Natasha: “What do you want me to do?”

Jason tapped open his panel with one hand and sent something over to Natasha, his tone flat:

“Christmas is coming. This is the Christmas event registration form for the competitive zone. Every team that signs up will have Christmas Reindeer randomly spawn inside their instances. Whichever team kills the most reindeer takes home a massive point reward.”

He paused, then continued: “Only the team captain is eligible to register.”

On Natasha’s end, the notification arrived instantly. She pressed her lips together tightly.

Ada ground his teeth. “Jason, are you even human?”

Asking Natasha to join the event obviously had nothing to do with the point reward. Jason’s real purpose was to make it impossible for Natasha to disband the team. Every team that registered for the event could not voluntarily disband for the duration of the event!

Jason laughed coldly. “I’m genuinely not human—and not just me. None of you are human either. As long as we stay in this place for even one day, we’re nothing but a bunch of pathetic puppets.”

He pressed the gun in his hand harder, his voice low and haunting: “If you want to become human, you have to go to the world above… and become someone from above.

Natasha, think it over carefully—do you want to become someone from above with me, or accompany this kid to hell? Hmm?”

He pulled the trigger a third of the way back, as if the very next second he would take Ada’s life.

Ada stood rooted to the spot, grinding his teeth, veins bulging at his temples, suppressing his fury as he looked for an opening to strike back.

Then he heard Natasha say: “I agree. Let Ada go first.”

Jason said: “Sign up for the Christmas event, and I’ll release him immediately.”

Natasha looked at the event notification on her panel and was silent for a moment before she spoke softly: “I’ll join the event. But before that, I have something to say to Ada.”

Jason didn’t move. “Go ahead.”

Ada breathed slowly, forcing himself to calm down.

Natasha said: “Ada, in the cabinet to your right, there’s a wooden figure that Yuri carved for his daughter. If you ever have the chance to leave this place and meet his daughter, please give it to her—and tell her that her father loved her very much.”

Ada clenched his fists and replied in a muffled voice: “…I will.”

Natasha let out a quiet breath and said softly: “There’s one more thing… I’ve never told anyone. The truth is, I like Yuri.”

Ada froze.

Even Jason raised an eyebrow, slightly caught off guard.

In a place like this, speaking of “liking” someone was truly a luxury.

Natasha spoke slowly: “Or perhaps I could put it this way—I love him. But I know I can’t love him… None of us knows who we really are. Maybe I’m a criminal. Maybe I have my own family. Maybe I even have children, just as Yuri had a daughter. So, until we’ve figured out who we are, none of us has the right to speak of love.

Ada, if you really do get out one day, could you look into whether his wife is still around? What kind of person is she? Does she love Yuri the way I do?”

Natasha gave a faint, bitter smile. Her pale face looked impossibly fragile as she said to Ada: “Just treat it as indulging this one small, ridiculous… competitive streak of mine.”

Ada felt his throat tighten. “All right, I’ll remember…”

Natasha nodded. She seemed to have nothing more to say. She raised her hand and with a few quick taps, registered for the Christmas event.

As a member of the team, Jason received the notification immediately.

He took a step back. The gun barrel relaxed, but it still held steady, aimed at Ada.

“Grab your things and go.”

Ada pressed his lips into a tight line, glaring fiercely at Jason before him, barely restraining the urge to fight him right then and there.

But in the end, he controlled himself, reclaimed his reason, picked up the wooden figure from the cabinet on the right, and walked briskly out of the hospital room—

The moment he stepped out the door, he saw several of Jason’s teammates standing outside, watching like tigers eyeing their prey.

If he had actually made a move just now, these people would never have let him leave alive.

Ada held back again and again, gripping the wooden figure tightly in his hand, and walked straight downstairs.

The moment he reached the lobby on the first floor, an explosive boom suddenly rang out from upstairs!

—