Luo Jiuge.
Isolde searched through her memories of her past life but was certain she had never heard of this name before.
To be able to pull off a solo infiltration in a treacherous world like 《Fallen Realm》 and cleanly slaughter her way through the entire Lamp-Lighting Room, this woman's combat awareness and burst damage were definitely at the absolute peak of the pyramid.
But the problem was, among the top players in her past life, there was no Holy Swordsman named “Luo Jiuge.”
Could she... have died early on, before even reaching the late-game version?
Just as this thought crossed Isolde's mind, Luo Jiuge walked over to the iron rack. With a flick of her longsword, she cleanly severed the chains binding the man.
The man slumped forward, nearly collapsing.
Luo Jiuge reached out to support him, pulling a low-grade potion from her inventory and shoving it into his hands.
“Hey, hang in there,” she whispered.
Sweat poured down the man's forehead as he gasped heavily.
“Who... cough, who are you?”
“Just a passing Good Samaritan.”
Seeing that he was still conscious, Luo Jiuge couldn't help but tease him.
Isolde stood not far away, her gaze narrowing slightly as she observed her every move.
How rare. In this dog-eat-dog game, there was actually a player who still clung to a “protagonist-style” sense of justice.
Once she settled the man, Luo Jiuge turned around, spotted Isolde standing nearby, and called out:
“Hey, compatriot, are there any other living people locked up in this hellhole?”
Isolde glanced at her, walked over to the wall, and took down a silver pass. “The Discipline Office,” she said calmly.
Luo Jiuge immediately looked over. “The Discipline Office?”
“The western underground corridor.” Isolde tossed the badge in her hand. “That's the monastery's torture chamber. There should be quite a few newly captured unfortunates locked up there. Especially... the Northern Witch Hunters.”
The man, who had mostly recovered, suddenly snapped his eyes open upon hearing those words.
“Colin...” He grabbed Luo Jiuge's wrist tightly. “Colin and the others were captured too?!”
This confirmed it. This man was indeed Alvin.
Luo Jiuge was slightly dazed by Alvin's sudden grip and turned to look at Isolde.
“Northern Witch Hunters? What's going on? A dungeon side quest?”
Isolde lied without even blinking, her tone perfectly natural. “You could say that. It's a hidden quest for the monastery.”
Luo Jiuge's eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Believe what you want.” Isolde pointed at Alvin. “Take this witch hunter to the Discipline Office and find a man named Herwin. Once the quest is complete, the rewards might be quite generous.”
Hearing this, Luo Jiuge sized Isolde up with some suspicion. “What about you? Aren't you coming with me to split the experience?”
Isolde slipped the silver pass into her sleeve, her expression unchanging.
“I have another quest on me. They conflict.”
Luo Jiuge grew even more curious. “What kind of quest? Is the reward higher than a hidden side quest?”
“None of your business.” Isolde looked up, her gaze carrying an oppressive weight that shut down any further probing. “For the sake of us being compatriots, I'm giving you the Discipline Office quest. Whether you want to go to your death or strike it rich is up to you.”
Luo Jiuge stared at her for a moment, then suddenly burst into a carefree, lighthearted laugh.
“Fair enough. Everyone has their own little secrets. Once we both finish our quests, how about we team up when we get out?”
Isolde refused coldly, “I don't team up.”
Luo Jiuge raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
Isolde turned away. In that split second, the coldness in her eyes seemed to drop the temperature in the Lamp-Lighting Room by several degrees.
“I don't trust others.”
The smile on Luo Jiuge's face stiffened. Her excessively bright eyes stared at Isolde, as if trying to read something from her completely expressionless face.
A few seconds later, she muttered under her breath, “...Got burned before?”
Isolde didn't bother answering such a pointless question.
She turned around, walked straight to the ingredient shelf next to the silver cauldron, and with practiced ease, took down a bottle of highly purified unicorn grease, slipping it into her wide robes.
Watching her smooth looting technique, Luo Jiuge couldn't help but complain, “My fellow compatriot, your looting skills are way more practiced than mine.”
“Take whatever you can, leave nothing behind. It's just basic operations.”
“The way you carry yourself doesn't sound like a righteous character at all.”
Isolde sneered, shooting back, “And the way you almost slit my throat with your sword just now wasn't exactly gentler than a cultist.”
Luo Jiuge choked on her words, rubbing her nose in embarrassment. “Alright, let's call it even.”
Seeing Isolde about to leave, Luo Jiuge called out from behind, “Hey, compatriot, I haven't asked for your name yet!”
Isolde ignored her, grabbing a holy lantern on her way out as she left the Lamp-Lighting Room alone.
She wasn't here to make friends. She just needed someone to stir up chaos in the Discipline Office, deliver Alvin to Herwin, draw the Holy Court's attention, and muddy the waters.
As for someone like Luo Jiuge...
If one's sense of justice was too heavy, it was easy to carry the weight of other people's lives on one's shoulders.
In 《Fallen Realm》, people like this were either strong enough to withstand all malice, or they died faster than anyone else.
As for which end Luo Jiuge would meet, Isolde didn't care in the slightest.
Inside the Lamp-Lighting Room, Luo Jiuge watched the grey figure disappear into the darkness of the stairwell, her lips twitching with amusement.
“She's got quite a cold attitude... But since she warned me about the hidden quest, she probably isn't a bad person.”
Shifting her focus, she reached out to support Alvin beside her and asked in a low voice:
“Can you still walk?”
Alvin nodded through gritted teeth, cold sweat pouring down his face.
“...I can.”
Luo Jiuge wanted to tell him not to push himself, but seeing his hand gripping the wall so tightly that his knuckles turned white as he forced himself forward, she swallowed her words.
Back when she played games on her PC, she had hated stubborn story NPCs like this—NPCs who clearly had low health and were crippled by debuffs, yet insisted on blindly rushing toward the quest objective, forcing the player to act like a babysitter while fighting off mobs.
But now, a living, breathing NPC was standing right beside her.
Luo Jiuge sighed, fished a high-grade recovery potion out of her inventory, and slapped it into Alvin's hand.
“Drink this.”
Alvin blinked in surprise. “...You already gave me one earlier...”
“Stop complaining and just take it,” Luo Jiuge interrupted impatiently. She tightened her grip on her longsword, casting a wary glance out into the silent corridor. “If you aren't at full strength, how are we supposed to win a team fight?”
Staying close to the dark base of the walls, the two of them crept all the way down the western corridor.
By now, the originally orderly and steady sound of patrolling footsteps deep within the monastery had descended into complete chaos.
In the far distance, the furious roars of Temple Knights echoed faintly:
“Lock down the inner courtyard! An intruder has snuck in! Everyone, on alert!”
Immediately after, sharp, rapid alarm bells rang out overhead.
The originally cold and silent Grey Dove Monastery instantly became as lively as a disturbed shrimp pond.
Finding the Discipline Office was not difficult.
The closer they got to the western corridor, the thicker the nauseating stench of blood in the air became.
The black stone walls were densely carved with silver-white cross patterns, but hanging beneath these sacred runes were rows of blackened iron hooks and torture chains.
Luo Jiuge felt her temples throb at the sight.
Just looking at this stuff made her feel a phantom ache.
The heavy doors of the Discipline Office were half-open, letting out a man's muffled groans and a monk's icy voice.
“Herwin, I will ask you one last time.”
“What exactly was your purpose in painstakingly infiltrating Grey Dove Monastery? Where are your accomplices on the outside hiding now?”
Luo Jiuge peered quietly through the crack in the door.
In the center of the massive interrogation room stood countless spine-chilling, giant torture devices.
Herwin was locked to a rack with inquisitor's clasps, his hands suspended high. His outer coat was soaked in blood, and fresh wounds covered his face.
The moment Alvin clearly saw the figure, his breath hitched. The emotions he had suppressed for so long instantly spiraled out of control. “Herwin...”
In his extreme agitation, his foot accidentally kicked a loose stone.
“Who's there?!” The lamp-lighting monk inside was highly alert, immediately shouting out.
However, Luo Jiuge's speed was faster than his reflexes.
With a powerful kick off the ground, she swept straight through the crack in the door.
The moment her holy sword was unsheathed, a dazzling, pale gold sword light tore through the dim interrogation room.
The lamp-lighting monk inside went pale. Almost instinctively, he raised his hand to summon a silver-white 【Holy Radiance Shield】.
Crack.
The shield flashed for a brief second before shattering completely.
“Damn it! An intruder!”
The two elite Temple Knights stationed nearby had barely drawn their swords, their boots not even having taken a single step.
Luo Jiuge twisted mid-air. With a flick of her wrist, her entire body dissolved into an uncatchable afterimage.
【Thousand Flash Blade Strike】
Blinding, fierce white sword light frantically interwoven within the narrow interrogation room, weaving a net of death.
In the blink of an eye, the sword light vanished.
The several capable Temple Knights didn't even get a chance to make a move before their bodies stiffened in unison and slumped limply to the ground.
The fluid, seamless combination of sword techniques left Alvin, who had followed her in, completely dumbfounded. His mouth hung open, unable to close for a long time.
Luo Jiuge executed a stylish sword flourish and sheathed her holy sword. Turning back to see Alvin still standing there frozen, she couldn't help but urge:
“What are you standing there for? Hurry up and save him!”
Rate on N.U.
