Chapter 5: The Second Familiar
As the game screen shifted, a new selection of familiars appeared before Xu Zhi.
This time, she could choose from four options, and their starting levels had increased slightly.
[1. Cat (Lv3)]
[2. Monkey (Lv3)]
[3. Dog (Lv3)]
[4. Spider (Lv3)]
“All of them are level 3.”
Xu Zhi’s gaze lingered on the cat and dog. She immediately ruled out the unfamiliar monkey and the spider.
After thinking it over for a while, she decided to choose the dog.
Once she pressed the confirm button, a new message appeared on the game screen.
[You now know how to easily nurture your familiar in the early stages. Let’s begin.]
[Familiar: Dog Lv3
Mind: 5
Body: 40
Attribute: None
Traits: Strength Lv2, Smell Lv3
Evolution Points Needed: 0/200]
“Well, that’s fair. All need 200 points, but the dog’s body is much stronger than the snake’s.”
And she saw the most important reason for choosing the dog: Strength.
She had hesitated between the cat and dog because she knew there was a chance to draw traits from the familiar. She mentally went over the likely traits for each—agility from cats, strength from dogs. While she wanted both, strength was what she lacked most at this stage.
Xu Zhi wasn’t sure if picking the dog would definitely yield Strength. She had made a calculated guess based on the snake’s traits, so there was some risk involved.
Still, even if the dog hadn’t gained Strength, its size and aggression made it a solid pick in her eyes.
Now that she had gotten the trait she wanted, her mood brightened.
She quickly followed the usual procedure to level up her second familiar, watching as the dog devoured live prey. At the same time, she wondered, Do real dogs hunt and eat like this?
This time the screen no longer showed a snake’s perspective, but the dog’s vision wasn’t much better—it was all black, white, yellow, blue, and gray. Even so, Xu Zhi noticed something off.
Her familiar seemed to be in a city shrouded in black mist.
Xu Zhi’s eyes slowly widened, her scalp tingling slightly, as an absurd idea emerged in her mind:
Could this in-game city actually be Cloud City?
As soon as the thought formed, she found it hard to stay calm. She tried to recall what the city looked like when controlling the snake, but that perspective had been too abstract to draw any conclusions.
It was only the same black mist as Cloud City—that wasn’t solid proof. But if this really were just a game, how could that black fruit have become real?
Xu Zhi preferred to believe that such a fruit already existed, and the game merely “transported” it into reality.
More importantly—and what made her so desperate to believe her hunch was true—was this: if her familiar was truly in this city, then she was no longer alone.
Whether for companionship or protection, that was exactly what she needed right now.
She didn’t trust anyone in this city. She didn’t need human company. But a familiar absolutely loyal to her? That was perfect.
So, deep down, she hoped this wasn’t just some unrealistic fantasy.
To confirm it, she needed to look for familiar landmarks while the dog searched for prey.
But that was difficult. Xu Zhi rarely went outside and her memories of Cloud City were stuck at age eleven, supplemented only by occasional glimpses on local news.
“No matter. I’ll find something eventually.”
Her voice, slightly raspy from infrequent use, carried a frailty caused by her lung condition. Yet within it was a subtle but unmistakable hint of obsession—as if even if what she chased was just a dream, she had to find a trace of it in reality.
She threw herself into the game, controlling the gray stray dog as it hunted across the city. She faced danger more than once and even wasted two hours recovering from one mistake. At noon, she didn’t feel hungry, so she skipped cooking, took her medication, and kept playing.
Fortunately, the dog’s stamina at level 3 was much higher than the snake’s, so it didn’t tire out quickly. And today, Xu Zhi was lucky—the dog found prey more easily than the snake. Before long, it reached level 4, and its stamina seemed restored. Long hunts no longer left it as exhausted as the snake had been.
She played for six hours straight and managed to level the dog up to 5 before finally feeling fatigued and putting down the handheld console to rub her forehead.
At this point, the dog’s stats had become:
[Familiar: Dog Lv5
Mind: 14
Body: 160
Attribute: None
Traits: Strength Lv3, Smell Lv3, Alertness Lv1]
Although her body was tired, Xu Zhi’s mind was abuzz with excitement.
Because—she hadn’t come away empty-handed.
Just earlier, when the dog reached level 5 and was pursuing new prey, it had chased it up the stairs of an old, deserted residential building. When they reached the rooftop, the prey leapt across the gap to a neighboring building. The game asked if she wanted to chase.
Though there was a significant gap and height difference, and jumping across carried some risk, the dog’s high physical stats meant a fall wouldn’t be too harmful. She should have chosen to pursue the prey.
But Xu Zhi chose not to chase it.
She made the dog stay in place so she could clearly see the massive clock-tower-like building in the distance.
Wasn’t that Cloud City’s landmark—the Bell and Drum Tower?
The gray clock tower, with its giant clock faces embedded on all four sides of the square building, had stopped ticking five years ago during the earthquake. The city officials decided not to repair it, letting the frozen time serve as a memorial.
Anyone from Cloud City would recognize the Bell and Drum Tower. Even a shut-in like Xu Zhi had seen it countless times on the news.
“…It’s real.”
“Haha… It’s really real!”
Xu Zhi murmured the words over and over, even laughing aloud. If her hands weren’t full holding the game console, she might have clapped.
A surge of never-before-felt excitement rushed to her head—her heart raced, adrenaline spiked, pupils dilated. Only when breathing became difficult did Xu Zhi realize she had gotten too worked up.
While leveling up the dog improved her physical condition a bit, it clearly wasn’t enough. She had to control her emotional fluctuations more carefully.
She set the console down, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths, trying to calm the excitement bubbling in her chest. As it subsided, a wave of fatigue swept in, and she rubbed her forehead.
It was just about time to settle Yi’s progress, so she decided to rest for half an hour.
Xu Zhi was still frustrated with her limited energy bar. Why couldn’t she go 24 hours without food, drink, or sleep?
Leaning back in her wheelchair, she closed her eyes, intending only to rest briefly, but she accidentally drifted off. It felt like she’d only slept for a minute, but when she awoke, thirty minutes had passed.
“…Seems like extended high-intensity gameplay really is draining.”
She exhaled and picked up the console. The seven-hour progress bar in the lower right corner had just finished.
Xu Zhi navigated to Yi and brought up the results screen.
[Your familiar has completed a long solo hunt. Here is its haul:]
[Evolution Points: 1700/1000]
[Trait Upgrades: Bloodthirst +1, Cunning +1]
[Special Items: None]
[You may evolve or rest for 3 hours before setting out again.]
[Due to the upgrade in your familiar’s Bloodthirst trait, your own Bloodthirst has also increased. Now, when you enter a Bloodthirst state, your strength will be enhanced—but once you exit the state, you’ll experience a period of weakness.]
Xu Zhi’s eyes gleamed with joy as she read the results.
She hadn’t known familiars could find special items while hunting, so she hadn’t expected any. What thrilled her was the +1 Bloodthirst trait, which gave her a strength boost!
Even if it could only be used while bloodthirsty and came with a debuff, it was still one of the things she needed most.
She was desperate to grow stronger.
As for whether to let Yi evolve or rest—of course, she chose to evolve.
After she made the choice, a 20-minute progress bar appeared in the middle of the screen.
A golden sun icon popped up on the right, and when Xu Zhi clicked it, two familiar icons appeared—one for the snake and one for the dog.
“Oh~” Xu Zhi understood. It was like a familiar index.
She tapped the dog’s icon, and the game switched back to the dog’s screen, minimizing the snake’s progress bar in the corner.
“Quite convenient.”
She gave the system a small nod of approval.
But just as she was about to continue leveling up the dog, a familiar sound—one she had heard just yesterday—suddenly rang out.
Bang, bang, bang!
Someone was knocking at the door.
Xu Zhi tightened her grip on the console, her face darkening.
As expected, someone had come again.
She had anticipated they wouldn’t give up easily—that’s why she was so desperate for power.
What surprised her was that the knocking sounded much clearer than before.
It was probably a side effect of Yi reaching level 10—her hearing had improved.
Five seconds after the knocking, a girl’s voice followed from outside the door:
“Hello, my classmate came to see you yesterday. Do you remember?”
The voice was crisp and polite—Xu Zhi immediately imagined a well-mannered high school girl. But her own expression didn’t change. Calmly, she rolled her wheelchair into the kitchen and carefully selected the sharpest boning knife to hold.
She had her younger brother’s love of meat to thank for keeping such a knife at home—otherwise she’d have only had a cleaver.
As the voice outside continued chattering politely, Xu Zhi tested her mobility—she stood briefly, bounced slightly, and swung the knife a few times. Once she was sure her body could handle a sudden strike, she sat back down and hid the knife behind her back.
Expressionless, she rolled toward the door.
She needed to see how many people had come. If it wasn’t many, and they showed any signs of hostility—if they tried to break in—
A ruthless glint flashed in the girl’s eyes.
She thought: maybe it’s time to act first.
