Flustered

He patiently guided her. Lingxin put on no airs whatsoever, nodding and humming in agreement to everything he said.

Resting her chin on one hand, she watched him with a constant, gentle smile.

Once he finished explaining, Bai Xiaodu felt a bit helpless.

“So, did you get all that?”

Instead of answering, she stepped closer to him.

Her movement was so swift he couldn't even react.

In the brief moment Bai Xiaodu blinked, Lingxin had already quietly materialized behind him.

She leaned down.

Resting one hand on his shoulder, her other slender, beautiful hand firmly grasped Bai Xiaodu's tactical glove.

Several spell runes materialized in her palm, suddenly bursting with light.

Bai Xiaodu couldn't help but look askance.

His own tactical glove had actually been activated. As the wearer, he could clearly feel the anomaly.

These spell runes were being cast in a way that felt familiar, yet displayed a far deeper level of comprehension and precise execution.

“There.”

The moment the patterns formed, a bone-chilling cold welled up, causing the ambient temperature to plunge by several degrees.

Bai Xiaodu's eyes widened.

A pinpoint of icy light bloomed and instantly erupted outward, transforming into a beam of crackling ice shards that roared like a localized blizzard.

It was indeed Freezing Ray.

It was aimed directly at the carcass of the mechanical wolf Bai Xiaodu had just slain.

The beam sliced through the wreckage like a blade. Along the incredibly clean cut, thick layers of frost and ice rapidly crept over and encased it.

It had been turned into two miniature icebergs.

The power was staggering.

With no time to waste, he forced himself to quickly memorize the exact dimensions of the runes and the timing of their manifestation.

Bai Xiaodu quickly condensed his own spell runes, replicating the process he had just witnessed.

It worked exactly as he hoped.

Though the spell runes had only been slightly adjusted, the power generated was dozens of times greater than before.

An icy light crackled in his hand, and although it was much smaller, a complete spell was successfully unleashed.

It bit savagely into a nearby ruined pillar, blasting away a large chunk of concrete and rebar.

Frost immediately spread over the crater, releasing a chilly mist.

Though the spell was over, Bai Xiaodu kept his hand raised, rooted to the spot.

His wine-red eyes trembled slightly.

This was a cantrip, the simplest kind of magic that didn't even qualify as an official spell.

Its primary purpose was to slow down enemies in combat or to create ice patches for amusement.

Yet, he had waited for this moment for a very, very long time.

Learning how to cast it correctly was the hardest hurdle. Once he crossed this threshold, reaching the 【Proficient】 rank was merely a matter of time.

At this very moment, he had finally taken his first step toward becoming a 【Warlock】.

Before officially entering a spellcasting class, a person didn't have established spell slots and had to rely entirely on mental strength to cast magic.

Because he had selected full simulation mode, he received no assistance or stat boosts from the game.

Casting the spell twice in quick succession sent a wave of backlash straight to his brain.

A wave of disorientation and dizziness washed over him, and he nearly lost control of his body.

Bai Xiaodu collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.

Lingxin sat down beside him in a leisurely, unhurried manner.

Bai Xiaodu turned his head with effort.

“Why did you help me? No... what I mean is, even if it's just a cantrip, the cost of having someone teach it to you is extremely high.”

Just as she had done on the lounge chair, Lingxin pulled his silver-white tail over and began to squeeze and knead it.

“The First Emperor once proposed that all loyal citizens of the Empire should enjoy the convenience of magic. His successor was the Mage Emperor, who gathered and compiled spellbooks from noble houses big and small. Knowledge that was once monopolized and kept out of reach was, for the first time, passed down like a torch and popularized.”

She paused, then continued at a rapid pace, like a big bad wolf accidentally showing its fangs.

“Of course, usually when a senior teaches a junior, the junior is expected to give some sort of gift in return... But as for paying me back with your gaming companion fee, forget about it. Eh? With that look on your face, you were actually thinking about doing that, weren't you?”

Bai Xiaodu nodded blankly, then quickly shook his head. “No.”

He looked so earnest and pleasing to the eye, his silver fox ears twitching unconsciously as he spoke. It made Lingxin's hands itch with the urge to reach out and play with them.

The more she looked at Bai Xiaodu's face, the more she felt a sense of guilt about touching him randomly. Yet, the more guilty she felt, the more she thought it would be a waste not to indulge herself, especially since he was already feeling so exhausted.

In any case, the code was running smoothly.

Lingxin thought for a moment and came up with a random excuse. “I've always been curious about the difference between the ears of canine and feline demihumans compared to regular canine and feline mammals. Xiaobai, could you help me study them?”

“Sure,” Bai Xiaodu agreed without hesitation.

Having the intricate details of a spell taught to you so completely was something normally reserved for family members or direct disciples. On the outside, he wouldn't be able to buy this kind of guidance even if he spent two or three hundred thousand credits.

His years of physical training allowed Bai Xiaodu to easily arch his back and lean backward, smoothly resting his head on her lap.

Staring down at his features, Lingxin's lips curved upward. She had only planned to use this opportunity to give him a nice headpat, but she hadn't expected him to throw in his tail as well. Younger boys really were so easy to trick.

The fur was soft and dense, and she could faintly feel the delicate cartilage inside his ears. Bai Xiaodu seemed quite unaccustomed to this, but from time to time, a relaxed, comfortable expression would slip onto his face.

This made the experience even more delightful.

For cat owners, if they were lucky enough to get a pet with otherworldly looks that let them cuddle it however they wanted, they would be absolutely thrilled. If they were raising a pet human, the satisfaction would undoubtedly reach a whole new level.

Gently blowing on a strand of silver hair near his ear, Lingxin's hands never stopped moving. Her expression now held a hint of obsession.

“This color... you really are the most beautiful of all the canine demihuman races. Because all you silver foxes are such beautiful children, there are quite a few strange rumors about you.

“For instance, there's the 'one-minute scroll challenge.' If you can roll a silver fox's ears and tail into scrolls all at once without them unraveling even once, you'll get sixty-six hours of good luck.

“And then there's another one. The First Emperor was definitely a pure-blood human, but no one knows the Mage Emperor's true identity. Based on the vague clues of being a demihuman and possessing ethereal good looks, some people have listed silver foxes as highly suspicious candidates!”

Her look of obsession suddenly turned slightly mischievous, and Lingxin couldn't help but nod.

“Wow, I actually remembered this rumor the first time I saw you. Just the thought of someone shouting commands like 'slaughter the heretics,' 'for the tomorrow of all humanity,' or 'let the Empire burn' while solemnly twitching their ears... and maybe even having a face that looks just like yours...”

Lingxin suddenly paused, as if choking on her own words. Then, in a seemingly subconscious movement, she looked around.

“Oh dear, my loyalty is slipping. Can the people around me in the real world hear what I'm saying here?”

Bai Xiaodu shook his head. “Only the two of us can hear it.”

“That's a relief.”

Relaxing once more, and faced with the prey that had delivered itself right to her, she didn't hold back. She eagerly rubbed her hands together.

How could merely touching his ears be enough?

She felt a pressing need to thoroughly investigate Bai Xiaodu, so that this little cutie could thoroughly investigate her in the future.

“Xiaobai, you're so cute. When you were little, did your aunts ever let you out of their arms?”

Bai Xiaodu shook his head.

Lingxin let out a soft sound of confusion, about to crack another joke, when she noticed something off.

She looked down at Bai Xiaodu's face. It was a youthful face, possessing a delicate, boyish charm. His wine-red eyes, warm and full of trust, were staring back at her, clearly reflecting her own image.

Lingxin suddenly froze, her hands hovering in the air just as she was about to ruffle his hair.

His voice was very soft.

“I live with my grandmother. She has an illness that's very hard to cure, so our relatives don't want anything to do with us. Of course, it's not contagious. Even though I tried really hard to explain that to everyone, they were just annoyed by us.”

Lingxin felt a sudden, sharp pang in her chest. What followed was an indescribable feeling.

As a lieutenant serving in the Federation's Northern and Southern Front Armies who swore loyalty to the Emperor and the Mage Emperor, she had seen all kinds of human nature under the shadow of gunfire and death.

She believed she was already cold-blooded enough. There was no way she would shed tears for a gaming companion she had only met a few times in a virtual game. Besides, this was just his side of the story. Who knew if he was lying?

Yet, she couldn't suppress this feeling no matter what. It left Lingxin feeling incredibly stifled.

She quickly searched her mind for comforting words, but every time she formed a sentence, it was choked back by those eyes so full of pure trust.

They were like a flickering flame on a freezing, windy night, brimming with hope.

In front of these eyes, there was no room for even a shred of insincerity.

“I see...”

To be honest, from this moment on, she was feeling a bit panicked.