Lu Nian’an changed into a white-and-gray blouse paired with a coffee-gray skirt, immediately dragged Xia Jiuwei into the walk-in closet.
“Didn’t you say you were going to see your grandfather? You should dress more formally.”
“Uh… considering I’m already being followed, shouldn’t we stall for a bit longer…?”
“He probably won’t care about a little extra time,” Xia Jiuwei muttered under her breath.
“No.”
Lu Nian’an cut her off cleanly.
She pointed toward a row of clothes.
“This coat, the inner layer, the pants, and the boots—I picked them all out for you.”
“There aren’t many styles yet, so just make do for today. We can buy more later.”
Xia Jiuwei stared at the outfit.
…This felt strangely suspicious.
Still... it looked good.
“Guess I can live with it.”
She mumbled the words before shoving the visibly excited Lu Nian’an out of the changing room.
A few minutes later, she stepped back out.
The structured coat layered over black clothing contrasted sharply against her snow-white hair, giving her a clean yet striking presence.
“Well?”
She grinned and struck a pose.
“Very pretty.”
Looking satisfied, Lu Nian’an clipped a delicate black rose hairpin into her hair.
“Hehe.”
At that moment, Lili suddenly popped back into view.
“Master, Master! Two very unusual guests arrived this time!”
“Hm? Let me see.”
Xia Jiuwei waved her hand, and the two of them were instantly transported back into the small villa within the Under-Reality.
An image materialized in midair.
In the projection stood a young woman wrapped tightly from head to toe, mask covering most of her face, exposing only a pair of frantic eyes.
“Don’t look at me… don’t look at me…”
She clutched her head, visibly on the verge of collapse.
“Don’t come near me… stop following me…”
Suddenly—
she snapped her head upward and screamed into empty space.
“You—! And you too! Stop staring at me!”
Her gaze seemed to pierce directly through the image itself, locking onto Xia Jiuwei and Lu Nian’an.
“Interesting.”
Xia Jiuwei’s expression darkened slightly.
She waved her hand, dispersing the image.
“And the other guest?”
“Master… I’m certain he entered, but… he disappeared.”
“Forget that for now.”
Xia Jiuwei turned toward Lu Nian’an.
“Want to go to Japan?”
Lu Nian’an laced their fingers together.
“Sure. Right now?”
“Mhm.”
Using the spatial disturbances created by the guests entering the Under-Reality, Xia Jiuwei quickly locked onto the location.
The next instant—
the two appeared beside the woman.
The surrounding air felt oppressive, as though countless unseen eyes were lurking in the darkness.
Lu Nian’an instinctively tightened her grip on Xia Jiuwei’s hand.
“This feels a little like a Domain.”
“That’s what I was thinking too,” Xia Jiuwei replied. “But there’s something more important first.”
She looked toward the woman as a black hardcover book appeared in her hand.
《Under-Reality Management Manual》
【Management Interface — Individuals】
Saotome Naomi
Age: 21
Cause of Distortion: Protection Through Resentment
Ability: Information-State Perception
Condition: Mental Strength Exhaustion
“…Protection Through Resentment?”
She did not dwell on it further.
Instead, she directly pulled the woman into the villa.
After Xia Jiuwei voluntarily lent her two hundred points of Mental Strength, the woman slowly regained her composure.
“Where am I…? Who are you people?”
“This is the Under-Reality,” Xia Jiuwei answered calmly. “I’m its owner.”
She paused briefly.
“And she’s my partn— my teammate.”
Beside her, Lu Nian’an summoned shadows that drifted gently around her, her presence calm yet subtly oppressive.
“Whatever problem you can’t solve,” she said, “we may be able to.”
Saotome Naomi spoke with trembling lips.
“My head… I keep seeing people… so many people…”
“They’re all watching me… through social media, databases, everywhere…”
“I know everything… too much of it…”
“And him… he’s still looking for me…”
“He keeps following me… watching me…”
Xia Jiuwei nodded.
“I can remove your ability.”
“And I can solve your problem.”
“The price is your ability… and your accumulated language experience.”
“…Can you really do that?”
“Yes.”
Naomi agreed without hesitation.
Xia Jiuwei immediately began extracting the ability.
The moment the transfer completed, something went wrong.
“Excuse us.”
Before the sensation fully struck her, Xia Jiuwei hurriedly grabbed Lu Nian’an and forced them both back into reality.
Countless gazes flooded into her consciousness—
as though innumerable worlds were staring directly at her all at once.
Darkness.
Twisted thoughts.
Malice.
Corruption.
Endless horrifying images surged violently through her mind.
And then it hit her.
When you gaze into the abyss… the abyss gazes back.
She stumbled back into the bedroom.
Crawled under the blankets.
Curled up in silence.
—She had underestimated the price.
【Severe Mental Strength Depletion】
Lu Nian’an entered the room and saw Xia Jiuwei hiding beneath the covers.
The sight of that abyss still haunted her.
Her body trembled slightly.
Without saying anything, Lu Nian’an wrapped her arms around her through the blanket.
The embrace slowly tightened, as though squeezing away that helplessness little by little.
Gradually, the blanket filled with Lu Nian’an’s warmth and scent, giving Xia Jiuwei a fragile sense of safety.
Slowly—
the trembling stopped.
The two remained there quietly for a long time.
“…Lu Nian’an.”
Xia Jiuwei finally spoke in a low voice.
“In the future… I’m probably going to save a lot of people.”
“Will you ever feel like… maybe you’re just one of them?”
“Nothing special?”
Lu Nian’an stayed silent.
“You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you…?”
“You never seem to age.”
Still, Lu Nian’an did not interrupt.
“You’re very special to me,” Xia Jiuwei continued quietly.
“I’ve been thinking…”
“The Under-Reality keeps making me stronger.”
A small pause.
“But it keeps adding more things to hold onto, too.”
Her voice lowered further.
“And every time I obtain a new ability… something bad always seems to happen.”
She paused briefly, gathering courage.
“I… I want someone who can stay beside me the whole time.”
“Someone who can share that burden with me.”
“I want someone… I can completely rely on.”
After saying that, she slowly poked her head out from beneath the blanket.
Her messy white hair clung to the sides of her face, while uncertainty and vulnerability lingered faintly in her eyes as she looked at Lu Nian’an.
“…Would you be willing to?”
Lu Nian’an looked back at her without hesitation.
“I’d be happy to.”
After collecting themselves and fixing their appearance, the two returned once more to the small villa within the Under-Reality.
The space rippled softly.
The next second—
time, which had remained frozen within the Under-Reality, began moving again.
From Saotome Naomi’s perspective, it merely looked as though the two women had flickered for an instant before returning to normal.
She blinked in confusion, not even having time to process it before Lu Nian’an spoke first.
“Before we help you solve this problem, you’ll need to explain exactly what happened.”
Wanting to give Xia Jiuwei more time to recover, Lu Nian’an naturally took over the flow of the negotiation.
“That way, we can deal with the root of it properly.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Naomi pressed her lips together, organizing her thoughts.
Several seconds later, she finally began speaking slowly.
Saotome Naomi came from a single-parent household.
Her parents had divorced when she was very young, and she also had a younger brother.
In her memories, her mother was almost always away working long hours, doing cleaning and organizational labor.
Her mother worked long hours doing cleaning jobs.
The money came in slowly—just enough to stabilize life for a while.
But that stability did not last long.
During one particular job, her mother seriously injured her lower back, leaving her unable to continue working in cleaning-related labor.
Once their stable source of income disappeared, the family’s financial situation deteriorated rapidly.
At first, they survived using their savings.
But as time passed and expenses piled up, the money that had once represented their future slowly vanished.
Life became increasingly strained.
Eventually, there was no longer enough money left to support the household.
And so, after graduating from high school, Saotome Naomi chose to take responsibility for her family herself.
She began searching for work—
a job capable of supporting everyone.
In the end, she found the profession she worked in now:
a mimikaki hostess.