"What are you peeking around for?" Swire led Xia Yu behind Rope and reached out to grasp her shoulder.
"Ah? Officer Swire," Rope quickly turned around with a flattering expression, "I wasn't doing anything!"
Actually, with her alertness, she had long since noticed someone approaching her; she simply chose not to flee after realizing it was an acquaintance.
After all, Officer Swire really was a good person, often turning a blind eye when she went to the LGD to 'scrounge for food.'
Speaking of which, the first time she met her and heard people call her Swire, she thought her surname was Shi. She had called her Officer Shi, and the woman's face had gone dark right then and there.
At that time, Rope thought she was doomed for flattery gone wrong, but Swire didn't press the matter and immediately wiped her expression clean. From that moment on, Rope knew that this Ojou-sama was surprisingly not a bad person.
So, faced with Swire catching her in the act, she didn't choose to run—perhaps she could even scrounge a meal out of it.
"Infected?" Xia Yu looked at the purple bunny girl who wasn't much taller than herself.
"Uh, well..." Hearing this, Rope looked at her, sweating slightly.
At a glance, this person's status was clearly extraordinary; even Officer Swire looked like she was acting as an escort.
"Where do you live?" Xia Yu asked very naturally.
"That..." Rope looked at Swire. She was unsure of what this lady's angle was.
"Why are you so concerned about her, Little Bailu?" Swire also looked at Xia Yu. She actually cared quite a bit about Rope and had considered finding this poor girl a stable job.
Unfortunately, the girl was as timid as a rabbit, always running away before they could exchange more than a few sentences.
"It's nothing. I just want to see how the Lungmen Infected live," Xia Yu tilted her head and smiled at her. "Is there a problem?"
Hearing this, Swire fell silent.
She didn't know much, but from what she had heard, she felt the other party's relationship with Baizao was definitely unusual.
To come see the slums and the Infected at a time like this...
"Yan's internal attitude toward the Infected... actually isn't all that great either," she simply said.
"Turning a blind eye, avoiding the subject," Xia Yu nodded in agreement. "Thinking that by treating it as non-existent, it will be so. To tell a joke: the country with the least discrimination against the Infected in the world is Kazdel."
"But I don't care about that. We don't care about any 'Infected' label."
"Sigh." Hearing her resolute voice, Swire finally sighed and looked at Rope. "Let's go. Lead us to your home for a look."
"Ah... I..." Rope was silent for two seconds before finally gathering the courage to lead the way.
After all, Officer Swire was a good person... besides, if she ran... she wouldn't be able to scrounge meals at the LGD anymore.
After a few steps, Rope's stomach began to growl.
"That... I..." Her entire face turned red instantly.
"Here, have something to tide you over," Xia Yu pulled out a bar of chocolate and handed it to her.
"Thank you, Miss," Rope obediently accepted the chocolate.
"My name is Bailu."
"Then thank you, Miss Bailu."
"...Call me big sister," Xia Yu said after a two-second silence.
"Thank you, Big Sister Bailu." Feeling the sweet taste on her tongue, the 'big sister' was said with complete sincerity.
Even if Bailu wasn't as tall as her.
"Sigh," Swire looked on with a face full of helplessness.
What could she say? Seeing such a small child worrying about food every single day...
This world... truly is...
Motivated by a bar of chocolate, Rope found the strength to walk. Before long, several people arrived next to a dilapidated shack.
"You... live here?" Swire looked at the crumbling little shack before her, her brow furrowed tightly.
Every now and then, strange, searching gazes were cast their way. She turned her head to look, and children who were Rope's age or even younger ducked back in terror.
"This is why I don't like Wei Yenwu, and I don't like this world," Xia Yu's voice was somewhat heavy.
Or rather, what she disliked were these sufferings.
"That..." Rope uneasily pushed open the door that looked like it would fall at a single touch. "Please come in..."
The two followed her inside. The place could be described as having four bare walls; old but relatively clean bedding was spread on the floor, a large cardboard box served as a table in the center of the room, and there were a few smaller boxes in the corner containing some ragged clothes...
That was everything.
"Um, good things can't be left in the house," Rope said in a low voice. "Otherwise... they won't stay yours."
Her entire livelihood was carried on her person.
Seeing this, Xia Yu directly pulled out her Vision.
"What a beautiful gem!" Seeing this, light flickered in Swire's eyes. Even she hadn't seen many gems of such quality, not to mention the regular patterns on it that looked almost naturally formed.
"This is..." Rope was also stunned. As a thief, she didn't lack a discerning eye; this single gem was enough to last her a lifetime. Of course, the more likely outcome of showing such wealth was dying in some gutter somewhere.
Xia Yu closed her eyes.
She began to communicate with her other bodies.
Furina's Vision was very interesting. For Furina herself, it could summon several friends, but in Xia Yu's Vision, these slots were blank.
They needed her own experiences to fill them. Of course, other Visions likely didn't have this effect; this was primarily because her Vision was special, coming from the game version of Furina.
But the most noteworthy experiences of her life... aside from those individual bodies, what else could there be?
Therefore, at this moment, I take the Tarnished as my past! Summoning!
As an external organ, it was impossible for a Vision to create a Hero-level Tarnished out of thin air; most Vision holders likely couldn't even defeat the Tarnished.
But if the Tarnished herself was willing to cooperate!
Xia Yu opened her eyes! Now!
Come forth, my half!
Amidst a ripple of aquatic blue, a figure appeared blankly opposite her.
Then came the dizziness—very dizzy, very dry. Two perspectives were truly hard to adapt to.
"This..." Swire felt like she wasn't doing well at all, staring at the person who seemed to have appeared out of thin air. "This... so... so cute!"
Hm? Cute?
Xia Yu was currently battling the two perspectives in her mind. Hearing this, both bodies opened their eyes to look.
The Tarnished looked at the Little Bailu in front of her. Cute.
Bailu looked at the Tarnished in front of her. Indeed cute.
Wait? Cute?
Both of Xia Yu's selves froze.
The Tarnished in front of her was so tiny!
This is... Oh, the capacity of Furina's Vision isn't enough to carry the strength of the Tarnished? So she shrunk directly?
Xia Yu immediately realized the truth.
One had to say, the Tarnished was truly cute as a child; she truly lived up to the face I customized.
It's just that I'm stuck being a loli in this transmigration, aren't I!
But since the deed was done, she could only accept reality with a face like dead ashes.
"Miss Bailu, this is?" Swire looked at Xia Yu.
"I am a medical practitioner," Xia Yu sighed and said. "This girl is my medical art."
"What are you even saying?" Swire was completely bewildered upon hearing this.
"Don't ask. If you must ask, it's because medical practitioners are just like this," Xia Yu said, baring her teeth.
Tsk, without a proper Authority for avatars, controlling two bodies at once is a bit difficult.
Fortunately, the Tarnished didn't need to fight; she just needed to act as an Incantation-releasing machine.
"Rope, right," Xia Yu looked at Rope. "Come here, sit on the box."
"Ah? Me?" Rope was baffled. She sat on the box and then saw the little miss who had been summoned looking at her expressionlessly.
Oh no, could it be...
Before the thought could finish spinning in her head, her entire being was completely submerged in a golden light.
Elden Ring, activate!
Law of Regression!
In an instant, golden light enveloped the entire room. The eyes of those peeking in from outside were nearly blinded.
Bathed in the golden light, Rope was even more at a loss.
Only when the golden light faded did Swire cover her eyes and look at Xia Yu with a face full of grievance.
Don't you tell your teammates before using a flashbang!
"That... I didn't control the output well," Xia Yu's lip twitched. She had been blinded herself. If she switched to the Tarnished, such a problem wouldn't occur, but currently, the Tarnished was manifesting through the Vision as a medium. Controlling two bodies simultaneously meant her focus on controlling the sorcery was diminished.
"What's happened to me?" Rope felt strange all over. "Why... why does it feel so light?"
Seeing her at a loss, Xia Yu walked up to her.
"Take off your clothes!"
"Eh, ah?" Hearing this, Rope subconsciously reached out to hug her chest, her eyes full of vigilance.
"Ah, this is..." Just as she made the movement, she felt a slight stinging pain in her ribs. She reached inside and pulled out a black, hard object.
"This is... Originium?!" Swire's pupils shrank. Seeing that shape... she had a bad premonition.
"That's why I told you to take off your clothes," Xia Yu said to the stunned Rope. "Move gently, be careful not to get scratched again."
"Oh, okay, I'll take them off right now!" Rope felt her skin, which should have been covered in Originium but was now perfectly smooth. She became incredibly excited and began to carefully strip off all her clothing.
"It's really... gone," after stripping naked, she looked at the normal skin under her ribs and broke into tears. "It's really gone!"
She was still just a child. Every night, feeling the pain in her ribs, feeling her life slowly slipping away... who could know that feeling?
Because she was Infected, she couldn't find work. No one dared to touch her. Every day she could only rely on petty theft to scrape by, constantly going hungry...
Now, it was all gone...
She suddenly snapped her head up and looked at Xia Yu.
"Are you a god?" Rope sobbed.
"I cannot completely cure your Oripathy," Xia Yu said flatly. "I've only suppressed it to how it was when you were first infected. Also, don't think of me as some god."
"I hate gods!"
Well, as the sister of a hero like the Tarnished, who used her own body to seal an Outer God, hating gods was an inherent character trait; this couldn't be changed.
"Remember, a god never reached out their hand to you! You were cured by a physician!"
Of course, she only said this to Rope, and she could say it to other Infected too—she just couldn't say it in Kjerag. After all, Mother Kjerag truly protected the people there.
Also, while this could hardly be called a medical miracle, as long as it cured the illness, it worked. Who cares what method I used?
"Yes, Miss Bailu," Rope respectfully lowered her head. "I understand."
"Um..."
"Tergeo!" Xia Yu cast a spell on her, cleaning any possible tiny debris from her body.
"Alright, find a set of clothes to put on."
Hearing this, Rope felt a weight lift from her shoulders. She ran to the corner of the room, pulled out a set of old clothes, and pulled them on.
On the other side, Swire had just snapped out of her stupor.
"You can treat Oripathy?!" Her eyes were wide, her face full of nothing but disbelief.
"I can only treat the symptoms, not the root cause," Xia Yu nodded, her face full of pride. "Now do you see the value of this physician?"
"Compared to this... uh, medical art, your cooking is practically not worth mentioning," Swire instinctively remarked.
After all, there were plenty of great chefs in the world. Even if their skills were slightly inferior, they could still be found. But someone who could treat Oripathy to this degree had never appeared before.
Based on this skill alone, her status in any country would not be low.
"Alright, Miss Swire," seeing Rope finished dressing, Xia Yu waved her hand grandly. "Go, it's time for you to do your job."
"Find me some Infected. I'm going to hold a free clinic!"
"Um," hearing this, Rope gathered her courage and stepped closer. "I can handle that."
"I know quite a few friends."
Most of the children here were sick; otherwise, they wouldn't be huddling here for warmth.
Slum children had no way out. Their future was visible to the naked eye: either dying from Oripathy in some unknown corner, or growing up slightly and joining a gang, after which most wouldn't live past thirty or forty.
"Then I'll leave it to you," Xia Yu nodded, then looked at Swire. "As for you, go buy me some food!"
"Look at the children around here. They're so thin!"
"Wait, Little Bailu, do you really know what this skill of yours implies?" Swire stopped Rope and looked seriously at Xia Yu, saying, "I'm not trying to block your actions. Having a kind heart is a good thing, but you must think carefully about how to protect yourself."
"This is the slums!"
Hearing this, the excited Rope also snapped back to her senses. "Miss, Officer Swire is right. You can't stay here... no, with such a big commotion just now, we must leave here immediately!"
If the local gangs found out the little miss had such an ability, Rope didn't even dare to imagine what would happen.
"I know you have a healer's heart," seeing Xia Yu's unmoved expression, Swire said earnestly, "I'm not trying to stop you, it's just that this place really isn't suitable. How about this: back at the LGD, I'll mobilize some people for you. Having thirty or forty people guarding you will make it no problem."
"You're worried about that?" Xia Yu tilted her head upon hearing this. "There's no need. If anyone dares to reach out, I'll chop off their paws."
How hilarious. She was exactly waiting for those lawless gangs. Otherwise, where would she test the combat power of the Vision-version Tarnished?