Chapter 17: The Strange Girl

Her intuition hadn’t been wrong.

When she was leaving the apartment building with Loweia earlier, Bai Yu felt a gaze land on her.

At the time, she had simply dismissed it as an illusion.

However, after walking around outside with Loweia for a while, Bai Yu realized that her initial feeling wasn’t a mistake.

Something really was watching them from the shadows.

‘Damn it… today was supposed to be the perfect time to get closer to Loweia. I should have been planning the next part of our trip and building our relationship.’

But because of that hidden presence in the dark, Bai Yu had to devote her energy to monitoring that prying gaze.

It made it impossible for her to concentrate fully on spending time with Loweia.

‘My Precognition hasn’t been very helpful yet. Let’s try one more time.’

Bai Yu attempted to activate her Precognition again.

This time, she saw a few blurry images and could just barely make out what was about to happen.

‘If the precognition is right, then… this is bad!’

Bai Yu came to a sudden halt.

Right then, she heard Loweia let out a startled cry beside her.

“Whoa!”

‘Eh?’

Bai Yu instinctively turned around, only to see Loweia quickly pulling her hand back.

What had she been trying to do just now?

“Wei Ya? What happened?”

“No… it’s nothing…”

For some reason, Loweia’s voice sounded a bit guilty, as if she had been caught playing some sort of trick.

However, since she didn’t intend to speak up, Bai Yu naturally didn’t press for answers.

After all, there were more important matters to deal with right now.

“I see. Oh, by the way, we’ve been walking around the whole morning. Are you hungry? If you are, we can go…”

Just as she was about to lead Loweia to a nearby restaurant, she saw the girl shake her head.

“I’m not hungry yet.”

“Alright, let’s keep walking for a bit, then.”

Hearing this, Loweia breathed a sigh of relief.

That was close; she had almost been caught by Bai Yu.

But even if she had been caught, Bai Yu probably would have just been happy.

After all, whenever they went out in the past, they would definitely hold hands.

Although they were walking together now, they weren’t holding hands like they used to.

To passersby, they probably looked like ordinary friends rather than a Lover.

Loweia wasn’t actually ready to hold hands yet.

She just wanted to try and find that old feeling.

With Bai Yu interrupting her like that, the idea of holding hands immediately vanished from her mind.

‘Maybe next time. When there’s a better opportunity, I’ll sneakily grab her hand and give her a surprise.’

Just as she made a new decision in her head, Bai Yu stopped again.

“We’re here.”

Looking up, Loweia realized that Bai Yu had brought her to a clothing store.

“Let’s go eat after we finish buying some clothes.”

Memories of what happened at home earlier flashed through her mind.

Loweia recalled that their itinerary did indeed include a trip to buy clothes.

Following Bai Yu into the store, she saw the other girl point at the dresses on the racks.

“Do you want to buy a new dress, Wei Ya? If you need one — “

Hearing this, Loweia shook her head.

“Everything at home is like a new dress to me. There’s no need to buy more.”

“Mm, then let’s come over here.”

Since Loweia didn’t need new dresses, they would stick to the original plan and help her buy some intimate wear that fit her body.

Bai Yu led Loweia to the lingerie section.

The dazzling array of items on the shelves left Loweia feeling a bit dazed.

There were simply too many varieties.

“Um, Bai Yu, I…”

For a moment, she didn’t know how to choose.

“Just pick whatever you like.”

Fortunately, having lived as a girl for so long in this life gave Bai Yu plenty of experience in buying underwear.

Otherwise, she really wouldn’t have known how to help Loweia shop for these.

In the end, based on Loweia’s preferences, they chose a few sets of light-colored, plain styles.

Afterward, based on Loweia’s measurements, they asked the clerk to find the corresponding sizes.

“The fitting rooms are over there. You can try them on.”

Following the clerk’s instructions, Bai Yu brought Loweia to the fitting rooms.

Holding the pile of intimate wear in her arms, the white-haired girl’s face turned slightly red.

“You should be able to manage on your own, right, Wei Ya?”

The blushing girl nodded slightly.

“Alright, I’ll wait for you out here.”

Once Loweia entered the room and closed the door, Bai Yu waved to the clerk and quickly left the clothing store.

Given how clumsy Loweia had been this morning, those sets would take her quite a while to change into.

She had to use this time to hurry up and deal with that guy outside.

In fact, the reason Bai Yu chose to take Loweia clothes shopping at this specific time was to intentionally move her out of the way.

When she activated her Precognition for the last time, Bai Yu saw a blurry image.

It showed her and Loweia passing by an alley while shopping, where Loweia was suddenly attacked.

The vision ended there.

Bai Yu wasn’t sure what happened next, but the fact that Loweia would be attacked was more than she could stand to imagine.

In any case, she had to change the timeline.

Bai Yu jogged all the way until she found the alleyway she had seen in her vision.

This was the place.

In the vision, when she and Loweia passed by, an Abnormal Entity hiding under a trash can had launched a surprise attack on Loweia.

Although the image was blurry, Bai Yu had seen the enemy’s general shape. It shouldn’t be a high-level Abnormal Entity.

She should be able to handle it.

After searching the surroundings, Bai Yu found a brick in the green belt.

She was just missing a handy weapon.

She didn’t know who had left it there, but it was helping her out perfectly.

She weighed the brick in her hand. ‘Hmm… good grip, and plenty of weight.’

If she slammed this directly into someone’s head, they would be heavily injured if not dead.

Arriving at the mouth of the alley, Bai Yu confirmed there were no pedestrians around and kicked the trash can over.

“Come out!”

Now that its hiding spot was exposed, was the creature really going to stay hidden?

A second later, a dark shadow poked its head out from the ground next to the overturned trash can.

It didn’t seem to expect its hiding spot to be kicked open so violently.

It had only just emerged and hadn’t even had time to assess the situation before the brick in Bai Yu’s hand came whistling through the air, greeting it with a heavy blow.

“Die!”

*Thwack!*

Accompanied by a crisp sound, the solid brick smashed hard against the head the shadow had just raised.

With Bai Yu’s “help,” the rest of its body was successfully pulled from the ground.

However, since her strength was a bit too much, the black shadow flew back and slammed into the wall behind it with a *splat*, looking like a pile of black sludge.

Looking at the black mud with two green eyes on the wall, Bai Yu identified the enemy’s identity.

It was a Shadow Lurker.

In the monster manual of *Star Song*, even though it was classified as a D-rank Hunter, this thing was absolutely at the bottom of the D-rank tier.

It was good at ambushes, but its frontal combat strength was very weak.

For Bai Yu, killing an enemy of this level was no problem at all.

The Shadow Lurker slid down from the wall.

Just as it was about to reform its body, Bai Yu stepped forward and hit it with the brick a few more times.

She smashed its body to pieces until nothing remained but a puddle of foul-smelling black water.

‘Alright, it’s settled. I should get back quickly.’

Just then, as Bai Yu was about to leave, she suddenly had an ominous premonition.

She seemed to see a vision of herself being pierced by a surprise attack from behind.

‘Precognition again?’

Bai Yu instinctively dodged to the side.

A second later, a black spike grazed past her.

She was nearly impaled through the heart.

That was close…

Gripping the brick tightly, Bai Yu turned around only to find more than one pair of green eyes appearing in the dark corners of the alley.

‘Damn it…’

Did she just stumble into a nest of Shadow Lurkers?

Why were there so many?

Even if one brick could take one out, she couldn’t handle them if there were too many of them.

This was bad. With so many, she couldn’t manage the situation.

What should she do?

Should she go back and take Loweia away immediately?

“Oh, mysterious young lady, you seem to be in some trouble.”

Just then, she heard a somewhat familiar voice ring out from above her head.