Magic was truly becoming more addictive the more he used it.
It was like playing an online game—while others were honestly grinding monsters to level up, you were using a script or paying to win. That convenient sense of achievement and satisfaction wasn’t something everyone could resist.
Lin Nan had already experienced magic twice.
The first time was cross-dressing, directly transforming himself into a female, though he didn’t feel much accomplishment from that.
The second time was enhancing his reaction speed for the sake of winning the competition. Although reaction speed wasn’t often used in daily life, having this magic had indeed made Lin Nan’s life significantly more convenient.
Even apart from the benefits for gaming, Lin Nan felt that both his phone’s security and his personal safety had improved tremendously compared to before.
After all, he could now avoid bumping into people or poles while using his phone on the street, wouldn’t get hit in the head by a stray basketball when passing a court, and could quickly regain balance if he accidentally twisted his ankle.
This magic was incredibly convenient for everyday life. Even though Lin Nan knew that magic would gradually feminize his body, eventually transforming him into Lilith’s form, he still couldn’t help but think of this cheat code when facing difficulties.
Two thousand yuan, letting his body become slightly more feminine, and never again fearing cold or extreme heat.
It didn’t seem like such a bad deal?
After thinking with his heat-addled brain for a moment, Lin Nan felt that the condition wasn’t that hard to accept. At the very least, his current priority was earning money to clear his debt—otherwise, facing his creditor every day would make him feel uncomfortable.
After resting in the shade for a while, Lin Nan immediately set off to find Chen Yao, handing out flyers to pedestrians along the street.
Walking through a block, at the traffic light where two streets intersected, Lin Nan quickly spotted Chen Yao, also dressed in a Kumamon mascot costume.
He felt his head becoming increasingly dizzy from the sun, and to maintain a clear mind for completing the task at hand, he hurriedly quickened his pace and rushed to the other Kumamon.
“Why did you come over?” Chen Yao was also standing under a sunshade, and the traffic assistant beside him similarly had no objections.
He took off his headpiece, fanning himself with folded flyers, and asked Lin Nan, “What’s up? Can’t take it anymore?”
Chen Yao exercised regularly, and now during basketball season, he trained every evening. Therefore, his ability to endure the heat was naturally much stronger than Lin Nan’s.
After working for nearly two hours, Lin Nan was soaked as if he’d been pulled out of water, while Chen Yao only had sweat dripping from his bangs, obviously much more comfortable than Lin Nan.
“Feeling a bit dizzy,” Lin Nan tapped his mascot head, feigning weakness as he said, “Came to get some Huoxiang Zhengqi Water from you.”
“Let’s go somewhere shady first,” Chen Yao had anticipated this and walked forward helplessly. “How about I buy you some milk tea or ice cream later? To cool off.”
Chen Yao knew that Lin Nan preferred ice cream over popsicles.
“Mm-hmm.”
But Lin Nan seemed distracted, looking around for a shaded area with few pedestrians. He was afraid that if he pretended to faint, some meddlesome passerby might perform CPR or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation—the former would likely result in broken ribs, and the latter would cost him his first kiss. Either way, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Of course, he still supported such behavior in principle.
Although he was genuinely dizzy from the “sauna,” Lin Nan clearly sensed that he was only in the early stages of heatstroke. His brain could still think, and while his body felt somewhat numb, walking wasn’t a major problem.
He led Chen Yao into a small alley and glanced around to confirm no one was passing by.
“Here, drink this. It tastes terrible, but it’s effective for relieving heat,” Chen Yao had already removed the upper half of his mascot costume, leaving it hanging at his waist, as he struggled to pull the medicine out of his pocket and hand it to Lin Nan.
Lin Nan nodded and took the medicine, but before he could open it, he suddenly felt extremely dizzy. He staggered back several steps until he hit the wall, then closed his eyes and slowly slid down to sit on the ground.
Chen Yao was shocked.
Just a minute ago, Lin Nan had seemed fine—his face was certainly too red, but he didn’t look like someone who would suddenly faint from heatstroke.
He quickly crouched beside Lin Nan, not daring to get too close for fear of blocking the air flow. He could only reach out from a distance to push Lin Nan’s shoulder: “Are you okay? Quick, take the medicine.”
Chen Yao looked anxious. Seeing no response from Lin Nan, he stood back a bit and took out his phone to call 120 (emergency services).
In this situation, calling 120 was clearly the best choice.
However, just after pressing two buttons, with the phone making beeping sounds, Lin Nan suddenly opened his eyes and stubbornly refused: “I’m fine... no hospital.”
“Why are you still refusing the hospital at a time like this?” Chen Yao didn’t know what to say to him.
“It’s not serious,” Lin Nan waved his hand, his face pale.
Indeed, it wasn’t serious—his head was just a bit dizzy from the sun. His pale complexion was from accidentally hitting a stone when he sat down on the ground.
With a stubborn expression, he kept shaking his head: “I hate the smell of hospitals.”
“Heatstroke can kill people,” Chen Yao said with a dark face. “At least drink some Huoxiang Zhengqi Water.”
“Okay.”
Lin Nan leaned against the wall, wondering why Chen Yao wasn’t coming to hold him. This wasn’t like the youth romance dramas he’d seen.
He somewhat regretted his decision, then suddenly realized that his plans always seemed to go wrong. The first time, he had miscalculated his height; now, Chen Yao didn’t dare get too close to him during his heatstroke, worried about blocking air circulation—let alone holding him.
He watched as Chen Yao unscrewed the cap of the Huoxiang Zhengqi Water, releasing a strong, nauseating smell.
“It smells and tastes bad, but it works well for mild heatstroke. Want to try?”
Lin Nan shook his head vigorously, moving backward with a fearful expression.
“You won’t go to the hospital and you won’t take medicine—aren’t you just asking for trouble?” Chen Yao saw his resistance and asked helplessly, “So what do you want? Don’t want to hand out flyers anymore?”
“I still need to hand them out...”
Lin Nan felt something was wrong. It was starting to seem like he was deliberately causing trouble to avoid distributing flyers, trying to get Chen Yao to help him.
He remained silent for a moment, unable to speak directly. He could only lower his head weakly, continuing to feign symptoms of heatstroke.
In reality, he had no idea what heatstroke should look like. In his eighteen years of life, he had never experienced heatstroke, nor had he seen what others looked like when suffering from it.
He had genuinely felt dizzy outside earlier, but now in this quiet alley, leaning against the cool wall, he had already recovered.
“You, you,” Chen Yao shook his head continuously, taking the flyers from Lin Nan’s hand. “Then rest here, and I’ll go help you distribute them.”
Sure enough, Chen Yao misunderstood, thinking that Lin Nan simply didn’t want to hand out flyers anymore.
“No!” Lin Nan quickly called out to Chen Yao, who was standing up.
“What is it?”
Lin Nan took a deep breath, feeling that sometimes boundaries needed to be pushed when necessary.
So with a flushed face, he opened his arms and closed his eyes in extreme embarrassment.
Chen Yao looked perplexed, but suddenly remembered the previous incident. The image flashed through his mind, immediately frightening him into taking several steps back.
This Lin Nan—could he have become addicted to kissing?