“Are you this familiar with every girl you meet?”

Watching Jiang Cha act like some big-shot street girl, Xia Yuan couldn’t help asking, curious.

“Ugh!”

The pretty girl with long, straight black hair, dressed in cute, carefully coordinated clothes and wearing subtle, natural-looking makeup, looked as if a sharp sword had pierced her heart. She let out a cute little cry of anguish.

Then she put on a serious expression and met Xia Yuan’s gaze. “People have a lot of misconceptions about me, you know? Can you understand that?”

“You’re saying you’re not a player?”

“Girl, you really know how to hit where it hurts...”

Jiang Cha looked a little helpless. She was just about to explain herself when she suddenly heard a familiar cry.

“Shit! Those things are coming!”

“What the hell is that?”

Xia Yuan instinctively got to her feet, then helped Jiang Cha pile anything they could find against the door, hoping to hold the monsters back for a little longer.

Only after they were done did she come back to herself. She silently mocked herself: She was already someone who wanted to die, so why was she trying so hard?

“Wait, isn’t this a dream?”

“You could say it’s a dream... In a way.”

Jiang Cha seemed to know this place well. Leaning against the cabinet barricading the door, she pulled two pieces of partially melted Dada bubble gum from her pocket. As she unwrapped them, she said, “This is a Mindscape. Those monsters are called Thought Beasts.”

“This is a Mindscape. Those monsters are called Thought Beasts.”

“I don’t really understand how it works, either. Just think of it as an alternate space... You’ve read online game novels, right? This place is basically a dungeon.”

She gave a quiet laugh, then glanced at Xia Yuan with a hint of amusement.

“But if you die here, you’re really dead. There’s no second chance.”

“Want some?”

“No, thanks.”

Xia Yuan waved away the bubble gum Jiang Cha offered. The wrappers were still damp with Jiang Cha’s sweat. There was no way she could eat that.

“This place exists because of me, right?”

“Clever.”

The long-haired girl snapped her fingers, then casually popped both pieces of gum into her mouth. She chewed quickly and blew a huge bubble. It grew until it burst, and she licked the gum back in with her tongue.

“Generally, a Mindscape requires two things to form: a girl with sufficient potential, and a desire to embrace death.”

“So...”

Jiang Cha raised her eyes. For a fleeting moment, her gaze—which was as dark as black amber—seemed to turn ice blue. Then it was gone, leaving Xia Yuan wondering if she’d imagined it.

“This is basically the ‘graveyard’ Earth Online prepared for you.”

The Thought Beasts were slamming into the door harder and harder. The heavy security door was covered in deep, ugly dents, and the lock had long since started to give. It was on the verge of breaking.

But Jiang Cha still sounded relaxed, as if she’d seen this kind of thing a hundred times before.

Maybe a cigarette would suit her better than bubble gum right now.

“Looks like I’m definitely going to die today, huh? What about you? Are you my gravedigger, or a grave robber breaking into my tomb?”

Xia Yuan gave a bitter smile. She tried to perk herself up and crack a joke to lighten the mood, but with the door about to give way, it felt utterly futile.

“Actually, I came to save you.”

“What?”

“How could I bear to let a beautiful girl like you die, Xia Yuan? So I came to pull you out myself.”

She flashed a lovely, wicked smile. Her soft pink lips curled up, and her eyes narrowed, like the bad-boy hero from a romance novel popular ten years ago—only much cuter and more mischievous.

“Sure, this is the ‘graveyard’ Earth Online prepared for you. But what does this trash game know about a girl’s complicated heart? Plenty of people think about ending their lives and never actually do it. And this lousy game called reality won’t stop just because you change your mind.”

“That’s how people like us came to exist.”

“You can call me a Witch, a Savior, or whatever else you like. We don’t even have one name for all of us. Basically, a long time ago, some girls who’d entered a Mindscape managed to escape. Afterward, they decided they wanted to save others like themselves. And that’s how this job came about.”

“Saving beautiful girls—isn’t that a job that suits me perfectly?”

She smiled again. It really was a lovely smile.

There was a freedom and abandon in her smile that Xia Yuan had never possessed. It was like a shaft of light far above in a pitch-black well—impossible to reach or touch, yet so captivating.

Like some faraway place in a poet’s words, or a beautiful view on someone’s social feed: something to envy, while you remain trapped where you are.

“It doesn’t suit you at all. I thought your job was carrying people to their graves.”

Xia Yuan turned her head, unable to look at that smile any longer. A faint ache stirred in her chest, but her words were still merciless.

It really was like the sunlight outside that window.

Warm, yet dazzling enough to make you want to cry.

“...I finally get why you don’t have any friends, even though you’re so pretty, Xia Yuan. Is your mouth poisonous or what?”

Jiang Cha put on a wounded expression and gestured dramatically.

“I’m sitting here looking all pitiful, and you can’t show me a little sympathy? I’m risking my life here...”

“Shit! Move!”

She hadn’t even finished speaking when Jiang Cha’s expression changed. She grabbed Xia Yuan’s hand and pulled her away from the door.

The next second, the door burst open. The tables, cabinets, and operating table were smashed to pieces. Wood splinters flew everywhere, and the air seemed to fill with the smell of blood.

A Thought Beast lunged at them, baring its vicious fangs as it tried to tear a chunk of flesh from them.

Jiang Cha seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. She spun around and kicked it back with a sweeping kick, then shoved Xia Yuan forward.

“Run ahead! I’ll hold them off for a bit! There’s a cold weapon in the sports equipment shed by the field!”

She grabbed a wooden stick with both hands and stood behind the doorway, batting away the Thought Beasts as they leapt at her, one after another. She had the look of someone holding the pass all by herself.

“What about you!?”

“I’ve got plenty of experience, and I’m faster than you! Why are you worrying about me? Go!”

“Okay!”

Xia Yuan wasn’t the indecisive type. Once Jiang Cha’s words made sense to her, she set off again, running toward the field.

It was strange. It was as if every monster in the Mindscape had been drawn to Jiang Cha. Xia Yuan didn’t encounter a single one along the way, and reached the place Jiang Cha had mentioned without a hitch.

She’d studied at this university for two years and never known there were actual cold weapons in this shed... dangerous ones with sharpened edges, no less.

It was a military saber with a strip of red cloth tied to the hilt. It weighed a full two kilograms. Xia Yuan could barely lift it, let alone swing it. To carry it around, she’d have to clutch it in both arms, and it would drain what little energy she had left.

“Did you find it!?”

Jiang Cha’s voice was already coming from far away. The school was so quiet that Xia Yuan could hear her loud and clear, even from halfway across the field.

“I found it!!”