Moonlight slipped through the gap in the curtains, laying a thin, silvery line across the floorboards.
Su Yu lay on the floor mattress beside the bed, his gaze fixed on Kiana's quiet sleeping face.
Her breathing was even. Her lashes trembled now and then.
But he couldn't fall asleep.
The rooftop scene kept replaying in his mind—the molten-lava gold of those pupils, the Herrscher of the Void's lofty, mocking tone.
Su Yu clenched his fist.
He had won.
With words, mind games, and a little luck, he'd forced that arrogant "queen" back into the abyss.
But no one knew better than him—
It was just a fluke.
What about next time?
Kiana turned over in her sleep, the blanket sliding off her shoulder a little.
His wrist was still wrapped in bandages. The bruise on his knee sent a dull ache through him with every small shift.
This was the limit of an ordinary man.
If she did something stupid again, he wouldn't even be able to catch up—let alone stop her.
At that moment, the air in front of him warped slightly, and a translucent panel appeared without a sound.
[Congratulations, Host, for completing the achievement—Defeat a "God" with a mortal body!]
Su Yu's eyebrow twitched.
[Settlement complete! Congratulations on creating a miracle! Please choose one of the following rewards:]
[A. Cash Reward: 5,000,000 RMB, deposited instantly. Can be used to improve quality of life, purchase equipment, or invest in game development!]
[B. Physical Enhancement Serum ×3: After injection, greatly increases physical performance. Final results can reach Valkyrie-level. Requires a 72-hour cooldown between injections. The injection process will cause… um… mild discomfort.]
The words flashed with a blinding golden frame, like a pay-to-win web game popup.
Su Yu stared at the phrase "mild discomfort," the corner of his mouth twitching.
"Speak human," he muttered, voice so low it barely stirred the room.
[…Fine. In human terms: each injection causes severe pain as your cells tear apart and rebuild throughout your body. Duration: approximately fifteen minutes. Pain level: roughly equivalent to being burned alive three times.]
[The tolerance threshold of an average human nervous system is ten minutes. Exceeding that carries a chance of permanent nerve damage, shock, or death.]
[Of course, if you choose A, you don't have to worry about any of that! Five million! That's a lot! You could buy sooo many bottles of iced black tea!]
Su Yu's gaze drifted to the bed.
Moonlight traced the outline of Kiana's profile. In sleep, she finally shed the wariness and stubbornness she wore in daylight.
He remembered the white figure falling from the rooftop.
Remembered how he'd thrown everything he had into grabbing her wrist—how his heart had nearly stopped from sheer terror.
If she jumped again next time…
If the Herrscher of the Void came roaring back, and he didn't even have the right to stand in front of her…
Su Yu let out a soft laugh.
"My choice?" he whispered.
He raised his eyes to the floating panel.
"You damn bastard of a system."
A slender syringe appeared in his hand as if conjured from nothing. The liquid inside was an unnatural silver-red, faintly luminous.
Su Yu picked it up.
No hesitation.
He drove the needle into the inside of his forearm.
The instant the silver-red fluid entered his bloodstream, his pupils constricted.
Pain detonated at the injection site and raced through his veins, as if countless red-hot wires were slithering beneath his skin.
Muscle fibers tore.
Bones rebuilt.
Nerve endings screamed.
Cold sweat exploded across his forehead.
He bit down hard on his sleeve, refusing to let a sound escape.
His whole body curled in on itself, trembling violently.
Burned alive three times.
The system hadn't lied.
Kiana's breathing had already changed.
She had woken the moment he stared at that panel.
A Kaslana's instincts didn't miss things—no matter how small the shift.
But she didn't open her eyes.
She didn't know what was happening.
She could only feel—
Su Yu was going through something horrifying.
The broken, stifled groans he tried to swallow.
The grinding sound of teeth biting down as if he meant to crush them.
The soft rustling as his shaking body rubbed against the bedding.
Every sound pierced her ears like a needle.
Kiana's fingers clenched the blanket until her knuckles went white.
She wanted to turn over.
To ask what was wrong. To see what he was enduring.
But she didn't dare move.
Because that idiot was trying so hard to keep quiet.
That idiot didn't want her to know.
That idiot didn't want her to worry.
If she opened her eyes now—if she showed even the smallest sign she'd noticed—
He would force himself harder. He would paste on that infuriating "I'm fine" grin and say something stupid like, "Nothing, just a nightmare," like he always did.
So she could only pretend to sleep.
She could only bite her lip until she tasted iron.
Only clutch the blanket in the dark until her nails nearly cut into her palms.
Idiot, Su Yu.
Big idiot.
She didn't know how long it lasted.
Ten minutes. A century.
The trembling gradually eased.
The breathing slowly steadied.
Then she heard him draw a shallow, careful breath—as if he'd just surfaced from underwater.
The blanket was tucked around her again.
A bandaged hand, gentle as if handling something fragile.
Kiana kept her eyes shut, feeling that hand pause briefly at her shoulder.
Then Su Yu shifted and lay back down on the floor mattress.
Moonlight still spilled through the curtain gap.
The room returned to a dead, crushing silence.
Kiana lay in the dark, her eyes burning.
She didn't know what he'd done.
But she knew it had to be for her.
How many more stupid things was this idiot going to do because of her?
—Another reason to live in this world had just been added.
She thought it silently.
—That reason was to protect this idiot.
To keep him from getting hurt again because of her.
To keep him from facing terrifying things alone.
Even if the Herrscher of the Void returned.
Even if the whole world turned against her.
As long as this idiot stayed by her side…
She would have a reason to keep living.
In the darkness, Kiana's lips curled slightly.
A tear slid from the corner of her eye.
The pillow drank it up, and it vanished into the night.
Morning light squeezed through the curtains, painting golden bars across the floor.
The moment Su Yu sat up on the floor mattress, he froze.
—It didn't hurt?
He rolled his wrist experimentally. The joint that had throbbed yesterday moved freely, like it had never been injured.
His knee too—gone was the deep, drilling bruise-pain. Clean.
His body had recovered.
He looked down at his forearm. Under the skin, it felt as if something was flowing—something different.
A strange sensation, like his veins now carried a more vigorous, livelier kind of blood.
So the enhancer didn't just boost him—it had "refreshed" his old injuries along with everything else.
In his mind, Su Yu grudgingly gave the damn system a point.
But then the next problem hit him.
If he looked lively and fine now… how was he going to explain last night?
His eyes snapped to the bed.
Kiana was already awake, leaning against the headboard in a daze, those mismatched eyes staring at nothing in particular.
Su Yu cleared his throat.
"Kiana."
Her shoulder twitched slightly, as if startled awake, and she turned to him.
"Ah… you're up." Her voice was dry, like she hadn't slept at all.
Su Yu didn't think too much of it.
After everything yesterday—the rooftop, almost dying—anyone would need days to recover.
He deliberately furrowed his brow, putting on a weak voice.
"My leg… feels kind of limp. Can you help me to the bathroom?"
Kiana's gaze stayed on him for two seconds.
It was… strange.
There was something in it she didn't usually show.
Like she already knew the answer but he was still playing dumb—like she was holding something back.
But quickly, she looked away.
"…Okay."
Kiana threw off the blanket, got out of bed, walked to the floor mattress, and bent down to offer him a hand.
Su Yu naturally leaned on her shoulder and stood.
Her body temperature was a little colder than he expected—but steady.
They moved slowly toward the bathroom.
Su Yu kept up his limp, stealing glances at her profile.
She didn't look at him.
Her eyes stayed forward, lips pressed into a thin line.
A small confusion prickled in Su Yu's chest.
What's with her today?
They reached the bathroom door.
Su Yu held the frame and smiled back at her.
"Alright. I can handle the rest. Go eat something."
Kiana nodded, silent.
The bathroom door closed between them.
"I'll… heat some milk," Kiana's voice came from outside, carefully calm.
Then footsteps receded.
Su Yu turned on the faucet. The water ran with a steady rush, and he mulled over Kiana's weird mood.
—She probably just hasn't recovered from yesterday.
That's what he told himself.
In the living room—
Kiana stood still, staring at the closed bathroom door.
The countdown for her "absolute free time" flickered in her vision.
She didn't go to the kitchen.
Instead, she turned and walked to the floor bedding where Su Yu had slept.
The quilt was still tossed aside, the mat still held the obvious dent of a human body.
Kiana crouched.
Her fingers touched the surface of the mattress.
—Wet.
Cold, damp to the touch.
She froze.
Then she leaned closer.
The smell hit her.
Sweat.
A lot of sweat.
And beneath it—faint, unmistakable—blood.
Kiana's pupils shrank.
Her hands began to shake.
The traces soaked into the bedding were clearer than any words.
They told her exactly what had happened here last night.
Kiana clapped a hand over her mouth.
A broken sound tried to escape—she swallowed it hard.
Tears surged up, spilling through her fingers, dropping onto the sweat-soaked fabric.
She couldn't imagine it.
Couldn't imagine what kind of pain made a person sweat like this in silence.
Couldn't imagine how that guy—who always joked, always acted carefree—had endured all of it alone in the dark.
Kiana crouched there, shoulders shaking without a sound.
That idiot.
That absolute idiot.
She repeated it over and over in her head.
And still couldn't say it aloud.
In the bathroom, water still ran.
Su Yu looked at himself in the mirror—his face a bit tired, but overall fine—and nodded in satisfaction.
"Good acting," he whispered. "If I keep this up for two more days, it should pass."
He had no idea that outside, the white-haired girl was crouched at his bedding, crying like a fool.
Morning sunlight fell across the damp mattress.
Kiana stayed there, tears still clinging to her face—yet her eyes gradually steadied, pulling themselves out of shock.
Her thoughts began to rewind.
From that rainy-night stairwell until now… what had really been happening all these days?
The system.
The contract.
The anchor.
The one-meter restriction.
The "absolute free time."
All those absurd rules…
Su Yu was the one carrying them.
He was the one finding ways to let her stand in this world.
He was the one planning the game, finding artists, managing streams.
He was the one who had gambled his life on the rooftop to drag her back from the fall.
And her?
What had she done?
Eat his food.
Live in his home.
Spend his money on clothes.
Use his daily thirty minutes—reset like clockwork—to shower and use the bathroom.
Like a…
Parasite.
Kiana's nails dug into her palm.
No.
Not just parasitic.
She had almost thrown herself off the rooftop.
Almost wasted everything he'd done.
And worse—
She'd never seriously asked herself:
How could Su Yu do any of this?
He was just an ordinary person.
No Honkai energy. No stigmata. No armor. No superhuman power.
And yet he had faced the Herrscher of the Void head-on—forced her back with words and mind games.
And then, in the dark, he'd paid some terrifying price alone… just to become stronger.
An ordinary man had done what she—an actual Valkyrie—had failed to do.
Kiana slowly stood.
Her legs were a little weak, but her back was straight.
Su Yu's heart was stronger than hers.
That realization hit like a bucket of ice, extinguishing the last of her self-pity.
All this time, she'd drowned in her own pain.
Himeko-sensei's sacrifice. Being separated from Mei and Bronya. The torment of the Herrscher of the Void. Endless pursuit, endless running—
She told herself she'd suffered too much, that she had no energy left to think about anything else.
But it was just an excuse.
An excuse that let her be a parasite without guilt.
Kiana drew a slow breath, then scrubbed the remaining tears off her face with her sleeve.
She had to change.
She lifted her gaze toward the bathroom.
That idiot was still in there, pretending his leg was weak, thinking she knew nothing.
Stupid.
But it was exactly that clumsy gentleness that made her certain—
She had to become someone who could stand beside him.
No.
Someone who could protect him.
The bathroom door creaked open.
Su Yu came out leaning on the frame, that same weak expression still on his face.
Perfect acting. Limping like an adventurer with an arrow in the knee.
Then he saw Kiana standing in the middle of the living room and paused.
Her eyes were a little red, but her expression was unnervingly calm.
It wasn't the despair from the rooftop.
It was the calm of someone who'd found her footing again after losing it.
"You spacing out?" Su Yu joked. "Standing there like a streetlamp."
Kiana didn't snap back.
She simply turned to face him.
Something in those mismatched eyes had changed.
"Let's keep working," she said.
Su Yu stopped mid-step.
"…What?"
"The game," Kiana said. "Honkai Impact 3rd. You need my memories, right? I can tell you more."
Su Yu stared at her for a few seconds.
Since he'd picked her up, she'd always cooperated—but it had felt like helpless compliance.
This kind of initiative?
It was the first time.
And now—
"What's going on?" Su Yu's voice sobered. "Did something happen?"
Kiana shook her head.
Her lips lifted slightly—an unwavering certainty Su Yu had never seen on her face.
"You said it yourself, didn't you?"
Her voice wasn't loud, but each word was clear.
"This is my way of fighting in this world."
Su Yu froze.
He'd said that back when he'd convinced her to sign the contract.
At the time, it had just been a way to hand her a reason to live.
But now—hearing it from her own mouth—
It weighed completely differently.
Kiana lifted her chin, eyes bright.
"Valkyrie Kiana," she declared, "starting today—"
She took a deep breath.
"—returns to the battlefield."
Morning light poured through the curtain gap and caught in her white hair, gilding it with a soft golden halo.
Su Yu looked at her.
He had no idea what she'd gone through in those few minutes while he washed his face.
But he could feel it.
The child who had fallen in despair from the rooftop.
The child who curled under a blanket to flee nightmares.
The child who bit her lip rather than admit she was scared.
She had stood up.
Su Yu was quiet for a moment.
Then he smiled.
It wasn't his usual cocky grin.
It was gentle. Real.
"Alright."
He nodded.
"But—"
Su Yu shifted his chin toward the kitchen.
"People are made of iron, and food is steel. Skip a meal and you'll feel it. Eat breakfast first, then we start."
He deliberately emphasized "breakfast," like he was announcing a major decision.
"The milk we bought yesterday is still in the fridge. Didn't you say you were going to heat it? You've been standing here spacing out forever—where's the milk?"
Kiana's face stiffened.
She'd completely forgotten about that.
"You what, you what," Su Yu sighed, limping toward the kitchen. "Fine, I'll do it. Your housekeeping skills are worse than a bug. Last time you nearly scorched the milk and didn't even turn the heat off."
"That was an accident!"
"Accident? You can't even set the microwave timer properly. What 'accident'?"
"That button is too small!"
Their bickering drifted away in the soft morning light.
Soon the kitchen filled with the low hum of the microwave, and the rustle of Su Yu digging out bread.
Kiana stayed where she was, watching his back—
limping and swaggering at the same time, still insisting on doing everything himself.
Her lips curved without her noticing.
That idiot was using this to dissolve the heaviness in the air.
She'd seen through it from the start.
But she didn't expose him.
Because that clumsy gentleness—
was exactly what she wanted to protect.
....
My Patreon : patreon/RuneA
If you want to read the novel in advance, you can subscribe for early access. I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in
I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length. If you're following a particular series, please wait your turn a little
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it