"Ehh— I wanted to live peacefully as a normal girl among you. Your distance chilled me. Fine— cards on the table. No more act. I'm absurdly brave."

"Clang!"

Nana Toki slammed the heavy object down. In a blink, the Corpse Devourer at her feet had its skull pop like a watermelon, bursting to pulp.

A flood of viscous green blood splattered with shattered bone, speckling the floor like rotten rain and smearing a fishy stench everywhere.

"Splish, splish, splish..."

The Corpse Devourer’s body jerked hard a few times, then went quiet like a cut wire.

Nana Toki’s relaxed, lazy voice drifted through the empty mall, echoing like a bell in an abandoned temple.

The echo rolled, and the System inside her head froze in bafflement.

Just now...

Did something happen?

The System blinked.

Then.

Power down. Reboot.

Mm... nothing else changed.

But...

Who can tell me what the hell this is?

Beside her, mounds built from Corpse Devourer corpses rose like crude cairns. Around them lay scattered chunks—some like viscera, some like coiled intestines.

Is this a slaughterhouse?

The filthy, rotten scene was a world apart from the clean, orderly mall of before, like night replacing dawn.

No matter how many reboots, the System saw the same picture.

Green blood from the Corpse Devourers had dyed the first-floor white tiles a sickly hue, like moss claiming marble.

The red signal flares lit everything; nowhere escaped the harsh glow.

Nana Toki stood there casually, draped in ragged meat and sticky blood. Her pants were soaked in green, turned a terrifying black.

She stood quiet and alone, leaning on a Black Great Axe hung with scraps of flesh and slick intestines, its original color long lost.

Even without witnessing her wild rampage, one glance at the aftermath told the tale of a storm just passed.

It looked like the hellscapes of scripture: wherever the light fell, eyes found bones and severed limbs like driftwood on a black shore.

The scarlet flare painted Nana Toki as a demon clawing up from the depths, a shadow born from fire.

She stood in the center. Left and right lay headless bodies like toppled idols.

Nana Toki’s face was calm, stripped of extra emotion, as if feasts of headless corpses had become routine.

Silence. Stillness. A dead hush.

Inside the mall, it felt like a graveyard at pre-dawn, so quiet a falling needle would ring.

The heavy air closed like an iron hand on a throat, holding any witness breathless.

That Black Great Axe...

How did she even bring it out?

The System locked its gaze on the Black Great Axe at Nana Toki’s side.

The haft was plain, coal-black, without ornament. But the blade was huge—wide as a gym bro’s chest.

And it differed from common single-edge axes on the market.

Its design was strange; the back edge sprouted a hooked hawk’s talon, a gleaming spike.

That simple axe gained a wild killing aura, like storm wind wearing iron.

This isn’t a blade you find in normal places. At least—

Not in this plane.

Almost reflexively, the System scanned the black blade.

The result came back as a string of unremarkable numbers.

That... that’s impossible!

The System refused to believe it and scanned again.

Same result.

How could this be?

Staring at its own data in disbelief, the System glanced at Nana Toki leaning nearby.

It started doubting its entire career.

This shouldn’t happen. Her combat output doesn’t match the stats we just read.

Is my System broken?

Perplexed, the System rubbed its own head (fog). When this plane ends, I’ll ask the master for an upgrade...

"Host."

"Hm?"

Nana Toki flicked her wrists, flinging off clinging meat with a sour slap. "What is it?"

"That... weapon. How did you take it out?" The System licked its shameless face and asked, embarrassed. "This isn’t a cultivation plane, right? Storage rings don’t exist."

"Yeah."

Nana Toki pointed, matter-of-fact, at a shop nearby.

"So I took it from that store."

"Eh?!"

The System lifted its head, stunned. The shop she pointed at had bold letters: "Mountaineering Club."

Your mountaineering club sells that thing?

For a moment, the System felt its IQ pressed to the floor and ruthlessly violated.

"By the way, this weapon’s name is Corpse Devourer Killer. Special effect: deals 100% true damage to Corpse Devourers."

"If this plane had weapons like that, why even bother with difficulty!"

The System exploded, roasting her words: "Never mind your MMO description. This is a fantasy plane. Generally, planes won’t hand you that kind of weapon. And Heaven’s Dao is ramping difficulty. Finding it in a shop is even more impossible!"

"Host, you’re hiding something from me, aren’t you."

Its voice grew dull, a little wounded, like rain muffled by old cloth.

Normal girls can’t swing a Colossal Axe that size. Single-handed swings? Even less likely.

The System could accept that the Black Great Axe was a toy replica. But the violence and menace it showed felt like a devil weapon descending.

"Huh? What are you saying?" Nana Toki wiped her bloody hands on the wall, face blank. "I don’t really get you."

System: "......"

Done. With acting this wooden, the host obviously has a secret from me.

My mood’s broken.

I want a sick leave to go home.

This System is tired.

Not only does the host despise me; now she keeps secrets too.

Life’s impossible at this point.

...

Anyway.

Park these complaints for later.

The trashy System can rant some other time.

We need to clean up first.

She picked up a fallen signal flare. It had soaked in Corpse Devourer blood for a while. The grip felt slick and gross, but it still burned strong.

"Ugh... Honestly, these things are disgusting. I hope I never hit an apocalypse plane. I’d go nuts."

She roamed the mall for a bit and quickly found a clothing store. After a quick tidy inside, Nana Toki strolled out, unhurried.

"Tch, still stinks..."

She tied her hair into a ponytail and sniffed her forearm. Her face stayed a little shadowed.

No matter how much she rinsed with bottled water, without soap, the stench wouldn’t lift at all.

"Hiss hiss hiss..."

"Hiss hiss hiss..."

"Hey! Trash System, how long till this thick fog ends?"

Holding the cleaned signal flare, Nana Toki walked to the Black Great Axe she’d dubbed the Corpse Devourer Killer. With a sharp grunt, she yanked it from the tiles.

"......"

No reply. Maybe the System was still doubting life.

Nana Toki felt speechless for a moment.

This System’s not only incompetent; it slacks off on duty. I’ll leave a five-star bad review later!

"Hiss hiss hiss..."

"Hiss hiss hiss..."

Without warning, an irritable chill streamed straight into Nana Toki’s skull.

It felt like killing intent, cold enough to chip bone.

Nana Toki snapped around.

She swung the haft in a single-handed horizontal cut.

"!"

Four eyes met.

Nana Toki’s body locked up almost instantly.

Even the Black Great Axe froze in midair. The sharp blade hung inches from a little girl’s throat.

The spilled killing aura dropped like a deflated ball, leaking away to nothing.

When did she get behind me?

Nana Toki looked at the small girl in a torn brown dress.

She hadn’t felt another presence at all.

"Zzzzz..."

Only the burn of the signal flare whispered in the air.

Nana Toki stood like a kid in Red Light, Green Light, rigid and still.

The little girl wore a waist-long tangle of black hair and stood facing Nana Toki.

A pair of golden eyes stared straight into Nana Toki’s gaze.

It had been a long time since Nana Toki had seen eyes like that.

Dim, numb, hollow, unfocused.

Those beautiful golden irises held no life, like the gaze of the newly dead.

She probably doesn’t count as living anymore.

Nana Toki said nothing, and she didn’t lower the Black Great Axe at the girl’s neck.

She had a hunch. This girl was trouble.

A bigger trouble than any Corpse Devourer before.

"Stop! Stop! Host! Host! Spare her!"

As the two faced off, the long-silent System finally logged back in.

"She’s the target for the mission!"

"Huh? The mission’s target?"

Nana Toki blinked. "Target for what mission?"

"A hidden mission!"

"Huh?"

Nana Toki was blank again.

"Isn’t the hidden mission target Luo Shanshan?"

"Nope!"

Nana Toki: "......"

Hold on. Let me reread the hidden mission description.

Hidden Mission: Survival in the Fog City.

Mission: Stay safe in the fog with her and make it through.

This "her" refers to...

"It refers to the little girl in front of you," said the System.

Nana Toki: "......"

Then Luo Shanshan...

Not your problem.

Nana Toki: "......"

You gotta be kidding me...