"Would you like me to do a few small experiments with you?"
Bai You repeated the sentence, then suddenly laughed.
Recalling the game's plot, where the Doctor showed no mercy even to the Marionette, he feared he himself would be torn apart by five horses.
Dottore's gaze flickered slightly behind his mask.
"Looks like you're quite sensible." He said, his tone still relaxed. "Thinking about your experiments... what an fascinating topic!"
The Doctor raised his hand and pointed at the Bai You from afar.
Bai You turned her head and whispered quickly to the person behind her:
" Varesa, I'll hold him off. He's very strong. You run towards the train station, you hear me?"
"I won't run!" Varesa's voice trembled violently. Her mind was filled with shock and fear, yet she gripped her clothes tightly. "If we go, we go together!"
"What a touching story! As long as you cooperate with my experiment, I'm not interested in her."
Dottore clapped lightly, and the next second, he casually waved his other hand.
Several large trees nearby were then uprooted and lay across the road on the way back.
"I told you," he slowly approached, "I'm not here to fight. But if you insist—"
"I don't mind if I disassemble you into a shape that's easy to move."
As soon as the last word was uttered, Bai You moved first.
She knew she couldn't wait. Her Mermaid Physique's affinity for water, combined with the power of her Primordial Physique, was pushed to its limit at this moment, condensing into dozens of sharp water blades around her.
The water blade, still slightly coated with other elements, shot towards Dottore with a sharp whistling sound!
This attack was swift and dense; an ordinary person would have been riddled with holes in an instant.
Dottore simply tilted his head.
"The power is good, but the accuracy is terrible."
A pale purple lightning shield rose around him, and when the water blades struck it, they emitted large plumes of white mist, yet failed to get close to him.
Bai You's eyes narrowed, and she clasped her hands together. The nearby river water instantly surged up, transforming into two water dragons that clashed and slashed at each other.
Dottore, however, seemed to have calculated the trajectory of each water dragon beforehand, his steps unhurried, each step precisely landing in the gaps between the attacks.
He even had the leisure to offer his comments.
"The water flow is too straight; you're 'pushing' the water, not 'using' it."
"Here—" He raised his hand, and a crimson flame precisely struck the weakest point of the water dragon, causing the entire water dragon to collapse on the spot.
"That's really boring, it breaks with just one poke."
Bai You gritted her teeth and continued her offensive. She could feel the immense power within her.
But just as the system said, she had the strength, but she couldn't use it.
Every move she made was easily countered; it seemed the opponent had already anticipated her next ten moves.
What's worse, the Doctor didn't even try to out-strength her; he seemed to be testing new experimental subjects on the side.
As he raised his hand, several palm-sized mechanical insects crawled out of the shadows of the cave, their movements so fast that they left only afterimages.
With a flick of his sleeve, several more vials emitting strange-colored smoke exploded in the air.
Bai You had to control the water flow to block it while also keeping an eye on those insidious little traps, leaving her in a difficult situation.
" Bai You! Watch out on your right!" Varesa suddenly cried out.
Bai You suddenly turned to the side, and a mechanical insect grazed her shoulder, scorching a black pit in the stone wall.
But in that moment of distraction, Dottore waved his hand, and a force instantly struck her wrist as she was forming a water shield.
Ah--
A numbing electric current surged up his arm, and the water shield shattered with a "crack".
Bai You was thrown into the air, crashing heavily against the stone wall before sliding to the ground. A sweet taste rose in her throat, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
" Bai You!!" Varesa screamed desperately, trying to rush over.
"Don't come any closer!" Bai You leaned against the wall and stood up, feeling a wave of dizziness.
Dottore slowly adjusted his cuffs, as if teasing a trapped animal:
"His physical strength is indeed astonishing, but unfortunately, it's all meaningless."
"I love test subjects like you—slowly shaping your strength into the form I want; the process must be very interesting."
As he spoke, he waved his hand again. This time, Bai You didn't even have time to condense the water flow. He was forced into a desperate situation in a few moves, and the last barrier he condensed was torn apart by the Doctor's lightning and fire.
The next instant, a cold and heavy force pressed down from nowhere, like an invisible iron clamp locking the back of her neck, fixing her in place, unable to move her shoulders or back.
"Got it!" Dottore's voice carried a hint of excitement, like someone who had just caught their prey.
"Be good, it's just a few small experiments--"
Bai You thought to herself.
"I guess I'll have to use the trick the system just gave me. I wanted to test my skills."
"If I had used it right at the start, I wouldn't have had to suffer like this. Thankfully, Varesa wasn't injured."
At this moment, Bai You's gaze passed over the Doctor's shoulder and landed on Varesa, who was not far away.
At this moment, Varesa was covering her mouth, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. She shook her head desperately, silently calling her name, afraid of distracting her, yet not daring to actually make a sound.
It was just that one glance.
Bai You suddenly became fearless.
Looks like I'll have to sleep for a couple of days.
'[Primal Annihilation Strike ]--'
In an instant, the entire cave fell silent.
It wasn't a silence where sound disappeared, but rather a stillness where time itself was pressed down for an instant.
The ocean-like power within Bai You's body completely broke down at this moment.
The water element, and other elements that she could not yet fully control, were all extracted, compressed, and condensed into a small sphere of light.
The Bai You was surrounded by a layer of almost pure white light, which grew brighter and brighter, so bright that it was blinding.
For the first time, Dottore, who was controlling the power, froze.
Beneath the mask, those eyes, which had always been calm and composed, suddenly widened.
"This power..." For the first time, there was a fluctuation in his voice, not from fear, but from a kind of almost manic ecstasy.
"Haha, hahaha! So that's how it is! You were hiding it so well! That's more like it, that's more like the sample I need!!"
He abruptly released his grip and retreated, his hands rapidly forming hand seals, creating layers of barriers in front of him.
"Come on!" he roared, his eyes burning, "Let me see just how much of your strength you really have—"
The words abruptly stopped.
Bai You gently moved forward, sending that power outward.
There was no earth-shattering noise, only a very soft "crack," like glass shattering.
Those layers of defense that Dottore was so proud of were as thin as torn paper in front of this punch, and were pierced and shattered layer by layer with unstoppable force!
"No..." For the first time, the madness on Dottore's face froze into disbelief.
"No! How could you possess such power?! This level shouldn't even exist here—"
He didn't have time to finish speaking.
The small ball of light was already in front of them.
In that critical moment, a ruthless glint flashed in Dottore's crazed eyes.
He understood—this power had locked onto him, there was no escaping it, and this fragment of him was destined to be annihilated today.
But a dying madman is often the most terrifying.
"Since I can't have it..." He abruptly turned his head, his gaze passing over Bai You.
He was pinned to the helpless figure behind her, a vicious grin spreading across his lips. "Then I'll make you remember this moment forever!"
At the very moment the barrier shattered, he twisted the last bit of his remaining strength into a jet-black spear of light.
Instead of attacking Bai You, it shot towards Varesa with lightning speed!
After Bai You finished using this Annihilation Strike, a strong sense of dizziness washed over her.
Seeing the Doctor attack Varesa, he realized he was doomed; it seemed he had no other trump cards left to block this attack.
She couldn't be saved.
This is a dead end.
No!
Bai You's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints.
At that moment, she clearly felt her consciousness rapidly slipping away, her limbs becoming unfamiliar and heavy; the price of the Annihilation Strike was consuming her clarity of mind.
In a second at most, she would be completely engulfed in that boundless darkness.
But the black spear was less than three zhang away from Varesa.
Varesa stood there, watching the deadly light fly towards her, her eyes filled with nothing but Bai You's image.
" Varesa..."
Just as the black spear was about to fall, Bai You suddenly remembered the Bond Necklace.
With the last vestige of consciousness still burning within her, with that single thought, in the final instant before her consciousness was completely extinguished.
Using the necklace's teleportation ability, I teleported to Varesa's location.
Then she opened her arms and shielded the person she wanted to protect for the rest of her life beneath her.
"Pfft--"
The jet-black spear of light struck Bai You in the back.
Time seemed to stand still at that moment.
Bai You let out a muffled groan, spitting a mouthful of blood onto Varesa's shoulder. Her small body trembled violently, but she never let go of the hand that was wrapped around the other person.
The pure white light faded at a visible speed.
" Bai You? Bai You!!" Varesa finally reacted and hurriedly caught her limp body.
The tentacle was warm and sticky, and she was so frightened that her voice changed, "Don't scare me! Open your eyes and look at me, Bai You--!"
Bai You leaned against her chest, laboriously and slowly raising her eyes.
Her vision was already blurring, but she still managed to make out Varesa's face and see how she was crying uncontrollably.
She wanted to raise her hand to wipe away her tears, but her arm was too heavy to lift.
"Having only been in Teyvat for a few days, am I already going to disappear...?"
With her last remaining strength, she moved her bloodied lips and, in a barely audible voice, whispered the words she had kept hidden for so long.
" Varesa..."
I like you.
As she finished speaking, the last glimmer of light in her eyes quietly went out.
Her small body went completely limp, nestled in Varesa's arms.
There was no further response, like a child who had fallen asleep and could never be woken up.
" Bai You?! Bai You, don't sleep!! You said you'd be with me forever--!!" Varesa held her, her piercing cries echoing in the ruined cave.
On the other side...
Bai You You's relentless and Annihilation Strike, as she lunged at Varesa, precisely and unavoidably pierced Dottore's chest.
Uh--
Dottore lowered his head, looking at the rapidly expanding, pure white hole in his chest.
His body began to disintegrate from that void, turning into countless tiny specks of light, disintegrating and dissipating into the air piece by piece. Arms, shoulders, torso... in just a few breaths, most of his body was annihilated.
The force of that punch did not stop there; it surged upwards along Dottore's disintegrating body.
It crashed through the dome, tore through the clouds, and hurtled towards the unchanging sky of Teyvat!
Click--
A crisp sound, seemingly coming from the ends of the earth.
The seemingly impenetrable barrier of the False Sky " that shrouds the Teyvat was actually torn open by this small ball of light.
Above the clouds, a faint red light shone through the gap, causing the entire Snezhnaya sky to tremble slightly at that moment.
Columbina, who was rushing over, suddenly looked up at the rift in the sky, her face turning deathly pale.
Deep within the Snezhnaya Palace, the Tsaritsa slowly opened her eyes and looked up at the sky.
In distant lands, several gazes, at the same moment, turned toward the Snezhnaya.
Inside the cave, Dottore's last remaining wisp of consciousness hovered in the dissipating dust of light.
He looked at the crack in the sky that had been forcibly torn open, then at the Bai You that Varesa was holding.
But in that lingering consciousness, a strange, even more frenzied, almost obsessive emotion surged forth.
"Heh... heh... power beyond this world... but it's meaningless now..."
"That's really... a touching story."
The sound grew softer and softer, more diffuse, carrying a morbid sense of ecstasy.
"It's a pity... we're missing a perfect experimental sample..."
The last word vanished in the wind.
Dottore's consciousness was completely extinguished and dissipated, as if it had never existed.
In the entire forest, only Varesa remained, cradling the lifeless Bai You, her cries of despair growing louder and louder.
The sunlight after the snow fell quietly, landing on Bai You's lifeless face, which was covered in blood.
She closed her eyes quietly, and stopped breathing, as if she had truly left.
[I've slept for two days now, so consider this my early reward for the day after tomorrow.]
[A day's check-in in exchange for a life—this system is truly the most generous one.]
Someone might mention the silk thread prop, but I haven't figured out how to include that yet. The book is mostly slice-of-life, so don't think too much about battles or anything like that. ⊃‿⊂
I'm begging for your continued support, everyone! I've been updating daily these past few days. Please point out any issues with the plot, and I'll make changes.
Thank you everyone for your support! つ♡⊂