“Here’s the glass cutter you asked for.”
The shopkeeper inside the tool store said as she handed the glass cutter to Eve Nightburn.
Eve looked at the shopkeeper’s stiff smile but didn’t say anything.
“I’ll be using it right here, is that okay?”
“Of course it is.”
With that one sentence, the shopkeeper dispelled Eve’s anxiety.
Eve sat on a chair in the store and tried using the glass cutter to sever the threads on her body.
She spent a long time cutting, but in the end, the glass cutter itself became dull.
“Uh… this…”
Eve looked at the now-blunt glass cutter and couldn’t help but feel impressed by these threads.
That was a diamond on the glass cutter! If even this couldn’t cut them, then there truly was nothing in this world that could sever these threads.
“I’ll definitely turn you into a whip someday!” Filled with grief and indignation, Eve left the place.
The shopkeeper took back the worn-out glass cutter and made a phone call to have it recycled and remade.
Arriving at a hot pot restaurant, Eve found a seat and slumped into it with a dejected expression.
“You shouldn’t be sad.”
A waitress walked up to Eve’s side.
“Why?”
Eve instinctively retorted, but when she saw the threads on the waitress’s body, she immediately lost her energy.
“Sadness is a terrible thing,” the waitress began explaining to Eve.
“Why is it terrible?”
Eve, feeling somewhat indignant, snapped back at the waitress.
“Because…” The waitress suddenly hesitated.
“Oh right, because what?”
“What exactly is the reason?”
The waitress thought for a long time.
“Ah! Because sadness feels awful, and feeling awful is terrible, so sadness is terrible!”
What kind of twisted logic is that!
Eve wondered if there was any essential difference between “awful” and “terrible” in this context.
“Alright, I get it.”
Eve forced a smile, and only then did the waitress stop talking.
Indeed, these puppets don’t use their brains at all.
“What would you like to order?”
“Give me the menu.”
Eve couldn’t be bothered to talk to these puppets. She took the menu, flipped through it a few times, and finally checked a few items with her pen.
“Just these.”
Eve handed the menu back to the waitress in an exhausted tone.
After the waitress left, Eve leaned back on the sofa and let out a sigh.
“Why do I always feel so tired, so exhausted?”
Eve lifted her left hand, looked at her trembling arm, and weakly let it drop.
She had never thought about these things before, never noticed this feeling—so why did she experience it so often now?
“Hey, mind if I squeeze in? The place is packed, and your spot looks pretty big. You don’t mind, right?”
Just as Eve was lost in thought, a familiar girl’s voice suddenly called out to her.
“Huh?”
Eve looked up to see a purple-haired girl with closed eyes standing beside her seat and froze for a long moment.
“You’re…” Eve searched her memories for any impression of this girl and finally remembered. “You’re that girl I saw at the library the other day!”
“Yep, that’s me.”
The girl didn’t deny it and simply repeated what she had just said.
“So, can I squeeze in?”
“Uh… sure.”
Eve thought about it and eventually agreed. Compared to a room full of puppets controlled by threads, at least this purple-haired girl seemed somewhat normal—even if she wasn’t actually normal.
“Are you here to eat too?”
Eve tried asking the strange girl a question.
She wanted to find a trace of the familiar reality she once knew in this girl.
After all, this girl was the only person Eve had met in this new world who wasn’t bound by threads.
“Yeah, everyone gets hungry. How about you treat me to a meal?”
“Fine…”
Eve was a little thrown by the girl’s train of thought. First, she wanted to share the seat, and now she wanted a free meal.
Fortunately, this world didn’t use money, so Eve didn’t have to worry about how much the meal would cost.
Before long, the waitress brought out a pot of broth, placed it on the table, and turned on the heater.
“Your food will be out shortly. Please wait.”
With that, the waitress left.
The two girls sat across from each other on the sofa, waiting for the broth to heat up and the dishes to be prepared.
As they waited, Eve glanced at the purple-haired girl. “By the way, don’t you have threads on your body?”
“I do. You’re my thread, mhm~”
The girl covered her mouth and giggled softly.
That one sentence instantly made Eve blush furiously.
Eve slammed her fists on the table in frustration. “Where did you even learn that kind of cheesy pickup line?!”
“Pfft!”
“Hahaha, you’re the one with the dirty mind, and you’re blaming me? Hahaha.”
The girl couldn’t hold back her laughter. She clutched her stomach with one hand and banged the table with the other, doubling over in hysterics. This silly loli was downright hilarious.
“Your sense of humor is so low…”
Eve was speechless. What was she thinking, expecting to have a normal conversation with someone so abnormal?
“Okay, okay, I’ll stop laughing—hahahaha…”
Stop laughing my foot! You’re still going at it without pause!
Eve suddenly felt the urge to strangle her.
After a while, the purple-haired girl finally stopped laughing and regained her poised and elegant demeanor.
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you. What I meant was, whether you can see these threads or not, they’ve always existed.”
“Don’t give me philosophical lectures. I don’t understand them!”
Eve outright rejected her explanation. She had a strong feeling this girl was about to spout a bunch of incomprehensible nonsense.
“Fine, then let’s skip the philosophy and talk about something practical. Like, how to truly make yourself happy?”
“Stop!”
Eve immediately cut off her impending hollow speech.
“Can you not bombard me with all these lofty concepts?”
Eve reconsidered and rephrased her words.
“What I want to know is, what’s really going on with this world? Do you understand?”
Just then, a food delivery robot brought over the dishes Eve had ordered earlier.
“Your order is ready. Please take it.”
