He gently pushed open the door. In the dim light from the window, the curled figure under the covers was clearly visible.
Allen de Laval was still asleep, unaware that death had arrived.
Meng Chen Zhe even felt a flicker of sympathy for this spoiled young master. After all, he too had once been a victim of noble infighting.
Besides him, other members of the Crimson Spiral Order had infiltrated the Laval Mansion tonight. Together, they would orchestrate a bloodbath that would shake the Royal Capital.
Meng Chen Zhe didn’t care about the Order’s purpose for this massacre. His only goal was to end the life of this worthless young master!
“Die, you pathetic fool!”
The sword light shot out like a viper’s tongue, stabbing through the bedding with murderous intent!
Stab!
The expected feeling of steel piercing flesh never came.
Meng Chen Zhe froze.
“Strange, isn’t it?”
A mocking voice sounded behind him like a ghost.
Meng Chen Zhe’s pupils contracted. A chill shot from his tailbone straight to his skull!
He tried to pull his sword free from the bed frame, but cold metal had already pierced his heart first.
In his agony, the last thing he saw was a face covered by a bizarre beaked mask, and the cold gleam in the eyes behind it, staring from the shadows.
“I knew you guys would come tonight.” Allen smoothly pulled out the protective dagger his father had given him, watching Meng Chen Zhe slump to the floor.
“The first event in the church route is the viscount’s mansion getting massacred, and Marianne and I going missing. How could I not prepare for such a classic opening?”
Countless experiences of being killed in his sleep had etched the PTSD of “bedroom assassination” into Allen’s bones. Tonight, he was the hunter in the shadows.
He pulled off Meng Chen Zhe’s mask, revealing a young face full of shock and resentment.
That once well-maintained handsome face was now tainted with the vulgarity of the mortal world.
Allen had no interest in the assassin’s past or identity. He expertly began looting.
“This mask is good quality. I’ll keep it… Wait, you look like a noble, but all you have is this crappy sword?” He weighed the confiscated noble longsword, a look of disgust on his face. “Drop rate is terrible!”
Was this the Order’s attack? That’s it?
After easily dealing with the assassin, Allen’s paranoid radar was screaming.
Those lunatics in the Order always had backup plans, especially against possible “accidents” and “traitors.”
Allen gripped the longsword, his sharp eyes scanning every corner of the room. The air seemed to freeze.
With the enemy hidden and himself exposed, he had to force his hidden foe out.
“All you Order lunatics are just like sewer rats, hiding in the dark, afraid of the light.” Allen deliberately raised his voice, his sarcastic tone echoing in the silent room.
“Is the idiot from the Order on watch duty tonight even afraid of a trash noble like me?”
“I’m not interested in bullying small fry. At least send an Abyss Walker to spar with me, huh? Livia kills Star Listeners like they’re dogs, and she and I are evenly matched…” He paused, then his tone turned arrogant.
“In other words, I’m way stronger than a Star Listener. The Order should make me their leader! If you kneel and beg for mercy now, I might even let you keep your bodies intact!”
He barked, “Did you hear me? Get the hell out here!”
“Roooar—!”
Allen’s unique skill, Villain’s Taunt, activated successfully!
From the shadows of the room came an uncontrollable, beast-like heavy panting!
A faster shadow, like a blade tearing through space, appeared right behind Allen, aiming a cold gleam straight at his back!
“There really is a Wei Wen Qi Shi tailing them!”
Allen, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, performed a clumsy yet precise side roll to dodge the deadly blow.
The confiscated longsword in his hand parried the follow-up strike, metal clashing with a shower of sparks.
He stared at the bloodshot eyes under the opponent’s mask, a malicious grin curling beneath his own mask.
“What’s the rush? Did my words convince you I’m awesome and now you want to make me your boss?”
“How… do you know… the Order’s secrets?!”
The Wei Wen Qi Shi’s voice was hoarse and dry, filled with disbelief.
“Hey, hey, don’t look down on me.” Allen sneered, then clearly pronounced a few syllables in a twisted, inhuman ancient language: “Burn the old world, establish a new throne!”
The pupils under the Wei Wen Qi Shi’s mask contracted sharply!
This was the core slogan of the Crimson Spiral Order, the language of which was only known to the Order’s inner circle.
How could a spoiled young master know such forbidden knowledge?
The difficulty of tonight’s mission was definitely the easiest level. Invading a noble house that couldn’t even afford guards should have been impossible to fail!
With that in mind, the Wei Wen Qi Shi hadn’t scouted the Laval mansion in advance.
He just needed to lurk in the shadows and grade the Meng Chen Zhes who were undergoing their trials.
But when the Wei Wen Qi Shi sensed something wrong, Allen de Laval had already killed Meng Chen Zhe with ease, and quickly discovered him hiding in the bedroom using his crest ability, waiting to ambush!
Wasn’t this spoiled young master supposed to be a worthless cripple?
Killing so cleanly, immediately using intel to test the hidden enemy…
Such a cautious and cold mental fortitude was not something an ordinary person should have!
Was he a member of the Inquisition Tribunal?
Was tonight’s assassination a trap set by the Inquisition Tribunal?!
Now!
Allen seized that moment of hesitation and launched a fierce attack!
The confiscated longsword turned into a silver blur in his hands, his strikes vicious and ruthless, nothing like a pampered waste.
But the gap in physical condition was a brutal reality.
Allen’s current body, hollowed out by alcohol, was far inferior in strength, speed, and endurance to his opponent, and nowhere near the physique he had secretly trained in his last playthrough.
The opponent was caught off guard at first and fell behind.
However, as a battle-hardened elite of the Order, the Wei Wen Qi Shi used his years of combat experience and muscle memory to continuously counterattack, gradually turning the tide with his superior physique!
Allen switched from offense to defense. Each parry numbed his arm, each dodge drained his precious stamina.
He could barely hold his own with experience and skill, but defeat seemed only a matter of time.
“Strange, isn’t it? How do I have swordsmanship like this? I’m just a robe-wearing noble with no crest.”
Allen kept up his trash talk while desperately blocking the increasingly fast sword strikes, trying to disrupt his opponent’s focus.
The Wei Wen Qi Shi remained silent, but his attacks grew fiercer.
“You’re curious, aren’t you? How I know the Order’s secrets and that you were coming tonight? You’ve been betrayed, get it?” Allen narrowly avoided a cold flash aimed at his neck, speaking quickly.
“…Your mole is my maid, Marianne, right?” Allen dropped the bombshell, his voice deliberately smug. “That girl hasn’t been completely brainwashed yet. She fell for my charm and sold you out.”
The Wei Wen Qi Shi’s sword slowed by an imperceptible fraction! Marianne? That woman who only joined recently?!
“Oh, right. I know what you’re thinking: why hasn’t the Laval mansion caught fire yet?” Allen panted, his lungs feeling like they were on fire, but he couldn’t stop his verbal assault.
“Simple. I had my dad hire a squad of mercenaries. Forget your useless Meng Chen Zhes, even a Flesh Priest wouldn’t beat a prepared, trained group of mercenaries! Soon you’ll be buried alongside their corpses! Happy?”
“…bastard!”
The Wei Wen Qi Shi finally raged, his sword strike even more vicious!
“Haha! Whether I deserve to die or not isn’t for you to decide.” Allen felt his arms almost giving out, but his grin grew more arrogant.
“Oh, and I already sent the old butler to notify the Inquisition. Your nest in the Royal Capital… is under the slaughterhouse in the Lower City District, right?”
The words hit like a thunderbolt! The Wei Wen Qi Shi’s movements froze, his bloodshot eyes filled with utter shock and terror! The underground slaughterhouse?
That was the Order’s most secret base in the capital, unknown even to the Inquisition! How did he know?! Could it be… Marianne really betrayed them?
That woman with her weakness? He had said she shouldn’t have been recruited!
Allen caught that moment of distraction, a cold smirk in his heart.
He had said all this for the higher-ups to “hear”—through the brief shared perception between the Wei Wen Qi Shi and his “creator,” the Flesh Priest.
Killing wasn’t enough; he had to break their spirit!
He needed the rat behind the scenes to know Allen wasn’t a pushover, and more importantly, to sever all ties between Marianne and these lunatics!
If Livia came to visit tomorrow and found her beloved white moonlight had run off with the cultists… he didn’t want to experience that bad end again!
“That shithole was actually a decent choice,” Allen pressed on, his tone dripping with malicious sarcasm.
“Using the smell of blood to cover up the stench of inhumane acts. But… you didn’t mix that ‘hope meat’ with regular meat and sell it, did you? Ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to puke.” Allen blocked another attack, increasing the intensity of his taunts.
“Ah, the Inquisition might not believe me now, but when they see the ‘splendor’ under the slaughterhouse… hmm, what then? A barbecue? So, aren’t you going to run, unknown Flesh Priest?”
The Wei Wen Qi Shi’s body trembled, and the expression under his mask turned to despair—his connection with the Flesh Priest was severed unilaterally!
Even the Priest was afraid and had abandoned him!
“Why… what grudge do you have against us?!”
The Wei Wen Qi Shi’s voice trembled with a hint of collapse, his attacks slowing and becoming erratic due to the mental shock and some unknown cause.
“Happy? Surprised?” Allen felt his stamina reaching its limit, but his eyes burned with insane fighting spirit. “To kill me, you’re willing to lose the entire capital base? And why?”
He violently parried a blow, his voice icy: “Because you messed with me, huh? A bunch of rats that can’t stand the light, showing up in my home? Tonight, all of you die here!”
Allen’s plan was working!
He had set up colorless, odorless toxic incense in his own room—a infamous poison weapon among the noble circles!
Unlike Flesh Priests with their twisted organs, Wei Wen Qi Shi were still human, vulnerable to volatile toxins.
Only a few crests granted poison resistance. The Wei Wen Qi Shi before him clearly had a crest related to stealth, not poison resistance.
Allen wore a beaked mask that filtered the toxins. In this fight, as long as he stalled long enough, victory would be his!
Not every assassin was also a berserker. Under the effects of the poison, the Wei Wen Qi Shi’s attacks grew weaker. Allen seized the opportunity, draining the last of his strength, and roared a desperate counterattack!
“Go to hell!”
The confiscated longsword arced with finality, slashing across the Wei Wen Qi Shi’s chest where he had left an opening due to his wavering!
“Guh—!” The Wei Wen Qi Shi screamed, blood spraying everywhere, staggering backward.
But those bloodshot eyes turned from despair to madness!
“If I can’t live, at least I’ll remove a threat like you for the Order!”
He roared, pulling out a crimson pill and shoving it into his mouth!
“Damn it, you have a secret pill? So there’s phase two after phase one… How am I supposed to win this!?”
Allen’s face fell. In his last playthrough, he had relied on this very thing to hold off Livia for a few blows!
This thing burned one’s life, briefly pushing a Wei Wen Qi Shi to the terrifying power of an Abyss Walker!
It’s over! Allen’s heart turned cold.
With his current state, he couldn’t even withstand one hit!
The drugged Wei Wen Qi Shi’s aura exploded, the blood spurting from his wound becoming fuel for his power.
He let out an inhuman roar, vanished like a ghost, and reappeared with a sword stroke like thunder crashing down from above Allen’s head!
“Crap!” Allen rolled desperately with all his might, the blade grazing his shoulder and carving a deep gash in the floor.
Stones flew! The berserk attack fueled by his burning life would tear Allen apart before the poison killed him!
Allen was backed into a corner. Each parry split his palm, his longsword nearly flying from his hand. The breath of death had never been so close.
But he couldn’t retreat. Leaving this room filled with lethal incense would mean losing all chance of turning the tables!
“Will this playthrough end here?”
The thought flashed through his mind, then was swallowed by a stronger will to survive!
He had died nine hundred and ninety-nine times already. One more death and he’d achieve the original’s achievement of collecting all one thousand death methods.
But after truly dying a thousand times, would he wake up again?
Every game has a finale, and his reincarnation cycle would eventually end.
Perhaps this cycle was his last chance.
Allen had always assumed the worst of this crappy game, Star Love Song.
He had expected—and fully believed—that this world could be this vile and savage.
He could not die! Absolutely could not die!
As long as he lived, it would be the greatest mockery of this ugly world!
Adrenaline surged in his despair, and the shadow of death ignited Allen’s crazy fighting spirit, honed through countless deaths.
“Come on! What else you got?”
Allen desperately dodged the Wei Wen Qi Shi’s attacks, a grim smile on his face.
A mortal can’t beat a crest genius? Then how did he push this bastard to the brink?
“I want to live! No matter what, I’ll struggle to survive! God, I’ve always thought you dumping me into this shitty world made you an evil, rotten bastard! But if you answer my plea, I’ll give you everything!”
Allen finally gave up his pointless pride and cried out his strongest desire to the god he despised, to this crappy world itself. “So… give me power! Even if it costs something more hopeless than death!”
Allen was no longer the ordinary young man from a peaceful world.
He had once fallen to become an Abyss Walker, stained with endless blood. He had struggled on the edge of death as a villain, seeking any method for a sliver of survival.
He never gave up.
Even if the world was full of malice toward him, even if he had suffered unimaginable psychological trauma in these 999 cycles.
He still chose to move forward, even while forgetting.
Not for an ideal, not for a loved one, but for a simple goal—
To live.
A thousand words couldn’t match these two.
That was enough.
As long as he lived, Allen could still hold a sliver of hope for this world full of malice.
“Look at me! You bastard god! I will give all my love to this damn world!!”
Allen roared his final cry in his heart, condensing all his will to survive, his resentment, his anger, and his realization into this moment!
Hum!
As if responding to the scream of his soul, a strange feeling he had never known surged through his body.
It wasn’t the power of a crest or some divine force. It was more like… an icy spring that saw through all things, pouring into his nearly exhausted consciousness.
Deep in his black pupils, a single golden glimmer, like the first star piercing an eternal night, suddenly blazed!