"Little Li, is that you? Why are you back so soon?" A weak male voice called out from behind the hidden door, apparently having heard the commotion outside.
The girl called Little Li, standing beside Firefly, opened the hidden door. Firefly could see that the cramped space below contained only a cabinet and a bed, leaving no room for any other furniture.
Lying on the bed was a pale-faced man, his left knee wrapped in blood-soaked bandages.
Little Li said, "Big Sister, you should hide here for a while. At least this place should be safe."
The unspoken meaning of her words was clear, and Firefly paused in surprise. "So that's what you were planning all along? What exactly are you going to do?"
Then she heard an answer she never expected: "I'm going to the river to fetch some water. We haven't had anything to drink for over a day."
After a moment, as if to reassure Firefly, Little Li added, "I'm so small and thin, I can easily slip through the ruins. Those monsters won't be able to catch me."
"But... if I'm bringing another person, should I take an extra empty bottle?"
Hearing this, Firefly's first thought was, "These Sakura Nation people... they sound like zombies roaming the city, grabbing living people and biting them?!"
Seeing Little Li turn to leave, Firefly called out, "Wait!"
Then, as if by magic, several bottles of pure water materialized in her hand. She handed them to Little Li, who stared in shock and confusion, and said, "Don't bother getting water. But can you tell me exactly what happened?"
The situation was actually very simple. Firefly had already heard a brief version from Director Fujiwara, but this was a more detailed account.
According to Little Li, her family had originally consisted of four members: her mother, her older sister, and two others. They were an ordinary family, living a modest but relatively peaceful and happy life, day after day.
But three days ago, everything changed. A group of strange individuals suddenly appeared out of nowhere. At first, it didn't seem so bad. On the first day, some of the odd people asked for food, and Little Li's family even shared what they could.
However, their resources were limited. After giving away two or three portions, their supplies ran out, unknowingly planting the seeds for the tragedy that would follow.
The very next day, an unhinged Sakura Nation person stormed into Little Li's home.
"Why are you giving food to others and not me?!"
Naturally, Little Li's father stepped forward. Using his physical advantage, he drove the intruder away, but this was just the beginning. Soon, chaos erupted as hordes of Sakura Nation people swarmed into the house, their sheer numbers overwhelming the family.
In the ensuing chaos, Little Li's father could only grab his youngest daughter and hold her close, enduring countless punches for what felt like an eternity. Finally, the mob dispersed, leaving behind the scene Firefly had witnessed earlier: their home completely ransacked, Little Li's mother and sister gone without a trace, and her father with a broken left leg.
The father and daughter had been hiding in the basement ever since. Not long ago, during the hailstorm of debris, Little Li had finally persuaded her father to let her venture out for water. She argued that with everyone else seeking shelter, the streets were ironically safer than usual.
And then, she spotted Firefly walking down the street.
Little Li turned to Firefly and said, "You look about the same age as my older sister. Those strange people took her away, and if we don't do anything, they'll probably take you too, Big Sister."
Hearing Little Li's account of the same events Fujiwara had described earlier, Firefly realized how completely different the emotional impact was.
Firefly struggled to describe her current feelings. She glanced at Little Li's father, lying on the bed and sighing incessantly, then looked back at the little girl in front of her, taking small sips of water as if both desperately thirsty and afraid to drink too much.
It was hard to imagine that just three days ago, this had been a warm and happy family.
It was even harder to imagine that these two people, displaying such genuine-seeming emotions, were merely artificial NPCs.
After being pulled into this Dimensional Rift, Firefly had only exchanged a few words with the locals, asking about the Hero and Demon Lord, before leaving the city.
Now, recalling that languages in this Dimensional Rift didn't "automatically adapt," the world's vastness as a complete planet, and the Shield Hero summoned from another world, an idea began to form in her mind.
Could it be that this world wasn't just a temporary instance? Could that massive Dimensional Rift have truly pulled them into another world?
Firefly conjured a case of water and some bread (which Robin had just gone downstairs to buy) out of thin air and placed them on the nearby cabinet. "Little Li," she said, "can you tell me about history? Like... the story of the previous Hero and Demon Lord from a hundred years ago?"
In Firefly's view, the best way to verify the authenticity of a world was to discuss its history. Of course, one could argue that history itself was a fabrication—that all memories and past events had been artificially constructed, and that a person might have come into existence just a moment ago.
But if she pursued that line of thought, the conversation would grind to a halt. After all, according to that theory, any world could be fake—even Firefly's own primary world.
Therefore, as long as someone could recount a substantial amount of consistent historical details, Firefly considered the world to be fundamentally real.
However, it wasn't Little Li who told Firefly the historical tales, but her father.
He recounted the abilities of the four Heroes from a century ago, detailing their battles against the Four Heavenly Kings and their narrow victory over the Demon Lord that saved the Kingdom. He knew everything.
In this world, listening to stories might be one of the few forms of entertainment, so Little Li's father was exceptionally well-versed in the legends of the Heroes from a century past. He even claimed to have loved these tales in his youth.
He could even specify the exact date and location where a particular Hero officially confirmed his romantic relationship with the third princess. Such precise details made Firefly increasingly convinced that this world was real.