"And it's another Second Life, and damage blocking... Why did it feel like I'd been getting a crazy number of survival tools lately?"
There was actually a way to test it.
Chen Ran turned his head and glanced at Heart of the Corrupted Skadi, who was drifting around.
All right, onto the next one—
"An achievement for the next round?"
Only after seeing that message did Chen Ran come to his senses and glance out the window.
Well, damn. It really was dark already.
So Chen Ran first clapped his hands clean of food crumbs, then turned to Heart of the Corrupted Skadi, who for some reason was once again drifting around while hugging a little cookie, and said:
"All right, time for bed."
"I'll make myself a late-night snack while I'm at it. Perfect chance to test whether I've got half of Kroos's appetite now."
"As for you, Red T, go play by yourself."
With that, Chen Ran turned and left.
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi, drifting around with her little cookie, watched as the living room returned from its earlier bustle to silence.
Against the backdrop of the slowly rotating galaxy model, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi took a bite of her cookie.
Then she quietly followed behind Chen Ran, slowly floating after him until an invisible barrier-like force stopped her in front of the living room door.
This time, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi did not crash headfirst into it again. Instead, she pressed her little hand against the barrier and stared expressionlessly with her small eyes at Chen Ran's retreating back.
Until Chen Ran was no longer in sight—
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi decisively turned around and floated back to the desk.
She set the little cookie in her hand aside, then found the phone she had hidden beneath several books earlier.
Skillfully lighting up the screen, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi began surfing the internet.
"So that's why I'd been looking everywhere and couldn't find my phone."
"Red T, you even learned how to sneak around and play with phones now?"
After some unknown amount of time, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi suddenly felt someone grab the back of her neck and lift her up.
Turning around, she saw that it was her Lord God. Chen Ran had returned at some point.
Even though she had been caught red-handed, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi did not show the slightest sign of guilt, because she had not learned how to yet.
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi merely blinked her little eyes innocently and asked, "Lord God? Didn't You go to sleep?"
"I said you should be going to sleep, Red T."
As Chen Ran took the phone and casually checked the browsing history from when Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had been secretly using it, he replied, "I don't have to work. Why would I sleep so early?"
Then Chen Ran raised an eyebrow.
Because the browsing history read as follows:
"What does sleeping mean?"
"What does physiological need mean?"
"What does sex mean?"
"What does pleasure mean?"
"Why do only humans and dolphins pursue pleasure?"
"What does Little Orca mean?"
"Are orcas dolphins?"
And that was it.
Chen Ran's sudden appearance had probably kept Heart of the Corrupted Skadi from searching any further.
But with that search method, "Are orcas dolphins?" would get the answer "yes."
Then the question would circle right back to "Why do only humans and dolphins pursue pleasure?"
For a moment, Chen Ran did not know whether he should say, "Red T, you're still young. You shouldn't be looking at this stuff," or, "Who said Red T is small? Red T is huge"...
Oh, no, wait. It should have been, "What does human morality have to do with a Sea Creature like me?"
"Forget it."
Chen Ran glanced at the innocent-looking Heart of the Corrupted Skadi and set the phone down.
As Heart of the Corrupted Skadi looked at the phone, then at Chen Ran, unsure whether she should continue surfing the internet—
"Here."
Chen Ran instead held out his hand and placed a finely crafted princess bed model, only the size of a palm, in front of Heart of the Corrupted Skadi.
Chen Ran did not explain. He merely said, "Sleep here."
"And where will You sleep, Lord God?" Heart of the Corrupted Skadi asked.
Chen Ran said nothing and merely pointed at the sofa behind him.
What else was he supposed to do? This was the living room, and it could also count as his workshop. Was he supposed to bring in a two-hundred-square-meter bed like something out of a domineering CEO novel?
"Oh."
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi naturally did not understand the joke, nor did she understand beds. Since her Lord God had said so, she nodded her little head as if cooperating.
After harvesting some crops, rerolling a few starter accounts, playing a farming game for a while, and planning to handcraft another planet model, Chen Ran had almost stayed up until dawn before he finally went to wash up in satisfaction.
"Good night."
"Good night, Lord God."
After bidding each other good night, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi lay down in her princess bed, wrapped herself tightly in the little blanket, and exposed only her small head. Chen Ran lay down on the sofa as well.
As dawn gradually arrived, Chen Ran fell asleep.
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi, who had originally been lying in her little bed with her eyes closed, opened her little eyes again.
She sat up, looked at the sleeping Chen Ran, then lifted the blanket and floated toward him.
She floated all the way up to Chen Ran, then picked up the phone he had placed beside his pillow.
For some reason, though, from Heart of the Corrupted Skadi's perspective, this glowing little box seemed to have an invisible string attached to it this time, preventing her from simply taking it away.
But that was fine. Heart of the Corrupted Skadi simply plopped herself down on the pillow. After hugging the phone and surfing the internet for a while, she glanced at Chen Ran again.
Then, imitating what the glowing little box had taught her, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi raised her little silk-clad foot and gently stepped on Chen Ran's cheek.
But Chen Ran did not react, so Heart of the Corrupted Skadi turned back in confusion and continued watching how the glowing little box said it should be done.
PS: Mutual promotion, "Delta Is Also Porridge!" 3
So, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi Secretly Played on Her Phone All Night
After sleeping beautifully through the entire night until he woke naturally, Chen Ran opened his eyes—
Then he felt that everything before him was dark. Literally dark.
At first, Chen Ran thought he had put on an eye mask before sleeping and forgotten to take it off.
But when he reached up and grabbed at his face, what he touched was an exceptionally soft sensation.
It felt like pressing a woman's thigh clad in thigh-high stockings, the flesh slightly bulging where the stockings cinched it, his fingertips sinking into it.
He could even smell a faint feminine fragrance around his nose.
Chen Ran's hand paused for a moment. Then he understood and reached out to tug up the "eye mask" covering his face.
His vision brightened. Opening his eyes, he saw that, sure enough, the "eye mask" he had lifted was actually Heart of the Corrupted Skadi herself.
"So that's why all I could see was darkness. Red T, you were sleeping on my face?"
A little person around ten centimeters tall really could cover both his eyes perfectly.
"Pretty smart, too. If you'd slept beside my pillow, Red T, one turn in my sleep and I'd probably wake up tomorrow to nothing but a two-dimensional little person."
Chen Ran really wanted to ask why Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had come over here when he had prepared a little bed for her.
And Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had even changed stockings. Changing them was one thing, but the pair on her legs had snagged and torn.
"What were you messing around with last night?"
Don't tell me you tried to stuff your little feet in my mouth, and my canine snagged your stockings?
Chen Ran wanted to ask, but unfortunately, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi was still sleeping soundly.
Like a thief who had stolen a chicken, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi hung her little head low. Even after Chen Ran lifted her with his fingertips, she showed no sign of waking.
"Forget it. You don't have to work either, so I won't wake you up."
Chen Ran found it rather amusing. He gently placed Heart of the Corrupted Skadi in his hand onto the pillow, covered her with the little blanket, and let her continue sleeping.
After doing all that, Chen Ran checked whether his mouth smelled strange while reaching for the phone beside him to see what time it was.
The moment it landed in his hand, though, Chen Ran realized it was still hot.
Raising an eyebrow, Chen Ran deliberately pretended nothing had happened and opened the phone to scroll through it. Then, as he scrolled, he suddenly turned to look at Heart of the Corrupted Skadi.
Sure enough, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi had secretly cracked open her little eyes at some point and was peeking at him. The instant their gazes met, she hurriedly shut her eyes again and resumed pretending to sleep.
"So Red T, you really did sneak around playing on the phone all night? I invented tricks like that. You think you can fool me?"
But Chen Ran was not her father, so naturally he did not say much.
Besides, compared to that, Chen Ran was actually more curious about something else—
"As far as I remember, Sea Creatures aren't supposed to have human emotions or thought processes, right?"
"But Red T, that guilty act and playing dumb after getting caught—you've learned them perfectly."
"Did you learn all that from surfing the internet?"
Of course, there was another possibility.
The first ability Chen Ran had obtained was Hive Cluster Mind (Sea Creature Version).
The instant his mind connected to it, it had directly influenced the thinking patterns of the entire Sea Creature Great Swarm.
Humanity had suppressed so-called divinity, and over time, that was what had made Heart of the Corrupted Skadi behave more and more like a person.
Of course, that possibility could not be effectively verified, and Chen Ran did not particularly want to verify it either.
Sea Creatures had always been the ones to erode and corrupt other people's spirits and minds, yet now the Sea Creatures had instead been eroded and corrupted by Chen Ran?
What kind of incomprehensible thing did that make him in the eyes of those Sea Creatures?
So Chen Ran said nothing. He merely pulled a feather from the gap in the pillow and began teasing the fake-sleeping Heart of the Corrupted Skadi.
Sea Creatures might not evolve the ability to feel ticklish, but Heart of the Corrupted Skadi was different. Her consciousness belonged to Isabella, the Sea Creature god, but her body was still Skadi's.
As a result, under Chen Ran's tickling, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi quickly began to squirm.
"Lord God, bad." Seemingly realizing she could no longer keep up the act, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi floated up and dodged Chen Ran's feather attack.
"Another new word you learned from surfing the internet?" Chen Ran smiled and stopped teasing her. "Not pretending to sleep anymore?"
"It tickles. It's a strange feeling."
Heart of the Corrupted Skadi floated onto Chen Ran's shoulder and sat down. Tilting her little head, she finally said, "Good morning, Lord God."
"Morning."
After saying that, Chen Ran saw Heart of the Corrupted Skadi float up again and move closer to him.
At first, Chen Ran thought Heart of the Corrupted Skadi was once again eager to stuff her silk-clad little feet into his mouth.
But unexpectedly, she did not. Instead, Heart of the Corrupted Skadi planted a smacking kiss on Chen Ran's cheek with her little mouth.
Unexpected... but honestly, he barely felt anything.
The contact area was too small. If Heart of the Corrupted Skadi's little mouth had not been as soft as jelly, Chen Ran would probably have thought some tiny bug had bumped into his face.
Still, surprise was surprise, and Chen Ran raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Not stuffing your feet into my mouth this time? You're kissing my cheek instead? Where did you learn that?"
"I already did stuff them in, but it was different from what the glowing little box said. You didn't react, Lord God."
Before you continue