Chapter 116 - 109: More Than One Way to Invade

Yin Zhen merely glanced at the system Explanation before retracting her attention. She continued questioning Zoe, "If we return Chi Hai to Chalk, will the Blood Plague end? Can the Blood Clan turn back into humans?"

Zoe paused again, this time longer than before.

"I don’t know, and neither does Source. Chalk didn’t tell her. May, how long can I stay here? What about the others? Will Ian be in danger?"

"You don’t need to worry too much about Ian. You can stay here for seven days, and after that, I’ll go back with you. While we are in Ancient Abyss, time in Chi Hai is theoretically frozen. So when we return, Ian should still be standing right where we left him."

After saying this, Yin Zhen froze. She had blurted out everything so naturally, and the system actually hadn’t restricted her.

She abruptly looked at Zoe. "Zoe, did anything strange appear in your mind? Like a voice, a card, or a system interface?"

Zoe checked carefully before shaking her head. "Nothing at all. Should I have something?"

During the previous round in Chi Hai, the system had choked Yin Zhen when she tried to reveal the secret of transmigration to Ian. But now, saying terms like "seven days," "return," and "time frozen" right in front of Zoe felt as smooth as breathing. Zoe didn’t have a system, yet the system didn’t stop her from coming to Ancient Abyss. The invitation letter was an Item provided by the system, and cross-world teleportation was a permitted operation. The system was tacitly allowing Zoe to be here, allowing the protagonists of two different worlds to cross paths. The rules and standards of this invasion game were sometimes so flexible it felt like a joke.

Yin Zhen temporarily suppressed these thoughts. "It’s nothing, not something you need to worry about right now. Just get a good rest here tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll take you out for a walk. We still have seven days, so we can take our time finding a way to resolve the crisis on the other side."

Zoe nodded vigorously. She trusted Yin Zhen completely; to her, Yin Zhen always felt solid and reliable.

"Can I look at this?" Zoe suddenly pointed at a photo album on the bottom shelf of the coffee table. The cover featured a picture of a young Yin Zhen eating a watermelon.

Yin Zhen looked at Zoe, realizing once again that this protagonist, who carried the survival of an entire world on her shoulders, was merely a child who had just crawled out of an incubation tube, curious about everything. Zoe had never experienced growing up from infancy. Seeing a child who resembled the present Yin Zhen made her incredibly curious, just as she was deeply intrigued by the human transition from childhood to adulthood.

Although the album contained many embarrassing, goofy photos of Yin Zhen’s childhood, she generously handed it to Zoe.

"Except for the locked master bedroom, you can look at anything else in the house."

"Thank you, May!"

"Actually, my real name is Yin Zhen."

Zoe laughed. "Everyone else calls you Yin Zhen, and I’m the only one who calls you May. I like it this way!"

Yin Zhen suddenly didn’t know what to say. In the end, she simply nodded in tacit consent.

"What’s that smell? It smells so good!" Clutching the album, Zoe turned toward the kitchen and sniffed the air. The aroma of instant noodles caused her stomach to let out a series of loud rumbles. She looked down at her stomach in confusion. "Why am I making noises?"

The Blood Clan didn’t make such sounds when they were hungry; their gums would only itch with thirst. Zoe hadn’t yet acquired the memories of her current human body and didn’t know this was a normal reaction.

"Come on, try your first meal as a human."

Zoe was like a growing child with endless questions. Fortunately, Lucy had already gathered a lot of information about Ancient Abyss. Without any communication barriers, the AI acted as an answering machine, educating Zoe on various topics. Lucy had a strong AI-like demeanor, and most of the time, Zoe couldn’t understand her explanations, but both of them enjoyed the interaction tirelessly.

By nearly 1:00 AM, Zoe finally felt sleepy. The body’s recent memories were beginning to awaken.

Yin Zhen settled Zoe into her own bedroom to rest. She left Lucy with a baseline directive, instructing the AI to handle her own household registration issues in Ancient Abyss independently.

Lucy sat in front of the computer while Ying played games beside her on silent mode.

The living room was quiet. Yin Zhen leaned back on the sofa and began to ponder her next steps.

On her card table, the "Dark Destiny" card was at this moment pressed underneath the cannon fodder Identity Card, serving as her hidden second Identity. Her word count, attribute points, and Luck Value remained completely unchanged. On the surface, she was still a cannon fodder. Yet, as a cannon fodder, she already possessed the ability to kill all the protagonists. Besides the various Effects of the Villain Aura, she had also gained the authority to form teams. She could build her own villain faction with a maximum of ten members.

Yin Zhen was used to being alone and had no interest in teaming up, but this authority wasn’t entirely useless. Once a team was formed, there would be a private, real-time chat channel. Unused attribute points could be gifted to each other, and members could share events and event rewards while equally dividing event penalties. The captain could even designate a single person—either herself or someone else—to bear the event penalties of the entire team.

Yin Zhen didn’t know how it worked for the protagonists, but on her end, the captain’s authority trumped everything. Once someone joined her team, they could only be kicked by her; there was no option to leave voluntarily. Whoever she designated had to bear the event penalties, with no need for the other members to vote. If she wanted to claim all the event rewards, she also didn’t need anyone’s consent. It was absolute hegemony, which fit the villain setting perfectly.

"System, with my current authority, can I make you answer everything honestly?"

[The Player may ask questions. Within the rules of the game, I will answer everything honestly. (Trembling)]

"Why did Yi Zhi’s grandfather appear in Ancient Abyss? Is there more than one method of invasion in this game of yours?"

[Yes.]

Seeing the system reply with a single word, Yin Zhen sneered. If no one figured it out, the system would deceive them all.

"So Chi Hai’s storyline has merged with Ancient Abyss’s storyline. Chi Hai’s core setting invaded Ancient Abyss. This is another form of invasion."

Yin Zhen’s voice was perfectly calm. She had formed this hypothesis the first time Lucy searched up Yi Guanfu’s name. She had intended to find Ian to verify it the moment she transmigrated, but she happened to encounter Victor kidnapping him instead.

In this so-called invasion game, apart from the direct physical invasion of Chi Hai’s Blood Clan, the settings of the stories themselves could also invade one another. Dangerous settings invaded safe ones, and higher-tier worlds invaded lower-tier ones. Ancient Abyss was in the lower tier, which was why Chi Hai was currently the primary aggressor invading Ancient Abyss, while Ancient Abyss couldn’t yet affect Chi Hai.

In Chi Hai, the Blood Plague broke out when Yi Zhi was twenty-eight. If Ancient Abyss now had a new Yi Zhi, then when Ancient Abyss’s Yi Zhi turned twenty-eight, the Blood Plague would undoubtedly repeat itself here. It might not even wait until then; the system could easily make it erupt earlier. Even if the characters and plots were altered beyond recognition, just the catastrophic core setting of the Blood Plague alone could run rampant.

"If I kill Yi Guanfu and everyone related to the plot, can I stop the outbreak of the Blood Plague setting?"

[No.]

"Then there’s no way? Once the game starts, is the only way to stop all this to kill the opposing protagonist in their world?"

[That is the simplest method.]

"So there are other methods?"

The system played dead.

Yin Zhen thought for a moment and understood. "Resolve it from the source. Chi Hai’s main storyline is about stopping the Blood Plague. As long as I find the correct answer in Chi Hai, I can use it to resolve the impending crisis in Ancient Abyss."

[There are currently no successful cases. You will be disappointed, and neither you nor your world will last until then.]

"So it is feasible. That’s enough for me."

At this moment, Yin Zhen felt incredibly fortunate. She was glad she had protected Zoe; otherwise, she would have permanently lost the path to finding the correct answer. The Blood Plague setting would have constantly loomed over Ancient Abyss like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. For her next step, all she had to do was assist Zoe in advancing Chi Hai’s storyline.

Ian had said the source of the Blood Plague was the Chi Hai corpse. Then she would simply obliterate that Chi Hai, including Lilith and the other two who possessed Chi Hai’s Strength. If she could prove that the Blood Plague would vanish alongside Chi Hai, she could locate Chi Hai early in Ancient Abyss and destroy it ahead of time.

However... there was still a possibility that destroying Chi Hai wouldn’t eliminate the Blood Plague. Source didn’t know the answer to this question, and neither did Zoe.

Regardless, paths are made by walking. She would just take it one step at a time!

Yin Zhen closed her eyes and mentally opened the "Surprise Gift Pack." In the next instant, a dagger appeared in her hand.

[Echo of the Unfinished Fire]: A pitch-black short blade roughly the length of a palm. Embedded at the end of the hilt is a minuscule blue fragment—the final embers of the Data Fire.

[Effect]: Holding the short blade allows you to see the specific strings of settings on the target. Severing these strings with the blade causes the target to lose that set ability for 30 minutes. Cooldown: 24 hours.

[Explanation]: The protagonist of Ancient Abyss saw herself clearly in her final moments. The blue flame capable of burning settings themselves was not entirely extinguished. Its lingering embers were sealed within this short blade, existing in this world in a different form. This is the relic she left for the world.

She died, and left a knife for her?

Yin Zhen wanted to sneer, but couldn’t manage a smile. This blade was the very last thing Nan Jiamu left in this world. It should be in the hands of Nan Jiamu’s heir, not hers as an avenger. Was this the sick joke of the entities behind the system? To mock her? Ridiculous!

Yin Zhen curled her fingers inward. The dagger transformed into a faint wisp of blue flame that drilled into her palm. A moment later, it appeared on her card table, neatly lined up alongside the Items she had accumulated.

If the knife was useful, she would use it, regardless of who left it behind.

Moving forward, she still had many things to do and a long way to go. Sheng Yehan, Nan Jiamu—one villain, one protagonist. She had climbed out of a wheelchair and fought her way out of the ruins, personally crossing their names off her revenge list.

Now, only the final line remained on that list—the entity that had written her life as a 1,233-word cannon fodder.

It’s your turn!