Hope and Awakening

If life could be lived over again, it should have been a great joy.

If the end of the previous life had been terminal cancer filled with suffering, then being reborn into a younger self—and into a new world that seemed familiar yet different—would have doubled that joy.

"Is this heaven giving me a chance to make up for the regrets of my previous life?"

In his previous life, Lu PingAn's greatest regret had been devoting himself wholeheartedly to his career while neglecting his family.

By the time he had accumulated a fair amount of wealth, his parents, who had struggled so bitterly to raise him, were gone as well.

"This time, I'll make it up to them."

Looking at his parents, at least thirty years younger, Lu PingAn silently made that vow.

"It's cancer. Terminal."

The precautionary physical examination gave him the same answer, and he broke down.

He stopped working, gave up on everything, and waited to die.

He had given up, but someone else had not.

". . . No illness is completely without hope. Even if there's only a one percent chance, silly child, it's too early to give up."

Merely because there was a theoretical possibility of a cure, his parents from the Homeworld abandoned everything without hesitation. They sold their house, sold their property, sold everything they had, and even began taking out loans.

Heh. Should he have been grateful for the newly emerging online lending system of that era and its low barriers?

The two elderly people, who could barely use mobile phones, quickly learned how to take out online loans.

They maxed out every loan they could get, then threw away their pride and borrowed from everyone willing to lend. They scraped together several hundred thousand for the surgery, along with the even more expensive follow-up treatments.

"That boy has been good since he was little. He's our only child. He's always been good at studying and has always made us proud. He's our treasure. We never expected him to become somebody important. We only wanted him to live safely and peacefully. Doctor. . ."

His old father was a farmer. He had never had much schooling and had never begged anyone in his life.

With his head lowered, he offered cigarettes and forced out a smile as he pleaded with the doctor in the corridor.

The cigarettes cost one and a half yuan each. Usually, his father could not bear to smoke them himself, but the person across from him did not even care for them.

Behind the wall, the young man remained silent. Suddenly, his heart hurt, and tears unknowingly slid down his face.

His mother, who had been gentle all her life, faced her child—already nearly despairing under the torment of illness, begging his parents to give up treatment—and said the harshest words of her life.

"You can't give up! If you're gone, we'll go with you!"

Faced with his mother's tearful threat, Lu PingAn, now little more than skin and bones, fell even more silent.

The divide between two lives was nothing before those familiar, dearly missed faces and their heartfelt love and care.

He silently nodded and accepted every reasonable and unreasonable treatment, hoping for the miracle the doctors spoke of.

But science seemed to have no miracles. In the end, the verdict was a death penalty of "at most half a month."

Fortunately, this New World had more than science. It also had supernatural secret realms known as "pollution."

Though those dragged into them were overwhelmingly likely to die, some survivors not only lived but awakened strange and bizarre abilities.

"The survival rate is very low. The chance of awakening an ability is even lower. The chance that the awakened ability can cure cancer. . . At least it isn't zero."

And so, he became a Night Walker.

Using every method available, dragging his diseased body along, he searched for secret realms that led to death.

This time, a miracle truly came. He found a secret realm and survived within it until the end.

But the miracle only came halfway. His Life Bank ability could now only spend money, not earn it. His death penalty had merely become a slow death. He had to improve his ability as quickly as possible and find a way to earn Life Points.

"Enough. It's enough. As long as there's a chance to live, there's hope. It's just that this monitored residence. . . is really annoying."

More troublesome still, the secret realm he had entered seemed especially absurd. It was supposedly a God-level Secret Realm, a Tier ZZZ pollutant.

As a result, he, the survivor, became a surveillance target of the Relevant Departments. Miss Xia Qin, a vice captain of the local Professional Keepers, became his live-in observer.

In Xia Qin's eyes, this surveillance was merely a formality.

". . . I have a life of my own too. I can't keep wasting it on you. Become a Professional Keeper. Only by becoming one can you be a partner rather than a threat, and only then might you gain your freedom. Until then, I'll act as your guarantor to repay the debt I owe you for saving my life in the secret realm."

After a few years, the "polluted" Lu PingAn would either be finished or become her colleague. Things would naturally change by then.

Only Lu PingAn himself knew that such vigilance was not excessive at all. If anything, it was insufficient.

The Relevant Departments' decision was not wrong in the slightest. Pollution could only be overridden by higher-level pollution.

From the perspective of the general public, directly killing him might have been the best choice.

In fact, even though the report listed his minimum threat level as Z, near-divine, and his maximum threat level as ZZZ, divine, they had still underestimated Lu PingAn's "specialness."

What he had gained in that secret realm was not merely a Rule-level ability concealing most of its truth.

He also held a key capable of effortlessly destroying a city.

"Open. My secret realm."

A silver key appeared. It was a Secret Realm Key bound to his soul, a component of his god-level ability.

". . . Open the door for your master, Secluded Courtyard. Hi. How are you, my divine prisoner?"

The next moment, the world twisted, and a landscape from another world appeared before him.

The circular classical arena seemed to have fallen into disrepair long ago. Its wall decorations and carvings were broken and ruined, the walkways covered in Parasitic Plants climbing the walls, while the brick seats had rotted away.

Yet no strange scenery could compare to the owner of this miracle.

The oak throne gave off the scent of natural incense. Pure white flowers bloomed from its twisted wooden tendrils, and upon the throne made of flowers and oak lay a pure white Saint Beast.

Three tails swayed freely below the throne. The snake heads between them enjoyed offerings from a fruit platter. Lightning faintly flowed across the giant beast's body, but closer inspection revealed that it was one with the wooden throne beneath it.

Part of her flesh had turned to wood. Root-like sacred oak wrapped around her hide, while her twisted, deer-like horns were sacred and natural. The tiger stripes on her body faintly gleamed with the luster of oak bark.

A living tree—or rather, a living beast—had appeared in the mortal world in a mythological form beyond human understanding.

A demigod had appeared in the human world. This had once been her secret realm, and her world.

She was Kerdales, the Saint Beast of Life, a great demigod.

At the same time, she was Lu PingAn's greatest gain from that secret realm.

It was just that this demigod's situation was somewhat strange, and her expression looked as though she had eaten something wrong.

"Yo, Kerdales. Your work efficiency's a little low. Careful, or I'll dock your pay. Uh, you don't get paid. Does that have anything to do with the money you owe me?"

She wore a large blue-and-red janitor's uniform, a white apron, and a cleaning cap, with a mop and dustpan in her hands. One tail held a rag, another carried a bucket, and the last one had a plunger hanging from it.

Her whole beastly appearance looked like an Old Woman working as a cleaner. In fact, she was doing precisely that job.

The pure giant beast currently leaned against a wall, gripping a mop larger than a utility pole in her enormous claws as she busily scrubbed up and down, cleaning bloodstains and ivy from the ground. Because the new master here was rather fond of cleanliness!

When she saw Lu PingAn arrive, even though her illusory body could not resist the World's Logic decrees imposed by the master of this world, her Beast Eyes were still filled with killing intent.

". . . Bindings are not eternal. Rules always have loopholes. No contract lasts forever, and no one can remain vigilant forever. As a mortal, as a weakling, you dare insult and enslave a deity. Boy, I admire your courage. But someday, I will properly savor the deliciousness of your soul, over centuries of time. . ."

The "Saint Beast" discarded her pretense. Beneath her bared fangs lay naked resentment, curses, and threats. Yet dressed as a cleaning beast-mother, cursing while being constrained by a "decree" to keep mopping, her curse was hardly frightening.

But the content of her words was completely true.

Every binding had gaps, and as a demigod, Kerdales had a high chance of ignoring any curse below Law Decree-level.

Smart people always left themselves some room when acting.

When the weak bound the strong, it was like a lamb binding a wolf. It was enough to use the chance to gather some information and resources. Offending the other party to the bitter end carried a high chance of backlash.

Yet when faced with the Saint Beast's undisguised malice and threats, Lu PingAn smiled.

If he could not resolve that damned system, he had half a year to live at most. Why the hell would he worry about the future?

"Hehe. I'm looking forward to that day. The sooner, the better. It's just that. . ."

After pondering for a moment, he slapped his forehead and finally realized what felt wrong.

"I'm a shut-in, and in my own secret private residence, I'm keeping an Old Woman cleaner. That's a bit embarrassing. By the way, Kerdales, can you take human form?"

As an extra included with the secret realm Small World, Secluded Courtyard, the "Tower Spirit" Kerdales could not refuse the "reasonable demands" of the "master of this world"—such as cleaning the local environment, or changing into a form more suited to her master's aesthetic preferences.

"Ohoho, blonde hair, beast ears, spiral curls, green eyes, a mature nun-type beauty. Not bad, not bad. This human form is great. That outfit doesn't suit you very well. Come on, change into a Maid Outfit. Strange, I feel like you look a little familiar. Forget it. If I can't remember, there's no need to think about it."

"Uh, something's still missing. Right, Kerdales can be shortened to 'Chris.' Come on, Miss Chris, give your master a smile. Sweetly say, 'Master-sama.'"

"Great, absolutely great. Come on, let me take a few pictures and post them online. Don't pull down your skirt. Your panties can't be seen, I guarantee it with my character. What, I have no character? I'm not human? Fine, fine. Since I'm not human anyway, take off your underwear and let me take a few more. Yes, yes, yes, that expression—full of shy disgust, too angry to speak! Yes! That's it!"

"You don't want to wear a Maid Outfit? Of course you don't have to. Hehe, after all, I'm not some demon. You can take off the Maid Outfit whenever you want. Wearing only an apron and white stockings would be even better. Wearing only a doctor's white coat would be nice too. No? Ha, what a disappointment. My camera was already ready."

Today, after leaving his observer's sight, Lu PingAn was, as usual, racing happily down the road of courting death.

In a sense, he had to thank her for her Gift.

On the day he emerged from that Secluded Courtyard, he had received this great gift.

```