12 I declare the first Holy Grail War of Linmen

"Ye Shiyu came to open your door last night, meow."

That morning, at Meow-chan's words, Yan Huan paused slightly in brushing his teeth.

His eyes widened. With his mouth full of white foam, he turned toward the little cat sitting primly in the bedroom and asked in surprise,

"When?"

"After you fell asleep yesterday. It was very late."

Meow-chan turned toward the doorway, standing on her hind legs and moving her two front paws and little head up and down, seemingly describing what had happened.

"The doorknob suddenly moved, but since you'd locked the door, she couldn't pull it open."

"..."

Someone suddenly appeared outside your door late at night, trying to turn the handle and come in while you were asleep. Guess what she wanted to do once she got inside.

Seriously, sis, aren't you a little too terrifying?

Yan Huan stood with his mouth open, silent for a moment, then turned to spit out the foam, rinsed his mouth with the clean water in his cup, and washed his face.

He was about to put his shirt on, but he hadn't changed it in two days and had spent all yesterday running around outside. It felt sticky, and after showering, he really didn't want to wear it again.

He should have waited for Aunt Chen to finish drying the clothes yesterday, then brought them upstairs before showering and going to bed. Now he could only go downstairs to get the dried clothes.

"..."

He glanced at his phone. Five fifty. He had gotten up even earlier than usual.

He pushed open the bedroom door. Outside, everything was quiet, and the morning light was so faint it barely managed to penetrate the living room's window screens.

Everyone seemed to still be asleep.

Reassured, he went downstairs bare-chested, carrying the empty glass that had held milk last night, intending to find something to wear in the laundry room.

The laundry room faced the kitchen, and the water purifier stood at the kitchen entrance. He rinsed the glass in the kitchen, then filled it with water.

A glass of warm water first thing in the morning really made him feel alive again.

After drinking, he washed the glass again and put it in the dish rack beside him, then turned into the laundry room.

Where had the clothes been put after drying?

He looked up at the hanging clothes, searching for the ones he remembered buying just yesterday.

Just then, a figure also carrying a glass walked up to the water purifier by the doorway.

About to get some water, Ye Shiyu heard rustling in the laundry room and instinctively turned to look.

In the cool morning light, her eyes slowly widened at the sight of Yan Huan's bare back as he searched the laundry room for clothes.

The phone in her hand suddenly lit up.

Found it.

Yan Huan picked up a beige shirt he had bought yesterday. The fabric felt comfortable, so he got ready to put it on.

After putting on the clean shirt, he considered bringing his dirty clothes down to wash too, but running the washing machine for just one shirt seemed too wasteful, so he gave up on the idea and prepared to leave.

He turned around, and Ye Shiyu came into view at the doorway, holding a glass, having appeared there at some unknown moment like a ghost.

Holy shit?!

His expression changed instantly. He was just about to let loose a curse when his Perfect Facial Expression Control ability activated.

Yan Huan gave an awkward smile and greeted Ye Shiyu.

"Sister Shiyu, you're up early today too?"

"Mm-hmm."

Ye Shiyu's expression gradually returned to normal, but her reply to Yan Huan sounded so halting.

Watching that strange video last night had made her drink a lot of water, so she had needed to get up to relieve herself as soon as six o'clock came.

Even so, her mouth still felt dry and her whole body felt hot, to the point that she couldn't even sleep well.

Now she had come down for more water, only to happen upon Yan Huan changing his clothes after getting up.

Her hand trembled slightly, and she unconsciously took another sip of water.

Her gaze wandered almost imperceptibly over the outline of his beige shirt, as though she had seen something that attracted her before he put it on.

Yan Huan smiled slightly, walked out of the laundry room, and asked Ye Shiyu,

"Would you like breakfast, Sister Shiyu? I'll make it."

"No, thanks."

"All right, then I'm heading out for a bit. I'll be back before noon."

"Mm."

He had meant to cook something in the kitchen if she wanted breakfast. Since she didn't, Yan Huan would eat out.

He changed his shoes by the door and quickly left with his phone, trying to avoid being alone with her and getting hypnotized as much as possible.

Ye Shiyu watched him leave and drained her glass.

The early spring morning was cool. Yan Huan took a deep breath and broke into a jog toward the residential complex's exit.

"Where are you going? Morning exercise?"

Behind him, a black cat appeared at some point and kept pace with him.

Without looking back, Yan Huan shook his head while adjusting his breathing to his pace.

"The aquarium. I'll buy breakfast first, then take the bus there. The first one runs at six thirty."

After looking around, he found that this upscale residential complex had no breakfast shops open this early. He would have to look farther out.

Using a map app to search for bus routes, Yan Huan soon found a shop outside the complex selling Dragon Nation breakfast food.

In Linmen, only shops run by people from the Dragon Nation opened this early.

As he ate meat buns and pumpkin porridge, the shop gradually filled with people.

Meow-chan sat beside Yan Huan, licking her paws as she asked,

"What are you going to the aquarium for?"

"To find a Mouseketool that'll help deal with the Modifiers."

"?"

After breakfast, Yan Huan took Meow-chan onto the bus. Linmen's buses were fairly strict about small animals boarding; normally, a cage or cat carrier was required.

But Meow-chan wasn't an ordinary cat. When boarding, she became visible only to Yan Huan, so she got on without trouble.

There were very few people on the first bus. Yan Huan picked an empty seat at random, put on his Bluetooth Earphones, and leaned by the window, petting the cat.

After several dozen minutes of swaying, he opened his eyes again when his Bluetooth Earphones sounded an alert to get off.

He took off his Bluetooth Earphones, and an announcement sounded inside the bus too.

"We have arrived at Aquarium Station."

There were already quite a few people around him. Turning his head, he happened to meet the eyes of a slightly flushed girl holding her phone.

"!"

Yan Huan blinked and said to her,

"Sorry for the trouble, could you let me through?"

"O-of course."

It was only a little past seven. The shopping center that had been so busy yesterday looked particularly deserted; it wouldn't open until ten.

But the aquarium admitted visitors at eight, so he wasn't particularly early. Besides, he had brought a little helper.

After getting off the bus, Yan Huan said to Meow-chan,

"Meow-chan, can you sniff out what Ye Shiyu lost?"

Meow-chan raised her head and looked at him with an expression that said, "Are you serious?"

"Aren't you a cat? I heard that if your cat goes missing, you can let a stray cat sniff one of its toys, and that stray can help you find it."

"..."

Meow-chan sighed, then raised her nose and sniffed before running toward the shopping center.

"There are still traces of her scent this way."

The shopping center?

She hadn't dropped it in the aquarium?

Yan Huan jogged after Meow-chan all the way to the plaza where the shopping center met the aquarium.

This also happened to be where the aquarium's exit was. From this direction, he could even see the gift shop where Ye Shiyu had bought the keychain yesterday.

Meow-chan sniffed around beside some bushes, then suddenly turned and meowed at Yan Huan.

"Here?"

Yan Huan raised his eyebrows, walked over, and parted the bushes.

Strangely, a blue crystal-shaped jellyfish charm lay inside, tangled in the wet foliage.

The name sticker reading "Ye Shiyu" on its side confirmed that this was the one she had lost yesterday.

"...Seriously? How did it end up here? She never came near this spot yesterday."

Yan Huan picked up the keychain, and something even stranger happened.

The moment he lifted it, freed from the bushes holding it back, the keychain actually quivered weakly toward a certain direction, as though indicating that it wanted to move that way.

"What the hell?"

Yan Huan's eyes widened. He turned to Meow-chan, who sniffed the keychain and said,

"Ye Shiyu's scent is already very faint, but another female's scent is very strong."

"Another female?"

"This keychain is almost in that female's shape now."

"?"

Yan Huan frowned. The keychain gradually settled in his hand until it stopped trembling entirely.

At that very moment, Meow-chan raised her head and said,

"That female's scent has completely faded."

"..."

Feeling the supernatural phenomenon in his hand, Yan Huan exchanged a look with Meow-chan and suddenly said,

"A Modifier?"

"Did you meet anyone yesterday?"

Anyone?

Just as Yan Huan was thinking back, the image of a blonde white girl wearing a mischievous grin burst into his mind.

No way.

Yan Huan opened his mouth and hurriedly asked Meow-chan,

"Can a Modifier's effects work on the host of another kind of Modifier?"

"I'm not too sure either, but judging by this, perhaps they can."

"..."

Upon realizing that there were no real factions among Modifiers, and that they could even become entangled with one another, Yan Huan's expression didn't relax in the slightest. Instead, it grew even more serious.

Because he keenly realized that rather than letting him pit one threat against another, this would only make dealing with the Modifiers harder.

"Make them willingly give up their Modifiers themselves." That was the requirement for dealing with them.

But if you learned that someone else had a cheat too, would you give yours up if they didn't?

So instead of dealing with them one by one, Yan Huan now needed to make them give up their Modifiers simultaneously!

By the same logic, even provoking conflict between the hosts would make the Modifiers grow at an outrageously fast rate.

If a game-breaking Modifier needed only a tenth of its power to solve real-world problems, a battle between Modifiers would probably require its full power, or even more.

That would also make the desires they had originally consumed slowly grow greater and greater. Yan Huan could figure that out without Meow-chan telling him.

"Competitiveness," "the desire to win," "exclusivity."

Didn't those words sound frightening?

Good grief, they were going to fight a Holy Grail War in Linmen?!

Those all-powerful Modifiers were the fucking Heroic Spirits, and their hosts were the masters!

And of all the rotten luck, Yan Huan himself was very likely the Holy Grail!!

Fuck.

I declare the first Holy Grail War of Linmen has begun!

Yan Huan looked at Meow-chan beside him with an expression of utter despair, then rubbed her head and sighed.

"Saber Meow-chan, hide away with your master and spend the rest of your life with him."

"?"

Holding the jellyfish keychain, especially cold after spending the night outside, he felt his heart grow cold too.

"Dear visitors, welcome to the Sea Linmen Aquarium Tourist Scenic Area. Through professional simulations of marine ecosystems, our aquarium presents visitors with a rich variety of marine life..."

The aquarium's announcement rang out. Yan Huan straightened up and saw that it seemed to be opening in a little while.

An employee also rolled up the shutter of the gift shop that had been open yesterday, then took out a broom to sweep the entrance.

Yan Huan squeezed the jellyfish charm in his hand and thought for a moment before walking over.

"Welcome!"

Apparently, the employee hadn't expected anyone to come so early, since even the aquarium wasn't open yet, so the greeting sounded a little hurried.

Yan Huan nodded and casually glanced around the shop, then seemed to spot a small gift box.

He could faintly make out the word "jellyfish" on the gift box.

Yan Huan blinked. After thinking for a moment, he took down the gift box and picked up another jellyfish-shaped plush toy.

"I'll take these. Could you put them in a bag, please?"

"No problem. Cash, bank card, or..."

"Plane."

Yan "Holy Grail" Huan raised his phone and made his first payment since the outbreak of Linmen's Holy Grail War.

"You're saying you've been hearing things, someone speaking inside your head?"

In a spacious, sunlit living room on one floor of an upscale apartment building in Linmen's Jinghe District, a woman wearing a light knitted jacket raised her eyebrows.

She looked at the blonde girl before her, holding an arm as she lifted a dumbbell beside the windowsill, and asked this.

The girl was none other than Aria Spencer, who had clashed with Ye Shiyu yesterday.

Spencer nodded. The dumbbell in her hand seemed to be quite a challenging weight for her, making every lift look extremely difficult.

Spencer panted as she said,

"Yeah, and it's always saying weird things."

The woman listening to her blinked and silently wrote a line in her notebook.

"Suspected obsession with pornographic material."

Then she asked,

"Anything else? Have you felt unwell at all? Have you been sleeping well? Has your appetite been affected? Do you feel irritable?"

Spencer put down the dumbbell, rubbed her chin in thought for a moment, and said,

"Hmm, my appetite has probably been affected a little. I haven't been eating as much lately, but I've been sleeping fine."

The woman raised her eyebrows again and glanced at the countless snack bags piled on the living room coffee table. All kinds of expensive chips, chocolates, and so on were scattered everywhere.

Even asking had been unnecessary.

The woman wrote in her notebook again,

"Healthy appetite, regular exercise, normal sleep."

"So, when do you tend to hear this voice most often? At certain times, or while doing certain things?"

"When, huh..."

Just as Spencer was thinking, an illusory interface suddenly rushed into her head.

[The effects of Plunder Mode have ended. Gains this time: Plunder Energy +0.1]

[Current Plunder Energy: 0.1]

[Accumulate Plunder Energy to obtain Plunder Power. As your Plunder Energy increases, you will receive the following benefits]

[Your attractiveness to your plunder target will gradually increase]

[The wronged party's will to resist will gradually weaken]

[Your constitution, resistances, and charm will gradually increase]

Spencer opened her mouth, just about to shout to the psychologist making a home visit,

"Right now! I heard that voice!"

But at that moment, the dumbbell in her hand, which had been so heavy before, suddenly felt a little lighter.

She froze for a moment, thinking she had imagined it, then flexed her muscles to lift the dumbbell again.

But it was no illusion at all. She really did find it easier, as though her strength had increased a little in an instant.

This...

Spencer stared incredulously at the illusory text before her, watching the distorted, illusory words finally coalesce into a single sentence.

[Please use it without reservation]

As she looked at those words, her stunned expression gradually turned to excitement.

"Miss Spencer?"

Just as the psychologist spoke in confusion, Spencer dropped the dumbbell onto the floor with a clang.

Startled by the heavy thud, the psychologist glanced down, still shaken. She was just about to speak when Spencer said with a sneer,

"No need to look. My mom owns this entire building. Nobody lives downstairs."

"Yes, I know. I wanted to ask-"

"No need to ask. I'm fine now."

"Miss Spencer..."

Spencer's expression suddenly turned cold. She looked at the psychologist before her and said,

"I said I'm fine. Just tell my mom that without worrying. I'll go to school normally from now on, too. Isn't that what your job is?"

The psychologist opened her mouth, then sighed and closed the notebook in her hands.

She slowly stood up and bowed to Spencer, saying,

"All right, I understand. I'll take my leave, then. If you have any other problems, Miss Spencer, you can contact me anytime."

"Yeah, yeah, got it."

Without even looking at her, Spencer simply turned toward the floor-to-ceiling windows and gazed at the city gradually awakening in the morning light.

Sea Linmen.

From the high-rise apartment, Spencer could even make out the faint edge of the distant ocean.

The excitement in her eyes grew, as though some strange flame were gradually flaring to life.

Click.

The door behind her closed. The psychologist had left.

Spencer could no longer contain herself and began jumping up and down with her fists clenched.

"Hehe."

Clang!

But as she jumped, she forgot that she had not put the dumbbell away, and her bare foot kicked it.

"Hiss!!"

Her little face scrunched up in pain, and she dropped to her knees in agony, clutching her big toe.

"Ow... ow..."

Hugging herself, she rolled back and forth on the floor, hurting so much that she was on the verge of tears.

Outside the window, the bright sunlight had fully broken over the horizon and shone into her enormous room.

It illuminated a letter lying carelessly beside the snacks and game controller on the living room coffee table behind her.

It read,

"Totsuki International Academy admission letter"

"Dear Aria Spencer, after careful consideration by the School Committee and the academic affairs office, we are pleased to inform you that you have been approved for admission for this year's spring semester."