Chapter 298: [Unswerving Devotion] A Supplementary Story
“If we go by what you’re saying, shouldn’t those be your props or skills? Did you know that it was only after your prop appeared that the two worlds merged?”
The players didn’t get led astray by Bai Cha right away either.
“That indeed was left behind by me, but it wouldn’t have emerged without someone triggering it. My System Panel is still unusable to this moment, and before the worlds merged, my powers were sealed as well.”
These words left everyone taken aback.
“Sealed?”
“Probably because I’m single.”
The players fell into thought. Bai Cha’s line was indeed different from theirs.
Besides, the players weren’t together at all times; they had only gathered after trouble broke out, having formed pairs before that.
“On our end, it was mainly… the two paired players had to face various trials, which were quite dangerous. When those NPCs took action, they all turned into specters that couldn’t be killed.”
He Li explained briefly.
“After pairing up, a progress indicator pops up with five hearts total. So long as all of them are lit, you can get the Fruit of Love to clear the game. The more trials you survive, the faster the hearts light up.”
“The six of us weren’t together initially, and I’m not clear on what happened either—mainly, something seemed to go wrong over at Biyi Tower.”
The other two pairs exchanged information as well.
Unlike Bai Cha, after stepping into Biyi Tower, the danger they encountered came from Biyi birds.
Those birds were hidden in the darkness, swooping out to attack every now and then, yet refraining from revealing themselves completely—it felt more like they were teasing them.
It took immense effort for them to get out.
By the time they got out, day had already broken outside.
After that, every pair faced scenarios where their prospective marriages were met with disapproval, leading to all sorts of hunts by outside NPCs.
While opting for the more conservative approach of lighting the hearts, the players were exploring the instance as well.
Gradually, they learned the love story of the City Lord and his wife too.
However, the story they knew included an extra segment.
That segment held that after the City Lord and his wife were married, the City Lord passed away from illness. Overcome with devastating grief, the City Lord’s wife transformed into a Biyi bird, gouged out one of her own eyes, and fed it to the City Lord, restoring him to life.
This was indeed something Bai Cha hadn’t been aware of on her end.
Listening to their words, Xu Taotao felt as if lost in a fog. After all, she wasn’t a player and held no knowledge of what those things they spoke of were, treating them merely as special powers belonging to another world.
She was the only one who reacted rather quickly to this specific story segment, speaking with a touch of surprise: “The City Lord passed away from illness?”
The players cast discreet glances at Xu Taotao before turning back to Bai Cha. In truth, Xu Taotao and Bai Cha were quite easy to distinguish—although sharing identical faces, their temperaments differed completely.
Bai Cha appeared noticeably more mature and composed, whereas Xu Taotao was relatively innocent and naive.
“You weren’t aware of this?” Bai Cha looked at her.
Xu Taotao shook her head, then paused with hesitation before saying, “Though in truth… when I was very young, I heard another version of the story.”
“In that story, the beginning remains unchanged, but after the marriage, the City Lord experienced a change of heart. So the City Lord’s wife killed him, yet regretted it afterward. She then swallowed a Fruit of Love, turned into a Biyi bird, gouged out her own eye, and turned the City Lord into a Biyi bird as well—so that they would remain together forever.”
As she spoke, a trace of confusion surfaced across Xu Taotao’s face once more.
“Strange to say, I hadn’t recalled this story before. Perhaps I was far too young when I heard it.”
The players exchanged glances.
If the Fruit of Love could turn people into Biyi birds, then by the end… these players couldn’t truly be forced to fly wing to wing as Biyi birds, right?
Bai Cha, however, thought of Xu Taotao’s father and mother.
After Father Xu passed away from illness, Lady Li ended her life by suicide.
Bai Cha looked thoughtfully at the red feathers transformed from the Biyi birds upon death—these feathers drifted and swirled, much like shredded snow.
Had they all truly died, or had they turned into Biyi birds, achieving an outcome of deathless devotion and flying wing to wing?
As for clearing this instance, taking the conventional path wouldn’t work, while attempting destruction… Bai Cha felt the difficulty level ran absurdly high.
Originally, Bai Cha believed the core of this instance ought to be the City Lord and his wife—or rather the City Lord’s wife, with the City Lord playing a secondary role.
Yet looking at it now, that eyeball was the absolute core entity.
Regrettably, she held zero Dodder Vine seeds remaining.
Furthermore, her System Inventory and related functions had become unusable present-day for reasons unknown, though it was bound to be connected to Xu Taotao.
Having exchanged tokens of affection with Xu Taotao regardless—that earring was more than sufficient to serve as a token—and even having visited Biyi Tower while claiming aloud that the two harbored mutual affection, they had received zero progress indicators like the ones He Li described.
Owing to her inability to open her System Panel here, she couldn’t determine whether they failed to receive a progress indicator because of this reason, or because Xu Taotao possessed a special identity that precluded binding.
All in all, she definitely couldn’t pin her hopes on being bound with Xu Taotao to walk the conservative route.
Although the conservative route’s ending might prove a trap, the game shouldn’t trap players into absolute death; meaning that on that route, a possibility to clear the game indeed existed.
That was indeed a relatively safe route.
Yet if Bai Cha and Xu Taotao were fundamentally the exact same person, what she had to face—aside from merging with Xu Taotao—was the scenario where, being the same person, they couldn’t bind, leaving them with no choice but to navigate another unknown path.
In truth, Bai Cha had chosen to go solo right from the start; she simply hadn’t anticipated that falling under a spell would split her into two individuals.
Even now, she remained unclear on Xu Taotao’s situation, as well as her own—was she truly Bai Cha?
If she was Bai Cha, why had she been unable to utilize her panel and inventory up until now?
Xu Taotao merely lacked memories, assuming herself to be Xu Taotao, yet that didn’t imply she wasn’t a player—she simply didn’t know.
Judging by her ability to wield Dodder Vines alone, Xu Taotao was merely unfamiliar with it rather than incapable, even managing to retract the Dodder Vines.
Naturally, this couldn’t rule out the factor of planting the Dodder Vine into “her own” body.
Meanwhile, Bai Cha could still utilize Dodder Vines and the Flower of Lies, proving that even if she weren’t the real Bai Cha, she was at least a split-off part of Bai Cha.
The split-off portion that retained memories.
Reasoning it this way felt reasonably logical.
Yet if so, then it ought to be her merging into Xu Taotao’s body.
No—another difference existed between them: she wore the Dream Butterfly on her head.
Because her hair originally bore pearl hairpins, the Dream Butterfly wasn’t conspicuous among them.
Had she not seen that butterfly in her dream, Bai Cha would have nearly overlooked it as well.
Xu Taotao didn’t possess this Dream Butterfly.
The Dream Butterfly was Han Hongmei’s blessing, following Bai Cha specifically.
Then Bai Cha ought to be the true Bai Cha.
Her tangled thoughts caused Bai Cha’s brows to knit tight.
To clear the game, she had to resolve her own issue first no matter what.
Otherwise, even if the path to clearing lay right before her eyes and the instance core were destroyed, she might not necessarily be able to exit the game—because her System Panel was unusable.
In all probability, no system prompt would trigger upon game clearance either.
It almost felt like turning into half an NPC.
