CHAPTER 73: STRANGE FIGURE

Ling Yu tightened her grip on the blade.

The creature reached out one tiny paw, soft and trembling as it pressed against the hem of her trousers. Like a lost child seeking comfort.

Her heart gave a strange twist.

[System Alert]

[Danger confirmed. Entity classified as Unknown Variant. Probability of concealed threat: 87%.

Recommend: Immediate termination.]

Ling Yu stared down at the round, fluffy ball clinging to her like a baby. Her expression remained composed, but inside, a conflict stirred.

The Apocalypse system detected this cotton ball as a danger, but her Universal system was silent.

There was definitely something more to it.

The creature blinked again, releasing another cooing cry. Its eyes were wet, innocent, and trusting.

Ling Yu’s breath slowed. "...If you’re a monster, you’re the strangest one I’ve seen yet."

She crouched slightly, her free hand reaching out. The fluffball leaned into her palm, warm and soft like freshly spun wool. The sensation was disarming, and she could feel its tiny heartbeat fluttering rapidly, like a bird caught in a storm.

Her system buzzed impatiently.

[System Warning]

[Host emotional compromise detected. Survival probability may decrease.]

Ling Yu ignored it.

Instead, she called out for her own system.

"Yoo, what are you doing staying silent? You should tell me if I really need to kill this thing or not."

[... You know that you wouldn’t kill it even if I tell you to, right?]

"As expected. You know me well." Ling Yu put on a faint smile as she rubbed the little creature’s head. She studied the creature with sharp eyes, probing for signs of mutation, its fangs, claws, anything to betray the harmless appearance. But aside from its unusual aura, it seemed utterly defenseless.

"What are you?" she murmured.

The creature responded only by cooing softly and nuzzling her palm.

Silence stretched in the basement, heavy with the weight of uncertainty.

Ling Yu could have just walked away. But some part of her, buried under scars from both lives, recognized something in the fluffball’s desperate clinging, the same raw will to live she carried in her own chest.

She sighed lightly, slipping her blade back into its sheath. "Fine. For now, you can come with me. But if you ever dare to bare your fangs, I’ll cut you down myself."

The fluffball let out a delighted coo, bouncing in place as though it understood.

She picked it up, feeling the strange warmth radiating from its small body seep into her cold fingers. It nestled against her chest, trembling softly before relaxing completely, as if it had finally found safety.

The system’s voice lingered, sharp and cold.

[System Notification]

[New Companion Detected: Unclassified Entity.

Current Status: Dormant.

Warning: Potential evolutionary hazard.]

Ling Yu straightened, the little creature tucked securely in her arms. Her gaze was steady, unreadable. "Dormant hazard or not, everything in this world is a hazard. I’ll judge it myself."

With that, she turned and ascended the basement stairs, leaving the shadows behind and ignoring the system’s message.

[Look at you, being all soft over a fluffy creature just because it looks weak. You might as well become a saintess at this rate.]

"...Shut up."

***

The battlefield was littered with corpses as the acrid stench of blood, burned flesh, and rotting entrails filled the air, pressing down on every living survivor like an invisible weight.

Ru Feifei sat slumped against a broken wall, sweat and dirt streaking her face. Her weapon that she bought after learning how to use the system shop from Ling Yu rested across her lap. Every breath she drew felt like it scraped the inside of her lungs.

Thankfully she was bright enough to catch up on the matter quickly, Ling Yu didn’t need to tell her twice. And with that knowlegde she learned, Ru Feifei helped others to get their weapons too.

Nearby, He Xun lowered himself to the ground, his body trembling from overexertion. His armor, which had been a great source help when the sceond wave began, was now cracked and scorched, blood seeping through the gaps where blades and claws had slipped past his defenses. His team sprawled around him, some too tired to even groan, while the others were nursing deep wounds that still festered with monster poison.

For the first time since the world had collapsed into chaos, there was silence. No groans of the dying, no shrieks of monsters. Only the sound of shallow, uneven breaths from those who had survived.

It felt like peaceful. Well, too peaceful to be real.

Because now they knew better than calling it peaceful, because this peace was but an illusion.

And they were right.

A sudden hum filled the air, low and resonant, like the deep vibration of a thousand chimes struck at once. The survivors froze, their instincts screaming. Before their eyes, at the very center of the ruined square, a monument began to rise.

It emerged slowly from the ground, as if the earth itself were birthing it: a black obelisk, smooth and polished, its surface veined with lines of glowing silver. The monument shimmered, not entirely solid, as though it existed halfway between reality and illusion.

Every gaze was drawn to it.

And then it activated.

A holographic screen unfurled above the monument, vast and unavoidable, flickering to life with distorted static. The survivors flinched, shielding their eyes as the brilliance of the display cut through the smoke-choked air.

When the image stabilized, they saw him.

The figure who appeared was tall and unnervingly elegant. His skin was the shade of dark slate, as though carved from obsidian. Two curved horns protruded from his head, polished and gleaming like onyx, framing a face that was too symmetrical to be human.

His eyes were pools of glowing crimson, sharp and unblinking. And though he wore a well-fitted suit, charcoal gray with a blood-red tie. There was nothing comforting about his appearance.

His lips curved into a smile, but it was the smile of a predator. One that looked cold, amused and calculating, devoid of any emotion or warmth.