Chapter 142: The Lucky Star

Ethan turned his head toward the entrance.

The heavy wooden door creaked open just wide enough for a slender figure to peek inside. Penny stood in the doorway, her head tilted slightly, casting nervous glances around the cabin as though terrified she might be caught intruding. Seeing Ethan sitting upright on the edge of the bed with his chest bare and unbandaged, she quietly slipped through the gap and pushed the door shut behind her, easing the latch into place without making a sound.

Clutched tightly in her small, pale hand was a square of dry, compressed military biscuit, half of it already nibbled away.

She crept toward the foot of the bed on tiptoe, her large, round eyes locked onto his chest where the deep gashes and acid burns had been only hours before. Seeing only smooth skin and three faint, pale lines, her breath caught in her throat.

"Ethan... are you completely better?"

Her voice was soft, fragile, and laced with hesitant disbelief.

Ethan pulled a clean black undershirt over his head and gave her a calm nod.

"More or less. The venom is gone, and the meridians have cleared."

Penny remained standing three feet away, staring at him intently as though searching his face for any subtle grimace that might betray hidden pain. She looked at his healed wrist, then back up at his dark, steady eyes.

Slowly, the rims of her eyelids reddened.

The half-eaten biscuit slipped from her numb fingers, tumbling onto the wooden floorboards with a dull, hollow thud.

"It’s all my fault..."

Her lower lip trembled, her voice cracking under a wave of suffocating emotion.

"If I hadn’t been so stupid... if I hadn’t insisted on taking Susan and Linda outside the shelter, you would never have had to fight that flying monster. You wouldn’t have been caught by that dragon, and you wouldn’t have suffered for five whole days..."

Hot, heavy tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks, leaving glistening tracks across her pale skin.

She dropped her head, her shoulders shaking violently as she fought to suppress the ragged sobs catching in her throat. The guilt she had carried while pacing outside the cabin all week, listening to the muffled silence within, finally tore through her defenses.

"Punish me, Ethan," she whispered, stepping closer until her knees pressed against the wooden frame of the bed. She squeezed her eyes shut, lifting her tear-streaked face in complete surrender. "You can punish me however you want. I won’t complain. I deserve it."

Ethan looked at the trembling girl standing before him.

The remorse in her voice was raw and genuine. Over the past five days, while confined within the vast emptiness of the Survival Space, she had replayed the terrifying moment the flying zombie dove at her throat a thousand times. She knew better than anyone that her willful defiance had nearly cost both of them their lives.

Looking at her red nose and quivering chin, a flicker of sympathy stirred in his chest.

Then, catching the absurd earnestness in her tearful expression, a mischievous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Really? However I want?"

Penny froze.

The air in the cabin suddenly grew warm.

The bright color rushed back into her face with terrifying speed, the crimson flush spreading from her cheeks down to the delicate tips of her ears. She stole a frantic glance up at him, only to find his dark eyes studying her with intense, unhurried amusement.

Her heart began to hammer against her ribs like a trapped bird. She dropped her gaze back to her boots, her slender fingers nervously twisting and knotting the hem of her loose shirt until the fabric was wrinkled tight.

Over the past five nights, while the rest of the haven slept, Penny had not been blind.

She had seen Daisy slip through the shadows toward Ethan’s door late into the night, returning to her own quarters only as the ambient dawn light began to stir. She had seen Debbie and Tessa emerge from this very room afternoon after afternoon with disheveled hair, flushed cheeks, and breathless exhaustion.

Penny was young, but she was not an ignorant child. She understood full well the unspoken intimacy that bound those women to Ethan, even if she had never dared to speak of it aloud.

And now, Ethan was calmly asking her to name her punishment.

Does he want me to... like Daisy?

The mere thought sent a jolt of heat through her veins that made her dizzy. Her chest heaved, her knuckles whitening as she wrestled with the terrifying, thrilling prospect.

She remembered the taste of his lips on the ruined street when he had saved her life, the overwhelming safety of his broad chest, and the sheer terror of almost losing him to the drake’s claws.

Biting down hard on her lower lip, Penny swallowed the lump in her throat and gave a tiny, trembling nod.

Her fingers tightened even further around her shirt, steeling herself for what was to come.

Ethan watched her agonizing internal debate for a few quiet seconds, the play of sheer panic and desperate resolve across her youthful features thoroughly entertaining him.

Slowly, he reached his hand toward her.

Penny’s entire body stiffened into iron. Her breath hitched in her throat, her eyelids fluttering shut as she waited for his strong fingers to pull her down onto the mattress.

Instead, a cold, hard object pressed lightly against her knuckles.

Penny blinked.

She opened her eyes, startled to find Ethan’s open palm held out flat before her chest.

Resting on his calloused skin was the large, pale-blue crystal he had extracted from the skull of the Elite flying zombie outside the library. It hummed with distinct, condensed aerial energy, its crystalline facets catching the lamplight with a cold, pristine gleam.

"Open your mouth," Ethan said with an entirely straight, authoritative face. "It’s time to take your medicine. This is your punishment."

Penny stared blankly at the crystal, then looked up into Ethan’s calm eyes, the tears still clinging to her long eyelashes.

"Huh? I... I have to eat this?"

Ethan couldn’t hold it in any longer. He burst into rich, unrestrained laughter, the sound echoing warmly through the cabin.

"Of course you have to eat it," Ethan chuckled, shaking his head. "What on earth did you think I was going to do to you?"

He reached out, his broad hand resting over the crown of her head and affectionately ruffling her messy hair until it stood in tousled tufts.

"Little girl, your mind isn’t nearly as pure as you pretend it is."

Penny’s face turned an explosive, incandescent scarlet.

"Ethan!"

Mortified beyond measure, she lunged forward, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her burning face directly into the crook of his collar, desperately hiding her blush from his teasing gaze.

"I won’t be stubborn again," she mumbled into his shoulder, her voice muffled against the fabric of his shirt. "I swear I’ll listen to you from now on."

Ethan smiled, wrapping an arm around her slender back and pulling her comfortably against his chest, letting her embarrassment settle.

"You’d better," Ethan replied, a low chuckle rumbling in his chest. "Because if you ever pull a stunt like that and sneak into a mutant pack again, I won’t just lecture you. I’ll turn you over my knee and spank your bottom until you can’t sit for a week."

Penny buried her face deeper into his neck, her cheeks burning even hotter, but she didn’t pull away.

After a quiet moment in his embrace, she finally lifted her head, sniffling softly as she wiped the remaining dampness from under her eyes. She looked down at the pale-blue crystal resting in his left palm and reached out with two fingers, taking the heavy Core.

She parted her lips and slipped the crystal into her mouth, tilting her head back to swallow it.

The moment the dense Core crossed her throat, it dissolved into liquid spiritual heat.

A pure, rushing torrent of aerial energy erupted in her stomach, surging outward through her limbs in a wild, exhilarating wave. Penny’s eyes went wide with wonder as the energy gathered between her shoulder blades, tingling with sharp, electric intensity.

Whoosh!

Without any conscious command, a brilliant, radiant pair of Light Wings burst outward from her back.

Unlike the fragile, flickering plumage she had summoned in the alleyway, these newly evolved wings were vast, broad, and crystalline. Translucent feathers woven from pure, condensed photons shimmered with a brilliant golden-white radiance, illuminating the entire wooden room in a dazzling display of power. The air around the bed stirred violently as the ethereal wings caught the ambient light, humming with high-frequency aerial authority.

Penny turned her head around, staring in breathless awe at the majestic, luminous wings spanning nearly three meters from tip to tip.

At the exact same instant, a cascade of glowing golden notifications erupted directly across Ethan’s retinas:

[Gifted an Elite-Level Flying Zombie Core to a female target with a Beauty Score of 93.]

[Gift cooldown refreshed for this target.]

[Penny, 19 years old. Beauty Score: 93. Rarity: 94.]

[Base Return Multiplier triggered: 100x!]

[Target emotional fluctuation detected: Absolute Devotion + Profound Gratitude!]

[Super-High Critical Drop Unlocked!]

[Penny’s Ability evolved: Peak A-Rank Aerial Dominance (Photon Blades + Sonic Burst).]

[Host Reward: SSS-Rank Sub-Skill, Spatial Fold (Instantaneous micro-warp within line of sight, zero cooldown for short bursts).]

Ethan froze on the edge of the bed.

His dark eyes widened as he read the shimmering golden text hanging in the air before him, the sheer magnitude of the reward hitting him like a thunderclap. An instant, zero-cooldown spatial fold was the exact short-range mobility asset he had lacked during his deadly duel with the Blackscale Drake.

For several seconds, he simply sat there in stunned silence.

Then, a broad, brilliant grin spread across his face.

Ethan reached out with both hands, cupped Penny’s flushed cheeks, and pulled her forward, planting a loud, firm kiss directly onto the center of her forehead.

"Penny," Ethan laughed, his eyes flashing with raw delight, "you really are my damn lucky star!"