The figure of the Thousand-Handed Demon, sack slung over his shoulder, gradually disappeared into the depths of the endless night.
At the same moment, the human-skin lantern on the general store’s doorframe that had gone dark reignited with a soft fwoosh.
Bai Tang glanced at the clock on the wall.
It read 2:35.
There were still ten minutes left until closing time.
It looked like no more customers would come tonight.
She retrieved the human-skin lantern hanging from the rusty iron hook outside the door.
Without the lantern’s warding light, the ghouls lurking in the darkness surged forward like a tide.
Their emaciated, bamboo-pole-like limbs braced against the ground, forming a circle of starving wild dogs waiting to be fed.
This time, Bai Tang did not bother buying her way out of trouble.
She slammed the shop door shut with a loud bang, slid the bolt home, and turned away without looking back.
She had successfully shut the horde of ghouls outside.
“Before sleeping, I still need to clean the shop floor properly.”
Heading toward the washroom to fetch the mop, Bai Tang muttered to herself.
It had to be said that tonight, when facing the threat of the Thousand-Handed Demon, she had gone slightly overboard in her effort to appear difficult to provoke and make him wary of her.
It was not that her wrist had lost strength and let go.
Bai Tang knew full well that chopping off two hundred of his palms was already her absolute limit.
That number had been perfect — enough to instill fear and caution in him without driving him into a desperate, all-out fight.
All things considered, it had been a close call without real danger.
The girl diligently mopped up the dark, sticky bloodstains covering the floor.
She did not miss a single corner.
Otherwise, by tomorrow the blood would have dried into hard, rock-solid clumps stuck firmly to the floorboards.
If her Witch Teacher found any fault with it, that would become another tragedy.
After finishing, she rinsed the mop clean and returned it to its original place.
Finally, she straightened the goods on the shelves, arranging them neatly.
The last ten minutes passed, and it was time for the general store to turn off the lights and close for the night.
Bai Tang lit a palm-sized lantern.
She held it in her hand, climbed onto a stool, and blew out the larger kerosene lantern hanging from the roof beam.
The general store fell back into darkness.
It looked no different from the silent, dangerous long night outside.
Carrying the small lantern and relying on its faint glow, Bai Tang returned to her bedroom — the cramped space converted from the storage room next to her Witch Teacher’s room.
Just before entering, her footsteps halted.
It was unclear whether it was due to the old door hinges, but Teacher’s room door remained ajar, leaving the same one-finger-wide gap as before.
This time, however, Bai Tang did not dare approach and peek again.
She shook her head vigorously and stepped into her own narrow bedroom, converted from the storage room.
She closed the door but did not climb into bed immediately.
Setting the small lantern on the bedside table, she searched the cabinet drawer from memory and pulled out a small pink notebook.
This belonged to her.
Or, to be more precise, it had been left behind by the original owner of this body — a diary filled with the records of an unfortunate human girl struggling alone in the hell world, living every day in fear with her spirit on the verge of collapse.
At the same time, it served as a survival guide for Bai Tang.
She opened the diary to the first page.
Counting backward from the later added dates, it began around July 25.
[Where is this?! Shouldn’t I be on the high-speed train heading back to school?
Why did I suddenly appear here!
Why are there so many monsters!
Terrifying-looking monsters are everywhere! I don’t dare leave the cave! My stomach is so hungry…]
[July 25
I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours. So sleepy… My stomach is so hungry… I’m still hiding in the cave, surrounded by the screams of terrifying monsters.
I found two pieces of nougat in my skirt pocket by accident and ate them, but I’m still so hungry…
Am I going to die soon?]
The entries for the following few days showed the girl hiding inside a slanted abandoned cave.
She had neither food nor water, and her mind was already fracturing at the edges.
This situation only changed after seven days.
[August 1 (added later)
I’m so hungry. I’ve eaten all the grass around me. If I can’t find food, I’ll starve to death tomorrow.
With that thought, I left the cave.
I thought I would die on the way to find food, but I was wrong.
When I left the cave the sky was pitch-black. I didn’t know what that meant, but the moment I stood up I felt the world spin.
I passed out.]
[August 2
I can’t believe it. I can’t believe my eyes! But I really woke up inside a general store!
I thought this world was full of four-limbed monsters that ate rotten meat and couldn’t speak, but the person who saved me was wearing a gray Zhongshan suit from the eighties and an octagonal cap!
He isn’t human, but we can communicate. It feels like I might have a chance to survive!]
The handwriting that day was especially forceful.
Bai Tang could almost feel the excitement vibrating between every line.
Yet that excitement took a sharp turn only a few days later.
[August 5
I’m really so happy. I was assigned to watch the store in the general store. This is my job.
There’s no basic wage and the food is hard to swallow, but it really feels like there’s hope of staying alive!
In the evening Mr. Kreiss brought back a human named Lele. She looks like she crossed over to this world by accident just like me. Am I getting a new colleague?
No… that’s not right!
Screams came from the kitchen. Is Mr. Kreiss going to kill him?
Tonight’s dinner is… stewed meat… ugh… ugh…
I accidentally dropped and broke the bowl. Mr. Kreiss got angry and scolded me for wasting food. The way he looked at me was wrong — like he was looking at… food!
Mr. Kreiss gouged out my right eye as punishment for wasting food…]
In the following diary entries, the girl who had lost her right eye became extremely cautious and avoided every possible danger.
The more she understood about this world, the more hopeless her situation felt.
While recording countless hazards she needed to avoid, she remained trapped inside this tiny general store.
Inside the store was her Night Demon Teacher who could eat her at any moment.
Outside was a darkness full of malice that she could not step into.
Such a fate had only found a turning point one month ago.
[March 3
Today Mr. Kreiss went out and left me to watch the store alone. During White Day a customer came to mail something. I told him Mr. Kreiss was out today and not in the store.
The customer didn’t say much. He simply left the item to be mailed and asked me to give it to Mr. Kreiss when he returned.
Even though I knew I might be punished by Mr. Kreiss later, I couldn’t help opening the small wooden box out of curiosity.
Inside the wooden box was a gray eyeball. It looked as beautiful as a gem.
What a coincidence. I happen to be missing one eyeball…]
Bai Tang had not inherited the girl’s memories.
Yet from the diary that ended so abruptly, she could already piece together the full picture.
Bai Tang raised her hand and gently touched the gray Eye of Breaking Delusions in her right eye, her heart heavy.
Perhaps the girl in the diary had realized how unusual this Eye of Breaking Delusions was.
In her desperate struggle to escape her fate, she had chosen to transplant the eyeball into herself.
As for the result… whether due to rejection or some other reason, the girl in the diary had not survived.
The remaining shell of the young girl had conveniently become the vessel for Bai Tang, who had fallen into this world in soul form.
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