The twisting gray whirlwind darkened as drifting toxic mist was swallowed and concealed within the gale, blotting out the vision of everyone trapped inside.

Silver bullets sliced past Bai Liu’s ears.

With the Ace of Hearts clenched between his teeth, Bai Liu let the black tornado lift him from the ground. Gripping his whip, he pulled himself toward Qi Yifang at the other end of the storm.

Qi Yifang’s mental value had already fallen too low, and after being struck by the Little Witch’s poisonous mist, he had completely lost consciousness. His limbs hung limply in the raging wind, spread apart like a corpse suspended in midair, showing no intention of resisting the tornado he himself had created.

But Qi Yifang would not die.

Liu Jiayi had no intention of killing these former teammates she had once cleared games alongside. Every one of them was around S-rank in strength. Their defenses were high enough that the poisonous mist alone would not kill them so easily.

Still, under the effects of the poison, bodily stiffness and loss of mobility were unavoidable.

Following the path of the whip, Bai Liu grabbed Qi Yifang by the ankle. The red heart at the center of the poker card between his lips began spinning strangely. Bai Liu slowly adjusted his position, turning the horizontally floating Qi Yifang upright so he faced him directly.

Qi Yifang stared blankly at Bai Liu with unfocused eyes.

The red heart at the center of the Hearts skill card spun faster and faster.

Bai Liu fed the antidote into Qi Yifang’s mouth.

Qi Yifang choked violently, coughing several times as he swallowed both the antidote and the rushing wind. His mental value was too low, and the poison had thrown his thoughts into complete chaos. He could no longer understand what was happening around him. Only the familiar taste of the antidote triggered a faint instinctive reaction in his body.

His fingers twitched weakly, as though trying to grab the person feeding him the medicine.

But in the end, he did not even have the strength to raise his hand.

Qi Yifang’s eyes reddened.

In a powerless, hoarse voice, he murmured:

“...I’m sorry, Little Witch...”

—I couldn’t protect you.

—I ended up making you save me again.

...I came to bring you back to the guild, but it seems I failed.

...Looks like you found somewhere better to belong.

Inside the rotating heart at the center of the poker card, a human silhouette slowly emerged.

At the same time, Bai Liu’s limbs rapidly became thinner and more slender.

His originally short, fragmented black hair lengthened behind his neck. His clothes transformed into a deep black gauze chemise wreathed in mist. Even his calm black eyes turned cloudy gray, opaque and hazy like badly polished frosted glass.

Within the storm, Bai Liu became Liu Jiayi.

The gray-black haze of poison covering Qi Yifang’s face gradually faded after the antidote took effect.

Slowly, he closed his eyes.

The bizarre tornado subsided along with that motion.

As the violent wind finally died down, everyone caught inside it crashed back onto the ground.

Tang Erda, poisoned as well, staggered as he forced himself upright. He immediately raised his gun, searching for Bai Liu’s shadow.

The other two members of the King’s Guild looked even worse. Their complexions had turned greenish-black from the poison, and the moment they landed, both dropped to their knees, unable to stand steadily.

Qi Yifang’s condition was the worst of all.

The instant he hit the ground, he sprawled out and began vomiting uncontrollably.

Even though the poisoned status had already been removed, and logically his debuffs should have been lighter than the others’.

But Qi Yifang suffered from “wind sickness.”

That’s right.

Even though he was a controller and user of wind, he got motion sickness from wind itself.

Whenever he used this kind of high-speed rotational storm, all it took was a few spins before he came down vomiting bile.

This was also the reason his skill level and panel stats were consistently excellent, yet he remained only a reserve member of the King’s Guild rather than an official combat member—

Qi Yifang simply had no way to properly use his own abilities.

Not far away sat two figures wrapped in black outer robes.

They should have been Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi.

Tang Erda stepped forward cautiously and used the muzzle of his gun to lift the oversized robes covering the motionless figures.

Two identical little-girl faces appeared beneath them.

Both looked up at him innocently.

Qi Yifang’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at the two Liu Jiayis before him.

Tang Erda tightened his grip on the gun, his expression turning frighteningly dark.

He had been played.

Inside the tornado, he should never have hesitated because of the ten-minute cooldown after activating his firearm’s explosive skill. He should have used [Russian Roulette] immediately and killed Bai Liu on the spot.

Now Tang Erda finally understood Bai Liu’s plan.

Bai Liu knew perfectly well that after entering the game Rose Factory, Tang Erda would never truly try to kill him inside the game.

Because Tang Erda needed Bai Liu alive.

He needed Bai Liu to reveal the method for solving the Dried Rose problem.

Tang Erda firmly believed Bai Liu already knew the clear method for obtaining the crucial item tied to the Dried Rose issue.

Since the solution was right in front of him, Tang Erda’s primary objective had never been to kill Bai Liu.

It was to restrain and control him.

And he had even less intention of harming Liu Jiayi.

In other words, Tang Erda had never planned to attack Liu Jiayi in the first place. Pointing the gun at her earlier had only been a method of forcing Bai Liu to reveal himself.

But Liu Jiayi’s deliberate “framing” had forced Tang Erda into taking the blame for “attacking the Little Witch without reason.” Combined with Bai Liu’s follow-up maneuvers, Tang Erda had been pushed entirely into a passive position.

And now—

Bai Liu had transformed himself into Liu Jiayi.

Under circumstances where nobody could distinguish the real one from the fake one, and where Tang Erda, as a Hunter, might accidentally kill the genuine Liu Jiayi, the other three members of the King’s Guild would absolutely risk their lives to stop him from touching either of them.

With one sudden tornado, Bai Liu had completely overturned everyone’s positions.

The other three had been forcibly shifted onto Bai Liu’s side.

The situation was no longer Bai Liu alone against four opponents.

It had become Tang Erda alone against five people.

Tang Erda’s face was pale from the poison. His fingers clenched so tightly around the gun that it seemed he might grind his teeth to pieces.

...There was almost no room left to maneuver.

One against five was not unwinnable. If he truly fought to the death, Tang Erda could still kill everyone here.

But he did not want to.

And he refused to slaughter innocent people.

He had pursued Bai Liu in order to save others. Killing these three ordinary King’s Guild players—people who had merely been dragged into Bai Liu’s schemes—was not something he could accept.

From the beginning, Tang Erda had never wanted their involvement.

He had preferred to shoulder everything himself rather than drag unrelated people into something connected to Bai Six.

Yet ironically, his actions had only pushed these three players—who had originally cooperated with him and even felt some goodwill toward him after last night—directly onto Bai Liu’s side.

It was not the outcome he wanted.

But Tang Erda was already used to such situations.

Ever since realizing he was merely a Hunter toyed with by gods—gradually transforming into a monster that brought disaster to everyone around him—he had ruthlessly severed all human connections.

The only things left around him were monsters.

Tang Erda raised his head.

His brow ridge was low and heavy. When his eyes narrowed onto someone, the pressure they gave off resembled a wolf locking onto prey.

Once, he truly had been an alpha wolf leading a pack into battle.

No subordinate had ever doubted him.

No companion had ever betrayed him.

He had always been the best soldier, the best commander—the one who tore apart the most enemies with his own teeth.

But Bai Six had forced Tang Erda to abandon all of it.

Forced him to abandon his identity.

Forced him to betray his team.

Forced him to give up even his right to remain human, all for the sake of defeating Bai Six.

Now, Tang Erda was merely a vicious, dying wolf trying to do one final thing for the pack before collapsing.

Qi Yifang and the other two King’s Guild members stood protectively between Tang Erda and the two Liu Jiayis.

Although they still had no idea which one was real, the genuine Liu Jiayi had to be among them.

They absolutely could not allow this hunter to shoot the Little Witch again.

The memory of Liu Jiayi nearly dying beneath Tang Erda’s sudden gunshot moments earlier still terrified them.

These three players had entered the game under orders to bring the Little Witch back to the guild.

Now they guarded the two Liu Jiayis with absolute vigilance, staring warily at Tang Erda’s dark, silent figure.

Tang Erda’s faintly glowing blue eyes remained fixed on “Liu Jiayi.”

But in the end, he never raised his gun toward the three people blocking his path.

Perhaps this was the final boundary separating him from becoming a complete monster.

Behind them, the two “Liu Jiayis” exchanged a glance.

At the exact same moment, both revealed nearly identical subtle smiles.

It seemed that although Mr. Hunter’s brain wasn’t particularly flexible, he truly was a good person.

The sort of person everyone liked most—

good people, bad people, ordinary people alike.

And the moral concessions Tang Erda made simply because he was “a good person” had conveniently given Bai Liu ample room to operate.

After Tang Erda silently turned away and retreated to a safer distance, Qi Yifang finally used perfume supplied by his teammate to restore his mental value. Then he collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily alongside the others.

His heart still pounded with lingering fear.

A moment ago, he had genuinely believed Tang Erda was about to raise his gun and kill all five of them together.

Only after the storm had fully subsided did the trembling weighing processor dare emerge carrying bags of roses.

He stared at the two identical Liu Jiayis in utter confusion before speaking cautiously.

“There are only 360 kilograms of roses... only enough for one person to remain here as a processor. So... whose roses are these?”

His words immediately drew everyone’s attention.

Even Tang Erda lifted his eyes from afar.

Liu Jiayi had only brought 360 kilograms of dried rose petals.

As for Bai Liu, he had entered directly through a flash transfer without carrying anything at all.

Since 360 kilograms was enough for only one processor, if Bai Liu could not produce additional roses, then one of the two Liu Jiayis would inevitably be demoted to flower picker.

Naturally, Qi Yifang and the others had no intention of letting Liu Jiayi be demoted.

All three stared intently at the pair before them, trying to identify the fake.

First, they used detection items.

But they quickly discovered that Bai Liu’s disguise was so perfect that nearly every detection item failed completely.

Qi Yifang frowned deeply.

Aside from the Queen’s abilities, he had never heard of disguise skills advanced enough to deceive all detection items.

None of these reserve members knew that the Queen of Hearts favored the Little Witch enough to hand over even her own skill poker cards.

Very few people within the guild even knew Liu Jiayi possessed the Queen of Hearts’ Hearts card.

Still, the three quickly calmed down.

After all, they had played alongside the Little Witch many times before.

Qi Yifang had even participated in training matches with her as a reserve member.

Even if Bai Liu copied Liu Jiayi’s appearance perfectly, they believed they could still identify the real one through habits, gestures, and behavior.

Imitating Liu Jiayi in front of people familiar with her would not be easy.

Tang Erda thought the same thing.

He focused sharply on the two Liu Jiayis standing before him like mirrored reflections.

He might not know Liu Jiayi particularly well—

but he knew Bai Liu extremely well.

As long as one of them revealed even the slightest trace of Bai Liu’s habits, speech patterns, or body language, Tang Erda would identify him immediately.

But very quickly—

everyone’s expressions froze.

The way the two Liu Jiayis stood up.

The tiny angle of their tilted heads.

The movements they used to dust off their clothes and straighten their collars and cuffs.

Every single motion was perfectly identical.

And more importantly—

none of those movements resembled Liu Jiayi’s normal habits at all.

They looked more like the polished gestures of a man in his twenties accustomed to wearing suits and paying attention to his appearance.

Not the movements of an eight-year-old girl.

The three King’s Guild members had not guessed incorrectly.

Bai Liu truly was terrible at imitating little girls.

He had not known Liu Jiayi long enough to flawlessly reproduce all of her habits and mannerisms.

But for Liu Jiayi—

a successor personally cultivated by the Queen of Hearts, whose specialty was imitation—

copying Bai Liu’s behavior was effortless.

She herself excelled at acting and deception, and she was currently at the ideal age for absorbing new skills.

This clever little girl could imitate Bai Liu perfectly.

In other words, both sides had arrived at the worst possible situation.

These were not two Liu Jiayis.

They were two Bai Lius wearing Liu Jiayi’s face.

And nobody could tell them apart.

—

Author’s Note:

My bestie: This totally counts as father-daughter resemblance, right? Seriously, anyone who sees them would think they’re family.

Me: Yeah.

My bestie: +1 is learning bad things way too fast. Ever since she started following 6 around, he hasn’t taught her a single normal thing. Stealing, slacking off, tricking teammates... I’m genuinely worried about this child’s future. When is the other guardian finally showing up to fix her developmental trajectory?

Me: ...

Current educational curriculum for the Little Witch after being jointly raised by the Queen of Hearts and Bai Liu:

Subjects taught by the Queen of Hearts:

Acting, disguise, combat techniques, compulsory education basics, selective higher education °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° knowledge, identifying weaknesses in human psychology, advanced game-clearing strategies, tactical theory, Thick Black Theory, The Prince...

Subjects taught by Bai Liu:

Slacking off, exploiting child labor, secretly stealing coworkers’ achievements, betraying teammates...

Question for everyone:

Which guardian would you trust with your child?

Liu Huai:

Right now, all I feel is regret.

So much regret.