Crumbled stones fell and scattered on the floor.

Alice very carefully brought her foot down, her head lifted high and the face robotically stoic. Dead silence reigned behind, for everyone was still hearing the same sound the girl was: a horrendous snap her leg had produced the moment it broke through ten inches of an old, somewhat cracked statue.

"Ha-a-a..." she exhaled long when there was no strength left to keep all inside.

"Yeah, I was duped," Alice talked with small pauses between her words that weren't normally there. "Pain in the dungeon was almost this real. No wonder I was duped. I shouldn't blame myself."

To the horror of all present, the girl walked to the throne without limping. Only the corners of her eyes and lips were twitching. Then she hopped up and sat.

Absolute Body Control... what an ability to blow smoke...

God, it hurts!

Good thing I measured it now and not in combat!

She persuaded herself and then registered the gazes.

"Stop thinking what you think," Alice closed her eyes and said peacefully. Few things quench the anger as good as a literal punch at a wall.

"I had... think of it as terminal cancer. I was dying for a long time, and when I finally did, I was revived and had a remission. End of story. You lot are more likely to have been hurt by other people than me. Okay? My only torturer is the universe."

Quite a few embarrassed stares traveled away.

*Cough*

"You take pain well," said John with the face of a man who knows he is poking a beehive but cannot quite control himself.

"Yes. Yes, I do. Now, how would you prove it was a dream?"

"Scar! You need treatment!"

"Jean is right, Ms. Branson. I won't criticize your way to prove your point, but enough is enough."

"I didn't have a point..." Alice grumbled and took her life potion that Nomad had brought down. "...and I am not stupid. Teach, you can call me Alice, you know. Or Scarlet. Or Scar..."

Good nickname, he-he.

Actually, the fracture in her shin bone was very clean. The girl had made the blood essence (or blood qi?) surround the bone after the initial agonizing flare, fix it in place and therefore lessen the burden on her pain receptors.

Alice took a sip of life potion and felt it connecting the bone tissue. If I do all the preliminary work it makes healing faster.

"There is something more," she concentrated on the ongoing discussion and heard Rob talking. "A year ago, I broke my left leg."

Like most of them, he then looked at Alice's right.

"One nasty break. I had a long recovery, a titanium pin and I think some bone from a donor. It was a half screw up from the surgeon and never felt right again, you know? Weak, fragile. In the dream, the problem was just gone. I never questioned it. Of course in a dream, my old body is back, right? But the strange thing, my leg is fine right now. I used healing potions like Alice now, of course, but my perception got through the roof, I should feel the pin there."

His explanation became too long-winded and he stopped with a shrug.

"That got me thinking," said Nomad with a very thoughtful expression. "Anyone had dental fillings? 'Had' cause I can't find mine now."

For a minute, literally everyone but Alice who always had good teeth and Jean were focused on working with their tongues.

"No," the guys reported almost in unison.

"You took your time. What else changed in us?" asked Jean with a very impatient smile-not-smile.

"Jean made a challenge while you were healing," professor Lauster answered Alice's unspoken question.

Alice nodded and then repeated inwardly, Us. She spent relatively more time with girls than most boys did and therefore saw the trap. Her eyes focused on the redhead.

"Your tattoos are missing."

"Finally!" Jean gave her thumbs up.

"No pierced ears."

"Yep, yep. And lastly?"

Alice panicked slightly but kept the poker face. At least she wasn't asked what tattoos exactly Jean had on her arms.

"...is red your original hair color?"

"You think I had them dyed? No! My original is black!"

For a minute, Alice was digesting the grand statement.

"You mean, the system changed your hair color?" Robert asked disbelievingly.

"Yes! The thing is, I always wanted red hair. I even saw them red in dreams. Dream-s."

"I know!"

Sage Dunkan suddenly shouted out and twitched as all stares crossed on him. It's painful to see, Alice dubiously watched him faltering and professor Lauster urging the guy to talk.

"The system wanted us in our best conditions," when Dunkan started to explain, he did so from the point. "I bet adapting our bodies to levels and constantly growing attributes wasn't done in a moment but took months of real-time."

"Being a step closer to our perfect selves is a bonus," the professor demonstratively scratched her face.

The guys did the same. They had really clean skin, Alice noticed. Like they weren't teenagers with pimps from raging hormones.

Dunkan's theory made sense, the girl suspected as much. Just one thing bothered...

"I should be towering over him right now," she stubbornly pointed at John who was almost two meters tall. The lanky guy lifted his hands with surprise.

Integration of Leviathan's blood, how much time did it take?

"Maybe only small changes were allowed."

Smartass.

Then there were more discussions. The arguments were exchanged, questions without answers were raised and the whole thing started to become aimless.

Clap, clap.

"I think we learned many things," professor Lauster wedged in with a smile. "The night is soon."

A pause and universal look at the piece of the courtyard illuminated evenly by hundred suns were called for

"Night may come," she continued with a wider smiler as if nothing happened. "Discussing system's shenanigans can wait. Switch on more fruitful endeavors."

The professor knocked the forgotten by all notebook and flipped it over.

System Facilities
Active Barrier	0/10,000
Spirit Sanctuary	0/10,000
Tower of Trials	0/10,000
Training Arrays	0/10,000
Library	0/10,000
Smithy	0/10,000
Magic Workshop	0/10,000
Alchemy Workshop	0/10,000
Greenhouse	0/10,000
Universal Storage	0/10,000

"I knew it!" Alice cried out when her mind caught up with her eyes.

"What?"

"I knew the system will charge us! Look, there are push buttons to pay! It's one hundred grand!"

There were two sections in essentially a shopping list. One had ten system facilities that Phase Two Main Mission wanted them to activate aka buy out.

"Yes, Alice is right. We will need a lot of points. Besides, here is another list."

Renovations
Gate	0/3,000
Walls	0/3,000
Roads	0/5,000
Garden	0/4,000
...	...
Bedrooms	0/2,000
Outer Decorations	0/3,000
Corridors and other Rooms	0/4,000
...	...

"It's a long list," someone murmured.

"We will need water supply here," the professor pointed. "Two thousand points. Even if we bear with stone beds, we will need to at least patch up the roof since I refuse to soak when it rains. Also, daily tools. Kitchen."

"Why?.. the system shouldn't expect us to repair every single thing?"

"Good question, Robert," she sighed and her voice changed to quoting. "Reward: access to Earth Node #116."

"Access," repeated Jonh.

"Access," echoed pretty much all.

"Nod as a two-way portal to Earth?" Robert squinted.

"Two-way? We will get a castle? We will get the whole castle for ourselves!" Jean screamed so high her voice cut in ears. No one complained though.

The teenagers, Alice included, started to giggle and comment quietly between themselves while professor Lauster stood aside and was forcing her hand from facepalming. No one noticed though.

"I admit, I have a ton of motivation now," John stated. "And it's big from me. Damn, to own a castle in another world..."

"First we need a hundred thousand points," professor Lauster poured water on their sweet dream. "Plus two small mysteries to solve."

Her finger marked a certain entity. Alice felt weird and secretly glad.

'Energy Circulation 1,000/7,000'

"The system cheated it out of me in the dungeon," she confessed. "A long story and hard to explain. I will say when we need it."

No matter how asked, the girl shook her head.

"Well, there is a description, you can just read it," reminded the professor. "Good, I thought it was the eighth."

Teenagers showed a collective 'how could I forget' face.

"Teach... so what's with him?" Jean guiltily asked.

"Mr. Sandoval. There is no room with his number. He didn't accept the fact that a basically almighty being is preparing him for the apocalypse. He disliked his role. He felt like an outsider. Who knows now? The system returned him to where he belongs. "

"Back to Earth?"

Naive, all of you. Teach, you hearten them up, but you are not sure yourself, don't you? He might be dead. He might have individual training.

Yet Alice said no word. Better than many she knew how important a white lie of an adult can be. Even when the child suspects it's a lie. For some time the girl was brooding in her sadness, feeling sneaking glances. No one bothered her until she decided to go out of her memories herself.

What she heard first, was an argument. The group was arguing what facility they needed the most. Everyone had some points to spare and the system allowed to pay in installments.

"My vote goes for the library. I want to gamble on these 'books of various subjects' it contains," she spoke in-between and closed her eyes. "Please, open the normal system shop. I have a bad premonition."

The group was puzzled at first.

Even John won't support me in aiming for the spiritual sanctuary. He is rational and didn't even ask me about cultivation yet. So, the library goes first. I recognize the system's pattern, there must be breathing techniques As’heshal mentioned inside.

Then there was a loud clamor. Notes of resentment rose to the high ceiling of the throne room.

"How bad?" Alice asked.

"God, I was in a hurry after Abraham had called me down and didn't even think to check," professor Lauster exclaimed.

"The system is nasty."

"Nomad, professor. Please."

"Only the status category," John punched Alice's throne. "Sorry."

"The system is that nasty?" the girl opened her eyes wide. "No weapons, no food, no nothing?"

"Not a single tangible item," the professor nodded.

Well, Alice already saw on the screen that much. Everybody was shaken. Jean, Dunkan and naturally John more than others, but even the professor Lauster paled badly.

"Very well then. I'm a hunter." In a very controlled tone, the girl stated. "It's still light outside."