Conversation × Rainy Day

"She's Wu Xin." After warning Lin Yue, Chen Xi casually picked up the iron rod beside the doorway.

Hearing this, Lin Yue summoned shadowy tentacles around herself once more.

Seeing how wary they were, Wu Xin quickly raised both hands. "Haha, I surrender... I surrender~"

Her emerald-green eyes swept over the two of them.

The next second, slender threads shot out from the darkness, instantly shredding Lin Yue's tentacles and Chen Xi's iron rod.

"Little Xi, it seems you're not as indifferent as you look. To stay alive, you're even willing to cooperate with weaklings like this."

So strong. Seeing the tentacles sliced into chunks, alarm bells rang in Lin Yue's mind.

Wu Xin covered her mouth and said shyly, "Don't stare at me like that. You're making it seem like I'm about to skin you alive."

"What exactly do you want?" Chen Xi sounded somewhat helpless.

"Nothing. I just saw that my crops were growing well, so I stopped by to take a look."

"Carry on~" She withdrew her threads and leaped down from the railing.

After she left, the two of them remained in the corridor to rest for a while.

"What a lunatic." Having survived the ordeal, Lin Yue wiped the sweat from her forehead, her cheeks slightly flushed.

It was already a hot September, and they had fought for several minutes in that airtight room, leaving her a little short of breath.

"My clothes are soaked." She lightly patted her drenched chest, unabashedly thrusting it out before Chen Xi.

"..." Chen Xi silently looked away.

Noticing her reaction, Lin Yue looked confused. "What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

Chen Xi returned to her indifferent expression. "Nothing. Let's go."

She wanted to become Lin Yue's emotional support, but definitely not yet.

Although many of the "misunderstandings" between her and Lin Yue had been cleared up, the most important step remained unfinished.

She was still the "murderer" who had sunk Lin Yue's body into the sea.

Right now, she could easily make up some excuse, saying that Wu Xin would gradually control her and force her to do things against her wishes.

Quick-witted as Lin Yue was, she would naturally connect the two incidents...

But that was too ordinary.

As someone obsessed with strength rankings, for the sake of CG quality, Chen Xi had no choice but to take a different approach.

She would deliberately keep this misunderstanding, then pretend to betray Lin Yue during some future loop. Ideally, she would even die by Lin Yue's own hand, then deliberately leave behind a few small clues to turn the whole situation around...

It was a little immoral, but for the sake of the future, Miss Lin Yue would just have to suffer a little first.

The two left the teaching building. The academy district was quiet and desolate, with only a few figures walking along Ginkgo Road.

"Your dorm is over there, right?" At a fork in the road, Chen Xi pointed toward the girls' dormitory in the distance.

"Mm." Lin Yue answered softly.

With a wave of her hand, Chen Xi headed toward the school gates. "I'm leaving, then."

Watching her departing back, Lin Yue hesitated for a moment before finally calling out, "Wait!"

Chen Xi turned around and looked at her with a puzzled expression.

Lin Yue fidgeted, her face growing even redder. "Why don't we... go get something to eat together? We barely survived, so we can introduce our abilities to each other."

Chen Xi did not refuse. "Okay."

Raindrops splashed into muddy pits, sending faint ripples outward.

In a phone booth not far outside the school gates, two lovely young girls were huddled together in the cramped space.

Lin Yue, already eighteen, was clearly well-developed. To avoid certain awkward situations, Chen Xi had no choice but to turn sideways while searching through her backpack.

She pulled a pure black umbrella from an inner compartment. "I only have one umbrella."

"I left in too much of a hurry and didn't bring one." Lin Yue looked embarrassed. "We can squeeze under it."

Looking at Lin Yue, who was half a head shorter than her, Chen Xi sighed. "I'll hold it."

She opened the umbrella. It was spacious enough, and the black umbrella could cover most of both of them even in the downpour.

Raindrops drummed against the umbrella, making a crisp sound like water hitting hot oil.

The wind drove the rain at an angle, and not wanting to soak her shoes, Lin Yue instinctively pressed closer to Chen Xi.

Feeling her body warmth, Chen Xi trembled all over as though shocked.

She shot Lin Yue an annoyed look. "Don't suddenly come so close."

"Is it really that serious..." Lin Yue muttered, though she still moved a little farther away.

Of course it was serious.

Chen Xi did not say those words aloud.

She had started reading the comic because of Lin Yue's appearance.

In other words, she liked Lin Yue. It might have been shallow, but she truly liked the way Lin Yue looked.

The reason she was acting like this was because the contrast between a comic character and a living, breathing person was simply too great.

Besides... Lin Yue was supposed to be winning her over now!

The two stumbled their way to the nearest noodle shop.

The place was tiny, with five or six tables of customers who had just finished eating noodles and were sheltering from the rain inside.

Wanting to raise Chen Xi's favorability, Lin Yue proactively called the owner over.

"I'll treat."

"Thank you." Chen Xi skillfully unwrapped the chopsticks and rinsed them with hot water.

Taking the menu the owner handed over, Lin Yue asked, "What do you like?"

"Beef noodles." Chen Xi's tone was flat.

Lin Yue studied the black-haired girl's cold expression. She's so aloof...

She said, "Then I'll have beef noodles too."

As soon as the owner left, the atmosphere immediately turned awkwardly quiet.

Lin Yue rested her cheek on one hand and admired the rainy view, still wondering how to start a conversation, when Chen Xi spoke first.

"When did you tame the Shadow Dweller?"

Lin Yue did not ask how Chen Xi had figured it out. That would have been a stupid question.

After all, Shadow Dwellers were far too common. The ability gained at the beginning was inevitably shadowy tentacles.

"Yesterday."

"What are your ability traits? Do you mind telling me?" Afraid she might misunderstand, Chen Xi added another sentence.

"Afterward, I'll also tell you everything about my abilities. If we want to defeat Wu Xin, this kind of coordination is the bare minimum."

Hearing that Chen Xi would introduce her own abilities, Lin Yue immediately perked up. "Shadowy tentacles and Shadow Form."

Though they were both Shadow Dwellers, each Shadow Dweller still had their own differences.

Put simply, their aptitude was different.

Most Shadow Dwellers only had the ability to summon shadowy tentacles when they first tamed one.

Lin Yue had clearly pulled an SSR.

Shadow Form turned one's entire body into a shadow, temporarily granting immunity to physical attacks.

It was an extremely practical ability.

"What about you? How did you tame the Succubus?" Lin Yue looked full of anticipation.

Every Legend existed in a completely different form and required a completely different method to tame.

The moment the words left her mouth, Lin Yue suddenly felt that she might have been too presumptuous.

Wasn't asking how someone tamed a Succubus a little too private? All sorts of inappropriate images suddenly flashed through her mind.

To keep the blonde girl from letting her imagination run wild, Chen Xi said, "I was a Succubus to begin with. I'm not human."

"Huh?"