It was late at night by the time the car drove into the Dead City. After the usual check for identification and signs of infection, the group was finally allowed through the main gate.

They first dropped Paige Summers and Levi Young off at their residence.

Before he left, Paige Summers called Marcus Monroe aside to give him the Earth Immortal Fruit. ’This thing is too precious,’ she thought. ’I really can’t rest easy with it in my possession.’

Marcus Monroe didn’t refuse this time. He only said, "Get some rest. I’ll come by tomorrow morning. There’s something I need to talk to you about."

Paige Summers nodded.

The car sped away. She and the silent Levi Young locked the door and went inside.

She told Levi Young to find any empty room to rest in, then hurried back to her own room.

The first thing she did was take a long, refreshing shower.

She was absolutely filthy—the water running off her was black at first! 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Finally feeling clean, she dried herself off as she walked to the mirror.

The Jade Pendant Mark on her chest was still there, its shape seemingly a bit clearer. When she touched it, she could feel that after being depleted of energy last time, it had once again stored up a great deal of goodwill.

Goodwill from Martin Warren and the others, and from Levi Young, too. There was also some from Marcus Monroe—quite a lot, in fact, thanks to her knocking him out in front of the Earth Immortal Fruit to prevent him from exhausting his superpower.

The corners of her lips curled up slightly.

’Their personalities are all so different, but they’re surprisingly good people!’

’I’m pretty lucky.’

Her body was exhausted, but her mind was wide awake. After forcing herself to rest for a few hours, she found she couldn’t fall asleep, so she got up and headed to her workshop.

She scrapped most of the modifications on her original blueprints and incorporated new ideas.

The focus of this modification was still the Crossbow Arrows.

’Since accuracy is low for untrained shooters, I’ll just change the arrows to a scatter-shot design.’

This placed exceptionally high demands on the creator.

A Crossbow Arrow wasn’t thick to begin with, and this design required even finer craftsmanship to create four individual bolts. On the outside, it would look like a single, complete arrow, but upon being fired, the differing angles of each bolt’s fletching would alter their trajectories. Most importantly, she had to calculate the force of the propulsion point and the integrity of the bolts’ joints to ensure they wouldn’t separate until nearing the end of their flight range.

It was a true test for her.

By the time the sun came up, she had only just finished her theoretical calculations and crafted two of the slender bolts.

’That’s more than halfway done, I guess.’ Paige Summers let out a long sigh.

Outside, Levi Young was already calling for her from the living room.

Paige Summers put down her things and walked out.

"You’re up?"

Levi Young looked very clean today. His clothes had likely been washed and put back on, his hair was neat, and his face was no longer smudged. Compared to yesterday, his appearance now seemed more suited to his age.

Levi Young looked at her, a little surprised. "Did you not sleep?"

"No, I just woke up early." ’This is why Superpower Users have great physiques,’ she thought. ’Even after continuous, intense physical "labor," a few hours of rest is all it takes to get back to work.’

"Oh. So what should I do today?"

Paige Summers couldn’t help but chuckle. The way he was acting reminded her of when she was a child, just starting to learn Artifact Making from her grandfather. She’d stand at the table with her hands behind her back, full of anticipation, asking what he would teach her that day.

Her thoughts shifted, and she sighed, heading for the kitchen. "First, we eat."

As she heated up some instant food, she thought to herself that she seemed to have forgotten something.

’What could it be?’

Halfway through the meal, she suddenly stopped and slapped her forehead.

"Ah! Sweetie! I almost forgot about him!"

Levi Young paused with his chopsticks. "Sweetie?"

"Wait, that’s not right. If he were in the house, he should’ve come out by now. I specifically told Blue to take care of him. Don’t tell me something happened!" Paige Summers mumbled as she searched the whole house. Finding no sign of the bird, she returned to the table and explained, "Sweetie is my pet. I asked someone to look after him before I left, but now he’s gone."

She bit her lip, feeling uneasy.

’That guy Blue... he didn’t forget to feed him meat and let him starve to death, did he?’

’If something really happened, I will absolutely never forgive him!’

She dug out the phone Blue had left for her and dialed the number, but all she heard was a burst of static—not even a dial tone.

Damn it!

’Weren’t we told you could make calls anywhere in the city? How can the signal be this bad!’

Just as she was scratching her head in frustration, there was an urgent knock on the door.

Paige Summers hurried to the door.

"Blue! I was just about to look for you! You..."

Before she could finish, Blue pushed past her with a cold expression, strode into the room, and slammed a box down on the table.

"Time to settle the score!"

"Huh?" Paige Summers’s mouth twitched. ’Is this some dark, angry version of Blue?’ "Settle what score? I haven’t even asked you where my Sweetie is yet!"

Blue gritted his teeth. "You dare mention that... stupid... bird... to me!"

Paige Summers had a vague, bad feeling. "What... what happened to him?"

Blue’s face contorted. "He latched onto me, shamelessly demanding to come home with me, then he stole and ate an entire roast pig and five Third-stage Crystal Cores! After writhing in agony, he fell unconscious, so I had to take him to a doctor in the middle of the night. And the doctor told me... he’s just leveling up!!!"

Paige Summers’s mouth instantly formed an "O" shape and refused to close.

’A-a whole roasted pig?’

She wanted to yell at Blue to stop joking. ’That thing must have weighed dozens of pounds! My Sweetie, bones and all, is only about ten pounds, tops. How is that possible?!’

’And Crystal Cores, of all things... Third Rank ones...’

But Blue’s expression told her this was all too real. A glance at the box on the table was enough for her to guess what was inside. She strode over and opened it. Sure enough, Sweetie was lying inside, sprawled on his back. His breathing was steady, but his belly was bulging as if he were pregnant.

She stroked him worriedly. "Is he really just asleep? Are there no other problems?"

It was Blue’s belly that was about to explode with rage!

"I’m the one with the problems!!!" He whipped out a dagger, grabbed Paige Summers, and leaped into the courtyard. "You’re his owner! Before you compensate me for the Crystal Cores, pay me for my mental and emotional distress!" In other words: ’Do you have any idea how precious the meat of a roasted pig is? Do you know how attached I was to my Crystal Cores? I won’t be able to quell the hatred in my heart until I beat you up!’