Chapter 8: Quick Recovery

"..." It takes Nio some time to steady herself after being struck by the panic she felt, but despite all the fear she manages to calm down with a single rational thought — as terrifying as she is, her wife still has to obey the Lore she has.

And even though Nio has no idea what powers she possesses, she still knows that her Lore creates very fixed objectives for Typhon, very obvious objectives that won’t change.

"If Typhon has to obey the Lore, she probably follows the same logic that turned me into the literal Nio... which means... Typhon is locked at level 100 and bound to the desire to destroy everything I have... in the joint Lore, Typhon was as strong as Nio, who balanced the universe just by existing."

"But if such a being existed with that much power, she would have found me almost instantly and would have already come to me... I think I’m lucky. I don’t know why I came to this other world, I don’t understand how it was possible, whether it was magic or some bizarre bug in the VR device."

"At least I know Typhon isn’t some absurd cosmic deity... I can defeat her." Nio spent hours repeating this to herself, convincing herself that Typhon is an opponent who can be defeated with the right strategy.

"It’s like pulling off a PVP against an event boss — nobody knows its weaknesses, strengths, spells, or basic attacks, but you can still fight... I’m strong! Very strong! A max-level player!! Whether it’s this wife or other threats... I can win." Nio speaks as she exits the vault and locks the massive door that protects the immense treasure hall.

Soon after, she teleports directly to Nio’s personal room in the game, an area she barely used in the game since it was more decorative, but where she still kept a few useful things.

"[Azalea, tell me what you found.]" Nio uses the mental spell [Message] — a nearly mandatory spell the game had — to communicate with Azalea. While she waits for the contact to be accepted, she looks around her room.

It’s exaggeratedly cute and feminine, with an extremely large canopy bed lined with soft white sheets and countless pillows and plushies of various adorable animals.

Aside from the pastel pink and white walls, she had purposely used the "Princess Room" stereotype to design this room. Right now, she just feels a certain anger toward the past and her choices.

’Too cute, and all this pastel pink makes me a little uncomfortable! It completely erases any possible trace that I... forget it, it’s just a room, the color hardly matters. At least I know the bed must be wonderful...’

"[Nio, I’m glad you reached out. I was already planning to contact you. As for what I found, absolutely nothing within a 10-kilometer radius in every direction. It’s an empty plain.]"

"[However, I found roads, and it seems there are kingdoms far away, though I can’t confirm anything because I wasn’t there in person. But I did find fresh carriage tracks — it seems to be a well-traveled road.]"

"[Besides that, I found nothing useful in the area. Rare ores, precious stones, forests, lakes — none of that. In other words, it’s a ’useless’ plain, which is probably why it’s unoccupied. It only has space, but no resources or water to exploit...]"

’...Kingdoms... and a well-traveled trail... well, that makes sense. If she mentioned carriages, then this world isn’t modern. It must be close to medieval, or it is medieval, or before the medieval period. Regardless of the answer, having no threats nearby is good...’ Nio takes a deep breath. She had already deduced something like this considering how pure the air is.

"[Perfect. If there’s nothing around us, I want you to return. Besides that, I’m busy thinking about some things. I want you to go to each apostle on the other floors and tell them not to leave their designated floors.]" Nio still isn’t ready to see her other NPCs, so she tries to limit any initial contact strategically.

"[We don’t know when a threat might appear to attack our island, which is vulnerable without its battery. Also... please keep watch over the surroundings to keep an eye out for any invaders nearby, using your vines to detect movement.]"

"[And finally, set traps around a 500-meter radius from the palace. Make holes that, when fallen into, will devour intruders with carnivorous plants. That should deal with any low-level monsters or semi-intelligent low-level enemies.]" Nio quickly cuts the communication before Azalea can speak to her.

"Haaa..." With a sigh, Nio throws herself onto the soft bed and starts rolling around on it, her tail wrapping around her thigh to roll along with her.

"It’s not just the problem with the NPCs and my ’wife’ — I’ll have to manage my personality... no NPC can find out about my lack of experience... it would be good to test my weapon to see if I can use it properly... test magic too...’ Nio thinks about the possibilities.

She has several items that allow her to see very far. Due to the game’s constantly expanding map, various boss drops appeared — grimoires, artifacts, and even spells for seeing long distances.

’I could use these long-range spells or artifacts to see really far... I need to test my magic, my weapons, and... how much I can psychologically handle seeing death, destruction, and chaos... I’ll need a mind of steel to defeat Typhon.’ Nio thinks like a player.

She’s not sure if she can take lives or not, but she prefers to choose the act of taking lives and defending herself rather than doing nothing. Her alignment is already evil anyway, and she can’t bring herself to feel bad thinking about it because of the mental shift brought on by her body and alignment.

Needing to prepare for the decisive moment, she doesn’t know how her enemy will act or what she’ll seek. She only knows that her goal will undoubtedly be to destroy everything she has and affect her negatively. So, even without knowing for certain, Nio prefers to be ready for anything.

"I hope there aren’t other players... Typhon didn’t belong to the world’s Lore, but to my character’s personal Lore. Considering everything, the World’s Lore is probably the reason I ended up here."

"But my body followed the avatar’s personal Lore since I’m only here with the game’s things, so Typhon must be forced to follow a player’s limitations... that makes Typhon what? An NPC? A boss? Or... could she be considered a player even though she’s not really one..." This is an important question for Nio, since these things change how the status system behaves.

"There are so many possibilities... so much to think about... this... is actually kind of exciting... like in the past... planning a boss’s downfall before fighting it even once." She gives a small smile, recovering her confidence and returning to planning a future she still can’t touch.