The blood beneath the pale hand wedged in the crack in the wall had dried. No one had claimed it.

Ye Zhuangyan followed the trail of blood, staying alert the whole way to avoid running into strangers in the sewers.

After what had happened before, Ye Zhuangyan had realized just how tempting her current appearance was to the drifters who'd lived in the sewers for years.

And how dangerous she herself was.

Ye Zhuangyan wasn't sure what might happen if she ever lost consciousness from hunger. She might wake up to find several half-eaten limbs lying right in front of her.

For all she knew, she might even have something in her mouth, chewing away without realizing she was eating it.

But Ye Zhuangyan wasn't alone on the road just then. She had a black cat with her.

The black cat trotted obediently beside her. It didn't rub against her leg or beg for attention.

As Ye Zhuangyan looked at the cat beside her, she had the feeling it knew the original owner of her body.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have helped her by biting the drifter when she was in danger.

Thinking this, Ye Zhuangyan seized fate by the scruff while the black cat wasn't looking.

The black cat immediately went still and let Ye Zhuangyan pick it up without a fuss.

She cradled the cat in her arms and stroked its fur from head to tail, feeling the vibrations as it purred. It didn't resist at all, and Ye Zhuangyan's mood lifted considerably.

For some reason, this black cat was the only thing that had managed to stir even the slightest emotion in Ye Zhuangyan so far.

The fake cat ears, formed by the tufts of hair sticking up on either side of her head, bobbed with the girl's steps, just like real cat ears.

She wondered if some kind of transformation might turn them into real cat ears.

And so, in the quiet, Ye Zhuangyan reached the spot where the blood on the ground was thickest.

A wall stood beyond the pool of blood. An iron ladder was bolted to it, leading up to a manhole cover.

Ye Zhuangyan was curious how the drifter whose hand she'd severed had managed to climb the ladder alone and push open the heavy manhole cover.

Maybe someone had helped?

Ye Zhuangyan set the black cat down. She didn't care how the drifter had climbed up and gotten away.

Seeing how much blood the drifter had lost along the way, would anyone really save someone who'd lived in the sewers for years and, for some reason, was missing a hand?

Ye Zhuangyan had no way of knowing, and she wasn't going to dwell on it. All she wanted now was to leave these sewers, which felt like an underground city.

As Ye Zhuangyan followed the blood trail toward an exit, she also ate a few little “jellies” to stave off her hunger.

Maybe because she'd done it once before, she felt much less reluctant to eat the “jellies.”

That helped her recover some of her strength, too.

She'd planned to climb the ladder one rung at a time, but she was so small that she kept missing the rungs. It was a real hassle.

Ye Zhuangyan stared at the ladder and the sealed manhole cover, feeling troubled. If she could avoid it, she really didn't want to transform into a monster again.

It wasn't just because the transformation took a lot of energy from her body. She was also afraid that transforming too often might cause some unknown, irreversible change.

“If only I could transform just my tail.”

Ye Zhuangyan thought about it with a frown. She was still clumsy at controlling her body and couldn't make it do whatever she wanted.

Still, whatever the case, she had to try.

It was better than staying in the sewers forever.

Once Ye Zhuangyan had made up her mind, she set about putting it into action.

She focused and recalled how the transformation had happened before.

She stayed still for several minutes. At last, Ye Zhuangyan managed to transform a tail.

Ye Zhuangyan looked at the flexible tail growing from her body. It seemed to extend from her tailbone.

What she was more curious about, though, was how the tail appeared—and how it disappeared.

She wasn't sure she wanted to imagine it.

Still, there was no denying the tail was beautiful. It looked like a teal chain sword shaped like a serpent's belly, with a tip larger and flatter than the rest of it, sharp and pointed.

It was highly flexible and resilient. Its overall shape was a little like a bamboo viper, and it could extend and retract to some degree. It was better suited to piercing attacks than slashing.

Ye Zhuangyan curiously pinched her tail. It was extremely sensitive, and its texture felt like scales, yet touching it felt just like touching a part of her own body.

There were also the blue-green scales that had covered her cheeks before, and the vine-like patterns that had appeared on her limbs.

It seemed like none of these parts had anything to do with the so-called lump of flesh.

So… was it called Saya simply because they shared the same name?

Ye Zhuangyan swished her tail as she thought.

After all, a lump of flesh wouldn't grow a tail.

She shook her head, setting those questions aside, and focused on controlling her tail. She hooked it over the top of the ladder like a hook, then pulled herself up.

The whole thing went smoothly, without the slightest awkwardness.

Then Ye Zhuangyan used her tail to push the manhole cover open with ease and left the sewers.

It was an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts, filled with all kinds of rusty things. Dust hung heavily in the air, but it was still much better than the abandoned lab or the sewers.

There were a few traces of blood in the warehouse, too. Following them, Ye Zhuangyan found bloodstained gauze lying on the ground. Judging by the smell, it definitely belonged to the drifter.

Clearly, someone had rescued the drifter.

Whether the drifter was alive or dead was still uncertain.

Ye Zhuangyan didn't know what kind of chain reaction might follow if the drifter had survived, but it would definitely cause trouble for her.

Rather than worrying about that, she was better off thinking about how to face this unfamiliar world.

Though she still couldn't feel anything that could be called worry.

Ye Zhuangyan walked out of the warehouse. It seemed to be nearing midnight outside. Thick clouds had long since hidden the moon, and the city lights in the distance flickered through the rain…

The steady rain pattered against the girl's cheeks, washing away a smear of blood that had splashed there at some point and soaking her white dress.

Yet Ye Zhuangyan didn't react at all. She stared blankly at the city wrapped in the downpour.

For a moment, Ye Zhuangyan almost thought she was still on Earth, still the twenty-six-year-old workaholic who'd thrown herself into her job.

She remembered that night. The downpour had blurred everything around her. The black umbrella only made it harder to walk against the wind, and the rain had soaked through her shoes…

“Meow~”

A meow pulled Ye Zhuangyan out of her memories.

She turned and watched the black cat emerge from the shadows of the warehouse.

Its deep blue eyes were as beautiful as jewels.

The black cat ran to the girl and rubbed its head against her leg.

The rain soaked the cat's fur, but it didn't seem to mind at all.

Ye Zhuangyan picked up the black cat and went back into the abandoned warehouse.

The tail swayed behind the girl as she disappeared into the darkness of the warehouse.