Chapter 177-A Very Toxic Arts Critic

Gus... So it really is her...

I did suspect she was the enemy, but I didn’t expect her to show up so soon.

Bai Yue Zero held Vicki in her arms, lowering her head to check her injuries, only to find the wound was dangerously close to her heart.

Blood surged out in an unending stream, and the skin around the wound was rapidly turning a sickly dark purple.

“No choice, Jelly, I have to trouble you for a bit…”

Bai Yue Zero pressed her hand to Vicki’s chest, using slime mucus to temporarily staunch the bleeding.

Then she lifted her gaze to Gus, forcing herself to stay calm as she raised her eyebrow. “Is this your new form?”

“New form?” Gus sneered. “This is what I really look like!”

Gus’s lower body had turned into a massive, hideous spider. Eight large eyes fixed on the two of them, radiating a bone-chilling, eerie menace. Her sharp, blade-like spider legs supported her huge body, looking as though she could pierce through anything at any moment.

[Name: Gus (Arachnid Form)]

[Race: Beastman (Spider)]

[Level: 50]

[Class: Venom Sniper]

[Description: Outwardly the Countess of the Rose Kingdom and Lord of Pine Abyss City, in truth, she has countless secret connections with the Iris Theocracy and is the true leader of all the black-clad men. Cruel and ruthless, she stops at nothing, and especially enjoys watching her prey be devoured by little spiders. In recent years she has secretly been collecting objects imbued with divine power. Her methods are so cruel that even her contacts in the Theocracy are disgusted with her.]

[Note: She does have some talent in the arts, but her art is only appreciated by herself. All those who have seen her "art of slaughter" have, without exception, died.]

Gus opened her blood-red maw, revealing razor-sharp fangs. Pale purple venom dripped onto the ground, raising wisps of white smoke with a harsh sizzling sound.

“Really, thank you all. Without your help, I’d never have managed that skeletal dragon.” Gus laughed loudly. “And that Theocracy minister—she was actually my contact, you know. But she’s always tattling, saying my methods are too brutal… Hah! If it weren’t for her superiors, I’d have secretly killed her already.”

“But now, you’ve helped me take care of her, Priest Hero. How should I thank you?”

Gus swung her eight spider legs, spinning webs as she circled the two girls, her ten sharp eyes glinting like a predator eying prey caught in her web, ready to devour them at any time.

“Hm… Then I’ll just tell you our plan for free, like those talkative villains in stories who die because they talk too much.” Gus smiled. “You saw the power of the explosives just now. Guess what would happen if I placed all of them in the mountains and set them off…”

Bai Yue Zero frowned deeply. “You want to blast open a gap in the Panlong Mountains and invade the kingdom?”

“That’s right, very clever.” Gus clapped her two front legs together, making a crisp “ta-ta” sound. “Who would’ve thought those useless mechanics and alchemists could invent such terrifying things, enough to flatten a mountain—almost like a miracle of the goddess herself.”

“Because the Panlong Mountains are such a natural barrier, the kingdom never imagined the Theocracy would attack from here, so the military is thin in this area. If a gap is blasted open, Theocracy soldiers can swarm in and quickly seize Pine Abyss City.”

“That’s why the Theocracy’s general, Yazhian, is waiting at the border right now—waiting for my signal.”

Hearing all this, a bead of cold sweat slid down Bai Yue Zero’s forehead. If Pine Abyss City fell, the kingdom’s defense line would have a huge breach, and the surrounding main cities would topple like dominoes, until only the capital and its environs remained.

Even if Qing Jin recovered by then, there’d be no turning the tide with such a mess.

She must disrupt the Theocracy’s plan.

Bai Yue Zero said coldly, “So you’re just here to brag to us?”

“Of course~ The despair on a prey’s face before dying is the best part of my ‘art of slaughter.’”

Gus shot a thread of web from her fingertip, instantly piercing a nearby rock and leaving a hair-thin hole that kept sizzling with white smoke.

“See? Anyone hit by my webs is poisoned—within minutes, the venom will kill them.” Gus looked down at her. “Priest Hero, you’re a traveler from another world, so you’re not afraid to die. Even if I kill you back to level 1, you won’t care. But if I’m not mistaken… the Third Princess is about to die, isn’t she?”

Bai Yue Zero said nothing.

To her, as a player, dying countless times meant nothing—but the NPCs must never die.

Even though Vicki had opposed her so many times, even betrayed her in her previous life, right now Vicki had realized her mistakes and started to atone.

Would her life really be taken, just as she began her journey of redemption?

“Don’t worry about me…” Vicki’s face grew even paler, with veins of dark purple crawling under her skin. Her breath grew fainter and fainter, as if she’d close her eyes for good any second.

“She’ll die completely in about a minute, right? Priest Hero, tell me, do you want to save her?”

Gus hung upside-down in front of Bai Yue Zero on her web, her snow-white hair dragging on the ground, and whispered seductively, “If you do, then obediently strip off all your clothes, kneel down, kowtow and confess your crimes to us, and swear allegiance to the Theocracy. Ahahahaha… Waaah—!”

Before Gus could finish laughing, Bai Yue Zero suddenly raised her staff and, without hesitation, stabbed the sharp end into Gus’s right eye.

Gus shrieked in pain, her whole body shaking violently as she screamed, “Priest Hero, you’re courting death…!”

Expressionless, Bai Yue Zero didn’t give her a chance to retaliate. She unleashed a blast of “Dark Holy Light,” then, holding Vicki, sprang backward on her toes, tossing two more balls of holy light—boom! boom!

Under the barrage of holy light, Gus’s whole body was covered with charred, black marks. She clutched her bleeding right eye, firing web after web with trembling hands, howling, “You useless fools! Why are you just standing there? Kill her for me—

… Save the kingdom…!”

Hearing the order, the black-clad men around them raised their scimitars and charged at Bai Yue Zero.

Bai Yue Zero gripped her staff in one hand, unleashing dazzling balls of holy light, while with the other she held the gravely wounded Vicki. Her steps were agile and light, each movement perfectly dodging those vicious attacks.

Surrounded by the black-clad men’s relentless assault, Bai Yue Zero and Vicki seemed to be dancing amid blades and swords. Their figures intertwined in perfect harmony, like two dancers performing a tragic yet beautiful duet to the music of death.

Vicki’s face was deathly pale, lips drained of color, and she struggled to speak: “Xiao Bai, put me down, just run…”

Bai Yue Zero shook her head. While dodging, she asked in a low voice, “Is there any way to save her?”

Anlisa said quietly, “It’s hard. Even if you fall into darkness now, it won’t help. Only with 100% dark descent can you resist this spider venom—there’s too little you can do at 1%.”

Jelly was also helpless: “If it was ordinary poison, I could suck it out, but this spider venom has already spread through her body. Even I can’t help.”

Bai Yue Zero bit her lip tightly, despair rising in her heart.

Was there really no way?

Vicki lay in her arms, clutching her arm. Tears shimmered at the corners of her eyes as she trembled and spoke weakly, “Don’t worry about me… Hurry back to the capital… Tell them about the Theocracy’s plan…”

“Tell Mother and my sisters… I always loved them…”

“And Ayia, and Shiqila… I’ll never have a chance to apologize to them again…”

Vicki’s voice grew weaker, her hands slowly slipping away, until she closed her eyes for good.

[Your NPC teammate “Vicki” has died.]

[You have triggered a new quest.]