In the dim twilight, the faint fragrance of roses drifted through the air as cold moonlight spilled across the manor, vaguely illuminating the figure fleeing through the night.
Faster, she had to move faster!
The girl clutched her pounding chest, fear and panic gripping her heart.
Her terrified heart beat like a bird trapped between ribs, frantically fluttering its wings in desperate attempts to escape.
At the corner of the lawn, there was an area glowing with gentle white light that seemed disconnected from reality, standing out starkly against the manor like a portal to another dimension.
This was exactly where the girl was heading.
Almost there!
But before she could reach the escape point, the manor suddenly blazed with light, bright as daylight, and a low, cold voice slowly sounded from ahead.
“Where do you think you’re going.”
Tang Li’s heart jolted violently, constricting with fear and sending indescribable pain through her chest. Her knees gave way, and she stumbled into a flower bed.
Trembling, she lifted her eyes to see the tall man approaching her slowly.
Si Du.
Her childhood friend who was five years older in her first Mission World, and also the main antagonist and ultimate boss in the world’s storyline.
But she had already traveled through five worlds, completing every mission perfectly. How could she return to this place when crossing into her sixth world?
Most importantly, her character in this world had been dead for four years. If she appeared now, wouldn’t people think she was a ghost?
Tang Li was a novice tasker from the Quick Transmigration Bureau, taking on relatively simple missions where she just needed to follow the script and play the role of the male lead’s cannon fodder White Moonlight – the kind of character who typically died within the first hundred thousand words.
She had never done anything beyond what the plot required, completely unable to understand how she could have provoked Si Du, of all people!
And this man had become so pathological that he filled an entire manor with figurines of her – dolls bearing her face were everywhere, as if her character was still alive and living with him!
The man stopped before her, looking down from his superior height with eyes as cold as ice, devoid of any warmth.
The surrounding lights dimmed, as if even the moonlight envied the man’s handsome features, but the gloom between his brows and the perpetual hostility made him appear like a demon from hell.
Tang Li knew from the later world plot how ruthless Si Du could be, how cold and hard his heart was, how terrifying his methods were.
Therefore, after realizing how significant her character was to Si Du, she had grown deeply afraid of him.
She had appeared here inexplicably, still wearing the Daisy Bracelet Si Du had given her as a child, while her character’s “ashes” were being carried by Si Du himself!
He must think she was some scheming woman who had deliberately gotten plastic surgery to resemble his lost love, trying to get close to him for personal gain.
“Si Du… brother…” the girl’s voice emerged small and faint, trembling as she spoke.
But she didn’t know what to say next. She couldn’t reveal anything about her fast travel missions to people within the Mission World, leaving her with no explanation.
“You resemble her so much.”
Si Du half-knelt before her, the surrounding flowers rustling slightly with his movement, lending the cold, terrifying man a faint trace of floral fragrance.
“Even the way you call me is identical. When she made mistakes as a child, she would always call me like this, carefully, and then… I would help her avoid her parents’ scolding.”
As Tang Li listened to his soft words, her memories of this world grew increasingly clear.
At this moment, she became even more certain that an accident had occurred at the Quick Transmigration Bureau, because her memories would become blurred after completing each world.
But when she first arrived here three days ago, she had already recalled almost everything.
The man’s gaze traced the contours of her face, his voice growing even softer, as if coaxing a younger sister who had made a mistake, telling her not to be afraid. “She loved daisies most when she was little.”
“Her hair clips were shaped like daisies, her notebooks were covered in daisy patterns, and she even made a bracelet herself using daisy flowers. Unfortunately, it fell apart shortly after she wore it.”
“She came to me with a tearful face, saying, ‘Brother Si Du, I really want a bracelet.'”
Tang Li unconsciously followed the man’s description into her memories, her fearful expression softening slightly.
Si Du stared at her intently. “So, the first money I ever earned was spent buying her a bracelet. She was overjoyed, wearing it during the day and placing it beside her little bear lamp at night.”
“Tell me, wasn’t she adorable?”
The girl nodded instinctively, then suddenly remembered something, her face turning deathly pale.
The man closed in on her, layers of cruelty and malice surfacing in his eyes as he raised his hand to grip the girl’s slender neck. “But everyone who knew about these things is dead.”
“No one knew she ever had a Daisy Bracelet.”
“Who exactly are you? Where did you get this bracelet?”
Si Du’s shirt collar was slightly open, revealing a flash of silver beneath it.
It was a necklace.
Tang Li didn’t dare look closely.
Because inside the necklace pendant was some of “her” ashes.
In this world’s storyline, her role was that of a gentle, sickly beauty from Jiangnan, the coveted rose of Moon City.
Countless people dreamed of being with her, but in the plot she was merely cannon fodder, spending most of her appearances convalescing before ultimately dying of weakness at twenty.
When she died, Si Du was still abroad. At that time, he hadn’t yet developed into the later-stage antagonist. She died in the arms of the world’s male lead.
Even in death, she had to follow the plot by urging the male lead to treat the female lead well and stop using the female lead as her substitute.
But how Si Du managed to reclaim her body and ashes, and how he survived – Tang Li didn’t know.
She didn’t dare to know.
The girl remained silent, at a loss for words.
No possible answer would satisfy Si Du.
Because the Daisy Bracelet had been lost long ago, and besides her and Si Du, no one else knew about it.
The pressure on her neck gradually intensified as Si Du’s face twisted with heartbreaking, poignant madness. “Where exactly did you get it?”
Tang Li closed her eyes, struggling to breathe, her exquisite face flushing crimson.
She couldn’t speak – perhaps death would allow her to reconnect with the System.
The heat in the man’s eyes slowly faded, replaced by abyssal coldness, as if he truly intended to let the girl perish in his hands.
Just as Tang Li was suffering, the pressure on her neck suddenly released. The man collapsed unconscious into her arms, and they both fell into the flower bushes.
[Little Lychee, are you okay!]
The System’s voice abruptly sounded in her mind.
The girl froze for a moment, then her eyes rapidly reddened as she burst into tears. “Waaah… you, why did you take so long to come…”
System 78 hurriedly comforted her, [There there, don’t cry. It’s okay, I’m here now, don’t be afraid.]
“So what exactly happened? How did I return to the first world?” Tang Li asked through sobs, struggling to contain her crying.
78 fell silent for a moment before sighing.
[Bad news, the five worlds you traveled through have successively had characters awaken with individual consciousness.]
[They… have all turned dark like Si Du.]
[Now those five worlds have completely collapsed, and the awakened consciousness is so strong it’s affecting headquarters. If we can’t resolve this, I’m afraid we won’t be able to leave.]