The little sparrow tilted her head slightly, her crystal-clear eyes clouding with anger.

“Back off, don’t touch me!” Mujin shook her wings, batting away Zhou Ruiyang’s hand.

Ugh, she’d only held back out of pride—never expecting him to twist things around like this.

“Don’t get worked up,” Zhou Ruiyang explained. “I’ve got proof. I remember you dancing in girls’ clothes back in the dorm. Before turning into a sparrow, you said you liked me. And just now, you mentioned becoming a girl would thrill your bro. Am I wrong?”

Zhou Ruiyang had always believed his rejection of Mujin’s confession caused her mysterious disappearance. For days, he’d been drowning in guilt.

“Bullshit!” the sparrow snapped, spreading her wings wide and enunciating sharply.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means I’m not gay! Those were just random words. Confessing to you was… a joke, yeah, totally a joke!” Mujin puffed out her chest, voice brimming with righteous confidence.

“So you don’t like me?”

“Are you kidding? Not in this life—no, not even the next. You’ll only ever be my good son.”

Mujin wasn’t lying. Though not gay, she’d had another quirk in the past.

She was a bit asexual.

So far, she’d felt no strong romantic urges or special fondness for any girl.

Compared to love, she valued family and friendship more. Even games ranked higher than romance in her mind.

At their age, careers and love could wait—but season reward skins wouldn’t.

“Oh right, Xiao Yang, I need another favor.” The sparrow suddenly remembered after her outburst.

“Call me Dad.”

“Dad!” Mujin chirped, sweet and crisp.

“……”

···The next afternoon···

At Fuxin Residential Area, Liu Dacheng slowly walked out the gate, backpack slung over his shoulders.

A man in a baseball cap, hunched over his phone by the roadside, tucked it away the moment Liu emerged. He began tailing him.

Skilled at tracking, he kept a steady distance from Liu Dacheng, always ducking behind cover to stay hidden.

Liu reached a nearby park, slipping into a grove of trees. He scanned the area—seeing no one—he started setting nets in secret.

But the man behind the tree had already pulled out his phone, snapping covert photos.

After finishing, Liu moved to another grove, laying small traps for a multi-point hunting strategy.

About an hour later, he returned to the first net. Staring at the trapped birds, he gasped, “Lucky day! So many catches.”

He began unloading the net, ready to count his haul—when police officers in uniform burst from the surrounding trees.

“Freeze! Police!”

Liu was pinned instantly. Officers pulled a nail gun from his bag.

Captain Yang examined the gun, glanced down at Liu, and snapped on handcuffs.

“You’re under arrest for illegal hunting!”

Liu’s legs turned to jelly. He knew hunting birds was illegal—but after years of success, this was his first slip-up. He wailed, begging for leniency as a first-time offender.

“Easy,” Captain Yang smiled. “Want a chance to redeem yourself?”

“Yes! Absolutely!”

······

That evening, Lao Zhang crept to Liu Dacheng’s home in Fuxin, carrying a large cage draped in black cloth.

He glanced around nervously, tapping lightly on the door. “Lao Liu, open up!”

The door swung open moments later. Liu ushered him in.

“Got the goods, Brother Zhang?”

“Right here.” Lao Zhang lifted the cloth. A long-eared owl stared out with eerie, anxious eyes.

Once a sky sovereign, now a caged plaything.

“Nice. How much?”

“Twenty thousand.”

“Twenty thousand?! My sparrow sold for five! Your owl’s pure robbery!” Liu gaped—the price was blatantly outrageous.

“Cut the chatter. I’m just earning a runner’s fee. Who’s your buyer? Let me see if I know them.”

“This friend… you probably don’t.”

“Nonsense! Who in Q City’s circle don’t I know?”

As he spoke, two bedroom doors flew open. Police officers surged out.

Before Lao Zhang could react, he was slammed onto the table, cuffed.

“Know me?” Captain Yang stepped forward, smiling faintly.

Lao Zhang’s face flickered through emotions, settling on a dumb grin. “N-no… never seen you.”

“Then let’s fix that. Come with me!”

In a single day, Q City cracked two illegal bird-hunting cases. Captain Yang, hailed as the hero, even gave a TV interview that night.

“This is just the start. We’ve got a massive intel chain. Every remaining criminal will be rooted out—one by one—to make Q City greener.”

“Any final words for our viewers, Captain?”

Captain Yang stared into the camera, deliberate and firm: “Say no to illegal hunting. Start with yourself.”

······

At the computer, Zhou Ruiyang and Mujin watched Captain Yang on screen, exchanging grins.

“Brilliant, Xiao Yang! Teach those bird-hunters a lesson!” Mujin fluttered her wings joyfully in Zhou’s lap.

Zhou stroked her fluffy head. “Happy now?”

That morning, Mujin had nagged him relentlessly to gather evidence against the hunters for revenge. Zhou rushed over right after class.

He’d expected days of tailing Liu Dacheng to catch him red-handed—yet luck struck on day one.

It proved Liu hunted birds like clockwork. His arrest was inevitable.

“Happy? Of course!”

Mujin hadn’t pushed for revenge just out of spite. There was another reason.

【Congratulations, Host, on completing the task “Sparrow’s Revenge”! Reward: 3% progress points, 20 points, and bonus skill “Emergency Enhancement.” Usable in sparrow form. Grants human-level strength and defense briefly. Note: Strength matches Host’s female form.】

Whoa, System—you’ve gone soft lately! Such generous rewards now?

Next time she faced hunters, she wouldn’t be caught.

But… maybe there wouldn’t be a next time.

“What’re you muttering about, Xiao Yang? Huh? When’d you get this cute little bird?” Hao Ren wandered over curiously, spotting Mujin and reaching to pet her.

Mujin flinched instinctively, soaring into the air to circle overhead.

Hao Ren pulled back. “Weird. She avoids touch? Yet she’s so close to you?”

“Uh… not sure. Maybe ’cause I’m her owner? Ow!” Zhou yelped as Mujin dive-bombed to peck his head.

In just one day, Mujin had witnessed human cruelty. Shadows clung to her now. Like a true sparrow, she shrank from anyone within two meters.

Except the guy behind her.