Xina did not quite react. It was only when the old woman's weathered face overlapped with that bastard from this morning, the one Black Mist had turned to ash, that Xina finally remembered.

"Miss, you are suspected of involvement in a missing-person case. Please come with us. We hope you will cooperate with the investigation!" Looking at Xina's sickly appearance, the two FBI agents clearly did not quite believe this frail girl could be the culprit. Even their tone was unusually gentle.

"Um... do I need to wear handcuffs?" Xina expressionlessly raised both hands and arched an eyebrow as if in provocation.

Xina knew full well that she had scattered even the ashes of those bastards. No matter how they investigated, they would find nothing. At most, she would be out again in twenty-four hours, perfectly intact.

At this time of day, perhaps once she got in there, she could even mooch a few donuts from the FBI for a late-night snack.

"If you cooperate with the investigation, there will be no need for handcuffs." The older FBI agent pulled the bloodshot-eyed old woman away and gestured for Xina to follow.

"Oh!" Xina pursed her lips and openly climbed into the FBI patrol car.

Once they arrived, Xina, entering a police station for the first time, curiously looked around at everything. Her calm bearing, like a leader inspecting the place, made the FBI agents nearby twitch at the corners of their eyes. They silently complained: Which official's daughter had come to "inspect" the place again?