Lin Ye pushes open a dusty door.
"This is where I live. Sorry about the mess."
The first thing Lin Ye does when he goes inside his apartment is looking for a broom. After all, it was rare for a girl to come to his place, so he wants to clean things up first. However, as a patient of late-stage procrastination, it is already too late to do that now. And who knows where he left his broom?
The girl follows him inside and checks out the room.
Lin Ye couldn't find his broom, so he tries switching her focus, "Do you want something to drink, Shin... Shine?"
"Shining," she says her name calmly.
"Right. Shining," he nods.
Shining is the girl he just saved. Lin Ye suspects that she is from Rhodes Island, but it wasn't a good time to ask her about Rhodes Island back in the alley. Chernobog's military police are still looking for the Infected that has supposedly gone berserk. Therefore, he could only offer to bring Shining to his place. Perhaps out of curiosity for the ability, Lin Ye used to calm her down or the hope that he could bring her out of town, Shining did not reject his offer.
Like Lin Ye, she also has a lot to ask him.
As mentioned before, when Lin Ye first arrived in this world, he noticed that Heaven did not grant him any systems or cheat codes. Instead, he was given a special ability.
This ability is nicknamed "pet affinity" in his workplace. It doesn't matter how bad-tempered a dog or a cat is, as long as they stay next to Lin Ye for a while, they quickly calm down.
If Lin Ye pets them directly or whispers in their ears, the effects would be even greater, such that a cat that bites anyone, who goes near, would just lie on the table and let "everyone" pet it. Of course, the "everyone" only means Lin Ye. If he leaves, even the pet owners find it difficult to replicate his feats. This ability makes every vet envy Lin Ye, and because of this, he was able to quickly secure a footing in the city. Therefore, even though Lin Ye is not good at his profession, his boss still tries to make him stay by paying his rent and a salary comparable to actual physicians.
If his ability works on cats and dogs, what about people?
With that thought, naturally came action. Chernobog is mostly made of demihumans or beastmen with a small percentage of pure humans. The beastmen are just regular humans with some animalistic features. For example, Shining has a pair of white horns found on sheep. And, there is another character Lin Ye knows in-game. The main character. Ami... Ami... something.
Oh, the donkey and her donkey ears.
Or, rabbit ears?
He doesn't remember.
But the details are not important right now.
In this world, demihumans and humans are not really treated differently. Both races are considered the same. After all, they are residents of Terra, and they share common enemies, the Infected of oripathy.
Humans, demihumans, and the Infected make up the population of Chernobog. Based on prior experiences, his ability doesn't work on humans, but it does work on demihumans. Even though the effects are not comparable to when he uses it on animals, the results are good enough to make him a pseudo psychologist. Still, he only thought about relying on the ability to make a living but never actually tried to do that. After all, treating humanoids is not as easy as treating animals, and the results vary drastically based on how close the subject resembles humans: the more human they look the worse the effects are.
Therefore, Lin Ye decided to be a veterinary intern in Chernobog.
As for the Infected... Lin Ye had no prior experience with using his ability successfully on them. They are very much hated in Chernobog, and normal folks want to kill them all, so the Infected in Chernobog usually choose to live in anonymity. Otherwise, they would just be executed immediately. So far, Lin Ye has seen many corpses of the Infected, but for the living, Shining is the first for him.
"What do you want to drink?" Lin Ye asks.
Shining shakes her head, but Lin Ye still pours something for her to drink.
She accepts the drink and takes a sip, but she frowns at the taste, "What's this?"
"Goat milk."
"Do you like drinking goat milk?"
"Nope. It was for cats."
Shining stays silent for a while before putting down the cup.
Then, Lin Ye hands her some crackers.
"Are these for cats too?" Shining doesn't accept the crackers this time.
"Nope," Lin Ye shakes his head, "They are for dogs."
She looks at him in silence. Wanting to know if he was just messing with her.
Lin Ye awkwardly takes the crackers back. Alright, he had some miscalculations. She is different from the other Infected in his memory. He thought most Infected would be grateful as long as there is food, and in Chernobog, eating pet food is nothing in his opinion. The people here don't even mind it as much as the ones in real life. Also, dog food tastes pretty good, and Lin Ye ate some himself as snacks.
It is just dog food.
Since Shining doesn't want the goat milk or the crackers, Lin Ye puts them back where they were.
Shining looks at Lin Ye and asks, "Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Hmm?" Lin Ye is a bit surprised when he hears the question.
"In your eyes, I am an Infected," she asks, "Aren't you afraid of the Infected?"
Lin Ye gives it some thought before answering, "I guess they are alright."
"Actually, I am not infected."
"?"
"I didn't lie to you, but I did come in contact with the Infected and originium frequently, so I have some symptoms of the Infected," she stands up, "It is not the first time that I lost control of myself, but I had originium and sedatives to suppress myself in the past. Just a moment ago..."
Shining is a tall girl, but a bit shorter than himself. She stands about 1.75 meters tall, and when she stands in front of him, their eyes are almost level.
Lin Ye notices some nervousness in her eyes.
"Can you give me your hand?" Shining asks.
"Ugh... sure," Lin Ye reaches his hand out, "What are you going to..."
Before he can finish talking, Shining takes his hand in hers
He sees her gaze soften.
"So warm," she whispers.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft by Demosama