“Need a hand with dinner?”
Luo Shanshan sat alone in the living room, nerves crawling like ants; in minutes she felt like she was sitting on needles, so she hopped up and scurried into Nana Toki’s kitchen.
“Are you that free right now?”
Nana Toki had just tossed a few packs of instant noodles into the pot; she squinted over a stainless-steel basin, voice dry as cold tea.
“Mhm-mhm, totally free! So, Xixi, need anything?”
Luo Shanshan tapped her tiny forehead, excitement fizzing like soda. “I can help you cook too!”
“...”
“Just grab your own bowl and chopsticks. Instant noodles cook fast.”
Nana Toki looked her up and down, then lifted the steel basin and drifted back to the stove like a crane to a reedbed. “After we eat, help me wash the dishes. That’s enough.”
“On it!”
Her smile floated like a paper lantern after getting the okay. Humming a tune Xixi had never heard, she tiptoed to the cupboard, fished out two small white porcelain bowls and two pairs of chopsticks. She set them on the dining table like placing chess pieces, then sat there primly to wait.
Before long, steam rolled like mist over a river. Nana Toki came out from the kitchen carrying a stainless-steel basin.
“Hm? Why’d you take two bowls?”
By the table, Nana’s expression went odd as she eyed the twin porcelain bowls, one on each side like a mirror. “You invite a friend?”
“Eh? I didn’t bring anyone.”
Luo Shanshan blinked, sparrow-still. “Isn’t it just you and me here, Xixi?”
“Then why two bowls?”
Nana Toki set the basin of braised-flavor instant noodles down with a bang, like a gavel on wood.
“Eh? Xixi doesn’t need a bowl?”
She accepted the bowl Nana had ladled noodles into, face fogged with confusion. Without a bowl, what do you eat instant noodles with?
“You take yours. I’ve got my own.”
Nana picked up the extra pair of chopsticks and pointed, voice flat as winter rain.
“Your own bowl?” Luo’s eyes drifted, lost like a kite in crosswind. She didn’t see Xixi’s bowl anywhere on the table.
“Yeah. Our portions aren’t the same, so our bowls aren’t either.”
Nana calmly lifted noodles from the steel basin, slurping like a breeze through reeds. “I usually eat straight from the basin.”
“...”
“By the way, there’s more in the pot. If it’s not enough, go add some yourself. If braised isn’t your thing, there’s mala chili paste by the pot. Add what you like.”
“R-right... right...”
The corner of Luo’s mouth twitched. She stared at her delicate little bowl of noodles and suddenly questioned life like a boat lost in fog.
In that instant, she even felt Nana’s rundown home probably had a lot to do with portions fit for a wild boar.
Anyway.
Home returned. Dinner done.
Next up: the thrilling nightlife!
“Xixi, wanna shower together?”
After washing the dishes, mission-complete, Luo bounced back into the living room like a sparrow in spring and invited Nana to bathe.
But—
“Allow me to refuse.”
Nana, fiddling with a battered radio on the chair, answered like a door slamming in the wind.
“Ehh~ why? If we shower together, we save on water and electricity!”
Luo clearly wasn’t letting go of a chance to get close enough to smell peach blossoms.
However—
“By volume calculations, two people showering together won’t save utilities. It’s more like three to four times the normal use. If you can manage not to say a word, and stay outside a ten-meter radius from me the whole time, maybe. Maybe.”
Nana’s hands stayed on the radio, voice cool as moonlight on a pond.
“...”
Ten meters? Would I still be inside Xixi’s house?
“C’mon... don’t be so heartless, Xixi...”
Luo’s eyes glistened like dew. “Just tonight, please?”
“...”
Nana stopped fiddling, lifted her chin, eyes half-lidded like a cat.
“You’re not... into girls, are you?”
“...”
Zzzt—zzzt—
Right then, the radio sparked a crackle of static, like lightning behind clouds.
Zzzt... To all who survived the recent Great Fog... zzzt... do not go out tonight... zzzt... unknown assailants are hunting citizens... zzzt... six dead, four injured... zzzt... once notified, do not go out at night...
“They’re already broadcasting city news?”
Nana stared at the radio cradled in her arms; her face grew heavy, like clouds piling over a ridge.
Another shift away from the original plot...
“Xixi...”
Beside her, Luo’s voice tightened like a plucked string. “Is tonight... dangerous?”
“...”
“Maybe.”
Nana set the radio back on the wooden table, the grain dark as river eddies. “Just don’t run around outside at night.”
“Where are you going, Xixi?”
Seeing Nana head toward the room, Luo hurried after, worry flapping like a trapped moth.
“What else? Shower.”
Nana grabbed a change of clothes and stepped into the bathroom. When Luo tried to slip in too, Nana braced a hand on the door and blocked her, firm as a locked gate.
“You can bathe after me.”
Truth was, she had no interest in being groped for no reason, even by a pretty girl.
And Nana Toki considered her orientation perfectly normal.
No way would she be beastly enough to assault a girl. Besides, the girl was just data from a broken world anyway.
“But I’m scared, QAQ.”
Clutching the bathroom doorframe like driftwood, Luo pulled a crying face. “You heard it! There’s a murderer out there. What if it breaks in and kills me?”
“...”
You grab lightning bare-handed and you’re afraid of a random killer?
I’d believe you could tear that killer apart with your bare hands.
Nana wanted to say it, but seeing how small her courage really was, she hesitated. A sigh, soft as falling ash. “Fine. Sit by the bathroom door and wait till I’m done.”
“...”
Xixi, you’re a demon, aren’t you?
...
Half a month later.
X City’s gears started turning again. The Great Fog’s impact, aside from the commercial tower Nana had been in, left little lasting damage.
More than that.
Washed by the Great Fog, awakened ability users sprang up like bamboo shoots after spring rain.
The term New Humans entered common speech, their status high as banners in a fair wind.
To win them over, the local government even launched subsidies for New Humans, money falling like soft snow.
Meanwhile, over the next month, regional scientists surveyed and probed, combing through data like tides over sand. They found the fog’s blessings.
Those baptized by the Great Fog awakened abilities, becoming New Humans with special powers.
New Humans who already had abilities grew stronger after another fog, their power thickening like broth.
To pin down the fog with more accuracy, scientists raked through past records and matched them with geomagnetic data. In the end, they extrapolated the next city the Great Fog would swallow.
Cities predicted to face the fog were dubbed Fog Cities.
And the place Nana Toki lived—X City—was once again the next locus.
Thus, X City was officially renamed Fog City, a new name rising like dawn over rooftops.
People rushed to Fog City, eager to become New Humans, a migration like birds arrowing south.
To manage it, the government decreed: only humans and New Humans who passed comprehensive checks could freely enter or leave Fog City. All others were barred, shut out like waves at a seawall.
The policy was called Fog Transit.
Then.
Another week drifted by like smoke.
Fog Transit officially went live.
And the third coming of the Great Fog loomed, the clock’s sand running thin.
Zzzt... zzzt...
That night, after dinner, Nana and Luo sat in the living room, fiddling with the same beat-up radio, its casing scuffed like old bark.
For the past two months, Nana’s life had been comfortable as warm sunlight on a winter wall.
With a New Human stipend, even goofing off outside brought in a decent haul. Plus, she had Luo Shanshan as a convenient gofer, a walking toolbox with a smile.
So while her living space hadn’t changed, her meals grew richer by the day, steam rising like contentment.
And ever since she fed Misty Tide a snack in that hotel, the girl hadn’t shown up again.
The Protagonist Lord and the heroine? Not a shadow.
Every day, Nana watched others trade abilities in street duels like glints on water, then hit some supervisor-less supermarket to snag instant noodles. Her time could be summed up in two words: idle bliss.
As for the System’s main quest and hidden quest?
Long tossed to the back of her mind like stones in tall grass.
“If only this plane stayed this easy.”
She sipped a drink lifted from the shop next door and gazed at the sky, blue deep as a lake, a sigh drifting out.
System: ...
Aren’t you worried about the third wave of the Great Fog?
Worried, sure.
System: ...
I can’t tell at all.
What, you want me to put on a mourning face for you?
Nana rolled her eyes, the motion lazy as a cat’s tail.
Anyway, it’ll be that dumbass Heaven’s Dao making things hard for me again. I’d rather live comfy now, and when I run into that clown, I’ll just deck him.
System: ...
You’re something else, Host.
