After leaving Moonsea Park, the girl followed Jiecheng Yuan home. Her only reason was to retrieve the shoes she’d left by the entrance.

“This is my LINE. I’ll explain whatever you want to know.” The girl snatched Jiecheng Yuan’s phone, added herself on LINE, and left without another word.

The girl’s sudden, inexplicable change in attitude caught Jiecheng Yuan completely off guard. But since she was cooperating, there was no need to force her to stay like before.

After seeing the girl off, Jiecheng Yuan began getting used to the house and learning things the game hadn’t mentioned. Then she checked the class schedule and gathered the textbooks she’d need for school the next day.

Once she’d finished all that, Jiecheng Yuan went out again and walked around some of the important places from the game, like the school and the shopping district, committing the routes to memory.

There was one other important thing she did first: she went to Li’s place, but there didn’t seem to be anyone behind the door.

None of this was especially difficult. If anything, it was a little novel. Still, doing everything one by one took quite a bit of time and effort. By the time she’d more or less finished everything on her list, a new moon had already risen in the night sky.

“Ahh!”

After a full day of running around, Jiecheng Yuan lay flat on her back in the bathtub and took a huge gulp of the ice-cold cola she’d just bought at the convenience store. She could feel the fizzy drink’s chilly path down her throat and into her stomach. The refreshing sensation sent a shiver through her brain.

It hadn’t even been a full day since she’d crossed into this world, but so much had happened. She desperately needed to rest, body and mind alike.

Luckily, there was a bathtub in Jiecheng Yuan’s bathroom. A hot soak was the perfect way to unwind. The scented bathwater wrapped around her whole body, seeming to melt away the day’s exhaustion along with it, until Jiecheng Yuan began to feel drowsy.

If you had to cross into another world, a modern setting like this was great. If she’d ended up in some ancient era, she wouldn’t have been able to enjoy good food or a proper bath.

And if she’d landed somewhere even more dangerous, like a fantasy world crawling with monsters or a post-apocalyptic wasteland, she couldn’t even count on staying alive.

“It’s not exactly safe here, either.” Jiecheng Yuan muttered as she set her drink on the shelf within easy reach. She scooped up some water in her palm and poured it over her shoulder, turning her head as she scrubbed.

Her arm, reaching across her body, seemed to brush against something soft, making it awkward to scrub her shoulder.

“Ah…”

Jiecheng Yuan let out a helpless sigh. That soft sensation told her what her arm had bumped into without her even needing to look down. Having two extra lumps of fat was pretty hard to get used to.

It was hard to get used to, sure, but they were still nice to look at. And besides, there couldn’t be anything wrong with looking at herself in the bathroom, right?

This slender waist, this well-proportioned figure, this fair skin, and these two perfectly sized… Mm. As expected of me. I’m adorable.

Should she take this chance to try casting a spell and explore the unknown a little?

At the thought, Jiecheng Yuan’s hand trembled as she prepared to slip it into the bath. Her heart pounded so hard in her chest it nearly drowned out the water. The Black Magic Mark on her abdomen twisted in the bath along with the ripples her movements sent across the surface.

The Black Magic Mark caught the corner of her eye. Her rising desire cooled a little, and she stopped just before taking a step onto the stairway to heaven.

“Now’s not the time for this. Now’s not the time for this!”

Jiecheng Yuan kept repeating the same words under her breath, as if that might help her calm down. She hurriedly turned on the shower overhead. The cold water washed away some of her restlessness, finally stopping her from fantasizing like a pervert. Actually, she should just call herself a pervert now.

She’d stopped before putting those thoughts into practice not only because she felt guilty toward the body’s original owner, but also because she still didn’t understand the Black Magic Mark. It was fortunate that she hadn’t become consumed by desire like the other girls who’d fallen to darkness. Until she figured out why, any rash action could lead to serious consequences.

She’d better finish washing and get out. If she stayed any longer, Jiecheng Yuan couldn’t promise she’d keep herself from examining her own body. But the sheer variety of bath and skincare products in the bathroom had her stumped.

She knew what to do with ordinary bath products like shampoo, body wash, conditioner, and toothpaste. She could more or less guess what scented soap or body lotion was for, too. But she had no idea what creams, skincare products, and some of the things whose names she couldn’t even pronounce were supposed to do.

The bottles did have instructions and descriptions on them. But as she soaked in the tub and read them like bath-time reading, she found that while she recognized every word on its own, putting them together made them impossible to understand.

By the time Jiecheng Yuan reached the third bottle, she’d given up on understanding these things that were still far too advanced for her.

Before she came to this world, all she theoretically needed for a bath was a bar of soap and a towel. If she wanted to get a little more specific, she could think of only three things: something to wash her face, something for her hair, and something for her body.

“Is taking a bath really this complicated for girls?”

Grumbling, Jiecheng Yuan picked out a few bottles whose uses she could figure out and gave herself a quick wash. Then she carried her cola out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her waist.

Neon lights had already sprung to life outside the window, dividing the monotonous city into dazzling blocks of color. A few night breezes sped up the evaporation of the water droplets still clinging to her skin, leaving her feeling a little cool.

Jiecheng Yuan stood with her hands on her hips in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window and took a few more gulps of cola. She narrowed her eyes and enjoyed the unfamiliar cityscape in the breeze, waiting for the dampness on her body to dry naturally.

Reflected in the glass by the lights inside, the only thing visible was a pink-haired girl with a towel around her waist, holding a drink in one hand and standing with the other on her hip, without a care for how she looked.

“I…”

Jiecheng Yuan almost swore again. She quickly crouched down, covering her chest with both hands, her cheeks burning red as she peeked around to see if anyone had witnessed her embarrassing moment.

I’m a girl now. I need to watch how I look. I can’t act like I did before.

After repeating that to herself several times, Jiecheng Yuan raised both hands and gave her cheeks a firm slap. Only once she’d banished all those stray thoughts from her mind did she stand up.

Once she’d collected herself, she still had one last thing to do—the most important thing of all. She had to ask the girl everything she knew about the attack on herself and Li.

Wrapped in the towel again, Jiecheng Yuan curled up on the sofa and picked up her phone from the coffee table. She unlocked it, and a string of LINE messages filled the screen.

Apart from the system notifications, almost all of them were from the girl. She’d missed them because she’d been in the bath.

Jiecheng Yuan opened the messages to see if the girl had left any important information.

“Let’s meet. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“Daytime isn’t very convenient. I’ll be at Yanxia Cafe at eight-thirty. The one near Moonsea Tower.”

“I’m heading out. Hurry up.”

“I’m almost there. Where are you? I can’t sneak out for long, so reply quickly!”

“?”

“Are you late?”

“You’re not at Yanxia Cafe at all. Where are you hiding?”

“Fine, fine. You’re standing me up, is that it?”

The last message had been sent at 8:47.

But the time displayed on her phone was already past 9:30.