The entire process took less than two seconds.
The Succubus didn’t even have time to utter a single complete incantation before she was instantaneously killed by the two enraged women.
Lynn’s hallucinations vanished instantly. He felt a surge of nausea as his stomach churned.
He watched as the Succubus’s body turned into a cloud of black smoke and scattered across the ground.
A scorched, foul odor permeated the air.
**[Alicia’s Blackening Value: 99%]**
**[Vivian’s Blackening Value: 99%]**
Two 99%s.
Lynn’s body went stiff. He knew that this was far more terrifying than any temptation from a Succubus.
Vivian turned around. She looked at Lynn, her eyes filled with frost.
Alicia also turned toward him. Although she wore a smile, there was a chilling meaning hidden within it.
“Lord Lynn, next time, please be careful not to let such filthy things defile you.”
Alicia’s voice was sickeningly sweet.
Vivian didn’t speak. She simply pulled her greatsword out of the rock wall and gave it a heavy swing, flinging the bloodstains onto the ground.
She walked up to Lynn and reached out a hand, gently yet firmly patting his cheek.
“Don’t look at those dirty things.”
Her voice was soft, but it made Lynn’s body turn cold.
Lynn looked at them. He felt an unspeakable sense of oppression radiating from their bodies.
The Succubus was indeed dangerous. But these two women were the real danger.
Lynn’s body trembled. He felt like the meat sandwiched between two slices of bread. This time, he had almost been crushed by the bread.
He knew this adventure was going to be even more difficult than he had imagined.
He even began to wonder if being charmed by the Succubus would have been a little better.
‘No, that’s impossible.’
He snapped out of it.
He couldn’t be controlled by these women. He had to survive. He had to find a way—he had to find that one opportunity.
Lynn clenched his fists. He felt as though he were one step further away from the ending where he cleared the game.
Lynn was still reeling from the scene of the Succubus being killed in an instant.
The killing intent those two women had unleashed was more terrifying than any monster.
With 99% Blackening Values pressing down on him from both sides, he felt as if his soul were about to be squeezed dry.
Vivian and Alicia no longer looked at the remains on the ground.
Their gazes swept over him, full of scrutiny. The air solidified, and Lynn could even hear the sound of his own heartbeat.
“Let’s go,” Vivian said coldly.She sheathed her greatsword and turned to continue forward.
Alicia flashed him a smile. That smile held no warmth, looking more like an ice sculpture.
She grabbed his hand and tightened her grip with unquestionable strength. Lynn felt a chill on his wrist.
They continued deeper. The cave became complex, and the number of forks in the road increased.
Lynn’s **[Danger Perception System]** jumped with warnings from time to time, but he was being dragged by Alicia while Vivian led the way, leaving him no chance to speak.
They seemed to have no need for his guidance at all, relying on intuition and raw power to force their way through.
He felt like a marionette on strings; he wasn’t in control of a single step.
**[Alicia’s Blackening Value: 99%]**
**[Vivian’s Blackening Value: 99%]**
Those two numbers hung before his eyes like two guillotines that could drop at any moment.
Lynn felt his throat tighten and his breathing become difficult. He knew he couldn’t show any abnormality.
Any struggle might become the fuse that set them off.
After walking for a long time, a low rumble echoed from the depths of the cave. The ground began to tremble.
Lynn’s heart sank. This was a large-scale mechanism in the Howling Wind Cave from his memory.
It was usually used to filter out adventurers or block pursuers. Once triggered, it would change the terrain and split the party.
He tried to stop or give a warning, but Alicia held him firmly.
Vivian remained indifferent to the tremors, simply quickening her pace.
“Watch out ahead!” Lynn couldn’t help but shout.
He pointed to a stone slab beneath their feet. The patterns on that slab were a hint from the game—it was the trigger point for the mechanism.
Vivian and Alicia stopped.
Vivian looked back, a hint of confusion in her eyes. Alicia looked toward the spot Lynn was pointing at, her expression pensive.
Right then, the ground shook violently with a thunderous roar. The stone slab beneath Lynn’s feet suddenly caved in!
His body lost its balance, and he plummeted downward.
Alicia’s hand instinctively reached for him, but she was distracted by the vibration under her own feet and failed to catch him.
Vivian was further away and only had time to cry out.
“Lynn!”
Lynn felt the wind howling past his ears as everything went pitch black. He fell uncontrollably until the impact hit.
*Thud!*
He slammed heavily onto a slippery slope, his body sliding for a while before he finally tumbled into a freezing, deep pool of water.
Lynn choked on a few mouthfuls of water, struggling desperately to surface. His entire body ached, but he could still move.
He gasped for air, trying to adjust to the surrounding darkness. This was a sealed cave, with only a faint glimmer of light filtering down from a crack high above.
He looked up. The crack was very narrow and high above the ground. He couldn’t see any sign of Alicia or Vivian.
**[Danger Perception System]**
**[No targets with high Blackening Values detected]**
Lynn froze. He stared blankly at the system prompt, his mind going empty for a moment.
‘They… aren’t here.’
‘Am I… all alone?’
He struggled to climb onto the shore, his body soaking wet and shivering from the cold.
But that chill was quickly replaced by a massive sense of relief.
He breathed, no longer needing to be cautious. He stood, no longer feeling the stiffness in his spine.
He could speak loudly; he could make any sound he wanted.
He had never felt this way since the moment he had crossed over into this world.
“Freedom.”
A long-lost sense of freedom.
Lynn sat on a cold rock as exhaustion washed over him like a tide.
He felt his stomach churning and every muscle in his body protesting.
But the corners of his mouth involuntarily curled up into a smile.
The smile carried a hint of surviving a disaster, a touch of liberation, and a trace of cunning that even he hadn’t noticed.
He was alone. Finally, he was alone.
There was no threat of high Blackening Values, no oppressive gazes from those two pairs of eyes.
There was no Shura Field that could erupt at any moment.
He even felt like laughing out loud.
He slumped onto the ground, letting the cold water soak into his clothes.
Neither the dampness nor the cold could shake the inner peace he felt at this moment.
He closed his eyes, feeling as though the entire world had finally become quiet.
This mechanism was a trap he had triggered countless times in the game. It was used to get rid of pursuers or to find hidden treasures.
But now, it had become his most anticipated “savior.”
Lynn thought to himself that they probably wouldn’t be able to find him easily now.
The cave was deep, and the mechanical passages were complex.
Even if Alicia and Vivian had special abilities, it would take time to find this location.
And this period of time was his only chance to catch his breath.
He needed to think; he needed to plan. He couldn’t keep being kept like a pet by them.
He had to find a way to clear the game and then leave this hellhole.
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