88: Chapter 87 S-Rank Item [Cain's Sanctuary]: Saved the Strategist, Killed the Assassin

Two more years passed.

Pei Duo was twenty-seven.

Life felt like an RPG game that had its 'Auto-Navigate' mode forcibly enabled.

Her parents' campaign to push her into marriage had evolved from subtle hints like, 'Old Wang next door just had a grandchild,' to blatant, 'Meet me at Starbucks this Saturday at three PM.'

Every weekend, she sat in the corner of a coffee shop like a programmed NPC, facing a rotation of different men.

Civil servants, university lecturers, dentists, or P7 engineers from some major tech company.

They spoke politely, their hairlines were worrying, they talked about provident fund loan interest rates, and constantly debated school district boundaries, their every word calculating how to achieve the 'Optimal Solution for Family Asset Allocation.'

"Miss Pei, I think we are very compatible."

The man opposite pushed up his glasses, which were as thick as bulletproof glass, revealing a smile he thought was steady: "You have a good temperament, your job at the state-owned enterprise is stable, and most importantly... you're very docile. In this society today, finding a woman who will settle down is harder than winning the lottery."

Docile.

The word pierced Pei Duo's temple like a steel needle, throbbing painfully.

She forced out a standard, professional fake smile. Then, while the man was looking down at his phone app to snatch a '5 Yuan off for every 100 spent' coupon, her gaze drifted blankly out the window.

Outside, traffic was heavy and congested.

Yet, she inexplicably thought of Xibalba, with its ground littered with gold coins and heads kicked around like soccer balls, and she thought of Mictlan's Styx River, where a single drop would cause the soul to rot away.

Back then, even her breath carried the scent of blood.

But back then, she felt like the shell she inhabited contained a living person.

Now, she was like a canary meticulously raised in a bulletproof glass case, even the sound of her voice tamed by societal rules into pleasant background music.

A self-mocking curve touched Pei Duo's lips as she asked inwardly,

"Brother, is this the life you fought so hard for me to have?"

...

The illusion truly shattered late one night, just before her thirtieth birthday.

The jarring ringtone exploded in the silent bedroom like a death warrant.

Pei Duo groggily reached for her phone. The three characters flashing on the screen instantly evaporated her sleepiness, and her heart skipped a beat.

【Zhao Guobang】.

Director of the Special Operations Bureau. This number had been dormant in her contacts for a full five years, ever since her brother had 'compulsorily logged her out' of the game.

"Hello, Director Zhao?" Pei Duo sat up, her voice tight, her fingers instinctively clutching the bedsheets.

The other end of the line was a long, unsettling silence.

Only heavy breathing crept into Pei Duo's ears through the current.

"Pei Duo..."

Zhao Guobang's voice was aged as if his spirit had been drained overnight, carrying an undisguised hoarseness and fatigue: "Xu Mo is back."

"It was the Japanese Pantheon's 'Yomi Country' instance."

Zhao Guobang cut her off, his tone heavy as if reading a death sentence: "The other side set a trap, deploying three divine attendants of 'Izanami.' That was a hunting trap aimed at high-level Chinese players."

"Lin Sa... to buy Xu Mo those few seconds needed to activate the teleportation array, she detonated every S-Rank item she possessed, overdrawing the energy core of her prosthetic limb."

"She remained in the Yomotsu Hirasaka and couldn't get out."

Boom—!

Pei Duo felt something collapse in her mind.

The ringing in her ears was as sharp as an air-raid siren. Her mouth opened, but not a single sound came out; only tears fell silently like broken beads onto her pajamas.

That woman who would tremble if her steak was too rare, yet fought covered in blood in the instance.

Dead?

Really dead?

"How did Xu Mo survive?" Pei Duo heard her own voice, frighteningly calm, as if her soul had left her body and was floating down from the ceiling.

"Because of a scroll."

Zhao Guobang's voice held an inexpressible sigh, "A yellowed, inconspicuous parchment scroll—the S-Rank item [Cain's Refuge]. Its effect: grants 3 seconds of absolute invincibility after use."

"Xu Mo said you shoved it into his hands back in the Midnight Mansion."

Beep—beep—beep—

The call disconnected.

The busy signal echoed in the late-night room, like a dull knife, slicing at Pei Duo's nerves, bit by bit.

Pei Duo remained frozen in the posture of holding the phone, her entire body like a weathered stone statue.

[Cain's Refuge].

The floodgates of memory burst open. That was a life-saving divine artifact she had extorted from the Vampire Count, relying on the backing of the Great Emperor of Fengdu.

At the time, she felt that with her brother, the 'strongest cheat in the entire server,' she wouldn't need such a thing, so she casually handed it over to Xu Mo to protect the strategist, who had the most fragile body.

Five years later, this trump card took effect in a foreign land's underworld. It saved the strategist's life, but it also sealed Lin Sa's fate.

If she were still around... If she hadn't quit... If she still held that black jade pendant...

Would Lin Sa not have to die?

Was it because she, Pei Duo, was hiding in the air-raid shelter named 'Ordinary' and enjoying peaceful years that Lin Sa had to die?

...

On her thirtieth birthday.

The living room of the Pei residence was filled with flowers, specially arranged by her parents through a wedding company, so festive it was almost excessive.

The number '30' candles stood on the cake. The flickering flames illuminated everyone's happy faces.

"Come on, make a wish, make a wish!" Mother Pei clapped her hands, her smile making the wrinkles on her face bloom, "Wish my daughter peace and safety every year, and settle down soon. Then my heart condition will be cured!"

Pei Duo looked at the dancing flames and smiled faintly.

She took a deep breath and blew out the candles.

"Peace and safety every year."

She recited the four words silently, only feeling the taste of blood in her mouth.

Late at night, after removing her makeup.

Pei Duo sat in front of her vanity, looking at the woman in the mirror.

Her skin was meticulously cared for, smooth and delicate; there were no fine lines around her eyes. Her gaze was as gentle as stagnant water, devoid of any ferocity.

A practiced, proper smile hung on her lips, so ingrained it had become almost semi-permanent, like tattooed eyebrows.

This was a perfect, happy Pei Duo that satisfied everyone.

But she was just an exquisite shell.

The soul that won the divine battle in Mictlan, the crazy girl who blinded evil spirits in Xibalba, seemed to have rotted away in that distant, cold Yomi Country along with Lin Sa.

She pulled open the bottom drawer of her desk.

Inside lay a long-yellowed photograph—a group shot taken in front of an altar after clearing the Aztec instance back then.

In the photo, Xu Mo, pushing up his gold-rimmed glasses, smiled like a refined scoundrel. Lin Sa was wiping bloodstains from her dagger, her gaze sharp and cold.

And she herself—her eyes shone like stars, filled with an unstoppable wildness.

Now.

That knife was broken.

The person wiping the knife was gone.

And the person whose eyes held light was slowly dying, rotting away in this soft nest.

Pei Duo's fingers gently stroked Lin Sa's face in the photo; her fingertips were frighteningly cold. Her gaze slowly shifted to the locked safe beside it.

Inside that safe was locked a worthless piece of rock worth two yuan.

It also locked away her last shred of backbone and fighting spirit.

In the dead of this stagnant, quiet night, an unstoppable madness, a desire to tear this false tranquility apart, sprouted for the first time in the mind of this 'good daughter,' growing wildly like weeds and instantly spreading everywhere.

She looked at the docile self in the mirror and suddenly revealed a grim, meaningful smile.

"Pei Duo, this peaceful path paved with your friend's bones..."

"Don't your feet burn stepping on it?"