After drinking the “fading life potion”, about two minutes passed.
Tenshi opened her eyes once again.
The world before her instantly became much brighter and clearer, a change that made Tenshi instinctively squint her eyes again, but a smile could not be suppressed on her face.
She looked at her hands, and the cracks had faded quite a bit.
The girl stood up, gave a light hop, and quickly rummaged around to find a mirror to take a look.
The patterns on her face were the same.
“It works!”
Tenshi’s breathing became a bit hurried, and the corners of her eyes turned slightly red.
Soon, her gaze turned firm again.
Having long been threatened by entropy loss syndrome and a countdown to death, and now seeing hope for survival, Tenshi appeared somewhat excited at this moment.
She began to try summoning that virtual screen once more.
As Tenshi’s attention began to focus, a blue light flashed before her and opened.
The panel of the Emotion Exchange System opened once again.
[The Emotion Exchange System at your service.]
[Your current Emotion Value is: 491]
[The individual currently still providing you with Emotion Value is: Billy Kid.]
[Billy Kid’s details: Tenshi’s modification this time is so cool! Excitement +67. Hum hum hum! Boss Nicole, Anby, and Nekomata will definitely be amazed, I have to make a cool entrance! Anticipation +77…]
“So Emotion Values are obtained this way, and the judgment conditions seem pretty lenient. However, it seems to have started recording from the very moment I got the system, and right now there is only Billy.”
Looking at the virtual screen before her, Tenshi thought to herself.
“Then… what about the mall? Is it operated like this?”
She tried reaching out her hand, her fingertips landing on the virtual screen.
There was no tactile feedback of touching anything, but Tenshi’s mind already produced the sensation of “having touched the touch screen”.
She tentatively swiped to the side.
The light blue virtual screen flickered, and the mall interface popped up.
A simple search box, a plain classification box, and immediately following were various materials, knowledge, and special items.
Arranged from lowest to highest price, Tenshi saw the “fading life potion” she had just drunk.
Among recovery-type goods, it belonged to the cheapest tier, requiring 5,000 Emotion Values.
And among the highest-tier recovery goods, Tenshi also saw items that could completely cure her.
For example, SCP-500 – Panacea.
The panacea could not be bought individually; you had to buy a bottle at a time, with fifty pills per bottle, costing 50,000,000 Emotion Values.
There was also Life Solidification Technology.
As a recovery functional knowledge-type item, it was cheaper, requiring only 10,000,000 Emotion Values, but considering the material costs for manufacturing the life solidification device, the total price was also around 35,000,000 Emotion Values.
However, there were also some cheaper, usable items.
For instance, dream capsule – Spirit Reconstruction; purchasing this dream capsule individually only required 500,000 Emotion Values.
Although she could not use it on herself, having someone else use it on her would work.
Considering cost-effectiveness and versatility, this was Tenshi’s current primary goal.
“Hmm… Looking at it this way, this can also be considered a special crossover between Zenless Zone Zero and ZZZ (Masked Hero – Sleeping Soundly).”
After confirming her short-term goal in the system mall, Tenshi closed the system interface.
Although the growth rate of Emotion Values was not considered slow, it was not something that could reach 500,000 in just a short while.
After having hope for survival, there was a slight gleam in the depths of Tenshi’s eyes.
She tilted her head slightly, stared at herself in the mirror for a moment, and raised her hand to wipe away the stains on her face.
“My body has recovered a bit… Let’s go check on Aria and the others.”
Muttering to herself, Tenshi turned around and slowly took off the oversized shirt she was wearing, revealing her smooth and fair back.
Then, after undressing further, she went to the bathroom to take a bath.
After coming out, Tenshi changed into a new set of clothes.
Her pinkish-purple long hair was still tied into twin tails, bound with two wrench-styled bows, and a gear-shaped hairpin was worn on the dyed lock of her side hair.
Afterward, she put on a white long-sleeved shirt and a black bustier suspender skirt with shoulder straps, the hem presenting a black-and-white layered ruffled style that dropped just above her knees.
On her feet were mismatched socks—a black calf sock on one side and a white knee-high sock on the other—along with a pair of black platform Martin boots.
Finally, a short motorcycle jacket matching her hair color was draped directly over her shoulders like a shawl by Tenshi.
Because her vision was still somewhat blurry, Tenshi put on her half-rim glasses again.
After finishing her outfit, she stared back and forth at herself in the mirror.
This body after transmigrating was indeed very pretty.
Afterwards, Tenshi grabbed her small pink backpack, preparing to pack some things into it before setting off.
This backpack was bought together with Sunna, but after Tenshi’s personal modifications, the small angel wings on the back of the backpack had turned into compressed thruster turbine flying wings.
Right at this moment…
“Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!”
Knocking came from outside the door.
Tenshi raised her head from her busy work.
“Coming, coming~”
Tenshi stood up, walked to the doorway, and opened the door.
Her steps were brisk; the possibility of survival put her in a very good mood.
Pulling the door open, standing outside was a girl with pink hair tied into four buns and a cyan halo floating above her head.
The girl wore black “headphones” with extended antennas, donning a fluffy dress and bustier top primarily in white with cyan accents, along with pink calf socks and white boots on her feet.
And behind her, there was a pair of pure white little wings.
This outfit looked quite like a pretty stage costume, but in New Eridu, running around dressed like this was not considered strange.
After all, there were public safety officers wearing white mascot costumes—whether of an otter or a big cat—and people hiding in trash cans running all over the streets.
Moreover, Aria’s entire outfit was actually a projection.
Although Tenshi felt that Aria’s original appearance as a smart construct was also very cute.
But Aria did not seem to want her fans to know that she was actually a smart construct.
“Tenshi Tenshi, it’s bad!”
Aria gripped Tenshi’s hands with both of hers, her starry eyes filled with a worried expression at this moment.
“Nangong and Sunna still have not come back yet, it has already been a full day.”
“Did they run into some kind of danger?!”
Tenshi blinked twice, finally remembering.
Yesterday, there was indeed a commission requiring someone to help find a Bangboo.
At that time, she was checking Aria’s chassis, so Nangong and Sunna went to do it together.
In order to make money, Angels of Delusion would occasionally take on small commissions going down into the Hollow.
This was actually a very dangerous job, because the ether concentration inside the Hollow was very high, making it unsuitable for living organisms to survive.
And being eroded by ether would cause one to contract erosion disease; if severe, one would even turn into monsters called “Ethereals”.
Nangong and Sunna not returning for a day was definitely not good news.
The job of finding a Bangboo should not take this long.
“Aria, calm down, let us go find them.” Tenshi said while turning around to pack a few “Thunder Spiders” into her backpack.
Friends entering the Hollow and not returning for a long time could not be delayed.
Aria’s panicked voice rang out:
“Tenshi! You you you… what kind of things did you pack inside?!”
At this instant, Aria could not even maintain her projection, reverting back to the plump and cute smart construct form of pink, white, and black, stretching out her hand and trembling as she pointed at the thing in Tenshi’s hands.
“Thunder Spiders?”
“Why are you packing Ethereals inside?!”
“Oh, wait, why do Thunder Spiders exist outside the Hollow?! Should not Ethereals dissipate after leaving the Hollow?”
[Aria was frightened by the appearance of your prop. Startle +88.]
After the shock, Aria seemed to react, blankly looking at the thing in Tenshi’s hands as her eyes flickered.
She used her visual sensor to scan the object in Tenshi’s hands.
“It seems… it seems to just be a mechanical creation made into the shape of a Thunder Spider?”
[Aria feels puzzled by the shape of your prop. Confusion +66. Helplessness +23.]
Tenshi looked at the round, palm-sized little thing in her hand with short little legs.
“What is wrong with Thunder Spiders? Thunder Spiders are so cute, they run up in front of you and go ‘bang’ with an explosion.”
“C-Cute?” Aria said blankly.
“Of course they are cute, art is an explosion.” Tenshi said confidently, tossing the thing in her hand up and down.
“Besides, this thing of mine, I have named it Sheer Heart Attack!”
“Small size means it can go many places, and as a means of attack, naturally, just like a Thunder Spider, it is self-detonation!”
“This is an excellent prop for killing and robbing, sneak attacks and assassinations, protecting the safety of Angels of Delusion members, and clearing the path for us when exploring the Hollow.”
“This does not sound like anything normal at all, and did you not just use really weird vocabulary to describe it?!”
[Aria’s logic core overheats at your description. Suspicion and uncertainty +123.]
“Do not mind these details, Aria.” Tenshi calmly packed the bombs into her backpack and the pockets hidden in her skirt hem, “Where was that commission supposed to find a Bangboo?”
“It is at the Ballet Twins Building.” Aria said, “There have always been rumors of haunting in that place, I remember it very clearly.”
“Mm.” Tenshi pulled the shoulder strap of her backpack, adjusted the angle, and said, “Let us go.”
“Eh? Okay.” Aria nodded.
Locking the door of Unforgettable, the two girls prepared to set off.
So, as “angels”, on the way to rescue their friends, naturally they had to step on the gas and move forward at full speed.
Thus, the two did not go out of the alley, but walked further inside instead.
In a deserted corner, Aria turned off her projection, turning into the plump and cute smart construct posture, her eye display changing into a determined look due to her emotional shift.
“Let us set off.”
Some firelight lit up from the soles of Aria’s feet, and immediately after, the thrusters under her feet sent Aria up into the sky.
As for Tenshi, she felt for a hidden button on the backpack shoulder strap.
After pressing it, the steel wing components compressed inside the backpack unfolded, and the turbines spun.
Subsequently, Tenshi jumped upward and also rushed into the sky, closely following behind Aria.