Chapter 40
Chapter 40
“No.” Yu Lingling’s tone did not change in the slightest. She merely emphasized once more, “My brother isn’t.”
The old man said quietly, “We have no intention of hurting you.”
Yu Lingling did not respond to that. Whether or not she was being harmed was not for others to say; it was for her to judge. “When my brother tells me to be a good child, he means I should be good to myself. You people aren’t good to me.”
Cheng Yu wanted to explain further, but Yu Lingling no longer wanted to speak to them.
Her voice remained utterly flat. “Mention my brother again, and I’ll kill you.”
Cheng Yu opened her mouth, then stopped. She looked at the young girl she had known for nearly seven years, the child she had watched grow into the person she was today. She had always thought they were close, but now she saw genuine killing intent in Yu Lingling’s eyes.
Yu Lingling truly would attack her.
Upon realizing that, Cheng Yu chose to remain silent. She turned to look outside, a troubling feeling rising in her heart. If Yu Huan came back, everything might still be manageable. But if he did not, Yu Lingling would lose control.
Yu Lingling’s origins were a mystery. The first time she appeared before everyone was just after Yu Huan destroyed an underground laboratory.
At the time, Yu Lingling had been wrapped tightly in Yu Huan’s trench coat, with only her small, bald head sticking out. There were still stitches from surgery across her scalp.
Yu Huan had destroyed the laboratory so thoroughly that every researcher inside had died.
When the old man entered with personnel from the Special Department, the researchers’ remains were so badly mangled that not even one complete body could be pieced together. Even using the skills of a Full-fledged Player, they could not recover any experimental data.
No matter how deeply the Special Department investigated, all they could uncover was information about Yu Lingling’s time in an orphanage.
After that, she had been sold to the underground laboratory.
There had been many children like Yu Lingling, but she was the only one who survived that laboratory.
Nothing could be found about her parents or why she had ended up in the orphanage.
No matter how many times he was questioned, Yu Huan refused to say anything related to Yu Lingling.
The Special Department had found very little information about her. The only thing they could be certain of was that before that incident, Yu Huan and Yu Lingling had never met, at least not in the real world.
Back then, Yu Huan had not been called Yu Huan, and Yu Lingling had not been called Yu Lingling.
Yu Huan had been Soulbreaker Qin Shu.
Yu Lingling had been Experiment Subject 003.
He was known as Soulbreaker not only because the weapon manifested by his Exclusive Skill was called the Soul-Severing Chain, but also because of his cold and detached nature.
But from the day that laboratory was destroyed…
Soulbreaker Qin Shu vanished into the Horror Game Instance. In his place remained only the mild-mannered older brother, Yu Huan.
The brother-and-sister pair were far too extraordinary.
Both Yu Huan’s ability to escape from a Horror Game Instance and his skill were far too important.
And Yu Lingling was someone Yu Huan had sought out immediately after leaving a Horror Game Instance, ignoring his own injuries to find her. He had destroyed the entire laboratory, erased every record related to her, and ultimately kept her by his side.
Even if no one knew the truth of Yu Lingling’s origins, her importance was at least equal to Yu Huan’s, perhaps even greater.
The car stopped at a dedicated airfield, but the old man and his two companions did not board the helicopter.
Without looking back, Yu Lingling followed the complete strangers ahead of her.
Only then did the old man speak. “We truly bear no ill will toward either you or Yu Huan.”
Yu Lingling did not even break stride. The wind tossed her hair into disarray.
If she could bring her brother back, she did not care whether these people bore them ill will or not.
If she couldn’t find her brother, then whether these people harbored any ill will no longer mattered.
Cheng Yu looked a little upset as she asked, “Captain… Brother… will Lingling come back?”
The young man she had called her brother did not answer.
The old man, however, said, “She will.”
Cheng Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
But neither the old man nor the young man felt reassured. Yu Lingling would come back because this was the home she shared with her brother. What she might be like when she returned, however, neither of them knew.
Yu Lingling boarded a helicopter, but it could not fly directly into the Grand Slaughter Instance zone. It could only take her to an unaffected area on the perimeter, where she transferred to a car for the rest of the journey.
The moment Yu Lingling saw the car, she knew it was no ordinary vehicle. It looked more like an item from the Horror Game.
She had no interest in studying it, though. As the car continued onward, Yu Lingling sensed more and more information from the Horror Game Instance. Even the four little dolls inside the Princess Dollhouse began stirring restlessly.
They looked ready to burst out, though their growing wariness of Yu Lingling held them back.
Their instincts as supernatural entities kept warning them that Yu Lingling, in her current state, was not someone they could afford to provoke.
By the time the car stopped, dawn was already beginning to break.
A young woman who looked to be around twenty led Yu Lingling inside.
The woman had read Yu Lingling’s file beforehand and received her instructions, so she skipped the unnecessary pleasantries. “You can call me Xiao Zhang. I’ll give you a brief overview of the current situation with the Grand Slaughter Instance.”
Wrapped in a long down coat, Yu Lingling committed every detail Xiao Zhang told her to memory. “Only a Full-fledged Player can enter?”
Xiao Zhang had not expected that to be her first question. “That’s right. Instances of the Grand Slaughter type are restricted to those with Full-fledged Player status. It’s meant as protection for novices.”
Yu Lingling realized that even if she had come here with her brother, she still would not have been able to enter the instance. “Someone deliberately activated it and chose Hua Nation as its location.”
Xiao Zhang had not yet mentioned that possibility while explaining the Grand Slaughter Instance, so she was surprised that Yu Lingling had immediately identified the crucial point. “That is one of our current theories. We still don’t know which countries the players involved came from.”
Yu Lingling lowered her gaze slightly. There was no need to confirm it. She did not need evidence. She only had to see the nationality of any Full-fledged Player who made a move against her brother.
Xiao Zhang brought Yu Lingling to the command center office.
There were quite a few people inside. Some watched the enormous projection covering the wall, while others stared at computer screens. They continuously took notes and conferred in low voices, every face grave. Aside from a gray-haired woman, no one spared Yu Lingling more than a glance when she arrived.
Yu Lingling swept her gaze over the room and memorized everyone present, even roughly categorizing them by position and assignment.
Most of those in the key roles were ordinary people rather than veterans with Full-fledged Player status who had entered an instance before.
A faint gleam flickered in Yu Lingling’s eyes. She found a place to stand and looked up at the enormous display. It had been divided into several smaller feeds, apparently allowing the command center to monitor every Full-fledged Player deployed at several key locations simultaneously.
Her gaze settled on the feed showing her brother.
On the screen, Yu Huan wore a black, wide-sleeved robe and held a long-handled scythe that stood slightly taller than he did. Beside him was a five-meter-tall orange cat with nine tails and four eyes.
Although this was her first time seeing it, Yu Lingling immediately recognized it as the creature that had hatched from the yellow plastic egg she had given her brother. The cat stood guard beside Yu Huan, looking utterly ferocious. Its body was drenched in blood, both its own and its enemies’.