It was impossible to tell how much time had passed.
The cellar.
The firelight from the lantern dispelled the darkness. A scorched smell still hung in the air, as the fire had only just been put out.
Wu Shuang leaned against the wall, feeling extremely awkward. He had no idea how to start a conversation for a long while, let alone dare to look in her direction.
What on earth was this supposed to be?
He had been forcibly kissed by a severed human head?
Literally just a head!
Telling anyone about this would scare a normal person to death, as it was straight out of a horror movie, but...
"Have you recovered?" the demoness asked, ill-timed.
Wu Shuang immediately sat up straight and pulled out his Hero Handbook.
"Let me see..."
"Wait, why am I checking this?!"
Wu Shuang turned to look at the demoness, who was also leaning against the wall. Her cheeks were still slightly flushed, causing the words at the tip of his tongue to swallow back down as he changed the subject.
"What's your deal anyway? Are you a living corpse or a monster?" he asked.
"Can't I count as a living person?"
"A living person can't live with just a head."
"Uh..."
Faced with Wu Shuang's retort, the demoness had no choice but to concede defeat. He had a point—a living person truly couldn't survive with just a head.
"To be honest, I don't know either. I don't even know my own name. I just woke up here..."
the demoness explained, appearing quite helpless as well.
"So that's how it is..."
So Wu Shuang laid out the whole backstory, including her origin, the White Casket underground, and the contents written on the gravestone.
"Aha! So it was you! You grave robber, robbing my grave and then blaming me for biting you—you totally got what you deserved!"
"Uh..."
This time, it was Wu Shuang's turn to be rendered speechless.
Technically, she wasn't wrong, but he simply didn't want to admit it. He could only bring up the system, claiming he was forced into it.
Besides, given the state of this world, he had to find a way to survive. Even without the system, he probably would have dug it up anyway.
"So the actual situation is... you robbed my grave, and I took a bite out of you. That makes us even, right?"
"I guess we can look at it that way..."
"Wait, no! You came out ahead! Hurry up and tell me, did your Humanity go up? How much did it increase?"
"It went up a little bit."
"How much is 'a little bit'?"
"Uh..."
Wu Shuang didn't really want to say. This was precisely what bothered him so much—his Humanity had actually jumped to 124, and its color had turned to yellow. It made him want to slap himself hard across the face a few times.
It was a head! Just a head!
Even if she was gorgeous, a stunning beauty, she was still just a head!
Strictly speaking, she should be considered a special type of monster. How could he possibly...
Wu Shuang felt like he was probably losing his mind. Perhaps after arriving in this world, his worldview had gradually been corrupted and assimilated. Otherwise, how could his Humanity have shot up by so much? There was no other explanation.
It actually went up more than when he fought his way through and faced death head-on?
This violates logic!
"How much did it go up? Out with it!"
The demoness kept nagging, thoroughly annoying, exuding a relentless air of refusing to drop the matter.
Faced with this, Wu Shuang could only throw in the towel and come clean.
"It all grew back, alright?"
he said in self-abandonment, catching the demoness off guard and causing her face to flush even redder.
However, she quickly shifted the subject, looking at the lit lantern as she explained,
"Hmm... That's good then!
"This shows your emotional threshold is very low, which is a good thing. After all, as a Hero from another world, your mental state is still relatively healthy.
"If it were a local of this world, boosting Humanity wouldn't be easy. The threshold rises with experience, especially experiences during one's formative years. This leaves locals numb to most stimuli, often forcing them to rely on drugs for stronger sensations, sometimes even descending into madness or turning into wandering corpses in the process..."
The demoness spoke with convincing logic, causing Wu Shuang to stare at her in complete shock. He hadn't expected this head to know so much.
"Don't stare at me like that. I don't know why I know these things either, but I just do."
she explained, appearing somewhat uncomfortable under Wu Shuang's direct gaze.
The two chatted idly for a while after that.
Judging from the information at hand, the demoness had most likely been abandoned by her own physical body and buried underground.
After all, as a head, it carried thought and consciousness, so calling it the soul made sense as well.
As for her memories, she had probably forgotten them due to the loss of Humanity.
Still, a being capable of discarding even her own head... just who was this woman?
Wu Shuang couldn't fathom it.
However, the demoness already had a goal: she wanted to reclaim her body—or more accurately, snatch it back. She was clearly the original self, so how could she allow her body to roam free on its own?
Yet because of this, she possessed a major flaw. She couldn't generate Humanity on her own and had to acquire it from the outside—specifically, she wanted to drain it from Wu Shuang...
"Are you some kind of vampire?"
"Uh... that possibility can't be ruled out either."
The demoness scratched her head with her hair and looked at Wu Shuang. Her captivating eyes seemed to hold a magical spell, filled with anticipation that made Wu Shuang thoroughly uncomfortable, leaving him with no choice but to give in slightly.
"I actually need Humanity quite badly to strengthen myself and gain the power to survive.
"If it's just a small amount that won't hinder me from getting stronger, sharing a bit with you isn't out of the question..."
"Then that's settled! Pleasure working with you!
"I have a very small appetite. After all, I don't even have a stomach! Hahaha..."
The demoness practically bounded up, cracking off-beat dark jokes and laughing to herself. She was full of vitality without a trace of gloom, even though her situation was far worse than Wu Shuang's—she was down to just a head.
Looking at a woman like this, Wu Shuang found himself deeply captivated by her for reasons he didn't even realize.
"By the way, since your Humanity went up so much anyway, let me take a quick sip first."
"In your dreams!"
Wu Shuang's expression shifted like clockwork, his face instantly darkening as he refused immediately. But he couldn't withstand her constantly leaning in and nagging non-stop. In the end, he still got bitten and lost four or five points of Humanity.
"Why does this taste both fragrant and stinky, totally different from before? Durian flavor? You..."
"Say one more word and I'll stuff you back into the casket and bury you back in the ground! Shut your mouth!"
"Alright, I'll stop talking then."
"Mm. Time to sleep. There's a ton of work to do tomorrow."
Wu Shuang had no desire to spill the beans about his Humanity's color turning yellow.
The demoness quieted down as well, lying down right against Wu Shuang. Her long, silver-white hair spread across the floor, looking like a bit of a waste...
Wu Shuang shook his head and stopped looking, feeling like he must be out of his mind. This was supposed to be terrifying—this was a dead person's head!
He closed his eyes to rest as well. The lantern's oil should be enough to last through the night.
However, just a few seconds later, the demoness spoke up again out of nowhere.
"Mia."
"Huh?"
"I said my name is Mia. It'd be pretty inconvenient without a name, after all."
"Oh. I'm Wu Shuang."
"I know."
Wu Shuang frowned, not recalling when he had ever introduced himself... Whatever.
He looked at Mia, then at the weapons laid out on the ground not far away. Ultimately, he did nothing, quietly accepting Mia's presence. At least this way, he would have someone to bicker with—even if she was just a head.
Rate on N.U.
