Wednesday, 4:17 AM.
Because of Bai Liu’s deductions, Liu Huai had fallen into an extreme state of anxiety. He had already lost far too much blood, and his refusal to rest out of concern for his sister caused both his health and mental values to begin showing signs of decline.
So Bai Liu took advantage of a moment when Liu Huai wasn’t paying attention and drugged him with sleeping pills.
At present, Liu Huai was sleeping deeply on a straw bed.
Bai Liu and Mu Ke, however, had not slept. They were still sorting through and analyzing the information they had obtained that day—mainly the medical records Mu Ke had retrieved from the archives, along with the information Bai Liu had extracted from Bai Six.
Mu Ke looked at Liu Huai asleep on the straw bed with a complicated expression.
He suddenly thought of himself that morning.
Bai Liu’s method of “conversation” was truly rogue-like. If persuasion failed, he simply drugged the other person directly.
This kind of behavior was really, really...
In short, it did not resemble something a good person would do.
Mu Ke slowly shifted his gaze toward Bai Liu, who was leaning against the wall and still calmly integrating the information.
Bai Liu sat with his back against the wall, one leg bent to support the papers on his knee while the other stretched out casually. His face showed a faint, almost imperceptible exhaustion. Dark shadows were visible beneath his eyes, but his gaze remained clear and steady.
With his head lowered, he continued writing and sketching across the paper with his pen, his voice level.
“We now have a rough understanding of the operating mechanism behind Love Welfare Home, as well as most of the information in this instance.”
“The points I was doubtful about before have basically been explained.”
“But two doubts still remain.”
He paused briefly.
“And these two matters are best not discussed in front of Liu Huai.”
Mu Ke startled.
Bai Liu raised his eyes and glanced toward Liu Huai on the bed.
“First: why were Liu Huai and Liu Jiayi bound together, and why were both of their health values reduced to fifty?”
“I previously speculated that it was because she had been poisoned, but there are two points where that explanation doesn’t quite hold.”
“First, why was Liu Huai’s health halved as well?”
“Although that could be forced through under the logic of the game’s binding mechanism, after integrating the information you gave me with what I obtained from Bai Six and Liu Huai last night, I’ve now completely overturned that possibility.”
“Because I found a second point of suspicion.”
Bai Liu lowered his eyes to the drawing of the little girl on the paper, then drew a large question mark over her thin body.
His gaze swept impassively toward Liu Huai.
“If Liu Jiayi was selected in reality as a host for the Blood Lingzhi poison because she was a child born of close relatives—or, to put it another way, if she was parasitized by this blood-sucking mushroom—then under those circumstances, her vomiting blood during the escape attempt becomes extremely strange.”
“It is completely illogical.”
“The Blood Lingzhi would not waste her blood by letting her vomit it out.”
“There is another point I find very strange.”
“The timing of her vomiting blood was far too coincidental.”
“She didn’t vomit earlier or later. She did it precisely when she was about to escape and reach the main gate.”
Bai Liu narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Bai Six’s hesitation and suspicion at that moment were real.”
“If it had been me, I would also have suspected whether she didn’t actually want to escape and was deliberately stalling for time.”
Mu Ke felt his scalp go numb as he listened. He lowered his voice.
“Bai Liu, you mean...”
“But once enough information is integrated, the answer becomes obvious.”
Bai Liu’s gaze darkened.
“She was acting.”
“She was lying to me—or rather, lying to Bai Six.”
A chill climbed up Mu Ke’s spine.
“But why would Liu Jiayi do that? Staying in Love Welfare Home doesn’t benefit her at all!”
Bai Liu’s gaze moved to Liu Huai’s sleeping face.
“She probably wanted to save her Gege.”
“So she wanted to stay in Love Welfare Home and wait for her Gege to come draw her blood.”
“But she would die that way!” Mu Ke couldn’t understand it at all. “How old is she? Isn’t she afraid of dying?”
Bai Liu paused.
“She might not necessarily die.”
Mu Ke became even more confused.
“Why? If her blood gets drawn, she’ll die once her health is exhausted. She only has fifty health points, so shouldn’t it be even easier for her to die?”
Bai Liu slowly raised his eyes.
“What if she has a personal skill that can restore her own health?”
Mu Ke froze for several seconds.
Then he stared at Bai Liu in utter shock.
“Holy shit?! No way?! You mean she’s...”
Liu Huai was shaken awake from a half-dreaming state.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Bai Liu’s overly calm gaze, and an involuntary chill ran through him.
“Jiayi—”
Liu Huai shook his head, suddenly remembering the argument he had been having with Bai Liu before falling asleep. The dazed expression on his face vanished instantly, replaced by urgency.
“Bai Liu!”
“You promised me you would save Jiayi!”
“I’ve already given everything to you!”
“You promised me!”
Bai Liu replied indifferently, “Perhaps your sister doesn’t need either of us to save her.”
Then Bai Liu told him his deduction.
Liu Huai froze.
He looked at Bai Liu. Because of blood loss, his brain reacted more slowly than usual, and he stared blankly at Bai Liu’s expressionless face.
“...You’re saying Jiayi ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ was acting? Lying?”
“What does that mean?”
Bai Liu lifted his eyelids.
“Don’t you understand yet?”
“I told you long ago that your sister is not as simple as you think.”
“She is very smart.”
“Smarter than either of us expected.”
“The system did indeed reduce both your health values for game balance, but its main target was your sister.”
“Without weakening her, this game would be unfair to every other player, because her personal skill is too powerful.”
“In a game where high health gives an overwhelming advantage, without weakening both her health and yours, there would be no playability at all.”
“She is like a cheat code in this game.”
“Liu Jiayi has been playing the role of a good little sister in front of you.”
“Even Bai Six was fooled by her.”
“But in the end, because of you, she exposed a flaw.”
Bai Liu looked directly at Liu Huai.
“She guessed the mechanics of this game.”
“She wanted to save you, so she didn’t want to run.”
“She faked vomiting blood so she could stay in Love Welfare Home and wait for you to come draw her blood today.”
“However, she probably didn’t want you to realize her identity, so she was extremely careful from beginning to end.”
“But in the end, she still exposed herself because of you.”
Liu Huai shook his head and muttered “impossible” in disbelief.
Because he had no arms, his body was badly unbalanced. When he tried to get off the bed, he swayed and nearly pitched forward, but Mu Ke hurried over to support him.
Mu Ke could hardly bear to look at Liu Huai’s expression.
What Bai Liu had told him so far was not even the cruelest part.
Liu Huai staggered toward Bai Liu.
His steps were hollow and unsteady. His eyes looked empty and wet, as though he could not understand a single word Bai Liu had just said.
“How could... identity...”
“She’s just a child.”
“What kind of identity could she have?”
“I’m the one who has to protect her...”
Bai Liu looked up at Liu Huai.
“Liu Huai, from the very beginning, we had the logical relationship wrong.”
“It wasn’t you who influenced Liu Jiayi into entering the game.”
Liu Huai stood motionless before Bai Liu, staring down at him, waiting for him to reveal that unbearably cruel truth.
Bai Liu spoke each word clearly.
“It was Liu Jiayi’s desires that influenced you into entering the game.”
“She should be a player who entered before you.”
“A player whose personal skill is so special that the system had to proactively weaken her health, then bind her to you—her Gege—in order to restrict her.”
Liu Huai remained silent for a long time.
Then, as if he had finally reacted, he slowly lowered his head and looked at Bai Liu with a dull, vacant expression.
Bai Liu’s gaze was like still water at the bottom of a deep well. His tone remained calm and unhurried.
“Liu Jiayi is the Little Witch.”
“The rising star player promoted by the Kings Guild to cooperate with Zhang Kui in the league.”
“She is the number one rookie on the Rising Star Rankings.”
“And her personal skill allows her to actively restore health.”
—
Game Lobby.
Inside the Kings Guild.
The office of the Queen of Hearts.
The Queen of Hearts lounged lazily with her legs propped up, her high heels dangling loosely from her feet. She yawned in boredom, resting her chin on one hand while her eyes drifted over the person below giving a long, tedious report.
The reporter read aloud:
“Next is the small TV data analysis for guild members this quarter...”
“Among our team members this quarter, the player whose overall data rose the fastest is the rookie member [Little Witch].”
“After entering the game for only seven weeks, she has firmly secured first place on the Nightmare Rising Star Rankings.”
“Her popularity and support remain consistently high.”
“Since joining the guild, her performance in both output and support during several large-scale team battles has been outstanding.”
“She is already a core-level support player in group combat...”
As he spoke, the reporter tapped his system panel, causing a huge floating video interface to appear before the Queen of Hearts.
Like a PPT presentation, he scrolled through the panel and finally stopped on a video.
The title read:
[High-Energy Highlights of the Forbidden Witch—Tonight I Have a Bottle of Poison and a Bottle of Antidote, but Tonight Is Not a Silent Night. Guess Who I’m Going to Kill?]
The Queen of Hearts finally showed a trace of interest when she saw the title.
She straightened slightly and tapped the video interface, signaling the reporter to play it.
“You’ve already finished the support montage for [Little Witch]?”
“Let me see.”
The video began.
At first, the screen was pitch-black.
Then white mist slowly began to appear.
Within the drifting fog stood a player wearing a floor-length black lace veil. She was only about half the height of an adult. She glanced once toward the camera before turning away indifferently.
Her entire body was hidden beneath veils, making it impossible to see her face, yet that concealment only added to her mysterious aura.
Barefoot, she walked through a mist-filled forest at dawn.
Her fair skin was faintly visible beneath the hollow embroidery of the black lace. Her steps carried a strange, light elegance, almost ghostlike.
But that elegance shattered in the next instant.
A massive number of monsters appeared in the forest.
They resembled vines growing out of the earth, writhing over rotting soil before surging upward in waves.
Players screamed as they fled through the monster-infested forest, only to be swiftly caught and swallowed by the twisting vine monsters.
Two glass bottles appeared from beneath her black silk veil.
They were filled with liquid.
She ran swiftly through the forest, black smoke rising from the edge of her veil as she scattered the liquids from the bottles with crisp, decisive movements.
The monsters rapidly rotted away.
The players who had begged her for mercy and salvation rotted along with them in the forest.
The Witch saved only the players on her own team with terrifying precision.
As for the other players, she did not spare them even a glance.
Even though her potion bottles clearly still contained plenty of antidote.
Scenes from different games flickered and interwove throughout the montage.
The Witch, hidden beneath her ominous black veil, used poison to announce the prelude of death, and antidote to bestow mercy upon players on the verge of decay.
Her steps were light, agile, and nimble as she moved freely among different monsters and players.
The black veil covering her body became soaked with the blood of dead monsters and unfortunate players, growing heavier and thicker until it was impossible to tell whether the thing beneath it was human or ghost.
Blood dripped from the veil onto her pale instep.
She shook it off indifferently.
She also shook off the hands of players desperately clutching at her ankles for help.
One hand left a gruesome bloody print on her thin ankle, but as she leaped away, it was silently covered by the falling black veil.
“...[Little Witch] possesses precise game logic and extremely high skill proficiency.”
“Her attacks are simple, efficient, and exceptionally ruthless.”
“Her psychological quality is not inferior to that of many players who have participated in the league several times.”
“It is truly difficult to imagine that this is a... this is...”
The reporter stopped.
He looked at the content on the system panel with a complicated expression.
The Queen of Hearts smiled in a way that carried no clear meaning and leisurely finished his sentence for him.
“Difficult to imagine that this is an eight-year-old girl who is also blind, right?”
The reporter sighed.
“Yes, Queen.”
“When Little Witch first entered the game, she was only seven years old, yet she managed to emerge as number one from a batch of rookies.”
“Moreover, she is extremely intelligent and adapted to her skills very quickly.”
“Little Witch’s skills are extremely special and rare.”
“At the time, many guilds wanted to control her and threatened her into joining them.”
“But Little Witch was not controlled or frightened by the various methods those scheming guilds used.”
“Instead, after realizing how unique she was, she quickly started a charging auction.”
“She announced that whichever guild gave her the most charging points would be the guild she joined.”
“Yes, she really is a very smart girl.”
The Queen of Hearts seemed to recall the scene with some interest.
“At the time, all ten top guilds participated in that charging auction.”
“It was a rather insane auction.”
“And relying on that auction, she climbed to the number one rookie position in only seven games.”
“During that time, she also constantly moved between different guilds and cooperated with them in instances.”
“That allowed every guild to further recognize her value, making them reluctant to use harsh tactics against her.”
“They could only choose to charge points to recruit her, which made the bidding and pursuit even more frantic.”
The Queen of Hearts paused thoughtfully.
“I remember the highest charge for one of her games reached three hundred thousand?”
“Yes.”
The reporter patted his chest, still feeling lingering fear—and lingering pain in his wallet.
“For a rookie, that was an astronomical figure.”
“Our guild collectively charged at least six to seven hundred thousand points into Little Witch’s small TV before we finally won that auction.”
The Queen of Hearts casually flipped through the data on the reporter’s system panel.
Liu Huai’s face soon appeared.
Looking at Liu Huai’s ignorant expression in the file, the Queen of Hearts laughed.
She tilted her head, her long hair sliding from her shoulder, her smile deepening.
“And after spending so many points, if our guild player Wang Shun hadn’t successfully found her weakness—her Gege, Liu Huai—and if her Gege hadn’t happened to enter the game and be discovered by us during that period...”
“That clever little thing, Little Witch, might not have chosen to settle down and join our Kings Guild in the end.”
“But Queen, that is exactly what I find strange.”
The reporter searched through the system panel, then raised his question in confusion.
“After Little Witch joined the Kings Guild, why didn’t she simply bring her Gege into the guild directly?”
“Why did she use such a roundabout method, letting Zhang Kui control him in order to bring Liu Huai into our guild?”
“And after Liu Huai joined, Little Witch never let him know that she was the ace rookie player of the Kings Guild.”
“Furthermore, when Zhang Kui tortured Liu Huai like that, she never said a single word to stop him.”
The reporter frowned doubtfully as he looked at the files of Little Witch and Liu Huai, his feelings complicated.
“...It gives me the impression that although Little Witch’s weakness is clearly her Gege, the way she treats Liu Huai seems somewhat distrustful.”
“Even cruel.”
“And with the season approaching, why does Little Witch still refuse to accept the item-based eyeballs we provide to fully restore her vision?”
“Why does she insist on using temporary items to restore her sight only inside games, maintaining a semi-blind state outside them?”
“And Queen, you have chosen to indulge her in this.”
“This is something I cannot understand.”
“A sighted Little Witch would be much more useful to us on the field.”
The reporter looked at the Queen of Hearts, his head full of questions.
The Queen of Hearts swung her foot lightly back and forth.
Soon, one of her high heels slipped from her foot and fell to the floor.
She didn’t care.
Instead, she cast a half-smiling glance across the desk at the reporter.
“You haven’t carefully read the information Wang Shun found about Little Witch, have you?”
“Go look at the core of her desire for entering the game.”
The reporter startled, then quickly opened the personal file Wang Shun had compiled for [Little Witch].
The desire core Wang Shun had written for [Little Witch] was:
[Wants to receive her Gege’s love.]
[Wants to be with Gege forever.]
[Wants Gege to love her forever.]
Such an innocent and romantic desire did indeed sound like something a pure eight-year-old girl might wish for.
But the reporter knew very well that the Little Witch who danced upon the begging hands of others and moved effortlessly between the major guilds was not that sort of child.
She was bloody.
Cruel.
Cold.
She possessed the wisdom of an adult and the natural malice of a minor.
Such a [Core Desire] even felt like something she had casually thrown out to fool them.
The reporter frowned even deeper as he looked at that [Core Desire].
“Queen, I still don’t understand...”
“You really don’t understand women.”
The Queen of Hearts’ bare foot touched the ground as she leaned forward.
Her smooth hair slid from her collarbone to her snowy chest.
The reporter immediately turned his gaze away, his face flushing.
The Queen of Hearts continued leaning forward with a smile, completely unconcerned.
“Why don’t you think carefully?”
“Why would Little Witch’s desire be to receive her Gege’s love?”
“That obviously means she feels she has not obtained it yet.”
The reporter froze.
The Queen of Hearts lazily rested her head against the back of her hand, her smile enchanting.
“Smart women are all like this.”
“Little Witch’s growth environment made her completely distrust men.”
“She has an instinctive disgust toward men.”
“Especially toward Liu Huai, who was one of the causes behind that harsh growth environment of hers.”
“And yet, she cannot make herself stop caring about Liu Huai.”
“In that regard, she is very similar to me.”
“I don’t trust men either.”
“But that doesn’t contradict my desire for their love.”
“Most of the time, I do indeed obtain it.”
“Of course, we all know that Liu Huai’s core desire is to save his sister.”
“But in order to recruit that suspicious, still somewhat immature, yet extremely clever little girl...”
The Queen of Hearts’ shoulder tilted slightly to one side, revealing a snow-white curve.
She leaned bonelessly against the back of her chair, the smile never leaving her lips.
“I chose to hide the information we had investigated about Liu Huai from her.”
“I taught her a more reliable method for obtaining the love she wanted.”
The reporter was dazed for a moment.
“...It was indeed you who personally recruited Little Witch. None of us knew the specific details.”
“I remember that back then, you took a confidential Transcendent God-tier item from the guild warehouse and gave it to Little Witch. After that, she agreed to join.”
“But what that item specifically was has always been kept secret from us.”
“Since the league is about to begin, it doesn’t hurt to tell you.”
The Queen of Hearts smiled lazily.
“The item I took from the warehouse for her is called [Psyche’s Tears].”
“It is a consciousness-level item stored inside a very beautiful glass bottle.”
Her voice lowered into a soft murmur.
“It is also an item very suited to Little Witch.”
“The item description says that after drinking it, you can be with the person you want to be with forever.”
“But that medicine will guide the drinker into performing certain very interesting actions.”
The Queen of Hearts smiled faintly.
“I’ve drunk it too.”
The smile on her face was like that of a gentle older sister giving intimate advice, seductive and soft.
“Little Witch has strong hostility and vigilance toward men, but she naturally trusts and favors women.”
“Especially an adult woman like me—someone with similar experiences, someone who held great expectations for her.”
“In the end, under my persuasion, she drank that magic potion.”
The Queen of Hearts lowered her long lashes indifferently.
They cast pale shadows across her light-colored eyes.
“Then, under the medicine’s control, she began to control the Gege who made her anxious, step by step.”
“She eliminated every danger around that man.”
“Eliminated every possibility of him giving his attention to someone else.”
“And finally turned him into Zhang Kui’s puppet.”
The reporter couldn’t help but shiver.
The Queen of Hearts laughed softly.
“But Little Witch regretted it very soon.”
“She didn’t want a soulless, puppet-like Gege.”
“She began to suspect whether the love she had obtained through the item was real or false.”
“At the same time, she was filled with guilt because she had hurt Liu Huai in the process.”
“Because of that, she became even more afraid of leaving Liu Huai.”
“And yet she still felt unsatisfied.”
“She still didn’t dare trust completely.”
“She was lost. She didn’t know what to do next.”
“She was terrified of the possibility that they might not be together forever.”
“In the end, under my suggestion, in order to guarantee the possibility of ‘being together,’ she could only keep asking me for more [Psyche’s Tears].”
“After all...”
“The item descriptions given by the system never lie.”
Looking at the Queen of Hearts’ gentle and calm smile, the reporter felt a chill crawl slowly up his spine.
Even the clever Little Witch had been completely toyed with in this woman’s palm.
No wonder so many men whose hearts had been broken by the Queen said she was a woman no one could resist.
Even after being used to such an extent, none of those men ever spoke badly of her.
Instead, they cried and begged to get back together.
Little Witch had also been trapped by the Queen of Hearts.
Sinking deeper and deeper.
“The final result,” the Queen of Hearts said, “is that she began continuously verifying whether the other party loved her by torturing both him and herself.”
The Queen of Hearts lowered her eyes toward Liu Huai’s face on the panel.
She extended a finger and lightly tapped Liu Huai’s cheek on the screen, as if in pity.
“Truly a pitiful sister.”
“And a pitiful brother.”
“The Gege has clearly resolved to sacrifice his life for his sister.”
“And yet the sister is still doubting him.”
“And in the end, the sister had to join the league to win a huge amount of points, all to ensure her Gege’s safety...”
“And his love for her.”
“Usually, we women call what Liu Huai is experiencing—”
The Queen of Hearts raised her eyes toward the reporter.
She blinked, then wagged one finger with a smile that carried a trace of girlish playfulness.
“—testing sincerity.”
“Of course, the vast majority of men in this world cannot pass the sincerity tests of me and Little Witch.”
Thinking of Liu Huai—who had lost his best friend after being controlled by Zhang Kui—and the so-called “sincerity tests” he had suffered under Zhang Kui’s hands, the reporter instantly snapped out of his captivation with the Queen of Hearts’ beauty.
Looking at her face, beautiful as peach and plum blossoms, he involuntarily shivered again.
“...But what does this have to do with Little Witch refusing to fully restore her vision?”
The Queen of Hearts laughed.
“Would you be willing to love a woman who tested you like that?”
The reporter shook his head frantically.
The Queen of Hearts lifted her eyes and spoke softly.
“But what if she were blind?”
“What if you didn’t know she had tested you?”
“What if you thought she was merely a helpless, pitiful eight-year-old girl who couldn’t survive without you?”
“After being tortured so much...”
“Would you still be unable to stop yourself from pitying her, loving her, and wanting to be with her forever?”
The reporter froze for a long time, unable to answer.
After a while, he spoke with complicated emotions.
“Liu Huai is... somewhat pitiful.”
“To be deceived into loving such a sister.”
“I don’t think he’s pitiful.”
The Queen of Hearts’ gaze was faint.
“The pitiful one is Little Witch.”
“Because if one day Liu Huai discovers that he was deceived, and stops loving and protecting this sister...”
“She will go mad.”
“Then this support montage for Little Witch, after she finishes the required number of instances to register for the league...”
The reporter asked tentatively, “Do you think it passes, Queen?”
The Queen of Hearts nodded casually.
But just as the reporter breathed a sigh of relief, she reminded him:
“Pay attention to protecting her real information.”
“Don’t let it leak to the other teams, and don’t let Liu Huai himself find out.”
“Otherwise, neither you nor I will have an easy time.”
(T/N: Oop... he already knows. You should have taken Bai Liu more seriously. He’ll probably be your downfall.)
The reporter had already been frightened once before. Hearing this, he could only smile bitterly.
“Of course.”
“Oh, right.”
The Queen of Hearts seemed to suddenly remember something.
“Little Witch should be grinding instances right now. Which instance did she enter?”
“When she comes out, notify her that she can begin team training.”
“In the past, whenever she entered a game—if it was a Level Two game where health was particularly important—both her health and her bound teammate’s health would be heavily weakened.”
“Later, we paired her with a control-type player, Zhang Kui, hoping to reduce the system’s health reduction on her through multi-person control.”
“But Zhang Kui died before that could show any real effect.”
“She needs to adapt to a new team and a new plan.”
The reporter’s head began to ache.
“But Queen, we don’t know which instance Little Witch is currently in.”
“We’ve checked all the open small TVs and haven’t found hers.”
The Queen of Hearts’ eyes narrowed abruptly.
Her reaction was lightning-fast.
“Tell Wang Shun to check whether any instances have a small TV turned off.”
“She is a top-100 player. She has permission to turn off her small TV.”
She paused.
Then she quickly sat upright and issued a cold command.
“No. Forget that.”
“Check Liu Huai’s small TV directly.”
“See whether there are any strange players disguised inside his instance.”
“Liu Jiayi is a very methodical person.”
“She would never do anything outside her plan...”
“Unless it concerns Liu Huai.”
At that moment, someone suddenly knocked on the office door.
After the Queen of Hearts nodded, Wang Shun entered, his forehead covered in sweat.
He looked at her anxiously.
“Queen!”
“Liu Huai found out that Liu Jiayi is the Little Witch!”
“Who told him?!”
The Queen of Hearts rose sharply from her chair, her voice turning cold.
Wang Shun had clearly run the entire way here. He panted for a moment before hurriedly speaking.
“Bai Liu!”
“He deduced it based on the game mechanics!”
“Little Witch successfully deceived everyone else, but she couldn’t deceive Bai Liu.”
“Now all the players are flooding into Bai Liu’s small TV!”
“His current viewer count has already exceeded two hundred thousand!”
“He rushed straight to first place on the Rising Star Rankings!”
“After he deduced that Liu Jiayi was Little Witch, all of Little Witch’s fans went crazy and ran to his small TV!”
“What do we do?”
The Queen of Hearts narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Bai Liu?”
“That rookie again?”
