“Mila, are you out of your mind? It’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and you’re planning to go to a sauna?”

Just as I was about to leave, Rio grabbed my wrist so hard it felt like he was trying to crush my bones.

I tried to shake my hand free, but he was too strong.

The sticky sweat from his palm rubbed against my skin. It felt like the slime of some reptile.

“I’m perfectly clear-headed.” I raised my other hand and waved the e-ticket on my phone. “It’ll be 140 degrees Fahrenheit at the dry sauna. I’ll only experience fifteen minutes of sweating. Isn’t that way more comfortable than sitting in an air-conditioned room?

“Besides, is what I do any of your business?”

Rena’s white spaghetti-strap dress clung to her body. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. She was not embarrassed or out of breath, she was purely overwhelmed by the heat.

Her family’s “air conditioner clearance sale” had clearly been cut off because I had not played my part. The buyers were blocking her front door and cursing loudly.

“Mila, stop this,” she said, biting her lower lip. She looked pitiful. “I know you’re upset, but no matter how upset you are, you can’t risk your life. What if you get heatstroke in a sauna?”

“Exactly,” Rio chimed in, his voice rising. “If something happens to you, people will think we’ve been mistreating you!”

I almost burst out laughing.

In my previous life, I had died of heatstroke in this very building. My body turned black and my eyeballs burst. Yet they did not even call an ambulance. They just dragged me into the living room for a photo op, with the caption: Girlfriend died of heatstroke because she was too poor to turn the AC on. She turned into a dried corpse.

That livestream had raked in three million in tips. Arion Leiz used the money to buy a villa while my mother wept herself to death right in front of my corpse.

“Get lost! Even if I die of heatstroke, it’s none of your business!”

The two exchanged a glance and actually tied me up with a nylon rope they had prepared in advance.

“Let me go!”

I struggled desperately, but Rio simply wrapped the nylon rope around my wrists and tied a tight knot.

Rena was even more ruthless. She took off her sock and shoved it into my mouth.

“Stop fooling around,” Rio panted and shoved me toward the bedroom. “Mila, you must have a heatstroke. That’s why you were babbling about taking a sauna. We need to cool you down now.”

“That’s right, Mila, we’re doing this for your own good.” Rena slammed the air conditioner remote to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air vent immediately let out a hissing sound.

Instantly, Rena and Rio both wore expressions of utter bliss. In contrast, I only felt intense heat.

To prevent me from escaping, they wrapped a charging cable around my ankles twenty times.

The two of them stared at me coldly. “Mila, just stay put in this air-conditioned room.

“Once your temperature goes down, you’ll stop talking nonsense.”

The two of them laughed as they walked out the door.

Through the crack in the door, I heard Rena whisper. “Hurry up. The buyers are still blocking the door upstairs. We need to cash in today’s batch of 9.9 coupons first.”

Rio gave a sinister smile. “It’s so satisfying to have this dumb woman pay our electricity bill for us.”

Footsteps faded into the distance.

It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the room, while the air conditioner read 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

I felt like I had been stuffed into a sealed steamer. Every breath carried the scorching, rusty taste of iron.

Sweat that had just broken out evaporated instantly. My skin began to tighten and ache.

I frantically twisted my wrists, but like a snake sated with blood, the rope tightened even further.

My skin began to burn, and my throat felt as if a red-hot coal had been shoved down it.

My vision went black in waves. But I bit down hard on my tongue trying to force myself to stay conscious.

No. I could not die.

At least not in a more pathetic way than I did in my last life.

I kicked with all my might and knocked over the bedside table.

Crash!

Glass water cups shattered across the floor.

I used my shoulder to grind against the shards to slowly wear through the rope.

Blood trickled down my arm, but I could no longer feel the pain. The intense heat had already numbed my nerves.

Finally, the rope loosened around my wrist.

I rolled over and sat up. Then, I immediately bolted out the door.

At that very moment, Rena’s shriek echoed from upstairs. “Mila must have escaped!”

To make sure they would not find me, I did not go to the nearest sauna. Instead, I chose one farther away.

“Welcome...”

“Ten hours, dry sauna, highest temperature.”

I slapped my ID and phone down on the counter. My voice was hoarse and unrecognizable.

The clerk was a young woman in her early twenties. She beamed a well-practiced frontdesk’s smile. She repeatedly checked the reservation details on the screen, then looked up at me. Sweat was dripping down my jaw. My T-shirt was soaked through.

“Ma’am, 140 degrees Fahrenheit for ten hours could be fatal...” She swallowed hard, forcing the words “cremation” back down her throat. “Our shop only sells sessions of up to two hours at a time. You will have to come out in between to rehydrate and check your blood pressure.”

“Are you afraid I’ll die in there?” I raised my hand to wipe the sweat from my eyelashes and smiled. “I’ve got accident insurance. I’ll name your shop as the beneficiary. Is that okay?”

The young woman was speechless. Her finger trembled over the confirmation button.

I reached out and pressed it for her.

Beep! Payment successful.

The ticket machine clicked as it spat out the wristband. I snatched it and slipped it on like I was fastening shackles around my own wrists.

In the changing room, I shoved my phone, watch, and necklace into the locker.

The moment I saw the necklace. My mind went blank.

It was my half of the “couple’s set” Rio had gifted me last month.

I stared at it for two seconds. Then, I swung my arm and smashed it hard into the corner of the wall.

After changing into my bathrobe, I stood at the entrance to the sauna. The wave of heat wafting through the crack in the door slammed into my face.

Suddenly, I got cold feet.

What if... the system did not fall for this at all?

What if... the heat did not transfer to Rena across space, but stayed right here inside me instead?

At 140 degrees Fahrenheit, proteins would denature in just ten minutes. My internal organs would crack open like overcooked eggs.

My hand gripping the doorknob began to shake uncontrollably.

“Ma’am, if you change your mind now, we can still offer you a half-refund.” The clerk caught up to me. She almost whispered the line, as if she was afraid of disturbing the Grim Reaper.

I turned to look at her, and a vision from my past timeline flashed before my eyes. I was all curled up in an air-conditioned room set to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. My skin had cracked and peeled. My dead eyes were cloudy. Beside my corpse, a flash came from Rio’s phone. He was photographing me as if I were a new dish.

“No refunds.” I heard myself say.

The next second, I yanked the door open.

A wall of heat slammed into me. My nostrils dried out instantly, and the air I inhaled carried sparks.

The door locked automatically behind me with a “click” that carried the finality of a life sentence.

I set the timer for ten hours.

I turned the temperature dial all the way to the right, to “170 degrees Fahrenheit.”

The numbers on the display panel fluctuated wildly before settling at “140 degrees Fahrenheit”. The red warning light began to flash.

I slid slowly along the wall until I was sitting on the wooden plank in the farthest corner. The moment my skin touched it, there was a sizzling sound.

The very next instant, I heard a piercing scream coming from outside the spa.

I was right.

Rena’s “cooling transfer system” was not a one-way drain. It was a temperature exchange.

Even in the intense sauna, I felt unusually cool.

But outside the sauna…

“Ah!!!”

Rena’s screams sounded like a tape being snapped. Each one was louder than the last.

Even through two fire escape doors, I could picture her curled up on the floor while wailing in agony.

Her skin had been scorched crimson by the sudden surge of 140 degrees Fahrenheit heat. Beads of sweat evaporated into white vapor the moment they broke through her skin. She was like a live shrimp tossed into boiling water.

“Mila! Get the hell out here!”

Rio’s roar followed immediately. His fists pounded against the sauna door, producing a dull “thud, thud” sound.

I glanced down at my wristband. Time remaining: 09:47.

The lock was electronic. It had been bolted shut from the inside. Without the administrator’s password, no one could open it.

“Rena’s about to die! Her whole body is blistered from the heat! Do you freaking want to kill her?!”

Rio’s voice trembled, like a chicken being choked.

I raised my hand and drew a smiley face in the fog on the glass door.

“Rio, what are you talking about? I simply just wanted to take a sauna.

“If Rena is feeling hot, just take her to cool off in the air conditioning.”

I spoke to the door as I enunciated every word filled with sarcasm.

There was a second of silence outside.

Then came even more violent kicking against the door, mixed with Rena’s wails.

“Mila! I’m sorry! I’ll unbind the system! Come out, I’m begging you…”

By the end of her scream, her voice was scorched hoarse by the heat. It snapped like a dry twig.

“Mila! You’re crazy!”

Rio began smashing the door lock with a metal fire extinguisher. Sparks flew everywhere.

I calmly opened my phone and switched to the live-streaming interface.

The title was already there.

[Awakening Superpowers: Challenging a 140 degrees Fahrenheit Sauna Without Breaking a Sweat!]

I pointed the camera at myself, with the steamy sauna as the backdrop. Outside the door was Rio’s contorted face. In the distance, Rena was surrounded by staff…

Her white dress had already stuck to her scorching skin. Peeling it off would strip away a layer of bloody flesh.

The live chat exploded instantly.

As soon as the stream went live, comments like “scripted” and “staged” flooded the screen.

[140 degrees Fahrenheit? Sis, did you use a thermometer to check the radiator?]

[I’m a regular at the sauna. I’ve baked myself at 80 degrees Fahrenheit before, but I was gasping for air within a minute. Ten hours? Even if you’re bragging, you should at least write a draft first.]

[That mist clearly comes from a humidifier. Streamer, do you dare to point the camera right at the thermometer?]

Without saying a word, I wedged my phone into a wall mount. The camera pointed straight at the thermometer.

The red number “140 degrees Fahrenheit” was as steady as a rock, while the “170 degrees Fahrenheit MAX” mark beside it was still flashing.

The chat fell silent for half a second. Then, it went even crazier.

[Props! They must’ve added dry ice!]

[The guy above knows his stuff. Dry ice turns into “mystical mist” the second it hits water.]

I reached down and grabbed the stainless steel ladle from the floor. I scooped up a ladleful of water and splashed it toward the corner with a splash.

Sizzle…

White mist exploded outward. A wave of heat hit the lens, instantly fogging it with steam.

My whole face turned bright red from the heat. Beads of sweat had barely formed before they were vaporized. Leaving only salt crystals clinging to my eyelashes.

I licked my lips, tasting a hint of rust, before speaking up. “Any other questions?”

The chat fell silent for three seconds.

[Holy… Her skin is actually red!]

[Girl, we’ll send you donations. Don’t risk your life!]

I smiled sweetly and flashed a heart sign at the camera.

“Start sending donations. For every ten rockets, I’ll extend the stream by another hour.”

Donation announcements filled the screen.

Rio, standing outside the door, heard the notification sound and turned green with rage.

“Rena! You freaking dare to go live…”

I wiped the fog off the camera lens.

“Shh.

“Let you guys get a taste of what it’s like to have your misfortune getting feasted on.”