At this moment, the blood on Sophia Johnson's body had mostly congealed, especially the blood that splattered on her face and hair when she slit the girl's throat, which made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. But the side effects of her bloodthirst were starting to kick in, and now, aside from sitting limply in her wheelchair, she couldn't lift even a single finger.
Sophia Johnson stared at the clock, calculating the time. Just over ten minutes had passed, and she could already feel her body recovering noticeably.
"It seems the side effects last about ten minutes."
Ten minutes—a considerable amount of time. If she were in a dangerous environment, those ten minutes could be enough to get her killed several times over.
"I can only hope that improving my physical condition and upgrading my bloodthirst will reduce the impact of the side effects."
Right now, the most pressing concern was her next move.
The biggest issue was the black mist outside. Stepping out of the room almost certainly meant walking straight into it. Although the room wasn't sealed, the mist inside was much less dense compared to outside.
After killing the girl, Sophia Johnson had a nagging question. Since the city was sealed off, she hadn't seen any other humans. She didn't know how fast the black mist could corrupt a person's mind, but from what she had seen with the boy yesterday and the girl today, it seemed that anyone left in this city had probably already turned out like them. But Sophia couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't being affected by the mist as much...
She hadn't noticed any strange changes in her own eyes when she looked in the mirror during her daily routine.
Sophia Johnson thought she might have some resistance to the black mist, and based on her current, somewhat pathetic physical state, this resistance had probably existed before she obtained the game device. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have made it to the day she got the device.
Before, she hadn't realized this, but now, she suddenly thought that maybe she had some kind of hidden talent...
The game device appearing by her side wasn't necessarily a coincidence. At the very least, she must have some trait that attracted it.
With that thought in mind, Sophia Johnson decided to do something rather bold.
But before doing that, she picked up the game device, and the screen showed the interface after the little snake leveled up.
[Familiar: Snake Lv11]
[Spirit: 140]
[Body: 560]
[Attributes: Blade]
[Traits: Poison Lv5, Sharpness Lv3, Bloodthirst Lv4, Cunning Lv2]
[Evolution Points: 700/1500]
The spirit and body stats had increased, and it was clear that after reaching level 10, each subsequent level up gave a more substantial boost. But aside from that, there were no other changes.
Sophia wasn't disappointed. She clicked to confirm, and a line of text appeared on the screen.
[The world is unpredictable. You realize that to survive, you must make some changes.]
[Now that you're certain of what needs to be done, no further guidance is needed. From now on, you will issue commands to your familiar yourself.]
[Please note: The intelligence of your familiars will increase as their levels rise. Most of the time, your commands won't need to be too detailed, as your familiars will handle things according to their situation, unless you need them to do something specific.]
As the text faded, a virtual keyboard appeared on the screen. Since Sophia wasn't familiar with using computers, she had to slowly tap out each letter with the game device's controls.
[Command: Go to the old residential building behind the Bell and Drum Tower to hunt and gather information.]
She clicked confirm, and the little snake set off. The progress bar was still at 7 hours, meaning that leveling up didn't change the time for an action.
Next, Sophia moved her wheelchair toward the window. The city had accumulated so much mist that it was hard to tell what the weather was like outside. Whether the sun was shining or the sky was clear, it all appeared the same in the shroud of black mist—gloomy and oppressive. Even through the window, she could see the black mist swirling in the air.
At that moment, Sophia decided to take a bold step. She extended her hand and slowly pushed the window open.
The black mist immediately poured in through the gap, and Sophia didn't move to avoid it. She allowed the mist to wash over her face and breathe it in.
This was a risky move, but Sophia believed it was necessary. One thing was certain—there were people after her, people who were no longer normal. She didn't yet have the strength to confront them head-on, so she had to leave this place.
And to leave, she needed to face the black mist.
She was testing it now—if anything went wrong, she could always retreat.
Sophia sat by the window for a long time, inhaling the high concentration of mist, but she felt no change. Afterward, she went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, still seeing no sign of blackness in her eyes.
"Indeed..."
She definitely had some resistance to the "mental corruption" of the black mist. Otherwise, like everyone else, she would've completely lost her mind by now.
"Good."
With that, she could leave her home and put her plan into action.
After drying her hair, Sophia didn't pay attention to the body lying at the door. Instead, she grabbed the game device and began upgrading her second familiar.
Time was precious now.
Around 10:30 PM, Sophia had just leveled up the little dog to Lv7.
[Familiar: Dog Lv7]
[Spirit: 20]
[Body: 360]
[Attributes: None]
[Traits: Strength Lv4, Smell Lv3, Vigilance Lv1]
She stared at the progress bar from Lv7 to Lv8 and frowned. At this rate, it would take at least three or four more days to get the dog to Lv10—far too slow.
Moreover, she needed Little One to be her bodyguard to protect her on her trip to the old residential district tomorrow morning. Sending the dog off alone to search for the black fruit was too much of a gamble. If it had bad luck, it might not find anything and would waste precious time.
In the current situation where she desperately needed to strengthen herself, relying on luck was not a wise choice.
Sophia decided to send the dog to hunt down stronger prey that would still be asleep at dawn to gather evolution points.
Since the dog's physical strength and power evolved so visibly, it might have unexpected gains from a stealth attack.
As for the black fruit, she would search for it later when she had settled into a new home.
Having made up her mind, not long after, Little One's 7-hour progress bar was completed. Sophia lay down and clicked on Little One's icon to check the results of this session's training.