Xia Xinyan quickly changed and came out, but this time, the outfit she picked was a little special.

Her top was a crop top, and the waistband of her pants sat very low, exposing a large stretch of pale skin.

It made Ling Mo freeze for a moment. “You picked this outfit?”

It felt completely different from how she’d been dressing the past two days.

“Ah... because the tail is kind of a hassle.” Xia Xinyan answered with a strange expression.

After awakening her ability, her tail had grown out from her tailbone. Even if she wore her pants as low as possible, she still couldn’t expose that area—or she’d be flashing people. So when she awakened her power in real life before, part of her tail had been cramped inside her pants. Maybe that was also one reason it kept curling upward uncontrollably, until it pushed against the hem of her shirt.

So when she entered the game yesterday to test her ability, she had specially made a pair of pants with a tail hole, so the tail could come out without obstruction.

Then this dungeon had refreshed her clothes.

Unless she spent time right now cutting a hole in the right spot on these pants, dressing like this was the only way to make it less uncomfortable.

Mm... she felt like she really needed to pay attention to how other people with beast-type abilities dealt with the tail problem.

Hearing her answer, Ling Mo still took a few seconds to process it. “Hm? Ah... oh.”

As someone who didn’t grow a tail, it was a little hard for him to understand.

“Let’s head out first.” Xia Xinyan didn’t dwell on it. “This should be a tutorial mission for now, but the real show will probably start soon.”

The game system had mentioned earlier that “this city has people behaving strangely.” That was definitely worth noting.

Ling Mo nodded and stepped out first.

The moment they walked out the door, a new game prompt appeared in front of them—

[Current Mission: Go to the underground parking lot and drive the vehicle in Parking Space 30 to your workplace]

“Can you drive?” Xia Xinyan asked from behind him.

Ling Mo paused, then nodded. “Yeah.”

He’d gotten his driver’s license right after graduating high school.

“Then I’ll leave it to you. I can’t drive.” Xia Xinyan smiled.

A free chauffeur. No reason not to use one.

Ling Mo didn’t think much of it and agreed readily. “Sure!”

He was the one driving? This was his moment to look cool...

A very simple thought.

Parked in Space 30 was a sports coupe. As the two approached, it unlocked automatically and the doors opened on their own, even fancier than normal proximity sensing.

And after Ling Mo sat in the driver’s seat, the game very thoughtfully provided two driving modes—

One was real driving, and the other was controller driving.

Apparently the latter was meant for people who didn’t know how to drive.

Ling Mo paused for a moment, then tilted his head toward Xia Xinyan. “Looks like it has a controller mode. Want to try it?”

Looking cool was nice, but whenever something interesting came up, he was still happy to let Xia Xinyan try it first.

Good stuff should go to your girlfriend, after all—that was how he saw it.

But Xia Xinyan had zero interest. “No need. You drive.”

She just wanted him to be a useful tool, plain and simple.

Honestly, having a tool person you could order around felt really good. She didn’t have to do everything herself, and it always gave her this oddly satisfying superior feeling.

...Though, come to think of it, she kind of already was above ordinary people now.

Tch.

Ling Mo still didn’t think too much about it. “Mm, okay.”

When it came to little things like this, he usually interpreted others with the greatest goodwill possible... no, not others. Just his girlfriend.

In other words, Xia Xinyan herself didn’t need to be perfect. As long as he felt she was perfect, that was enough.

After all, this was his own private kind of beauty.

Mm... even if he probably hadn’t realized it himself, he seemed to have already gotten used to Xia Xinyan’s place in his heart.

That was a good thing for him. It meant his next main task was simply to admit his own value.

His value in Xia Xinyan’s heart.

Maybe that stage wouldn’t take long either.

After both of them got in, the central display automatically popped up with navigation info. The destination wasn’t far, only a little over ten kilometers away.

After familiarizing himself with the controls, Ling Mo drove out of the underground parking lot.

Only after reaching the surface did they finally get a clear look at their surroundings.

This was an extremely prosperous metropolis. As far as the eye could see, there were high-rises everywhere, and the roads were packed with both cars and pedestrians—so naturally, they got stuck in traffic.

They were jammed in an unusually busy district, with a stream of cars stretching endlessly ahead.

Ling Mo rested both hands on the steering wheel and fell silent for a moment. “...I think I should’ve taken a detour.”

With traffic this bad, they probably wouldn’t move an inch within half an hour.

“No need.” Xia Xinyan stared at something ahead. “This might be the destination.”

A game dungeon wouldn’t give players completely meaningless instructions, like making them sit in traffic for hours before the real plot started. A tutorial mission like this was more about easing players naturally into the dungeon event, giving them some buffer time to settle into the world.

She was already more than familiar with this kind of setup.

For example, in the current situation, she could already guess a few things—

“The building up ahead is smoking.”

Hearing that, Ling Mo looked over and indeed saw thick smoke rising from the top of a distant building. It looked like a fire had broken out.

After thinking for a moment, he rolled down the window.

With nothing blocking it anymore, the sounds outside poured in without restraint. Besides the noise of the crowd around them, there also seemed to be the faint sound of sirens drifting over from afar.

“Looks like a fire truck blocked the road?” Ling Mo guessed.

Xia Xinyan shook her head. “Not necessarily because of that building. In less than three minutes, five helicopters have already flown overhead.”

Ling Mo instinctively glanced up, just in time to see another military helicopter fly past at extremely low altitude, almost skimming the rooftops.

That immediately made him think of the earlier [Breaking News] prompt from the game. “Something’s wrong with this city?”

Some of the citizens were behaving strangely...

But before Xia Xinyan could respond, a motorcycle suddenly shot through the gap between cars on their left and smashed off their side mirror.

Both of them froze.

Looking at the mirror that had fallen behind the car in front of them, Xia Xinyan’s expression gradually turned strange.

This plot development... why did it look so familiar...?

“It kind of feels like the opening of a movie...” Ling Mo muttered. “Don’t tell me I’m supposed to get out and pick up the mirror next?”

Xia Xinyan grabbed his wrist at once. “Don’t. If the system hasn’t given a mission prompt, don’t get out. Roll the window back up.”

She had naturally seen that movie too. The opening was extremely similar to this. A motorcycle knocked off the protagonist’s side mirror, and then...

A motorcycle cop suddenly pulled up beside Ling Mo’s car and knocked on the window. “Did that guy up ahead knock off your mirror? Remember to—”

Before he could finish, a figure lunged from behind and slammed into him, sending him flying.

Ling Mo jolted and immediately rolled the window up. “Damn! Don’t tell me this really is a zombie dungeon?!”

“Get ready!” Xia Xinyan had wanted to awaken her ability right away, but in that instant, thinking of the tail that might get in the way, she held back. “Can you manifest a weapon with your ability?”

“A weapon?” Ling Mo hesitated for a second, then raised his hand. “I’ll try—”

He produced a brick.

Xia Xinyan: “...”