Chapter 180: With Details

One second of silence.

"Hmm."

Qiana put the doll back before her, gave a solemn nod and appraisal like an experienced connoisseur, "Very good, has details. Excellent civilization!"

She never thought why a doll would have such fine "details," nor did she feel anything wrong about it.

In Qiana's simple and direct worldview, fine craftsmanship equals good stuff; having details equals more care equals better stuff.

"Forget it, I'll ask tomorrow who put it here."

She shrugged, casually put the doll beside the pillow, and slipped into the blankets, "Anyway, I checked it, no problem… Hmm, it smells pretty nice?"

The doll gave off a faint fragrance, like some night-blooming flower mixed with the scent of old paper, not strong but soothing.

Qiana yawned and reached to turn off the desk lamp.

In the darkness, she turned onto her side facing the doll, quickly fell into deep sleep, her breathing becoming even and slow.

She didn't notice, or even if she had, she wouldn't care—after she fell asleep, the doll's purplish-black eyes flashed a faint gleam in the dark, almost imperceptible.

Scene shift.

Qiana opened her eyes in an extremely unreal feeling.

A moment ago, she was still holding that somewhat cute, fragrant purplish-black doll, sinking into sleep on the soft bed.

The next second, the icy cold sensation beneath her and the overly vast, silent surroundings made her bolt upright with a start.

"Where… is this… the training room?"

Qiana rubbed her eyes, her azure pupils filled with bewilderment.

What met her eyes was an extremely vast enclosed space, the floor and walls seemingly made of some high-strength alloy.

The space was so high the top couldn't be seen, and in the distance it faded into a light mist.

Here there were none of the usual equipment or targets seen in Saint Freya Academy's training ground, just an expanse of unsettling emptiness, so quiet she could hear her own slightly hurried heartbeat and breath.

Although the style was totally different, that cold, hard atmosphere meant specifically to "mess with people" was intimately familiar to Qiana.

"What the heck…… I sleepwalked into the academy's secret training ground? No way, I don't have that habit……"

She muttered as she stood up, patted off nonexistent dust, and began looking around, "Yimei? Bronya? Auntie? Anyone——"

Before her words finished, a sharp gust of air disturbed from the side.

Qiana almost instinctively leapt to the side, simultaneously turning her head to look.

She saw about twenty meters away, a tall man had silently appeared at some point.

His silhouette stretched long across the empty ground.

Most striking was his head of silver-white short hair, which in the cold light reflected like ice shards.

He stood sideways to Qiana, seemingly moving his wrists, not fully facing her.

From Qiana's angle, she could faintly see the man's stern side profile, but most details were lost in backlight shadow.

She felt a slight relief—at least it was a humanoid, not a Collapse Beast.

"Hey! You over there!"

Qiana waved her hand, trying to get his attention, her voice echoing in the vast training room, "Excuse me, where is this? Did you bring me here? ……"

Her words, in Kevin's hearing, were just meaningless interference noise.

This training space, to simulate pure combat, had been set up by Heimu with extremely strong information filtering and interference.

In Kevin's cognition, the target before him was merely a newly generated system "Simulated Entity" for sparring, just like the previous gray-haired "Entity."

Kevin slightly turned his head, using his icy blue eyes to look toward Qiana's direction.

Lock on.

Then he moved.

No warning, no preparatory motion.

He simply took a step forward, his right hand somehow gripping a plain-looking but unusually sturdy bat, swinging at a speed beyond Qiana's dynamic visual tracking limit toward her position!

That wasn't a martial arts move; it was more like… swatting away a speck of dust.

"Wait——?!"

Qiana's pupils contracted sharply; she didn't even see clearly how he moved or drew his weapon.

The bat rapidly enlarged in her vision, the wind pressure from it already making her cheeks sting.

She couldn't dodge!

That was the despairing conclusion her brain reached in 0.1 seconds.

"Bang!!!!"

A deafening, teeth‑rattling boom.

Qiana felt as if she'd been squarely hit sideways by a speeding heavy truck, an irresistible force surging from her waist and abdomen.

She could only let out half a pain cry before her whole body turned into a blurred white streak and flew off the ground.

The world spun.

Qiana felt as if she'd been tossed into a high‑speed spinning washing machine; her vision blurred into color patches and streaks, while the wind roared in her ears.

She tried to control her body, but the rotation induced by the force completely defied physics.

She didn't know how many degrees she'd tumbled in the air—720? 1440? —she completely lost her sense of direction.

Finally, with a "smack," she landed in a humiliating five‑point splay, face down on the icy ground dozens of meters away.

"Ow ow ow ow——!!!!"

Qiana let out a series of wails, feeling as if every bone in her body had been scattered.

She struggled, propping her upper body with her arms, her white braid also askew to one side, a miserable yet comical sight.

But the next second, she froze.

Eh?

Qiana blinked, moved her arm, and twisted her waist.

It was indeed very painful; the sour, swollen sensation from a massive blow and the dull impact pain were crystal clear.

But… it seemed that was all?

Based on the force of that strike and the distance she was flung, under normal circumstances half‑paralysis and seven or eight broken ribs would be just the starting price.

But now, besides the pain, her body moved with little restriction, and her organs didn't feel like a raging torrent.

"What's going on… this Training Room even has pain perception and damage modulation? So advanced?"

Qiana sat on the ground, rubbing her side abdomen that throbbed faintly, a bewildered look on her face.

She had taken part in the Simulated Combat System, but being able to precisely adjust the force of a One-hit Kill to a level that is "painful but not serious" is a technique unheard of.

On the other side, Kevin let out a light "tch".

He withdrew the bat, a faint trace of doubt flashing across his ice‑blue eyes.

The feel was off.

The Hit Resistance Threshold of this new Simulated Body seemed weaker than the previous one by more than one grade, and its reaction to being hit also appeared… very amateurish, even a bit panicked.

But the system's command, or rather the default Rule of this space, is "existence equals opponent".

He flicked his wrist, gripped the bat again, and stepped forward at an even pace toward the still‑sitting, bewildered Qiana.

The soles of his boots struck the alloy floor, producing a regular, icy "ka, ka" sound, like the Grim Reaper's countdown in the silent space.

Qiana watched the white‑haired man advance step by step; although his face showed little expression, she could clearly feel the cold will that existed solely for "combat".

Explanation? Communication?

The other party clearly had no such intention.

"Hey! Wait! I'm really not here to fight! Listen to me! Where exactly is this place? Who are you?!"

Qiana used her hands and feet to move backward, trying to make a final effort with her mouth.