"This is the last time."
Feeling her Spirit Power rapidly drain away, Cyan watched Bowsette devour the Holy Flame as her health bar slowly replenished. While watching her, she noticed that the earring on the Bowser Queen's right ear was missing.
"You're missing an earring."
"What sharp eyes you have~!" Bowsette smiled upon hearing Cyan's observation. "You'll find out exactly where that earring went soon enough."
I'll find out?
Question marks practically popped up over Cyan's head as she shot a suspicious glance at Nishi.
It wasn't me! Nishi looked completely aggrieved, her face screaming the words she didn't dare say aloud.
"Now then, as an expression of my gratitude for your diligent care over this past period, what is it that you two desire?" Bowsette leaned back against her throne, licking her lips and flashing her sharp fangs with a playful smile.
Although the awkward marriage proposal had just fallen through, it barely affected her baseline confidence. The proud Koopa Queen wasn't the type to let a minor setback keep her down. Besides, she felt there was absolutely nothing wrong with the person she was interested in being a girl.
Money and treasure, obviously! Nishi's eyes sparkled as she stared intently at Bowsette. This was the Queen of the Koopa Kingdom, a super-rich tycoon.
"Treasure and money," Cyan said after a moment's thought. Those were the only two things truly useful to her and Nishi. Money could be directly converted into Survival Points, though she wasn't entirely sure if world-specific treasures could be brought back to the Survival Space.
"In that case, take this."
Bowsette clapped her hands, acting as if she had already anticipated Cyan's exact response. A Paratroopa flew into the grand hall holding a heavy treasure chest with its front claws, carefully set the chest down, and immediately flew back out.
"The treasure sealed inside should prove useful to you."
Bowsette stood up from her throne, cupped Cyan's face, lifted her chin, and suddenly leaned down to plant a direct kiss on her lips.
"Ah! What on earth are you doing?!" Nishi's eyes widened to the size of saucers.
Wet... soft...
Cyan blinked rapidly, staring at Bowsette's face from point-blank range. Despite being subjected to such an intimately sudden act, she surprisingly didn't find it unpleasant.
Her cheeks slightly flushed, Bowsette looked down at the somewhat dazed Cyan and declared overbearingly, "Even if you're a girl, I won't give up!"
"You are strange."
Cyan touched her lips and walked over to the treasure chest. Just as she picked it up and prepared to open it, Bowsette interjected, "Open it only after you leave the castle. There is a secret gift inside from me."
"Alright." Cyan didn't understand why Bowsette wanted her to wait, but opening it outside the fortress grounds made no difference to her.
"What about me? I helped out too!" Seeing that she got nothing, Nishi looked at Bowsette with deep dissatisfaction. She had put in plenty of combat effort earlier! That big-nosed Uncle Luigi was entirely defeated by her!
"Of course I wouldn't forget you." Bowsette's lips curved upward. She clapped her hands, and a massive sack of coins dropped straight from the ceiling, hitting the stone floor with a heavy, resounding thud.
Watching Nishi's eyes light up at the sight of the currency sack, Bowsette rested her cheek on one hand and smiled. "This is your share. Well? Satisfied?"
"Yes, completely satisfied!" Nishi nodded furiously. Opening the bag and seeing the glittering gold coins inside made her dizzy with joy. I'm rich!
After walking out of the grand hall, Nishi finally snapped out of her trance induced by the sheer wealth. She leaned toward Cyan and whispered in a low voice, "Master, why didn't you dodge just now?"
"Dodge what?" Cyan cast a glance at Nishi, completely unsure of what she was referring to.
Nishi tugged at her hair in pure exasperation. "Dodge her kissing you, obviously!"
"Between girls, it doesn't matter, right? I heard that kissing a boy makes you pregnant."
Cyan recalled an instance where she had overheard a mother telling her daughter that kissing a boy would result in pregnancy. She had absolutely no idea that the woman only said that to prevent her daughter from being tricked by bad boys, so Cyan had taken it as absolute scientific truth.
"Ah... that's not what I meant... Wait! Pregnancy isn't that simple, okay?! How could anyone get pregnant just from a kiss?! Who on earth told you that?!" Nishi had never expected Cyan to be so utterly lacking in basic common sense. She was, quite frankly, far too pure.
"Mhm, heard it from a bystander."
"Master..." Nishi's face was a canvas of pure, unadulterated desire to retort, but she found herself entirely at a loss for words.
Once the two walked completely out of the castle grounds, Cyan received a distinct notification from her Survival Mark.
[Survival Quest 2: Help Bowsette out of her predicament and protect her until her strength is restored.]
[Quest Completed.]
[Returning to the Survival Space in a 10-second countdown.]
Following a brief countdown, Cyan and Nishi dissolved into brilliant pillars of light and vanished.
"Have they already departed?" Bowsette walked over to the exact spot where the two had just vanished, her deep blue eyes tinged with a hint of perplexity. How did they leave? It was as if they had simply blinked out of existence.
I hope we have a chance to meet again. Bowsette traced her lips with a finger, letting out a soft, meaningful smile.
[Survivor No. 11766, Servant: Nishi, the second round of the Survival Game has concluded.]
[World: Super Mario Bros., Survival Difficulty: C-Grade.]
[Survival Quest 1: Assist the Mario brothers in rescuing Prince Peach from the Bowser Queen's castle and restore normalcy to the Mushroom Kingdom.]
[Survival Quest 2: Help Bowsette out of her predicament and protect her until her strength is restored.]
[Hidden Quest: Rescue the seven Mushroom Kingdom residents imprisoned by the Koopa Kingdom.]
They materialized back in that vast, star-filled cosmic space. The only difference this time was that Nishi appeared right alongside Cyan.
"Wow~! It's so beautiful~!"
Nishi curiously scanned her surroundings, her attention instantly drawn to the glowing text displaying before them. The completed survival quests and hidden quest dissolved into beams of golden light, fusing into the evaluation metric. The energy bar beneath the survival score began to surge wildly upward.
[Significant deviations detected in the Survival Game storyline. Evaluation score increased.]
An evaluation that originally wouldn't have reached B-grade surged past another threshold, perfectly securing a B-grade evaluation.
[Survival Game Evaluation: B-Grade. Received: 4 Attribute Points, 3 Skill Points.]
[Nishi has received: 3 Attribute Points, 2 Skill Points.]
"Huh? I get them too?" Nishi's eyes went wide as she covered her mouth with both hands.
[Total Survival Points gained: 15,600 Points.]
The accumulated Survival Points merged the points earned by both Cyan and Nishi, meaning they shared a single pool of currency. Combined with their leftover points, they now possessed a grand total of 16,768 Survival Points. For a single survivor, this would be an absolute fortune, but split between two people, it felt substantially leaner.
Upon returning to their private space, Nishi excitedly hugged Cyan's arm. But the moment she remembered Cyan's actual gender, her body stiffened—she wasn't sure whether to let go or stay attached. Ah, whatever! Why am I overthinking this? Whether master is a guy or a girl, she's still my master, right? With that thought, Nishi squeezed Cyan's arm even tighter.
"How should I allocate my attribute points~! Master, give me some advice~!"
"Whatever fits you best. I won't make your decisions for you."
Cyan glanced at Nishi before shifting her focus to her own status screen. After brief deliberation, she invested all 4 points into Strength. This brought her unequipped Strength attribute to 20, which simultaneously triggered a 1-point increase in her Constitution.
[Cyan's Unequipped Attributes:]
[Strength: 20]
[Agility: 21]
[Constitution: 12]
[Intelligence: 9]
[Spirit: 13]
[Perception: 12]
[Charisma: 12]
Hearing Cyan's reply, Nishi pouted at her own attributes. After some thought, she allocated 1 point to Strength and 2 points to Agility. Once her Strength hit 10, her Constitution automatically ticked up by 1 point as well. Now, even without equipment, her baseline stats were sufficient to wield Musk's short sword. With the stats allocated, Nishi threw a celebratory punch into the air, feeling the immediate surge of physical change.
[Nishi's Unequipped Attributes:]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 15]
[Constitution: 8]
[Intelligence: 6]
[Spirit: 7]
[Perception: 7]
[Charisma: 9]
Cyan focused her mind on her Survival Mark, querying the system on whether Nishi could leave the Survival Space with her.
[Servants and followers may accompany the Survivor outside the Survival Space. A cost of 2,000 Survival Points is required to establish a disguised identity and appearance.]
"Nishi, I asked the Survival Mark. You can leave the Survival Space with me, but it requires 2,000 Survival Points to falsify an identity and appearance," Cyan relayed the system's exact response.
"Hooray!" Nishi practically leaped with joy, clinging onto Cyan like a koala.
"Now, let's head out to sell the skill books and unused items. Also, get off me." Wrapped up in Nishi's embrace, Cyan couldn't even see the path ahead of her.
"Oh, right." Nishi slid down.
Cyan suddenly remembered she still had the treasure chest given to her by Bowsette. She retrieved it from her item bar and flipped it open.
[Super Crown]
[Type: Special Head Gear]
[Attributes: All Attributes +2, Charisma +3]
[Skill: Super Crown Metamorphosis! – Consumes 100 Spirit Power to manifest a duplicate of the Super Crown. Any creature that dons the duplicate crown will transform into a young girl / lolita / teenage girl / mature woman depending on their baseline body size. The target reverts to normal upon removal. A maximum of one duplicate crown can exist at a time.]
[Special Effect 1: Any creature that dons the Super Crown will transform into a young girl / lolita / teenage girl / mature woman depending on their baseline body size, reverting to normal upon removal.]
[Special Effect 1: When crouching and covering the head, grants 2 seconds of absolute invincibility. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
[Equipment Requirements: None.]
[Description: The ultimate anti-Mario Bros. superweapon crafted by Bowsette and numerous wizards through agonizing, dedicated research over a vast period! Highly effective against male entities!]
[Note: This equipment can be toggled to display or hide.]
[Bowsette's Mercury Earring (Right Ear)]
[Type: Story Character Accessory]
[Attributes: All Attributes +1]
[Skill: Flame Roar – Consumes 30 Spirit Power to exhale scorching torrents of flame, dealing a blended damage output equal to 180% of Intelligence plus Attack Power. The flames will ignite a burning hazard zone on the ground for 30 seconds. Enemies caught within the burning zone suffer 10 plus Intelligence flame damage per second. Cooldown: 5 minutes.]
[Special Effect: Reduces incoming fire damage by 30%, grants a 15% chance to completely immunize fire damage.]
[Equipment Requirements: None.]
[Note: Once equipped, this item becomes soulbound to the user and cannot be traded. Should the user perish, this equipment will permanently disappear!]
[Description: An earring highly favored by Bowsette. She has gifted her right earring to you.]
A superweapon against the Mario brothers? Why would she give me a weapon specifically designed to deal with them?
Cyan stared at the item specifications of the Super Crown, which resembled a golden crown nestled around a pink-and-white polka-dotted mushroom. While she was lost in thought, a sneaky hand quietly lifted the Super Crown and popped it squarely onto her head.
"Hmm?"
Before Cyan could even turn toward Nishi, she was pulled into a crushing, desperate hug.
"Master, you're so drop-dead gorgeous~!" Nishi's face was completely red as she squeezed Cyan tightly.
Cyan's already substantial base Charisma, amplified by the flat +3 bonus from the Super Crown, skyrocketed to an impressive 15 points. Normally, Charisma was an immutable stat that couldn't be augmented through basic gear modifications. However, the Super Crown was a specialized anomaly; due to its intrinsic capability to alter a target's gender dynamics, it unlocked a rare path to elevating the otherwise locked attribute.
Consequently, the already stunningly beautiful Cyan reached a whole new tier of aesthetic perfection. It was as if a permanent beauty filter had been hard-coded onto her face, projecting an absolutely flawless visage at every single waking second. Even simple acts like yawning or sneezing left onlookers staring in utter awe, thinking, Wow! Absolutely gorgeous!
"Wake up."
Cyan patted Nishi's cheeks lightly. She possessed absolutely zero self-awareness regarding her own looks. Since she had already put the Super Crown on, she didn't intend to take it off anytime soon. She then proceeded to slot the earring in place; with a sharp pinch on her right lobe, a slightly heavy accessory anchored itself to her ear.
"Ah! Ouch! Master, could you be a little gentler?!" Nishi cupped her face, little pink hearts practically floating in her eyes as she gazed at Cyan.
Before crossing paths with Cyan, Nishi had always assumed she was exclusively into men. But after meeting Cyan and discovering her true gender, the realization hit her like a lightning bolt: she didn't care about men at all, she was just an unapologetic visual purist who loved beautiful faces!
"We are heading to the Survival Town."
Cyan dragged Nishi toward the main exit, throwing the door open and stepping out. Upon arriving in the bustling plaza of the Survival Town, the duo headed straight for the trading district.