Chapter 62 - 58: Running Wildly Down the Path of a Villain

Chapter 62: Chapter 58: Running Wildly Down the Path of a Villain

The next day, when Yin Zhen’s communicator went unanswered, White Phosphorus had to visit in person. Upon arriving, he saw his dear captain sitting up from the Training Pod, a face full of anger.

The mechanical voice of the Training Pod ruthlessly announced, "You have accumulated 37 deaths and an accumulated pain perception of 7400%. Considering your mental and physical health, you will be unable to start this training program for the next four hours."

"Shut up! You stupid Training Pod!"

Yin Zhen furiously slammed the activation button. She was truly enraged from being beaten. She wouldn’t be satisfied until she killed Urban!

Thirty-seven deaths, and not a single one was the same!

That damn Urban! His Extraordinary Ability was Air Blade—silent, traceless, and impossible to guard against!

And that blasted Victor! If he wanted her to get stronger, he shouldn’t have installed an anti-addiction program.

"C-Captain..." White Phosphorus stood at the door and spoke weakly. "Are you alright?"

Yin Zhen tried to climb out of the Training Pod. At her slightest movement, the pain and numbness accumulated over the entire night violently erupted. She let out a muffled groan and fell heavily, her legs so numb she thought she was paralyzed again.

"What are you just standing there for? Help me up!"

White Phosphorus hurried over, helping Yin Zhen out of the Training Pod and into a nearby massage chair so she could recover.

"Why are you here?" Yin Zhen asked.

Lucia never clocked in for regular work. She only went to headquarters if there was an important mission; otherwise, she stayed away.

"Dr. Ian sent me a message asking me to bring you to the lab for an examination. He was worried you might have suffered mental damage when facing that Amalgamation."

Yin Zhen had completely forgotten about that, having been too thoroughly engrossed in her training.

"Let’s go then."

...

Inside the Saint Group’s laboratory.

After Ian and his team finished Yin Zhen’s routine examination, he desperately wanted to ask her: had she been gang-beaten last night?

Her nerves and muscles showed varying degrees of damage, yet her expression remained entirely normal. Her pain tolerance was truly extraordinary.

Once Ian had his staff connect Yin Zhen to the spiritual power monitoring equipment, he dismissed them to rest. The entire monitoring process would take thirty minutes.

Yin Zhen sat in the chair, a metal ring clasped around her head. A row of blue indicator lights on the device pulsed in rhythm with the fluctuations of her spiritual power.

"Does this count as a polygraph in disguise?" Yin Zhen asked with a half-smile.

"It does," Ian replied frankly.

Yin Zhen scanned their surroundings. This was hardly a suitable place for a private chat.

Ian adjusted his glasses, looking at the spiritual power curve on the display screen. "There are too many devices in this laboratory, and the signals interfere with each other. Listening devices won’t work in here. Besides, with your current spiritual power, it should be very easy for you to establish a shielding force field, right?"

In front of Ian, Yin Zhen had no need to hide. As the flashing frequency of the indicator lights on her head accelerated, an invisible Spiritual Barrier enveloped them both.

Back when she first met Zoe, her Super Sensing had failed to detect Adeline precisely because Adeline had established a Spiritual Barrier.

After a few seconds of silence, Yin Zhen spoke up. "I know you have a lot of questions. But if you’ve learned anything about my current situation from Victor, you should know that I can’t talk about the most crucial parts.

"I’m very grateful for your help with Victor. What I said before still stands. If you are still willing to believe me, give me thirty days. After thirty days, I’ll make everything clear to you."

She only had two days left before returning. After four more transmigrations, the main Characters of the Red Corpse World would be able to travel to her world. Doing the math, it would be exactly thirty days.

The thirty-day timeframe instantly sparked numerous conjectures in Ian’s mind.

"Your world... is it okay?"

Yin Zhen was taken aback for a moment. "What?"

"Does that world have a normal life? One that hasn’t been corrupted by the Blood Plague? You are a Huaxia person too, right?"

Yin Zhen fell silent for a moment before nodding. "Yes, I am also a Huaxia person. My Huaxia is completely normal. It hasn’t been corrupted by the Blood Plague. People go to work as usual, hustle to make a living, and eat normal food.

"Compared to here, everyday life is much further behind. There are no flying cars, and we still get stuck in traffic jams on the way to work. There are no android nannies, and couples still argue over who takes care of the kids. There are no high-tech cybernetics, either, so it’s incredibly difficult for paralyzed people to ever stand up again."

Ian adjusted his glasses, his eyes slightly red behind the lenses.

"I haven’t been back in nearly twenty years. When the Blood Plague broke out, I thought it was only a temporary crisis. I thought I would quickly find a cure, but... I ended up waiting for twenty years."

Yin Zhen looked at him. There was no scheming in those emerald-green eyes, only twenty years of pent-up exhaustion.

"Why thirty days?"

Yin Zhen didn’t speak.

Ian nodded again. "Understood. Another unanswerable question. Fine, I can give you one month. During this time, I will cover for your current Identity, but I need you to do something for me in return."

"Name it."

Ian rattled off a string of numbers, an address, and a name.

"Check and see if my family exists in your world."

Yin Zhen fell silent again. She could actually tell Ian right now that they wouldn’t.

This wasn’t a parallel universe. There was no sci-fi concept of alternate-dimension counterparts at play here.

Both Ancient Abyss and Chi Hai were novel worlds. They shared similar national backgrounds, but those were merely backdrops for the stories. It was impossible for the exact same people to exist in both, not to mention that the timelines of the two worlds were completely different.

Yet at this moment, Ian looked like a weary bird far from home. As a fellow Huaxia person, Yin Zhen completely understood his deep-seated obsession with returning to his roots.

"Alright, I’ll check for you. But I also have something I need you to help me verify."

Ian looked over at her.

"On the day of Zoe’s Defection, I was ordered to hunt her down. Someone sniped at us from a distance and almost killed Zoe. I suspect that shooter was... Amelia!"

Ian was taken aback. "How is that possi... Could she also be...?"

Yin Zhen still couldn’t answer him. She trusted her intuition, believing that the Dark Destiny bound to her would definitely bring about certain hidden effects, just like that Protagonist Halo Experience Card had.

It was rare for her to feel an immediate sense of annoyance the first time she laid eyes on someone. Most of the time, she simply didn’t care about anyone at all.

True indifference meant not even mustering the energy to feel disgust.

Yet Amelia made her care, evoking an inexplicable sense of loathing within her.

Furthermore, on the drilling platform, Amelia had immediately retreated to the coast right after Zoe appeared. It was hard not to associate this with what Nan Jiamu had said about ’two kings never meeting’.

They were both smart people. Yin Zhen’s expression was more than enough for Ian to read between the lines.

Ian carefully thought back. He and Amelia interacted frequently regarding their experimental projects, but he hadn’t noticed anything different about her recently. In her professional field, Amelia hadn’t made a single mistake.

"Why would she want to kill Zoe?"

"She had to do it."

Ian didn’t press the matter further. "I’ll keep an eye out."

The laboratory fell quiet. Ian returned to his seat and began tapping away at his computer somewhat anxiously, searching through relevant information on Amelia.

As the Spiritual Barrier slowly dissipated, Yin Zhen resumed her role as Lucia.

Telling Ian about Amelia was a decision she had carefully deliberated on her way here.

Rather than investigating an invader who hadn’t yet threatened his own safety, protecting Zoe, the female lead, was obviously far more urgent for Ian, the male lead.

This approach would divert Ian’s attention away from her, while also allowing her to use their shared enemy, Amelia, to forge a closer relationship with both the male and female leads.

Most importantly, the male lead—blessed by the female lead’s favor—was also a protagonist in his own right. If Amelia truly was Nan Jiamu, Ian absolutely had the ability to deal a heavy blow to her.

Heh.

Yin Zhen couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. She was actually doing villainous deeds again—silently scheming against the protagonists, adding obstacles to their growth, and making their storyline all the more exciting.

In that case, what kind of Characters were Zoe and Ian—her supposed co-conspirators—playing in this story?