“No, yours are bigger!”
Yuli answered without hesitation, her tone utterly firm.
Who cared whose were bigger? Sai’en certainly would never ask her a question like that.
To prevent the young man from continuing to question her, she raised her arm, patted him on the shoulder, and sincerely encouraged him, “Believe me. On this matter, you absolutely have to believe in your own abilities.”
Yuli meant that one hundred percent. She felt no psychological burden whatsoever saying it.
Although she had no idea how strong he was in combat—whether he was a hidden boss or merely a minor elite monster—when it came to chest size, there was no doubt that his abilities were extremely visible!
“……” If she hadn’t dropped to her knees and slid away so quickly, he might have felt a little proud of being praised.
This was getting interesting. Recalling the scene from last night and the girl’s lively survival instinct at this moment, Tuolan grew increasingly curious. How had Lili’s first mission outside the Tower ended in an accident, leaving her seeming as though she had been replaced by an entirely different person?
Was this what people meant by confused memories?
Tuolan pressed the tip of his tongue against his canine and asked with a smile, “So, Lili, do you still remember who I am?”
Good question.
She wanted to know that, too.
The key was that she couldn’t control these fragments of memory!
“I’ll do my best to remember,” Yuli said.
He even knew about the groping rumor, so he must know that her memory was confused, too.
She was now seriously wondering whether the Sentinels here had some kind of communication forum. Otherwise, how could news spread so quickly?
This group was clearly on its way back from a mission and had not even entered the base yet, so how did they already know about her?
Yuli’s head buzzed. It felt as though someone had smeared a lump of paste over her thoughts, while the road ahead seemed shrouded in layers of darkness, making it impossible to tell which direction to take.
She was not only depressed over how many people knew about the groping rumor. She had also remembered the most crucial question: Who had thrown her there in the first place?
What was the purpose? Did they want to kill her, or merely frighten and intimidate her?
Had the mantis monster appeared by accident, or had someone deliberately arranged it?
On the fourth day since transmigrating into the novel, she had only come into contact with one male lead, Sai’en. Could it have been him?
Or…… Yuli avoided meeting the young man’s vertical pupils. Her gaze swiftly skimmed over the dazzling row of earrings on one side of his face before she pretended to be shy and lowered it.
Or perhaps it was someone else.
Had meeting this squad also been an accident?
“Grrr—”
Just then, her stomach let out a pitiful growl.
“……”
The solemn, tense atmosphere Yuli had just built up inside herself was scattered by that growl.
They didn’t hear it. They didn’t hear it. Please, let them not have heard it.
It wasn’t as though her stomach had never growled from hunger in front of other people before, but this was the first time it had happened in front of a handsome man she was only half familiar with.
And he seemed to have had an ambiguous relationship with the original body’s owner. This would make “Youlier” look so undignified…… What if they had once been the kind of elite powerhouses who admired each other?
The girl lowered her head, allowing her black hair to fall down around her. A faint pink flush spread over her lustrous ears, as though she were using sheer willpower to make time stop.
But she had forgotten that a Sentinel’s keen five senses included hearing.
“Lanxing.” Tuolan called toward the side.
Before the embarrassed little person inside Yuli could even whimper, his palm came down over her head again and rubbed it.
“So cute.” He even helped explain the situation for her. “It’s lunchtime now, and our Lili didn’t even eat breakfast. It’s perfectly normal for her to be hungry.”
Aww, what a qualified fatherly man. Yuli almost repented for having suspected him.
Very well, she had only almost.
It seemed he was the considerate type, not the high-difficulty, extreme push-and-pull type. Yuli breathed a sigh of relief inside.
She really did not want to be struggling to survive in the hands of five male leads while the original body also had a difficult, powerful ambiguous partner adding to the challenge.
At that moment, the clean-cut youth approached with a roasted chicken in his hands.
He held a skewer with a thick wooden shaft in each hand. He handed the one sprinkled with cumin and chili powder to Tuolan. “Captain.”
“Over there.” Tuolan tilted his chin.
Following the direction he indicated, Lanxing handed the skewer to Yuli instead. “Guide.”
“Thank you.”
Yuli did not refuse. She reached out and accepted the seasoned roasted chicken.
Now that she knew about the red-haired young man’s ambiguous relationship with the original body, being overly polite would be inappropriate. It would make her seem distant.
But…… he had actually known in advance that she preferred stronger flavors and liked mild spice?
It seemed that, apart from her appearance, the original body might also have many similarities to her. These could very well be the reason she had transmigrated into this novel.
Yuli took small bites of the chicken, thinking deeply.
She noticed that the youth named Lanxing secretly glanced at her, as though curious, or perhaps as if confirming something.
Yuli blinked and looked back at him.
Did she have chili powder stuck to her face?
Lanxing was about the same age as Banwei, and it was impossible to tell who was older. He had black, medium-length hair, a little longer than Lingling’s, reaching below his ears. Parted down the middle, it lay smoothly against either side of his face. His delicate features had nearly made Yuli mistake his gender at first glance.
Looking closely, his eyes were slightly round, catlike eyes, just like Banwei’s. However, Lanxing’s reserved, tranquil personality tempered that roundness.
He looked at her, then at the red-haired young man. After that, he nodded, which counted as greeting his captain, and lightly and swiftly ran into the distant weeds like an agile little leopard.
Yuli only saw a blur before her. The chicken thigh meat in her mouth had not even reached her stomach when the grass rustled several times, and Lanxing’s figure had already flashed back in front of her. In his hand was a spinning top with a blue light effect.
He seemed to like the toy very much. After getting it, he kept playing with it, leaving the roasted chicken aside.
The little ball bounced up and down in the youth’s hand, its pale-blue light constantly changing.
“What is this called?” Yuli asked curiously.
Surely this world didn’t call it a yo-yo, too?
Lanxing looked at her, then at Tuolan. Only after seeing that the captain had no reaction did he answer, “A miniature soundproof shield.”
Yuli: “?”
Even if it wasn’t called a yo-yo, wasn’t that name a little too different?
“When thrown out, it silences everything within a five-meter radius.” Lanxing drew the yo-yo back into his palm and showed Yuli the actual switch. Seeing that she did not understand, he continued explaining. “It’s different from the Sentinel Tower’s. This one is a toy.”
The large soundproofing layer around the Sentinel Tower isolated the people inside from the effects of outside noise.
This toy soundproof shield trapped noise inside the shield so that it could not travel out.
For example, when Guide Lier used her sonic attack earlier, she had calculated the distance and dropped the shield over them, keeping the people around their campfire five meters outside it.
Yes, it was very safe.
Seeing the girl reveal a complicated expression he did not understand, Lanxing thought for a moment, then held the yo-yo out to her. “For you.”
“It can be used five times. Three uses remain.”
It was a toy the captain had casually tossed to him to play with. He had never said he was giving it to him.
The captain’s things belonged to Guide Lier. If Guide Lier wanted it, he ought to return it.
“Ah, no, no.” Yuli hurriedly shook her head. She had not intended to snatch a child’s toy. She simply had not expected the yo-yo she knew to be a high-tech product, and felt that her understanding was truly shallow. “You play with it. I can tell you like it.”
She silently gnawed on her chicken leg and decided that from now on, she would keep observing and learning. She could not use modern thinking to judge this new world.
Something barely perceptible flickered in Lanxing’s eyes. He walked over to Tuolan and asked, “The Guide said……”
“It’s yours,” Tuolan said directly.
“Thank you, Captain.” Lanxing put away the yo-yo, then handed over the untouched roasted chicken in his hand.
His chicken had no seasoning, so the captain could eat it.
“Half a chicken, in return.”
“No need.”
Tuolan perfunctorily extended one index finger and easily pushed aside the wooden shaft the youth was offering, as though he found it in his way.
Then he propped up his chin and watched with keen interest as the girl ate slowly, the aroma of the food clinging to her. “Aren’t you still growing? Eat it yourself.”
It was not a gift, so there was no need to return a gift.
It was an invisible task Tuolan had assigned Lanxing. Just now, Lanxing had successfully completed the task, and this was his reward.
Tuolan was satisfied to see the girl occasionally fall into thought, her beautiful eyes repeatedly switching between normal amber irises and molten-gold vertical pupils.
“……” The captain’s state seemed to involve both hunting desire and being in heat at the same time.
Well, he was a large cat with a Guide, after all. It was normal for his state to be a little strange.
Lanxing did not insist. He was about to return to the campfire to eat when he heard the captain change his mind and say, “A return gift. Bring me your cleaning water.”
Lanxing: “……Yes.”
Tuolan was in a very good mood, but he could not quite tolerate Lili making herself this dirty.
—Although, fundamentally speaking, he was the one who had gotten her dirty.
The more he watched her turn her face into that of a little tabby cat while eating, the more deeply he frowned.
Conditions here were crude. There were no utensils, so becoming like this was unavoidable. Cleaning up after meals was the same; everyone was like this…… Everyone could be like this, but Lili could not.
He also remembered that she had not washed her face that morning, as well as the dirty soles of her feet, which had been swaying back and forth because she was in such a good mood while eating……
Yuli was eating happily when she noticed a shadow fall over her head. The skewer of roasted chicken in her hand was suddenly lifted away.
“Lili, you—” Tuolan paused. His voice was kind and gentle. “Put your roasted chicken aside for a moment.”
She had already bitten into it. It would be inappropriate for him to take it back, wouldn’t it?
Yuli raised her face and blinked twice. Before she could ask, a fragrant, half-damp towel came crashing down over her head.
Yuli: “?”
Tuolan exhaled deeply. Once he began, every capillary in his body felt comfortable.
He controlled his strength and began moving, emphasizing as he did, “It’ll be quick. It’ll be done in a moment, and then I’ll give it back to you to eat.”
……
By the campfire.
Banwei, whose face was equally greasy from eating, asked in confusion, “What is the captain doing?”
“Cleaning a cub,” Lanxing said.
Banwei was shocked. “I’m a cub, too. Why doesn’t the captain come clean me?”
“Oh, no, wait.” He shuddered in disgust. “I don’t want that kind of cleaning!”
“……” You don’t deserve it either.
Lanxing amended his words. “Cleaning a cub—the partner type.”
“Oh~” Banwei understood the word “partner.” He fell into thought. “Good thing I don’t have an exclusive Guide. Otherwise, I’d have to share my roasted chicken.”
His round eyes turned toward the chili-powdered roasted chicken in the captain’s hand. After estimating Guide Lier’s appetite, he began laughing wickedly inside.
Behind him, his spirit entity, a sleek, spotted leopard, also swished its tail in delight.
Lanxing: “……” Don’t talk to idiots. You’ll become stupid yourself.
“Why is he cleaning her now?” the person who had been labeled an idiot asked again. “Don’t cats only lick their fur after eating? If he wipes her now, won’t he have to wipe her again later?”
“That’s not right. I got up to pee before dawn and saw the captain come back after slaughtering who knows how large an area of contamination. He was covered in the blood of mutated entities. I personally saw him carry water off to take a bath.”
“He’s so obsessed with his appearance. How could he possibly have water left over after bathing?” Banwei was utterly baffled. “Where did he get so much water for daily use?”
“……” So now he was using mine.
Lanxing said nothing. The black leopard lying beside him lowered its head, then, as fast as lightning, swung a paw and slapped the spotted leopard.
Idiot. Annoying.