She raised her hand and turned it over to look at the back of it.
Her wrist was so thin it looked like it could snap with a single squeeze.
Her skin was so translucent that the pale blue veins underneath were visible, and the outline of the bones on the back of her hand was sharp and clear.
The whole hand looked white and small, like the hand of a porcelain doll meant to be displayed in a glass case.
She tried to make a fist. As her knuckles bent, she could feel the bones sliding beneath the skin. There was almost no strength—soft and limp, like squeezing a lump of cotton.
‘With a body like this, if I tried to bully someone, their first reaction probably wouldn’t be “this person is so mean,” but rather “is she sick or something? That’s why she’s so irritable.”’
Rinna suddenly felt a little sad.
She couldn’t even be a proper villain. This system binding was way too hard.
She sighed. When she sighed, her chest rose slightly, but her breathing was so light it was almost silent, as if afraid to startle something. Then she turned her attention back to the system panel.
She tapped on the exchange shop.
The interface snapped open, revealing rows upon rows of neatly arranged merchandise.
Most of the items were gray, covered by a semi-transparent chain lock pattern. Beside each was a note: “Insufficient Points” or “Level Not High Enough.”
Rinna scrolled down the interface with her mind. After flipping through several pages, she finally found the item she had seen last time at the very bottom of the consumables category.
[Vitality Pill]
[Category: Consumable/Physical Enhancement]
[Grade: Common]
[Effect: Permanently increase Physique by 0.1]
[Exchange Price: 100 Malice Points]
[Currently Held: 0]
Rinna looked at that “100,” then at her own “Malice Points: 7” in the upper right corner.
She did a quick calculation in her head.
100 Malice Points for 0.1 Physique.
To raise Physique from 3 to 4 required 10 increments of 0.1, meaning a thousand Malice Points.
And a normal person’s Physique was somewhere between 8 and 10.
In other words, she would need to earn several thousand Malice Points just to become a “normal” person who wouldn’t get hurt easily, faint easily, or get winded after two steps.
7 points.
Several thousand Malice Points.
***
Today, she had put on a whole dramatic show in the stairwell, with over twenty people watching, and had delivered lines that even she thought were asking for a punch. And all she got was 7 points—not even enough to buy a tenth of a Vitality Pill.
Rinna was silent for a moment.
Then, in her mind, she cursed in the tone of her previous life’s tough-guy persona.
The content of the curse is not fit for description, but the emotion was very sincere.
‘It’s a long road ahead.’ She mouthed the words silently.
Outside the window, a cicada suddenly cried out, then stopped just as abruptly, as if sighing along with her.
“Rinna.”
A voice came from the right.
Rinna pulled her attention away from the system panel and turned her head.
Hisaki was sitting at the desk to her right.
There was less than twenty centimeters of aisle between their desks—close enough that she could reach out and touch Hisaki’s shoulder.
Hisaki’s desk was tidy.
Her textbooks were stacked in the upper left corner, her pencil case was zipped shut, and the open notebook was filled with neat notes written in black pen. The handwriting was small and delicate, each stroke clean and decisive.
Her left hand was pressing down on the corner of the notebook, and her right hand held a click pen, the tip hovering a few millimeters above the page, no longer writing.
She was looking at Rinna with her head tilted. Her long black hair slid off her shoulder, the ends resting on the edge of the desk like a small, quiet ink stain.
Hisaki’s eyebrows were slightly furrowed—not in anger, but in the way someone carefully observes another’s expression.
Her eyes were a deep brown, the corners slightly upturned, usually giving off a cool impression. But every time she looked at Rinna, that coolness melted like thin ice under sunlight, revealing a warm undertone.
“What’s wrong? Are you unhappy?”
Hisaki’s voice was very low, low enough that only the two of them could hear.
The tone carried a thin layer of caution, like testing a half-closed door.
Rinna blinked, then realized that her expression had probably not been very pleasant just now.
Well, who could keep a smile on their face after doing the math on a astronomical number in the system shop?
She subconsciously reached up and touched the space between her brows. Sure enough, she felt a slight crease.
“It’s nothing.” Rinna smiled, but the smile was shallow—so shallow she didn’t even find it convincing.
She lowered her hand and turned to meet Hisaki’s gaze.
Hisaki was still looking at her.
Rinna suddenly felt that, even without saying anything, Hisaki could probably guess seven or eight tenths of it.
“Hisaki,” Rinna’s voice was soft, carrying a hint of weariness that even she hadn’t fully noticed. “When do you think this sickly body of mine will get better?”
After she said it, she lifted the corners of her mouth a little, trying to make it sound like a joke.
But even she could clearly hear the slight weight dragging down the end of the sentence.
Hisaki didn’t answer immediately.
Her eyelashes lowered slightly, as if she were seriously thinking about the question.
Then she raised her head. The caution in her eyes had disappeared, replaced by a firm, unwavering light.
“Rinna doesn’t need to worry.”
Hisaki’s voice was still very soft, but her tone was as confident as if she were stating an already confirmed fact.
Her fingers gently curled on the desktop, the tips leaving a very faint scratch on the notebook paper.
“I’ll have my dad find the best doctor. I’m definitely going to cure your body.”
When she said this, the curve of her lips barely moved, but the corners of her eyes turned up slightly—so small that if you weren’t looking carefully, you wouldn’t notice it.
That was Hisaki’s version of a smile. A tiny thing, like a secret hidden in a corner waiting to be discovered.
Rinna looked at her expression, and a warm surge rose in her chest.
“You’re the best, Hisaki.”
Rinna’s eyes curved as she smiled at her.
Hisaki looked at her smile, her eyelashes fluttered, and then she lowered her head and picked up her pen again.
The tip touched the paper, and she wrote a line of text.
The handwriting was steady, but the fingers holding the pen tightened slightly, the knuckles turning a faint shade of white.
She lowered her head to hide her expression.
Behind the curtain of falling black hair, Hisaki’s lips curved into a very, very small smile.
Her heartbeat was slow and steady, thumping against her chest.
Each beat seemed to confirm something, each beat seemed to press something deeper inside.
If Rinna’s body got better, then she could…