The following day.
White Night, having spent the entire night overthinking, appeared somewhat listless, the luster of her soul dimming a few shades.
“Little White Night, are you alright?”
Little Frost crouched beside the bicycle, looking at her with a voice full of heartache.
“I’m fine. I was just on watch last night and I’m a bit tired. I’ll be okay after I rest for a while.”
White Night kept her voice as light as possible, not wanting Auntie Frost to notice anything amiss.
“Then you should get some rest immediately.”
“I will in a moment, but I have something I want to ask you first.”
White Night paused.
“Auntie Frost, did you have a nightmare last night?”
Little Frost hesitated for a moment, then forced an air of indifference.
“I did have a nightmare. I dreamed I was caught and eaten by a Weirdness; it gave me quite a scare.”
She gave a small, strained smile.
“How did you know I had a nightmare?”
“You were shaking the whole time, breaking out in a cold sweat, and your expression didn’t look right. I was worried, so I had to ask.”
White Night watched Little Frost’s face.
She was observing.
That slight hesitation in Little Frost’s answer, the way her fingers unconsciously pinched the corner of her shirt, and her gaze that flickered away ever so slightly.
It all pointed to one thing.
Auntie Frost was not telling the truth.
What she dreamed of was definitely not as simple as ‘being eaten by a Weirdness.’
But she wasn’t willing to talk about it.
White Night understood.
Just as she hadn’t mentioned the fact that her soul had been strangled the night before.
Both of them were harboring their own secrets.
‘Is Auntie Frost unwilling to say more because she’s afraid I’ll overthink it?’
“I can’t help but feel like this nightmare might be related to the Price mentioned by the Traveling Merchant,” White Night said tentatively.
Little Frost’s fingers tightened on her shirt for a second, then relaxed.
“Perhaps.”
Her tone was intentionally casual.
“In any case, we won’t need Auntie Frost for the Lottery System anymore. Better safe than sorry.”
“Mhm, Auntie will listen to you. If I can avoid using it, I will.”
A silence stretched between the two.
It was a different kind of quiet than usual, layered with a thin membrane of separation.
Little Frost had not revealed the truth of the dream.
She had dreamed of a young woman.
A girl who looked strikingly similar to White Night—like a version of White Night when she grew up.
That girl had driven a sword straight through her chest.
The pain had been real and intense, unlike a common dream.
It wasn’t just physical pain; there was an overwhelming tide of agony and emotion that threatened to drag her entire being into a dark abyss.
She refused to speak of it.
It wasn’t a lack of trust in White Night, but rather fear.
White Night was the first person in her life she had ever been this close to.
The kind of closeness where there were no reservations, and where White Night would never refuse any request.
Regardless of what happened in a past life, or whether that dream was real, she only cared about the Little White Night of the present.
She didn’t want these things to create a rift between them.
“Why are you two acting so gloomy just because of a nightmare? Are you still thinking about what that peddler said?”
Mu Yingying chewed on a bag of crackers, clapping the crumbs off her hands as she spoke bluntly.
“Don’t pay any mind to that eccentric guy.”
As she spoke, she reached out to stroke White Night’s rear rack.
After receiving a glare from Little Frost, she sheepishly pulled her hand back.
Mu Yingying stepped off the vehicle and led White Night out.
“It’s daylight now. Can you finally let me take Little White Night for a spin?”
She patted the brand-new Carbon Fiber Frame, her eyes curving into a smile.
“I want to see how smooth the newly upgraded Little White Night feels.”
She looked toward Little Frost.
“Big CEO, is it okay now?”
Little Frost stared at her for two seconds before finally relenting.
“Be careful. Don’t go too far. Just one lap and come straight back.”
“I know, I know. I don’t want to be punched to death.”
Mu Yingying responded with a grin, swinging her leg over White Night. She gripped the handlebars, kicked the pedal—
And shot off like a streak of smoke.
Fast.
It was much faster than before.
The Carbon Fiber Frame was incredibly light, requiring almost no effort to pedal. With just a little strength, she could surge to extreme speeds.
Furthermore, it was stable. The vibrations from the gravel on the road were mostly absorbed by the frame, making the ride feel as smooth as if she were on level ground.
“Holy cow, this is way too fast!”
Mu Yingying’s eyes lit up with excitement. She did one lap nearby, but feeling unsatisfied, she did another before finally riding back contentedly.
Little Frost stood in place with her arms crossed, her expression somewhat displeased.
“Didn’t we agree on just one lap?”
“I got a riding high! White Moon is so easy to ride, I couldn’t help but go for an extra lap.”
Seeing Little Frost’s murderous gaze, Mu Yingying hurried to offer an apologetic smile.
“Good Frost, don’t be angry. I promise I won’t do extra laps next time.”
“…”
Little Frost didn’t press the matter and straddled the seat herself.
She first rode slowly for a short distance to get a feel for the new bike, and then began to accelerate.
Faster.
Under the boost of her terrifying leg strength, the carbon fiber frame’s speed soared to an exaggerated degree.
The previous Rusty Bicycle would have long since fallen apart under such force, but the new bike was as steady as a rock—even the chain guard didn’t make a single peep.
Feeling the wind whistling past her in the basket, White Night couldn’t help but shout excitedly.
“Auntie Frost, go a bit faster! You can go even faster!”
The corners of Little Frost’s mouth curved slightly as she added more power to her legs.
Her speed had completely surpassed that of a motorcycle.
The scenery on both sides blurred past, and the wind roared in her ears.
Little Frost was also secretly surprised.
The carbon fiber body could actually withstand such a power output without deforming or making strange noises.
With the old bike, she hadn’t dared to pedal with her full strength for fear of snapping the frame.
This upgrade was definitely worth the Points.
She slowed down and rode back, still wearing a look of lingering excitement when she dismounted.
Of course, the most important part of the upgrade was the Compass on the handlebars.
Currently, the Compass needle was pointing steadily in one direction without any abnormal deviation.
After the ride, White Night remembered she still had one use of the Lottery System left.
Little Frost couldn’t use it anymore, and Mu Yingying’s luck had always been underwhelming, so she had to do it herself.
She clicked the lottery in her mind.
The wheel spun several times and came to a stop.
There was no red light, no golden glow, and no special effects at all.
[Congratulations, you have obtained: Bottled Water × 1.]
A bottle of water.
White Night fell silent.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Consider this a ‘cushion’ for the next one. You’re bound to pull something good eventually.”
Mu Yingying was more optimistic and pulled the bottle of water directly out of the System.
White Night had already granted full System permissions to her two aunts; they could directly take items that were drawn.
Mu Yingying twisted the cap and gulped down several mouthfuls.
White Night wondered if she should save the Points for the lottery in the future.
On second thought, she decided against it.
‘What if I hit the jackpot one of these times?’
“Now that we have our own way to find safe directions, should we keep following Wang Ziming?”
Having finished her water, Mu Yingying brought up the topic again.
She looked at Little Frost, handing over the decision-making power. After all, Little Frost used to be a businessperson and knew best how to weigh gains and losses.
Little Frost thought for a moment.
“We won’t break away for now.”
“Wang Ziming’s destination is Spark City, and we need to go to Spark City as well. It’s not appropriate to leave yet.”
She paused.
“However, we can keep a certain distance from the convoy. There are Weirdnesses mixed into the group, so it’s justifiable to stay further away. Wang Ziming shouldn’t have anything to say about it.”
“Fair enough.”
Neither Mu Yingying nor White Night had any objections.
That evening, they moved the vehicle to a position slightly further from the main group.
The safe direction indicated by the Compass needle happened to be away from the convoy as well.
White Night felt a bit more at ease.
At night, Little Frost practiced with her javelins in an open space while Mu Yingying practiced with her Tang Dao nearby.
White Night stayed on the bike, staring at the Compass.
The needle had been steady, showing no anomalies.
Then, it suddenly trembled.
The needle shifted a few degrees, and the originally silver-white tip took on a faint tint of red.
White Night’s heart tightened, and she immediately called out to the two.
“Auntie Frost, Auntie Ying, the Compass is reacting!”
The two dropped what they were doing and ran over quickly.
Three pairs of eyes stared at the Compass. The needle shifted a few more degrees, and the red color deepened.
“Move the vehicle. Back up further toward the safe direction,” Little Frost decided instantly.
Mu Yingying jumped into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and moved the vehicle a distance further in the direction indicated by the Compass.
As soon as they stopped, the red color on the Compass faded, and the needle returned to normal.
“A false alarm?” Mu Yingying breathed a sigh of relief.
“It wasn’t a false alarm.”
White Night’s gaze moved past the window toward the distant convoy.
Under the red moonlight, her vision was already significantly better than that of an average person.
She saw it.
On the other side of the convoy, near the edge of the Wilderness, a swirl of thin Black Mist was rising silently.
The mist wasn’t large; it looked like a small plume of black steam rising from the ground.
But there was something in the mist.
A massive silhouette gradually emerged within the black fog, standing over two meters tall and appearing bloated.
Then, a scream tore through the air.
“It hurts—it hurts so much—!”
The voice was as shrill and piercing as a slaughtered pig. Even from such a distance, it poured clearly into everyone’s ears.
The people in the convoy were startled awake, leaning out of their windows to look.
The Black Mist thinned slightly, revealing what was inside.
It was… a monster.
It had pale, coarse skin and a body so bloated it was deformed, with an expression of extreme agony twisted onto its face.
The upper body could barely be identified as humanoid.
But the lower body—
Its legs didn’t touch the ground.
From the waist down, what connected it to the ground was a massive, swollen tumor. The tumor propped up the body, leaving the feet dangling in the air.
It was bright red, its surface covered in a dense network of blood vessels and pustules.
Dark red pus and blood constantly seeped from the Rifts, sizzling as they dripped onto the ground.
It used that tumor to prop itself up like a fleshy tumbler doll.
With every inch it moved, the tumor would be scraped by the ground, creating new wounds and oozing more blood.
“Kill me—hurry and kill me—it hurts too much—!”
It was howling.
It didn’t seem to be attacking; it seemed to be begging for death.
Then, the tumor exploded.
Without any warning, there was a muffled pop, and the tumor split down the middle, spraying a large amount of blood-red filth all over the surroundings.
The stench drifted over with the night wind; even from this distance, it was nauseating.
The monster collapsed into the pool of blood and ceased to move.
The Black Mist dispersed along with it.
The convoy erupted into chaos as screams of alarm broke out one after another.
White Night and the other two watched the scene from afar, silent for a long time.
“That tumor…”
Mu Yingying’s voice sounded a bit weak.
“That couldn’t have been… a hemorrhoid, could it?”
White Night and Little Frost looked at her simultaneously.
“Are you serious?” Little Frost frowned.
“I’m very serious. Didn’t you notice the location? It was right under its butt, swollen like that, leaking pus and blood before exploding. If that’s not a hemorrhoid, what is?”
The more Mu Yingying spoke, the paler she became.
Her hearing was excellent, and she had heard an older man in the convoy say, ‘That is definitely a hemorrhoid…’
“God, that was just too disgusting.”
She rubbed her arms vigorously, a layer of goosebumps forming.
“Such a huge hemorrhoid… I’m truly shaken. Luckily we ate dinner early today, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to eat a thing.”
As she spoke, something suddenly occurred to her.
Her expression changed.
“Wait. I drive every day, and I haven’t been taking good care of my backside. I absolutely have to maintain my rear end!”
She jumped up from the rock.
“Hemorrhoids are absolutely terrifying. I need to start doing Anal Levator Exercises right now.”
With that, Mu Yingying actually stood there, legs slightly apart, and began performing Anal Levator Exercises with a dead-serious expression.
She didn’t hide it at all.
She wasn’t even slightly embarrassed.
Right in front of Little Frost and White Night.
Little Frost’s face darkened.
“You damn Yingying, can you at least not hold onto the bike’s rear rack while you do that?”
“Fine, fine. I just wanted to check on White Night while I was at it. After all, sitting for too long ruins the body; these exercises save lives.”
Mu Yingying let go without changing her expression, continuing her movements while speaking righteously.
“Come on, Frost, join me. Little White Night, even though you’re a bicycle, your rear seat is a part that’s in constant use. You should do some maintenance too.”
White Night: “I… I’m a bicycle. I can’t do that exercise…”
“Then you just wait. After Auntie finishes her exercises, I’ll give your rear seat a massage.”
“Shut up!”
Little Frost clenched her fists.
Mu Yingying immediately shut her mouth, but the exercises didn’t stop.
White Night covered her face inside the basket.
She felt that Auntie Ying was sometimes… truly beyond the pale with her nonsense…
But for some reason, the heavy mood caused by the nightmare and the secrets was mostly dispelled by Auntie Ying’s ridiculous chatter.
She let out a secret, tiny laugh.
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