Sacred Souls: Genesis
Chapter 405 - Chapter 405: Chapter 392: What is Honor? (3rd Update)

Chapter 405: Chapter 392: What is Honor? (3rd Update)

When Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge regained her consciousness, she found herself dragged into a closed space.

Her health bar and skill slots had all vanished, and when she looked at her arm, it was no longer the vambrace used by nurses.

Where was this?

Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge pushed her hand forward and found herself inside… an incubation chamber.

Through the glass of the incubator, she saw her parents outside, talking with a doctor. Her mother looked at Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge inside the incubator with pained eyes.

“Mom?” Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge knocked on the incubator continuously, “Mom! I’m fine now! I can move! Let me out!”

But outside, the parents of Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge couldn’t hear her at all. After the doctor handed something over for her parents to sign, they left with tears in their eyes, under the desperate gaze of Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge.

“Mom? Dad! Don’t leave me here! I can move! Mom!” Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge shouted loudly, but still, no one could hear her voice.

The scene outside suddenly changed; it was still the hospital, but now the figures inside were those… friends from the Spirit, who had come to visit her after she awoke.

“President! President, let me out! President!” The hands of Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge didn’t stop knocking on the glass walls of the incubator, but the people outside still couldn’t hear her voice.

“President! Sister Xia Shan!” Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge called out the names of those she trusted, but they all turned their backs and left the hospital ward under her watchful eye.

“I’m still alive…”

As Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge spoke these words, she found herself choking on the liquid in the incubator, and then felt like she had fallen into the deep sea, so deep it took her breath away.

Darkness gradually swallowed her, and the suffocating sensation of being engulfed by water made Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge cough incessantly.

“President…” Between her coughs, the name Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge called out seemed to elicit a response, and the voice of Jiang Qiao rang in her ears.

Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge opened her eyes abruptly, and Jiang Qiao, who had left the ward, had run back, but not in the form of reality, but… as a pixelated glasses-wearing figure inside the game.

“President!” Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge cried out with joy, but Jiang Qiao wasn’t calling Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge’s name.

In an instant, Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge heard clearly what Jiang Qiao was calling out.

“Fire Spirit! Burn!”

The scorching flames tore through the illusionary lake in front of Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge, and the monster that had been devouring her emitted a piercing scream and was pushed aside.

Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge also returned to reality and landed on the ground, still coughing non-stop. She barely managed to come to her senses and looked up to see Jiang Qiao standing in front of her.

This moment, without thinking, she just embraced Jiang Qiao.

The embrace lasted for less than three seconds, because Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge noticed her body was becoming increasingly transparent.

Her health points… had dropped to zero.

“I… It seems I wasn’t able to help at all,” Extra Dairy, No Extra Charge said as she watched her body turn into particles of light.

“You’ve already helped by using so many Resurrection Techniques this time without asking for money,” Jiang Qiao said as he lightly patted the shoulder of the healer who didn’t raise her prices.

Jiang Qiao had a bunch of items on him that could forcibly resurrect a spirit, but he had not used them. The healer who didn’t raise her prices was now exceptionally weak in spirit.

The fatigue brought about by twenty-one hours of battle and the torment of the consciousness of the Black Tide Island made her unable to bear much more.

Jiang Qiao decided to use death as a reason to let her log off and rest.

“Eh? No charge? …Wait, guild leader…” the healer, who didn’t raise her prices, took one last look at Jiang Qiao in the game and asked, “Can I hug you like this in real life too?”

“Uh… it depends?”

Jiang Qiao was somewhat confused by the healer’s straightforward approach, but considering she had significant problems with her outlook on life now, Jiang Qiao didn’t press further. Finally, he watched as she turned into a gravestone and disappeared from his sight.

After Jiang Qiao had safely rescued the healer from that place, he used his own consciousness to connect with the Mother Avatar outside.

“Tell me how to kill this monster now,” Jiang Qiao said as he continued to burn the Heart-Stealing Demon that had controlled the healer with his Fire Spirit.

For the time being, let’s call this creature a Heart-Stealing Demon–it didn’t have a name, and Jiang Qiao had just given it one on the spot. This Heart-Stealing Demon was an incarnation of the core consciousness of Black Tide Island. There were many such incarnations, and as long as they remained within the core consciousness of Black Tide Island, they couldn’t be killed.

“You need to find its true form. Right now, the core of Chaos’ power is mostly concentrated in the two Island Masters and the Divine Fragment of the Devouring God. It must be planning to invade the barrier Denghis Xisi created, certainly borrowing the power of your Devouring God. Among so many Heart-Stealing Demons, there is one true form. Find it and kill it, and that will be enough,” said the Mother Avatar.

The Mother Avatar seemed to be sensing something, and after completing her sensing, she continued.

“I can feel that the true form is currently in front of the weakest one among you. You must kill it before Black Tide Island completely corrodes Denghis Xisi’s thoughts. Otherwise, the Heart-Stealing Demon you face may not be as simple as a creature with only five to six thousand health points,” she explained.

After having thoroughly read “The Modern Survival Handbook,” the Mother Avatar had also developed a concept of life points and health points.

The relationship between Denghis Xisi and Black Tide Island was more like that of an owner and a dog, but this dog could bite, its strength hundreds of times greater than a human’s. Though Denghis Xisi kept it caged, the dog had ways to break out.

Now, a group of people had barged into Denghis Xisi’s home, intent on cutting the dog’s brain out. Knowing this, the dog certainly wouldn’t just stand there stupidly.

So, when Black Tide Island realized Denghis Xisi couldn’t guard its core consciousness, it decided to give Denghis Xisi a bit of brutal assistance.

These Heart-Stealing Demons were there to help Denghis Xisi!

But the weakest member… Isn’t that me? No, that’s not right!

Jiang Qiao remembered that among the Beheading Squad this time, there was a filler member, who seemed to be called Bug Controller.

“Does Bug Controller have a livestream room?” Jiang Qiao immediately asked in the team voice chat.

“Yes! I’ve followed him, his livestream room number is 516124!” Black Pot Cooking Meat responded right away.

“Guild leader, did you find a solution by asking the forum guy?” Zhao Mingwei asked urgently.

“Bug Controller’s Heart-Stealing Demon is the real body. As long as we kill that guy, we can go directly to trouble Denghis Xisi’s true consciousness!”

As he spoke, Jiang Qiao opened Bug Controller’s livestream account, and in the livestream, he saw Bug Controller confronting a creature that the Heart-Stealing Demon had transformed into, and… the creature he was facing was his… mother.

What the heck! Is this going to turn into a matricide drama? Jiang Qiao was stunned for a moment, thankfully noticing that barely anyone, or perhaps no one at all, was watching Bug Controller’s livestream.

The players in the team had been urging him to start a live broadcast.

At this moment, when Spirit saw his own mother suddenly appear in the game, he was completely stunned. He had just killed the negative consciousness of a Magic Thief in a room, earning 3,000 points of merit and raising his ranking to fifteenth place in contributions!

As he was about to take down the next monster that had spawned and continue racking up his merits, Spirit’s mother suddenly appeared in the game room.

If it weren’t for the Dragon Gate Gun that Mo Shigui entrusted to him in his hand, Spirit would have thought he had returned to reality.

But why would his mother in real life appear in the game?

“Mom?” Spirit tentatively called out to the figure, but his mother did not speak and instead walked toward him.

“Spirit! Don’t be deceived, it’s a monster called a Heartstealer, masquerading as an illusion!” Jiang Qiao immediately warned Spirit with his voice.

“Although it’s a bit of a headache, young man! The time to fight has come!” Black Pot Cooking Meat also started to join in the excitement.

“Heartstealer monster? Why would such a monster take the form of my mother? This… This is too eerie!” Spirit could only describe it as eerie.

Logically speaking, shouldn’t monsters in the game with similar settings transform into NPCs from the storyline? Since when do they become people from reality?

However, an even strangier scene unfolded. From behind Spirit’s mother, a mass of black, thornlike tentacles burst out, aiming straight for Spirit.

“Move it!” Zhao Mingwei’s shout exploded in Spirit’s ears.

Like a machine driven by Zhao Mingwei, Spirit instinctively dodged the dark tentacles.

“You’re one of our Vibrant Nucleus members, don’t embarrass us,” Black Pot Cooking Meat urged quickly.

“I won’t.”

Clutching the light gun in his hand, Spirit looked at his own mother who had completely turned into a monster. After a brief hesitation, he still charged head-on.

“Light Gun Barrier four seconds, Light Flame Prison Kill sixteen seconds…” Zhao Mingwei turned into a human CD time announcer, reporting the cooldown times of his skills to Spirit over voice chat.

At that moment, Spirit suddenly realized… He was being watched by several world-famous professional players, and hopes were placed on him!

I can’t lose!

Swinging the light gun in his hand, Spirit cut through the tentacles aiming at him. The difficulty level of this Heartstealer was just enough to suppress Spirit’s own level.

A spike pierced his arm as he failed to dodge in time, and his health instantly dropped by half… He shattered a special-effect health potion and poured it into his mouth, choosing to fight to the death!

This time, Spirit felt he was performing exceptionally well!

Whether it was the feel of the battle or his intuition, everything was terrifyingly accurate!

Just a little more!

In the end, the seven light spears released from behind Spirit pinned the Heartstealer to the wall, and all the floating bright spears behind him poured into the Dragon Gate Gun in his hand.

“Take it down!” Black Pot Cooking Meat shouted in his ear, like an audience cheering for their player’s excellent move!

Awakening*Radiant Spear! Spirit unleashed his personal awakening skill.

A large amount of light converged on the long spear in his hands, as if a divine dragon was coiling around it.

Now, all he needed to do was release this dragon and completely annihilate the enemy before him!

“Die!” Spirit pulled his arm holding the dazzling long spear back, and at the moment he was about to hurl it…

The scenery before his eyes suddenly changed. The Heartstealer disappeared, and so did the long spear in his hands… His hand, which had grasped the spear, now only held a VR controller.

And the scene before him had also turned into the cramped, gloomy inside of a dark internet cafe.

His mother was glaring at him with a face full of fury.

“You… you…” At that moment, Spirit was completely stunned.

“What ‘you’? Li Cong? Getting bolder, aren’t we? Skipping class to spend the whole day at the internet cafe? You really thought I wouldn’t find you! And ‘die’? ‘Die’? I think you’ve gone mad from gaming!” Spirit’s mother angrily lashed at his arm with a clothes hanger she was holding.

The pain in his arm was piercing to the bone, but Spirit did not let go of the VR controller in his hand; instead, he shouted at the top of his lungs…

“Get lost!”

“You tell me to ‘get lost’? You only know to hole up here gaming every day! What sort of future will you have?! Look at the kid next door!”

“Give me the VR headset!” Spirit could no longer care about the pain from the clothes hanger his mother was beating him with. He shouted to the internet cafe manager holding the VR headset.

“You dare! I’m telling you all! I’ve already reported*the*cafe! My son isn’t even of age, and you let him in here! None of you will get away!”

Spirit could no longer be concerned with his mother; he snatched the VR headset from the manager’s hands and put it back on.

The instant he donned it again, the gloomy atmosphere of the internet cafe vanished, and what flooded his view was a streak of sunlight, dazzling sunlight.

He found himself… now standing on the streets in front of the Resurrection Cathedral in Lionheart City.

Seeing the bustling players around him, Spirit instantly understood… he hadn’t thrown that spear! Hhe had been killed by the Heartstealer and kicked out of the instance!

He… had failed, letting everyone down.

The next second, Spirit’s VR headset was removed once more, and the dim scenery before him caused Spirit’s mind to crash.

“Kid, will you say something? Have you genuinely gone stupid from gaming? Say something!” The shouts of Spirit’s mother grew less important in his ears.

He was dragged by the ear by his mother out of the internet cafe, through the disdainful and contemptuous stares of everyone inside, thrown out onto the street.

At that moment, tears shamefully streamed down from Spirit’s eyes as he couldn’t help but cover his face and cry out loud.

“How old are you to still be crying? You didn’t feel embarrassed when you went to the internet cafe!”

The yelling and sound of police sirens gradually faded away, and at that moment, Spirit suddenly felt that nothing… was that important anymore.