Chapter 55
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
Chapter 55: What A Strange Thing, Fate Is In This World
“Here.”
The girl stretched out a hand wrapped in a colorful string and handed it to Mi Xiaoliu.
Mi Xiaoliu squinted, tugging the string off her hand, completely baffled as to why she was being given a piece of string.
The room was far too dim—its only source of light was a tiny night lamp set to the lowest brightness and placed quite a distance away. For someone who was already colorblind, this made seeing anything even more difficult.
“What are you doing? I finally remembered how to make that pattern—cough cough—” The girl choked on her words, annoyed, and swatted at Mi Xiaoliu’s arm.
“I’m Sorry.”
“You’ve never played cat’s cradle before?” The girl shook her head.
This was the only entertainment she could come up with given her severely limited space. It wasn’t easy playing without vision either. Worst of all, she couldn’t play it alone. The nurse certainly didn’t have time to sit around playing string games with her.
She didn’t even need to look—she had memorized every shape.
“Come on, give me your hands. I’ll show you… Why are you wearing gloves?” The girl took hold of Mi Xiaoliu’s hand and began looping the string step by step around her fingers. The gloves were thin and fit snugly, not interfering with the string at all.
Such small hands. So soft and delicate.
She had the odd feeling that, even bedridden as she was, she could probably knock this girl over with one slap.
As the girl transformed the string on Mi Xiaoliu’s hands into a new shape on her own fingers, Mi Xiaoliu’s eyes lit up as if she’d just discovered a great secret of the universe.
“Now, grab here again…”
Following her instructions, Mi Xiaoliu flipped the string back onto her own hands.
So fascinating.
This old pastime had survived from older generations, but in modern times, most young people had never even heard of it. After all, entertainment evolved with the era.
This mysterious visitor claimed to be sent by a friend of hers to come in person to deliver a message. She’d tested her a bit—she didn’t even know what “MC” was. A little disappointing, but someone coming to visit at all was already plenty.
“You can call me Beibei. Are you a real-life friend of Xue’er’s?” Beibei asked.
Mi Xiaoliu said nothing.
Beibei looked a little disheartened.
So cold… kinda scary.
In her mind, Beibei pictured a white-haired girl. A lot of anime portrayed aloof characters with white hair.
“Um… what should I call you?” she asked cautiously.
“Princess.”
“…”
What a Chuunibyou! This person definitely isn’t very old…
“Then, Princess-sama, would you help me pass on a message to Xue’er?” She decided to play along with the Chuunibyou act—after all, she had once gone through that phase too. “Tell her I’m doing fine, but I probably won’t be able to play games with her anymore. And also, she wasn’t wrong. I don’t blame her.”
She unlooped the string from her fingers, signaling that the other girl could leave now.
But the Princess didn’t move at all.
She could feel her staring.
“Don’t look at me like that—it’s creepy… It’s not like I’m dying or anything. I just can’t play games with her anymore. Can’t you tell? There’s only a tiny little nightlight in my room, and it’s way over there.” She pointed toward the mushroom-shaped lamp in the corner, then scratched her head awkwardly.
“I was being dumb before and joined Tian Xing Dao. Took some drug that gave me x-ray vision for a day, and ended up ruining my eyes.”
She also got infected with Black Element.
Abilities acquired by force could cause rejection in the body, leading to all sorts of side effects. But anyone willing to take N1202 had already accepted their fate—it was mostly for people with terminal illnesses, so they didn’t care about side effects anymore.
“One time, while gaming with Xue’er, I casually mentioned I was part of Tian Xing Dao. And she turned right around and reported me. So annoying.”
Though she said that, her smile was wry and not the least bit angry.
Mi Xiaoliu remained silent, listening calmly.
She wasn’t particularly interested in the story. She was just waiting to be paid the transmission fee—the equivalent of a single gacha pull.
Xue’er had paid.
She waited a little longer, but not only did the girl not hand over the fee, she started getting confused.
Realizing no payment was coming, Mi Xiaoliu turned and leapt out the window.
“Oh, I see,” Lu Mingxue responded briefly, still focused on guiding the newbie in their game.
Newbie: What’s this orb for?
They had entered a spooky cave, blocked the entrance with wood to avoid monster attacks, and started clearing a path with bombs.
Lu Mingxue: Hit it with a hammer. Might drop loot.
Newbie: I don’t believe you.
Lu Mingxue demonstrated herself.
【Chilled to the bone… Spooked to your soul…】
Nothing really happened, and she even got a gun out of it.
The newbie, thrilled by his first gun find, quickly crafted a hammer and followed suit.
【Screams echo from all around…】
Lu Mingxue silently used a teleport potion to return home, then looked at the chat box.
【The Eater of Worlds has awakened】
Newbie: 6
Then, as always, the newbie suddenly had to go and logged off.
Lu Mingxue quit the game too. She didn’t log into MC either. She kicked off her slippers, drew her knees to her chest on the chair, and sat there for a long time, silently, lost in thought.
Turning to look at Mi Xiaoliu, she picked up on the girl’s internal monologue: she wanted her to pay up for the message delivery.
That greedy little goblin…
Lu Mingxue ignored her hopeful thoughts just to spite her.
“I’ll treat you to dinner. Same fried chicken we had at lunch,” Lu Mingxue said.
Eat more and get fat, you damn little goblin! That’ll stop you from seducing men later on.
Mi Xiaoliu, of course, had no clue what she was thinking. She just pulled out her phone and called someone labeled “Feeder” (Owner) in her contacts: “I won’t be home for dinner.”
At the restaurant, Lu Mingxue didn’t say a word. Ever since Mi Xiaoliu had relayed the message, she hadn’t really been in the mood.
For someone like her—who could never make real-life friends—the only option was online friendships. She was the pitiful kind of person who treated internet friends as if they were her real-life besties, even if they didn’t even know what each other looked like.
She’d acted out of a sense of “you did something wrong, so as your friend I have to help correct you,” and reported Beibei for confessing something illegal to her. That was her first time ever meddling in someone else’s business, even if she technically was an Inquisitor.
But it still felt like tattling. They never really knew each other at all.
If it had been a real-life friend, would she have done the same?
She wouldn’t know. She didn’t have any real-life friends.
If it weren’t for her mind-reading ability, she never would’ve had the mental strength to become an ability-user cop in the first place.
Seriously…
“Well, well. What a coincidence, Mingxue. Who would’ve thought I’d get lost and just happen to bump into you.”
The voice was as gentle as a little angel’s, but it sent a shiver down Lu Mingxue’s spine.
“Yeah… what a coincidence,” she said stiffly, turning toward the sweetly smiling Yiwen.
Yiwen: Death glare.jpg
From this angle, she should’ve seen the little goblin sitting next to her first—why greet her instead?
It felt just like telling someone “I’m going to sleep now,” and then immediately hopping into a duo queue with someone else… and getting caught.
She was a cop. Yiwen probably wouldn’t actually hurt her… right?
Why did it feel like three girls sitting together had suddenly turned into a battlefield?
Wait a second… Neither of these two knows the other is also a girl, right? This could get messy.
“When did you two get so close?” Yiwen asked naturally, sitting right beside Mi Xiaoliu and even twisting open her bottle cap for her.
She didn’t seem angry.
Lu Mingxue let out a breath of relief. She really didn’t want to get pulled into some drama.
Thinking about it, there was no way these two would end up together. The little goblin had the brain of a jello mold, and Yiwen was the picky type—a total face snob. She’d never fall for a cross-dresser who looked nothing like a boy.
“It’s so strange. Yesterday you promised you weren’t trying to exclude me on purpose, Mingxue. But now here you are, sneaking off to dine alone with my friend while I’m not around? Would it have killed you to invite me yesterday, when I was right there? I even said I wanted to join in.”
Yiwen tapped her cheek, looking up at the ceiling in faux confusion.
“No wonder I couldn’t find him at home today. Turns out I’m just that unwanted.”
After all these years, she finally made another new friend—only to be treated like this.
“It was just a coincidence,” Lu Mingxue’s mouth twitched.
“Oh oh, so Mi Xiaoliu happened to come all the way to a restaurant three kilometers away just by chance, and happened to bump into you, huh? Fate in this world really is magical, isn’t it?”
Yiwen pressed her palms together sweetly—but noticed Mi Xiaoliu was unmoved, just quietly gnawing on her fried chicken.
“Please don’t use that sarcastic tone of voice,” Lu Mingxue muttered, goosebumps rising again.
It wasn’t that Yiwen was being paranoid—any idiot could tell Lu Mingxue had deliberately avoided her and brought Mi Xiaoliu along in secret.
Had she done something to make herself so hated?
