Beside the rose fields, Liu Jiayi collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion after spending hours requisitioning an enormous quantity of dried rose leaves. Panting heavily, she pulled out a stamina recovery potion and drank it in one go.

This damned rose material couldn’t even be stored inside spatial items. Everything had to be transported manually.

She had worked alone for three straight hours before finally managing to secure enough stock: 720 kilograms of dried rose leaves. Aside from the 480 kilograms required for their two-day processing quota, they still had 240 kilograms left over—enough to exchange for four bottles of mid-grade perfume.

Liu Jiayi had already checked the payroll records. Mid-grade rose perfume referred to perfume with a concentration between fifty and eighty percent, capable of maintaining its effect for twelve hours.

The duration tripled.

If they could obtain that many bottles of mid-grade perfume, they would be able to restore the sanity of far more refugees and recruit them to their side.

But first, they had to successfully process all these dried rose leaves.

After finishing the potion, Liu Jiayi wiped her mouth and rose to her feet. The moment she turned around, she noticed a group of refugees standing behind her.

Bai Liu stood at the front of the group.

The refugees behind him looked filthy and miserable, huddled together with obvious restraint as they bowed slightly toward Liu Jiayi in greeting.

People like Liu Jiayi—employees of the Rose Factory—even inspired instinctive fear in refugees, despite the fact that she looked like nothing more than a child.

“These are the refugees I found who are relatively familiar with processing work.” Bai Liu stepped aside slightly, revealing the people behind him. “Some of them used to work in the Rose Factory before they were pushed out and dismissed.”

At Bai Liu’s signal, the refugees cautiously gathered their courage, stepped forward, and squatted down to begin processing the roses scattered across the ground.

These people worked with astonishing efficiency. The moment they entered a working state, they became completely absorbed in the task. At first, they avoided Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi somewhat nervously, but as time passed, they gradually relaxed.

The mountain-like piles of roses were quickly sorted and spread into even layers suitable for drying.

These laid-off workers had been honed by years of brutal, high-intensity labor. Their efficiency was far beyond what amateurs like Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi could compare to. Unlike others who relied on hunting refugees and stealing roses to climb the ranks, these workers had earned promotions purely through speed and skill.

Some of the experienced processors sorted roses almost as fast as machines.

Originally, Liu Jiayi had planned to join them and help work, but after she stepped in, the refugees became visibly tense and fearful, terrified that their dirty hands might brush against her. Their rhythm immediately fell apart.

In the end, she had no choice but to withdraw.

As for Bai Liu, after bringing the refugees over, he simply found a place far from the roses and sat down leisurely to rest, making no attempt whatsoever to help.

Surprisingly, Liu Jiayi didn’t mock him for slacking off.

Instead, she felt a complicated heaviness settle in her chest.

Bai Liu had handed over most of the perfume to the refugees and to her. He genuinely needed to stay away from the dried rose leaves as much as possible to prevent his mental corruption from worsening too quickly.

But in a dungeon where perfume was the only means of restoring sanity, Bai Liu—the person with the lowest mental value among them—was also the one carrying the greatest risk.

Though he himself didn’t seem remotely concerned about it.

After the roses were sorted, the refugees led Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi to a hidden drying location they used in the past, a place with excellent sunlight exposure. They carefully spread the roses out in neat rows.

Before leaving, they nodded toward Bai Liu and the others, saying that if they were needed tomorrow, they would return to help again.

Then they departed quickly.

After all, prolonged exposure to the roses would rapidly weaken the effects of their perfume.

“Drying requires twelve hours of sunlight and twelve hours of moonlight.” Liu Jiayi checked the time. “By the time they’re done drying, it’ll be noon tomorrow. That should be staggered from when the others go to weigh their roses.”

Then she looked up at Bai Liu.

“But I’m guessing they’ll wait for you.”

“So,” she asked calmly, “what are you planning to do then?”

Bai Liu smiled.

“Let them catch me,” he said lightly.

“But make them unwilling to kill me.”

————————————————

The following day at noon, the weighing station near the North Gate entrance of the rose fields.

Qi Yifang and the others had already completed their weighing process and were now standing nearby with crossed arms, silently waiting.

Tang Erda leaned casually against the entrance with a sack slung over one shoulder. Judging from the faint shadows beneath his eyes, he clearly hadn’t slept all night, yet his expression remained sharp and alert.

His dried rose leaves were still being weighed, but the processor responsible for the task was beginning to look increasingly stiff.

To minimize error, the weighing process was conducted in five-kilogram increments. A massive pile of weighed rose leaves had already accumulated beside the processor’s feet.

“715 kilograms... 720 kilograms... 735 kilograms...” The processor drew in a breath and stared at Tang Erda in disbelief. “Are you seriously planning to process this much at once? If your later drying stages fail and the roses spoil or grow moldy, you’ll be fined heavily!”

Tang Erda handed over the final sack beside him.

“They won’t spoil,” he replied flatly. “Just weigh them.”

Qi Yifang’s expression grew complicated, tinged with bitterness.

The three of them had even used their abilities, yet they had only managed to dry around a hundred kilograms more ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) than Tang Erda.

What exactly did this man do in real life?

Was he some kind of professional rose cultivator?

Why was he this terrifyingly skilled at this?

Once Tang Erda finished weighing, the processor moved on to the remaining workers. After completing registration, the other processors quickly entered the factory to continue the next drying stages.

But just as Liu Jiayi had predicted, neither Qi Yifang nor Tang Erda’s group left.

Instead, they remained standing nearby.

Their eyes stayed fixed on the direction of the rose fields.

Waiting for Bai Liu.

The sunlight gradually tilted westward. It was now one in the afternoon, the hottest and brightest hour beneath the blazing May sun. Most processors had already completed weighing and gone back to work.

Even the weighing processor was beginning to pack up and leave.

At that moment, two figures finally appeared in the distance.

One tall. One short.

They dragged a creaking trolley loaded with sacks behind them.

The rising heat distorted their silhouettes in the distance, making them appear blurred and wavering, but everyone’s attention instantly locked onto them.

Qi Yifang lowered his folded arms and gripped the wind vane seriously in his hand.

Tang Erda straightened from where he had been resting with his eyes closed. The faint haze in his gaze disappeared instantly, replaced by cold, razor-sharp focus.

His hand slid down his trouser leg.

A revolver silently appeared in his right hand.

With a click, he cocked the hammer.

The two approaching figures advanced neither quickly nor slowly. The old trolley groaned beneath the weight of the sacks.

Before they even reached the weighing station, Tang Erda had already raised his handgun, while the wind vane in Qi Yifang’s hand began to rotate rapidly.

Then both of them froze.

Because although one of the approaching figures was Liu Jiayi—

the other was not Bai Liu.

It was merely an ordinary refugee.

The refugee appeared to have been hired by Liu Jiayi using perfume in exchange for transporting the roses. After helping her move the cargo to the weighing station, he nodded gratefully toward her. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Liu Jiayi sprayed a burst of perfume across his face.

Tears instantly welled in the refugee’s eyes as he thanked her repeatedly before hurrying away.

“Where is Bai Liu?” Tang Erda pointed the gun directly at Liu Jiayi’s forehead, his voice icy. “Why didn’t he come personally?”

Liu Jiayi acted as though she hadn’t even noticed the weapon aimed at her face.

After handing the trolley of dried roses over to the processor, she turned around and looked up at Tang Erda with complete innocence.

“What Bai Liu?” she asked blankly. “I didn’t enter the game with him. I haven’t even seen him since arriving here. I gathered and dried all these roses myself, so naturally they’re registered under my name.”

She tilted her head.

“What does that have to do with him?”

Tang Erda’s brows tightened deeply, but the gun never lowered.

...Something was wrong.

If Bai Liu truly separated from Liu Jiayi and acted alone, then without personally registering dried rose leaves under his own name, he would be unable to proceed into the later processing stages.

For a processor, failing to register raw materials was fatal.

If Bai Liu missed registration today, then within at most two days, he would fail to submit processed rose leaves and would immediately be demoted back into a flower picker.

Qi Yifang nearly dropped the wind vane in fright when he saw Tang Erda aim a gun at Liu Jiayi without hesitation.

—This wasn’t what they agreed on, Mr. Hunter!

Didn’t you say you wouldn’t use force against the Little Witch?!

That used to be my goddess... and now she’s basically my daughter!

The person who saved my life!

Qi Yifang’s scalp went numb. Heart pounding violently, he hurriedly stepped between Tang Erda and Liu Jiayi.

He raised both hands carefully to show he had no intention of attacking, but his eyes never left the gun in Tang Erda’s hand.

“...Mr. Hunter, our enemy right now is Bai Liu. We should stay united for the time being. The Little Witch is only eight years old. There’s a very high chance she was deceived by Bai Liu as well.”

Cold sweat covered Qi Yifang’s forehead.

Using two fingers, he cautiously tried to push the muzzle away.

Tang Erda merely swept him with a heavy glance.

The revolver spun dazzlingly through his fingers, slipping past Qi Yifang’s block with terrifying smoothness before once again aiming directly at the center of Liu Jiayi’s forehead.

Tang Erda’s right hand moved beneath Qi Yifang’s arm so quickly it was nearly invisible.

The muzzle remained perfectly steady.

“I never promised outside the game that I wouldn’t harm Liu Jiayi,” Tang Erda said quietly.

He lifted those deep blue eyes, dark enough to appear almost black.

Within them, the blooming roses resembled pools of coagulating blood spreading endlessly through darkness.

“I only promised to work with you to kill Bai Liu.”