“M-Moon… Yueye?” Zhu Yue’s hand froze in midair. Her eyes were full of disbelief…
“…” Yueye said nothing. After hearing what Wang Qian had said, she didn’t even stop Zhu Yue from pulling back her hood.
“W-What… what’s wrong with you?” Liu Huiying had never seen Yueye in the illusion, but those golden-blue vertical pupils made her start trembling despite herself…
“So, Zhu Yue, what else do you have to say? Isn’t it obvious what’s going on?…” Wang Qian raised the pistol in her hand and took steady aim at Yueye’s forehead. The sight of her made Wang Qian’s blood run cold…
“So you came with us just to torment us, to mess with us, Yueye?” Su Lin, standing nearby, looked at Yueye as she was now and thought of the dangers they’d faced along the way—and of Wang Qian’s words. The words that came out of Su Lin’s mouth grew more and more hostile.
“I… I didn’t…” Yueye took an involuntary step back. She’d been prepared for everyone to be prejudiced against her… but she never imagined they’d blame her for everything that had happened…
“Yueye… is that really true?” Liu Huiying stepped back, her face stricken with disbelief. For a moment, the way Yueye looked now made her believe Su Lin’s words. She couldn’t understand how someone who seemed like the weakest member of the group could actually be the enemy who’d been lurking among them all along…
“No, listen to me! I didn’t…” Yueye’s voice grew fainter and fainter. Seeing their reactions, she felt her last glimmer of hope vanish. She’d never thought things would turn out like this… She’d already prepared herself to tell her teammates who she really was, to find out sooner rather than later how they’d treat her… But she’d never imagined that after giving so much to the team, she’d be branded the culprit who’d been sabotaging them all along…
“What is there to explain? How you’ve been playing us?” Wang Qian dealt another devastating blow, taking away Yueye’s last chance to speak…
“…Yueye, I really didn’t think it’d be you… Why would you do this?!”
“Demons love to toy with people’s hearts… It’s their thing.”
“She was up to no good from the moment she joined us. She’s only using Yueye’s name… Maybe the Yueye we knew was already dead—maybe she killed her…” Everyone’s words struck Yueye like a volley of arrows…
Suspicion and resentment—every kind of negative emotion came pouring down on Yueye. But no one noticed her expression slowly darkening… or the faint, twisted smile appearing at the corner of her mouth. The feeling of having her hopes dashed again brought her face-to-face with reality once more…
“That’s right. You guessed it—all of it was me. I was the one who hurt Zhang Yan. I created your hallucinations just to toy with you. That giant dragon came looking for me… But what can you do about it? I gave everything to this team, and what did I get in return? In the end, you stand there all righteous, pointing equipment bought with my exchange points at me… Heh. Is this what you call ‘team spirit’?” Yueye drew out the words “team spirit” on purpose. Her expression was like that of a Demon King who toyed with the whole world. It was as if, in that moment… she’d become someone else entirely. She no longer had any hopes for this team. The only thing left to do was cut ties with them once and for all. Their paths would never cross again.
White Radiance’s voice rang out in her mind… like a demon’s temptation… “Master, you were never meant to be one of them… This team doesn’t welcome you.”
“Even the last person you still had hope in has abandoned you, Master… It’s time to leave. That’s what humans are like. They believe that anyone who isn’t one of them must have a different agenda. The moment your bloodline awakened, there was no going back. You’re not even the same species as them… How could you ever work together?” Every word from White Radiance cut deep… Each one reflected the truth of the moment.
After hearing White Radiance’s words, Yueye finally spoke, sounding as if she were saying goodbye to her past once and for all. “Then just think of the old me as dead. From now on, I’m the monster you all call me…” Her voice was as still as a dead lake, without the slightest ripple of emotion…
“Then go die…”
The deafening BANG made everyone turn around. Wang Qian had pulled the trigger. For one brief moment, everything that happened was uncannily in sync with what had happened in the illusion…
“Ding!” The bullet suddenly stopped in midair, as if it had struck an invisible wall…
「Why… did you know this was how it would end?」 Yueye asked White Radiance. From White Radiance’s words, it seemed she’d known all along what would happen today… Yueye’s heart was trembling. She could feel the killing intent coming from the other side… but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t understand what she’d done to deserve being killed in cold blood…
「Because this isn’t the first time people of another race have treated you this way, Master. In their eyes, you’re a monster…」 White Radiance’s voice sounded distant, as if it came from the other end of the world… As she spoke, her tone seemed to be tempting Yueye to do something…
“I understand…” Yueye murmured… She looked at the fear in everyone’s eyes and smiled…
At that moment, she finally understood one thing… People who lacked even basic gratitude and the ability to tell right from wrong had no right to stand before her with weapons in their hands…
“So this is what you’re really like? I’ve certainly seen enough of it these past few days… But now, you have no right to stand here and point your guns at me!” The ground shook, and guns fired… A wall of ice rose between Yueye and the others, cutting them off from one another’s sight. It also marked the end of any connection between them.
“So you still couldn’t bring yourself to kill them?…” White Radiance teased Yueye, as if she’d known this would happen all along.
“…” Yueye said nothing. She turned and walked into the dense woods behind her… Her retreating figure was so resolute, as though she’d already forgotten everyone on the other side of the ice wall…
“White Radiance, the Dragon Clan doesn’t cry, right?” Yueye wanted so badly to cry, but found that she couldn’t…
“Of course they do, Master. Dragons only cry when they’re moved.” White Radiance’s voice echoed in Yueye’s mind… but Yueye couldn’t bring herself to listen.
