After Du Lai finished speaking, he left in a hurry.

Although he hadn’t explicitly stated which three had died, it was no secret. By dinner time, Bai Youwei had already heard the rumors — that Fu Miaoxue had led Du Lai, Leonid, Chen Hui, and four subjects recruited from the rest hall into the labyrinth.

Eight people went in. Five came out.

The news had spread throughout every level of headquarters.

Back during the preliminary rounds, quite a few kings had been eliminated and turned into subjects. Since they couldn’t participate directly in the battle games, they’d been lingering in the rest hall, hoping to be recruited.

Players like that had a certain level of strength, but they weren’t actual teammates — no different from strangers. Working with them required accounting for compatibility issues, and you always had to worry about betrayal.

For all these reasons, such players were rarely recruited.

Fu Miaoxue recruiting subjects from the rest hall was clearly a deliberate move to find cannon fodder.

This way of operating was greatly admired by Chu Huaijin, because it was ruthless and decisive — as long as someone wasn’t one of her own people, she’d sacrifice them without batting an eye.

It was a shame Fu Miaoxue had no desire to compete for king. Her heart was set entirely on conquering the labyrinth.

As far as she was concerned, achieving ultimate victory and becoming ruler of the world — these were a moon reflected in water, flowers in a mirror, utterly impractical. Only entering the labyrinth and evolving her body offered real, tangible benefits.

Two days later, Bai Youwei heard that Fu Miaoxue and Du Lai had entered the labyrinth again.

Everyone at headquarters found it unbelievable. With the next battle game less than two weeks away, all of Bai Youwei’s people were resting and conserving their strength — yet Fu Miaoxue couldn’t even spare time to rest and had gone back into the labyrinth already.

Everyone was buzzing with speculation.

At first Bai Youwei was also surprised they’d gone back so quickly, but after thinking it over, she understood.

Playing the game depended on a thorough understanding of the rules, while conquering the labyrinth relied on experience and instinct —

Maintaining a certain level of tension, avoiding prolonged complacency — entering the labyrinth in that mindset would yield a higher completion rate.

But then…

Which number labyrinth would Fu Miaoxue enter this time?

Bai Youwei quietly calculated in her mind. If it were Labyrinths 2, 3, 6, or 7… Fu Miaoxue and Du Lai should know how to navigate them. At the last meeting, everyone had already exchanged information about the labyrinths.

The only exception was Labyrinth 1 — not a single clue existed about it so far.

Who knew how intelligent the system actually was? If the system could read players’ brain data and knew a player had already figured out how to navigate certain labyrinths, would it deliberately send Fu Miaoxue into the one nobody knew anything about?

…Never mind, why was she even worrying about her? That selfish, arrogant creature — getting trapped in a labyrinth would serve her right.

Bai Youwei stopped thinking about it, picked up her nail polish, and slowly began painting the nails of the severed hand.

A vivid red base coat, then a small white snowflake painted over it — it would give a New Year feeling.

The idea was lovely, but when she actually painted it on, the colors blurred into a smudge.

She thought for a moment, then simply changed the snowflake into a white steamed bun.

Then a dumpling, a sweet rice ball, a sticky rice cake…

She gently blew on the severed hand’s acrylic nail tips and admired her handiwork, remarking with a sigh, “These nails look great, sure, but they’re a bit long. Are you sure you don’t want me to trim them a little?”

The hand shook its “head,” then backed away.

Afraid Bai Youwei might regret giving it a manicure, it propped itself up on its crystal nail tips and scrambled off to look in the mirror, five fingers walking like someone on stilts, making a clatter-clatter-clatter sound.

Bai Youwei couldn’t be bothered with it and let it do as it pleased.

Shen Mo came in from outside. Seeing the severed hand’s carefully decorated nails, he couldn’t help but find it amusing. He asked Bai Youwei, “How come you didn’t do your own nails too?”

Bai Youwei’s nails were very clean — a soft, rosy pink.

“I didn’t do my fingernails,” she said, “but I did my toes.”

With that, she lifted up a pair of pale little feet.

—