If there is any difference between today and the usual days, it would be the game console that suddenly appeared.
"Could it be because of you?"
The girl looked at the black-and-white handheld console in her hands. After a brief moment of thought, she decided to conduct an experiment.
The experiment was simple—she would not consume any food or medicine tonight.
Under normal circumstances, this would be dangerous because her body was so fragile that skipping meals or medication would usually cause her to collapse.
However, given the situation, if the calm she was experiencing right now was just an illusion, and the game console couldn't bring her any real help, then it would only be a few more days of struggling.
Thinking this, Sophia Johnson decided not to take her usual medicine tonight. Instead, she took out the textbook left by her brother and began to read.
It wasn't because she was particularly eager to learn; it was simply because she didn't know what else to do.
Two hours quickly passed, and the alarm clock went off, bringing Sophia Johnson out of her thoughts.
"…Has it really been this long?"
Her expression showed disbelief. She had never been so absorbed in something before. Even when she tried to read in the past, her body's discomfort would constantly interrupt her, and she couldn't concentrate for long periods.
Moreover, she still didn't feel hungry.
"It really has changed…"
Sophia Johnson muttered, and her eyes, which had once been dull, slowly regained their light.
No matter what, now that a new chance had appeared, she was going to seize it. She didn't care what the game console was or whether it might pose a danger to her future. What mattered was that, without it, she might not even have a future.
Sophia Johnson was not afraid of death, but she didn't want to die.
Suppressing her excitement, she picked up the game console again. After the two-hour cooldown, it was time to continue the game.
The game was ready, and the "Advance" option appeared again on the screen.
Sophia Johnson controlled the little snake to wander around nearby. This time, her luck was better. In less than half an hour, she had gathered ten evolution points.
[Current Evolution Points: 10/10]
[Upgrade Conditions Met, Proceed with Upgrade?]
[Note: Lv1→Lv2 upgrade requires 10 seconds. During these 10 seconds, the familiar will lose consciousness.]
[Choose: 1. Upgrade here, 2. Find a concealed location to upgrade]
"10 seconds..."
Sophia Johnson hesitated for a moment before choosing to find a concealed location.
The brief period of calm and the short duration of 10 seconds didn't lull her into carelessness. She didn't forget the initial warning when entering the game.
The little snake soon found a tree hollow to hide in, and the evolution began. A progress bar appeared in the center of the screen, counting down the 10 seconds.
Ten seconds passed quickly.
[Evolution Complete]
[Snake: Lv2]
[Mental: 3]
[Physical: 10]
[Attribute: None]
[Trait: Venom Lv1]
After shedding its skin, the evolved snake slowly slithered out of the hollow. Sophia Johnson could see that it had grown noticeably larger. Its body was much longer, and most notably, its fangs gleamed with a greenish light as if showing off its new weapon.
And perhaps it was just her imagination, but Sophia Johnson felt that her own body had become somewhat lighter.
Due to her heart disease, she often felt extremely tired, her body heavy, with difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeats, and constant dizziness. But now, after the little snake evolved, although her other symptoms hadn't improved, she didn't feel as heavy as before.
Her eyes flickered slightly. With the earlier experiment, she no longer believed this was a coincidence.
Maybe... this game really could change her body.
As such, her desire for the upgrades grew more intense. However, when she looked at the number of evolution points required for the next upgrade, she couldn't help but feel a little distressed.
[Current Evolution Points: 0/50]
The requirement had increased fivefold.
It had taken almost three hours to accumulate ten points, so how long would it take to gather fifty?
It seemed the game understood her frustration, as a line of text gradually appeared.
[As your level increases, your familiar becomes stronger compared to its previous self, but in this world, it remains a small and insignificant creature.]
[An unnamed fear urges it forward. Even though it hasn't gained full intelligence yet, it vaguely senses that it must evolve faster.]
[Choose: 1. Continue hunting here, 2. Seek stronger prey, but this comes with greater risk.]
Sophia Johnson hadn't played many games, so she didn't fully understand the "beginner village" concept, but she did feel that the previous hunting was a bit too safe. It didn't quite match the description of a world fraught with danger.
Staying here could allow her to gather fifty evolution points safely, but... as she looked at the text on the screen, she felt a strange sense of urgency. Perhaps, she really needed to take some risks.
"I'll choose 2."
She pressed the button, and the little snake seemed to receive an order and began to slither. Sophia Johnson also noticed that not only had its body grown larger, but its vision range had also expanded.
Where it used to be around 7 meters, it was now about 20 meters.
After a long search, the little snake eventually found a target.
[Your familiar has spotted something.]
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[It was an injured eagle, one of its wings broken and its eyes seemed wounded.]
[Even so, it remains a natural enemy of the snake.]
[Injured eagles are rare, this might be an opportunity, but it comes with great risk. If successful, there will be a lot of evolution points.]
[Choose: 1. Hunt, 2. Leave]
This was the first time a risky hunt had appeared, and it made Sophia Johnson hesitate, unsure how to proceed. But then, another line of text appeared.
[You may need to decide soon. The wounded eagle will attract more hunters, and its wound is slowly healing.]
"Healing?"
Sophia Johnson was surprised. Wasn't it strange for such a severe injury to heal?
However, seeing the game's prompt, she hesitated no longer. She chose to hunt instead of leaving.
This decision wasn't like her usual cautious nature, but in reality, it wasn't surprising. Most of the time, she appeared silent and careful, but after living under constant oppression in her fragile body, she hadn't become a meek lamb. She still had a strong sense of self and even more stubborn thoughts than others. She wasn't a coward.
She would pick up a suspicious game console off the ground, and she could make risky decisions too.
It only took half a minute for her to adapt.
The girl focused on the screen as the little snake followed her orders. It cautiously, quietly, locked its gaze on the once-dominant enemy, the eagle, and waited for the perfect moment to strike.
With its venom, the little snake didn't need to engage in a long battle with the eagle; it only had to find an opportunity to release its venom before the eagle could paralyze or kill it.
But this task was still somewhat difficult for the little snake.
Sophia Johnson watched the screen as the black little snake was torn apart by the eagle's claws, pecked by its sharp beak, and nearly caught. Several times it was on the verge of being killed, but in the end, the eagle grew sluggish, eventually collapsing to the ground. The snake didn't die under the violent attack.
When the eagle finally died, the heavily injured little snake greedily slithered to the eagle's corpse and started to devour it whole. Its body visibly grew as it consumed the larger-than-itself eagle.
Sophia Johnson finally let out a sigh of relief. She realized she had been holding her breath through the entire ordeal.
Before she could marvel at the snake's bizarre "swallowing" ability, another line of text appeared on the screen.
[Thanks to the enhanced physique after leveling up, your familiar barely won the fight. However, it has sustained serious injuries and won't be able to hunt again until it heals.]
[But the good news is that evolution can speed up the healing process.]
[Current Evolution Points: 100/50]
[Upgrade Conditions Met, Proceed with Upgrade?]
[Note: Lv2→Lv3 upgrade requires 30 seconds. During these 30 seconds, the familiar will lose consciousness.]
[Choose: 1. Upgrade here, 2. Find a concealed location to upgrade]
Without hesitation, Sophia Johnson chose 2.
The little snake was already badly injured, and if it were to evolve while being targeted by the eagle or other creatures, it could easily be killed.
Finding a hidden location took some time, but the evolution only required a short period, and soon, her bold choice bore fruit.
[Evolution Complete]
[Snake: Lv3]
[Mental: 5]
[Physical: 20]
[Attribute: None]
[Trait: Venom Lv2, Sharp Lv1]
On the screen, the black snake's body grew even larger, its fangs seemed sharper, and its vision range increased to about 50 meters. But what Sophia Johnson cared about more was her own body.
This time, she felt even more clearly that her body was improving as the snake evolved.
Her breathing had become smoother. The constant tightness around her lungs that made breathing feel difficult was gone.
She had never realized how easy breathing could be.
A joyous expression involuntarily appeared on the girl's face. If this continued, she would definitely regain her health.
No.
Sophia Johnson's expression changed, and her eyes sharpened. She didn't just want a healthy body.
Perhaps it was the game that fed her ambition, or the sense of crisis brought by this dead city, but she no longer just wanted an ordinary human body. She wanted a powerful one, a body that could surpass human limits, one that would allow her to live freely here.
Sophia Johnson breathed out slowly. To achieve her goal, she needed to be even more clear-headed when making decisions.
Just as she was about to continue the game, a sound from the door suddenly made the hairs on her neck stand up.
—Knock, knock, knock.
It was just an ordinary knock, but it was a sound that shouldn't be there!
The girl's hand holding the game console froze, and she slowly turned to look at the door. Her mind raced as she thought about who could be knocking at her door.
The answer was clear: No one.
There was no one left in her neighborhood, and she didn't have any friends who would come looking for her.
So who was knocking?