The afternoon sun at exactly 2:00 PM poured down from the glass dome, illuminating the outer corridor on the second floor of the Yangjian Town Central Commercial District.
Rinna held a cup of hot cocoa in both hands. The hem of her white dress quietly fell to her calves as she stood still.
She lowered her head and took a small sip.
The warmth of the hot cocoa seeped through the paper cup into her palms, warm and cozy, just right in this air-conditioned mall.
The aroma of cocoa rose from the rim, mixed with a hint of sweetness from the milk foam, and when it entered her nose, she couldn’t help but squint.
‘So sweet.’
Rinna took another small sip.
Her lips pressed against the rim, leaving a tiny white trace of milk foam on her upper lip, which she gently licked off with the tip of her tongue.
Hisaki walked on her left.
The distance between them was less than 20 centimeters.
Hisaki’s right hand hung at her side, her fingers curling inward and then relaxing, curling and relaxing.
She wanted to hold Rinna’s hand.
Usually when they went out, she would hold Rinna’s hand, fingers threading through the gaps, palms against palms, with just the right amount of pressure.
But right now, both of Rinna’s hands were busy.
Her left hand supported the bottom of the cup, her right hand held the body, all ten fingers wrapped snugly around the paper cup, her cherry-like mouth pecking at the rim over and over again, leaving no free hand for Hisaki to hold.
Hisaki’s mouth curled down by a millimeter.
‘Not very happy.’
But she didn’t say it out loud.
She simply tucked her hand into the pocket of her jeans, her fingertips curling slightly inside, brushing the outside of her thigh through the fabric.
But Rinna looked happy.
Hisaki tilted her head, watching Rinna’s profile as she drank the cocoa.
Rinna’s eyes were slightly curved.
Hisaki’s mood improved as well.
‘If Rinna is happy, I’m happy.’
This was a piece of primal code that had been running in Hisaki’s mind for more than ten years, never patched or overwritten.
As for why Rinna was happy, Hisaki wasn’t sure.
‘Probably the hot cocoa is really good? Or maybe lunch today was delicious? Or perhaps it’s because the sun is strong outside but the mall’s air conditioning is nice and cool? Or something else?’
Rinna didn’t know that Hisaki was finding reasons for her happiness in her heart.
Her attention at that moment was entirely focused on the pale blue translucent panel floating in her field of vision.
[Malice Points: 147]
‘147! This number startled even herself.’
Rinna remembered very clearly: the moment it was deposited, the malice value had shot up by 107 points directly.
It didn’t rise slowly; it jumped up in an instant.
‘Like someone who won a lottery checking their balance and discovering an extra digit before the decimal point.’
‘This is a goddamn 147!’
Since her transmigration, she had never seen so many points.
Rinna felt her mouth couldn’t hold back a smile, so she lowered her head and quickly took two more sips of hot cocoa, hurriedly giving her mouth a pep talk while the cup hid her expression.
‘Rebirth once is not easy, and these points are more than timely help.’
‘Vitality Pill… 100 malice points, exchange for one, each increases Physique by 0.1.’
This was the item she had been staring at for several whole days. Every time she opened the shop, she would mentally touch the pill emitting a faint green glow with her fingertip, then glance at the pitiful balance in the upper right corner, sigh, and close it.
But now she didn’t have to sigh.
Now she had 147 points, not only enough to buy it but also left with 47 points.
Almost the next second, Rinna pressed the exchange button.
With a thought, the Vitality Pill icon in the System Shop flashed once, then transformed into a very faint green stream of light that drifted out of the translucent panel and disappeared into where her chest was.
At the same time, the number in the upper right corner jumped: [Malice Points: 147→47]
Consumed 100 points, remaining 47 points, the account matched perfectly.
Then she heard the long-lost system notification sound.
[Physique 3 → Physique 3.1]
‘Woo hoo! Huge improvement!’
Rinna screamed in her heart, and her fingers holding the cup unconsciously tightened, leaving a tiny crease on the paper cup.
She immediately closed her eyes, concentrated, using her limited perception to catch any slightest change in her body.
First, her lower abdomen.
The dull pain coming in waves was still there, no doubt about that.
The menstrual cramp level had dropped from a five to a three. It still hurt, but at least it wasn’t a piercing torment anymore.
Then, the overall feeling.
Her hands and feet were still cold… She reached out and touched the fingers holding the cup. The fingertips still had that jade-like cool feeling of being freshly taken out of well water, not the warmth of a normal person.
The frequency and depth of her breathing also showed no obvious change.
She tried to lightly stand on her tiptoes. The flexibility of her ankles and the support strength of her calves felt about the same as when she got up… ‘A little more stable?’
‘Not sure. Maybe it’s just a psychological effect.’
Rinna waited a little longer, hoping for some more dramatic, obvious signal in her body.
‘Like a warm current flowing through the whole body, veins bulging, muscles swelling, or something. But nothing happened.’
Just quietly, plainly, it changed from the number “3” to “3.1”.
She deflated.
‘The bigger the fantasy, the greater the disappointment after realization.’
Originally, when she pressed the exchange button, the scene that flashed in her mind was like this.
‘The green light of the Vitality Pill exploded inside her, warm energy washing through every blood vessel, every bone, every muscle like a tidal wave, and in that instant she could feel her heartbeat become powerful, her breathing deep, her hands and feet warm, her whole being renewed.’
But the reality was…
She walked.
‘Damn, shitty system.’
Rinna downed the last gulp of hot cocoa, then muttered in a voice only she could hear.
Hisaki naturally couldn’t hear it.
But Hisaki noticed.
‘Not that she noticed Rinna cursing the system… She couldn’t know about the system… But she noticed the drastic change in Rinna’s facial expression.’
Just a moment ago, Rinna had been giggling at her hot cocoa, her face filled with visible smugness.
Then suddenly she darkened. The slight, almost imperceptible dejection between her brows, though faint, was extremely clear in Hisaki’s eyes.
And now, in the distance, about the length of an entire circular plaza away, at the end of the stairs leading to the second floor, more than a hundred people were walking in this direction.
“Rinna.”
Hisaki stopped walking.
Rinna stopped as well.
The cup in her hand was almost empty, only a little cool residue left at the bottom. She lowered her head and stared at the faint lip print she had left on the rim, not looking up.
Hisaki’s voice came from the left, “What’s wrong? You seem a little unhappy.”
Rinna kept her head down, staring at the cocoa cup in her hands.
There was a ring of lip prints left from when she drank, reflecting a bit of light in the sunlight.
The cocoa in the cup was nearly gone, only a small circle of cool residue at the bottom. She gently shook the cup, and the residue swirled in the bottom a few times before stopping.
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