Toying with Hearts

“I killed him! Sob, are you satisfied now?”

Luke pulled the trigger without a moment's hesitation, sending a roaring gunshot echoing before the statue.

Lynch didn't make a sound. His body suddenly jerked backward under the force and crashed to the ground.

Sobbing and trembling all over, Luke scooped up the bewildered little Nara and screamed into the empty air, “Give Clara back to me! Give me back our old life! I don't want any more changes!”

“Offer the sacrifice upon the altar, and I shall grant your return to the ordinary,” a cold female voice echoed through the entire space. “A god does not break their word, but only if you have truly fulfilled my demand.”

“I... I...” Trembling too violently to even look at Lynch's corpse, Luke turned his head away, grabbed one of the body's hands, and dragged Lynch toward the stone slab.

“Daddy, look.”

The little girl's innocent voice startled Luke. But before he could even turn his head halfway, a cold sensation pierced his stomach, and a pointed cane erupted from his torso.

It was Lynch's cane.

Lynch pulled the cane out with force, rolled to his feet, shifted rapidly to the side, and slipped behind the statue.

Lynch, of course, was not dead. The moment he sensed Luke's murderous intent and heard him say “I'm sorry,” Lynch had activated the phase defense within Miss Valente's necklace without a single second's hesitation.

Thus, Luke's shot had passed right through Lynch's head, but it had merely pierced an afterimage.

It was just that Luke was too guilt-ridden to look, and Lynch had no desire to test whether a gun was indeed both accurate and fast within seven paces, so he had simply cooperated by jerking his body and falling to the ground.

Luke was no professional either; he hadn't thought to fire a finishing shot, nor did he notice anything amiss. He had immediately started dragging the body, so Lynch naturally showed no mercy, driving his cane home without a shred of hesitation.

Committing murder just to beg like a dog was an intolerable disgrace, but harming someone in self-defense was another matter entirely. Lynch felt absolutely no pressure doing so, even in front of the man's daughter.

With a miserable shriek, the daughter slipped from his grasp and hit the ground. Luke clutched his stomach, his expression contorted in pain, yet he still struggled to raise the gun and point it in Lynch's direction.

Gunshots suddenly erupted, and bullets flew wildly. Even the little girl covered her ears and huddled on the ground. However, Lynch had already ducked behind the statue, letting the towering figure completely shield him.

Having reached safety, Lynch finally let out a sigh of relief, only now feeling a lingering dread.

He had held onto modern civilization's respect and goodwill toward life, but the other party might not share those values. The old ancestors were right after all: never harbor intentions to harm others, but never let your guard down against them either.

If the little girl's words hadn't put him on guard this time, Luke might have actually succeeded. He couldn't tell if the child was genuinely naive or just acting; she had managed to warn both sides.

“Come out! Come out right now! Bang!” Luke's hoarse, desperate screams came from the other side. “I can't lose Clara! I want our old life back!”

“Come out... Please, just come out...”

Luke knelt on the ground, his voice growing weaker and weaker. Lynch only watched him coldly, ignoring his final struggles completely.

Bang. Luke struggled to fire another shot. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he tightly gripped his daughter's hand.

“You said that slot would always be reserved!” Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, he suddenly raised his voice, filled with desperate hope. “My daughter! My daughter! Let her return to her old life! The two of us will give up our slots for her!”

“You can. But as I said, your family only has one slot. The only one.”

This time, it wasn't that eerie, disembodied female voice, but a physical one. A few figures walked over from the edge of the meadow. It was none other than the monster girl in fancy clothes with the black fan from before.

“I... I... I understand. Remember your promise.”

The dying Luke seemed to understand the monster girl's underlying meaning. He suddenly turned the gun barrel and pressed it against his own chin. Giving his daughter one last look, he pulled the trigger without a moment's hesitation.

The gunshot rang out, and his head burst like a water melon. Lynch's heart clenched, and he peered through a gap in the statue to look at the scene of death.

The monster girl had already approached with five figures in black. Luke's corpse slumped to the ground, and little Nara was huddled over it, weeping loudly. The flesh and blood that had splattered onto the stone slab were already being absorbed by it.

At this moment, as if having absorbed some form of power, several strange patterns on the stone slab suddenly lit up. As they glowed, even the slab itself turned completely into an illusion. This caused Lynch's eyes to widen, his breathing quickening. He remembered that these patterns were exactly the shapes that formed the railway network in those mystery documents.

Although he couldn't be one hundred percent certain, the possibility was highly likely. Since things had come to this, it was worth a try.

Clap, clap, clap. A sparse round of applause sounded. All the pursuers faced the direction of the statue—or rather, they were looking at Lynch behind it.

“A fine struggle, outsider. Though you have yet to please us, we are quite surprised that you managed to make it this far.”

Before the stone slab, little Nara had already been seized by several figures in black, while the monster girl stood nearby, a coquettish smile plastered across her face.

“Since you've managed to pique our interest, I will give you one last chance. The requirement remains the same: kill this family to end this game. If you do, we will let you see Eldest Sister and even show you the way home.”

Lynch sighed and stepped out from his hiding place. He walked up to the monster girl completely unguarded, ignoring everyone as he went straight to Luke's corpse to retrieve his handgun and ammunition.

Raising his hand, the muzzle of his gun pointed directly at the still-struggling Nara.

“Is that so?” Lynch held the gun, yet his feet moved as if he were leisurely strolling, slowly pacing over to the side of the stone slab. “But I have a question,” he pressed on. “You already promised Luke that she would return to her normal life. If you have me kill her, what happens to that promise?”

“We never said we would protect her for the rest of her life. You are the one killing her; what does that have to do with us? We haven't broken any promises.” Delighted laughter drifted from behind the monster girl's round fan. “We are honest. We never break our word.”

“Right, you just guide others into the abyss instead.” Lynch sneered, putting his gun away as he said mockingly, “You people toy with human hearts with every word you speak. It seems that is what brings you the greatest pleasure. I should have realized it from what happened to this family. Heh, it's probably the same for me. I've finally figured it out—from the very beginning, you've been enticing me to kill them. If I had actually done it, the outcome definitely wouldn't have been as simple as you claimed.”

The young lady in fancy clothes covered her face with her black fan, chuckling softly. “Do you think you still have the right to choose, outsider?”

“I do.” Lynch had already paced over to the edge of the stone slab, standing with his back to it. “What happens if I take a step backward? Will I return to my world?”

The young lady in fancy clothes's smile stiffened, but she quickly returned to normal. “You can certainly try, outsider. I told you from the beginning that you have the right to choose. Now that the game has reached its end, make your choice. Will you comply with our demands to end everything, or trust your own judgment and risk an unknown outcome? You only have one opportunity to choose. If you choose incorrectly, you won't have a chance to regret it.”

“So... if I choose correctly, I will have a chance to regret it, right?” Lynch suddenly sneered, his eyes narrowing as he said in a low, cold voice, “You are clearly capable of doing the deed yourselves, yet you repeatedly toy with others for your own amusement. But do you really think everyone is as easily fooled as Luke's family? Heh, a choice between life and death? I'm afraid that no matter which one I choose, my ultimate end will be exactly the same as theirs—completely played to death by you.”

“I have seen right through your little tricks of playing with hearts.”