I needed a bathroom. The thought popped up out of nowhere, interrupting my daydream.

"I need to find a bathroom," I said, more to myself than to the air around me. The snow was falling harder now, sticking to the shoulders of my black suit. Belial was gone, back upstairs to wait for the goods from Wang Lei.

I saw a blue sign with the familiar pictograms of a man and a woman across the street. A small concrete building, squeezed between a pharmacy and a dim sum restaurant with steamed-up windows.

I crossed the street. I ignored the traffic light. Cars slowed down, a faint honk sounded, but I didn't care.

The door to the public restroom was heavy and made of metal. It creaked as I pushed it open. Inside, the sharp smell of disinfectant mixed with the faint odor of urine. The floor was wet white tile, leaving the imprint of my shiny dress shoes. There was only one other stall with its door open. Empty. The sound of water dripping from a leaky faucet was rhythmic.

Drip… drip… drip…

I stood in front of the sink. The mirror above it was foggy, full of frozen water spots. I saw my reflection. Someone I knew, but also a stranger. I turned on the tap. The water gushed out, freezing cold. I cupped my hands, collected the cold water, and splashed it on my face.

The sensation was like an electric shock. Sharp, then refreshing. Strange. Even though it was winter. I should have felt colder. But all I felt was… fresh. I wiped my face with the back of my hand. Water dripped from my chin onto my shirt, leaving a small dark stain.

I went into the stall. Locked the door. The lock made a soft sound, an almost silent electronic click. I stood in front of the white porcelain urinal that gleamed under the bright LED light. No stains. No smell. Only the faint scent of lemon cleaner.

I unzipped my pants. Waited.

Nothing.

I just stood there, staring at the smooth gray partition wall in front of me. The surface was clean, without a single scratch. Not even a sticker or a prank ad. Everything felt so… sterile. Impersonal. The same wall could be in any airport bathroom in the world.

"Damn it," I whispered softly. "I forgot."

I punched the wall. Lightly. Just a dull thud. I didn't want to break it. So I held back my strength.

I took a deep breath. The air here felt cold and damp. I could feel the smell in my lungs. Then I exhaled slowly, watching the vapor of my own breath in the dim air.

I zipped my pants back up.

"I forgot," I mumbled again, this time more like a weary complaint. "I don't have a gender now."

Five months. It had been five months since I last pooped or peed. But this body, these memories, still carried old habits. Habits from my previous life.

I sat on the squat toilet next to the urinal, just because I needed a place to sit. The cold of the porcelain felt like it was piercing my pants.

"Kind of regret choosing the Angel race," I said to the smooth tiles. I chuckled, but there was nothing funny.

"Luckily, my libido is still there. This body didn't erode it."

I sighed again. The sound echoed softly in the small room.

"Even though I don't have a penis," I encouraged my own reflection in the blurry metal door, raising my fist in a gesture that felt silly.

"I'm still a man."

I propped my chin on my hand, my mind starting to wander. "How do Angels reproduce, anyway? If they don't have genitals?"

A sentence from the game's *lore* that I vaguely remembered crossed my mind: Angels and Demons are creations of God.

"Oh, that's right." I had almost forgotten. But that was only for the high-ranking ones, right? Like Seraphim, Fallen Angels, War Devils. The others… could be created. Could be summoned.

"In that case, I can't have children, can I?"

The thought felt strange.

"Well… even if I could, I wouldn't do it." I shook my head. "No smoking, no drinking, no playing around with women."

That was me. Both then and now.

I took out my phone. Opened the gallery. I saw that wallpaper again. Emma. Her smile.

I scrolled down, past photos of food, past awkward selfies I took, until I found an image I had saved. A map of my future Empire. All of Asia colored red.

"I just want to create a better world," I whispered to the glowing phone screen.

"An Empire that will last a thousand years."

A dream that was once impossible. The dream of a loser in his cramped room.

"But now…" I turned off the phone screen. My reflection stared back, my blue eyes shining dimly in the darkness. "I was given this power. There must be a purpose. Otherwise, it's pointless, right?"

"I will lead humanity off this planet," I said.

"But for that… they need unification."

I stood up. My face felt hot.

"Damn, so embarrassing." I could imagine if anyone heard my chuunibyou nonsense.

I went back to the sink. Washed my face one more time. The water was still just as cold.

I pushed the door open, back onto the gray Shanghai street.

"First, find a mall," I said to myself, pulling up my suit collar.

"Look at stuff, eat, watch a movie. Then go home. Asuka is waiting for me."

I stopped under the canopy of a shop. "Hey, Shadow Demon," I whispered to my own shadow stretching on the wet sidewalk.

The shadow rippled.

"Yes, Lord Arthur." The voice was only in my head.

"Return to Avanheim. Tell Asuka I'll be a little late."

"How, My Lord? I cannot use Gate."

I frowned. I had almost forgotten.

"What level are you?"

"Level 40, My Lord."

Of course. Level 45 for Eight-Sequence magic. I reached into my suit pocket, pretending to look for something, then secretly dropped a small crystal into my shadow. The crystal vanished without a sound.

"Use that."

I started walking again, joining the crowd of people I didn't know, strange faces passing by like ghosts.

"In Avalon," I murmured, my voice barely audible, swallowed by the hum of the city. The vapor of my breath formed a small cloud in the cold air.

"Level 100 was the limit."

I remembered the last moments in Avalon. The number "100" glowing golden next to my name. It felt like a final achievement. There was nothing left to chase. No more EXP bar to fill. I had reached the ceiling of that world.

I looked up at the gray sky. Snow was still falling, sticking to my eyelashes.

I stopped in front of an electronics store. Inside the large glass display, dozens of television screens showed the same image in unison: a news anchor speaking rapidly in Mandarin. My face reflected in the glass looked pale under the neon lights of the store.

"So how about here?" I whispered to my own reflection.

The question hung in the cold air, feeling heavy.

"Can I… level up?"

I looked up, past my reflection, to the gray Shanghai sky. Snow fell relentlessly, countless white flakes drifting down from nothingness, covering everything with a thin layer of silence.

My mind spun. Level 101. That number felt absurd, impossible. Like trying to add a new color to a rainbow.

"No…" I shook my head slowly, still staring at the snow. "…even if I could, how?"

This world, fundamentally, was the same as my old one. The real world. Without fantasy. Without a clear system. I couldn't just walk out of the city and find a dungeon to conquer. There was no old NPC in a teahouse who would give me a quest. And most importantly… there were no monsters.

Without all that to give me exp, how could I level up?

That thought triggered a series of other possibilities, a decision tree branching out in my mind.

I could summon monsters. Thousands of Zombie Knights. Hundreds of Demons, Undead. But killing my own creations… would that give exp? Even if it did, it was inefficient. My level was too high. It might take hundreds of thousands of monsters just to fill one percent of the exp bar toward level 101. A ridiculous waste of mana. Unprofitable.

I stopped for a moment. I was thinking too far ahead.

"I shouldn't think like this," I muttered. The first step wasn't 'how', but 'if'. "I need to know… does the leveling system itself still exist in this world?"

I myself… my level was too high to be a test subject. Like trying to weigh a single grain of sand with a truck scale. I needed something more sensitive. Something lower level.

The other NPCs.

The thought came with clarity. The Shadow Demons. The Golems. Or even… the lower-level residents of Avanheim. They could be test subjects.

But still, there was a fundamental problem.

"Where do I find monsters?"

I continued my steps, the sound of my shoe soles echoing softly on the quiet street. Snow crunched beneath them.

A terrible and very logical idea appeared in my mind. A cold and efficient solution.

Should I… turn thousands of humans into monsters for an experiment?

I could do it. Very easily. One large-scale curse spell in a densely populated area. Or maybe using my Abyssal evolution skill. I could create my own "monster zone". A giant laboratory.

"Damn," I whispered to the freezing air.

"There's no way I could do that."

No. I have to do it.

This isn't about cruelty. It's about knowledge. To know whether or not a leveling system exists in this world. That is crucial strategic information. Once I know, I can think of a better method. A… cleaner method.

I stopped again, this time under a barren ginkgo tree, its bare branches covered in snow. I tried to find a justification.

"Right," I said softly, trying to convince myself.

"This is also… for the sake of humanity."

A convenient lie. If I could become stronger, my Empire would be more stable. If my empire was stable, the world would be peaceful under my rule. A forced peace. But peace nonetheless.

I nodded to myself. A decision had been made. A moral line had been crossed, at least in my mind.

I walked again, away from the tree. The sounds of the city began to be heard again in the distance.

"I'll discuss this idea with Emma later."

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