Ever since A’da’s suspicion that Jason had leaked the dungeon information, the atmosphere in the villa had been strange. Now that the man in question had personally come to their door, the strangeness intensified further.

Natasha was awkward about it as well. Honestly, she wanted answers even more than A’da did — but Jason was speaking to Yuri in private, and she had no grounds to walk in.

The four of them sat in the living room waiting, and for a while there was nothing to say.

Before long, the voices inside Yuri’s room grew louder. It sounded as though the two of them had started quarreling.

Natasha heard Jason’s voice rise in a sharp demand: “I’m advising you to think very carefully about whether it’s worth it!”

Immediately after, the door flew open and Jason stormed out, fury radiating from every inch of him. He didn’t spare a single glance at the people in the living room, and marched out of the villa in long, furious strides — as though he’d been pushed past his limit.

Everyone exchanged glances.

That was barely three minutes — how had they already come to blows?

Natasha was uneasy and anxious. She walked into the room and found Yuri standing at the table, expression deeply stormy. He looked up at Natasha, gave a reassuring smile, and said: “It’s nothing…”

“Nothing?” Natasha furrowed her brow. “What did Jason mean by that just now? Was he threatening you?”

Yuri was silent for a moment before speaking. “He said the dungeon leak was an accident. His teammate found out what he’d been doing to help us collect walkthroughs, and took great issue with it — so they spread the information.”

“And you believe a flimsy excuse like that?” A’da gave a contemptuous snort from behind Natasha, without a shred of mercy.

Natasha shot him a fierce glare.

A’da turned his face away, acting as though he hadn’t noticed.

Yuri didn’t take A’da’s sarcastic remarks to heart either. He lowered his head, one hand braced against the table, and spoke slowly: “Jason and his teammate have walkthroughs we need. The condition for trading them is joining our team. But don’t worry — I’ve already turned him down.”

Yuri let out a slow breath and looked up at everyone. His expression was calm. “I won’t remove any of you from this team.”

He said it slowly, word by word, with unmistakable clarity — like making a guarantee, like a promise.

The room fell silent for a few seconds.

A’da let out an airy hum. “Let’s hope so~”

Then he turned and left.

Shen Mo and Bai Youwei watched quietly for a moment, then also returned to their room.

At the end of it all, the entanglement between Yuri and Jason was not something they were in a position to judge, nor appropriate for them to interfere with.

Only Natasha and Yuri remained in the room.

Natasha bit her lip and closed the door, then asked Yuri seriously: “What exactly did Jason say? Did he threaten you?”

Using walkthroughs as leverage to pressure Yuri into removing a team member — if that wasn’t a threat, what was?

The more Natasha thought about it, the more indignant she felt. “So everything A’da said before was true, wasn’t it?”

Yuri lowered his head, his brow furrowed. “Let it go… He was never obligated to help us in the first place. There’s nothing inherently wrong with him setting conditions.”

Natasha nearly laughed in her anger. “Sure, sure — he had no obligation to help us. But leaking our dungeon information to everyone else was an act of sabotage! And now he comes here to threaten you! A real great friend we had there!”

“Natasha.” Yuri’s frown deepened. “Let it go. I’ve already made my refusal clear — let’s put this to rest.”

Natasha closed her eyes for a moment, reluctant but reining it in. She took a slow breath and asked: “What do we do now?”

Yuri’s voice was low and measured. “All we’re missing is walkthroughs. The most important thing now is to get the whole team back on track. I’ll take the next few days to review what we have, and then let’s try to attempt a dungeon.”

Natasha thought it over and nodded. “Alright. We can still clear dungeons without walkthroughs — it’ll just be slower. I’m so ready to get out of this awful place, I’m sick of looking at those awful people’s faces!”

—