Xing Yue loved her long hair; she thought having black hair that reached her waist was beautiful.
But for some reason, at this moment, she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror shard and saw that her hair had become short.
"Xing Ye, can I borrow your mirror shard for a second?" Xing Yue spoke, only to realize her voice was trembling uncontrollably.
Xing Ye was currently holding a shard, preparing to take out some alcohol and gauze. He paused for a moment upon hearing her request.
That brief two-second hesitation was enough for Leng Xianye, who was standing in front of them, to snap irritably, "Are you just going to stand there and wait to die?"
Xing Ye jolted, muttered a vague "No," and took a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to pull Xing Yue’s hand toward him. "Don't look at anything else for now. Let me clean the area around your wound."
Only then did Xing Yue notice that her right hand was covered in injuries.
Information began to surface in her mind bit by bit. She remembered that her squad was executing a classified mission ordered by Headquarters. An abandoned human base had been left with plant-based experimental mutations that hadn't been removed, and they had taken root, polluting nearly fifty square kilometers of land.
The team had split into two groups. Lian Muyun and Tang Qiuqiu were creating a distraction outside to interfere with the mutations, while Leng Xianye, Xing Yue, and Xing Ye headed into the laboratory to find the source of the growth and attempt to eradicate it.
This thing hadn't grown so large for nothing; it was far more flexible and dangerous than the Sparrow Vine they had encountered during their first collaboration. Xing Yue had been injured by it just as they approached the lab.
So... they had already won the championship and gone to work at Headquarters?
Why didn't she remember that?
They were currently resting in a janitor's breakroom on the same floor as the lab. Xing Ye and Xing Yue were sitting on plastic chairs against the wall, while Leng Xianye stood before a floor plan posted nearby, deep in thought.
Watching Xing Ye focus intently on cleaning her wound, Xing Yue felt an unexpected sense of dissonance.
Xing Ye was indeed someone who took good care of his teammates, but was he always this... weak?
No, it wasn't just Xing Ye. Leng Xianye’s demeanor also felt strangely foreign to her.
"Xing Yue," Leng Xianye suddenly turned around. "Why did you ask Xing Ye for a mirror shard just now?"
Xing Yue was slightly displeased by Leng Xianye’s interrogative tone, but she answered truthfully nonetheless. "I wanted to look at my hair."
"Your hair?"
"Yeah. Don't I have long hair? I don't know why it suddenly became short."
The look Leng Xianye gave her turned strange. Xing Yue frowned. "If you have something to say, just say it. What’s with the silence?"
At that moment, Xing Ye looked up. "Xing Yue..."
"Your hair... didn't you cut it off yourself during the last mission?"
As if struck by a sudden shock, Xing Yue abruptly yanked her hand back and stood up from the chair. The blood began to seep out again around the wound Xing Ye had just cleaned.
"Impossible! How could I possibly cut my own hair..."
The moment she stood, she lost her balance and fell backward.
Xing Ye reached out in a panic to catch her, but he was too far away. With a dull thud, the back of her head hit the floor. The last thing she saw was the ceiling, its paint peeling away in large patches.
...
When she opened her eyes again, Xing Yue didn't see a ceiling. Instead, she saw a blue sky and a brilliant sun.
Was that a dream? Xing Yue tried to think about it, but before long, drowsiness washed over her again.
This time, the sleepiness didn't come from the butterflies, but from the fine threads wrapped around her hands and body.
The threads hooked onto her fingertips, transmitting messages into her mind.
"Sleep, Xing Yue. I have everything under control."
Xing Yue lay upon a giant web that the Ever-severing Silk had woven autonomously above the water's surface, and she drifted off to sleep once more.
Throughout the entire Flooded City, over almost every building and every stretch of water, the Ever-severing Silk was entwined. In a distant corner far from Xing Yue, a butterfly attempted to ignore the warnings from its kin and approached the threads to investigate. Before it could even land, the Ever-severing Silk lunged toward it, strangling and mincing it instantly.
In the Flooded City, the number of foolish butterflies that had died like this was already beyond counting.
*
After waking up, Xing Ye intended to gaze at the sky in a leisurely, health-conscious morning routine, only to discover that the blue barrier had vanished.
He remained silent for a long while before saying, "That’s good. It’s convenient. Otherwise, I would have had to go catch a few more butterflies."
Tang Qiuqiu, who had woken up at the same time, glanced at the butterfly she had just crushed with her cat claws—likely a scout—and stealthily tossed the carcass away, hiding her hands behind her back.
*Yeah, really convenient.*
The only plan for today was to head to the northern Flooded City to find Xing Yue. Even as a pitiful "working stiff" of the Mutation Investigation Department in a simulated environment, one could not escape the fate of long-distance trekking. On top of that, Xing Ye had an extra burden compared to the others: Xun Yin’s nonsense.
Xun Yin: 【Good morning, working stiff. What did you have for breakfast today?】
Xing Ye heard a hint of mischief in the question. "...Plain water and biscuits. You know exactly what I ate, so why are you asking?"
Xun Yin was shocked: 【How bleak! I’m having a full Imperial Feast!】
Xing Ye: "..." *He’s insane.*
His head throbbed. How could someone who claimed they wanted to be his "mother" be so childish?
In reality, it was only 6:30 AM on Xun Yin’s side. He had pulled an all-nighter and couldn't sleep. Suddenly wanting to hear his "tool's" voice, he had brought his laptop to bed, propped it up on two stacked pillows, and sat wrapped in his quilt, typing in a bit of a daze.
【Let’s talk business.】
Xing Ye thought he was worrying about the upcoming plot again and sharpened his focus slightly. "Go ahead."
【I haven't set this for you yet. What flavor of small cake do you like?】
Xing Ye: "?"
*This is your so-called "business"?*
"Anything sweet is fine, just don't put poison in it. I don't need candles, but there must be decorative biscuits on top. Why are you asking this?"
Upon receiving this answer, Xun Yin felt a significant shock. He then had Xing Ye ask Lian Muyun the same question.
Lian Muyun couldn't give an answer at all. He hesitated for a long time, nearly sitting down on the spot to ponder this profound question. Fortunately, he had a very career-minded friend in Leng Xianye, who grabbed him by the ear and dragged him along to keep moving.
Xing Ye sensed something was wrong with Xun Yin’s state and offered a rare moment of concern for the trash-tier author: "What is actually wrong with you today?"
【Nothing. You may withdraw.】
In a place Xing Ye couldn't see, Xun Yin suffered in silence.
Lian Muyun’s reaction was how a character *should* look when asked a question that hadn't been written into their setting. Xing Ye, however, didn't seem to need extra settings from him; he had his own answers for many things. And that answer...
Xun Yin made up his mind and sent a message to his editor.
Since Xun Yin was unwilling to talk further, Xing Ye didn't meddle in other people's business. He quickly refocused on his itinerary. The barrier had vanished completely; the four of them encountered no resistance as they left the central area. Of course, the disappearance of the barrier didn't just bring convenience to them; it also brought a "pleasant surprise" to those whose minds hadn't quite caught up and who had been trapped outside the central zone.
At the boundary between regions, they encountered a squad coming from the Flooded City.
This team had lost two members. They had fallen into despair due to the early elimination of their teammates and their inability to find a way into the barrier. Upon discovering the barrier was gone and bumping into Xing Ye’s group of four, they thought their luck had finally turned.
To think people actually believed that blue moth’s broadcast, thinking the "official" criteria for winning was now whoever eliminated Xing Ye’s team first.
Xing Ye felt a twinge of sympathy for their intelligence. Even if the moth’s words were true, if a team’s strength was high enough to be announced via broadcast, how could a three-person team in such terrible condition possibly take them down?
Thus, a minute later, Xing Ye used rope to tie up the three "crabs" his teammates had flattened. He asked amiably, "Looking at your direction, you should be from the Flooded City. Have you seen Xing Yue?"
"She’s the girl ranked third on the leaderboard. Her ability is Ever-severing Silk."
As it turned out, being tied up helped the struggling "crabs" calm down. They didn't react much to the first half of Xing Ye’s description, but once the words "Ever-severing Silk" reached their ears, their expressions turned visibly terrified.
"E-Ever-severing Silk? You’re that girl’s teammates?"
Under the pressure of Leng Xianye’s cold gaze, one of them finally couldn't hold it in and spoke. "We’ve seen her. Of course we’ve seen her... Her ability’s threads have almost covered the entire North. That’s exactly why we fled to the boundary."
"Covered the entire North?" Tang Qiuqiu was anxious to hear her teammate was in trouble. "Why would that happen? Is it because of those butterfly mutations? Is she okay right now?"
Tang Qiuqiu’s face practically screamed "easy target," and the man’s tone turned unpleasant again. "How should I know? When an ability expands like that, it attacks automatically if anyone gets close. If you want to know, go see for yourself."
Xing Ye patted Tang Qiuqiu’s shoulder. "Let’s go, Qiuqiu. Time is tight. Kitties shouldn't play with crabs."
The three captives: "?"
The squad of four left immediately. Xing Ye had no intention of untying those people; leaving them there meant they would be eliminated by mutations or other passing espers soon enough.
He was currently thinking about Xing Yue.
Based on the description from those three, Xing Yue had fallen into a state where her ability was out of control. Xing Ye had seen Xing Yue lose control before; that accident had delayed their mission completion by three full days. After that mission ended, Xing Yue had cut off her long hair.
Regarding the cause of the loss of control, the Headquarters researcher, Yi Ting, had provided an explanation.
"Xing Yue’s initial ability rank was too high, and its growth rate is very fast. Her own physical and mental constitution can't keep up with the level required to fully master the ability. Fortunately, the direction of her loss of control isn't harmful to herself; instead, it develops toward overprotecting the user."
Later, Xing Yue cut her hair, went on more missions, and gained complete control over her ability. No one ever asked about it again, treating it as a minor hiccup in her growth process.
Now, Xing Ye finally sensed the potential problem within that.
Everyone knew that the birth of an ability was closely linked to the esper—perhaps a hobby, perhaps personal experience—but it always contained something unique to the individual.
A loss of control over an ability was very likely a loss of control of the person themselves.
But back then, the researcher had only given a reassuring explanation, not breathing a word about other factors.
Xing Ye’s heart sank bit by bit. Sensing his foul mood, Xun Yin appeared of his own accord to comfort him: 【It’s okay. This time, can’t you take the initiative to help her?】
*I’m going to save her right now,* Xing Ye replied softly in his mind. *All of us together.*
Xun Yin felt a sudden urge to pat Xing Ye’s head: 【Good. Together.】
That noon, the group chose not to stop for a rest. Instead, they pushed through in one go to the edge of the Flooded City.
Unlike other terrains that bordered the central area directly, the Flooded City—due to the issue of deep waters—had been designed by Xun Yin with a wide, flat perimeter. The actual city was enclosed by a high wall.
Any esper wanting to enter or exit the Flooded City faced a single problem: how to climb the wall.
The surface of the high wall was pitted and uneven. While it posed some difficulty for a human, it was much easier for a cat—especially a professionally trained one.
Xing Ye had "Qiuqiu-meow" take a mirror shard in her mouth and climb the high wall. Then, the Mirror Image emerged from the shard, took out a rope, and together with Qiuqiu (who had shifted back to human form), pulled the remaining three up.
Only when he was actually standing atop the city wall did Xing Ye understand why those three had looked so terrified at the mention of Xing Yue.
Almost... no, in every single gap between the ruined buildings, one could see glints of light.
It was the reflection of the sun hitting the Ever-severing Silk.
***
