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Chapter 302 - Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine: "This Really Is a Book from the Mortal World

Chapter 302: Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine: "This Really Is a Book from the Mortal World

Su Ming’an immediately looked up, but there was no one in the corridor.

The dim kerosene lamp hung on the wall, and there were several desiccated corpses on the ground.

He reached out to catch Saya as she toppled towards the ground.

Her body was thin, seeming somewhat weightless. At the moment, her chest had a bloody gash, and her dress was soaked red with blood.

Blood dripped drop by drop onto the ground, staining Su Ming’an’s hands with a warm stickiness that coated them fully.

The girl’s eyes were barely open, the remaining light in them slowly fading.

She had been attacked to near death and left at the door of the storeroom; Su Ming’an couldn’t help but suspect that the attacking Soul Clan member was targeting him.

"Rin." Saya began softly, her voice faint as a mosquito’s: "It was her... the hidden Soul Clan member on the Yate Vessel is..."

"Who is it?" Su Ming’an took out a Blood Bottle and poured it on her chest, watching the wound slowly start to heal.

Fortunately, Saya’s injury wasn’t fatal. She was hurt on the right side of her chest. Although she was bleeding heavily, she was just about capable of coming back from the brink.

"It’s..." Saya struggled to come closer to him: "It’s Nailuo... She just attacked me and threw me here... She must be acting out of jealousy to have struck me like this. She, she..."

As she spoke, her eyelids suddenly flipped, and she fainted.

Su Ming’an poured the liquid from the Blood Bottle on her wound.

...Nailuo?

His thoughts suddenly began to race.

After assuring that Saya’s wound was no longer spreading, he left the resting room and rushed towards the deck.

Su Ming’an truly hadn’t anticipated that, apart from the Duke, there was actually another member of the Soul Clan on board the Yate Vessel.

The Soul Clan that had suddenly attacked couldn’t be the Duke, for when he had persuaded Larya in the early hours of the morning, he had also gone upstairs and fed the Duke with some sailors. The Duke was very amenable to him, and shouldn’t cause trouble in a non-hungry state.

But to say the Soul Clan was Nailuo...

Su Ming’an had originally thought that "there is a Soul Clan on the Yate Vessel" was just a plan of a crew member, intended to fabricate the presence of the Soul Clan. He hadn’t expected that there was really another member of the Soul Clan mixed in, attacking at such a critical moment.

Such a critical time... people were evacuating, and two Soul Hunters had been struck down by him. The timing chosen by this Soul Clan member to make an appearance was indeed curious.

He ran towards the deck.

The deck, once crowded with people, now seemed extraordinarily quiet. Some dried blood mingled with fresh blood forming patches, splattering the ground, and the wooden deck was full of crisscrossing streaks of bright red and dark red.

At least a dozen bodies lay on the ground, all in a state of death by a single swipe.

And those crowds had all taken refuge in the underground cabins. Since the Soul Clan started attacking in the upstairs corridor, the underground cabins were relatively safe.

Su Ming’an approached the railing; lifeboats floated on the sea’s surface, and at the exit of the underground cabin, people were quickly climbing aboard in waves.

He turned around, ready to go back down to the cabins when he suddenly heard people who hadn’t managed to evacuate yet shouting loudly at the side.

"—Wait, where’s the captain? The steward? The leader?"

A few individuals wearing different clothes, clearly from different social strata, gathered together. They shouted loudly, demanding to see the leader of the Yate Vessel.

As Su Ming’an turned to look at them, they also saw him standing alone on the deck, appearing out of place among the fleeing masses.

"...How come there are still people here at this time?" a tall woman spoke up.

They were not NPCs, but a group of players belonging to the high-level guild "Sword of the Yellow Rose". Among them, the tall noblewoman who was in fact the leading player, Luna, was a North Country person known for using various violent, hardcore methods to solve instance levels.

Upon hearing of the S-ranked Soul Hunter’s death, her first thought was that the Soul Clan member on the Yate was not a player.

Otherwise, how could a player have the strength to kill one of the S-ranked Soul Hunters, Larya and Valen, on their own? The power was simply too absurd.

She immediately requested to see Larya, or the captain of the Yate. She had a special prop for dealing with NPCs and was confident it would work against the S-ranked Soul Clan member.

Su Ming’an didn’t pay attention to these players; he went straight to the stairs, eager to see how Larya was doing.

As he walked, the voices of the players followed from behind.

"—Wait, I recognize him! He’s the one who was taken away for inspection on the fourth level..." A civilian male player suddenly spoke up, his voice tinged with excitement: "—He’s the one, the attacking Soul Clan! It has to be him! The timing is too perfect, Valen died right after he was taken away..."

Su Ming’an hadn’t had a chance to look back when he heard the "ding-dong" sound.

The system’s voice rang out in his ear for a moment.

[You are under the influence of the special prop, Metamorphosed Red Rose.]

[Effect of Metamorphosed Red Rose: Used on an NPC or player, it performs a Charm value judgment on both parties, influencing their Divine Wisdom to a certain degree depending on the difference in Charm values. When the difference is significant, one party can impose a "Forced Command" on the other.]

[Performing comparison judgment...]

Seeing this system prompt pop up, Su Ming’an was startled.

It was his first time seeing a prop that determined the Charm values of both parties.

"Ding-dong!" "Ding-dong!" Two notification sounds rang out, and Luna, who had been smug, heard a response that caught her off guard.

[Charm Judgment: S+ compared to A, Player (Luna) judgment failed, affected by "Forced Command".]

Meanwhile, Su Ming’an received a prompt of his own.

[You have acquired a temporary follower: Luna]

[Duration: 6 hours (Within these 6 hours, you can issue any forced combat commands to the other party, who cannot refuse.)]

Su Ming’an turned around.

Luna, looking utterly astonished, was now staring back at him.

"—Quick, kill him! I’ve failed the judgment—!" she immediately bellowed out.

Luna, who had always prided herself on her high Charm value, never imagined she would fail a judgment. At times like this, the only way to rid herself of this damned state was for her teammates to kill the leader she followed.

Her teammates, seeing this, immediately grabbed their weapons and charged at him, their aggression palpable.

"..." Su Ming’an was speechless at these players who were causing trouble on the spur of the moment.

He immediately issued a command to Luna to hold her position and block these reckless players, then he turned and left.

Delayed by this group for a while, he grew even more concerned for Larya’s condition.

Ascending along the staircase, he saw corpses of various death postures lying in the hallway, the once resplendent cabins transformed into a mortal hell on earth.

Passing by the Duke’s room on the sixth level, he saw the door had been kicked open, and inside, there was a large pool of fresh blood.

He didn’t go in to check but rushed straight to the rooftop, and with a forceful shove, he opened the door, only to see Larya collapsed at the side.

The torrential rain "pitter-pattered" against him, Larya’s blood on the ground mixing with the rainfall, and he stepped into a crimson river.

"You’re not dead, are you." Su Ming’an approached Larya, who still had breath in him, and a transparent Defensive Barrier was still upheld on his body, which seemed to be what allowed him to survive.

As soon as Su Ming’an approached, the somewhat weakened Larya immediately grasped his forearm, urgency in his voice:

"Viscount, the Soul... The attacking Soul Clan member is, is..."

"It should be Saya," Su Ming’an said.

Larya’s eyes lit up: "You, you know?"

Su Ming’an handed him a Blood Bottle: "You recover for a bit first, I’ll go take care of her."

"...Wait, Viscount." He was about to turn away when Larya caught hold of him.

Under the dense rain, Larya’s voice sounded choppy, and Su Ming’an crouched down to listen carefully to his words.

"You, you’re going to deal with Saya?" Larya’s voice was very soft: "...After all, she grew up with you as childhood friends, perhaps she has her reasons, and may not have intended to harm anyone... Are you really going to kill her..."

Su Ming’an knew this Ral had a penchant for romance, but he didn’t expect the other to be this naïve.

"Of course." Su Ming’an said, "If one wants to take control of the Yate Vessel, there can be no members of the Soul Clan on board. This is an issue at the root, unrelated to who she is, so even if it were Saya..."

His voice halted there.

The downpour slanted in front of him, mixed with a distinct scent of blood.

A deep darkness pressed into his field of vision, and as he lowered his head, he saw Ral’s dagger piercing through his chest.

[HP-1870! (Critical Hit! Anesthetic Poison! Piercing Wound!)]

The blood-red digits flickered before his eyes.

At the same time, a yellow lightning bolt icon appeared in the top left of his vision, and his body began to lose strength in that instantaneous moment.

Using the last bit of his energy, his hand pressed against Ral’s throat; a crisp "click" sounded as he crushed the other’s larynx.

"Pfft."

[HP-2190! (Critical Hit! Fatal Wound!)]

The blood-red glow in Ral’s eyes flickered and vanished, a speck of blankness and surprise emerged as he stared at the bloodied Su Ming’an before him, his expression now also mixed with the daze of awakening from a dream.

"Viscount..."

The broken voice emerged from his throat, and the next moment, he lost his last sight.

...

[*You’ve killed Ral (Yate Vessel·S-level Soul Hunter), Exp +8000!]

[You’ve obtained Hunter’s Medal·S-Level*1]

[Hunter’s Medal·S-Level: With this medal, you can exchange for Soul Clan Points with the Soul Clan forces, which can be exchanged for Equipment and Props at key NPCs within the Soul Clan.]

...

[You’ve killed all three Soul Hunters aboard the Yate Vessel!]

[You’ve earned the Special Title: Heir to the Soul Hunt]

[Heir to the Soul Hunt: 1% combat power boost. When facing Soul Clan below 800 in combat power, your attacks have an instant kill effect. When facing Soul Clan under 1500 combat power, your attack damage is increased by 1.5 times.]

...

An ironically fitting title flashed before his eyes.

But now was not the time to focus on it.

Ral had attacked him out of the blue. There was no reason for it; his Favorability was clearly maxed out, so backstabbing at a time like this was unthinkable...

Unless, some other force had taken control of Ral.

He remembered the flash of red light in the bottom of Ral’s eyes just before they closed.

His hand pressed against the blood-soaked ground, forcibly flipped his body over, and leaned on the railing where Ral had just been.

The blood continued to flow from his chest; he didn’t dare to pull out the dagger. Although Ral’s stab was somewhat misaligned and had missed the heart, pulling it out rashly could also cause severe bleeding.

It was just that the anesthetic effect of the dagger made it difficult for him to move.

The torrential rain lashed his face, the Yate Vessel tossed in the storm. The rooftop was like a sail lying across the rain and wind, as though it could be blown away at any moment.

He barely managed to fetch a Blood Bottle and pour it over his wound. In such a moment, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a strand of golden hair.

The girl in a western dress ascended from the stairs below. The rain lashed onto her sunlit hair, with the golden strands coming slowly like the brewing sunshine amidst the rain.

In her hand, she carried a person drenched in fresh blood, one with hair as red as a rose.

The girl stood firm in front of Su Ming’an, looking down at him with an unusually complex mix of emotions in her eyes.

Her chest, with the faux wound, had completely healed, and the eyes that looked back at him flickered with a scarlet light.

"Saya," Su Ming’an said softly.

"Rin," Saya responded softly as well, her voice nearly indistinguishable through the wind and rain.

She flung her hand, casting the blood-soaked Nailuo out, where he landed heavily on the roof of the building. Nailuo gasped a few rugged breaths, barely managing to look at Su Ming’an:

"Rin... run quickly..."

Even through the thick rain, her voice fluttered like a light breeze.

"How did you guess it was me?" Saya asked.

"Intuition," Su Ming’an replied.

He had information that Saya could never know. In the previous loop, Nailuo died at the hands of the crew, which meant that Nailuo could not possibly be the one from the Soul Clan.

He had originally thought that Saya lied out of a desire for revenge, or as a disguise made by the Soul Clan, without considering the possibility that Saya herself was from the Soul Clan. After all, Valen, the S-Level Soul Hunter who had watched over Saya since she was a child, would have never allowed her to live till now if she really was from the Soul Clan.

But... he had overlooked one factor.

When he saw the blood-red in Lar’ya’s eyes, he understood in that moment that the Soul Clan seemed to have a special talent.

No, to be exact, "some special Soulers" possessed a unique ability.

Otherwise, this should have been revealed long ago, not just discovered by him now.

"Charm."

Or rather... "Development."

Developing lower ranks, creating new Soulers, turning the staunchest of Soul Hunters into her subordinates, converting normal humans into members of the Soul Clan.

Although this ability must have its limits, as both old man Valen and Saya had always seemed normal, and even the red glow in Lar’ya’s eyes appeared very suddenly, in such a situation, Su Ming’an could only think of this possibility.

And as for Saya... Su Ming’an even wondered if she was a being recently evolved by a higher-ranking member of the Soul Clan. Her usual display of fear didn’t seem faked, which was also one reason Su Ming’an did not suspect her.

But in these particular moments, her manifestation of the Soul Clan’s bloodthirstiness was unexpectedly alarming.

So,

Valen, who had always been loyally devoted, and Lar’ya, who behaved in an extremely carefree manner... both had become Saya’s subordinates without realizing it.

On this ship, this massive vessel hailed as the "Yate Vessel—Hope of the Empire"...

How many converted beings existed?

Su Ming’an slightly tilted his head, looking down over the railing at the turbulent sea below.

At that moment, several lifeboats were prepared to set sail, ready to flee the ship that had turned into hell, carrying with them people’s last hopes.

...But was that truly hope?

He watched the scene and felt nothing but irony.

"Rin," the blonde girl approached him, her dress lightly dragging across the floor with the sound of water.

She cocked her head, her blood-red eyes fixating on him:

"Rin, what are you thinking about?"

Su Ming’an shifted his body, smiling:

"I am thinking..."

"...what a genuinely mortal tale this is."

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