Leaving the mystical space, Lin Siyin suddenly sat up, her eyes filled with confusion as she looked around.
At this moment, the room was pitch-dark.
Only the occasional sound of dripping water coming from the bathroom could be heard, and the silent room gradually calmed Lin Siyin down.
Recalling what Spett had said, Lin Siyin felt a sense of loss.
It wasn’t because of the life-and-death contract; on the contrary, Lin Siyin actually felt happy to have it—it meant that her cat’s lifespan was extended, after all.
What gave Lin Siyin much to think about was the negative emotions she had perceived earlier.
To be a Guardian God was to endure how much grievance and hardship, just as Spett had said, whether it be the years or love.
Her hand fumbled across the bed until, finally, at the edge, she touched Lu Zixun,
Feeling the rise and fall of Lu Zixun’s body due to his breathing, peace filled Lin Siyin’s heart.
She didn’t want Lu Zixun to become some Guardian God, nor did she wish it upon him—it would be nice just for him to be her little cat alone.
This thought was undoubtedly selfish, but the saying "the capable should do more work" has never been a compliment.
Determined, Lin Siyin kissed Lu Zixun’s forehead, stood up to get a glass of water, and her nose twitched slightly, catching a whiff of the smell of blood.
She looked up at the ventilation duct, and without a second thought, an Attack Talisman flew from her hand.
After the talisman entered through the gap in the ventilation duct, it flashed a fierce white light followed by a scream from the duct.
The scream woke up Gui Xiaomeng and Su Nian, who suddenly sat up in bed, their expressions a bit bewildered.
Abnormal Creatures truly spared no entrance.
Frowning at the ventilation duct, several Defensive Talismans circled around Lin Siyin.
Her fingers drew through the air, and mysterious patterns appeared on the talismans.
As the final stroke was drawn, the talismans flashed a dazzling white light and flew to various places in the room.
She looked around, ensuring no place was overlooked, before Lin Siyin continued to fetch a cup of water.
Su Nian, who had jumped up onto Lin Siyin’s bed and was holding onto Lu Zixun, looked at Lin Siyin nervously, "What happened?"
Lin Siyin, amused by Su Nian’s appearance, walked over to her and patted her head, "Go back to sleep, it’s still early."
Pouting and shaking her head, Su Nian decided to lie down on Lin Siyin’s bed, "I want to sleep with you and Da Ju; it feels safer that way."
Shaking her head, Lin Siyin looked over at Gui Xiaomeng, and the two of them exchanged a smile before continuing to sleep.
The sky outside the window remained gloomy.
When Lu Zixun opened his eyes, he found himself sleeping between Lin Siyin and Su Nian, nearly overheating to death.
Crawling out from the covers, Lu Zixun shook his fur and his eyes, full of confusion, landed on Lin Siyin.
He felt an indescribable connection between himself and Lin Siyin.
Perhaps due to Lu Zixun’s large movements, Lin Siyin’s eyelashes fluttered twice as she slowly opened her groggy eyes.
Seeing Lu Zixun tilting his head and looking at her, Lin Siyin suddenly sat up, her eyes brimming with surprise.
"Ding—Surprise value from Lin Siyin detected: +5000."
Hearing the System Prompt Sound, Lu Zixun was completely bewildered.
How long had he been asleep?
How was it Lin Siyin was even close to making a breakthrough to Half-step S-level now?
"You’re finally awake, do you feel unwell anywhere?"
Compared to Lu Zixun’s confusion, Lin Siyin wasn’t so bothered and asked anxiously about his current physical condition.
Lu Zixun assessed his body carefully and responded, "I feel much better, no overwhelming Sleepiness Value hitting me, but my strength is still slowly recovering."
Right now, the strength Lu Zixun could muster should be that of a C-level, sufficient to handle ordinary Abnormal Creatures.
Lin Siyin nodded slightly and suddenly remembered something important, hurriedly speaking, "We’ve already entered the Mountain Villa, and there was a heavy rain earlier, probably the work of Thunder Insects..."
Listening to Lin Siyin recount what happened during his period of sleep, Lu Zixun’s tail flicked twice, a sense of urgency stirring within.
There weren’t many around with A-level strength, just a few.
But Lu Zixun figured that they probably didn’t have experience fighting Abnormal Creatures, so their level of strength needed to be adjusted down a notch.
However, the situation at the Mountain Villa was quite different. Although Lu Zixun had just woken up, he inexplicably felt a sense of crisis.
With this feeling’s emergence, Lu Zixun became increasingly uncomfortable.
He had the sense that Ma Jiang was planning something big; even using Thunder Insects indicated that Tan Ye must have placed great importance on this matter.
What exactly was this matter? Just as Lu Zixun bowed his head in thought, a knock came from the outside of the door.
"Gui principal, have you awakened? The outdoor camping activity starts at twelve, and Ma principal asked me to notify you."
Hearing this, Lu Zixun looked up and exchanged a glance with Lin Siyin. Gui Xiaomeng, yawning lazily, said, "Understood, are we gathering in the lobby later?"
The person outside responded and continued, "The weather at noon shouldn’t be terrible, so we’ll take advantage of this time to go out and complete the school’s assigned task."
The assigned task, Lu Zixun squinted—was the school really assigning such a nutritionless task as outdoor camping to the students?
After notifying Gui Xiaomeng, footsteps indicated the person was leaving to inform the next one.
"Later, we could go downstairs and look for that coach driver, ask if we can go down the mountain."
Lin Siyin continued as she tied her hair into a ponytail, "The only route down the mountain by foot that seems to be known is by that coach driver."
"Why not use a mobile phone?"
At that moment, Lu Zixun asked a question that had been troubling him for a while.
As long as they could inform Xiong Kang, even if Ma Jiang wanted to do something, STO members reaching the Mountain Villa would stall his plans.
"Not that we don’t want to use it, but that we can’t."
Lin Siyin said helplessly, tossing her phone to Lu Zixun, "Since we got up the mountain, there’s been no signal on the phone, and even your identity card has no signal."
Lu Zixun used his paw to unlock the phone and stared at the no-signal icon in the top right corner of the screen.
If it were just the phone with no signal, many methods could achieve that.
But no signal on the STO-provided identity card, that was a bit more serious.
The methods Ma Jiang employed this time were definitely not limited to just Thunder Insects; there must be other Abnormal Creatures, and they needed to be found and dealt with.
Determined, Lu Zixun looked around the room, formulating a plan in his mind, but he needed to find someone to make it work.