“Suo Sen, have you no shame left?” The words cracked like a whip in a crowded market.

Anger bubbled in Chen Yiyi until it almost made her laugh, like a kettle rattling on a flame.

“You haunt Chongming’s side day in, day out—don’t you feel a shred of shame? And who are you dressing like that for?” Her sneer shone like a rusty knife.

Nana Toki: “...”

I hang around the Protagonist Lord all day? The thought flared like a struck match.

Hell, is it me without shame, or you? Her scorn rose like smoke from cold ashes.

Which eye of yours saw me go near that brain-dead male lead? Her patience snapped like thin ice.

And what I wear—how’s that any of your damn business? Her temper kicked like a horse in its traces.

Do you people have to butt in no matter what, like stray dogs chasing carts? The question landed like a stone in a pond.

So the male and female lead halos in this collapsed plane are bought with IQ, like candles burning brain-wax to keep shining? The irony curled like incense smoke.

“I don’t. Do you?” She tossed the words back like a pebble flicked at a window.

Nana Toki rolled her eyes, a slow moonrise over dark water. “Only someone like you would clutch that idiot like a treasure. You see me craving him?”

“Don’t be so salty, Suo Sen.” Chen Yiyi preened like a cat with stolen cream, sure she’d hit a nerve.

I’m done. The weariness fell over Nana like sudden rain.

One look at Chen Yiyi’s smug face, and Nana felt her brain smog up, like a city choking at dawn.

Envy the female lead standing next to the male lead? Not unless the trash System’s gone brain-dead. The disgust cut like a cold wind.

“Achoo!” The System, already offline, sneezed for no reason, like a ghost kicked under a quilt.

Again that bastard’s chanting my name? The thought pricked like nettles.

“Let’s go.” Nana Toki caught Yuzuki’s hand and headed for the edge of Black Street, like stepping out of a tunnel toward thin light.

She couldn’t stay; sharing air with those two idiots felt like wading tar. Trouble clung like burrs.

“Idiocy’s contagious. You two keep away from me.” She scraped a line in the grime between them, a shallow moat against pursuit.

“Chongming, let’s go too.” Chen Yiyi made a face at their backs like a paper demon, then tugged Chongming Yan deeper into Black Street. “Let’s go see that friend you set up.”

“Uh… o-okay…” Dragged by the sleeve, Chongming Yan glanced toward Nana’s departing shape, thoughts tiding and ebbing like a moon-pulled sea.

“Su… Suo Sen… you okay?” Yuzuki’s voice trembled like a kite in a gust.

Nana’s grip had bitten bone; Yuzuki’s palm pulsed with pain, a hot brand under skin. “It hurts.”

“How hard did she squeeze?” The question flickered through her like a moth at glass.

“Did you bring your taser?” Nana yanked Yuzuki into a narrow alley and let go, her back to her, voice shaking like leaves in a storm.

“Huh?” Yuzuki couldn’t read the moment; the cool girl’s words fell like stones. “N-no. I didn’t.”

She answered honestly, and saw the fist in front of her clench like a vise.

“What’s wrong, Suo Sen?” Unease rose in Yuzuki’s chest like a stone damming a stream.

“I see…” Nana still didn’t turn; fatigue seeped into her voice like dusk into alleys. “Go home first.”

Huff—huff—huff. Her heavy breaths filled the alley like a bellows feeding a furnace.

“Huh?” Yuzuki froze, watching Nana’s back rise and fall like tide against a seawall, her dread swelling like a dark wave.

“Suo Sen, what’s going on?” She rushed around and lurched to a halt, shock slapping her like cold water.

The girl’s face burned as if fever-fire lit her skin, breaths dragging like chains over stone.

That pretty face twisted with pain, tear tracks etched like rain on glass; tears kept spilling like a broken dam.

Thud. Her trembling body pitched forward like a felled sapling.

Yuzuki flinched, then grabbed for her, arms closing around heat that blasted through cloth like a stove through canvas.

Too hot. Panic swarmed Yuzuki like startled sparrows.

Damn… Nana ground her teeth; the scene smeared like paint in the rain.

Her limbs went numb, like driftwood cut loose; her body felt borrowed, like a costume stiff with sweat.

How much had the original host been injected to spawn a craving this savage, like ants under the skin eating marrow? The thought burned like lye.

“Tsk…” She bit down on her tongue, cruel as steel on frost.

Pain stabbed through her like shoving a barbed blade into her mouth, and shot electric through her veins like lightning in roots.

“—!” She sucked cold air, her body bowing like an asthmatic pulled on a hook, eyes bulging as if pain would pop them from their sockets.

“Ptui!” She spat blood-tinged spit, crimson blooming like a wilted camellia on stone.

Clearer, yes, but the needle-sting, ten-thousand-ants pain didn’t ease; clarity only sharpened it like a lens in sun.

Every so often her nerves jerked her whole body, quick as a fish twitch on a line.

This trash System is still trash, pouting now of all times, like a child sulking behind a door. Her scorn fell like ash.

She set her jaw, a blade laid flat: once this plane ended, she’d file to swap Systems, like changing out a rotten keel.

“G—go… ho…” Words snagged in her throat, frayed by craving, like thread on a nail.

She fought to hold on, but drug-eaten nerves still made her move against her will, like a puppet tugged by rotten strings.

Reason boiled to its edge like porridge about to spill; her mind blurred like fog over a river.

Damn it… if not for that hidden quest. The curse landed like a stone in her gut.

Forget what happens to Yuzuki; even now her thoughts clawed for a clear path to clear the quest, like vines seeking light.

After all, Yuzuki and the others were data spun by this collapsed plane, numbers flickering like fireflies; to Nana, they were optional and dim.

But the hidden quest was different; fail it, and she might never go back to her real world, like a ship becalmed forever.

Blunt truth? If Yuzuki weren’t the quest’s target, Nana wouldn’t spare her a glance, like a traveler passing a milepost.

So. Yes. As long as I clear it, let everything else burn like autumn fields. The resolve set like frost.

Even sick as a struck ox, she had to get Yuzuki home, like carrying a lantern through squall.

Next time, please, don’t let this damn craving come early, like thunder rolling in before clouds. The prayer thinned like smoke.

Thinking that, her hand was already on a dagger, steel flashing like a fish in dark water.

Under Yuzuki’s shocked stare, she drove it into her own thigh, clean and merciless, like a nail into wood.

At that sight, a few shadows eased out of the alley’s corner, slipping away like eels into a black stream.