Some greedy and starving ones would not mind sneaking out to hunt during this time. They had not done so before only out of fear of being ganged up on. Now, if they acted cleanly enough, who would know.
For a time, everyone existed in a strange overlap of werewolf and ordinary neighbor. It could only be said that the survivors of the old days all shared certain similarities.
Everyone was making preparations in secret. Only one truly foreign wolf was still, quite literally, searching for targets in the Void.
"Damn it, we really stirred up something big."
Seeing the time jump from around noon straight into sunset, like it had been messed with by a priest, Ham's face darkened. There was no lack of dangerous things in the Abyss. Some old monsters always managed to survive, or had hidden tricks.
If they ran into those, considering Belial's combat power, Ham was not too worried. Compared to fighting Belial, killing him seemed harder.
The problem was the few that absolutely could not be provoked. They were not only strong but also walking disasters. This phenomenon most likely meant he had touched the other side of the mirror.
"It should still be fine. No, it should definitely be fine. We are already in such bad shape, so the other side can't be doing well either. It's probably still sleeping." "Yes, that must be it."
Bella began analyzing newly discovered relic data. This time, Belial had been using a long strip-like thing as a whip.
"Strange. Every time we find remnants left by Belial, the scanned environmental data changes, and not in a normal way. I'm certain the physical constants themselves have shifted."
Bella started shouting again while moving her arms. Ever since Belial had pressed that red soul into her head, she felt more and more off.
Her emotions were more intense and lively than before. What was stranger was that the data change was not measured by instruments. If she had to compare it, it was like how legs ache on rainy days.
How odd. So this was what it felt like to have a soul.
"By the way, this is already the third wonder we've detected. This one is pretty abstract too. If the thing in Belial's hand isn't a whip, then it should be the body of this Crimson God the Lord."
"Why is it that every time we arrive at the scene, all that's left is a pile of Crystal scraps? Isn't that killing a bit too fast?"
Bella turned to look at Ham. Their aircraft was slower than his monster-killing and escape speed, and the more she followed along, the more she felt there was nothing to worry about.
"It doesn't really seem that serious. Are you sure that place called Abyss can still have any real danger?"
"There is. Didn't you see the sky just now? The sun went down all at once."
"So what. It's changed before."
Bella did not seem to care at all. It was just the sun being messed with. This matter was ordinary.
Ham frowned, unsure what to say next. Looking at the situation, he really could not find a reason to worry. He slaughtered everything here, and once inside, he would just keep slaughtering. What was there to worry about?
Ham admitted that he had once again underestimated Belial. He almost wanted to reveal the real truth, but what had just happened scared him, and he did not dare.
After all, this concerned the truth and existence of the world itself. Just saying it out loud brought pressure.
No, he had to push someone's progress hard.
"Sure enough, those stories about transmigrating to Otherworld with a System and then smoothly reaching the peak of life never apply to me."
Staring blankly in the room, Alba could only kill time by reading the dull religious books stored there. She had changed into a pure white long robe with gold-threaded sleeves, marked with the Golden Branch Motif associated with Dawn. This meant that Alba had already made it into the top thousand of the Saintess Selection, and with more effort she could reach the top sixty-four and gain a chance to become a serving nun beside a Saintess.
In other words, she was still facing at least several hundred competitors for the Saintess position marked by the System. On paper it did not sound impossible, but in practice she had to defeat countless well-backed contenders in Sarn City, all with decades of accumulation, while she herself had nothing at all. Along the way there was also the small risk of her identity being exposed, getting burned on a Burning Stake, poisoned, assassinated, or killed by any number of creative methods.
Haha. The situation was just a little unfavorable.
Even so, Alba decided to place some trust in her tiny cheat. After all, she did have a System, so it could not be that useless, right. Reality quickly proved otherwise.
Every System simulation could only show a short stretch of the future, usually no more than three days. It was not because the Simulator had a time limit, but because Alba simply could not survive past three days in the simulations. Inside the Simulator, everything felt almost identical to reality, including thirst, exhaustion, and the need to sleep.
This was not some easy text-based simulator where choices were clicked like a game. Every time, she had to personally explore the simulated world. There was no help at all, no broken perks or stage rewards, and nothing could be carried back except experience and a collection of different ways to die.
She had been beaten to death by rioting mobs right after leaving the house, hacked apart by cultists hiding in dark corners, and even run over by a passing Earth Dragon Cart because she stepped out of the city gate with her left foot first. Still, why were there so many cults in this place. At least her use of Holy Light was getting smoother, especially healing, since she often had to barely keep herself alive in the simulations.
Rather than a Simulator, this felt more like a task issuer with a simulation function. To this day, Alba had no idea why the Simulator wanted her to become a Saintess. She lay there muttering complaints, convinced that for an ordinary person like her, this was far beyond reach.
Rolling around on the bed, she stared at the System screen and finally understood her status in Otherworld. Anyone who disliked her could kick her around, even roadside dogs, and this was a world with superpowers where even trained minors could twist steel bars by hand. Letting someone who might die during a one-kilometer run compete in such an environment felt outright unreasonable.
Most of her misery in the simulations came from the simple fact that her combat ability was at the absolute bottom. Anyone at all could deal with her. When problems could be solved by one punch, and that punch was easy and direct, there was no reason for anyone to listen to arguments.
"Even splitting the rewards into Shard would be fine, just give me some way to fight back."
She had fully realized how important strength was. Even a bit of Magic would help, or failing that, summoning some overwhelmingly strong backer. She paused, puzzled by where that thought even came from.
At first it was just idle chanting of Shard, but when Alba glanced back at the System panel, she noticed a small triangular arrow under the task tied to the distant and unreachable the Lord. Had that been there before. The interface design felt oddly familiar, and with trembling fingers she tapped it.
Several new task entries popped out.
She went silent, then her eyes widened. After quickly scanning them, she confirmed that the text under the arrow was exactly what she had been longing for. Side quests.
"They really exist. What was I even doing before, running around like a headless fly."
She panicked, then laughed, then rolled on the bed again before suddenly stopping. Had these side quests just appeared, or had they always been there. Could she really have missed such a small arrow after so many simulations, or was she just that blind.
Still, the timing felt too perfect. She had just been wailing, and then it was like someone hurriedly patched in new content. Was it possible that behind this so-called Simulator and System, there really was someone watching her.
She checked the screen again and again, then sighed helplessly. "I do not know which great being you are, but if you can hear me, could you please show some mercy and let me go. I would rather go back and die suddenly than stay in this place. I do not want to keep dying."
She was on the verge of tears. No snacks, no air conditioning, no internet, and endless danger. Was transmigration really supposed to be a good thing. She would much rather stay home than cause trouble in Otherworld, let alone risk dying halfway through everything. Whatever gods were out there, you picked the wrong person. The one chosen by the truck was not her.
What followed in the room of this candidate Saintess was a near-possessed scene. She tried every form of prayer she could think of, burning incense, begging gods, even performing folk rituals. After exhausting herself, the System screen still showed no response, its dragon-head logo staring at her blankly.