“Are you an invader too?”
Just as Leona was about to voice the question, she swallowed the words back down.
She recalled her mother's words in the diary: They are demons, emissaries sent by the Main God to punish us.
This “they” very likely referred to the invaders; Leona could faintly sense that her mother felt not only fear toward them, but also hatred.
In that case...
If the other party was an invader, that would be fine, but if he were a native trying to fish for information from her, the moment he learned she was an invader, what she would face the next second might not be a kindly Grandpa, but a cold gun barrel.
The rules did indeed state that the hunter could be completely trusted, but him killing her was not contradictory to trust.
“Yes, Grandpa. I've returned. I missed you so much, missed you, missed Mother, and missed... Grandma,” Leona said with a sweet smile, hooking her arm around the hunter's thick arm.
Before clearing the instance, she had to play the part of a filial granddaughter.
The hunter pulled his arm away and took a few steps back. “No, Leona, I am a sinner, one fallen into darkness. You cannot touch me.”
Leona did not know what the hunter meant by his words, but she stepped forward, placing a hand over her chest.
“No matter what Grandpa becomes, in Leona's heart, Grandpa will always be Grandpa.”
“Leona, you are still as gentle as ever,” the hunter said with a gratified smile.
He drew the hunting rifle behind him, his gaze stern and profound. “Since you have returned, I must send you out. You cannot stay in this instance for too long.”
Leona nodded. She also knew she could not remain in this first instance forever.
There was no food here, and she was incapable of going without food and water.
Moreover, she wanted to quickly go see what kind of place the Prison was.
If her guess was correct, a large number of invaders were gathered in this prison, and perhaps she could trade for some important intelligence inside.
“Dear Grandpa, can you deal with the Big Bad Wolf on your own?” Leona stopped making awkward small talk and got straight to the point.
“Of course. I haven't grown that old yet,” the hunter said confidently, his mustache twitching as he blew on it.
Leona's eyes lit up. “Then could I trouble Grandpa to wait near Grandma's house first? I'll arrive shortly.”
The hunter looked puzzled. “I don't know why you want to do this, but Leona, you have rarely made the wrong decision. Understood, I will wait there.”
Leona rejoiced internally; she had been afraid it would take a great deal of effort to convince Grandpa.
After all, having Grandpa directly kill the Big Bad Wolf would have been enough; doing this seemed like an unnecessary extra step.
It was just that she had other plans.
After parting ways with the hunter, Leona picked up the last piece of butter cake and stuffed it into her mouth, savoring its delicious taste.
Next, she rushed toward the small path without stopping.
By this point, a portion of Leona's plan was already complete, though there were still a few points she couldn't figure out.
Since Grandpa chose to help her take the third clear path, wouldn't that mean he had to kill her?
Or was simply fulfilling the hunter's identity enough? Would killing Lu En allow her to escape just the same?
She shook her head, tossing the thoughts to the back of her mind. The urgent priority was to find Lu En first.
Soon, she arrived at the small path.
Only this time, she reached the destination a step ahead of Lu En.
After only a few minutes, Lu En slowly appeared in Leona's line of sight.
Just like at the very beginning, Leona had a brief conversation with Lu En before heading toward Grandma's house.
At the same time, she began to admire Lu En's acting skills in her heart.
Right now, he put on the facade of a good older brother, but when he had killed her, he hadn't hesitated in the slightest.
The plot fast-forwarded to when the two reached Grandma's cabin.
As usual, Leona knocked three times on the door and spoke her greeting; the door swung open on its own.
Just as Lu En entered the house with his back to Leona, Leona abruptly drew her dagger and thrust it toward Lu En's waist.
She had also wanted to stab Lu En's heart, but her stature was simply too small; his back towered over her, making raising her arm to stab his chest far too difficult.
Stabbing his lower back was undoubtedly the wiser choice; she could easily do it without raising her arm high, and it didn't require much effort.
However, Leona had overlooked one point: doing so would not immediately incapacitate the target, and a stabbed person could still launch a dying counterattack.
The instant Leona plunged the knife into Lu En, Lu En felt the pain, turned around, and immediately clamped her wrist, the powerful force forcing her to release her grip.
Lu En did not dare kill Leona just yet, because doing so would leave him unable to complete the Main God's quest; unless he killed the hunter and the Big Bad Wolf, he wouldn't be able to escape the instance.
Looking at Leona, a surprised look appeared in his eyes, and he prepared to repeat his old trick, hurling Leona toward the side of the bed.
Right at that moment, the true hunter struck.
Bang!
From two hundred meters away, a single shot hit Lu En's head, and the latter collapsed heavily onto the ground.
Without a hint of fear, Leona pried open Lu En's hand from her own and cast a meaningful glance at the corpse.
The hunter hurried over, firing several consecutive shots at the bed before him.
Shielding Leona behind him, he walked toward the bed and slowly peeled back the quilt on it.
Yet an accident occurred: the Big Bad Wolf was gone.
Several sounds came from the roof beams. Subconsciously, the hunter shifted his gun barrel to aim at the roof beams, but there was still nothing there.
The Big Bad Wolf actually darted out from beneath the dining table, pouncing at the hunter from the side.
Suffice it to say, the native hunter was truly seasoned; he decisively tossed aside the hunting rifle, whereas ordinary people facing danger often were reluctant to let go of the weapon in their hands and ended up losing their lives in vain.
Facing a wild wolf at close quarters, using a gun was actually disadvantageous.
Drawing the dagger from his bosom, the hunter viciously stabbed toward the wild wolf's eyes.
In the previous playthrough, Leona hadn't had the time to look closely, but this time she truly witnessed how terrifying the wild wolf was.
Its head took up a massive portion of its body, and at this moment, it actually clamped down directly on the hunter's entire shoulder, refusing to let go no matter what.
The hunter was even more terrifying; his arm wasn't bitten off, and his other hand gripped the dagger, violently stirring it inside the wild wolf's brain.
Standing not far away, Leona didn't step forward to help right away, but instead began conversing with the Big Bad Wolf.
“Grandma, Grandma, why are your ears so big?”
“The better to hear you speak,” came a hoarse voice; the Big Bad Wolf's jaws were clamped onto the hunter's shoulder, but the voice indeed came from its body.
“Grandma, Grandma, why are your eyes... also so big?” Leona continued speaking as she picked up the fruit knife and slowly walked toward the Big Bad Wolf.
The hoarse voice came once again.
“The better to see you clearly.”
“Grandma, Grandma, why are your hands so big?”
“The better to catch you.”
“But Grandma, why are your teeth... also so sharp?”
“The better to eat you with!”
The moment the words fell, Leona stabbed downward into the nape of the wild wolf's neck.
Blood splattered all over her, dyeing her cloak an even deeper red.
She slowly shifted her gaze to the hunter lying dying on the ground. Instead of acting immediately, she looked all around first.
“Strange. Was my deduction wrong?” she muttered with a furrowed brow.
Rip—
A sharp claw pierced Leona's cloak from behind, tearing a gash into her abdomen.
Straw Effigy Substitute activated.
The real Leona was teleported beneath the bed, and she began to feel grateful for possessing such a petite body.
From the very beginning, she had realized there was another person hiding in the dark within this story.
Even though she hadn't discovered them when she turned into the Heavenly Eye, the other party had left behind far too many flaws.
For instance, the door only having a handle on the inside; for instance, the stones she had placed being moved; and for another instance, the sounds from the roof beams just now.
Of course, all of these could be explained as bizarre phenomena, since this was, after all, a fairy tale world.
The most crucial point was still Rule 6: The story's plot may differ, but the characters belonging to this story must exist.
After a series of verifications, there was a ninety-percent probability that the Big Bad Wolf was Grandma; after all, the diary had also mentioned that Grandma might no longer be Grandma.
So since Grandma was present, the hunter was present, the Big Bad Wolf was present, and Little Red Riding Hood was present as well...
Then the only one remaining was... Mother.
She lifted her sole remaining eye to look toward that silhouette.
Rate on N.U.
