She had lost all sense of how long she’d been running.
Suddenly, the ground beneath her erupted in a violent tremor.
Caught off guard, Bai Ya’s body lost its balance, and unable to halt her forward momentum, she stumbled, falling face-first onto the damp earth.
“Oww oww oww oww oww oww oww oww oww oww!”
Clutching her swollen, reddened forehead, Bai Ya climbed up from the ground and hugged the nearest tree to steady herself.
When the tremors finally subsided, she let out a breath and plopped down onto the ground, supporting herself with both hands.
Raising her head, she gazed up at the sky with a calm expression.
“Ah la ah la, looks like the gods are fighting.”
It was because she knew the plot of [SLAVE] Chapter Two, and understood that Pirate King Molly would soon appear in the arena, that Bai Ya had led the fighters on a mad dash to escape.
The decision to seize every second had been the right one.
This quake wasn’t a natural phenomenon—Bai Ya could hear terrifying explosions booming from the direction of the arena.
Sure enough, that place was no longer safe, but at least they had managed to escape.
“We’re okay. Let’s rest for a bit, calm our minds, and then figure out our next move.”
Bai Ya tilted her head toward the other fighters.
The quake had left many of them dazed and disoriented.
Tab, Luo Shi, and the other cultivators were relatively unharmed, but the girl was lying on the ground, shivering with fear, too scared to move an inch.
Seeing the girl’s scraped and bleeding forehead, Bai Ya hesitated for a moment, then stood up and walked over.
She lifted the girl up with one hand.
“Big Sister Bai Ya, wuwu, wuwu.” The girl felt something warm and wet flowing down her face; realizing it was blood, she couldn’t help but burst into tears.
“Wait a second.”
Bai Ya sat down, looked around, found a rock to pin down her skirt, then pulled a dagger from her chest, bit down on the sheath, and sliced off a strip of fabric from her skirt.
She sheathed the dagger and put it away, then handed the strip of cloth to the girl.
She wanted to tell her to wrap the wound herself, but seeing her just stare blankly, Bai Ya muttered, “Really, what am I going to do with you?” and spent considerable effort tying the cloth around her forehead, finishing it with a bow.
“What’s with that weird smile? Somehow, it’s bothering me a lot.” Bai Ya was admiring her speedy bow-tying work when she suddenly sensed a strange feeling.
Turning around, she saw Tab, Luo Shi, and the others all smiling at her and the girl.
“No, it’s nothing. We just simply believe you’re someone worth following, Savior.” Luo Shi voiced what everyone else was thinking in response to Bai Ya’s annoyance.
“Savior? I don’t have any ambition to save the world. I’m just an ordinary player, don’t go putting a halo on me.”
At first, when dealing with the man-eating ogre and the slave girl, the title of ‘Savior’ hadn’t really registered, but now that things were calm, Bai Ya felt it was awkward.
She didn’t see herself as someone so amazing.
She was only doing what she wanted to do.
Bai Ya had no idea of her status in the hearts of these fighters—especially the girl’s.
“Big Sister Bai Ya, thank you.”
Hearing that soft, cheerful voice, Bai Ya turned her head.
The girl’s sincere and blissful smile appeared in her view.
Two or three seconds later, Bai Ya’s face flushed noticeably.
Because she was in game mode, she wasn’t affected by shyness, nor was she a bashful person.
What stirred in her heart now was a feeling she had always longed for—a treasured sensation.
This is amazing! This feeling! Unprecedented sense of accomplishment! It’s addictive! So awesome!
“Oh no, my lolicon tendencies are acting up again.” Bai Ya couldn’t help but reach out and stroke the girl’s hair with her left hand, using the motion to vent her excitement.
“Big Sister Bai Ya.” The girl closed her eyes, her face showing clear enjoyment.
Bai Ya was a lolicon.
Originally, after being tormented by two terrifying lolis and left battered, she’d sworn to stay away from lolis for good, but it seemed the root of the problem hadn’t been cured.
Just then, a shrill cry echoed from the direction of the arena, snapping Bai Ya back to alertness.
She understood it was still too soon to relax.
She still had things she had to do.
Since she was a lolicon, then she would absolutely ensure the girl survived! She would stake everything on this resolve!
“Everyone, we have to survive!”
Bai Ya’s rallying cry drew a unanimous cheer from the fighters.
The situation was not as dire as Bai Ya had feared.
The arena had devolved into a monstrous brawl—she could see a colossal ocean dragon clad in golden armor and a terrifying giant shrouded in ominous black mist, locked in fierce combat.
They were enormous; compared to them, this transport ship was little more than a rowboat.
Bai Ya knew exactly who those combatants were.
A battle between slave girls was still a realm far beyond her reach.
They truly were national-level humanoid weapons of slaughter.
Now, she herself was a slave girl.
According to the translated characters she saw in her mind, her class was called [Songblade Maiden].
How she could read such strange symbols, even she didn’t know.
One day, she too would reach such heights—summoning creatures mighty enough to topple city walls with ease.
The possibilities for a slave girl were limitless, and she longed to see it for herself!
“West.” Bai Ya withdrew her gaze, turning to the fighters gathered around her.
Including Bai Ya, there were eight survivors who had escaped from the ogre and the arena.
Besides Bai Ya herself and the powerless girl, there were three Bronze-ranked fighters, Tab, Luo Shi, and the Lionman Ren Xin, and three lucky ones: a man, a woman, and an old man.
The man was named Washak—not a slave, nor a death-row convict, but a prisoner of war.
He hailed from a small country called Nia, where he had served as a sentry.
His keen sense of danger had allowed him to avoid multiple attacks by ogres, but he’d been captured during a war and shipped off as cargo.
The woman was Kukulo, a slave.
Like the girl, she’d been sold onto the transport ship, but in her case by human traffickers.
She’d previously worked as a tour guide in a city.
The old man intrigued Bai Ya the most.
He was called simply Ya, a strange name that sounded more like a code than a real name, and it didn’t even sound cool.
He was a death-row convict, guilty of crimes he refused to speak of.
None of the three were cultivators, but the fact they’d made it this far meant their luck was better than the fighters who had died.
At this moment, Washak stared at Bai Ya in shock, as if unable to believe what she’d just said.
He wasn’t the only one—everyone wore odd expressions, the girl included.
“West? No, Savior, the best escape route is east! This is the complete opposite!”
Washak explained excitedly, hoping Bai Ya would understand.
But Bai Ya simply nodded, agreeing with his words, and before he could breathe a sigh of relief, she declared:
“We escape to the west.”
Washak nearly coughed up blood.
“Absolutely not!”
With his years of scouting experience, Washak was certain Bai Ya’s decision was a fatal mistake.
He felt responsible for preventing everyone from heading down a dead end.
At this point, the group was deciding which direction to flee.
It was a matter of life and death.
The pirates had already boarded the transport ship, killing everyone they saw.
The nobles had ordered their guards to retaliate; now both sides were fighting with abandon.
This meant that no matter which side they ran into, a battle was inevitable.
If they got caught in the crossfire, the eight of them would be wiped out in seconds—the worst possible outcome.
And with time so short, the most urgent matter was to pick the best escape route, avoiding both pirates and nobles, and find a lifeboat.
There would be no second chances if they chose wrong.
Washak had climbed a towering tree in the forest, using it as a vantage point to observe the ship’s general layout.
Combined with Bai Ya’s previous viewing of the ship’s map, he concluded the east was the best direction to escape.
“Savior! We are here right now!”
Washak picked up a stick and drew a rough map in the dirt.
Bai Ya glanced at it—this guy was quite capable; the sketch matched her memory of the map well enough.
Washak tapped the spot marked with a tree and patiently explained, “The pirates are attacking from the front. If you divide the transport ship into north, south, east, and west, the pirates are invading from the north and spreading to the other three directions. No matter which way we run, the chances of encountering pirates are almost the same.”
“The arena is to the south. We’ve already escaped the arena and reached the primeval forest near the western side. If we head east, the central area is the nobles’ residential and entertainment zone… keep going, and there’s our chance of survival!”
Washak took a deep breath and said firmly, “To the east is the harbor, where the emergency lifeboats are kept. There are guard posts all along the edges of the ship, but only that area is undefended.”
“If we can get there, we can steal a lifeboat and escape with our lives!”
Bai Ya fell silent in thought.
After a long pause, she looked at Washak’s somewhat smug expression and said with absolute certainty:
“We escape west!”
“There’s nothing in the west! Just endless forest and cold iron walls! No lifeboats! Nobody would even think of escaping there!” Washak protested, agitated.
“You’re right,” Bai Ya nodded, “That’s exactly why we need to go west.”
“What… what kind of logic is that…” Washak felt a deep sense of helplessness; he couldn’t understand Bai Ya’s reasoning.
At that moment, Luo Shi patted his shoulder and said meaningfully, “Don’t overthink it. Savior’s decisions are always right. Just follow her lead.”
“And if she’s wrong…? We’ll die…” Washak muttered.
“Then just take it as returning your life to the Savior. That’s all there is to it,” Lionman Ren Xin added, picking up Luo Shi and moving off.
“…Sigh.”
Since all his companions were set on it, Washak could only go along, resigned to his fate, joining Bai Ya and the others as they fled west.
He had once given up on surviving anyway, so it wasn’t as if he was clinging desperately to life.
If everyone else trusted the Savior with all their hearts, then so could he.
Even if it meant following her straight into the depths of hell, somehow, that didn’t seem like such a terrible thing.