VAP - Chapter 21
Chapter 21: The Sleeping Beauty Whose Words Are Law (20)
Six o'clock in the morning.
The "mist" outside the window, which had maintained the same concentration for a long time, now began to gradually fade away. It was as if it had completed its mission and was contentedly retiring, its duty done.
And it had indeed completed its mission.
At this moment, those who hadn't awakened an Esper Ability were still waiting at home, bewildered and lost inside their sealed rooms, awaiting a government announcement.
Meanwhile, the first batch of awakened espers had long since woken from the nightmare of the ability's impact. Noticing the pain had faded, their faces showed the relief of having survived a disaster.
Some of them had even discovered the peculiar changes within themselves, reacting with either joy or worry...
They had no idea how lucky they were.
Among those who had suffered the same impact, nearly half would never see the mist dissipate.
The bodies of those who had failed to awaken grew cold, expressions of agony frozen on their faces, their limbs twisted in bizarre ways, like innocent sacrifices in some grand ritual.
Standing within Qi Jiu's newly placid mental space, Yue Du took it all in—utilizing the system's expansive perspective and its intricate network of feelers.
"The situation outside isn't great, is it?" Qi Jiu asked listlessly, curled up in her beanbag chair.
Yue Du said in a low voice, "The Recovery Mist hasn't completely dissipated yet, and most people are staying indoors, so the situation isn't too terrible. But..."
But it would get worse very soon.
Qi Jiu hummed thoughtfully.
Not far from her, shards of a ceramic flowerpot, the shredded stems and leaves of a cymbidium orchid, and clumps of soil clinging to its roots lay scattered across the floor.
The shredded petals and leaves looked as if they had been sliced apart with perfect uniformity—clearly the handiwork of Qi Jiu's Word Spirit ability.
She wasn't one to casually test her ability on a houseplant. If this delicate orchid had stayed quietly in its pot as usual, Qi Jiu naturally wouldn't have bothered with it.
But it hadn't. The orchid's slender leaves had quietly extended, as if trying to weave a dense net to capture its unsuspecting prey.
—It was one of the beneficiaries of the great Esper Ability outbreak.
That's right. The Recovery Mist didn't only favor humans; the opportunity to awaken an ability was also granted to all species of mammals, most birds, some plants, and a very small number of insects.
This was also one of the reasons for the chaotic period following the great Esper Ability outbreak—
Humans were no longer the sole masters of the Earth.
And Qi Jiu, a powerhouse who was max-level from the very beginning, had just unconsciously become the first person in the world to kill a mutated creature with an Esper Ability.
She couldn't help it. When your own houseplant starts treating you like prey, are you supposed to just laugh it off?
Of course, the only thing to do was to lazily say, "Tear it to pieces," la~
Coincidentally, half an hour ago, the Main System had issued the third mission: Explore the capabilities and limitations of the Esper Ability. Upon reaching one hundred percent exploration, the reward would be 150 points.
This was probably the only mission Qi Jiu had ever started without Yue Du's prompting. When it came to her own ability, Qi Jiu was like a child with a new toy, eager to give it a try.
She conducted some experiments.
She tried to get a piece of candy, tear a tissue, move an object on the table, move an ant in the flowerbed downstairs, give Yue Du a body... or kill a mutated plant.
The first experiment failed, but the second succeeded. The third and fourth were also successful. The fifth failed, and the sixth succeeded quickly.
Qi Jiu propped her chin on her hand, thought for a moment, then opened her palm again and said calmly, "Move a mint from the convenience store in the Yuzhen Yuan complex into my hand."
The moment she finished speaking, a transparent hard mint in a blue wrapper appeared steadily in her palm, as naturally as if it belonged there.
"Move the female human body priced at 2,500 points from the System Store to me," Qi Jiu said nonchalantly, closing her hand around the candy.
The words received no response; the Word Spirit ability had failed.
Qi Jiu sighed regretfully and asked her system, "Have you figured anything out?"
Yue Du already had a theory. She chose her words carefully and replied, "Your ability can't create something from nothing, but you can verbally command an existing object to be moved. This applies to both inanimate objects and living beings."
"And?"
"This is just a guess... but the Word Spirit ability seems more like a power to issue commands. And compared to ordinary commands, those with destructive intent seem to be executed more easily."
Like the tissue shredded into countless pieces, or the orchid that was ruthlessly destroyed just after awakening its ability.
Qi Jiu only needed to express her intent to destroy them; unlike with ordinary commands, she didn't need to be specific. An invisible force in the air would then faithfully carry out her order.
With her eyes closed, Qi Jiu listened to the analysis and then repeated it, word for word.
As expected, the Main System issued a notification:
"Ding! Main Mission 'Exploration of the Word Spirit Ability' is now 40% complete. Please continue your efforts!"
Yue Du was stunned by this maneuver. "..."
Qi Jiu, however, was perfectly self-righteous. "I had a rough idea, but I was too lazy to put it into words. Thanks for your help."
Yue Du was speechless.
But she already had a profound understanding of Qi Jiu's aversion to trouble. This little incident was nothing. Hadn't Qi Jiu pulled off plenty of audacious stunts before?
Since the two limitations they had identified so far were proven correct, the progress bar indicated they still needed to find three more.
"There are three possible reasons why you can't get a human body directly from the System Store. First, the store might not have a ready-made body available right now. Second, it could be the System Space's self-protection mechanism..."
Yue Du was thinking hard. When she pondered a problem, she would subconsciously tap her jaw with the knuckle of her right index finger, looking exceptionally focused. "And third, the range of the Word Spirit ability might be limited to this small world."
Qi Jiu smiled faintly and asked, "Which small world did you live in before?"
The tapping of her knuckle froze for a moment. Yue Du quickly clenched her fingertips, but her voice remained perfectly calm, tinged with just the right amount of confusion. "What are you talking about? I've never been on a mission in another small world. You're my very first host."
"Is that so," Qi Jiu said softly.
"Of course," Yue Du said evenly.
"Then I must have remembered wrong," Qi Jiu sighed. "In that case, do you know the designation number of any other small worlds?"
Yue Du said, "One moment, let me check."
A brief silence followed. As Yue Du pretended to look up the information, she was secretly relieved that Qi Jiu could only hear her voice and not see her movements, otherwise she would have surely been exposed.
Her persona was that of a 'rookie girl' system who had just graduated, one who had never left the Main God's space or experienced the affairs of the mortal world.
Although Yue Du now felt that establishing this persona in the first place had been completely unnecessary, she couldn't just expose the truth now and let Qi Jiu know she'd been bluffing all this time, could she?
She could only keep up the act.
Before long, Yue Du told her host, "Found it. It's a parallel world: 137 Silver Galaxy Small World. It's also centered on a planet inhabited by life called Earth, and it's quite similar to this world's Earth before the great Esper Ability outbreak."
"Oh..." Qi Jiu said.
She thought for a moment, then slowly said, "Move a pebble from the planet Earth in 137 Silver Galaxy Small World into my hand."
After that long, convoluted sentence, nothing happened.
Qi Jiu then tried to move other things from world 137, whether they were natural objects or products of human technology, but there was no response.
So she came to a conclusion. "It seems cross-world operations aren't possible, then."
"Ding! Main Mission 'Exploration of the Word Spirit Ability' is now 60% complete. Please continue your efforts!"
This one was correct, too.
There were still two more to find. The newly awakened Word Spirit user and her system discussed and ran a few more tests, unexpectedly discovering that Qi Jiu couldn't restore things she had destroyed, whether they were inanimate objects or living beings.
Qi Jiu raised an eyebrow, summoned a fruit knife from the kitchen, and cut her index finger without so much as a blink.
Yue Du said, "...You're certainly ruthless, even to yourself."
A crimson bead of blood welled up and slid down her fair skin. Her expression unchanging, Qi Jiu said calmly, "Now, heal the wound on my finger."
The cut did indeed close, but much more slowly than when she had moved objects.
After a moment of sensing the process, Qi Jiu said, "Healing seems to take more effort."
Yue Du understood her meaning, and thus, the fourth limitation was found: Commands related to restoration and healing were less effective than destructive ones, consumed more energy, and could not restore things destroyed by her own ability.
As for the final limitation, its existence became apparent after Qi Jiu conducted several more experiments.
She fell asleep.
She fell asleep very suddenly...
Although Qi Jiu loved to sleep, it was always by her own volition. If she truly decided she couldn't sleep, she absolutely wouldn't.
But this time was different. She closed her eyes without any warning, her body slumping into its most relaxed state. Her long arm slid naturally to the side of the beanbag chair, her sleeping face as peaceful and serene as Sleeping Beauty's.
Yue Du watched as her host's consciousness sank into the mental space. Before she could even say hello, it drifted to the center of the lake and submerged itself in the jade-green water.
For a rare moment, Yue Du was dumbfounded. "...Host???"
Sinking deeper from the mental space led to the subconscious, a state entered during deep sleep.
Every time Qi Jiu fell sound asleep, her consciousness would walk into the lake on its own and slowly sink.
But this time, it happened so quickly...
The fifth limitation was self-evident.
"Based on this result, the price for using the Word Spirit ability is falling into a deep sleep?" Yue Du muttered to herself, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
This price was practically tailor-made for Qi Jiu. It was less of a side effect and more of a perk!
Yue Du shook her head and sat down on the grass by the lake.
She didn't know how long the slumber would last, so she decided to start timing it. When Qi Jiu woke up, she would tell her about this limitation. She was sure the young lady would be very satisfied.
Author's Notes
The price is falling asleep... emmm, that's very Qi Jiu.
Yue Du (serious): The host will surely be very happy to know.
Qi Jiu: ? I'm not happy.
Sinking into the subconscious, not remembering anything upon waking, and most importantly, not being able to lie on Yue Du's lap and sunbathe, don't you think that's too inhumane?
Yue Du (doubting her existence as a system): Wait, what did you say your main point was???
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