Luo Xiaoyu was going to die.
She had not been able to react to this obvious fact for half a day, only subconsciously lowering her head and letting her black side bangs fall before her eyes, concealing the scene in front of her—
“Y-you… hello…”
The hoarse voice sounded like sandpaper scraping across a rusty iron plate.
The humanoid yet not-quite-human creature before her was doing its utmost to form words, as if it had already accepted its new identity.
An identity as a human.
Yet from its faint, smoke-like translucent body and elongated, rotting form, the truth was otherwise.
At least Luo Xiaoyu understood this perfectly well.
She had transmigrated here.
She knew that something about the world she now inhabited was not quite right, yet she could not pierce through that layer of indistinct, hazy fog to see what lay behind it.
Luo Xiaoyu had always paid close attention to all kinds of news.
Through that habit she had noticed that many incidents involving casualties were always of unknown cause.
It was as if everyone tacitly upheld some established reality, never willing to dig deeper, never willing to uncover the truth.
But Luo Xiaoyu refused to give up so easily.
She tried to find any trace that might answer her doubts, yet this wasteland world answered only with calm silence.
The place where Luo Xiaoyu now lived was called Qiufeng City.
It was a city under the Human Federation.
After the Great Catastrophe, humans had spontaneously formed the Federation in order to concentrate their remaining strength and restore order.
What did not match Luo Xiaoyu’s impression of order was that the Human Federation contained a great many independent institutions and religious organizations, each looking out for itself.
Thus Luo Xiaoyu had chosen the most obvious target—the Moon Church within Qiufeng City—hoping to obtain clues or the truth from it.
The final result had been only to be expected.
On the surface it was nothing more than a relief organization with a slight religious flavor, its members mostly devout and friendly.
After listening to their preaching once, Luo Xiaoyu never contacted the organization again.
What she had wanted to see should have appeared in this world.
It was already on the verge of emerging.
That was the so-called “supernatural power.”
Luo Xiaoyu had lived quietly for a long time.
She had imagined that one day she might come into contact with such things, yet the sudden situation still struck the completely unprepared girl like a heavy blow to the head.
“Can… candle…”
The translucent creature set the still-burning candle it held onto the cashier counter.
A thin, hazy mist spread outward.
The half-length candle gave off a dim blue glow.
Its flickering flame swayed as though it would go out in the next second, yet stubbornly flared back to life after fading completely.
Luo Xiaoyu said nothing.
Her gaze drifted helplessly toward the candlelight.
As a heavy drowsiness washed over her, a sense of danger exploded in her chest.
The cause of the present situation was still unclear, yet Luo Xiaoyu instinctively felt the threat of death radiating from the thing before her.
She began to think of countermeasures.
Luo Xiaoyu was currently a clerk at a convenience store.
The reason she held this position was thanks to the arrangements of the older sister she depended on for survival, Bai Mu.
They shared no blood relation, yet Bai Mu still cared for her with great solicitude, allowing her a measure of security regarding food and clothing in this half-abandoned world.
Luo Xiaoyu was a store clerk.
Was the strange creature in front of her therefore learning how a customer should behave?
She guessed as much and had intended to raise a hand to indicate the shelf of lighting goods to this “customer,” only to discover that her arm would not lift at all.
Even when she tried to speak, the words that rose to her lips remained stuck there, producing only a faint trembling of her cherry-colored mouth that could not open.
The fear in Luo Xiaoyu’s heart was probably greater and deeper than she herself had imagined.
Yet maintaining the status quo was clearly impossible.
Her cowardly nature needed to change.
So—
Sweeping away the emotion called fear, Luo Xiaoyu lifted her head with a playful air.
She looked straight into the creature’s face.
Under the dim light it appeared extremely grotesque.
The distorted features looked as though they had been hastily pieced together, and within the empty eye sockets seemed to reflect an ambiguous malice.
Yet not a trace of fear remained on Luo Xiaoyu’s fine features, only a faint, inscrutable smile.
Her golden pupils radiated a presence impossible to ignore.
“You need lighting supplies, correct? Customer.”
There was no reply.
The monster did not move.
It merely continued to regard her with a gaze that made one’s scalp crawl.
“Ah… that is rather troublesome.”
Luo Xiaoyu waved a hand dismissively.
She casually picked up the candle that had been placed on the opposite side of the counter and examined it carefully for a long while without finding anything unusual.
It looked like an ordinary candle.
In that case, as long as she played the role of store clerk properly and led it to purchase a candle or something else, the crisis should resolve itself naturally.
In this state the girl was no longer cautious at every turn.
She gave the monster a small gesture, then left the counter with light steps and walked toward the area where lighting equipment was kept.
The other party remained silent for a moment before finally following the black-haired girl in silence.
Luo Xiaoyu reached into the somewhat rusty middle of the shelf, strained to pull out the flashlight resting there, and wiped the dust from its surface.
She tried the slightly unresponsive switch, then shook her head in disappointment.
“Please wait a moment.
I need to bring out the stock we put away earlier.
The items on display are all rather old.
It looks as though the customer will require newer lighting equipment.”
Tossing the dilapidated flashlight aside, she hurried back to the counter in small steps and took the warehouse key from the drawer.
Then Luo Xiaoyu looked thoughtfully toward the doorway.
It was only intuition, yet the girl seemed to sense something outside the store through the thin mist that filled the interior.
The mist that had arrived with the monster, however, completely blocked her view of the outside.
After staring for a while she simply shrugged, took the key without concern, and walked toward the storeroom that led to the door.
—There really was someone outside.
“Big Brother! Big Brother!”
The thin man was thoroughly frightened.
He stumbled and fell onto the cement ground, hurriedly calling to the fat man for help.
Yet the inexplicable action only provoked a furious glare from the fat man standing lookout.
Only then did the thin man calm somewhat.
He swallowed hard and spoke:
“That girl… why… why does the Weirdness the adult had us lure here seem to have no effect on her?”
“Quit yapping!
This is still for your sake so you can complete the ritual!
If you didn’t know the store owner’s kid and couldn’t arrange for that mixed-up brat to spread word that the convenience store wasn’t opening today, how would you ever have been chosen for this advancement?!”
The fat man scolded him in frustration for a while before continuing:
“It’s impossible for it to have no effect.
How long did we search before finding such a suitable sacrifice?”
“If you can’t accept the adult’s grace, then I’ll take over the ritual myself.”
With that the fat man glared at the thin man once more, then returned his attention to the surroundings and continued his lookout.
The thin man forced his emotions under control and could only keep watching the situation inside the store.
By this time Luo Xiaoyu had already entered the warehouse and begun searching through the stacked boxes.
“Canned goods, daily necessities…”
The black-haired girl bent down, her gaze moving across the plastic crates one by one until it settled on the box labeled “Lighting.”
At that exact moment a mechanical, icy prompt suddenly rang out in Luo Xiaoyu’s mind.
Ding—
Immediately afterward, text materialized before her eyes.
[Contact with Weirdness +1]
[Obtain 2 Allocatable Points]
The black-haired girl stopped what she was doing and watched it all unfold with keen interest.