Chapter 193: Burning the Puppets

After waiting a little longer, Shi Zhile tried to test the encirclement again. The result was predictable: she failed once more.

This time, the puppets launched a small-scale attack on her.

Her wounds were torn open, her back was clawed, and fresh bits of flesh now clung to the puppets’ fingers.

She took a step back, her face pale from blood loss.

After she retreated to her original spot, the puppets fell silent again.

Her Life Value dropped to 50. Shi Zhile immediately stopped the bleeding, treated her wounds, and downed a coconut to restore twenty points of her Life Value.

Night fell, plunging the surroundings into darkness.

Shi Zhile tried to contact Wen Bai, but unexpectedly, she couldn’t get through.

She then sent video calls to Jiang Jing, Sun Ci, and Tang Yan, but none of them connected either.

The longer she was trapped, the more her heart panicked.

Her panic had now reached its peak.

‘I think I made a mistake,’ she thought. ‘I shouldn’t have let Jiang Jing and the others go. At least if they’d stayed here, they wouldn’t be hunted by other people.’

‘Besides, what if there are puppets out there, too?’

‘No!’

‘I can’t just keep waiting!’

Shi Zhile started a fire and dripped a few drops of magma into it.

She put on the jacket that had been soaked by rain when she first entered the instance. The moment she stood up, she flung the magma outward.

The magma landed on the puppets, instantly soaking into their clothes. Immediately after, Shi Zhile threw a torch at one of them. A roaring fire erupted, quickly engulfing the puppet.

There were no screams, only the sighing sound of waste gas being forced from the burning corpse’s throat.

Fat SIZZLED and the body contracted involuntarily. As if receiving a command, the other puppets began to struggle and charge madly at Shi Zhile.

Shi Zhile dodged while counterattacking, aiming every axe swing at the puppets’ necks.

The flames licked at her skin, causing intense, burning pain. When her clothes caught fire, Shi Zhile immediately doused them with spring water.

After what felt like an eternity, just as Shi Zhile thought she was about to be cooked alive, the puppets were finally reduced to piles of bones and collapsed to the ground.

Shi Zhile stood in the middle of the fire, the area from her ankles to her calves aching to the point of numbness. She smelled the distinct, charred aroma of roasted meat—the smell of her own flesh.

Against the light, a familiar figure ambled over and stood at the very edge of the flames.

“Need my help? If you don’t come out soon, you’ll be cooked through.”

Shi Zhile ripped off her fire-dried clothes and took out some spring water from her Planting Space, pouring it over her head.

The water cascaded down, splashing everywhere.

The fire around her feet was extinguished by the spring water, but it crept back in just a moment later.

Ignoring it, Shi Zhile walked out of the fire, turned, and released more spring water until every last flame was out.

Jiang Yuxing circled Shi Zhile. “How tragic! But it smells so good. Did you smell the roasted meat?”

He took a deep sniff, an ecstatic look on his face.

Shi Zhile ignored him. She took out the Magma Stone Basin, held it with one arm, and grabbed Jiang Yuxing’s wrist with her other hand, pressing his palm into it.

The temperature rose steadily. There was no smell of roasted meat, only black smoke rising from the magma.

By the time Shi Zhile let go of Jiang Yuxing, his entire hand had been burned away.

Cold sweat beaded on Jiang Yuxing’s forehead, but the smile on his lips only widened.

It wasn’t a smirk, but a genuine, heartfelt laugh of amusement.

A chuckle escaped him, then grew louder and louder, sounding particularly unsettling in the silent night.

Shi Zhile’s lips twitched, and goosebumps broke out all over her skin. She thought Jiang Yuxing was insane.

Not driven mad by anger, but someone who had been mad all along. It was as if a long-suppressed insanity had finally broken free, completely and utterly.

She retorted, “Did *you* smell roasted meat?”

Jiang Yuxing stopped laughing and shook his head with great sincerity. “No!”

“Of course not. It’s right that you didn’t.

Humans are made of mortal flesh. Pigs, chickens, sheep, cows, fish—they all smell delicious when roasted. The only things that don’t are beasts, and things worse than beasts.

If your heart is black, how could your flesh possibly smell good? It would only give off a foul stench.”

Jiang Yuxing ignored her taunts, staring intently at Shi Zhile’s pale face.

“Good thing your pretty little face wasn’t burned. If it had been, I’m afraid Shi Zhiyi wouldn’t be able to recognize you.”

Shi Zhile’s pupils contracted. Her heart seemed to stop for a second.

‘What does he mean?’

‘Is he threatening me with Shi Zhiyi?’

‘Or…?’

She immediately checked Shi Zhiyi’s profile picture.

It hadn’t turned dark. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Yuxing chuckled. “Why so scared? Did you think I would do something to Shi Zhiyi? What kind of person do you take me for?”

He paused, then continued, “If she died, you’d probably go crazy. And if you went crazy, where’s the fun in that?”

Shi Zhile silently tried to call out to her system. She called three times, but there was no response.

Across from her, the smile on Jiang Yuxing’s face deepened.

“Are you trying to ask it something? You can just ask me instead. I know things in much greater detail.”

Shi Zhile took a deep breath. “When does the battle royale mode end?”

“End? If it ends, how are you going to catch and raise animals? Isn’t the alpaca cute?”

‘Alpaca?’

‘That surprisingly intelligent alpaca… was him!?’

A chill ran down Shi Zhile’s spine.

Jiang Yuxing frowned. “Stop imagining things. I don’t have a habit of becoming an animal. I’ve left a lot of cute little animals for you later on. Don’t you want to raise them?”

“I don’t want to raise them! When exactly does it end?”

Jiang Yuxing sounded a little regretful. “Oh, you want the battle royale mode to end? Why didn’t you say so earlier? It can end anytime! I just thought you liked small animals, so I let it run for a little longer.”

Normally, an instance would last for seven days, with the battle royale mode lasting three days at most. But Jiang Yuxing was the “exception.”

Shi Zhile’s heart sank again.

She remembered the first battle royale mode in the Primitive Forest. Back then, some unknown change had occurred in the game, causing an energy deficit.

At that time, Jiang Yuxing couldn’t fully control the instance. Now, he could even control its duration!

The gap between her and Jiang Yuxing was just too vast. She had been desperately trying to survive, trying to grow her base, but her efforts seemed to have a negligible effect.

And Jiang Yuxing?

He could hack her system, give her any supplies he wanted, keep the battle royale mode going indefinitely, and even control the puppets.

If this world were truly a novel, Jiang Yuxing would be the ultimate power fantasy protagonist. He controlled the entire game, watching her struggle for his amusement.

No wonder he wasn’t angry when she destroyed his hand. In his eyes, she was just an untamed feral cat; scratching and biting were only to be expected.

The more she struggled, the more interesting he found it. He might even… even find it… cute when she bared her claws viciously.

It had to be said, Shi Zhile had hit the nail on the head.

In Jiang Yuxing’s eyes, Shi Zhile’s futile struggles were indeed very cute.

“Why’d you go quiet? I really did leave a lot of small animals for you. Are you sure you don’t want to go see them?”

Shi Zhile took another step back, her face growing even paler. “Where’s my sister? And where are Jiang Jing and the others?”

“You can ask them yourself. They… aren’t dead!”

They weren’t dead, it was true. Their bodies were their own, and so were their minds. He had just tinkered with them a tiny, tiny bit.