Night got up and looked at her as she sat on the edge of the bed. Her white tail was swinging left and right like she was genuinely excited, but it was difficult to truly understand since he couldn’t read any expression on her alien face.

​Up close, alone in a room, she looked kind of scary.

​If not for him actively using his meditative stealth to calm his bodyhe would be sweating bullets right now.

​Because of meditative stealth his physical body was at ease and relaxed, his mind naturally followed suit becoming peaceful and calm as well.

​Seeing him stare at her so calmly made her happy. The numerous times she had tried this with other humans, they had all reacted terribly and some had even attacked her outright.

​She was fully prepared for the exact same reaction from Night when she came here, despite them having just met this morning. She knew by now that her appearance was quite unnerving to people.

​Even Sara had been scared shitless the first time they met in the tutorial dungeon. To make it worse at that time, Blade hadn’t yet learned how to hide her overwhelming aura.

​Sara was so scared back then that she had even started chanting mantras toward the end.

When Blade had asked why she was mumbling to herself, Sara had honestly replied that it was so she would be reborn in heaven in her next life.

​It was Night who finally broke the silence. "Ummm... I was not expecting guests."

​Blade replied with a mischievous smile that looked quite scary, to be honest.

(◣_◢)

"I apologize for coming here uninvited, but I didn’t have a place to stay after leaving my previous ’job.’ When I saw such a spacious house, I simply couldn’t resist."

​"If you had asked Sara nicely, I am sure she would have spared a room or two for a distinguished guest like you," Night said nervously.

(´-﹏-`;)

​Seriously, I can’t catch a break. Since I left that facility, I haven’t seen a single peaceful day. I almost miss the good old days. Peaceful days with a brutal experiment here and there. Perfect, Night thought bitterly.

(⇀_⇀)

​"Now, we wouldn’t want to trouble Sara with small matters like this, do we?" Blade countered smoothly. "Besides, I prefer a lively ambiance and this family just fits the bill."

​"Since when do you prefer a lively place?" Night asked in doubt.

(._.?) 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

​The white chamber didn’t exactly look like a lively place. Even a graveyard looked more lively than that sterile room.

​"Since today," Blade stated simply.

​Night:

(-_-)

​"Since we will be staying together from now on, let’s get to know each other better," Blade declared.

​As she said this, she picked Night up, tossed him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and started walking toward the hall.

​Night: (◎_◎;)

​Night was far too shocked to react. He was literally being kidnapped in his own house in broad daylight.

​When they reached the hall, he saw Death who was sitting on the couch, immediately shift into a highly aggressive fighting stance. She wanted to attack the intruder but hesitated, clearly worried Blade would use Night as a meat shield.

​Night saw Eve and Lilith burst out of the kitchen, each holding a sharp kitchen knife. Then, the shadows in the room deepened for a split second and Lucy materialized right in front of them.

​Lucy glared at Blade and growled menacingly. "Put him down."

​"Now, now, don’t get worked up. This is not a good way to start our first family gathering," Blade said calmly, completely unbothered by the lethal glares sent her way.

She walked to the sofa, gently placed Night down on the cushionsnand then took a step back.

​"Let’s start again," she announced cheerfully. "I am Blade, a Unique Being. One of a kind in all of existence."

(￣︶￣)

​Seeing Night safe and realizing that Blade was actually being quite chill, the others slowly calmed down as well.

Death eased out of her battle posture; Lucy used her shadows to hop up and sit comfortably on Night’s lap; and Eve and Lilith lowered their "weapons," though they didn’t put them away entirely, still holding the knives lightly by their sides.

​"I am Night, as you already know," Night introduced his team. "This cute Fenrir is Lucy, the graceful skeleton is Death, and these two cool robots are Eve and Lilith."

​They then started talking. Night shared a few details about his past, though not nearly as detailed as he had been with Sara.

Even though Blade gave off the same trustworthy feeling Sara did, he was much more cautious this time. Almost dying in a dungeon had made him significantly more careful about his secrets.

​Blade then shared with Night how she had met Sara in the tutorial and why she ended up guarding the white chamber.

​After learning she was truly Sara’s friend, he became more open and shared a few more things. Lucy also chimed in from time to time while Eve, Lilith, and Death brought chairs from somewhere and sat down to join them.

​After some time, Blade said something shocking. "Someone is manipulating your destiny. Things that are happening to you are not how they were originally supposed to happen."

​Hearing this didn’t cause much surprise for Night; he had already guessed something like this was occurring. It sounded absurd, but he was living in an absurd world where gods actively existed and almost anything was possible.

​But what he heard next was even more shocking. "I can stop the manipulation if you wish. It will drain me severely, but it is possible with my current strength," Blade offered seriously. "But as you grow stronger, it might no longer be possible unless I become way stronger than I am right now."

​Hearing this, Lucy narrowed her golden eyes and gave her analysis. "Whoever is doing the manipulation doesn’t seem to hold any ill intent toward him. If anything, it has only ever helped him."

​Night looked at Lucy in shock, surprised that she had noticed it as well. Then he saw Death looking at him with an expression that clearly meant she thought it was painfully obvious.

Eve and Lilith, however appeared completely clueless, their mechanical eyes flashing in minor shame upon realizing they were the only ones who had failed to understand anything.

​Night nodded at Death. "At first, I thought it was just a misconception, but now that I review the memories, I remember exactly when it started."

​"It started when I was about to die in the jungle. I received the [Beast Instinct] skill at the perfect time, which directly led me to Lucy, who saved me."

​"And all the skills I received after that seem to perfectly match my immediate needs... almost like someone is actively manipulating the probability of the skills I get from devouring."

​"During the Class selection, I saw how I conveniently avoided the absolute disaster of losing my friends forever. It became incredibly obvious when I got that profound feeling of loss looking at the first Class option."

"For some reason, at that exact moment, I clearly felt that this was not how things were supposed to happen."

​Blade tilted her head. "So you want to keep it this way? Are you not worried that whoever is doing this is probably just fattening the chicken before the slaughter?"

​Night reeled back. He knew from the web novels he had read in his past life that this was the classic plot of a mastermind villain who wanted something or everything from the protagonist.

​This grim conclusion was the exact reason he hadn’t wanted to discuss the problem openly...

​Seeing he understood the gravity of the situation a little more, Blade stood up, walked directly into the bedroom and promptly lay down in the exact spot Night had been sleeping in earlier.

​Soon they saw her white tail which moved quite often, go completely limp, meaning she was fast asleep.

​Looking at this, they collectively thought: She sleeps exactly like a human.

​....

​Back in the hall, after the peaceful lazy atmosphere had vanished, they sat in a tight circle. He saw Eve and Lilith pull out two more chairs from somewhere that perfectly matched their height.

​Curious, he asked, "Where do these chairs keep coming from?"

​Eve simply pointed at the kitchen, indicating that they were kept in a small storage room attached to it.

​Somehow, he perfectly understood her just from that single gesture.

​Night:

(ಠ_ಠ)

​Getting back to business, Night said, "I have an idea that might solve some of our energy regeneration issues, now that we don’t have a constant supply of corpses to regenerate from."

​Lucy perked up with interest. "What could that be? I was thinking maybe we could try the food Sara got us this time."

​Lucy:

(º﹃º )

​"It was really tasty and helped us regenerate energy at the same time," she reasoned.

​Hearing this, he saw Death reluctantly nod in rare approval, while Eve and Lilith’s eyes flashed with a bright blue light, indicating they liked this form of regeneration too.

​Night:

(￣～￣;)

​Night sighed, "Even I love it, but we don’t have much money with us, apparently."

​He then looked into his spatial ring, which he had completely forgotten about after wearing it and brought out a card. It was matte black with a golden chip in the middle, looking exactly like a modern credit card.

​Lucy saw it and swiped it from his hand using a shadow tendril. "It’s a System Currency card."

​She examined it closely. "It’s a pseudo-card. It seems it belongs specifically to this city."

​Seeing their puzzled looks, she continued explaining.

​"They are connected to temporary accounts and are mostly used to lend or gift money. This one has exactly 1,000 SC loaded onto it."

​Night asked with genuine hope, "Is that a lot?"

​Lucy scoffed in slight disgust. "One plate of the food Sara gave us probably costs more than this." Still, she tucked the card safely into her shadow.

​Hearing this, Night’s mood immediately deflated.

​"Don’t feel down," Lucy consoled him with half a smile. "Who knows, you might just find a lot of SC lying around somewhere."

​Night highly doubted he was that lucky. Slapping his cheeks to hype himself up, he said excitedly, "Let’s try my method, then!"

​Seeing their undivided curiosity, he announced with a smug grin.

(⌐■_■)

​"Group meditation."