Acheron nodded, put away her phone, and looked at the screen again and again before decisively setting the photo as her wallpaper.
Whenever the screen lit up, Acheron would see that reassuring smile.
Naturally, Lin Shuang did not see any of this.
She was busy gnawing on a peach to hide her embarrassment.
Just as Lin Shuang quickly finished the peach and found herself with nothing to say for the moment—
Acheron's voice came over.
"Come to think of it... it seems you don't have a phone yet?"
Following her voice, Lin Shuang saw that Acheron's phone screen had gone dark, though she was holding it up as a gesture.
Phones came in all sorts of styles in this world, and went by different names, but the one in Acheron's hand looked much like what Lin Shuang remembered.
"I really don't."
"I have a spare one here. Take it for now. The account has some Credits in it too. You should be able to use it after we leave this place."
As she spoke, Acheron took another phone from her pocket and handed it to Lin Shuang.
"Thank you."
Lin Shuang thanked her without refusing. She truly needed a phone and Credits, or things would definitely become troublesome after leaving this place.
She could not keep following Acheron around forever. That would make her nothing more than dead weight.
Only after Lin Shuang had familiarized herself with the phone did Acheron stand up and grip her sword sheath again.
The atmosphere instantly shifted back into combat mode.
"Break time is over. It's time to train."
Lin Shuang, who had nearly reached her limit from her own wild thoughts, sprang to her feet and gripped her greatsword again.
"What are we doing next?"
"Next, you'll experience a real fight to the death. Rift monsters and the Anti-Matter Legion are everywhere. Go clear out all the ones in this ruined city."
Volume One: How Did Her 37°C Mouth Say Something So Cold?
In a world destroyed by a Stellaron—
There were countless monsters.
Among the Rift monsters scattered everywhere, members of the Anti-Matter Legion would occasionally appear as well.
Once Acheron stopped intervening, Lin Shuang felt the immense pressure of having the entire world as her enemy.
Especially since Acheron insisted that Lin Shuang switch into clearing mode every time they reached a new place.
During the first two days, she was not clearing monsters at all. It was a grand escape, with monsters chasing her everywhere!
Lin Shuang had nearly run herself to death.
Fortunately, Acheron would actively pressure Lin Shuang, forcing her to turn around and fight.
Or, when Lin Shuang was about to reach a safe distance, Acheron would walk over, grab her by the collar, and throw her back in.
As long as she would not die, Acheron pushed her to the brink.
And so, around ten days of "happy" times passed.
This day, in some frozen open-air site whose purpose was unknown—
A white figure was fighting a huge blue monster.
"Sometimes I see a dying bird fall to the ground~"
Accompanied by the melodious singing, tiny flames clung to the crimson greatsword. Lin Shuang held the sword in one hand, lowered herself, and spun aside to evade the sharp ice spikes.
Then, following the force of her body, she swung the blade out and slashed horizontally at Outer Void Ice's legs.
In the collision between scorching heat and bitter cold, the flames condensed by Lin Shuang ultimately proved superior. The blade tore through Outer Void Ice's armor as easily as cutting butter.
With one slash, she severed the monster's legs. Lin Shuang slammed her palm against the ground and fell with the momentum, slipping out from the frost just as the monster howled and counterattacked.
Rising to her feet, she swung another upward slash behind her!
"I thought I were no more than a bystander Till I felt a touch so real~"
This time, she cut it cleanly in two. From bottom to top, following the sorrowful melody, she completely ended Outer Void Ice's life.
Lin Shuang sheathed her sword and stood still, quickly withdrawing the flames as the sound of "moon halo" gradually faded away.
By now, Lin Shuang had long learned to ignore the BGM that automatically started playing whenever a real fight began.
She could even launch attacks in rhythm with the singing.
They were all monsters that could not understand it anyway, and Acheron said this kind of BGM could also train Lin Shuang's focus.
The melodious singing gradually dissipated into the air.
Following the tune, Lin Shuang flicked her hand and dispersed the greatsword, turning it into a cluster of flames that returned to the Herrscher Core.
Lin Shuang herself swiftly headed back in the direction she had come from.
Feeling the energy remaining in her Herrscher Core, Lin Shuang curled her lips and sighed.
Because the Herrscher Core had no way to replenish its energy, every bit of power used was one bit less. Lin Shuang was therefore extremely frugal with it.
She fought almost entirely with the body enhanced by the Herrscher Core.
Only when necessary did she release a little power onto her blade, using flames to kill troublesome enemies.
And that damned BGM would automatically trigger whenever Lin Shuang used her power, continuing until the flames dispersed.
It was absurd beyond belief.
Acheron approached then, sword in hand.
She looked at Lin Shuang approvingly and handed her a peach as a reward.
"You've improved quickly. Your control over energy has improved greatly as well. Perhaps you really are naturally suited for battle."
"Thank you."
Lin Shuang was breathing lightly as she took Acheron's peach, not daring to look at her.
Though Acheron had not meant it that way back then—
It had still been deeply shocking to Lin Shuang. Over these past days, whenever Acheron took out a peach, Lin Shuang would instinctively recall what had happened that day.
Fortunately, her control over her expression had improved noticeably lately. She calmly stuffed the peach into her mouth and shifted her attention elsewhere.
As for her rapid progress over the past few days—
She was not sure whether it came from her own talent or the talent of this body the system had randomly assigned her.
A few days ago, she could only rely on her body's instincts to block Acheron's blade. Even earlier, she could not even stand steadily when facing Acheron.
But now, as more and more monsters died by Lin Shuang's hand, she could think clearly amid high-speed combat, assess the situation, and act accordingly.
Of course, Lin Shuang felt that a large part of why she had improved so quickly was because Acheron would directly pick her up and throw her into groups of monsters.
People were forced into their potential. Sometimes, unless pushed, Lin Shuang herself would never have known that her learning ability was so strong.
Thinking back to her first practical combat session—
Lin Shuang had assumed she would find a few isolated Rift monsters to practice on first. Instead, Acheron grabbed her by the collar and placed her right in the center of a large horde of Rift monsters.
Acheron herself merely stood nearby and watched Lin Shuang get beaten up and flee for her life.
Other than verbally guiding Lin Shuang in the use of a greatsword, she did nothing.
In that frantic escape, Lin Shuang finally came to deeply understand that she should never have held any expectations for Acheron's methods of teaching others.
Still, to be fair, in that adrenaline-fueled state, Lin Shuang really did learn incredibly fast.
Though she had yet to develop any real style, under Acheron's guidance, Lin Shuang's greatsword techniques had begun to look fairly convincing.
"Come to think of it, why do I feel like we've been running into these large monsters more often?"
While biting into her peach, Lin Shuang voiced her doubts curiously.
Acheron nodded and said:
"Of course. We're moving toward the Stellaron now, so the monsters will naturally become stronger and more numerous."
"Pfft—"
Nearly spitting out the peach in her mouth, Lin Shuang stared at Acheron with wide eyes.
"We're getting closer to the Stellaron? Didn't you say I couldn't go near it?"
"I just didn't want you to throw your life away. I never said you couldn't approach it. At your rate of progress, you should be about ready by the time we get close."
Seeing Acheron's serious expression, Lin Shuang found that even the peach in her mouth no longer tasted sweet.
So Lin Shuang sighed seriously too.
She had thought that she had improved a lot lately. She could chop down monsters like Outer Void Ice in two or three strikes, so she thought getting near the Stellaron would no longer be a problem.
"I thought I was already strong enough."
Yet upon hearing that, Acheron nodded instead and walked over to Lin Shuang.
"Purely in terms of strength, you are indeed strong enough. But don't forget, the purpose of training is ultimately to temper your will. Fighting to the death is merely one method."
Enough experience could naturally temper a person's will as well, but time did not permit it.
Thus, life-and-death battles, Acheron's killing intent, and even more aggressive training were all methods of speeding up the process.
"What's the next stage of training?"
Though Lin Shuang held no expectations for Acheron's teaching methods, the results were right there. So, for the moment, she was still curious.
Then Lin Shuang learned what "unnecessary curiosity" meant.
Because Acheron actually revealed a very gentle smile.
"The next stage is fighting me. I'll draw my blade with the intent to kill you."
How could her 37°C mouth say something so cold?
Volume One: The Power and Price of The Nihility
The facts proved that Acheron was someone who did what she said.
When Lin Shuang stood opposite Acheron, she finally realized that the strength with which she could easily kill Rift monsters was not worth mentioning before Acheron.
It was not until Lin Shuang had been sent flying nearly a hundred meters, smashing through an unknown number of abandoned buildings, that she barely heard the shriek of the blade cutting through the air.
Yet that was not all.
What made her tremble even more was the killing intent Acheron released after seemingly truly treating Lin Shuang as an enemy.
When Acheron crossed more than a hundred meters in an instant and arrived before Lin Shuang, who had no time to get back up—
Her fingers gently pushed the sword guard.
Clang—
Acheron's eyes turned blood-red.
That killing intent, carrying a trace of Nihility, suddenly descended and brought pressure far greater than before.
The moment Lin Shuang met Acheron's red eyes, that trace of the power of The Nihility directly robbed her of the ability to resist.
Her body could not even move through force of will.
Lin Shuang felt as if she had fallen into the deep sea, into that pitch-black abyss, where there was no light and no sound.
It was as if everything in the world was leaving with it.
And only at this moment—
Did Lin Shuang finally experience the extreme power of a Path.
True Nihility could never be equated with "giving up." It was the nothingness that denied all existence, a "nothing" in which even death and destruction did not exist.
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