Bai You stared at the panel for three seconds.
"...Mora? Sweet Madame?" Her voice rose little by little.
"System, are you making a monkey out of me? You gave me some Mora and five chickens? Did I come to Teyvat for a picnic?"
[Are you only looking at the bad rewards? The important ones come later. Keep reading.]
[Normally, you're only guaranteed a gold after 90 pulls. You got two golds from a free ten-pull, so what are you complaining about?]
"Fine..." Bai You tapped "Cat Transformation Candy." "What's this?"
[Cat Transformation Candy: transforms the user into a cat for one hour. Movement speed increases by 50% in cat form. Elemental power and human speech cannot be used in this form.]
Bai You's eyes slowly lit up.
Turn into a cat...
Go unnoticed...
Then couldn't I... sneak into Varesa's room, jump onto her bed, and curl up beside her pillow to sleep?
Varesa likes cats so much, she definitely wouldn't shoo me off!
"This is good. This is really good." Bai You couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from rising. "Next."
[Invitation from the Tsaritsa of Snezhnaya: grants the holder one opportunity to have an audience with the Tsaritsa at Snezhnaya Palace. The invitation is single-use and automatically destroys itself after use.]
Bai You stared at the invitation, her heart skipping a beat. An audience with the Tsaritsa?
Bai You was a little curious. If the Tsaritsa knew she was here, would she summon her of her own accord, or send someone to "invite" her?
"...What about the one after that?" She swallowed.
[Seven-Element Talent: Primordial Body: mythic-grade talent. Upon awakening, the user can freely control the seven elemental powers of pyro, hydro, anemo, electro, dendro, cryo, and geo without a Vision or any other intermediary.]
[Currently, each element's power is equivalent to that of a middle-ranking Fatui Harbinger. Its upper limit can continue to rise as the host uses or otherwise develops her elemental power. High-intensity use will deplete elemental power, requiring rest to recover.]
[Can be active simultaneously with other talents.]
Bai You was completely stunned.
Seven elements? Free control? No Vision needed?
"Wait... Seven elements. Does that mean if I use up one element, I can switch to another and be back at full health?" Bai You's voice trembled.
Besides, that was simply impossible for a normal person in Teyvat! As for wielding all seven elements at once-she only knew of the Traveler, though their combat strength... was considerable, but most of the people they encountered were stronger than they were.
"But the power of just one element from this talent is enough to rival a Harbinger. That's way stronger than the Traveler. So can I take on seven Harbingers by myself now?"
"System, you really deliver! The drop rate's so high-awesome! That's more like it. I hereby declare you a qualified system."
[...]
Bai You remembered there had apparently been two golds, and there was one more item.
"The last one..."
The system quickly cut her off. [Thread of Fate: mythic-grade, single-use item. After use, it can forcibly turn an event that has not yet occurred into a certainty.]
[Note: it can only affect events directly related to the host and cannot break the world's reasonable rules.]
Bai You stared blankly at the item.
"Turn an event into a certainty?" She swallowed.
"Doesn't that mean... anything I want to happen will happen?"
[When you actually want to use it, you'll find there are quite a few restrictions. And it has to be something that hasn't happened yet.]
"From what you're saying, doesn't that make it pretty useless?"
[It's not as bad as you think...]
The system sounded a little speechless.
[Besides, there's only one of these in the reward pool, and you got it on your first ten-pull. Count yourself lucky.]
Bai You said nothing.
She put the items into the system inventory one by one. Finally, her gaze settled on the Thread of Fate, and she didn't look away for a long time.
Turn an event that hasn't happened into a certainty?...
Then what if I wanted someone to fall in love with me? Should I try using it on Varesa?
She snuffed out the thought as soon as it surfaced.
"What nonsense am I thinking? I've turned into a little girl, and I'm still fantasizing about that."
She muttered under her breath, burying her face in her knees, the tips of her ears red.
"I don't need to use something like this to do that."
[Host, your face is very red.]
"It's the cold! This storage room is too cold!"
[Yes, yes, it's the cold. Also, this item is very rare, so don't use it carelessly. Maybe that thought you just had has already come true, and there's no need to use the item at all.]
"Ah, Varesa really likes me too?!"
[...I was lying.]
Bai You sat on the folding bed for a long time, carefully familiarizing herself with her new talents and the items.
Suddenly, Bai You noticed that her Mermaid Physique had hardly any combat power, yet it qualified as a mythic-grade talent.
"Why is there such a huge difference in combat power between talents of the same mythic grade?"
[Talent grades are determined by their effectiveness for the host's various purposes, not purely by combat power.]
"Fine..."
"Varesa should be asleep by now. Sigh, I'm bored."
[Host, you sensed through the necklace ages ago that Varesa was still awake.]
"Shut up! I'm going to sleep!"
[...Good night, host.]
She closed the system panel and turned over to face the wall.
Some of the plaster was peeling, and the wall felt rough and cold to the touch. She reached out and traced circles on it absentmindedly.
The folding bed was so hard.
The blanket was so thin.
The night in Snezhnaya was so cold. The storage room fell quiet as Bai You huddled beneath the thin blanket.
She turned over and buried her face in the pillow.
Clutching the pillow, she tossed and turned on the bed. Although she had drawn good things from the system lottery, the space beside her still felt empty. If only Varesa were beside her.
Maybe Varesa would reach out and rub her hair, then say in that impossibly gentle voice, "Little Bai You, go to sleep."
Maybe they would chat about inconsequential things and drift off to sleep as they talked.
Maybe Varesa would pull her into her arms and wrap the two of them snugly in the covers.
She could bury her face in the crook of Varesa's neck, breathe in her warm scent, and listen to her heartbeat as she slept until dawn.
As she imagined it, Bai You's face grew hotter and hotter. Finally, she buried her entire head in the pillow, leaving only the reddish tips of her fish ears exposed, trembling slightly in the darkness.
"Stop thinking, stop thinking..." she muttered to herself, her muffled voice trembling like a candle flame in the wind.
"How can I think about something like that... It's so embarrassing... If Varesa found out, she'd definitely..."
But the harder she tried not to think about it, the more those thoughts rose from the bottom of her heart like bubbles. No sooner had she popped one than another appeared.
She curled her toes too, drawing herself into a tiny ball like a seashell buried in the sand.
Just then-
A strange disturbance suddenly rippled through the air.
A ring of pale blue ripples spread through space.
The ripples spread from the center of the storage room with a faint hum, and the temperature in the air seemed to rise by several degrees.
Bai You lifted her head from the pillow, her eyes wide and round.
The blue light suddenly flared.
Amid the dazzling white light, a figure emerged from the center of the ripples-a mattress rolled into a cylinder and a large, puffy bundle of bedding held in her arms.
Her hair was a little messy from the air currents of the teleportation, and a faint blush lingered on her cheeks.
Carrying all her bedding, Varesa landed steadily on the storage room carpet.
She raised her head and met Bai You's wide, round eyes.
The two stared at each other.
The storage room was so quiet they could hear the wind and snow outside the window.
A corner of the bedding slipped from Varesa's arms. She scrambled to catch it, then cleared her throat and tried to stay composed, putting on what she thought was a natural smile.
"Good evening... little Bai You." She paused and looked down at the mattress and bedding in her arms.
Varesa looked up again at Bai You's stunned face, red from the tips of her ears down to her neck.
"...I came to bring you some bedding."
Thanks to -这回忆的漩涡~ for the flower x1.
Thanks to - Mrs. Qin Who Likes Lobelia for the like x1 and update request token x1.
Thanks to - The Skeleton Is an Underworld for the like x1.
And to everyone contributing for love, thank you all for your support (＊ﾟ◇ﾟ)