Chapter 51 - 47: Heroine Saves the Beauty

Chapter 51: Chapter 47: Heroine Saves the Beauty

The space beneath the wellbore was cramped. The top was completely sealed off, and from the sound of it, the bottom opened straight down to the seafloor — no sign of any Mutants. For now, it was safe enough.

Adeline crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, letting out a flat "oh," looking every bit like she had zero interest in getting acquainted with Amelia.

During her last crossing into the Red Corpse World, Adeline had come across a forum post that led her to meet Naming is Too Troublesome — Cole — in person.

They were both Players, and she was the most legitimate future heir of the Cavendish family. Striking a deal with Cole had been easy.

At the time, she’d been looking for a "proxy" — someone who could post on her behalf in the Player forums and handle things in the Red Corpse World that she couldn’t be seen doing herself.

S717 had also been on her shortlist of people to bring into her fold. She’d spent the entire last round grinding for his goodwill, but in the end... ugh.

Adeline genuinely hadn’t expected Cole’s betrayal to come this fast.

For Cole to sell her out, whoever Amelia really was had to outrank her. But in the Red Corpse World, Amelia was just a company researcher — even if she controlled a few of the company’s most critical projects the way Ian did, that still didn’t hold a candle to the "Cavendish" name.

Which meant Amelia’s real identity could only be one thing — the protagonist of their world: Nan Jiamu.

The mask had slipped without warning, yet Adeline didn’t panic in the slightest. As long as Nan Jiamu couldn’t figure out who she was in their world, everything was fine.

Nan Jiamu noticed Adeline’s resistance and gave a quiet laugh, then murmured to Cole to find them a way out, pressing a marble-like Item into his hand.

Cole nodded, reached upward with his spiritual power to scan the area, then ultimately dropped into the deeper section of the wellbore to try circling back through the seafloor.

He felt bad about Adeline — genuinely. But Nan Jiamu could set his entire family up with stable, guaranteed jobs and give them a life beyond anything he could have imagined back in their world. Add to that the kill-or-be-killed stakes between the two worlds, and his choice was made: Nan Jiamu.

Now only Nan Jiamu and Adeline remained in the cramped space.

"I’ll keep it short — we’re on the clock," Nan Jiamu said directly. "Work with me. We can enter party mode, complete the Slaughter event together, split the word count down the middle, and the Silver Item can be broken into multiple regular Items as bonus rewards for party members."

Adeline’s eyes lit up slightly. This crappy game had a party mode? How did she not know about that? Were they seriously giving preferential treatment?!

"Your Identity in this world is Special. We really need you. I won’t waste your time with empty talk — let’s stick to what actually matters to your survival and interests. Do you know what it takes to win this invasion game for good?"

Nan Jiamu didn’t reveal her own Identity, but she told Adeline the truth: that to win the invasion game outright, they had to kill the protagonist of the Red Corpse World — and that they only had four crossings left before the key Characters of the Red Corpse World would lead a massive Blood Clan invasion into their world.

Adeline’s brow gradually furrowed as she listened. She couldn’t fully trust Nan Jiamu’s word alone, but logically, when she weighed it against her own prior deductions, the story held up disturbingly well.

Nan Jiamu watched Adeline’s expression and finally said, "I know you don’t trust me. I’m not trying to force a decision out of you right now. Finishing the Slaughter event is what matters most at this moment. Try partying with me for this one — just the one run — and after that, you can leave whenever you want."

"Before you make your final call, I won’t breathe a word about you to anyone outside the three of us, and I won’t go digging into who you are in our world. Even if you ultimately choose not to cooperate, those promises still stand. I only ask that down the line, when it matters, you give us whatever support you’re able to."

A system chime sounded in Adeline’s mind.

[Winter Night Fire has sent you a party invitation. Accept?]

[Once a party is formed, you may leave at any time. Word count rewards from public events will be divided equally among party members. For Items, party members may vote and then roll dice to determine ownership, or the system can split an Item into different Items of equivalent value and distribute them randomly.]

When it was laid out like this, accepting the party invite was clearly the optimal move for Adeline.

Nan Jiamu was the protagonist. For a supporting Character like her to compete with the protagonist over kills — the odds were basically zero. Taking a smaller reward was fine. What mattered was avoiding the penalty for a failed event.

But... why should I let you call the shots?

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence has declined your party invitation.]

Nan Jiamu’s eyes went wide in surprise. Adeline’s body was already melting into the shadows behind her, a graceful smile on her face.

"I don’t work with deadweight. Once you can actually make it to the aggregate core’s location in one piece, then we can talk about partying up."

And with that, Adeline vanished into the shadows.

Nan Jiamu pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose, then thought it over. Adeline had every right to be arrogant — her Identity and abilities in the Red Corpse World were arguably even stronger than Nan Jiamu’s own at this point.

Setting aside the ninety new Players who’d joined this round, of the original first-wave Players, the only one she still hadn’t tracked down was Blossoming Prosperity.

And Blossoming Prosperity was the one who worried her most. After meeting Adeline, she was now completely certain — it was Blossoming Prosperity who had killed Sheng Yehan.

Every story needs a villain. Blossoming Prosperity had the power to kill Sheng Yehan, which meant she would become the new antagonist. Fate would push them onto opposite sides whether either of them chose it or not.

"Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence, Blossoming Prosperity — are you two really sure you don’t know each other?"

"Captain, it does go straight to the seafloor down there, and it’s relatively safe. Looks like we can loop back to the drilling platform."

Cole’s voice surfaced in her mind. Nan Jiamu took one last look at the sealed ceiling above, then dropped into the wellbore beside her.

...

Yin Zhen had led the Bloodthorn Squad through several small skirmishes along the way — close calls, but no casualties. They were nearly at the cabin quarters when the entire drilling platform lurched with a violent shudder.

It was like a sleeping giant stirring awake. The tortured shriek of warping metal flooded in from every direction, and the deck underfoot buckled and split in sections, crumpling like a sheet of paper crushed in a fist.

Yin Zhen grabbed a nearby pipe to steady herself. She hadn’t even had time to speak before the steel beams overhead exploded outward.

Tentacles burst through from every surface at once — some as thick as the trunk of an ancient tree, others as thin as surgical suture thread. They thrashed and coiled wildly, shredding everything they touched.

Rat-tat-tat!

The sound of submachine gun fire drew closer. Yin Zhen narrowed her eyes and peered through the blood-red haze of pulverized debris. Muzzle flashes strobed in the murk as several figures came sprinting out from the direction of the control center.

Z13 and Z49 were drenched in shredded flesh and tissue from the Mutants.

Z13 shoved Ian behind him and swept the High-frequency Vibrating Dagger in a clean arc, severing a tentacle mid-strike.

Z49 was half a step behind, dropping the fuel-spent Flame Thrower and raising the submachine gun to lay down a continuous stream of fire.

Ian scrambled forward — stumbling but not falling — and ran with his head down, the Sampling Box strapped to his back.

Behind the three of them, three experimental soldiers were fighting as they retreated. They punched rounds through one Mutant only to have three more lunge in from the flanks.

One soldier was caught off guard when a tentacle whipped around his ankle and yanked him into the air upside down. Before he could even struggle, a second tentacle coiled around him and snapped tight.

Pop.

Like squeezing a ripe tomato.

Yin Zhen instinctively stepped back half a pace, content to hang back and let the chaos play out — a good opportunity to get a read on Z13 and Z49’s real capabilities.

And Ian. When his life was on the line, would he finally drop the mask he’d been wearing?

At that exact moment, the system seemed to read her mind and pushed a new Event Card in front of her.

[Silver Event Card Triggered: Heroine to the Rescue]

[Event Explanation: The heroine descends from on high, the beauty gazes through tearful eyes, and across that single charged glance, feelings begin to bloom. What a perfect, gloriously dramatic scene — don’t you want a piece of that?]

[Event Requirement: Save Ian and get him back to the Saint Group alive — and in one piece. No missing limbs. (Don’t think I don’t know exactly how vicious you are.)]

[Failure Penalty: Identity Card downgrade]

[Event Reward: 1,000 word count, Overlord Aura (30 seconds)]

[Overlord Aura (30 seconds): When activated, every word you say for the next 30 seconds will automatically carry an air of absolute authority. Listeners will instinctively feel that you’re right and find themselves agreeing with you.]

[Friendly Reminder: Less is more. Think along the lines of "Are you questioning me?", "I said so, so it is!", "I don’t like repeating myself." Note! The aura makes people believe you — it does NOT make them forget things or turn them stupid.]