Unknown Visitor

"Don't listen to her nonsense, Xiao Li!"

Owl stepped forward. Xu Xiaoyou raised the sharpened iron rod, pointing it at the surrounding crowd while keeping Xiaoli as a hostage.

Xiaoli didn't resist in her arms. She merely stared blankly at her former companions, suddenly feeling a suffocating sensation as if an invisible serpent was tightly binding her body.

"Doctor, is what you said... all true?"

Despite being coerced, Xiaoli still wanted to believe in the blonde girl beside her.

Perhaps it was because of their time together, or perhaps it was because of the gentle, pitying gaze the other occasionally showed, along with that familiar scent, which made her subconsciously lower her guard and feel close to Xu Xiaoyou.

"The right to judge is in your hands," Xu Xiaoyou said. "If you're willing to believe me, I can take you back."

"Don't be deluded by this madwoman's words, Xiaoli! Look at my face... We are the ones who have been with you the longest. We are the ones who comforted you when you were afraid. Have you forgotten who gave you warmth and coaxed you to sleep when you were cold?"

Seeing the girl in Xu Xiaoyou's hands, Night Owl and Sparrow didn't dare advance further. Only Owl cautiously held his hands out in front of him, inching closer bit by bit.

Xiaoli buried her small face in Xu Xiaoyou's arm. She had always lacked self-assertion.

Rather, she feared having self-assertion. She feared others handing the power of choice to her, terrified that she would mess everything up, terrified of being blamed or disliked, and afraid that the things around her would leave her because of it. She had always needed to rely on others to survive.

Only through others could she find the missing pieces of herself, gaining a sense of security and belonging, becoming a whole self.

Clearly at the center of the vortex, Xu Xiaoyou acted like a silent observer, quietly watching the events unfold.

She hadn't expected to accidentally trigger a hidden plot. These children had secretly run out of the laboratory. The vaccine serum hadn't been completed yet, so Xu Xiaoyou couldn't just watch them leave for the Traidy nobles' carriages.

Once the right to develop the vaccine fell into the hands of the nobles, she would lose her utility. Even if she returned alive, the resentful Dawn Resistance would never let the Doctor she played off. She didn't want to receive a low-grade evaluation on her first novice mission.

Her playtime was rushed, but she used her fragmented time to clarify the Doctor's position on the St. Punier. The Doctor didn't belong to any faction but was independent of the two major forces: the Dawn Resistance and the Traidy nobles.

Perhaps out of guilt, morality, conscience, or some deeper reason, the Doctor himself leaned more toward the Dawn Resistance, which was why he conducted experimental research in the lower-tier carriages.

Those androids were specifically sent by the Traidy nobles to the lower-tier carriages to monitor him, ensuring they had real-time grasp of the vaccine's progress.

She had noticed posts from other novice players in this rift. The Dawn Resistance was friendly to their factions, but neutral only toward her. This already explained a lot.

If nothing went wrong, once the vaccine research was completed, the Dawn Resistance's attitude toward her faction would likely turn hostile immediately, and they would launch an attack.

As for finding an opportunity to defect to the nobles and developing an antidote in a well-equipped environment—happily ever after—Xu Xiaoyou didn't see that as a good choice.

Not only would it be easy to mess up if the Dawn Resistance discovered her motives, but the degree of role-playing was also one of the criteria for the final score. The Doctor she played didn't want the antidote to fall into the hands of the nobles for reasons she didn't yet know.

Violating the character's original intent would result in a mediocre score even if she successfully cleared the main mission.

While other players only needed to kill zombies to accumulate points in a novice rift where gaining faction contribution was easy, for her, it was hell-mode. She had to find a perfect balance in the cracks to have any chance of clearing the rift with a high evaluation.

Xu Xiaoyou deeply felt the malice from Oasis.

If she hadn't happened to drop down and accidentally run into these children escaping the lab, she might have blindly reached a Game Over in this novice rift.

"If you really just wanted to leave, you could have left by now, couldn't you?" Xu Xiaoyou said. "You know perfectly well what will happen to her if she falls into the hands of the nobles."

"Is there any difference between what you say and what she went through before?"

"Don't measure us by your moral standards!" Owl gritted his teeth. "Do you think everyone is a vile, selfish bastard like you?"

Xu Xiaoyou's eyes flickered slightly, revealing a hint of exhaustion.

"Xiaoli, look at me. We are family. There should be trust between family members to watch each other's backs. If you don't trust us, explaining things ten thousand times is useless. Do you understand?" Owl said.

"I'll say this only once, Xiaoli. Listen carefully."

"I won't hand you over to those nobles. I will never forget my hatred. They are the ones who made us orphans. Remember Alexei from the transport team? I met someone from the noble side through him, an uncle named Benjamin. As long as we get there, he'll find a way to take us in."

"He'll give us food and clothes. He'll give us a warm home."

Xiaoli's voice carried more trepidation: "So, we're not escaping the St. Punier, but defecting to the nobles?"

"That's different from what you told me at the beginning. You clearly said..."

"See?" Xu Xiaoyou spoke at the right moment. "They are lying to you."

"Why... why lie to me?"

A strange emotion grew wildly in Xiaoli's heart. The gap created by deception—disappointment, oppression, anger, and malice—turned into crimson venomous thorns, piercing out of the dark sludge and taking root in her young heart.

Demonic voices lingered in her ears as if countless people were whispering to her.

"It's not what you think!" Owl raised his voice. "If I hadn't said that, you wouldn't have been willing to leave with us at all!"

"Ask yourself, isn't that true?"

"You have no self-assertion at all. You only know how to depend on others like a burden. No matter what, you need someone else to act like a nanny and make choices for you..."

"You're just a burden. A scourge."

These weren't Owl's words, nor did Xu Xiaoyou speak them, but Xiaoli heard them nonetheless. Her crumbling spirit imagined these words, and so the demonic whispers grew louder until they turned into ear-splitting noise.

The twisting air seemed to form strips of bright red text, like seals, overlapping and filling the space above the small girl.

These words were like thorns piercing deep into her consciousness, a blood-like crimson staining her vision.

Every painful memory was drenched in blood, slammed before her eyes like wet rags!

Countless hands were tearing at her consciousness. Pain, fragmentation, shattering—blurred memory fragments swirled in a storm of consciousness, broken and recombined. A child's innocent hands picked them up, giggling with naive playfulness as they pieced together a blood-red scene.

She saw herself on the operating table, being sliced until she was dripping with blood. She saw herself trapped in countless hypocritical lies, unable to find a way forward. She thought of herself, suppressing her feelings day and night until she felt suffocated, fearing rejection and abandonment.

"Stop it... stop it."

"I don't want to leave. I don't want to leave anymore..." Xiaoli's eyes were bloodshot. She grabbed her own arms, clawing until bloody marks appeared. "I can't be so selfish. If there's no antidote, the Doctor will die, and everyone will die. I can't just watch Grandma Melia and Uncle Alexei die."

"A little pain is nothing. If a little pain can help everyone..."

"Burden. Burden. Burden."

"Scourge! Scourge! Scourge!"

Countless monsters around her laughed with narrowed eyes. Her shattered and chaotic consciousness filled her entire brain. Her reason sank into a black mire, and her heart was crushed by the crimson text seals.

The whispers were roaring! The whispers were roaring!

"Xiaoli!" Owl shouted at the girl for the first time. "Do you know how much effort we put into escaping? Something we hoped for through so many days and nights is about to come true! What on earth are you thinking?"

Just then, Sparrow and Night Owl found an opening, swinging their weapons together at Xu Xiaoyou.

Owl was quick. He stepped forward and grabbed Xiaoli's hand, pulling her away from the blonde girl.

Xu Xiaoyou's current state was weak to the extreme. The negative effects of her heavy injuries, combined with the deepening contamination, made her already chaotic thoughts feel like snapping strings. Her strength, agility, and constitution had all fallen below 0.1.

But even in this state, her rich combat experience was more than enough to handle children who only knew how to swing weapons wildly.

In a few moves, she took down Sparrow and Night Owl. Xu Xiaoyou picked up the heavy iron rod from the ground, swung it in a powerful arc to knock the weapon out of Owl's hand, and pinned him into a corner. Her chest heaved steadily as she looked back at Xiaoli cowering in the corner.

"Come back with me. I won't lie to you." The blood trickling down her forehead contrasted with her calm expression. "Once the antidote research is complete, everyone will be safe. You'll see flowers blooming on the ruins."

"Don't believe what this person says! Don't forget what she did!" Owl pounced with all his might, grabbing Xu Xiaoyou's waist and slamming her against the wall.

"Xiaoli, she's the one who has always brought us harm!"

"Stop it, I don't want to hear it..."

"We are family! Other people's lives have nothing to do with us! Why should someone else's salvation be built on our pain and sacrifice? Don't hurt yourself for those irrelevant people. They never thought to thank us. They don't deserve salvation!"

"Stop fighting..." Xiaoli's hands trembled as she held a small knife, pointing it at the two combatants as if that could force them to stop.

"Follow your own thoughts. Don't be swayed by the words of others," Xu Xiaoyou said, raising her elbow and striking Owl's back.

Owl refused to back down, wrestling with her. He grabbed the iron rod that had fallen to the ground and swung it hard. Xu Xiaoyou blocked it with her forearm and twisted his shoulder to slam him to the floor.

"Weren't you always afraid of making a choice? What are you still hesitating for? We've already helped you make the better choice!" Owl was dazed from the fall, but he braced his waist and lunged up, breaking free from Xu Xiaoyou's grip.

"We'll take you to a better place!"

"Even if they didn't lie to you, who can guarantee the nobles' words are credible?" Xu Xiaoyou interrupted.

"Think about it. Is it really possible for them to suddenly become kind-hearted and empathize with the long-suffering people at the bottom?"

From beginning to end, Xu Xiaoyou had been rationally analyzing the problem, presenting the key points bluntly through words and giving Xiaoli the right to choose.

"This is a trap by the nobles."

"I don't want to hear it! I told you to stop! Stop fighting!"

Long-repressed emotions exploded at this moment. Reason breached its dikes. Xiaoli rushed forward with a tearful roar, trying to pull the two apart.

In the chaos, Owl once again grabbed Xu Xiaoyou's waist and charged toward Xiaoli. With a sudden spray of blood, the atmosphere plummeted to the freezing point.

Owl's pupils shrank violently. He let go of the blonde girl, staring at Xu Xiaoyou's staggering body and the knife handle buried deep in her abdomen.

Xiaoli let go, shaking her head and backing away a few steps with a pale face before slumping to the ground.

The blood that seeped out quickly soaked through the clothes on the blonde girl's abdomen. The deepening crimson continuously stimulated the vision of everyone present. The smell of blood in the air spread like rust dampened by rain.

Xu Xiaoyou's eyes twitched with pain. "Haha, well..."

"A world where only I get hurt has been achieved."

With that, she gradually closed her eyes, and her already collapsing body fell to the ground.

"What's so bad about being a scourge?"

"At least you're unique and don't have to depend on anyone else."

The game character she controlled for a short time had fallen unconscious multiple times, triggering the immersion device's consciousness risk control. Xu Xiaoyou was forced to wake up in reality, removing the immersion helmet and opening her eyes in the faint morning light.

Every immersion device was equipped with a forced wake-up mechanism to prevent a player's real-world consciousness sea from serious shifting due to the continuous deterioration of their in-game character's physical condition.

"Of all times..."

Xu Xiaoyou ignored her condition and tried to log into Oasis again, only to be stopped by a pop-up window. Oasis denied her access, and the restriction would last for two hours.

After several consecutive requests were denied, Xu Xiaoyou had no choice but to give up.

All the accumulated negative feedback exploded at this moment.

Intense dizziness made it feel as if thousands of church belfries were ringing at once. The ear-piercing ringing felt as if it were stripping her consciousness away. Her head swam, and the whole world seemed upside down.

Noticing Xu Xiaoyou's pained state, Akabane Tsubaki put down her cake fork. Without even wiping the cream from her mouth, she hurried over to check on the blonde girl.

"You... what's wrong with you?"

Xu Xiaoyou waved her hand, signaling she was fine.

Heat flowed from her nose. She reached out to touch it and gave a wry smile when she saw the crimson on her fingertips.

"And you say you're fine."

Akabane Tsubaki hurriedly brought wet wipes and helped Xu Xiaoyou wipe away the blood from her upper lip, her face full of concern.

"Are you playing Grand Theft Auto in Oasis? How could your spirit sea shift be this severe?"

"Why are you looking at me with such a weird look?"

Akabane Tsubaki felt uncomfortable under Xu Xiaoyou's faint gaze.

"It's as if I'm the one who stabbed you."

Xu Xiaoyou was speechless.

At that moment, a scarlet mark flashed in her peripheral vision. She frowned and subconsciously grabbed Akabane Tsubaki's hand.

"W-what?" Akabane Tsubaki was startled by the sudden move.

"This is...?"

Xu Xiaoyou focused her gaze on the mark on Akabane Tsubaki's wrist. It was a bright red flower with five petals. Each petal was shaped like the yin-yang flame symbols in Taiji, arranged in a ring.

There was no mistake. She had seen this mark on Xiaoli's wrist in the game.

"You mean this mark?" Akabane Tsubaki looked thoughtful. "This is the Akabane camellia. The Red Tree is the totem that the people of Red Heaven rely on for their faith. Children who are chosen and blessed will have this mark on them."

"Why are you suddenly asking about this?"

After some deliberation, Xu Xiaoyou finally asked: "Did you go through anything in the past?"

"Like spraining my ankle on the curb, stepping into a storm drain, surviving assassinations, or being kidnapped by small-time gangs with no sense of judgment? Do those count?" Akabane Tsubaki bared her teeth.

"Does this count as the usual hardships on the path to growth for a family head?"

"I mean..." Xu Xiaoyou ultimately didn't mention the thing about Xiaoli in the rift. Perhaps she was overthinking it.

"From the time I can remember, I've been with Sebas, growing up in the Chi family estate. Occasionally, there would be some sudden events like kidnapping crises, but Sebas would always handle them for me."

"Since you can remember..." Xu Xiaoyou's eyes were filled with swirling thoughts.

"What on earth is going on, Yuzu? You've been acting so cryptic since you woke up."

"It's nothing. I'll go wash my face to clear my head."

In the washroom, looking at her dim and somewhat disheveled reflection in the mirror, Xu Xiaoyou smiled. She scooped up some fresh water and splashed it on her face, washing away the blood.

A message at the very bottom of the curtain, hidden by many chat messages and push services, caught her attention.

[Unknown Visitor: Do you remember what I told you?]

[Unknown Visitor: I want to build an Eden without sadness, where everyone is equal.]

[Unknown Visitor: I want to save more ordinary people, giving every dawn and morning dew to them.]

[Unknown Visitor: When the flying birds and flowing clouds pass, when all notes are woven into a beautiful melody, and beautiful creatures multiply continuously—I look forward to this world when the Eden without sorrow arrives.]

[Unknown Visitor: The chords weep as they speak. When every grave grows May's buds and people's long summer never fades, you will lead the budding version of me toward the light. A sonnet will record my longing for you.]

[Unknown Visitor: Yuzu, don't worry.]

[Unknown Visitor: I'm fine. I'm doing well.]

[Unknown Visitor: We will meet again.]

[Unknown Visitor: Sorry, I've been talking to myself so much and haven't introduced myself yet.]

[Unknown Visitor: My name is...]

[Unknown Visitor: My name is... Why? Why is it broken like this again?]

[Unknown Visitor: I can't... remember... anything...]

[Unknown Visitor: Why is it so sad... What am I doing?]

The girl in the voice message seemed to have fallen into deep self-confusion. Finally, everything ended in the long drone of electronic noise.

[Unknown Visitor is offline.]