When you spend enough time with another person, you either end up hating them… or loving them. Now, I’m not saying that you need to have sex with them or that sexual desire even has anything to do with it. That fondness that builds up can even be felt for inanimate objects. I definitely had an emotional connection to my computer in my last life, even though I knew that it couldn’t love me back.

The only people I ever cared about in that world were my parents, siblings, other extended family members and the friends that I played games with online. There was never any romance for obvious reasons, but I did understand a bit about affection. We become attached to those we’re fond of and even enemies can become pillars of stability in our ever-changing lives.

From the moment that I met Hua Mei, I was intimate with her in ways that I had simply never experienced before. We had done so much over the four months that we had spent together by that point, yet it wasn’t until we were trapped in a bedroom together for a week, that I finally told her “I love you.”

Of course, she hugged me tightly and said “Aw~, I love you too Little Levi~… But if we run out of food, I might need to eat you. Hehehe~, I’m not even joking, I’m so hungry that it’s starting to get really hard to suppress the urge to take a nibble~ or two.”

Xiaotong whispered “Levi, I like Mei Mei too, but if it comes down to it… I’ll quickly kill her so that you can eat her to stay alive!”

I sighed dramatically, grumbling “We really should have fucking rationed a bit better, huh? No, the main problem was that we didn’t even have any staple foods! It was all fancy delicacies that wouldn’t last more than a few days in the refrigerator! Ugh~, if we had a goddamn bag of dry rice or corn, we would have never been put into such a ridiculous situation!”

Yep, the two of us were slowly starving to death. I had literally no fat to begin with and Mei had lost a few pounds around her belly, even her tits shrunk a bit. Novices are pretty much the same as normal Humans; they don’t need that much sustenance to maintain their typical bodily functions. Everything above that requires increasingly larger amounts of food to survive.

Sure, it does become possible to survive on Qi alone, eventually. However, the two of us were just Apprentices. Fortunately, I was a Shaman and I had an Enhancement Spirit that complimented my own Element. As long as I breathed in the Nature Qi in the air or extracted it from the water in the sink, I could feed Xiaotong. Then, she would spew out concentrated crimson gas into my Dantian. That Chaotic Qi and my own Nature Qi would mix together, creating energy for my body to sustain itself for a while.

“Well, I should be fine for another week or so, but you’re going to have to eat… Hmmm, more like drink? I think that you should be able to get enough nutrients from drinking the cum that’s in the freezer. It’s a shame, cause we could have gotten a few hundred Contribution Points…”

Right when she was about to start guzzling our semen-stash, there was an obnoxiously loud announcement throughout the entire underwater city. “The lockdown has ended! All hallways have been repaired and all barriers surrounding the palace have been restored! Until further notice, the entire Medical District will be unavailable! Civilians are allowed to return to their normal duties! However, all military personnel will be entering active duty from now onwards! We’re at war people! I don’t give a damn if you’re a prince, princess or even a maid, everyone who is above the Novice Stage and past the age of sixteen… Will be drafted into the Hua Jiang Navy, immediately! Oh yeah, Levi Ares and Hua Mei, report to the Throne Room, now!” The voice definitely belonged to Bo, the three-meter tall dude who was related to the queen, but was probably still fucking her. He was the Admiral of the Fleet and an middle-level Expert.

Mei was standing by the freezer as she turned to look at me. I yelled “Hurry up and get dressed! Pack everything that you care about ‘cause we might not be coming back here again!”

As far as clothes went, I never bothered to purchase anything fancy. I figured that I still had plenty of time and armor wasn’t cheap. My pouch had pretty much everything I owned inside of it. Meanwhile, my ‘girlfriend’ quickly started shoving all of our clothes into her Rank-F Extradimensional Chest. It was the size of a normal luggage bag and was rectangular, so the opening was large enough to fit all kinds of stuff. The space within was four cubic meters, but it was hard as hell to take things out or carry the thing. You could literally fall into it if you weren’t careful though, which was kind of scary. If you accidentally fell headfirst… Well, the material was similar to really strong leather, but the marble floor would make it seem like you landed on a slightly soft padding. Even an Apprentice could easily break their neck from such a distance.

The fancier Enchantments and Inscriptions could produce even more dramatic effects, but the most basic spatial tricks started at Rank-F. It was impossible for either myself or Mei to use anything beyond that though. The general rule was that in order to activate or utilize a Rank-E item, the person who owned it needed to be at the Adept Stage. Of course, there were obviously other factors involved as well. Some things needed certain Elemental Qi to operate, while others had Bloodline locks placed on them. At the Expert Stage, with Rank-D stuff, practically everything could be ‘keyed’ to an individual person’s Qi Signature: Kind of like a fingerprint verification.

There was a small Rank-G Jewelry Box, which only had the function of containing Qi, though not very efficiently. All of her accessories were placed in it. Most of her stuff didn’t have any practical value, Unranked stuff that even people who haven’t reached the Novice Stage could play with. I used to keep my ‘Shadow Dragon Egg’ in that thing, but once I bought my pouch, I made sure to keep it with me at all times. In the unlikely scenario that the stupid rock could hatch into some sort of monster, I was afraid it might be able to hurt Mei. Hell, it could have been releasing nuclear radiation for all I knew.

I quickly put on some boxers and a simple black silk robe, which had golden snake-like dragons on it. Mei wore a fancy blue gown that had hundreds of tiny silver sharks embroidered along the bottom and the excessively long sleeves. The dress was so long that it practically dragged along the ground. She also wore six-inch heels, made out of glowing, translucent Aqua Crystal. Her gown was free, but those shoes were a Rank-G piece of equipment. Although, their Enchantments were only meant to make them comfortable and more durable.

The dress had a rather thick material, so I couldn’t see her nipples, even though she wasn’t wearing a bra. It’s not like brassiers didn’t exist, she just didn’t like them. In fact, she also hated panties. Her reason was “It’s too hot! My butt, boobs and coochie will get all sweaty and gross if I use underwear!” I felt the same way though, that’s why I always wore thin and loose robes instead of normal clothes. There was some expensive Rank-F apparel that were always cold as fuck, but that was even worse. I’d rather be a nudist in warm weather, than have to freeze my dick off all the time!

She didn’t bother with makeup, since her appearance wasn’t much different from that of a teenaged girl. Mei did however, take a while to put on her earrings and a few regular rings. Her hair was also in a mess, so she took her time combing it.

As we were about to leave the room, there was another furious announcement throughout the entire palace. “Levi Ares and Hua Mei! Report to the Throne Room immediately! If you aren’t here in five minutes, I’ll go up there myself and drag you both down here! Now hurry up!” His voice was so loud that it nearly destroyed the magical Qi-powered speakers that were installed in our ceiling.

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