A Foreboding of a Painful Grind

Fate always seems to enjoy playing tricks, whether it's an unexpected encounter or a spontaneous journey.

It's always so sudden, catching people off guard... Of course, those so-called great encounters or magnificent adventures recorded in poems or historical records might also have been brought about for the same reasons. Perhaps the people involved didn't think much of it, and most wouldn't even realize it.

Gu Mo didn't know what it felt like to black out from drinking, but he could probably guess.

After all, he'd had too many experiences similar to "blacking out" recently. It was almost like watching a movie where a section was inexplicably cut out of the middle. One moment the screen showed one scene, and the next, without any warning, it jumped to a completely different one.

There was no transition in between, it was just like the blink of an eye—

Just close your eyes, and the next second you open them, time has already advanced to the next day...

That was roughly the feeling, just like right now.

Cold, shaking...

As Gu Mo regained consciousness of his body, he also registered these external sensations. He opened his eyes, completely free of any lingering sleepiness. The moment he woke up, he was fully alert, his thinking ability and will both at their peak.

The sight that greeted him was the undulating outline of a forest in the dark night. A sliver of sky was visible in the middle, with brilliant stars dotting the deep night sky. The sky was the color of the universe, and the moonlight shimmered faintly behind dark clouds, making the dense canopy seem to be receding backward.

Hmm, I'm actually not in the carriage of some subway train?

A thought inexplicably flashed through his mind, and Gu Mo breathed a slight sigh of relief. The touch he felt the moment he woke up and consciousness returned, combined with his current situation, instantly made him conjure up some very strange ideas.

But it was good that he wasn't. He wasn't ready to go to some base two thousand feet underground in Raccoon City and play real-life Resident Evil...

Although he had already faced much more vicious Demons and Monsters, he shouldn't be afraid of those walking corpses. But what he was afraid of wasn't the zombies themselves, but the virus. His Constitution attribute of thirteen points brought immunity that might make him generally resistant to common illnesses, but it was probably still not enough to withstand the T-virus.

Relieved, he was about to get up when a face appeared above his eyes.

Hime cut bangs, black hair on the forehead covering it and cut horizontally at the level of the eyebrows, and the black hair on the temples falling perfectly straight, just to the position of the chin...

A pair of rose-red eyes, pupils as clear and beautiful as rubies. The lower half of her face was covered by a black mask, concealing her true appearance, but just looking at this half of her face and her brows and eyes, one could somewhat imagine the exquisite features hidden behind the mask, like a doll...

Whether it was a coincidence or if she noticed something, it was at this moment that Hidechiyo leaned over and looked at him, and their eyes met.

"..."

"..."

In an instant, the air suddenly became quiet.

The girl didn't show much expression, still looking calm, her eyes as still as water.

But Gu Mo was different. After a moment of stunned silence, a wave of deadly embarrassment instantly washed over him, completely engulfing him.

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die...

Why did I wake up at this moment?! No! Why am I still in this Dungeon?!

A brainstorm erupted instantly, the surging waves echoing in his mind were enough to make anyone roll and crawl in bed during a midnight dream, wishing they could leave Earth on the spot from embarrassment, a feeling of suddenly not being okay at all.

And so, time passed in silence... for a full second or two.

But in this situation, Gu Mo truly experienced what it meant for a second to feel like a year, especially looking into the girl's calm eyes. It felt as if the passing of each second required an entire century to complete, truly agonizing.

No, I can't keep going like this, or my heart won't be able to take it...

Staring into the girl's eyes, Gu Mo felt his heartbeat becoming increasingly irregular, but he was certain this was absolutely not love. Instead, it was very likely arrhythmia!

Gritting his teeth, he took a deep breath. The cold air with the coolness of the late night and a faint fragrance made his thoughts somewhat calmer. Then... he tried hard to put on a smiling face, and by the way, he waved at the black-haired girl who was leaning over and looking at him from above while he was still lying down in his original position—

"Hi, good evening."

"..."

"..."

Hidechiyo raised her eyebrows and scrutinized him carefully again. Only after confirming that his breathing was perfectly stable and there was indeed no problem did she respond.

Good evening.

She nodded gently, still silent, but as if saying so without words.

"Yo, Brother Gu Mo, you're finally awake..." A somewhat familiar loud voice came from ahead. It was Tokichiro, who was driving the carriage ahead. He heard the movement behind him, looked back, and immediately breathed a long sigh of relief. He had also been worried that something might have gone wrong.

"W-where is this? Where are we going?"

Sitting up straight, Gu Mo looked around and saw that he was sitting in a dilapidated wooden cart. Two horses were pulling the cart ahead, moving forward at a slow but steady pace on a bumpy road between mountains and forests. Whether it was because the road was too uneven or there was a problem with the quality of the wooden cart itself, it was shaking as if it could fall apart at any moment...

"This place... I'm not too sure where this is either. I can't say the name, this kind of place..."

Tokichiro, who was driving the carriage ahead, was also stunned when he heard the question. He looked up at the sky, thought for a moment, and chuckled awkwardly. Although he traveled south and north frequently and knew a lot about many places, it was hard to say that he knew everything like the back of his hand, especially in this era and this world.

Mountains and forests were the dividing line between the Human world and the Yokai world. The scale and prosperity of human civilization were not enough to cover every corner of the entire world. Towns and villages were actually just a few black dots on a blank sheet of paper; beyond that, most were wild and undeveloped wilderness.

Like now, he knew this road and that it could connect two places... But he knew the two places connected by the road. As for the places the road passed through in the middle, he really didn't know. After all, neither he nor the mountain people who carved out this road were interested in staying here; they were just passing through.

In this godforsaken place, you call out to the sky and get no response, call out to the earth and get no response. Besides Yokai, only those desperate mountain bandits and horse thieves would appear here... The Yokai probably weren't interested in naming this place. As for those potential bandits, if they met one, perhaps they could ask?

Tokichiro shook his head, lightly whipped the two inferior horses in front, and then turned back with a smile and said, "But of course we're going to Mino Province. We set off early this morning and have been walking for a whole day now. But don't worry, it's not far, we should arrive tomorrow afternoon..."

"Going... going to Mino Province? And we've been walking for a whole day..."

Gu Mo opened his mouth, looking at the primeval forest around him and the silhouette of the mountain range on the horizon under the night sky in the distance.

Although he had expected it, when it was confirmed, he still felt completely out of sorts... He looked back, and the rugged mountain road behind him was constantly being swallowed by the darkness that the lantern light on either side of the carriage couldn't reach.

How far away from Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village was this...

"That's right, didn't you agree back then?" Tokichiro said without turning his head, his words sincere, "And we were originally planning to take Brother Gu Mo to Mino Province to see a doctor anyway, because of your situation... ahem, so we rushed here overnight."

This was why they were moving so quickly and decisively.

Hidechiyo had finally made a decision, but faced with the unconscious Gu Mo, she naturally couldn't leave him behind, so she brought him along as well.

I didn't say I agreed back then, I said Axiu could go take a look... Opening his mouth again, Gu Mo wanted to say something, but then he sighed dejectedly. It's a done deal now, nothing I say will make a difference, no need to add to my troubles.

"W-what's wrong? Brother Gu Mo, is everything alright?"

Tokichiro, who was in front, heard his dejected sigh and immediately turned back nervously. "Hold on a little longer, or lie down and rest? We still have a ways to go, how about we find a place to rest up ahead?"

He didn't know what was going on, but he genuinely didn't want his future partner to have any problems, like dying before achieving anything...

"Nothing, really nothing, I'm just... just too tired from before..." Gu Mo shook his head repeatedly, but for a moment, he didn't know how to explain his situation.

Tokichiro, however, was unwilling to relent, insisting on finding a place to stop up ahead. He felt that perhaps the mountain road was too rugged and the carriage too bumpy, so it would be better to rest before continuing. Besides, it was also time for the two horses to get a good rest.

Watching the two argue and decide to rest up ahead, the black-haired girl in the back of the carriage sat quietly and silently.

Her posture was very graceful, not at all like someone being jolted around in a carriage. It was almost as if she were kneeling in meditation in her own courtyard, exuding a sense of tranquility... Moving like thunder, still as a maiden, that was probably it.

However, her gaze remained fixed on a certain person...

To be honest, Hidechiyo had been worried all day today if there was something wrong with this strange person. In the morning, shortly after she woke up, he had directly fainted, and no matter how she called out, he wouldn't wake up. If it weren't for his calm and rhythmic breathing, she would have suspected this guy was dead.

But now it seemed he had just slept?

This left her feeling very speechless, but thinking about it carefully, perhaps... this was the price of that secret washing technique of the other party?

She made this judgment.

Ending the back-and-forth with Tokichiro, Gu Mo turned back with a heavy heart, just in time to meet the black-haired girl's thoughtful gaze. He quickly turned his face away, feeling his cheeks slightly flushed at the same time. This was the behavior of someone who had done something wrong and dared not face the person involved.

Even though the girl didn't seem to care too much and didn't show any intention of pursuing the matter, just as easygoing as before... However, awkwardness was never someone else's problem, but the feeling of being unable to bear it oneself.

The carriage stopped on a flat area in the riverside forest. Illuminated by the faint light of the lanterns hanging from the carriage, the surroundings were silent, with only the sound of the flowing river.

Tokichiro was busy feeding and watering the tired horses. The black-haired girl stood beside the carriage, acting as a lookout. Although she looked like she was spacing out, staring blankly at the brilliant starry sky, nothing in the surrounding area could escape her Perception.

Perhaps because they had been traveling all day and had encountered a few waves of Yokai attacks, Tokichiro knew that when the girl looked like she was spacing out, it was actually the safest time, meaning there was no danger around. So he served his two horses without any worries.

—This was also an inheritance from Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village. Although they weren't good horses, they were still a considerable fortune, and they could make a profit by taking them back to Mino Province.

By the river, Gu Mo was filling a leather waterskin. He had volunteered for this task, firstly because this was the only thing he could help with, as he didn't understand much else, and secondly to take the opportunity to check his System panel.

That was his biggest confidence in this familiar but particularly magical world, and only by looking at it could he feel at ease.

There were no changes to the character panel. His total Level was still LV4. The four available attribute points he had gained were allocated one point to Strength and three points to Constitution... Well, at least he wouldn't be a weakling without the strength to even truss a chicken in this war-torn era.

At least his physical fitness should be much better than most soldiers and farmers who couldn't get enough to eat or wear and had unbalanced nutrition.

But this was far from enough...

He exhaled, hesitated for a moment, and clicked open his Equipment page, finding it still empty. There wasn't a single piece of equipment that the System recognized... So, his Guardian Spirit wasn't on this page?

With a slight worry, he felt the reassuring presence near him and then clicked open the Skills page. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

It was indeed here. He found that on the Skills page, directly above the silhouette of the human body, a new slot had appeared. Inside was a sparkling emblem, with a pattern of a large fiery red fox totem.

But it wasn't directly merged into the previous ten skill slots; instead, an extra slot was added above for display. Did this indicate that his golden finger would add an additional sub-system for the Guardian Spirit?

Thinking this, he clicked open the Guardian Spirit interface.

A page like an illustrated guide was displayed. On the left was a majestic 3D image of a fiery red fox. Its nine tails behind it slowly swayed along with the fox fire floating around its body, full of dignity, along with a text description—

"The Nine-Tails is a fox Guardian Spirit with nine tails. It is said that each tail possesses immense Yokai Power, capable of not only manipulating flames but also possessing the divine power to bewitch people. After the appearance of the Nine-Tails, the world will soon enter a period of change."

Gu Mo didn't pay too much attention and turned to the page on the right.

"Upgrade."

"Equipment."

"Skills."

"Appearance."

Hmm, why does this look a bit familiar? He twitched the corner of his mouth and clicked open the Skills page. He saw a silhouette of a fox sitting facing forward, its nine tails spread out behind it like a peacock's fan, and each tail corresponded to a circular slot.

Gu Mo suddenly felt a bit of liver pain. Shouldn't Guardian Spirits be fully formed? Why did his seem to need to be trained from scratch? Did he have to Level it up? Farm Equipment and Skills for it?