“Will you stay here with me… always, forever and ever?”
Xiran’s voice floated gently in the light of the setting sun.
Linlin looked at her.
Those sparkling eyes were filled with nothing but expectation.
Just like they had been back when she was eleven, waiting for Linlin to come find her.
Linlin opened her mouth.
She wanted to say “I will.”
She wanted to say “I’ll stay with you.”
She wanted to say “together forever.”
But the words stuck in her throat and wouldn’t come out.
Because that would be a lie.
She was leaving.
Once the quest was complete, she would leave this world.
Even if the quest wasn’t complete, she could never stay here “forever.”
She was a player.
This was an instance.
She didn’t belong here.
But…
The Xiran standing in front of her right now wasn’t the terrifying, twisted, frightening Xiran.
This was the eleven-year-old Xiran who had washed the blood off her face after killing someone and then sat in the yard waiting for dawn.
This was the Xiran who had carved “forever together” into her heart and guarded it for more than ten years.
Linlin’s nose stung.
“I…”
At the same time.
Ruan Yuan stood in the alley, about to head in the direction Linlin had gone.
Suddenly she stopped.
Her entire body went rigid.
That feeling—
It was magic power.
Vast, terrifying, suffocating magic power.
It was coming from that direction.
The direction Linlin had gone.
Ruan Yuan jerked her head up.
In the black night sky, the air in that direction was twisting.
Something was taking shape.
Her pupils shrank sharply.
It was Xiran’s magic power.
But this wasn’t an ordinary release.
This was Xiran pouring out every last drop of her strength, her entire existence, everything she had.
Jiang Niaoniao was lying on the sofa at home.
Her phone screen was still lit, looping the video of Linlin squatting on the toilet.
Suddenly her whole body stiffened.
The phone slipped from her hand, fell to the floor screen-down with a clack.
She didn’t pick it up.
Her eyes stared at the ceiling, pupils contracting violently.
That feeling—familiar, terrifying, the one that made her back run cold.
Xiran’s magic power.
It was erupting.
It was swelling.
It was swallowing something whole.
Jiang Niaoniao shot upright, yanked the curtains open, and rushed to the window.
Lin Zhizhi was in the park.
More precisely, she had been dragged there by Xiao Ye for “training.”
“Lin Zhizhi, your stamina is way too weak! As a partner of justice, you need a strong body!”
Xiao Ye stood in front of her, hands on her hips, face deadly serious.
Lin Zhizhi leaned against the bench and rolled her eyes.
“Xiao Ye, can you stop calling me a partner of justice? It sounds disgusting.”
“No way! We swore together to protect justice! Of course we’re partners!”
Lin Zhizhi couldn’t be bothered to argue.
This idiot had been clinging to her ever since that night.
Talking about “upholding justice together.”
Talking about restoring peace to the school.
Talking about punishing that villain Bai Linlin.
Lin Zhizhi was genuinely impressed with herself.
What had she been thinking back then?
How had she agreed to join this idiot’s little organization?
She was just about to open her mouth and mock her a little.
Suddenly.
Her whole body went rigid.
That feeling.
She knew it all too well.
The one that chilled her to the bone.
“What’s wrong? You look awful. Are you sick, Lin Zhizhi?”
Xiao Ye noticed something was off and leaned closer.
Lin Zhizhi didn’t answer.
She slowly raised her head and looked toward the distant night sky.
Then her pupils shrank violently.
All the strength drained from her body and she slumped against the bench.
“Xi… Xiran…”
Her voice was hoarse and trembling.
Xiao Ye followed her gaze.
She froze.
Something was churning in the distant night sky.
Swelling.
Taking form.
What was that?
Xiao Ye narrowed her eyes, trying to see clearly.
Then she saw it.
Her face went deathly pale.
She screamed, her legs giving out as she dropped to the ground.
“What kind of monster is that?!”
In the distant night sky, a colossal existence was taking shape.
It was enormous.
So enormous the entire sky could barely contain it.
Its upper body was a blurry, distorted humanoid silhouette.
It had no face.
Only shape.
Like a person standing there with arms spread wide, as if shouting.
Or perhaps embracing.
And its lower body.
A massive skirt hem woven from countless black and red threads.
The threads writhed like living things, surging, wriggling, expanding.
They grew upward from the ground like the roots of a giant tree, sinking deep into the earth.
Then they spread in every direction like an airtight net, wrapping the entire world inside.
The whole night sky had been dyed black-red.
The moon was blotted out.
The stars had vanished.
Only that gigantic existence hung at the edge of the sky.
Like a god.
Like a ghost.
More like a monster spreading its arms, waiting to embrace someone.
Ruan Yuan stood in the alley, eyes locked on that direction.
Searching for Linlin.
Then she saw it.
In the space between the giant blurred figure’s outstretched arms.
There was a tiny silhouette.
Pink.
Held loosely in those massive arms.
As if being embraced.
Or perhaps imprisoned.
Ruan Yuan’s heart clenched violently.
Linlin!
That tiny pink figure was Linlin!
Ruan Yuan’s hands tightened into fists, nails digging into her palms.
She took a step forward, ready to charge.
But after one step she stopped.
That magic power was too strong.
Strong enough to make even a high-level player like her feel suffocated.
Was this really the power level this instance was supposed to have right now?
And that was Xiran’s everything.
All the twisted, insane, obsessive power she had accumulated over more than ten years.
If Ruan Yuan charged in now, what could she even do?
Could she win?
Could she save Linlin?
She didn’t know.
She only knew that right now Linlin was being held in those enormous arms.
Cradled in the monster’s embrace.
Jiang Niaoniao stood by the window, staring in that direction.
Her hands gripped the windowsill so hard her knuckles turned white.
She had seen the tiny pink silhouette.
It was Linlin.
It was her Linlin.
Jiang Niaoniao’s eyes darkened.
That jealousy, that “why her,” that burning emotion in her chest surged up again.
But this time it wasn’t just jealousy.
There was fear too.
Was Xiran… really this strong?
Lin Zhizhi slumped on the bench, trembling all over.
That monster, that power, that bone-deep terror.
It was even more horrifying than the night Xiran had “punished” her.
Bigger. More despairing.
“Wh… what is that…”
Xiao Ye’s voice shook beside her.
Lin Zhizhi didn’t answer.
She simply stared in that direction.
At the tiny figure held in those massive arms.
Then she heard Xiao Ye say, “Is that… Bai Linlin?”
Lin Zhizhi froze.
She narrowed her eyes and looked closer.
The small pink silhouette, motionless in the embrace.
It was Linlin.
It was the Linlin that Xiran “doted on.”
Lin Zhizhi suddenly smiled.
A complicated smile.
Filled with fear, helplessness, and a touch of resignation.
“That idiot is in the monster’s arms right now.”
She said softly.
Xiao Ye was stunned.
“What… what do you mean?”
Lin Zhizhi didn’t explain.
She simply stared in that direction.
At the gigantic existence.
At the tiny figure being embraced.
Then she said something Xiao Ye couldn’t understand.
“So we were never even from the same world.”
Ruan Yuan was still standing in the alley.
She stared in that direction.
Stared at the pink figure being embraced.
Her fists were clenched so tightly the veins stood out.
Then she slowly loosened them.
She took a deep breath.
Linlin had said to wait for her to come back.
She had to believe in Linlin.
She lifted her head and looked at the colossal existence.
The god-like, ghost-like monster formed from Xiran’s magic power.
What the hell is going on!