The reason she overwrote save slot 00 was because, although she hadn't obtained the Destiny potion in this simulation, she had eaten her fill every single day over the past month and had gradually recovered from her malnourished state.
Combined with her daily exercise, it was no exaggeration to say that her current physical condition was far healthier than when she had first crossed over. Since she could have a stronger body, why would she choose to keep her previously frail one?
The moment she overwrote the save slot, Freya's hair in reality rapidly grew a bit longer, her complexion visibly flushed with a healthy color, and the ordinary clothes she was wearing transformed into a female Special Service police uniform.
Then, she looked back at the system interface and saw that the "Future Simulation" had entered its cooldown once again, and this time, the cooldown was a full thirty hours long.
“So, spending one day in the simulation translates to a one-hour cooldown in reality?”
While pondering this, Freya organized the items she had brought back from the simulation. The first thing she noticed was that the "lock" originating from the Law Pathway, which had previously existed in her consciousness, had vanished. In other words, contracts signed within the simulation did not affect reality?
Next, Freya pulled out a Special Service ID badge from her pocket. It had her personal details on it. Even though she was just a newcomer who had been on the job for less than a month, the Special Service was still the Special Service. As long as she showed this, she had the authority to command any regular police officer.
Of course, this item was currently equivalent to a single-use tool. If she ordered the police around and they went back to check the records only to find that no one named Freya Russell existed, wouldn't she be in deep trouble? Therefore, she definitely wouldn't use it in reality. However, depending on the situation in a simulation, she could probably make use of it.
Aside from that, there was also a compact pistol, the 【Lococo 191】. It had a magazine capacity of twelve rounds, with less power and recoil than a revolver, making it much more suitable for a girl like Freya. It also had high accuracy and was specially assigned to her by Nolan.
Finally, she took off the police uniform, folded it neatly, and placed it in her wardrobe before putting on a set of ordinary clothes.
“I need to buy some new clothes,” Freya murmured. Because the original owner had always lived frugally, she didn't have many clothes to begin with. Furthermore, after overwriting reality with her save slot, she had essentially lost a set of ordinary clothes. When she counted carefully, she discovered that there were only two sets of casual wear left in her wardrobe.
Acting on her thoughts immediately, since she had nothing else to do anyway, Freya brought enough money and headed straight out to the nearest commercial street to do some shopping.
Stepping into a random clothing store, Freya stared at the skirts and stockings hanging on a rack, slightly dazed. Do stockings already exist in this era?
She looked down at the gray trousers she was wearing, and without much hesitation, walked over and began browsing. Why shouldn't she wear nice clothes if they were available?
It didn't have to be for other people to see. Since she was so cute, even dressing up just for herself would be a highly enjoyable experience!
But the original owner had never bought this kind of clothing, and she didn't have any relevant knowledge from her past life's memories, so she spent quite a bit of effort choosing.
Fortunately, there was a fitting room in the clothing store, along with a large oval full-length mirror. Freya tried on a few outfits. She was like a natural clothes hanger; any random outfit she put on looked incredibly fitting on her.
Looking at the cute girl reflected in the mirror, Freya couldn't help but murmur to herself in her mind, Wow, I'm way too cute...
Even the staff member standing nearby couldn't help but say, “Little sister, this outfit suits you perfectly! This one too, and this one as well!”
It was partly a heartfelt compliment and partly a subtle sales pitch. Just like that, after picking and choosing, Freya ended up buying five outfits.
She was currently wearing an outfit that looked very much like a sailor uniform from her past life. The main color of the outfit was black, with a square collar resting against the side of her neck, making her slender, fair neck look even more prominent. The waist area fit perfectly—neither too tight nor too loose—highlighting her well-proportioned and slender waistline.
A matching black pleated skirt fell just above her knees, paired with black over-the-knee stockings on her legs and a pair of sneakers with a slight platform on her feet. The entire outfit made her look exceptionally young and full of vitality.
Though Freya herself was already very young anyway.
This was the last outfit she tried on. She had originally thought of wearing it straight home after buying it, but after glancing at the crowd passing by outside the store from time to time, she suddenly chickened out for some reason.
With a slightly flushed face, Freya jogged back to the fitting room, changed back into her original, plain casual wear, and then went to the front counter to pay.
The five outfits cost a total of eight thousand Ducats. This price wasn't outrageously expensive, but it was by no means cheap either. At the very least, it was a price that ordinary commoners could absolutely not afford, as this shop primarily targeted the middle class.
Freya didn't feel any pinch at all. After paying without hesitation, she took her bagged clothes and continued shopping. Later, she also bought a mirror, some pretty hairpins and hair ties, and various other miscellaneous daily necessities.
By the time Freya snapped out of her shopping spree, several hours had already passed. After having lunch, she returned home carrying large and small bags.
In the afternoon, she carried her schoolbag to school and explained to her teacher that she had been absent in the morning due to personal matters. The teacher didn't pry and only said caringly, “The content covered this morning wasn't difficult. Freya, you can ask other classmates for their notes. I believe that with your ability, catching up with this bit of progress won't be a problem.”
“Mm-hmm.” Freya nodded. Although she didn't care much about studying or scholarships now, she still had to maintain her previous image of a good student and well-behaved girl on the surface.
Afterward, Freya chatted with Amy for a bit to reassure her so she wouldn't worry. This way, Amy wouldn't come over to her house to look for her in the evening.
After spending the afternoon at school, Freya finished classes as usual and headed to the place where the original owner usually worked part-time. It was a restaurant, and the original owner's job was to work as a waitress in a maid uniform, maintaining a cute smile to attract customers at the entrance.
After all, Freya was very cute, and some customers really chose to dine here because of her looks. Of course, the original owner had also encountered customers with poor character who tried to get handsy in the past.
However, whenever such a situation arose, the owner would call Freya to help out in the back kitchen and replace her with a muscular, six-foot-tall waiter to continue serving that customer.
In short, it was a highly reputable restaurant, and the owner took very good care of the original owner. However, since Freya was no longer short on money, she naturally had no reason to continue working here.
The owner said to Freya, “Fufu, if you ever run short on money in the future, you can come back to work anytime. I'll always keep a position open for you here.”
Why does everyone like to call me 'Fufu'? While wondering in her mind, Freya bowed slightly to the owner. “I understand. Thank you so very much.”
After resigning from her job, Freya quickly returned home. She made herself dinner and then casually breezed through her school homework. By then, the sky had gradually darkened.
Freya didn't look out the window, keeping her behavior as normal as possible. She went to bed early, but unlike usual, she placed her revolver under her pillow—a position where she could reach it at any moment.
Although the fatal crisis was still three days away, she still needed to maintain basic vigilance. Freya lay awake like this until the dead of night, only falling asleep gradually as drowsiness finally took over.
...
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Freya, in a place surrounded by mist, there stood a pure white tower nearly a hundred meters tall. Inside this tower, a "figure" suddenly showed a look of surprise. In an ethereal voice, it spoke, “What is happening? The trajectory of destiny has shifted...?”
As it spoke, the "figure" began to glide slowly. Its upper body was human, but its lower body was strikingly that of a snake. It slithered at an extremely rapid pace, arriving at the top of the tower in a brief moment. The structure here resembled an altar. The second it arrived, the "figure" wore a look of utter horror.
For at the center of the tower's peak, atop the altar, a "brass pocket watch" that was supposed to be resting there had completely vanished without a trace.
“This... how can this be...”
...
The next day, Freya woke up before the sun had even risen. She washed up, ate breakfast, and went to school. As she stepped out the door, she couldn't help but sigh with emotion, “It's hard to believe this is only my second day in this world since crossing over.”
But in terms of subjective experience, she felt as if she had already lived in this world for a very long time.
After arriving at school, Freya attended her classes as usual. Although she only half-understood most of what the teachers said and barely grasped a few sentences, she still maintained the appearance of listening attentively and studying hard.
During this time, Freya almost fell asleep several times, but she managed to pull through using her stubborn "willpower." Finally, the time reached twelve-thirty in the afternoon. Seeing that the 30-hour cooldown of the Future Simulation on the system interface had finally cleared, she started her third simulation without a single moment of hesitation!
The very next second after entering the simulation, she said to Amy, who was eating lunch beside her, “I suddenly remembered a very important matter at home. Amy, please request a leave of absence for me!”
Then, she hurriedly left the school. Freya first returned home, carrying both guns on her person, and prepared her ammunition and emergency bandages.
Immediately afterward, she left her house and began wandering aimlessly around the neighborhood. She looked like a typical loiterer, but in reality, she was "patrolling."
During her one-month stint at the Special Service in the second simulation, she hadn't just exercised her body; she had also carefully studied the extraordinary knowledge of this world.
There were currently twelve Extraordinary Pathways that had been mostly explored by humanity, including the Law Pathway that Nolan and Miles belonged to, Reina's Mind Pathway, and the Destiny Pathway that Freya had narrowly missed. By drinking the corresponding potion, one could obtain the supernatural powers of that pathway.
But these supernatural powers naturally progressed step by step. The most basic first bottle of potion—namely, the Rank One potion—would only make someone a Rank One extraordinary. Afterward, there were naturally Rank Two, Rank Three, and even the highest Rank Eight potions. The further along one went, the more powerful they became.
It was worth mentioning that when these twelve pathways advanced from Rank Three to Rank Four, there was an opportunity to "change classes." For instance, the Law Pathway branched into 'Punisher', 'Arbiter', and 'Listener'.
One had to make a decision in advance regarding which class change to pursue, and then drink the corresponding class-change potion.
Since the aforementioned were all "explored" pathways, there would naturally be pathways that remained unexplored. To use an analogy, all pathways were like various laws of nature, and potions were like chemical formulas derived through continuous research. Using the correct "chemical formula" allowed one to manufacture safe and harmless chemical products, which were the potions.
Consequently, natural laws that hadn't been fully researched and less-than-accurate chemical formulas would naturally be highly "dangerous." They were like explosives—they might look perfectly safe inside a bottle, but a slight bump could cause them to detonate on the spot.
Even so, these less-than-accurate "chemical formulas" and incomplete potions could still grant people supernatural abilities. The power might be incomplete, easily lose control, or even possess certain defects, but it was still a supernatural power.
And the stalker peeping on Freya belonged to an unexplored pathway called the "Devil Pathway." Most of the potions distributed during the Obsidian Incident belonged to this pathway.
Through their investigations during this period, the Special Service had concluded that the physical fitness of extraordinaries on this pathway was enhanced to some degree, and their bodies underwent various changes. For example, a sharp tail might grow from their backsides, barbs might sprout from their hand joints, and their fingernails could become razor-sharp and hard.
A Rank One extraordinary was already capable of overwhelming strength, easily slaughtering an ordinary person. However, these extraordinaries still had not transcended the boundaries of humanity, and humans would die if they were killed.
This also meant that even if the stalker possessed overwhelming physical strength compared to Freya, she had guns. If she could hit his heart or head with these pure weapons of slaughter invented by human intellect, she could absolutely kill him.
Although Freya appeared to be wandering aimlessly, her attention was constantly on the passersby around her, closely watching anyone walking in the direction of her house.
The side effect of the Devil Pathway was that those who drank the potion seemed rather unintelligent. Or rather, their rationality was easily suppressed by their animalistic nature, causing them to act purely on their instincts.
And one of a creature's greatest instincts was to eat when hungry.
......
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