By Now, I Might as Well Get Some Sleep

"Phew~"

Jiang Mian returned to her tiny apartment, casually kicked her shoes aside, and plopped down on the bed.

"That was close. I almost bought it."

If she hadn't been prepared, and if her acting hadn't been so good, she would've been locked up for at least a week when she couldn't give them a proper explanation.

The dose of medicine she'd used before only lasted half a month, after all!

Maybe it was because she was starving,

but ever since awakening, she hadn't even reached the threshold of First Order, much less activated her full ability.

This world had five Awakening Paths: Myriad Spirits, Soul, Elemental, Radiance, and War,

while the Calamity Sequences were their opposites, divided into Silent Death, Nightmare, Cataclysm, Chaos, and Slaughter.

Paths were, in plain terms, just a way of categorizing the various Sequence Abilities.

The Sequence Ability she'd awakened, [Doom], was the pinnacle of the [Cataclysm] Path, encompassing every ability related to natural disasters.

Once it developed, its range of destruction would undoubtedly be the greatest among the five Calamity Paths.

But to activate it, she needed to be in a "relatively satiated" state. She had to either devour a Calamity Core or... an awakened person's flesh and blood.

Jiang Mian considered herself psychologically normal. Eating a "person"...

She couldn't do it. There was no way she could do it.

But if she wanted to hunt calamities, she'd need an official awakened identity to leave the city, as well as enough strength to handle the dangers out there.

And there was the problem.

She couldn't eat enough, so she couldn't activate her ability.

She couldn't hunt without using her ability, so she couldn't eat enough.

A vicious cycle, plain and simple.

But what if she gave up the Suppressor and kept pushing her mind? Maybe she'd be able to fully enter First Order. The consequences... would probably be that the Suppressor wore off much faster, and her mutation accelerated dramatically.

"What a mess..."

Jiang Mian irritably ran a hand through her hair, mussing up the smooth strands.

She'd been transported to another world and changed sex; that was one thing. But her awakened ability was all show and no substance. Sequence Three sounded impressive, yet she hadn't even gotten an Initial Skill...

No, that wasn't quite true. Did being able to eat a ton count?

Ever since awakening, her appetite had become astonishing.

Before, with her original tiny stomach, she'd be stuffed after one bowl of rice. Now, she needed at least three large bowls per meal.

So even though her physique had improved, her food expenses had multiplied, leaving her already empty wallet in an even worse state.

"Ugh, I still need to figure out how to make money for medicine..."

Jiang Mian wearily got to her feet. She still had some money left, enough to last a while, but she couldn't just live off her savings forever.

With tired steps, she went to the bathroom, took off her glasses, and turned on the tap, wanting to splash water on her face and wake herself up.

Cool droplets slid down her cheeks. Jiang Mian lifted her head and looked into the mirror.

Anyone who saw this face would think she was sweet and quiet, with a hint of youthful innocence between her brows.

No wonder that Security Officer uncle had gone quiet after questioning her sternly a few times.

She really did look like the sort of person who could stir up other people's protective instincts.

Jiang Mian tried to recreate the expression she'd made at the Public Security Bureau. She hadn't even finished arranging her face before she was the first to crack.

"What am I even doing..."

She patted her cheeks, tossed her glasses onto the bedside, then opened the wardrobe and rummaged for clean clothes before taking a shower.

She'd successfully awakened, but her ability hadn't yet strengthened her body that quickly.

Besides, she was still constantly "hungry." As for her ability nourishing her body and curing her nearsightedness, she could forget about that for now.

Her prescription wasn't very strong, around three hundred degrees. She could just about see without glasses, but she was more used to wearing them.

By the time Jiang Mian finished showering and walked out of the bathroom in a camisole nightdress, it was already past three.

Jiang Mian usually lived frugally, and since she was at home, she hadn't paid much attention to what she wore. It wasn't as if anyone else was there.

Although she'd been a girl for a while and had gotten used to it, it still felt like a dream. So many things felt different from before, for example...

She lowered her head. Two small mounds swayed gently with each step, and the sight of her fair skin made her eyes ache.

She had such a pure, quiet-looking face, so why was this part so mature? One hand couldn't even cover it...

Because of that, both the old Jiang Mian and the current one chose loose school uniforms or the black hoodie she'd worn today whenever they went out.

Jiang Mian was in her final year of high school, with barely a month left until the college entrance exam, but she couldn't focus on preparing at all. Her mind was full of making money, buying medicine, and filling her stomach.

She should have been happy now that her mental problems had eased, but thinking about all this made her chest feel heavy again.

She couldn't exactly use her looks to latch onto some rich guy, could she?

She'd at least once been a man. Even if she starved to death or jumped out a window, she would never rely on a man to survive.

Well... things had come to this, so she might as well get some sleep.

Jiang Mian was out of ideas, so she decided to leave the problem to her Tomorrow Self.

"Zzz..."

In the morning, Jiang Mian went to school with faint dark circles under her eyes, unable to stop yawning along the way.

If she hadn't run into that whole mess last night, she wouldn't have gotten only three hours of sleep.

"Why... even after transmigrating, do I have to go through senior year all over again..."

The Fifth Middle School she attended was considered a City Key School, located in the bustling South City. It produced plenty of excellent students every year.

Of course, "excellent" meant students who became awakened every year.

In this world, all schools divided students into two groups.

One group was the martial exam students, meaning students who had awakened abilities.

Once they awakened, they no longer needed to take exams and were considered to have graduated on the spot. They could choose whichever university they wanted.

With the help of Radiance Path awakened, Base Cities could now carve out traversable routes through the Mist, so communication between cities had been partly restored.

In this life, her father had died because of the construction of one such route.

Although it was a project meant to improve communication between cities, Jiang Mian couldn't bring herself to feel any goodwill toward it.

The second group was the college entrance exam students, under a system much like the one in her previous life.

But even after graduation, jobs in every Base City were severely limited. Countless people delivered food, worked in factories... or even became cleaners.

If dropping out weren't such a hassle, Jiang Mian would've run away long ago.

After all, academic qualifications didn't matter much here. Besides, she had the secret of being an Aberrant.

As for pretending to be awakened...

It wasn't as if she hadn't considered it. She could act, after all, and if she could officially reach First Order, she'd be able to wield abilities similar to those of the [Elemental] Path.

There had been a few lucky cases in previous years where people who failed to awaken tried a Second Awakening out of desperation—and actually succeeded.

If only her ability could fully awaken, and she could find a chance to replicate it...

Jiang Mian mulled over all sorts of things as she walked, and before she knew it, she'd entered the classroom of Class 3-8.

As soon as she appeared, several gazes in the classroom landed on her. Some belonged to brothers she'd been close with in her previous life.

Jiang Mian felt her scalp prickle. She'd been here for a month, and she still couldn't get used to their "enthusiasm."

The thought of her brothers lusting after her body... was terrifying!