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“Open up! Open the door!” At that moment, shouts and pounding on doors echoed continuously throughout Jade City.

Whenever a door was opened, the soldiers would take out the household register and conscript every able-bodied man from each family into the army. Anyone who dared to resist was thrown into prison without exception.

At that moment, the entire city was shrouded in an almost suffocating atmosphere of tension. Mixed within it was the faint scent of blood.

“Did you hear? A noble refused to hand over his private army, and His Majesty had him beheaded!” Inside a snack shop, a slightly overweight middle-aged man dressed like a wealthy merchant lowered his voice as he spoke.

The way he looked around so furtively made it seem as though he were discussing some shameful secret.

“Seriously?” The middle-aged woman sitting across from him wore a look of utter disbelief.

His Majesty Richard was famous for being a pacifist.¹ How could he possibly execute a noble over something so trivial? Impossible. It had to be a false rumor!

“You don’t believe me?” The plump man raised an eyebrow. “I heard it from an acquaintance in the inner city. How could it be fake?”

“His Majesty is kindhearted, benevolent, and mighty. Someone must be jealous of him and trying to smear his name.”² The middle-aged woman spoke with complete conviction.

“Tsk, tsk. That’s women for you. The moment you see a handsome man, all rational thought flies out the window!” The wealthy man said disdainfully.

Richard was renowned throughout Jade City as an exceptionally handsome man. Even though he was no longer young, he remained strikingly charismatic, and countless women were infatuated with him.

“You’re not allowed to speak ill of His Majesty!” The middle-aged woman slammed the table and shouted angrily.

Instantly, everyone in the shop turned to look at their table.

The wealthy man was just about to say something to ease the tension when a loud cry came from outside. “Breaking news! Viscount Orlay, Baron Bellamy, and Baron Kaos defied the imperial decree and have all been publicly executed!”

The announcement immediately threw everyone inside and outside the shop into an uproar.

“They deserved it! Anyone who dares defy the Emperor’s orders deserves to die!” The same middle-aged woman who had adamantly refused to believe Richard would execute nobles slammed the table once more and declared with obvious satisfaction.

In return, she received nothing but eye rolls from everyone around her.

“This is a classic case of killing a few to warn the many,” a Warrior player present quietly remarked.

“It looks like the Emperor is still having a hard time mobilizing the strength of the nobility.” The Mage player beside him added.

“Starting with such ruthless measures right from the beginning… now that’s a decisive emperor. I like him.” The Warrior player said with a grin.

“You like the quest rewards more.” The Mage rolled his eyes at him.

“I like both.” The moment those words left his mouth, the Mage immediately cast Teleport and disappeared from the scene.

“Wait! I was just joking!” The Warrior opened the game interface, only to discover that the Mage had already blacklisted him.

Meanwhile, every noble in the inner city felt as though they were sitting on a bed of needles, their hearts filled with anxiety.

In their eyes, the Eldest Princess’ rebellion was clearly nothing more than an internal affair of the imperial family. What did it have to do with them? At most, they had planned to donate some money to appease the Emperor and let the royal siblings settle their feud themselves.

However, the gruesome deaths of three nobles served as a glaring warning to every one of them: Don’t even think about staying out of this.

Faced with such an iron-fisted and ruthless Richard, they had little choice but to contribute both money and manpower. Unless, of course, they were tired of living.

As time passed, more and more power gathered into Richard’s hands. What awaited Yae-hime and the others would be a fortress of war united as one.

* **Adventure Guild.**

Taurus looked over the intelligence his subordinates had gathered, his brows tightly knitted and his expression grim.

“A once-in-a-millennium genius. A monster who reached the Legend rank at the youngest age in history. Why don’t you just spiral straight up into heaven!?” He slammed the table with one hand and complained irritably.

Even though he knew his subordinates hadn’t been fooling him, Taurus was still deeply dissatisfied. After spending so much time, all they had managed to gather was such fragmented information.

He didn’t even know what Alicia looked like, nor whether her true strength was really as overwhelming as the NPCs claimed. In truth, unless they were natives of a certain age, hardly anyone knew much about Alicia. Investigating her thoroughly was no easy task.

If Taurus still remembered that fox demon³ from the labyrinth, he might have been able to uncover far more information through her. Unfortunately, as a busy man with countless matters demanding his attention, he had long since forgotten all about it.

“It seems there’s no way to truly know both ourselves and our enemy.” With that, he leaned back in his chair, opened the game forum with one hand, picked up his teacup with the other, and browsed the latest discussions while sipping his tea.

“Hmph! Nothing but a bunch of trash that only knows how to copy other people’s homework!”

At the sight of those forum posts offering high salaries to recruit elite players, Taurus let out a scornful snort. Then, as though something had just occurred to him, his expression instantly darkened.

“Damn it all! The family actually assigned some useless piece of trash to supervise me. What rotten luck!”

After the plan to kill the Blackhearted Princess had fallen apart, the Zhang family had become deeply dissatisfied with Taurus. They had spent an enormous amount of money, gained absolutely nothing, and even suffered heavy losses. It had been an utter waste of the family’s resources.

Had his father not fought to protect him, Taurus would probably have been stripped of his position by the family long ago.

“Those worthless b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲ actually dare look down on me!” He slammed his fist onto the table and growled through gritted teeth. Hatred welled up inside him, directed at his family, at S.K.Y., and at the Blackhearted Princess.

“If it weren’t for that b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲ and that traitor, would I have ended up like this!?”

It was all their fault! He would kill them. Whether in the real world or inside the game… He would kill them all!

As that thought crossed his mind, a jet-black flame ignited deep within his heart, consuming both body and soul while filling him with an overwhelming urge for destruction.

***

An hour later, Yunuen and Little Fairy finally arrived at Aoma Village.

After bringing them into to the village and introducing them to Angelica and the others, Yae-hime prepared beds for the two of them before escorting them to the City of Chaos.

The reason she hadn’t allowed them to remain in the village was because the bright crimson [Traitor] suffix above their heads was simply too conspicuous. If other players saw it, Aoma Village would inevitably be dragged into serious trouble.

“It really brings back memories!” Yunuen said cheerfully as she stood atop the City of Chaos. Even though only a few days had passed since she had last seen the pitch-black city, it somehow felt as though they had been reunited after a long separation.⁴　

“I never thought we’d actually get to spend the night here,” Little Fairy said calmly.

Yae-hime stared at the glaring scarlet [Traitor] suffix above their heads and silently sighed to herself. How wonderful it would have been if Yunuen and Little Fairy weren’t traitors. If that had been the case, she could still have bent the rules.

Unfortunately, every single member of the Princess Alliance carried the mark of an evildoer. Not one of them had escaped it.

“Oh, right. Isn’t Snowy coming over?” Suddenly remembering Nangong Lin’s personal bodyguard, Yae-hime asked.

“Big Sis Snowy said she’s been too busy to log into the game lately, so she won’t be coming.” Yunuen replied.

“I see.” Yae-hime nodded, not giving it much thought. After all, for someone as busy as Snowy, finding time to play a game was already no easy feat.

Meanwhile, in the real world… Snowy drove alone out of Roc City, her beautiful face filled with solemnity. Not long ago, she had received a confidential message from Mount Kun.

That person… was about to leave seclusion.

“Young Miss, you’d better pray for your own good.” Recalling everything Nangong Lin had been doing recently, Snowy could not help but let out a bitter smile.