Having just used a Resurrection Coin to return like a legendary hero, Grinya noticed the trembling Gexi. She lowered her gaze, her grey eyes staring calmly at her.
"For fuck's sake, it's you again!"
Grinya suddenly shouted.
Her previous fury vanished instantly, replaced by a cry of alarm and panic.
Damn it, he was actually being spawn-camped by an NPC!
Where was the justice? Where was the fairness?
Are NPCs these days really this intelligent? How was he supposed to play this damn game?!
Gexi grew more and more confused. Grinya's behavior was simply too strange. She seemed to have lost all her previous memories, and her personality and aura had undergone a complete transformation.
Especially her earlier state of rage—it had truly felt like a god was venting its wrath.
That sense of dread, terror, and the absolute necessity to submit had once left Gexi breathless.
But now, that feeling had entirely vanished, and that sharp aura had become weak.
Gexi felt that the Grinya before her was a complete stranger. The person from moments ago and the person now were like two different people, and Gexi wasn't sure which one was the real her.
"Grinya..." she tried calling out softly, "Are you still Grinya?"
Meanwhile, sitting at his computer desk, Lu Xun was momentarily stunned.
She didn't attack me? Did I just enter a dialogue sequence?
That was a relief. He was truly afraid of getting into another fight with this woman.
Since his last reckless challenge against her, Lu Xun had become completely humble. The only lesson he had learned from being instantly killed was—never easily challenge someone at a much higher level!
Lu Xun hadn't expected that the level gap in this game wasn't just a simple matter of stat crushing, but a double lead in both mechanics and values.
After being one-shotted yesterday, he had spent a long time reviewing that battle.
He was confident that there were absolutely no mistakes in his mechanical play.
Yet he was still killed instantly, in a way that left zero room for outplay.
So he understood now: the design of this game was one of those rare types that showed extreme respect for level differences. At least, Lu Xun had never seen a game respect level gaps this much before.
Once the level gap was too large, there was no possibility of winning.
Unless he used cheats, but this game had its own anti-cheat system, which was annoying as hell!
Therefore, if he could avoid fighting this mage named Gexi, Lu Xun would absolutely not make the first move.
This wasn't him being a coward; it was called assessing the situation, adapting to circumstances, following the flow, being flexible, and knowing that a wise man submits to fate.
A gentleman's revenge is never too late even after ten years. In ancient times, there was Gou Jian who endured hardships to plan his return, and today, there was Lu Xun retreating to plot his next move—it was the same principle.
He would tolerate her for now, wait until he had farmed in silence for a while, and then he would ruthlessly dominate her later!
"Sister, don't kill me. I'm a good person," Grinya said.
"Why would I kill you? We're on the same side!" Gexi said with a frustrated laugh. "Do you have amnesia?"
On the same side? This female mage is my teammate?
Lu Xun was stunned again.
What exactly had happened during the time he was away from the game?
Gexi looked at Grinya with some uncertainty. She could no longer be sure if this Grinya was the same as before, so before continuing to infiltrate the cult, she had to confirm Grinya's identity.
"Are you really still Grinya?" she asked.
At the same time, she quietly moved one hand behind her back, tightly gripping her crystal ball.
Her expression was wary, her body as tense as a drawn bowstring.
Lu Xun also keenly noticed Gexi's subtle movement and immediately held his breath.
'If Grinya shows any sign of being off, I'll turn and run immediately. I'm likely no match for her, so I absolutely cannot face her head-on,' Gexi thought anxiously, tracing the surface of her crystal ball.
'If I show any sign of being off, she'll definitely take me out instantly. I can't beat her, and I can't let the game fail, so I must play the role of the Peerless Fencer perfectly without showing any flaws,' Lu Xun thought, rubbing his chin.
"I am," Grinya replied.
"How old are you?" Gexi asked.
"Eighteen."
"Place of origin?"
"Loranka Town."
"Occupation?"
"A freshman at Yiertaya Royal Academy."
"When a mage's mana frequency conflicts with the environmental mana veins, and the microscopic mana particles exhibit a normal distribution shift, what typical mana backlash phenomenon occurs?"
"..."
Lu Xun's lip twitched. Big sister, are you serious?
What kind of bullshit question is that?!
How could he possibly know the answer to something like that!
He could at least find the answers to the previous questions through the background bio on the character card, but who knew why the last question suddenly changed style so drastically.
"Can you change the question?" Grinya asked.
"You can't give an answer?" Gexi said.
"I don't know the answer," Grinya stated. "But what's the point of asking this? Don't the answers to the previous questions prove my identity?"
"They don't," Gexi replied with a blunt face. "Because I just realized that I can't seem to divine any information about you. I don't know if what you said earlier was right or wrong, so I can only judge by my gut feeling."
"...Do you think your joke is funny? If you really want to kill me, please just be as quick about it as you were just now, okay?" Grinya's tone sounded somewhat angry.
"Wait, I told you, I wasn't the one who killed you just now," Gexi countered.
"There are only two of us here. If it wasn't you who killed me, could it have been myself?" Grinya said.
"The person who killed you is named Duoze, one of the bishops of the Diao Cult," Gexi said with a darkened expression. "Have you forgotten everything? The Diao Cult is trying to resurrect the Plague God, and we came here to stop them."
"Diao Cult?" Lu Xun repeated the name under his breath, finding it somewhat familiar.
This seemed to be the antagonist from that hidden quest, "The One Who Gazes into the Abyss."
He hadn't expected to see clues about this antagonist again after so long.
In other words, was the task he was currently performing part of that hidden quest?
"Fine, I believe you," Grinya said.
"You believe me just like that?" Gexi looked at her suspiciously.
"Wait, no. It shouldn't be me trying to get your trust; you should be the one trying to gain mine. Why is it reversed?" Gexi shook her head repeatedly, realizing something was off.
But Grinya was no longer paying attention to her. She took out a piece of silver-white light armor covered in arcane textures from somewhere and gently placed it over her abdomen.
In a brief distortion of white light, the silver-white armor successfully adhered to her abdomen. From the outside, Grinya still appeared to be wearing her school uniform, with no indication that a layer of hard light armor lay beneath it.
Rate on N.U.
