Using the subordinates of ■■ to fool the enemy was only a stopgap measure.
After all, Wanshi Jilejiao was the Sakurai family’s life’s work. There was no way the divine child could just leave it alone, and no way she could keep hiding her identity and stop being active forever.
After discovering the enemy’s existence, Sakurai Hoshi fell into the anxiety every player would encounter, the kind where you were still in the beginner village, but a level-99 boss was about to smash all the way to your front door. What were you supposed to do?
…She had to level up as quickly as possible, and raise both her attribute values and her skills. At the very least, the home base could not only have Fushiguro Toji as its fighting power.
Luckily, the 【Itchy Monster Companion Body】 solved her immediate problem, and also gave her an excuse of 【Sleeping Curse】 to fool the enemy troops.
According to the system, she could use the Itchy Monster Companion Body to travel to a point in the past to grind levels, and the attribute points and experience points she gained after leveling up would all sync. The flow of time on the two sides was different, and that could give her more time to level up.
But there was one very important point. During the time she traveled, the body here would be in a sleeping state.
Therefore, at least this one trip could not last too long: once ■■ noticed the truth and came killing over, if the player was still idling, it would be game over… She had to become the Tenri Slope Sword God in the shortest time possible and return in glory.
At dinner, Sakurai Hoshi formally said goodbye to everyone at the table.
And her family, as always, supported her decision. Even Yuta Okkotsu, whose emotions were at their worst, only went into her room with red eyes at night.
“I’ll always be by Hoshi’s side. No matter where you go, don’t be afraid.”
In the dark room, only the moonlight from outside the window faintly illuminated the ends of Yuta Okkotsu’s hair. Sakurai Hoshi, under the warm blanket, could not see his expression, and could only feel Yuta Okkotsu take her hand.
“Mm… then when I wake up, I want to see Yuta first~”
“Mm, it’s a promise.” His voice was very gentle. “We’ll always be together.”
…
[Confirm use of 【Itchy Monster Companion Body】?]
[Confirm]
[Confirmation successful. Reading deployment map and time node…]
[Reading complete. Please choose your companion body deployment era and map: ____]
The available deployment eras stretched from ancient Japan all the way to 2005, the year she entered the game. The more modern the era, the smaller the time ratio.
Since she was going to grind experience, of course she should choose the 20:1 time ratio, which had the largest gap. As for the map… it was still better to choose Japan, which she was more familiar with. After all, the cursed spirits in this country were denser and stronger than those elsewhere in the world.
[Selected: Japan – Heian Era]
[…world deployment in progress…]
[…companion body generating…]
[…skills loading…]
After the loading finished, the system popped up a more detailed prompt.
[System prompt: During the use time of the 【Itchy Monster Companion Body】, because you are separated from your guardian, the player will play in adult form; other attribute values will sync with the body.]
[Consciousness transfer will begin shortly]
[3…2…1…]
[Transfer complete, please enjoy the game.]
Sakurai Hoshi’s vision gradually sank into darkness, and an endless warmth swallowed her.
…
[【Itchy Monster Companion Body】 has been activated, and character 【Sakurai Hoshi】 has fallen asleep.]
[Japan – Heian Era, time ratio 20:1]
[Character: Sakurai Hoshi (Itchy Monster Companion Body)
Age: 85
Strength: 8 (As an adult… you really are a little weak.)
Physique: 9 (With Heian-era medicine… cherish every day you have.)
Agility: 8 (You are not very good at nimble things.)
Intelligence: 17 (Very few people can possess this degree of wisdom… unfortunately, in the Heian Era you cannot compete for the Nobel Prize.)
Perception: 35 (+1) (You can see nonhuman things. With the support of some kind of power, you may be able to observe the enemy’s weak points…)
Charm: 20 (+1) (A single smile or a single glance from you can make countless people fascinated and crazed. As long as you speak, even the crazed ones will stop to listen… does such charm really belong to a human?)
Total attribute points: 85 (+2)
Reputation: 0 [Chaotic Good] (To this new world, you are just a nobody.)]
Sakurai Hoshi opened her eyes. She was wearing a simple white kimono, just like when she had first started the game, only this time, her body had become that of an adult.
After being a childish, lively little kid for so long, the player lady even felt a little unaccustomed to her adult appearance.
A little awkwardly, she raised her head, and only felt that not only was the wide robe on her body somewhat troublesome, even her head felt a little heavy. When she turned her head to look, she realized that her hair had also become much longer. Her black hair wound across the ground like a black river.
It seemed that when the 【Itchy Monster Companion Body】 generated her appearance, it had directly taken her childhood body and stretched it into her adult form, and maybe it had not even cut her hair…
But that was a little too troublesome… She did not want to be stepping on her own hair while walking.
Just as she thought that, Sakurai Hoshi saw her hair slowly shortening, as if a part of her body were changing shape according to her wish.
…Kind of amazing.
Although moving around for now felt no different from a normal human body… it really was, in essence, a jelly-like gelatinous mass. Even her hair could change length as she wished.
So, right now, she was actually a lump of jelly.
Sakurai Hoshi was amused by her own strange joke, and could not help but laugh softly.
She did not make her hair very short, only shortened it to the length where it just touched the ground. After all, nobles in the Heian-kyo era all had thick, long hair, and the first standard for beauty even required hair that touched the ground, with hair longer than the skirt. The beautiful and invincible player would never allow herself to lose Charm points because her hair was too short!
The divine child, draped in hair that reached the ground, slowly stood up. While slowly walking to get used to her body, she looked around at the surroundings.
This was an uninhabited deep forest. All around was dark, and only the pale moonlight occasionally slipped through the gaps in the leaves, barely lighting the road ahead. In the darkness lurked the malicious shadows of cursed spirits, only to shatter into gentle specks of light when they brushed past her sleeves.
［Exorcised level-one cursed spirit, Perception +0.0001］
［Exorcised level-one cursed spirit, Perception +0.0001］
…
［Exorcised special-grade cursed spirit, Perception +0.0005］
Watching the system prompts constantly pop up, Sakurai Hoshi only felt deeply moved.
Heaven knew that after her Perception rose to 35, the Perception attribute she got from exorcising one grade-two cursed spirit had already dropped to 0.00001, which meant she would need to exorcise 200,000 grade-two cursed spirits to max out Perception. But at the original time point, grade-two cursed spirits were not always around, not to mention higher-grade first-grade and special-grade ones.
As expected of the Heian Era, the legendary age when demons and ghosts ran rampant, the overall level of these cursed spirits was much higher. Sakurai Hoshi walked through the forest for a day and a night, and actually ran into two special-grade cursed spirits. If she could get to a place with even denser cursed spirits, her experience-grinding speed could go even further. Maybe as long as she stayed for two or three years… which was only one or two months in reality, she could max out her Perception.
By the way, after using the 【Itchy Monster Companion Body】, the player lady had, in essence, already become some kind of jelly creature. Theoretically, she did not need sleep, and only needed to regularly replenish some sugar to maintain her actions.
How should she put it… this companion body was simply an item born for grind addicts…
After walking like that for a day and a night, she had only eaten a few fruits that had actively drooped from the trees into her hands along the way. It seemed that in the Heian Era, everything had intelligence. Under the influence of Charm 21, Sakurai Hoshi really seemed to have become a divine child favored by the gods.
The dense branches and leaves moved silently to make a path for her, and the grass under her feet became soft and fragrant after she walked over it. Birds let out pleasing cries, wild deer brought her berries in their mouths, dust did not stain the hem of her white skirt, and even the moonlight shone gently on her. The beautiful girl walked along all night on a trail of shimmering light, as if she were a goddess walking in the river of stars.
The girl bent over by the river, wanting to scoop up water to drink, but met the eyes of the person floating on the river surface.
So beautiful.
If the person lying in the water could still speak, they might also have softly praised her.
However, Fujiwara Sawi had indeed already died. After being wrongly forced out of the capital, he had been driven to a dead end, and in endless regret and confusion, he threw himself into the water and drowned. His corpse drifted along the current and finally came to the girl’s feet.
Polluting the water the princess wanted to drink, that was truly a sin.
Yet the beautiful divine child quietly looked at this horrifying floating corpse for a while, then stepped into the water from the bank, allowing the cold river water to soak her clothes and hair. She came to his side and gently closed his eyes for him.
All the indistinct bitterness and unwillingness, endless sorrow and grievance, all seemed to vanish in those gentle hands.
What kind of person could have such a heart, to close the eyes of a total stranger?
But Sawi had still underestimated her.
The girl did not leave just like that. She held his corpse, which had been soaked beyond recognition, and struggled ashore from the cold river, carrying him away from the riverbank on her back. The girl brought the corpse to a wild peach tree and silently dug into the soil.
He did not know who she was, and she did not know who he was either. They had simply met by this lonely, deserted riverbank, and she became the one who saw him off in the end.
Just how glorious and noble, and how graceful, had the genius chess player from the aristocratic Fujiwara clan once been? Now, having fallen from the altar, he drowned himself in cold river water unknown to anyone.
Yet he had never imagined that this princess, whom he had never met before, would brave the cold to pull a dead man out of the river and collect his body for burial.
“…Lying in the water all by yourself would be too lonely, so let this peach tree keep you company.”
In the hazy moonlight, she removed the water plants from the dead Sawi’s body and wiped the dirty water from his face.
Her eyes, as pure as wisteria flowers, looked at him gently for a while, as if this were not a terrifying corpse, but a pitiful soul with nowhere to go.
“In your next life, be born into a happy family… goodbye.”
By the time the sky began to brighten, the river had already returned to calm. Only a newly erected nameless grave lay silently beside the wild peach tree. The chill of early spring had not yet faded, and the wild peach tree originally only had a few withered flower buds barely hanging on, but after being touched by the beautiful girl who did not seem to belong to this world, they bloomed vigorously overnight.
Peach blossoms fell, and little red petals landed on the grave soil. It almost seemed like someone was silently weeping.
Author’s note: It’s the Heian Era!
I’m going to do some angsty past-life stuff! And level up on the side.
Let me sort out the timeline:
Hoshi’s starting age display says 3, but she was actually almost 4 already. She started at the end of autumn and beginning of winter in 2005, and her birthday is in winter, so at this point she is almost 4.
At the end of 2005, she met Yuta, and turned 4.
In April to May 2005, the Star Plasma Vessel incident happened, and then she met Toji. By winter, she turned 5.
In early spring of 2007, she was assassinated and began traveling through time.
Because I couldn’t find the time when Yuta and Rika met, I could only roughly tell it was spring or summer, so I’ve set it as around May 2007 when she meets Rika. At that time Yuta is 5, and Hoshi is not yet 5.
The Heian Era will not be very long. When she goes back, she’ll meet Rika right away~
Thank you to the little angels who threw me monthly tickets or poured nutrient solution during the period from 2022-11-07 15:29:35 to 2022-11-08 21:53:41!
Thank you to the little angel who threw a rocket launcher: Divine Outflow 1;
Thank you to the little angel who threw a landmine: Indifferent 1;
Thank you to the little angels who poured nutrient solution: Indifferent 20 bottles; A Xin and Qingfeng 14 bottles; second-round postgraduate entrance exam, if I still can’t get ashore I’m done for, Al, please call me the Grand Commander 10 bottles; Cloud Rabbit 9 bottles; Nishinomiya Linggui Atractylodes and Licorice Decoction 7 bottles; Does a slug have a brain? 3 bottles; Invite the Moon, Qinglan, Yunmeng Autumn 1 bottle;
Thank you all very much for your support. I will keep working hard!