Screams rose one after another.

Willard had long since retreated to a safe distance, watching coldly as the group descended into helpless panic.

One person possessed meant the whole group was in danger — and aside from fleeing, they had no other option. Because everyone was terrified of being touched by that thread.

Leonid pushed Chen Hui away, afraid that if the thread took hold of him and he lost control, he might attack his own allies. But his body vanished in an instant.

Yan Qingwen was still reeling from that when Chen Hui suddenly disappeared into thin air as well.

He dimly began to understand. He turned to look at Fu Miaoxue.

Fu Miaoxue had her hand pressed to her own wristband.

“I’m demoting all of you to commoners now. That way you won’t have to die.”

She picked up the fire-starter box from the ground, looked up at Yan Qingwen, and smiled — a bittersweet, heartbroken smile.

“Yan Qingwen — tell Bai Youwei… she has to win…”

The words had barely faded when a white light flashed before Yan Qingwen’s eyes, and when he opened them again, he was standing in the rest hall.

He stood there in stunned silence for a long while, unable to believe that Fu Miaoxue had just… given up like that.

He looked around. Leonid and Chen Hui were here too.

Two seconds later, another wounded subject emerged from the battle game — equally demoted.

Yan Qingwen crossed the distance in a few steps and seized the person by the collar. “What happened to Fu Miaoxue?!”

The subject seemed to have sustained a profound shock, and could only babble incoherently in terror: “It’s burning… everything burning… they’re all burning…”

He tore free of Yan Qingwen’s grip and fled in a panic, leaving the rest hall at a run.

Chen Hui looked at Yan Qingwen with worried eyes. “…What do we do? Are we… going to lose?”

Losing was already an outcome without any doubt.

Yan Qingwen felt as though a stone had been lodged in his chest — heavy and suffocating beyond words. Du Lai’s death was so senseless. And Fu Miaoxue… that was senseless too.

Yet the situation in the game could turn at any second. They had lost, and he had nothing to say about it.

“Yan Ge, your wounds…” Chen Hui quietly reminded him.

In the chaos just now, everyone had taken some injury to varying degrees. Yan Qingwen’s back had long since been soaked through with blood.

He didn’t care. His voice was heavy with dejection. “You all go get treated… I’ll stay here and wait for the results.”

“Then we’ll wait together.” Leonid sat cross-legged on the floor, his voice low. “I want to see too — whether that Willard ends up dying in there.”

Chen Hui lowered her head and prayed in silence.

She hoped Fu Miaoxue would walk out alive. She hoped Willard would lose the battle. She hoped that thread… would no longer exist.

Time passed. One second at a time.

Maybe it was a long time. Maybe it only felt that way to people who were living through every second as though it stretched for an eternity. But at last, there was movement at the glowing square entrance — the only light in the entire rest hall —

First, a hand — flesh seared and charred.

Then an arm… a head… a shoulder… a back…

Yan Qingwen’s face turned to ash.

The Willard before him was propping himself up on one arm, lifting his upper body off the ground. He turned a face burned beyond recognition toward Yan Qingwen and Leonid, and grinned — a hideous, manic grin — blood seeping from the corners of his mouth.

Chen Hui let out a quiet sob, one hand pressed over her mouth to hold back tears. Whether from grief or anger, it was impossible to tell.

Willard was still alive.

Even though Fu Miaoxue had taken him down with her in a mutual destruction, he had survived.

Half a life left — barely clinging on — and he had claimed victory.

Leonid was incensed. He rose to his feet and moved toward him to finish it — but hadn’t gone more than a few steps before the rabbit-headed inspector glided into view, blocking his path in silence, wordlessly reminding him that the rest hall had rules.

Yan Qingwen breathed deeply — once, twice, again — forcing down the storm raging inside him.

He said to Leonid and Chen Hui: “Let’s go… There’s nothing we can do here.”

Chen Hui bit her lip and whispered: “What do we do… if Wei Wei meets this madman… what do we do…”

The final battle was now inevitable.

—