“...This thing is my wife?” Zhuohua was stunned. “Shouldn’t I be its wife-cookie instead?!”

The octopus cat on Zhuohua’s chest was drawn to her words. It looked up at her.

Sensing something, Zhuohua instinctively lowered her gaze to the little cat.

One look was enough to make her freeze.

Those eyes of the cat’s...

A cat’s eyes were liquid gold.

A cat’s eyes were liquid gold.

A cat’s eyes were a kingdom with go-go-go-gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold in them.

A cat’s eyes were liquid ■■■■■■■■

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

“Bzzzt!”

The pink panel still open before Zhuohua’s eyes shuddered violently. A higher, more powerful force had blocked her path to the Abyss.

Zhuohua froze, then suddenly remembered what had just happened.

That... that great, maddening horror still lingered in her mind, impossible to shake.

Zhuohua realized that the one curled up in her arms wasn’t a cute little kitten, but some unknown terror.

She turned away, not daring to look at Maomao again. Maomao seemed to sense something too, and gave Zhuohua a slightly disdainful look—as if a mouse owner were looking at a timid little white mouse.

The octopus cat simply closed its eyes, but still had no intention of leaving Zhuohua’s soft, full embrace.

Then a new tab appeared in Zhuohua’s vision, alongside the four existing tabs: Attributes, Detection, Shop, and Gacha.

The new tab was called: 【Wife】.

The 【Wife】 tab displayed the 【Wife】’s attributes.

“Name: ???

Appearance: ???

Willpower: ???

Constitution: ???

Strength: ???

Agility: ???

Equipment: ???

Items: ???

Skills: ???

Affection: 10 (Warm)

Note: Base Affection is 30.”

How is that any different from telling me nothing?!

And with a base value of 30, earning points was going to take forever.

Below the Wife’s attribute list, which was nothing but a string of “???”, was the pink warning that had just appeared: “If you don’t keep the balance in check, you’ll be heading downstairs to play Happy Landlord with the King of Hell.”

Zhuohua’s vision went dark. Her future looked bleak.

Oh, wait. Didn’t that Mother Goddess say she’d give me 1,998 bucks?

Zhuohua’s eyes brightened even more than her prospects had.

She opened the shop at once. In the upper-right corner, her points were clearly displayed: 1,998.

Woohoo!

Zhuohua eagerly checked out the wares, only to have a bucket of cold water dumped over her excitement.

For such a huge shop, there were only a few lines of items. And right at the top, in big letters, it said: Refreshes in three days.

...So stingy. It takes three whole days to refresh?

Zhuohua had no choice but to look through the items on offer.

Two rows of dazzling, varied items appeared before her. Each had a picture, with a description beside it.

It looked just like an online game.

There were skills and strange artifacts, but only ten items in the whole shop.

They were all expensive. Even the cheapest cost 20 points.

【Desert Eagle (Infinite Ammo)】: “Do you want to know the meaning of life? Do you want to truly live?” Worth 20 points.

【Jidan Guandong】: A super-delicious egg-filled pancake. Any living creature will love it, and it will attract the attention of any living creature. Worth 20 points.

【Nimble】: Increases Agility by 5. Worth 100 points.

【Lovely Looks】: Increases Appearance by 5. Worth 100 points.

【Coming of Age】: Increases Strength by 10. Worth 200 points.

【Healing Potion】: Cures any illness or injury and restores the body to perfect health. Worth 120 points.

【Voodoo Doll】: Blocks one fatal attack of any kind on the user. Worth 150 points.

【Storage Pouch】: Contains 3 cubic meters of space, suitable for storing inanimate objects. Worth 100 points.”

【You Can’t See Me】: A hat shaped like a bush. When worn, it greatly reduces your presence, and no one will notice you unless you attack another creature. Worth 200 points.”

Zhuohua’s gaze drifted down to the very bottom, where the most expensive item of all was marked 【Limited-Time Discount】: a special skill.

【Dark Cuisine】: Lets you cook dark creatures into Dark Cuisine that would kill any human who tasted it. But your 【Wife】 will love it, and the more powerful the ingredients, the more her Affection will increase.

Originally worth 600 points. Limited-time discount price: 300 points!”

Maybe because Zhuohua had only just gotten the system, the shop didn’t have any ridiculously overpowered Feilu-style skills. The most expensive thing in points was the 【Dark Cuisine】 skill.

Even so, her 1,998 points still didn’t feel like enough.

But even if she couldn’t afford everything, she still had to buy the 【Dark Cuisine】 skill.

A premium skill like this, discounted by half and still put up for sale, had to be something the system had specially prepared for her!

As things stood, the only way this lousy system gave her points was by raising her 【Wife】’s Affection—and her current situation was extremely dangerous.

Disfigured + no memories + penniless + buried in loan-shark debt.

What on earth had the original owner been through...?

Still, now that she had the system, none of that should be a big deal.

For now, the only question was:

What were 【Dark Creatures】?

Ghosts? The uncanny? Or vampires and werewolves?

Lost in thought, Zhuohua unconsciously rested a hand on Maomao’s little head. Drawing on eighteen years of cat-petting experience, she gently stroked, kneaded, rubbed, and scritched.

She petted the kitten until it purred like a tractor.

“【Wife】 Affection +1.”

Zhuohua froze, then looked at the notification with delight. Putting her cat-massaging skills—honed on a hundred cats—to work, she kept petting.

She knew that the higher her 【Wife】’s Affection got, the more the 【Wife】 would want to eat her. But compared to her life, points were obviously more important.

If she couldn’t get away from those violent debt collectors, she’d probably be taking an indefinite trip around the world.

She wouldn’t be the traveler. Her body parts would.

“Knock, knock, knock!”

A rough pounding suddenly rang out, breaking the brief calm.

Zhuohua’s hand stopped. She frowned and looked toward the door.

Could those debt collectors be back already...?

The octopus cat opened its eyes. Its golden pupils stared straight at the battered wooden door.

It had been purring contentedly, but some ill-mannered person had forcibly interrupted its relaxing moment.

That was enough to make any cat furious!

The kitten couldn’t swear, but it had already decided which part of you to eat first.

Zhuohua reached down and picked up the photocopied IOUs those people had dropped earlier. The number of digits on them was like something had gone wrong with a computer’s number keys—they had several more zeroes than the savings she’d painstakingly built up in her previous life.

Either way, there was no way she could pay this money back, and she had no intention of doing so.

What did the original owner’s debt have to do with her, Zhuohua?

Besides, those violent debt collectors clearly weren’t operating a legitimate business. For all she knew, the original owner might’ve been scammed.

If she killed them, she wouldn’t have to pay the money back.