The silver luxury sedan drove along the overpasses of Jialesi. Countless headlights shuttled across the city sky along the viaducts like a swarm of fireflies bound to tracks. Neon-lit skyscrapers towered above the ground like colossal lanterns illuminating the snowflakes drifting through the night sky.
Coming off the bridge, they encountered a toll booth. The car window rolled down slowly, and a card was handed out from inside. The attendant took the card, swiped it, and glanced at the suspect list posted on the adjacent wall. Looking down into the car, the worker was instantly captivated: the driver in the front seat was an elegant, graceful blond young woman. Over a navy trench coat, she wore a black velvet shawl, exuding the natural nobility of high aristocracy. Her slender fingers, clad in black velvet gloves, lightly tapped the steering wheel, showing she was in a good mood.
She didn't match the suspect list at all. Returning the card, the attendant smiled. "May the stars bless you."
The blond young woman nodded with a smile and rolled up the opaque window. The silver sedan melted back into the flow of traffic.
In the back seat, Sonia nestled against Yaxiu as they watched a show together, her blood-red hair tickling him. Although cuddling the Sword Princess while whiling away the hours watching a show was a wonderful choice, Yaxiu had a small matter to attend to first.
Opening Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook, a message immediately popped up: "Operator training has concluded. Please review the growth report and set this week's training policy as soon as possible."
Yaxiu hadn't expected the system to still be running. In truth, ever since he learned that his meeting with the Sword Princess and the other three was not a gameplay coincidence but a destined inevitability, he had realized that this game system was merely a medium used by the Final Five to guide them.
*No wonder—why would someone from live-ops cross over with a game? A live-ops dev's job isn't playing the game, but playing the players...*
Now that Dead Frenzy had confessed the truth and bared her fangs at them, Yaxiu had assumed that even if Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook didn't vanish, it would at least stop updating. After all, the whole point of this system was to induce Yaxiu to collect and properly cultivate the four operators while keeping the Final Five hidden.
Yet Yaxiu had already met Dead Frenzy face-to-face, and their existence was completely exposed. If there was anything to say, they could just say it directly; why bother using a system to guide him? It couldn't be that the Final Observer was another riddler who talked in endless circles, could it?
It was as bizarre as a long-distance couple finally meeting in person, only to refuse to talk face-to-face and insist on sending emojis online instead.
However, when Yaxiu saw the detailed contents of the report, his expression grew serious.
"Dead Frenzy Sword Princess Growth Report (10.17–3.27)"
"Bond Level: 4 (75% EXP Shared)"
"Swordsmanship Faction: Sanctuary → Demigod"
"Water Sorcery Faction: Gold → Legendary"
"Space Faction: Gold → Sanctuary"
"Light Sorcery Faction: Silver → Gold"
"Time Faction: Gold → Gold"
"Sorcery Power: Legendary Zero-Wing → Demigod Zero-Wing"
"Training Rating: SSS!"
"Because of achieving an SSS-rank rating, Dead Frenzy Sword Princess has gained the Sorcerer Handbook's class enhancement: Dead Frenzy!"
"Dead Frenzy · Ultimate Trait: Gradually unlocks three traits as personality alignment shifts."
[Possessiveness: Every effective attack leaves contaminated sorcery power within the target's body. The contaminated sorcery power will continuously torment the target's soul, causing the sorcery spirits they possess to fall into madness, actively rebel, or destroy themselves.]
[Malice: When you launch an attack, regardless of whether the attack is effective, makes contact, or inflicts damage, the target you lock onto will suffer direct soul-shock damage. If the target has contaminated sorcery power within their body, the contaminated sorcery power will experience explosive growth.]
[Weeping: When your mood is down, you will gain a layer of Weeping Cloak, up to a maximum of seven layers. Each layer provides various resistances, attack speed, casting speed, and a damage barrier. The Weeping Cloak inflicts a burn effect and accelerates the growth of contaminated sorcery power within its range.]
"Because sorcery power has increased, Dead Frenzy Sword Princess's talent has strengthened!"
"Because of achieving an SSS-rank rating, Dead Frenzy Sword Princess has received the class evaluation quest: 'Dead Frenzy'!"
"'Dead Frenzy': No time limit. When personality alignment shifts to the critical point and all traits are unlocked, the Dead Frenzy class traits can be permanently solidified. Current progress: (1/3)."
Yaxiu wasn't surprised that the Sword Princess's bond level was still Level 4. Their ability to raise the bond level to Level 5 or even Level 6 during the Hell Trial had relied entirely on the temporary boost provided by the Final Five; now that the Hell Trial was over, the bond naturally reverted.
However, after all the adventures he, the Sword Princess, and the Witch had gone through in the past, their bond had reached Level 4 long ago. Yaxiu had once wondered whether they had to engage in the most intimate acts of lovers to unlock Level 5. But what if he was a pure-love devotee... wait, he had always been a pure-love devotee... what if he made up his mind to only love one person? Wouldn't that mean none of the others could ever unlock Level 5?
In fact, a more likely scenario was: if nobody liked him, wouldn't he be unable to unlock Level 5 forever?
Now, however, Yaxiu understood: it wasn't that only lovers could unlock Level 5, but rather that only Sorcery Supremes could. The imaginary wing sharing unlocked at Level 5 was an authority that neither demigods nor archons could ever grasp; it was an ultimate secret art invented entirely by the Final Five—those Sorcery Supremes from the end of the century.
As for the Sword Princess's Demigod swordsmanship, Yaxiu felt it was heavily inflated.
Before the Hell Trial, her swordsmanship had been Legendary at most, hardly anywhere near the edge of Demigod. But a mere Legendary realm was incapable of summoning a god. In order to summon the God of Shattered Lake, her swordsmanship faction had been forcefully jacked up to the Demigod realm during the Hell Trial.
So in a sense, one could say Yaxiu had pumped her swordsmanship realm up to Demigod himself. After all...
Her water sorcery advancing to Legendary was unexpected, yet made complete sense. The God of Shattered Lake was clearly a composite god primarily based on swordsmanship and secondarily on water sorcery. In the process of summoning the god, the Sword Princess had naturally deepened her comprehension of water sorcery.
The fact that her space faction had advanced to Sanctuary was probably due to a similar reason.
This was perhaps the most extravagant shortcut to sorcerous advancement in all of history. Usually, sorcerers summoned gods by virtue of deep, long-accumulated sorcerous mastery; only they had improved their understanding of sorcery by summoning a god. The former was like earning an executive position through years of work experience, whereas the latter was being parachuted directly into an executive role and accumulating experience afterward.
What made Yaxiu most nervous right now, however, was naturally the Sword Princess's new class trait: Dead Frenzy! Truth be told, Yaxiu was genuinely tempted when he saw her class traits. Vichy had mentioned before that although the soul body granted demigods immortality, it also stripped away the malleability of mortals. When mortals were injured, miracles could heal their flesh and blood, but if a demigod's soul body was damaged, it might take centuries without ever resolving!
From this, one could see that the three traits of Dead Frenzy were aimed entirely at soul bodies: the contaminated sorcery power produced by [Possessiveness] would steadily gnaw away at an enemy's soul body; [Malice] allowed the Sword Princess to bypass all defenses and directly strike an opponent's soul to trigger the contaminated sorcery power; and [Weeping] combined offense and defense, both protecting her own soul body and further enhancing the might of the contaminated sorcery power!
If the Sword Princess unlocked all three traits, any demigod who fought her in the future would be stripped of a layer of skin even if they didn't die. At the very least, Yaxiu couldn't even imagine how he could ever deal with such a Sword Princess.
*Thank goodness the Sword Princess is in my arms. Scared the life out of me.*
Enticing as these three traits were, Yaxiu harbored no lingering desire for them.
By the time the Sword Princess's personality shifted enough to unlock all three, she wouldn't be far from being replaced by Dead Frenzy.
Rather than a quest, this was more like a warning. As long as Yaxiu did the opposite and prevented the Sword Princess from harboring emotions like [Possessiveness], [Malice], and [Weeping], he could stop her personality from veering toward Dead Frenzy!
Currently, the Sword Princess's progress was at (1/3), clearly having already unlocked the [Possessiveness] trait. But Yaxiu didn't mind. He had never thought of changing her possessiveness—first, because he couldn't, and second, because he couldn't imagine what a Sword Princess without possessiveness would even look like.
He knew full well that she had plenty of flaws: strongly possessive, vindictive, vain, selfish, unable to stand seeing others do well... But he loved her anyway. If someone else had those flaws, it was bad, but when the Sword Princess had them, it was adorable.
Just as the Sword Princess loved him, full of flaws as he was.
Yaxiu adjusted his position, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. Without even turning her head, Sonia shifted into a cozier posture, reclining in his embrace with her hands resting atop his, huddling together for warmth.
"Innate Talent · Sword Princess (Vacant): Easier to summon Four-Wing swordsmanship sorcery spirits; possible to independently hatch new swordsmanship gods; able to actively summon a phantom of the Ruin Resentful Blazing Dragon (talent rank can be unlocked after increasing strength)."
Yaxiu stroked the back of her hand. Her Queen's Mark had not vanished, meaning she could continue to actively summon her guardian spirit. Come to think of it, it was strange: the Sword Princess had the Resentful Blazing Dragon, the Witch had the Bronze Dragon, the Silver Lantern had the Phantom Mirror Dragon, and Vichy had the Dusk Dragon—only he had no guardian spirit.
Even a Fish-Slashing Dragon would be nice!
Complaining silently in his heart, Yaxiu opened the second report.
"Black and White Witch Growth Report (10.17–3.27)"
"Bond Level: 4 (75% EXP Shared)"
"Time Faction: Sanctuary → Demigod"
"Fist and Claw Faction: Sanctuary → Legendary"
"Space Faction: Silver → Legendary"
"Soul Faction: Silver → Sanctuary"
"Mind Faction: Gold → Gold"
"Water Sorcery Faction: Silver → Silver"
"Sorcery Power: Legendary Zero-Wing → Demigod Zero-Wing"
"Training Rating: SSS!"
"Because of achieving an SSS-rank rating, Black and White Witch has gained the Sorcerer Handbook's class enhancement: Black Demon!"
"Black Demon · Class Trait: Gradually unlocks three traits as personality alignment shifts."
[Solitude: You and your avatars share imaginary wing sorcery power, gods and sorcery spirits, sorcery wonders, and sensory information. You and your avatars possess identical spellcasting authorization.]
[Madness: When you and your avatars simultaneously activate miracles, wonders, or divine wonders, your sorcery effects will connect into a unified whole and influence one another, amplifying the resulting effects by 300% to 10,000%.]
[Despair: At the cost of falling into slumber, the avatars' cognitive capacity receives an overclocked enhancement, allowing them to simultaneously activate even more miracles, wonders, and divine wonders.]
"Because sorcery power has increased, Black and White Witch's talent has strengthened!"
"Because of achieving an SSS-rank rating, Black and White Witch has received the class evaluation quest: 'Black Demon'!"
"'Black Demon': No time limit. When personality alignment shifts to the critical point and all traits are unlocked, the Black Demon class traits can be permanently solidified. Current progress: (2/3)."
Yaxiu rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
*Why?! Why has the Sword Princess only unlocked one trait, while the Witch unlocked two?!*
First of all, the Witch had definitely unlocked [Solitude]—it was precisely out of loneliness that she had created the Witch sisters. Second, she certainly hadn't unlocked [Despair]; just last night, she had snuck into Yaxiu's tent to sleep, only for Yaxiu to wake up in the morning to find he'd been kicked out of bed. She was bursting with vitality every single day.
Which meant the extra trait the Witch had unlocked could only be [Madness].
Yet the craziest thing the Witch had done lately seemed to be...
Yaxiu hastily shook the terrifying thought from his head. *Impossible! Absolutely impossible! There's no way it's because of me!*
Sonia nudged him with her elbow, signaling for her "pillow" to stop fidgeting. Raising an eyebrow, she glanced at the rearview mirror up front, prompting Yaxiu's arms to hold her a little tighter.
Chapter 1044