Night had already fallen. Streetlamps lit up one by one, and the sound of passing cars drifted from afar.

The night wind outside the Orphanage was a bit cold.

Monica stood at the entrance, rubbing her arms and stamping her feet back and forth.

“Hoo—hiss, it’s so cold…”

“It’s almost winter, after all.”

A warm voice came from behind her.

Monica completely froze.

The next second, she jumped like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.

“Uwuaaahhh!”

She spun around abruptly.

Under the streetlamp at the entrance of the Orphanage, a young girl had appeared out of nowhere.

Long silver-white hair, ruby-like eyes, and a black western-style dress swaying gently in the night breeze.

Standing there, she looked completely out of place against the somewhat rundown street, like a noble young lady stepping straight out of a fairy tale.

“M-Miss Phil?!”

Phil tilted her head slightly.

“What? Surprised to see me? Also, I highly advise you to keep your voice down. Otherwise, trouble may arrive in just a moment.”

Monica looked around in a panic and noticed that a few passersby were already staring at her suspiciously. One person had even taken out their phone, seemingly ready to call the police.

So Monica hurriedly lowered her head and moved away from the spot, asking Phil in a hushed voice:

“Others can’t see you?”

“It seems so,” Phil said unhurriedly in an elegant tone. “I am currently in a soul state, and it seems only my Contractor can see me.”

As she spoke, Phil took a couple of steps in a leisurely manner, looking around.

This was her first time “visiting” X City, even if it was inside a game.

After all, ever since the Calamities and supernatural powers descended together, the world outside the cities had turned into wastelands occupied by various Calamities, making traveling outside quite difficult.

Compared to the prosperity of W City, X City’s infrastructure seemed quite backward, giving off a vibe from a decade ago, as if it had been left behind by the progress of the era.

But in a way, this place was very suitable for retirement; it felt devoid of pressure.

Unlike Phil, who was casually looking around, ever since Monica saw this mysterious Devil—suspected to be a high-level Calamity—her heartbeat had stayed at an extremely high frequency without dropping, and her eyes remained glued to her.

Seeing that the other party had no intention of speaking first, Monica finally couldn’t hold back and braced herself to ask:

“Miss Phil, you… got off work?”

“Yes, I even had to work overtime today.”

The Devil smiled sweetly and said to Monica:

“I originally just wanted to see if my Contractor had died without permission while I was away. But I ended up accidentally seeing some interesting things.”

Monica looked into those scarlet eyes, and for a moment, she had the illusion that everything about her was exposed under the other party’s gaze.

Her throat tightened a little.

“What… what do you know?”

“I don’t know everything, I only know what I know.”

“…”

Monica was silent for a moment, before retorting:

“Even if you use quotes from the Monogatari series, it won’t make you look cool, Miss Phil. That’s an old anime from decades ago.”

“Eh?! The Monogatari series is outdated?!”

Phil blurted out subconsciously, showing a shocked expression for the first time. Then, she coughed heavily twice, finding her way back into character.

“That’s not the point. Anyway, I’m not interested in the children of that Orphanage. You can rest assured.”

“…I see.”

Honestly, Monica breathed a sigh of relief.

If Miss Phil were to target the Orphanage, she really didn’t have much confidence in being able to stop her.

Looking at Monica, whose changes in expression were exceptionally easy to read, Phil couldn’t help but say:

“Aren’t you afraid I’m lying to you?”

“So you were lying to me?!”

“…”

Forget it, she was already silly to begin with. It was best not to tease a fool.

Phil sighed.

After a while, Monica, who finally realized what happened, also blushed in embarrassment.

Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she jerked her head up and looked at Phil with hope.

“Um, Miss Phil, do you think you could—”

“No.”

Before Monica could finish, Phil, having already guessed what she wanted to say, calmly interrupted her words.

Although emotionally speaking, Lin Han, the person inside Phil, also really wanted to help the child named “Xiao Rou,” this mechanical body of Phil simply didn’t have that ability, so it was better not to give people false hope.

“I see.”

Monica seemed to know this would be the result, so she wasn’t disappointed for too long, and soon clenched her fists again to cheer herself up.

“Then, I’ll just have to work hard myself!”

“What are you going to do?”

Phil asked with some curiosity.

“First of all, make money!”

Monica said optimistically, “Xiao Rou needs quite a lot of money for her treatment, so I have to work hard to take more commissions!”

“Besides, I still have Miss Phil to back me up, hehe.”

Watching the cheerful Monica, the corners of Phil’s mouth subconsciously turned up a little.

“So, this is your mission location?”

“I-I didn’t expect it to be like this either… I want to go home…”

Looking at the overflowing sewage, dried black sludge, and rats scurrying everywhere, Monica’s face turned ashen.

Abandoned sewer.

These words had looked very unremarkable on the commission board.

In fact, the word “abandoned” even gave off the illusion that “since no one uses it, it shouldn’t be that dirty.”

But the place before her eyes was beyond the point of being merely “dirty.”

The walls were crawling with damp moss, the constant drip-drop of water echoed from deep within the pipes, and the air was thick with a mix of rust, decay, and an indescribable sour stench.

Monica stood at the entrance, frozen stiff as a statue.

“Hurry up. Where did your determination from earlier go?”

“That’s easy for you to say, Miss Phil!” Monica said, on the verge of a breakdown, her face twisted in a bitter grimace. “You can fly, but I can’t!”

Phil floated in mid-air, the hem of her skirt untainted by a single drop of sewage.

Her silvery-white hair gave off a faint glow in the gloomy environment, forming a stark contrast with the filthy sewer around them.

She glanced down at the ground, her brows furrowing imperceptibly.

To be honest, she could barely stand it either.

The environmental feedback of this game was simply too realistic.

So realistic that she was starting to suspect the game’s production team had specially hired someone to live in a sewer for three months just to gather material.

Looking at the suspicious stains on the walls, she couldn’t help but wonder: was it really necessary for the developers to make such details so lifelike?

Was there some sort of sewer fanatic on the dev team?

But to maintain her persona, Phil feigned composure and asked,

“Let’s not waste time. What is your commission?”

Monica hurriedly took out an old-model phone, looking as if she had finally found something to distract herself.

“Drainage Channel 13 in the old district of X City has been frequently emitting abnormal noises over the past two weeks. At night, nearby residents have heard gnawing, roaring, and sounds suspected to be the movement of large creatures. It is initially suspected to be the influence of a Calamity’s aura; certified Calamity Hunters are requested to investigate.”

After she finished reading, she added in a low voice:

“The rating is D-Class, and the reward fluctuates based on the confirmed results.”

Phil stared at the pitch-black end of the sewer, where it seemed as though many eerie green eyes were staring back at them.

“In other words, it’s probably just a few mutated rats?”

“They are very valuable mutated rats.”

Monica corrected Phil’s remark.

Watching a fat rat swim past in the murky sewage ahead, Monica’s face paled a bit more, but she finally overcame her nausea and trudged forward step by step.

“You can’t look down on rats. As long as a rat can be exchanged for money, it’s a good rat.”

It was hard to tell who she was saying that to.

“Your values have been corrupted by poverty.”

“Miss Phil, having no money is 10,000 times scarier than rats.”

Monica wore a look of absolute determination, as if marching to her death.