The Second Familiar

The Second Familiar

As the game interface changed, new Familiar options appeared before Xu Zhi.

The number of choices had increased to four, and their starting levels had risen as well.

[1. Cat (Lv3)]

[2. Monkey (Lv3)]

[3. Dog (Lv3)]

[4. Spider (Lv3)]

"They're all level three."

Xu Zhi's gaze lingered on the cat and dog. She immediately ruled out the spider and the unfamiliar monkey.

After thinking for a while, Xu Zhi decided on the dog.

After she pressed confirm, another line of text appeared on the game screen.

[You have learned how to simply nurture your Familiars in the early stages. Please begin.]

[ Familiar: Dog Lv3 Mental: 5 Physical: 40 Attribute: None Traits: Strength Lv2, Smell Lv3 Current Evolution Points Required: 0/200 ]

"That's pretty fair. They all need 200 points, but the dog's physical stats are much stronger than the snake's."

More importantly, she saw the main reason for choosing the dog: strength.

The reason she had hesitated between the cat and dog was because she knew she had a chance of drawing a Familiar's traits. She briefly ran through the traits cats and dogs might possess. She wanted both a cat's agility and a dog's strength, but at this stage, what she lacked most was undoubtedly strength.

Xu Zhi was not certain that choosing the dog would guarantee a strength trait. She was merely guessing based on Little One's traits, so there was still an element of gambling involved.

Besides, even if it did not gain Strength, the dog's size and aggressiveness still made it a good choice in her eyes.

Now that she had gotten the trait she wanted, Xu Zhi's mood improved as well.

She skillfully followed the usual process to level up her second Familiar. As she watched the dog devour living creatures while leveling it up, she could not help wondering whether dogs really hunted and ate like this in reality.

This time, the screen no longer showed something similar to a snake's perspective. However, the dog's vision was clearly not much better. Its world consisted only of black, white, yellow, blue, and gray. Even so, Xu Zhi noticed something was off.

Her Familiar seemed to be in a city filled with Black Fog.

Xu Zhi's eyes slowly widened, and her scalp tingled slightly as an absurd thought surfaced in her mind.

Could this city in the game be Cloud City?

The moment that thought arose, Xu Zhi found it hard to calm down. She began recalling the city she had seen on the screen while controlling Little One, but that perspective had been too abstract for her to make out anything.

It was only Black Fog like the kind in Cloud City. That was hardly irrefutable evidence. But if it really was just a game, could that black fruit have materialized from data?

Xu Zhi would rather believe that such black fruit had existed in the first place, and that the game had merely "transported" it over.

More importantly, the reason Xu Zhi so desperately hoped her guess was true was this: if her Familiars really were in this city, then she would no longer be all alone.

Whether it was companionship or protection, both were things she needed right now.

She trusted no one in this city, nor did she need human companionship. If it was a Familiar absolutely loyal to her, that would be perfect.

So from the bottom of her heart, she hoped this guess was not some unrealistic fantasy.

To that end, she had to verify it.

For example, she could carefully look for familiar landmarks while Little Dog searched for prey.

But that was somewhat difficult too. Xu Zhi rarely went out, and her memories of Cloud City were stuck before she turned eleven, aside from the occasional scenes she saw on the local television station.

"It's fine. I'll find it eventually."

Because she rarely spoke, the girl's voice was slightly hoarse. Her heart and lung issues also made her sound weaker than ordinary people when she spoke. Yet beneath that frail voice was a trace of barely perceptible stubbornness, as if even if she were chasing only a fantasy, she would still have to find its shadow in reality.

She poured all her time into the game, controlling the gray stray dog as it ran everywhere in search of prey. It was not as though she encountered no danger along the way. Her recklessness even cost her two hours of recovery time. Xu Zhi did not feel hungry at noon, so she did not cook. She only took her medicine before continuing the game.

Fortunately, the dog's starting level of three gave it far greater stamina than the snake, and it did not tire quickly. Xu Zhi's luck was also good today, and the dog found hunting easier than the snake did. It did not take long for her to reach level four. After leveling up, its stamina seemed to recover, and even after hunting for a long time, it did not become exhausted like the snake had.

She played for a full six hours, directly leveling Little Dog to level five. Only then did she feel somewhat tired and put down the handheld console, rubbing her forehead. The dog's stats had now become: [Familiar: Dog Lv5 Mental: 14 Physical: 160 Attribute: None Traits: Strength Lv3, Smell Lv3, Vigilance Lv1]

Although her body was somewhat tired, Xu Zhi's mind was exceptionally excited.

That was because she had not come away empty-handed in the matter she cared about most!

Just now, while controlling Little Dog to search for new prey after reaching level five, she had unknowingly chased it up the stairs of an empty old residential complex and onto the rooftop. When she caught sight of a building in the distance, the prey leaped through the gap between buildings to the other side. The game then gave her the option of pursuing it. The building across from Little Dog's rooftop was separated by a considerable distance and height difference, so pursuit carried the risk that it might fail to make the jump. But with a level-five dog's physical strength, even if it fell, it would only be injured. At worst, it would lose the prey. Logically, she should have chosen to pursue it no matter what, but Xu Zhi chose not to.

She had Little Dog remain where it was so she could clearly see whether the building in the distance, which resembled a massive clock, was one of Cloud City's landmarks: the Bell and Drum Tower.

The gray Bell and Drum Tower had enormous clock faces embedded on all four sides of its square structure. Because of the earthquake five years ago, the clocks had broken, frozen at the exact moment of the quake. The Cloud City government had considered that commemorative, so they chose not to repair it, allowing time to remain forever frozen at that moment.

As someone from Cloud City, no one failed to recognize the Bell and Drum Tower. Even Xu Zhi, who rarely left home, had seen it countless times on the news.

"It's... actually real."

"Haha, it's actually real!"

Xu Zhi muttered it over and over, unable to stop herself from laughing aloud. If she had not been holding the Game Console, she might even have applauded.

In that instant, an excitement she had never felt before flooded her mind. Her heart began racing, adrenaline surged, and her pupils dilated slightly. It was only when Xu Zhi found it somewhat difficult to breathe that she realized she had become overly excited.

Although Little Dog leveling up would bring slight improvements to her physical condition, that alone was not enough. She still had to restrain her emotional fluctuations from becoming too intense.

Xu Zhi put down the Game Console, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths. She temporarily stopped thinking about the many thoughts rising in her mind and tried hard to regulate her emotions. Once the excitement gradually faded, exhaustion washed over her like a tide, and she could not help rubbing her forehead.

There was exactly half an hour left until it was time to settle Little One's gains, so she would rest for half an hour first.

Xu Zhi was still somewhat dissatisfied with her greatly increased stamina bar. Why could she not go twenty-four hours without food, water, or sleep?

Xu Zhi leaned back in her wheelchair with her eyes closed. She had only intended to rest her eyes for a moment, but she accidentally fell asleep. It felt as if she had slept for less than a minute, but when she jolted awake, she discovered that half an hour had already passed.

"...Looks like sustained high-intensity gaming still takes too much energy."

She let out a breath and picked up the handheld console. The seven-hour progress bar in the lower-right corner of the screen had finished.

Xu Zhi used the buttons to select Little One, and the settlement screen popped up.

[Your Familiar has completed an extended solo hunt. The following is a list of its hunting gains.]

[Evolution Points: 1700/1000]

[Trait Increase: Bloodlust +1, Cunning +1]

[Special Item: None]

[May depart again after evolving or resting for three hours.]

[Due to your Familiar's increased Bloodlust level, your Bloodlust level has also increased. Now, when you are in a Bloodlust state, your strength will be enhanced to a certain degree. However, after leaving the Bloodlust state, you will fall into a weakened condition.]

After reading the settlement results, delight flashed through Xu Zhi's eyes.

She did not know what special items Familiars might find through hunting, so naturally, she had not expected anything. What delighted her was the strength boost she received after [Bloodlust +1]!

Although she could only use it after entering a Bloodlust state, and although it came with a debuff, it was indeed one of the things she needed most right now.

She desperately wanted to improve her own strength.

As for whether Little One should evolve or rest, evolution was the obvious choice.

After Xu Zhi made her choice, a twenty-minute progress bar appeared in the center of the screen.

A golden sun icon also appeared on the right side of the screen. Xu Zhi tapped it, and two portraits appeared on the display: the snake and the dog.

"Oh~" Xu Zhi understood. It was something like a directory.

She tapped the dog's portrait, and the game interface switched to Little Dog. The snake's evolution progress bar shrank into the lower-right corner.

"That's pretty convenient."

Xu Zhi gave it a favorable review.

Just as she was preparing to continue controlling the dog to level it up, a familiar sound—the one she had heard yesterday—suddenly rang out.

Bang, bang, bang!

Someone was knocking on the door.

Xu Zhi's grip on the Game Console tightened, and her expression darkened.

Sure enough, someone had come again.

She had expected it long ago. They would not let the matter go, which was why she had been so desperate to gain strength.

At the same time, she was surprised to find that the knocking sounded clearer to her ears.

It was probably the improvement Little One had brought her after evolving to level ten, repairing some of her hearing impairment.

Less than five seconds after the knocking began, a woman's voice sounded from outside the door.

"Hello, my classmate came to see you yesterday. Do you remember?"

The voice was crisp and sounded exceedingly polite. The image of a quiet, well-mannered high school girl had already formed in Xu Zhi's mind, but her expression did not change at all. She merely calmly wheeled herself toward the kitchen as the woman spoke, then carefully selected the sharpest boning knife and gripped it in her hand.

She had to thank her younger brother for loving meat so much. Otherwise, if there had only been a kitchen knife at home, this would have been more troublesome.

Amid the other party's endless attempts at persuasion, Xu Zhi tried standing up and making a small jump. She then raised the knife and swung it a few times. Once she confirmed that her current body was capable of making a surprise attack, she sat back in her wheelchair, hid the knife behind her, and expressionlessly guided the wheelchair toward the door.

She needed to confirm how many people had come. If there were not many, and if they showed hostility toward her and intended to break in—

A ruthless glint flashed through the girl's eyes. She felt that perhaps she ought to do something first.