Heilongjiang Province, Mohe City.
“I’m going to head out as soon as everyone gathers. Don’t worry, we’ll leave by 10:30 at the latest.”
“Yes, thank you.”
We bought bus tickets to Mohe City, the northernmost village in China.
“See, people here never stick to their time. If there aren’t enough passengers, they only run once a day. Here, take this.”
Long Yangyang unni shook a hot pack and handed it to Cheon Saetbyeol.
Shiver, shiver, shiver—
“It’s so cold. Let’s find a building or something to get into quickly.”
Even bundled up in gloves, a hat, and a puffy jacket, Saetbyeol was still trembling from the cold.
I took out my phone to measure the temperature and showed it to the camera.
[-38°C]
“We’ve arrived in Mohe City, Heilongjiang Province, and it’s -38 degrees. To get to the northernmost village, Beijicun, we need to travel another two hours by bus.”
—-38 degrees lol
—Saetbyeol will freeze to death!
—Na-me, hurry and give me a big hug!
—Please protect the habitat of polar bears.
└ Fact: Because of global warming, the population of polar bears has increased fivefold since the 1960s, with about 60,000 living now.
└ If it’s warmer, isn’t it obviously easier for them to live?
Inside the terminal, Chinese tourists had gathered to escape the cold.
The four of us sat next to each other in the empty seats.
It was a bonus to have a video call with Dad, who was probably worried right about now.
“Hello? Dad, we’ve started our journey.”
[Is the temperature really that low? You said it was -38 degrees… dress warmly!]
For some reason, it seemed like he was also keeping an eye on my livestream.
“Hehe, don’t worry. If I wear more layers, I’ll start sweating in my chest.”
“Unnie, you don’t have a chest!”
Smack!
“Ah! My nose! Ahh, I hit a bone!”
Without a second thought, Saetbyeol gave me a fist to the face.
“Yes. I’ll contact you again when we arrive. Bye bye.”
Professor Cheon waved with a sad expression.
After 10 seconds of saying bye-bye, I ended the call.
“Are you guys Korean?”
The couple in front of us, an uncle and an aunty, turned around, seemingly interested in us.
“Me and this one are Korean, the other two are Chinese.”
“Wow, you’re traveling as four girls?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my… kids these days really are something else. I can’t believe you came all the way here in the cold winter.”
“Young people come to see the aurora often, don’t they?”
“Yes, but usually it’s just newlyweds. It’s the first time I’ve seen kids brought along.”
“T-tiny kids…”
Pffft.
The broadcast managers sensed the tension and temporarily locked down the chat window.
“Well, I guess it could seem like that.”
They didn’t seem to have meant it as a derogatory remark.
As I pouted in silence, the middle-aged couple started taking an interest in my stream.
“Uploader?”
“Huh?”
“Not ‘Bilibili…’ that’s not right since you’re Korean. You’re a V-tube uploader, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Oh, I can’t not subscribe to our little uploader! You, hurry up and search for her on your phone. It’s only polite!”
“What should I search for to find her and my friend?”
I rolled my eyes, looking for a hint.
“Hehe, hurry up and tell me, unnie.”
“Believe it or not, this friend is incredibly popular.”
“Really?”
We all had on winter hats, so they probably couldn’t tell who we were.
“It’s in English. N, O, N, A.”
“Let’s see… next?”
“M, E. Thanks for subscribing!”
A moment of silence followed.
The uncle adjusted his glasses and asked again.
“Who has 150 million subscribers?”
“Noname? Oh, I know her! Wait, are you Noname?”
—You can’t NOT recognize big Noname?
—Bow your head! The Sage of the 150 million followers, Noname, is here.
—Uncle’s flabbergasted, lol.
—Honestly, if I saw Noname in a rural village, I wouldn’t believe it either.
The fuss was a bit embarrassing.
I responded by sheepishly taking off my hat and nodding.
Within moments, the bus terminal became noisy.
“Ah, that’s why I thought I recognized you! So this friend next to you is the one you always hang out with?”
“The friend I always hang out with…? Hold on! What’s my name again?”
Saetbyeol blocked the uncle’s phone screen, pressing for answers.
“Well, you have two names; one from virtual reality and one in reality.”
“So tell me my name. I’ll recognize you if you get one right.”
“It’s uh… Silver Bell, right?”
Saetbyeol got heated.
“Silver Bell…? How can a person have a name like Silver Bell? You’re being ridiculous, Uncle!”
Hehe, Saetbyeol.
I barely stifled my laughter and gave her shoulder a friendly poke.
Ah, this is so funny, it hurts!
“That uncle just called me Silver Bell.”
“Now that you mention it, you kinda are a Silver Bell. Adella’s Chinese name is Yinling (银铃), which translates to Silver Bell. The uncle remembered correctly.”
“W-what?”
Saetbyeol’s expression slowly morphed into one of shock, as if she’d stumbled upon a birth secret.
Unable to bear the chatroom’s teasing any longer, Saetbyeol flipped her mask down to her chin.
“We’re about to depart! Everyone, please get on the bus!”
The bus driver announced the boarding call.
Passengers passing by shared a few words.
“Thanks as always. I use Dreaming Mode every day.”
“Seeing Noname in person is even cuter!”
“Do you know who this unni is? It’s Noname! The strongest in the world!”
“Noname unni!”
“Hey, is that person next to you from the Mudang Sect?”
“Yes, I’m Lu Ruohan.”
“Oh wow, it’s such an honor to meet you!”
In a warm atmosphere, the bus was about to depart…
Vroom-vroom!
But it couldn’t just take off yet.
“What’s that noise?”
As soon as the bus turned on, a gang of bikers appeared out of nowhere.
They began circling the bus on their roaring motorcycles, blocking the way.
The bus driver opened the window and shouted loudly.
“Get lost, you punks!”
One guy, looking like the leader, stopped his motorcycle, burst into the bus through the front door, holding a crowbar.
“Hey, can you spare some mana fuel? The gas station is closed.”
“Closed? Then just try to find another station!”
“I’m asking for just a bit! My home’s far from here, and it’s freezing! Please cooperate, or I swear I’ll kill you all!”
Wham!
“Whoa?”
As I tried to stand, Saetbyeol grabbed my wrist and pushed me back into my seat.
“Unnie, please be gentle, we came to enjoy the trip, remember?”
“Why are the passengers here so rude? Why are they staring at us like that?”
I guess it was a different reaction than I had expected.
Observing the passengers blinking without much concern, the leader said:
“Luohan, I’ll leave the inside to you.”
“?”
I opened the window and jumped out of the bus in one leap.
The gang members were thrown off balance by my perfect landing.
I kicked down the neatly lined-up motorcycles domino-style.
“Look who doesn’t understand the danger of adults!”
They couldn’t process the surprising turn of events and began responding with curses.
One guy tried to sneak up behind me with both arms raised.
I elbowed him right at the gut!
“Ugh! Aaaah! Oh no!”
Realizing something was off, I withdrew my aura, but I was just a split-second too late.
Even a child like me could hit a weak spot.
The man who was struck in a very unfortunate place clutched it and rolled on the ground.
‘It’s okay, it probably didn’t break.’
With the man’s dignity crumbling to dust, the bikers lost their cool and surged toward me.
I attached my GoPro camera around my neck and gathered my aura.
“When fighting many at once, getting surrounded is the biggest risk. The moment you fall down, they’ll stamp on you, so keep moving to make it hard to tell friend from foe.”
I first tripped the guy whose punch came lunging at me.
I stepped firmly on his thigh, making it hard for him to stand for a few minutes.
“In a brawl, you especially have to watch out for your clothing getting caught.”
Even those who couldn’t handle their aura could still manipulate their hands easily.
As soon as I said that, one of the bikers grabbed my puffy jacket tightly, swinging me around.
Vroom-vroom—
It felt like I was about to be flung away at any moment.
Being in China, I needed to adapt my fighting style to be more Chinese martial arts inspired.
‘But is this really how it’s supposed to work?’
Like pushing through clouds, my palm moved smoothly forward.
My feet glided across the ground in a consistent rhythm, while my aura rippled fluidly through my arms.
[PalGwa (八卦) – YouYunZhang (游雲掌)]
Boom!
Concentrated aura erupted outward like clouds pouring out from a single point.
“Hey guys, something’s off with this girl!”
The brawlers, who were just pretending to be watching from behind during the fight, noticed something suspicious.
But by now, it was far too late.
[Ultimate Spell: Arabesque Knot – Fire]
A gigantic magic circle burned into the snow.
Fwhoosh—
Flames shot up as I ignited the outermost mana circle, creating a towering wall of fire.
“Wow, this feels warm.”
“…!”
“Look, it’s my lucky day, right? Just drop anything dangerous and sit quietly.”
“Did she just call us kids?! What the hell?! What have we gotten ourselves into?!”
Even the soldiers with face blindness managed to cover for each other until the end.
It really wasn’t a friendly scene at all.
Despite the flames extinguishing, not a single biker was willing to escape the circle.
Luohan dragged the gang leader outside the bus.
“I’m so sorry. Please just spare me…!”
“How hard did you hit him to be drooling like this?”
“I only hit him once.”
Looking at his ballooned-up face, I knew he was lying.
But considering that he still had the presence of mind, he seemed somewhat skilled.
“Are you saying a herbivore is a single hit?”
“…Well, one hit or not.”
Luohan flared up and turned her face away sharply.
“Yangyang unni, did you call the police?”
“Yeah, I called earlier!”
“Then we can leave now; we don’t want to keep the other passengers waiting.”
“Can we just leave him behind? He could escape.”
“Well… is it really worth it?”
I squatted down and pondered over it.
“I guess breaking their legs one by one would—”
“I can wait!”
“You can wait until the police arrive? If it’s hard, just say it quickly.”
“I can wait!”
“Aww, what a good kid. It’s cold, so let’s wait in the terminal with the younger ones. If we stay outside for too long, we’ll freeze to death. And before we leave, let’s rearrange the motorcycles to one side.”
“Yes, understood! Let’s go, guys…!”
I gently patted the leader’s head.
It seemed that the learned helplessness was indeed a scary thing.
The bikers parked their motorcycles on the roadside and rushed indoors.
I eyed the bus before boarding.
“Waaaaaah! Noname, you’re so cool!”
“Wow! This is the champion! No worries!”
“Wasn’t that just Mudang martial arts? You hit him, and he just flew away.”
“Luohan is amazing, but Noname is… I can’t even describe it.”
“No, I’m sorry for making everyone late because of me.”
I smiled and returned to my seat, resting my head on Saetbyeol’s shoulder.
“Is it good?”
“So far, it’s a bit dull.”
But if there was a harvest, it was crystal clear now.
I had correctly gauged the boundary.
‘This much should be acceptable to the masses of this era.’
In my past life, if I had treated street thugs this way, I would have been the one getting the backlash for being so soft.
*
Two hours later, we arrived at Beijicun, which we called the Arctic Village.
It was a place famously known on social media, but with the temperature at -35, not a single tourist was to be seen.
We went to a guesthouse run by Yangyang’s acquaintance and had lunch.
All the side dishes were just wild greens, so I just pretended to pick up my chopsticks.
“I still get angry just thinking about that meteor. When I woke up this morning, I found a hole in the greenhouse.”
“Can we see where the meteor fell?”
“Want to go look? It’s gone, gone. My husband and I searched everywhere, but it just vanished without a trace.”
The aunt waved her hands, signaling us to stop asking.
Without permission, we couldn’t just walk into someone else’s farm.
Saetbyeol whispered to me.
“Is there something like that in Sanshi?”
“I might have my doubts now.”
“Oh no, so we walked around for nothing.”
“Let’s think it over.”
After lunch, we hopped in the car to head to our scheduled volunteer activity.
Due to an avalanche, the tunnel entrance was completely covered in snow and ice.
I put the mana stone I had brought into the portable mana generator.
[Casting: Melt]
I waved the wand around like using a metal detector.
‘If there are eggs, they probably haven’t hatched yet. But if they’re hiding in the shadows, we’re lost.’
It’s cold.
“Uh?”
That voice…
Was it inside the tunnel?
At that moment, Luohan gathered her aura.
“It seems almost clear. I’ll break through the rest with my hand.”
“Wait, don’t!”
Bang!
Ice shards flew around us.
