Watching Bailu disappear around the corner, Levi closed the door and looked at the few bottles of medicine quietly sitting on the table.
His heart was full of gratitude toward her.
Back when he was still a patient, earning credit points had been extremely difficult, he couldn't possibly afford the cost.
If Bailu hadn't helped him for free and developed new medicine for his treatment, his Honkai disease would have already spread from his arm to his entire body.
He wouldn't have had many days left to live.
So Levi was grateful to Bailu from the bottom of his heart.
'I'll find a way to repay her someday.'
According to the original story, the Dragon Master who taught Bailu wasn't exactly a good person.
Levi shook his head, those weren't things he needed to worry about right now. First, he had to cure his Honkai disease.
Leaving the house, Levi planned to use the credit points he'd earned from Silver Wolf to buy some breakfast.
Just like in the mornings of his old world, shops along the street were already open early, preparing breakfast and waiting for customers.
Levi ordered a simple meal for one, but when he tried to pay, his phone displayed a payment failure.
"…"
He fell silent. "Sorry, I don't want this breakfast after all!"
Thankfully, he always paid before eating, so he didn't have to face the embarrassment of finishing a meal without being able to pay for it.
When he got home and opened his phone, a message from the company popped up, and he couldn't help but laugh.
[We've detected an anomaly in your account data and have taken emergency action to freeze it.]
'Data anomaly? I've only got twenty thousand or so credit points! How is that an anomaly?'
Levi let out an incredulous laugh. It wasn't like he was some ridiculously rich intergalactic tycoon, so what if they froze his account?
It's not like he had that many credits anyway.
He was just an ordinary broke guy. He'd finally managed to earn a little money for once, and now the company had frozen it.
If this had happened yesterday, he probably would've had to go borrow money from his buddy Qingque just to get by.
But now, after looting Silver Wolf's credits, Levi wasn't that same weakling anymore.
He pulled up a chair to his terminal and began furiously tapping on the keyboard.
The streams of data that once looked incomprehensible now appeared as simple as elementary school material in his eyes.
He didn't even need to think, he could instantly understand what everything meant.
'So this is Silver Wolf's hacking ability… it's kind of terrifying how strong it is.'
Seeing that he'd successfully hacked into the company's system, Levi didn't hesitate.
First, he unfroze his own account. Then, he added it to the system's whitelist and hid it to prevent future checks.
After that, he set up a few little tricks here and there.
Once everything was done, he wiped all traces of his intrusion and exited the company's backend system.
Closing his computer, he looked at his phone, his account had been successfully unfrozen. Levi couldn't help but smile in satisfaction.
While inside the system, he had noticed that his account did have some data irregularities.
Just as he suspected, it was Silver Wolf's doing.
Most likely, those twenty thousand credits hadn't come from her own account, but from thousands, or tens of thousands, of others.
That was probably why the company's system had flagged his account as suspicious and frozen it.
Stretching lazily, Levi prepared to go out again for breakfast.
Then...
[White-Haired Dumpling: @Everyone! Emergency! A Honkai outbreak just started in Nagazora City, and I'm trapped here!!]
A sudden message popped up in the chat group, the first thing Kiana said after reappearing.
Reading the message, Levi rubbed his chin. 'A Honkai outbreak in Nagazora City… judging by that, it seemed her timeline was during the Third Eruption.'
[Ding! 'White-Haired Dumpling' has sent a help request. Chat group mission issued!]
[Mission: Escape from Nagazora City!]
[Description: Honkai and its apostles have descended upon Nagazora City, where 'White-Haired Dumpling' is currently located! In the heart of the storm, she's in constant danger. Please help her escape the city!]
[Participants allowed: 4]
[Reward: 40,000 data points! (distributed by contribution)]
———
Kiana crouched on the rooftop, wiping the blood from her face with a clean piece of cloth. The baseball bat she'd used before had already snapped and lay discarded in a corner.
Behind her, the locked metal door shook violently under repeated bang, bang, bang noises, mixed with the guttural roars of Deadwalkers.
Kiana wanted to swear out loud, she'd just been looking for her dad, how did she suddenly end up in the middle of a Honkai outbreak?
The world was huge, there were plenty of cities bigger than Nagazora City.
'Why did it have to happen here?!'
She glanced at the chat group and noticed a new, unfamiliar profile picture. Realizing it must be a new member, Kiana quickly explained to save time.
[White-Haired Dumpling: Honkai is…]
[Yang Does Sit-Ups: I know what Honkai is, no need to explain. (Attached: image of arm infection)]
When Kiana saw the image Levi sent, she froze, she hadn't expected to meet someone in this group from the same world.
[Yang Does Sit-Ups: If you can make a treatment serum, get me one. @White-Haired Dumpling @Pink Fairy Miss]
[Pink Fairy Miss: Why are you asking me? I don't have any Honkai where I am.]
Levi blinked. [Wait, you have a Nagazora City where you are?]
[Yeah, but what's that got to do with...]
[If you have Nagazora City, then you have Honkai. It just hasn't broken out yet, or it's being covered up so ordinary people can't notice it.]
Elysia's fingers paused over her keyboard. She stared at Levi's confident message, her thoughts suddenly tangled.
Part of her felt uneasy because his certainty made her believe Honkai might really exist in her world.
But another part of her refused to accept it.
'My world is just normal daily life, how could there be something like Honkai?'
[White-Haired Dumpling: This isn't the time to talk about that!]
Kiana braced herself against the metal door with all her strength, but more and more Deadwalkers were being drawn to her.
The force pressing on the door was getting stronger and stronger, she could barely hold it.
If they broke through now, the swarm would tear her apart in seconds!
If it were just low-level Deadwalkers, she wouldn't be afraid.
If she couldn't beat them, she could still run.
But among the horde outside were advanced Deadwalkers, ones that shouldn't even appear this early in the timeline.
Those two blades, combined with what looked like teleportation, could cut her clean in half in an instant.
[This isn't the time for small talk! Your adorable group leader is about to die here! If you can help, accept the mission already!!]
Kiana shouted in panic.
———
[Accept mission!]
Levi's eyes lit up. Kiana was a person of great destiny, surely the system wouldn't send him over there physically, right?
After a brief hesitation, he accepted the mission without looking back.
'Clicked it! Fortune favors the bold, cowards starve!'
His face was firm. 'Either lose everything, or win it all!'
"Hurry up, you guys!!!"
Kiana's feet pressed hard against the ground, her pretty face twisting from strain.
"I'm already here~"
A flash of light, Elysia appeared, smiling as she waved at Kiana.
Kiana's eyes lit up. "Did you bring any gear?!"
"Of course~"
Elysia pulled out the Sacred Sword of Physics, swung it twice experimentally, then said cheerfully, "I went through a lot of trouble to borrow this from my neighbor."
Kiana fell silent. If she remembered correctly, Elysia was just an ordinary person.
She'd expected her to show up with some heavy weapons, but instead… she'd brought a stick?
"What's wrong?" Elysia asked, puzzled.
Kiana replied quietly, "It's nothing… Don't worry. Even if you turn into a Deadwalker, your appearance doesn't change."
"You'll still be just as cute as you are now."
"Huh?"