Red’s brief remark made Satania give up on thinking altogether.
The Priestess… was using her?
What was he planning to use her for?
Satania couldn’t make sense of it, nor did she dare to think about it.
The feeling of being betrayed by the person she trusted most was simply too painful… unbearably painful.
So even like this, she still wasn’t willing to believe Red’s words.
“No… unless you have him come here and tell me himself, I absolutely won’t believe it, never!”
Seeing Satania struggling desperately inside, Red was genuinely impressed by her—professionals are truly on another level.
But the plot in the Experience Booklet wasn’t finished yet.
The next thing he had to do was simple.
While Satania was still hesitating and lost, Red waved his big hand.
In an instant, an invisible sharp blade sliced through the ropes of the Binding Magic Array that restrained Satania.
The sudden freedom left Satania even more bewildered.
She lifted her head and locked eyes with Red.
This mage, who should have been incomparably evil, was now looking at her with an incredibly heavy gaze.
He then let out a slow sigh and said,
“I understand your resistance, but there are things you need to witness with your own eyes. Yet after you learn the truth, do you think—with his power—he’ll let you go?”
Here, Red purposely paused, his tone carrying a barely noticeable hint of pity.
“Your presence here means you’re nothing but… a pitiful discarded pawn. In his eyes, the moment you entered this room, you were already dead. If you go back alive now, what do you think will happen? You should know better than anyone.”
Satania’s chaotic, unwilling thoughts gradually cooled in the face of Red’s logical argument.
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.
At this moment, that face bore no trace of playfulness, only a statement bordering on cruel indifference.
From those serious eyes, Red didn’t seem to be lying.
Could everything he said be true?
Was she really… just a chess piece being used?
The more she thought about it, the more overwhelming grievance and despair surged up like a tide.
Her eyes grew red and filled with tears she couldn’t control; the stubbornness and anger from before vanished, leaving only the fragility of someone abandoned by the world.
“Uu…”
Satania couldn’t help but sob, and soon, tiny, broken cries slipped out one after another, her shoulders trembling as she wept.
This, in turn, completely threw Red off.
That’s not how it went in the Experience Booklet!
Shouldn’t she be righteously indignant now, drag him along to take down the mastermind, and then enjoy a sweet romance at the end?
Why was she crying now?
Your character setting is falling apart, hey!
As Red wondered whether he should go along with this impromptu act, Satania suddenly wailed and dashed out of the room in tears.
Red was left standing alone in the center of the room, like a statue that had been paused, gripping the innocent Experience Booklet, his face full of confusion.
A feeling of “Who am I, where am I, what am I doing here?” washed over him.
“What’s going on?”
The door next door burst open, and Tos poked his head in, face written with gossip and shock.
He seemed to have heard a thunderous sob and the noise of someone bursting through the door just now.
Tos’s gaze swept rapidly over the empty room and the stunned Red, and his expression immediately grew complicated, full of “Bro, you play wild!” surprise and a trace of subtle respect.
“Holy crap, Red? What did you do to that girl? She was crying like she was attending a funeral… Don’t tell me—”
He swallowed, glancing back and forth between Red and the doorway, dropping his voice even lower, a hint of mischievous speculation in his tone.
“…You planning something like ‘forced love’ or some kind of hardcore, tragic play? Bro, I never knew you were into that!”
“Bullshit!”
The veins on Red’s forehead bulged as he waved the script in his hand in frustration.
“I didn’t even get close to a White Stockings lap pillow! She just broke down in tears and ran out all on her own. I’m even more confused than you are, okay? I’m being framed! Like snow in June, brother!”
Tos crossed his arms, wearing a “Yeah, right!” expression full of disdain.
“Cut it out! The girl ran out crying—how could you fake that? Explain yourself! How did an ‘immersive experience’ end up with her ‘immersed’ in tears, huh? Well? Speak!”
Faced with Tos’s upraised middle finger, Red felt he couldn’t explain himself no matter what.
He’d followed the Experience Booklet’s script to the letter, and the other side was acting along just fine—so why did she suddenly run out crying?
“I swear… you gotta believe me, I don’t even know what the hell happened…”
Just as Red was frantically trying to prove his innocence—
“Huff… huff… I’m so sorry to keep you waiting!”
A slightly rushed, panting female voice sounded at the door.
A petite figure hurried up to Red’s room, bracing herself against the doorframe, her chest rising and falling—she had obviously run all the way here.
She looked up, quickly checked the room number, and immediately gave Red a standard, nearly ninety-degree bow, pressing her palms together at her forehead, her voice brimming with apology.
“I’m truly sorry, so, so sorry! Dear esteemed guest!”
She lifted her head, revealing a face painted with exquisite succubus makeup, now full of anxiety and panic.
“I am the experience specialist responsible for your ‘Shadow Walker’ theme, number 073! I-I was just walking down the hallway on my way here and… somehow… fell asleep…”
At the words “fell asleep,” she herself found it unbelievable, her voice taking on a trace of a sob.
“I’m terribly sorry to have wasted your precious time! I-I’ll begin serving you right away!”
Red and Tos turned stiffly, their gazes locking onto the newly arrived “Player.”
This belated official staff member was dressed in… uh, if anything, rather than a “Nightstalker Costume,” it was more like a few black leather straps and a handful of sequins artfully arranged—a “stealthy, suggestive outfit” brimming with certain implications.
The parts that should have been covered were barely covered at all, the cloth pitifully scant.
More importantly, she wasn’t masked, nor was she wearing White Stockings!
Her makeup was pure succubus style.
The air instantly froze.
Tos:
Red:
“…?”
The two exchanged a glance, seeing the same word in each other’s eyes.
Holy crap?
Then that masked, Nightstalker-outfitted, humiliated-eyed “Thief” who just ran out in tears and White Stockings…
Who the hell was she?!
***
After such an incident, Red had no desire to continue with this so-called service.
He sat in the lobby for quite a while before Tos and Mason emerged from the back rooms.
After the three gathered, six eyes met, and they silently left the Succubus Parlor.
Once outside, Red asked Tos and Mason,
“My Bloodtracking Hunter Spider didn’t find any traces of the Black Church in the shop. Maybe it’s hidden somewhere even my Bloodtracking Hunter Spider couldn’t reach. What about you?”
With that, Red silently flipped the two of them the middle finger.
“You guys didn’t just fool around with women and forget the real business, did you?”
Faced with Red’s question, the two of them averted their eyes a bit guiltily.
Just as Red was about to start berating them, Tos spoke up first.
“Red, don’t get ahead of yourself!”
He quickly reached out and put forward his own theory.
“You know… that woman who came out of your room—could she be the one from the Black Church we’re looking for?”
Probably not.