(This is my first time writing a book, so the beginning might not be that good. I'll do my best to improve later on૮₍ ˃̶ ꇴ ˂̶ ₎ა)
It was 5:20 a.m.
In a cramped rental room, Bai You poured the last mouthful of ice-cold cola down his throat. Carbonated bubbles burst across his tongue, bringing a brief, sharp sting.
He burped and looked back at the computer screen in front of him-the Snezhnaya map in Genshin Impact, where the exploration progress was stuck at 99%...
Bai You was eighteen. He was an orphan who had temporarily found himself with nowhere to go after graduating, so he could only rent a relatively small, cheap room.
By day, he spent his time tightening screws in a sweatshop. At night, he returned to his room and plunged into the Teyvat Continent.
The various subsidies he received as an orphan were enough to keep him fed and alive, but "extra pleasures" like pulling for constellations and upgrading his graphics card...
Had to be earned by tightening screws one at a time at the sweatshop.
Don't ask why it was a sweatshop. He'd studied economics and management, so he'd graduated straight into unemployment.
After all, what shop or company would entrust important asset management to a newcomer?
After work, Bai You liked to scour the world in Genshin Impact, farming materials.
Whenever a new version came out, he would grind the new maps to one hundred percent exploration right away.
He'd already ground out the earlier achievements too, even the one for catching two thousand fish.
And the materials in his inventory were too numerous to count...
Snezhnaya was his last map without full exploration, and it had only been added in an update within the past two days.
Bai You smiled. It looked like he'd soon be waiting for new content again.
"Ding-"
His phone screen lit up with a notification from the delivery app. Bai You glanced at it and suddenly remembered that the late-night meal he'd ordered earlier should be arriving soon.
Though it probably didn't count as a late-night meal anymore. Should it be called breakfast???
He'd gotten off work so late that he hadn't even eaten dinner. The last time he'd eaten had been lunch.
More precisely, he'd barely eaten lunch either-he'd hurriedly swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of rice at noon today before getting back to work.
It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to eat. The food was just awful. He had no idea how the sweatshop's kitchen managed to turn perfectly good napa cabbage into something so hard to swallow.
At the sound of the notification, his stomach obligingly growled.
"Fish with pickled mustard greens... hehe, don't rush. Let me open this last chest, and then I'll go get you at the door."
The last chest was in a remote cave somewhere in Snezhnaya. He needed to solve a mechanism to get inside.
Bai You guided his character around the snowy ground several times before finally finding the hidden entrance.
He took a deep breath and pressed the interact key.
The cave's stone door slowly opened, revealing a small space with a luxurious chest in the center.
Bai You guided his character over and opened the chest. Golden light flashed, and ten Primogems and a pile of Mora popped out.
[Snezhnaya · exploration progress: 100%]
"Done!" Bai You slammed a fist on the desk, nearly knocking over the cola bottle on it. He stared at the 100% for several seconds, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
From Mondstadt to Liyue, Inazuma to Sumeru, Fontaine to Natlan, then Nod-Krai, and finally Snezhnaya, the latest region released-he'd reached full exploration everywhere again.
He leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath, then used the mouse to teleport to the gathering place, where he saw Varesa's page.
Varesa.
She was the kind of beautiful that made your heart soften at first glance, and made you willing to lose yourself at the second.
He remembered the moment she'd opened her mouth in the story-all the sounds of wind and snow in the theater had fallen silent.
It was a song the water spirit had brought from the depths of the lake, a one-of-a-kind soprano that could crush a soul to pieces.
And when she interacted with characters like Odette in the story, surely few people could resist her cute, mischievous behavior.
Looking at the beautiful Varesa in her mermaid form on the screen, he buried his face in the crook of his arm and muttered, his voice muffled, "She's so beautiful..."
The mermaid girl on the screen didn't answer him. She only smiled quietly.
"If only... I could be by her side."
Remembering Varesa's steps in the theater, the way she'd laughed that silly "hahaha," and her adorable mermaid form in the story, he couldn't help sighing.
"Sigh, I'd better eat my takeout, wash up, and go to sleep. It'll be dawn soon. Maybe I'll have a daydream," Bai You murmured.
"Knock, knock, knock-"
There was a knock at the door. His delivery had arrived.
Bai You reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the screen, got up, and went to answer the door.
The delivery person stood outside and handed him a heavy container filled with steaming fish and pickled mustard greens.
"Thanks." Bai You took the food, closed the door, and set the bag on the desk. The aroma of the fish and pickled mustard greens immediately filled the room. The sour, spicy smell made his stomach growl again.
He opened the container, and steam rushed into his face. Bright red chilies and vivid green cilantro floated in the milky-white broth.
The fish had been sliced evenly, and it looked especially appetizing soaking in the broth. Bai You picked up his chopsticks, lifted a slice of fish, blew on it, and then-
The instant he bit down.
The world suddenly went quiet.
The light from the computer screen, the steam from the takeout, the sound of the wind outside the window-everything vanished in an instant.
In its place came a powerful wave of dizziness, as if his whole body had been stuffed into a washing machine and spun around.
Bai You's vision went white and blurry. He tried to open his mouth and shout something, but no sound came out.
The taste of the fish and pickled mustard greens still lingered on his tongue, sour, spicy, fresh, and fragrant, but it was immediately replaced by a warm, wet sensation.
It was as though his whole body had been placed in water.
There was water everywhere.
Icy lake water rushed in from every direction, pouring into his nose and mouth.
Bai You's eyes flew open. Everything before him was a blurry blue-green, with light filtering down from above the surface, wavering.
He... no, she would be more accurate now.
Had she transmigrated?
The thought had barely surfaced when she felt something in her mouth.
It was still a little warm, and it moved gently between her teeth.
Bai You froze. She unconsciously took a bite, and it began to move more vigorously, nearly slipping free.
She slowly lowered her head and looked at what she was holding in her mouth.
It was a tail.
A glossy, crystalline blue-green tail, swaying gently in the water.
The base of the tail was attached to... She followed it upward with her eyes, her gaze passing through the clear lake water to a figure not far away.
A girl was in the water with her back to her. Her long blue-green hair fanned out in the water, its ends tinged with light purple.
Several white flowers were pinned in her hair, their petals trembling gently in the water. The girl's shoulders were bare above the surface, her skin as white as porcelain.
That figure from behind... that hair color... those flowers...
Bai You's pupils abruptly contracted.
Varesa?!
Her mind went blank with a roar, and her whole body went stiff. She remembered the hint of warmth she'd felt just now.
She unconsciously loosened her mouth.
The tail slipped free, swished about in the water, and returned behind the girl.
The girl seemed to sense something and hurriedly turned around.
Their eyes met.
Varesa's face appeared especially clear in the water. Her cute eyes were wide open now, showing a hint of surprise and confusion, but more than anything, anger.
Her long blue-green hair floated in the water, dotted with white flowers. She looked as though she had stepped out of a painting.
It really was Varesa.
Bai You's brain shut down completely. She opened and closed her mouth, wanting to say something, but only a string of bubbles came out.
More lake water poured into her mouth. She coughed and choked, flailing as she tried to swim upward.
But once she finished coughing, she seemed to feel that the water was where she belonged, and that slight feeling of discomfort vanished instantly.
Bai You's mind cleared in an instant.
She had transmigrated. She really had transmigrated. And she'd even transmigrated to Teyvat, where she'd bitten Varesa's tail in a lake...
Wait.
Bai You suddenly realized something. No, the sound of my coughing just now didn't seem right. She looked down at her body-
There was a pair of slender, fair hands, with long fingers and neatly trimmed nails.
The wrists were delicate, looking almost too frail to withstand a breeze. She followed her arms upward to her slim shoulders, and then...
Her face turned red in a flash.
This wasn't her body. No, more precisely, this wasn't "his" body. It was a girl's body.
Bai You reached out with a trembling hand and touched her face. Her cheeks were smooth and delicate, with no stubble, and her chin was pointed.
She touched her hair next-it was long, hanging wet over her shoulders, and the strands were soft and smooth.
She looked down at her chest, then jerked her head up. Her expression changed from shock to despair, and then from despair to a complicated emotion that defied description.
It had changed.
Everything had changed.
She had become a petite girl.