Amidst a murky puddle formed by the mixing of clear water and dust, Li Xuan and Kiana stood as if bewitched. In front of them was a glass bottle. At the bottom of the bottle lay several rings, but that wasn't the main point... The main point was the palm-sized girl perched on the mouth of the bottle, rubbing her little head!
"Ugh... what just happened? After being bitten by that weird thing, I feel so strange..." the girl in the bottle said, opening her ocean-blue eyes.
"...No, you've gone completely Spartan, transforming into the legendary fantasy monster 'Tentacle Monster' and nearly wiping us out."
"Eh~ So water really can talk! How cute, is it a water spirit?" Kiana crouched down and looked at the adorable girl in front of her. She was like a completely different person from her panicked self just moments ago.
'I have lost all hope in this world that judges by appearance...', thought Li Xuan, who had a handsome face himself.
"Melk! Are you okay?" Suddenly, a voice came from behind them.
It was the boy who had been thrown into a pile of dirt by Melk's tentacle monster form and had passed out. Incredibly, he was now as lively as ever, apart from his eyes being a little red...
"I'm fine~ Just a little dizzy..." Melk said, rubbing her azure hair and sticking out her tongue.
"Water can actually talk! Ah, so cute..." A certain white-haired furball had already become a fan.
"Honestly! Why did we suddenly end up in such a creepy place just by touching that ring?" the girl in the bottle, Melk, said, puffing up her cheeks in confusion.
"This isn't some creepy place~ This is Nagazora City," Mei explained.
"Nagazora City?! Where's that? Yuu! Is this place on the map?" the girl in the bottle, Melk, turned her head and asked the boy. Even the knowledgeable Lord Melk didn't know this place.
"No, this place isn't on the map of the Mefertahane Continent..." the boy named Yuu said.
"Mefertahane Continent?!" Kiana was stunned. Even a slacker like her, whose literature grades were abysmal, knew that there was no such thing as a Mefertahane Continent on Earth...
"Uh... this place is a continent called Earth..." Mei explained.
The girl in the bottle, Melk, and the boy, Yuu, exchanged a look. "...Eeeeh!!" At this point, even a pig would know they had transmigrated!
"So that means they're from another world!" Li Xuan said excitedly. Besides me, someone else has transmigrated to this place! This fact brought Li Xuan a sense of relief, and at the same time, he saw a glimmer of hope of returning home. Before, he was like rootless duckweed, but now he had finally found hope of reaching the shore. After all, family ties are inseparable. He still had his sister and parents.
"...Yeah." Kiana, Mei, and Bronya were a little confused as to why Li Xuan seemed overly excited.
"Mmm... this should be a ring that can travel through time and space. I've heard legends like this before," the boy, Yuu, said, looking at the silver ring in Melk's bottle.
"So we can go back just by touching it again?" Melk cheered up. She preferred the forests, oceans, grasslands, and towns of her own world to this place. This place called Nagazora City always gave her an uncomfortable, deathly still feeling.
"Mhm, it should be like that," the boy, Yuu, nodded.
"What a magical ring..." Mei sighed, looking at the ring floating up and down in the clear water. She also wanted a ring that could go back to the past, so that...
"Thank you all very much, we'll be taking our leave now," the boy, Yuu, said sincerely. He took a piece of fire-rat fur from his clothes and stuffed it into Li Xuan's arms. "Uh, take this fire-rat fur as a thank you."
"Yuu! You have to buy me that ring when we get back!" Melk reminded the boy, Yuu.
"I know!" the boy, Yuu, said with a hint of helplessness. This time, he didn't buy it for her and they transmigrated. Who knows what will happen if he doesn't buy it next time?!
The silver ring in the boy Yuu's hand glowed faintly, and the next moment, it erupted in a dazzling silver light.
"Biu~" The light faded, and where the boy Yuu had been standing... was now empty.
"What... what is this?!" Li Xuan looked at the fiery red fur with streaks of gold in his hand, confused.
"...Felt like we were watching a sci-fi movie just now," Mei was still a bit shocked.
"Well~ It's probably just a space-time distortion caused by a Honkai source, no big deal. We should get going too," Kiana said, unfazed. She didn't even show any interest in the thing in Li Xuan's hand. Fur... can you eat it?!
"Haven't we seen plenty of transmigration incidents caused by Honkai energy? Like, that vampire named 'Lilo Ai' and her partner Yaren; and not long ago, 22 and 33 who invited us to hang out..." Kiana said with a yawn.
"...Food, food!" Kiana quickly rushed into the abandoned convenience store to look for food.
"..." Li Xuan stood frozen on the spot, his expression twisted. 'Lilo Ai'... the female protagonist from the manga 'Bloodline' I've read. 22 and 33... characters from a certain domestic anime website... this world is really something else... Li Xuan thought, rolling his eyes.
Heavens, you're messing with me! Aaaah!! Li Xuan's worldview suffered a heavy blow. He was dead...