SWNOVELXO Chapter 7: Fight and flight!(1/3)
Hong Ye blinked, and the world snapped back into focus, but it was not the same world she had left. It was the ghost town, yes, but it was different. Everything was moving in slow motion, a surreal, almost comical ballet of spectral figures drifting through the decaying streets. She hadn't noticed it before, but her perception was now incredibly fast, and it was almost like she was using a speedhack, like one of those cheaters she had seen in old video games, where she was the only one that was moving at a normal speed.
She hadn't noticed that her perception was this fast now, and wasn't that interesting to remember the term, spiritual body, that she was now inhabiting. A spiritual body was much faster when unmoored from a mortal shell, too. It was like she had been given a new set of eyes, a brain hyped up on goddess-coffe, and a new way of seeing the world, and it was all incredibly strange, and yet, also incredibly cool.
A series of messages, cold and mechanical, but now somehow more familiar, appeared in her vision:
[Calculation complete. Decisions grade S. Final Actions Grade S. As this was an automated life, the other grades are disabled. Impossible grade 99 being taken into consideration....]
[Recalculating...]
Hong Ye raised an eyebrow, a small, almost imperceptible movement that was now incredibly slow in her perception. It was clear that the system was impressed, and that made her want to smile. It was almost like she was playing a game, and she had just gotten a high score.
More messages appeared, each one more surprising than the last:
[Your acquity and Intelligence have been applied to spirit at a 2.5x rate. Your Intelligence is now 7.3, your Acquity is increased to 7.5. You reaction(Mind) and Reaction(Spirit) has been unlocked due to (Skill)temporal perception being activated by focusing on details. The grade has of the reward been calculated and increased. Movement and perception is now synchronized at 25%]
She had stats now? And skills? And her stats were that high? It was like she had been given a cheat code to life, and that made her feel almost giddy. She had always been good at games, and it seemed that this was no different.
[You have gained 1200 Tokens for the Sim Shop. (Normal mission reward is 100 Tokens.)]
Tokens? For a shop? This was starting to sound like a video game, and she was not entirely sure how she felt about that. She was not a character in a game, she was a person, and she deserved to be treated like one.
[Overall Grade SSS. Your yin chi has been converted into Yin Qi and you have started to generate [Yang Chi].]
A new message, a small addition to the previous one, appeared, and she was not sure what it meant. Yin Chi? Yang Chi? What was that? It was like the system was speaking a language that she did not understand, and that made her want to learn more.
Then, the final message:
[Overall Grade SSS. Would you like to open the shop?]
She paused, her finger hovering over the [Y] button, her mind racing to make sense of it all. A shop, a place where she could spend her tokens, a place where she could get new skills and new abilities, it was all incredibly tempting.
But then, she looked around, and she saw them. The ghosts, the Jiangshi, the servant ghosts, the hungry ghosts, and everything else either ghastly or undead or even both, had all turned in her direction, their eyes fixed on her, their movements jerky and unnatural, their hunger palpable. They were drawn to her, like moths to a flame, and she knew, with a chilling certainty, that opening the shop right now would be a terrible mistake. She could feel the increased spiritual energy radiating off of her, and she knew that it was attracting them, like blood in the water.
She looked at her stats, her eyes scanning the list:
[Status: Body --, Soul 0.3, Spirit 4.49, (Mind 7.3, Acuity 7.5), Reaction(Mind) Unlocked, Reaction(Spirit) Unlocked, Reaction(soul) unlocked, Chi(Yin): 0.001, Yin Qi: 1.0, Yang Chi: 0.001]
With a decisive movement, she pressed the [N] button, her decision made. She would not be distracted by the shiny new toys, she would not be a particularly translucent snack. She would survive this mess, even if it meant she had to do it without the help of the shop. She was a walking beacon of delicious energy, and she needed to get out of here, now.
[New final statistics calculated: Body –, Soul 1.05(Reaction: 5.0) Spirit 5.3(Mind 7.3, Acuity 7.5, Reaction(x2)) Qi(Yin 1, Yang 0) Chi:(Yin 0.001, Yang 0.001) 0.002]##there's a hidden bonus here, thank me please. Sorry that I can't speak-. Oh great this is blurred too WATCH O-.
[Hidden: ##Administrative Boost"AdministrativeBoost()"FULLHIDE]
[Skills: Perceptive Speed(25%)]
The final total slammed into her face, a wall of text that appeared just as she turned and started moving rapidly, her enhanced speed kicking in but the text caused her to stumble with a jolt. Just as she moved, the swiftest looking adventurer at the table stood with a braindead and drooling expression. Instead of walking like a zombie, it moved with immense speed, its movements faster than her own, and the daggers it had been holding whistled past her face, missing her by a hair's breadth. Had the system done that on purpose?
[Skills: Perceptive Speed(25%)]
[Affirmed.]
A new message, a small notification, appeared, and she silently directed her thanks towards the system. It was reacting to her thoughts, it was giving her explanations, it was even giving her a boost to her stats. Maybe the system was a pretty nice—being? computational thing? She frowned as she tried to figure it out. It was still a mystery, it was still something that she did not understand, and that made her want to learn more.
Hey do you want a name?
[+1 Favorability with the system.]
Her heart skipped a beat as she exited the building, and the entire town, as if responding to her thoughts, drained of the vibrantly false color of life, and all of the ghosts in the area, and a few zombies and Jiangshi, turned to stare at her, their eyes burning with a hunger that made her soul feel like it was going to be ripped from her.
[Affirmation. I would like a designation.]
Wait, what? she thought, surprised by the system's sudden response. Her heart skipped a beat, a phantom sensation of her heart fluttering in her chest, a strange feeling that was both familiar and alien, even though she knew that her heart was long since stilled.
Okay, then, she thought, a small smile playing on her lips. Do you want the name Stillheart? she directed mentally, a question thrown out into the void.
[Affirmation. I accept the designation Stillheart.]
[+10 Favorability with the system.]
Another notification, appeared in the corner of her vision, and she almost smiled. It seemed that the system, or rather, Stillheart, had a name now, and that made her feel almost relieved. She had been treating it like a machine, but perhaps it was something more, something that she could understand, something that she could work with. It was, at the very least, something that was listening to her, and that was more than she had been expecting.