Chapter 109 - 104: My Name is Yin Zhen!

Nan Jiamu’s Energy Shield could no longer hold. The Tactical Ball let out a final wail and exploded into a cloud of blue light, completely destroyed.

Using the moment the shield shattered, Nan Jiamu rolled on the ground, dodging the blood silk stabbing toward her face. Her shoulder slammed heavily against the edge of an overturned console, a sharp pain shooting through her bones.

Yin Zhen gave her no chance to catch her breath. The blood silk shot out from three directions simultaneously, sealing off her left, right, and above.

Nan Jiamu could only dodge backward. Yin Zhen had been waiting for this exact moment. Transforming into black smoke, she teleported behind Nan Jiamu. Her dagger, enhanced with Molecular Sharpening, carved an arc through the air, aiming straight for Nan Jiamu’s throat.

Blue Data Fire erupted in Nan Jiamu’s palm, burning toward the floor beneath her feet.

The floor was erased by the Data Fire, and Nan Jiamu plummeted downward, narrowly avoiding the blade.

Twisting her body in mid-air, the Data Fire condensed into a Fire Spear, thrusting up at Yin Zhen from below.

Yin Zhen transformed into black smoke and teleported again. The Fire Spear pierced through her afterimage and struck the weapon array on the ceiling. The gun muzzles vanished into thin air the moment they were engulfed by the flames.

Coughing, Nan Jiamu climbed back up from the edge, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. A full day of high-intensity combat had completely exhausted her physical and spiritual power. The hand holding her gun trembled, and her vision repeatedly went dark.

"Who exactly are you?" she demanded once again, her voice hoarse from the pain. "Even if I have to die, at least let me die knowing the truth!"

Yin Zhen stood a few meters away, blood silk wrapping around her fingertips. The Shadow Servant emerged from the darkness beneath her feet, standing silently behind her.

Yin Zhen recalled the original ending the system had told her when she was first pulled into this game.

Before Sheng Yehan was escorted to the execution ground, Nan Jiamu had questioned him loudly from behind.

"Sheng Yehan, do you know what her name was?

"Her name was Yin Zhen—Zhen as in treasure!"

These words felt like a slap in the face, striking Yin Zhen viciously across the distance of two worlds.

Yin Zhen, Zhen as in treasure. That was the name her parents had given her. Yet in the original novel, Nan Jiamu had used this name as a knife to stab Sheng Yehan, wielding it to showcase her own kindness, her justice, and her resolve to seek fairness for the innocent.

How ironic!

Her name did not need to be spoken by anyone else.

And it especially did not deserve to be spoken by Nan Jiamu!

Yin Zhen raised her eyes, her pale red pupils holding a scorching fiery glint.

"My name is Yin Zhen—Zhen as in deadly poison!"

Nan Jiamu’s expression looked as if her heart had just been pierced by a blade.

She suddenly remembered that day. After Sheng Yehan died, she had followed the clues to investigate, and the first people she suspected were the victims Sheng Yehan had harmed.

That car crash. That mother and daughter. The daughter who survived but was crippled.

She had called the community center to ask about the girl’s situation, and the staff had rambled on at length.

"That girl is so pitiful. Her mother passed away, and her medical treatments drained all the insurance and compensation money. She has no other relatives and lives alone with crippled legs. But she’s stubborn as a mule, refusing any help from the community center no matter what. I heard that every time she goes to the supermarket, she only buys plain noodles and salt. I don’t know how she’s going to survive in the future.

"She just kept appealing and suing. Even though she knew she couldn’t win, she was willing to bankrupt herself doing it. She even listed her house with a real estate agent, all just to get that murderer sentenced to death.

"We dealt with her mother when she was alive, too. She was a very kind and hardworking person. The neighborhood kids and stray animals all absolutely loved her. She even stuck a photo of the two of them on her braised food cart, saying that whenever she saw her daughter’s smiling face, she felt energized to work.

"Oh, right, I’m afraid that girl’s mental state might be deteriorating. Not long ago, she suddenly changed her name. She even changed it to a very inauspicious character. What was it again? I think it’s a type of bird, a highly venomous one..."

Nan Jiamu opened her mouth, her throat feeling as though it were blocked by something.

Those rambling words from the community staff—she had just let them go in one ear and out the other back then. A sliver of guilt had welled up in her heart, but then she had simply gone back to focusing on her plans, her missions, and her ’saving the world.’ That was all.

Just like when she had first rushed to the hospital and heard the girl crying her heart out in the ward over the loss of her mother and her legs, Nan Jiamu had chosen to ignore it and escape. Too afraid to face it, she had turned and walked away. And the person she had overlooked was standing right in front of her at this moment, becoming her most fatal obstacle!

Yin Zhen looked at her expression of dawning realization and sneered.

"Remember now? You should! After all, at the end of the story, when you shouted the name ’Yin Zhen’ in the courtroom, you were so righteously awe-inspiring."

She flicked open the cylinder of Night Song, loading the bullets in one by one, like hammering the final nails into a coffin.

"Everyone would think that you, Nan Jiamu, are a good person. That for the sake of a victim you didn’t even know, you wouldn’t hesitate to offend Tiansheng Group."

CLICK!

The cylinder snapped back into place.

"But hearing that only made me sick!"

Yin Zhen raised the muzzle, aiming it dead center at Nan Jiamu’s forehead.

"You didn’t plan that car crash, and my mother’s death wasn’t caused by your own hands. I know all of this. I am very clear-headed."

Yin Zhen’s voice was very soft and calm—so calm that it sent chills down the spine.

"But you said those words. You knew perfectly well that Sheng Yehan was a madman, that he was capable of anything, yet you still said them. A human life in your eyes is nothing more than a bargaining chip for you to bicker with him. You tossed it out so lightly, like flipping a coin: heads you kill, tails you don’t."

Nan Jiamu’s lips moved, wanting to say something, but no sound came out.

"I don’t care if it was intentional or unintentional. I don’t care if you regret it, if you feel guilty, or if you ever thought about making amends. None of that matters."

Yin Zhen stared into her eyes, her pale red pupils reflecting Nan Jiamu’s ashen face.

"What matters is... my mom... is never coming back!"

BANG!

The bullet burst from Night Song’s chamber, shooting straight for Nan Jiamu’s forehead.

Nan Jiamu didn’t dodge, but the bullet didn’t hit her either. It exploded in a fleeting spark against the wall behind her.

Yin Zhen’s pupils constricted abruptly. She fired another shot.

The second shot deflected, hitting the ground.

The third shot deflected, grazing the side of Nan Jiamu’s neck and leaving only a shallow bloody scratch.

The fourth shot, the fifth shot...

Yin Zhen’s finger frantically pulled the trigger until every bullet in the cylinder was emptied. The click of the empty chamber was exceptionally piercing in the quiet laboratory.

Yin Zhen’s eyes grew red. Harboring a fury that threatened to burn through all reason, she drew her dagger and charged forward.

"Why!"

The dagger sliced through the air, thrusting straight for Nan Jiamu’s throat. Nan Jiamu instinctively dodged.

"Why can’t I kill you!"

Every strike Yin Zhen made was a venting of her emotions, slashing out the grief and rage she had suppressed for half a year, one cut at a time. Her voice was so hoarse it didn’t even sound like her own; it was like a roar born from extreme repression.

She stabbed toward Nan Jiamu’s chest; Nan Jiamu stumbled backward, the blade’s tip tearing through her clothes.

She delivered a downward slash. Nan Jiamu raised her arm to block, and the edge embedded itself into her arm bone.

Yin Zhen’s eyes were so red they looked as if they might drip blood.

"Why isn’t it you who died!"

The final thrust pierced straight into Nan Jiamu’s heart.

Nan Jiamu’s body stiffened violently. Blood seeped from the edges of the blade, trickling down Yin Zhen’s hand. She looked down at the knife lodged in her chest, then raised her head to look at Yin Zhen.

Choking on the thick mouthfuls of blood surging up her throat, Nan Jiamu couldn’t speak. She lifted her one still-movable arm, grabbed the hand Yin Zhen used to grip the hilt, and held it tightly.

"What happened... between us... can wait... Right now... Ancient Abyss... is more important..."

BOOM!

The entire laboratory jolted abruptly. The fluorescent tubes on the ceiling burst into a string of sparks. Amidst the alternating light and darkness, Lucy’s projection flickered violently.

"Warning! Warning!"

Lucy’s voice echoed from all the speakers simultaneously, her speaking speed several times faster than usual.

"Security protocol bypass progress at 99%. Abnormal process detected. Bypass aborted! Repeat: Bypass aborted!"

Before she could finish speaking, an invisible shockwave erupted from where Zoe and Ian stood. Like an unseen tidal wave, it crushed everything in its path, surging in all directions from the white brain.

Everything in the laboratory that wasn’t bolted down was sent flying. Zoe and Ian were also hurled in two different directions.

A hairline fracture appeared on the surface of the pure white brain nutrient tank, which looked like a work of art. The crack spread rapidly. The white brain tissue began to dim, ultimately rotting away completely into a puddle of foul-smelling black sludge.

At the same time, on the three upright coffins standing against the wall, the indicator lights shifted from dark to bright.

The sound of venting exhaust hissed from inside the coffins. Long and deep, it sounded like a behemoth that had slumbered for far too long finally exhaling its very first breath.