Erni, who was lying on the sofa playing on her phone, calculated that enough time had passed. She exited the mobile game, glanced at the time, and heard the sound of hooves approaching.
A horse?
Erni jolted upright on the bed. Then she saw Cyan and Nishi walking over, with a chestnut Friesian horse following behind them. Her eyes widened in shock. She threw her phone aside and quickly walked over.
"Where did this Friesian horse come from?" Erni circled around Unabi. If she wasn't afraid of getting kicked, she would have already started petting it.
"Don't tell me you brought it out from the survival game world?" Erni guessed.
Cough!
Nishi lightly coughed and said, "This warhorse was given to Master by Lancelot. It's a battlefield trophy. Oh, and Master named it 'Unabi.'"
"Una… Unabi? Uh… That's a pretty healthy name." Erni hadn't expected such a beautiful, majestic, and imposing warhorse to be given such a… such a wholesome name by Cyan. It went well with goji berries.
Such a beautiful horse… Those muscles and sharp eyes. It's definitely not like modern horses. This is a warhorse that's been on the battlefield.
Erni examined Unabi and carefully extended her hand. The horse snorted, and she quickly pulled her hand back. With an awkward smile, she asked, "By the way, what world did you two go to for this round of the survival game?"
"Round Table Knights."
Cyan answered Erni while leading Unabi toward the bathroom.
"Round Table Knights? Isn't that related to King Arthur?"
"Yeah, but it's a bit different from history. Master and I went with Arthur, Lancelot, and Percival to subjugate an evil archduke named Garibaldi. In the end, there was a small accident…"
Nishi spread her thumb and index finger slightly apart. In other words, they had stolen the Golden Grail that the others needed.
"Unabi, this is the toilet. It's for doing your business. This button is for washing your butt. This one is for drying. This one flushes the toilet. Don't get them mixed up — cleaning up the house is a lot of trouble. Don't cause me any problems, understand?"
Before Nishi could finish speaking, Cyan's voice came from the bathroom.
The air fell into a strange silence. Nishi and Erni looked at each other.
Teaching a horse how to use the toilet… This is truly an unprecedented operation. No one has ever done something like this before.
What was even more outrageous was that Cyan would say something, and Unabi would respond with a sound, as if it actually understood.
"Pfft… Pfft…"
Erni imagined Cyan seriously pointing at the toilet and teaching Unabi how to use it. She covered her mouth, took two quick steps, jumped onto the sofa, and buried her face in a pillow while kicking her legs and laughing.
"Hey! It's… it's not that funny!"
Nishi watched Erni laughing so hard and started laughing too. To avoid being heard by Cyan, she tried to keep her voice down.
A moment later, when Erni went to the bathroom and pushed open the door, she saw Unabi sitting on the toilet. Its smooth tail hung down from the other side of the toilet bowl. Its hind legs were stretched straight out. The horse turned its head, looked at her, and pointed at the door with its hoof. The meaning was obvious.
This… It's actually using the toilet. Don't tell me horses from the survival game world are smarter?
This is way too ridiculous!
Erni walked out of the bathroom with an expression that said her worldview had been violated and closed the door.
"Sorry for disturbing you."
The sound of flushing and drying followed one after another. When the toilet finished flushing, the bathroom door opened. Unabi walked out with elegant steps and rolled its eyes at the stunned Erni.
Is it looking down on me?
Erni had never imagined that one day she would be despised by a horse.
Cyan was sitting on the sofa holding a laptop. Her feet were resting on the belly of Unabi, who was sleeping in front of the sofa. It was fluffy and warm — very comfortable.
Ninja Gaiden… I see. It's a series…
FC? Famicom? Cartridge games?
Different platforms, and the stories seem a bit different too.
Ah… Super Mario Bros. was also an Famicom cartridge game.
Cyan searched online for information related to Ninja Gaiden and gained a basic understanding of the story in that game series.
The invitation letter from Hayabusa could be used to enter the Ninja Gaiden world. Using an item to enter a survival game world probably wouldn't count toward the twenty survival games, right?
Cyan asked the survival brand and received a clear answer. Using an item to enter a survival game world did not count toward the twenty survival games. To obtain Survival Points, she could only rely on triggering hidden tasks and cards obtained from killing enemies.
Thinking about the survival game world she had experienced in the previous round, Cyan searched online for Round Table Knights. It took some effort before she found information about the Round Table Knights world she had gone to.
Arcade game…
The world of Samurai Shodown Zero was also an arcade game.
Cyan actually wanted to learn more about various games, but there were simply too many things she needed to understand. It felt overwhelming.
"What are you looking at?"
Erni carefully stepped around Unabi and came to Cyan's side. She leaned against her shoulder, her ample chest pressing against Cyan's arm, and rested her chin on Cyan's shoulder while looking at the information on the laptop screen.
"Searching for information about games. If I prepare in advance, maybe the next survival game will be in one of those game worlds."
Cyan glanced at Erni, kept her eyes on the screen, and continued typing on the keyboard.
"The probability of that is too low. There are way too many games in the world. You can't possibly know the information for every single one. I actually think that sometimes knowing the game's plot is worse than not knowing it." Erni said casually. Ignorance was bliss. Sometimes, knowing the game's plot could actually become an obstacle to survival.
"Mm. That makes sense."
Cyan thought about it and felt that Erni had a point. She closed the laptop, leaned closer to her, and lay down in her arms.
Hm? Hm??
Erni looked at Cyan suddenly lying in her arms and froze for a moment. She pinched her own cheek. She thought she was dreaming. With Cyan's personality, how could she so easily lie in her arms?
"Cyan? Are you okay?"
"I'm sleepy."
Cyan yawned. A trace of fatigue appeared on her face as she nuzzled against Erni and found a comfortable position.
So… so cute…
Erni looked at Cyan, who was squinting like a small animal, and couldn't control her hands. She wanted to touch her a couple of times. But then she remembered the abuse she had suffered over the past half month…
Erni calmed down. If she tried to touch her now, she might end up getting punched and stuck to the wall.
One day later…
"Sophie, we're going to the beach for combat practice."
Cyan looked at Erni, who was smiling like an idiot while playing a mobile game.
"No way!"
As soon as Erni heard that, she tried to run.
In the end, Cyan carried Erni over her shoulder and headed toward the beach.
Cyan carried Erni with one hand and held two large swords in the other, drawing frequent stares from passersby. They were all wondering what kind of couple this was — they really knew how to have fun. And that seemingly thin and weak-looking boy was surprisingly strong, carrying a woman who was noticeably taller than him without any effort.
"Hm? Where did they go?"
Nishi came out of the bedroom, wanting to find something to eat in the kitchen and watch anime while eating. When she reached the living room and saw that Cyan and Erni were gone, she paused.
"Don't tell me they're…"
Nishi's mouth twitched. She ran to the northwest window and looked through it. She saw Erni on the private beach, being sent flying several meters by one of Cyan's kicks.
Oh my god… That's way too brutal…
Nishi covered her mouth with her hand and showed a schadenfreude-filled smile.
Please hit her harder!
"Cyan! I give up! I don't want to fight anymore, okay?"
Erni, who now had a bruise on her face, was starting to reach her limit. Her whole body hurt. It felt like she had been thrown into a washing machine and spun around.
"The hardship you're enduring now will become the strength that helps you survive. Don't forget the effects of Ripple Qigong."
Cyan swung one of the large swords in her hand. The soft fine sand was sent flying. A small crab hiding in the sand was startled and scurried out, quickly running into the distance.
A crab?
Cyan threw down the large sword, grabbed the crab with one hand, shook off the sand, and casually tossed it into her mouth. She chewed a couple of times. Crunch crunch. A subtle change appeared on her expressionless face.
So disgusting…
This is my chance!
Seeing Cyan eat a raw crab, Erni froze for a moment. Then she realized that Cyan was currently unarmed!
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
If not now, then when?! Fortune favors the bold!
Eighteen years later, this old lady will be…
Cough cough cough, sorry, wrong script again.
Ripple Dash!!!
Erni awakened the ripple energy sleeping in her blood. Golden lightning wrapped around her body. She stomped hard with both feet and shot forward several meters. In the blink of an eye, she was in front of Cyan and swung the unsharpened large sword down toward her shoulder.
"Where did she go?"
Cyan's figure suddenly disappeared from in front of her. Erni lost her target and cut through empty air.
"I'm right here. When you swung down, you hesitated. You shouldn't have hesitated."
Cyan stood beside Erni, raised her foot, and kicked her in the waist, sending her face-first into the sand. She stepped on Erni's back and leaned down. "When you decide to kill someone, you can't hesitate at all. Otherwise, the one who dies will be you."
"This is combat training! I'm not actually trying to kill you! You bastard! Get your foot off me!" Erni angrily grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at Cyan.
Cyan raised her hand to block the sand. Erni took the opportunity to get up and threw a punch at Cyan's stomach.
"I… I hit her?"
Erni looked at her fist that had struck Cyan's stomach, then looked at her own hand in disbelief. She slapped herself across the face to confirm she wasn't dreaming.
After being tormented by Cyan for half a month, this was the first time she had actually landed a real hit on her.
Erni was so moved she almost cried. It really hadn't been easy.