Chapter 47: I Am So Cool

Mi Xiangyan saw the final words and felt a surge of unease. She quickly grabbed Xia Mi around the waist, pleading, “Don’t be angry, don’t be angry!”

To her surprise, Xia Mi was remarkably calm. She gave a thin smile and said, “I’m not angry. Not at all. The game helped me rule out a failure ending and let me know that the True Self’s final trump card is the ability to occupy anyone’s body within the Domain at any time. Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yes, that ability is very troublesome. We need to discuss it thoroughly before making a decision,” Mi Xiangyan said, trying to soothe Xia Mi’s emotions.

Xia Mi continued to smile. “Troublesome? How could it be troublesome? I love this ability. You have no idea how much I love it!”

Mi Xiangyan wanted to ask if Xia Mi had lost her mind, but her rational side forced her to swallow the words.

She sensed that Xia Mi already had a plan, but she didn’t dare ask.

Mi Xiangyan was afraid that if she heard the plan and disagreed, it would only add fuel to the fire of Xia Mi’s already volatile mood.

At this moment, the only choice Mi Xiangyan had was to trust her.

So, she gripped Xia Mi’s hand tightly, projecting maximum sincerity through every look, gesture, and tone. “Through the game, we’ve learned that we’re facing a desperate death ending,” she said earnestly. “I really want to help you, but only you can enter the Grey Domain. Xia Mi, all our lives are in your hands. You are our hero!”

“Of course. I won’t let a single person die.” Xia Mi adjusted an imaginary red scarf¹ at her chest.

Xia Mi pushed the door open and scanned the people waiting outside. Patting her chest, she said, “I have a plan. I guarantee I’ll bring you all back to reality!”

Mi Xiangyan didn’t know where Xia Mi’s confidence came from, but she decided to throw logic to the wind and follow her blindly. She nodded vigorously. “I believe in Xia Mi with all my heart!”

“Damn right! Sister Xia is the strongest!” Fang Zihan took the lead in the flattery.

The group from the Second Team began praising her in unison, their words so exaggerated that Liao Tianhua couldn’t help but frown.

Xia Mi looked at the silent Liao Tianhua. Recalling the actions of the grey Liao Tianhua at the end of the game, she gave a sinister grin. “Why aren’t you praising me?”

Seeing Xia Mi wearing a smile more villainous than an actual villain, Liao Tianhua sighed. “If you don’t know how to smile, then don’t. Your face is going to cramp.”

“I won’t lower myself to your level. Every debt has its debtor², and I’m going to find the one who owes me,” Xia Mi continued to grin menacingly.

Everyone realized Xia Mi’s mental state was a bit manic. No one dared to ask what had actually happened in the game, and they all avoided the subject entirely.

Arriving before the door to the Secret Room, Xia Mi asked, “The game confirmed that we don’t need this many people to deal with the Eye. Shield and a certain Liao³ are enough. Do the rest of you need me to clear the Zhuo Energy from your bodies?”

Liao Tianhua: “…”

He wasn’t even Xiao Liao anymore. “A certain Liao” sounded like a police bulletin for a criminal suspect.

Currently, only Qiu Hailan, Fang Zihan, and Mi Xiangyan remained in a state of Zhuo transformation. The three looked at each other, and Qiu Hailan and Fang Zihan left the decision to Mi Xiangyan.

Mi Xiangyan said, “This ability is very useful. I want to see if I can bring it back to the real world. If our consciousness and bodies can merge perfectly, we will become Rong with special abilities. Etornit has created so many monsters, we can’t fight them relying only on the strength of ordinary soldiers. We need more Rong. I’m willing to take the risk.”

“We are too,” Qiu Hailan and Fang Zihan added.

“Fine.” Xia Mi respected her teammates’ choice.

She then turned to Shield. “To save time, give me your Protective Suit in advance. I want to wear your clothes.”

Shield didn’t understand why, but Shield was cooperative and handed the Protective Suit over to her.

With everything ready, Xia Mi prepared to move.

Since everyone was under Shield’s protection, they didn’t need to avoid the Eye’s line of sight. Shield led the group and opened the door to the Secret Room directly.

As soon as the door opened, Shield rushed in first to wake the Eye’s consciousness.

The massive pair of eyes began to shed large tears. The conscious Eye was about to say something when Xia Mi stepped into the room first, speaking ruthlessly. “I know you have a lot of grievances to air, but time is tight. We can only wake you for thirty minutes, and we’ve already wasted twenty seconds. No more nonsense. Send me to the Grey Domain.”

The Eye: “But…”

Xia Mi: “No buts. No matter what difficulties there are, I’ll solve them. You just need to send me out. Once I’m in the Grey Domain, you can use the remaining twenty-nine minutes to cry your heart out to your comrades.”

Intimidated by Xia Mi’s aura, the Eye didn’t dare waste any more time and used its ability to open a door for her.

Before leaving, Xia Mi said to Shield, “Use your ability to protect my mind. Don’t let the mirror control me.”

Shield: “Don’t worry!”

Only after Xia Mi stepped through the door did everyone finally heave a long sigh of relief.

Qiu Hailan asked urgently, “Group Leader Mi, what kind of ending did she get? Why is her mental state like this?”

Mi Xiangyan gave a brief summary of the game’s plot.

A chill ran through everyone when they heard the ending.

Xia Mi was an easy person to read. She never hid her ambitions or desires, from the moment they met, she had “I want to be the boss” written all over her face.

Everyone knew how much Xia Mi wanted a Bianzhi position, how much she wanted to be promoted quickly, and how much she wanted to be a leader.

The ending of being unemployed was miserable enough, but they hadn’t expected an even worse one: a top-tier wanted criminal!

That meant she couldn’t even apply for a government job for three generations⁴!

Liao Tianhua realized that it was the mirror occupying his body that had turned Xia Mi into a wanted criminal. He finally understood why she had grinned at him so menacingly. Given that she hadn’t beaten him into a pulp on the spot after seeing his face, she was already being very restrained.

Liao Tianhua sighed. “Given that ending, it’s impressive she hasn’t completely lost it.”

“Yeah,” Qiu Hailan agreed.

The captains of the First and Second Team decided to call a temporary truce.

Fang Zihan said, “That game ending was a total dead end! I’ve been thinking about it for a while and can’t see a way out. Xia Mi just went in like that? What is she planning to do?”

Liao Tianhua, Qiu Hailan, and Mi Xiangyan all thought of the same thing at once, but none of them dared to voice that cruel possibility.

The three of them spoke in unison, “Stop thinking about it. Just trust her.”

At this moment, that was all they could do.

Xia Mi, the object of everyone’s concern, wasn’t actually thinking about much. Her thoughts were exceptionally simple.

After seeing the ending, she appeared calm on the surface, but a Category 18 typhoon had just ravaged her inner world. The beauty in her heart had been blown to pieces, her dreams uprooted, and her future shredded.

The Immortal Foundation’s goals and the truth behind Project Queen Bee no longer mattered to her.

She had only one thought in her mind: she was going to tear that mirror into a thousand pieces.

Once her thoughts became simple, Xia Mi suddenly found that the solution to her problems became simple as well.

What predicament? Couldn’t True Self transfer between bodies? Wasn’t that convenient? It just meant she could kill It a few more times!

Xia Mi’s face twisted into a cruel grin again.

“No, this expression isn’t suitable for a righteous civil servant of the state,” Xia Mi muttered.

She reached up and rubbed her face, using her hands to rearrange her facial muscles, turning the savage grin into a perfect, polite smile. Only her eyes remained terrifying.

Once she had adjusted her expression to perfection, Xia Mi looked down at the grey Liao Tianhua pinned beneath her foot.

She had already fought a preliminary battle with this grey Liao Tianhua in the game, and since her physical proficiency was synchronized with Xiao Mi, she knew every move he would make.

In the game, they had fought for dozens of rounds. Now, it took Xia Mi only three moves to leave grey Liao Tianhua with blood streaming from his nose, unable to get up.

Following the method Mi Xiangyan had used against Eye, Xia Mi dislocated all of grey Liao Tianhua’s limb joints and his jaw before tying him up securely.

Meanwhile, the True Self occupying Eye’s body was writhing on the ground, as no one was there to help It reset its dislocated joints.

Dragging grey Liao Tianhua with one hand, Xia Mi walked step by step toward True Self. She reached out and pinched True Self’s newly recovered joints, dislocating them once again.

True Self let out a shrill scream. “Xia Mi, this is Eye’s body!”

“Oh, if you can talk, then say more. I like listening to you,” Xia Mi said flatly.

She didn’t care about the content of True Self’s words, she just needed the speech to confirm that True Self was still inside Eye.

In the game, True Self had only transferred to grey Liao Tianhua at the very last moment. This indicated that It viewed this ability as a last resort and wouldn’t use it lightly.

As long as she didn’t show any intent to kill yet, True Self wouldn’t switch bodies at random.

With grey Liao Tianhua in one hand and True Self in the other, Xia Mi dragged them both forward.

Grey Liao Tianhua couldn’t speak with his jaw dislocated, while True Self was in agony from being dragged. It shouted, “Xia Mi, don’t you want to know the secret of your body? You’re a ticking time bomb! If you don’t master the right method, you’ll explode sooner or later, killing countless people!”

“Of course I want to know. Are you willing to tell me?” Xia Mi asked, her tone chillingly cool.

She chatted with True Self while dragging the two of them toward the place where Liao Tianhua was holding the members of the Second Team.

True Self, thinking Xia Mi had taken the bait, said, “You want to know? Then take off your helmet and come closer. I’ll only tell you.”

Xia Mi gave a cold laugh. “Do you really take me for a fool? Take off my helmet so you can occupy my body? Keep dreaming!”

She wasn’t slow. Within a few sentences, she arrived at the records room where everyone was being held.

Walking into the room, Xia Mi dropped the two of them without mercy. She approached her companions’ bodies and said calmly, “I’ll start by saying I’m sorry. If you want to curse me, wait until we’ve left the nest.”

With that, she reached out and dislocated everyone’s joints, striking without hesitation.

Afterward, Xia Mi kicked every weapon in the room out the door, ensuring no one could reach them.

She did another sweep of the room, covering every single object that could serve as a mirror.

Once she finished all this, Xia Mi checked the time. Only fifteen minutes had passed.

She walked over to True Self and said, “You have five minutes to tell me everything you know. What are you? Why is a mirror alive? What is Project Queen Bee really about? Why did I become the Queen Bee? What is Etornit’s next plot? Speak!”

True Self said proudly, “Xia Mi, you’re right. As long as you take off that helmet, I have a way to control your consciousness. But at the moment your consciousness is occupied, if you are strong enough, you can read information from my brain. That is the only way you can get intelligence.

“I won’t just say it that easily. If you want the answers, take off the helmet and take them from my mind!

“Come on! Let’s see whose consciousness is stronger!”

“You really think I’m an idiot?” Without a word, Xia Mi pulled off her glove and pressed her hand against Eye’s forehead. Countless Silkworms released from her palm, absorbing the Zhuo Energy within Eye’s body.

With no consciousness to support it, Eye’s body slumped over limply.

Xia Mi didn’t lower her guard. She went to grey Liao Tianhua, reached out to snap his jaw back into place, and delivered a sharp slap to his face.

“Mirror,” she said. “Talk.”

Grey Liao Tianhua’s eyes flickered. “You know I can transfer bodies?” he asked, his voice trembling. “How could you know?”

Xia Mi replied, “Didn’t Etornit tell you? Is it that they don’t know my abilities either, or do you just lack the clearance to know?”

Grey Liao Tianhua said, “I, I don’t know! After all, I’m just a prop they used to awaken the Queen Bee.”

“Answer my previous questions. You have four minutes left,” Xia Mi said.

Grey Liao Tianhua gritted his teeth and said, “Unless you…”

Xia Mi didn’t give him the chance to continue. She raised her hand and pressed it against his forehead. “You’re in no position to negotiate with me.”

The Silkworms activated, and the Zhuo Energy inside grey Liao Tianhua vanished as well.

Xia Mi checked her status. It was still only 10 Zhuo Coins. It seemed True Self had run away again.

She turned to look at the grey Second Team members and the grey Mi Xiangyan. Quickly noticing the strange look in the grey Fang Zihan’s eyes, she stepped in front of him, snapped his jaw back into place as per her routine, and slapped him across the face.

The grey Fang Zihan said weakly, “These are the bodies of your comrades, Queen Bee. You really are ruthless!”

“Whatever happens next will be better than the original ending,” Xia Mi said without a hint of psychological burden. “You have three minutes. After three minutes, I won’t ask again.”

This time, the True Self finally buckled. It said, “I used to be a human. I owed a lot of money back home and couldn’t make it, then I heard from an agent that illegal extradition from Mexico to the United States would lead to a good life. I believed them, took my money to buy the route into the U.S. from them, and left the country.

“I didn’t expect to be robbed in Mexico before even reaching the U.S. All the money on me was gone. I struggled to get to America, lost my passport, and thought I’d be able to find a job earning a hundred thousand a month and enjoy free American healthcare. Instead, I became an undocumented immigrant with no protection at all. No one would care if I went missing.

“Someone was handing out flyers saying that participating in a new drug trial would pay a million dollars. I was so poor that I decided to take the job. I didn’t realize it was the start of a nightmare.

“They fed me a bunch of white insect eggs and hit me with all sorts of messy radiation. My body was destroyed and then healed itself. I nearly went mad.

“They praised me, saying I was the only survivor of the experiment. They said as long as I held on, I could get superpowers, like Spider-Man, and become a superhero.

“I didn’t know if they were telling the truth, but what else could I do but believe? If it were true, I could actually have superpowers!

“I endured experiment after experiment. In the end, I gained the ability to invade others’ consciousness and awaken their inner evil. But then those white-coats said my life force was exhausted and I wouldn’t live much longer.

“They asked me again: did I want eternal life?

“Of course I did! So they told me I could shed the useless human shell and achieve true immortality.

“They had me look into a mirror. They said it was a Zhuo prop with special abilities. They needed that power, but they hoped the mirror could use it through its own consciousness.

“My consciousness could invade the bodies of others. They suggested I abandon my own body and take the initiative to let my consciousness enter the mirror. From then on, as long as the mirror didn’t break, I would be immortal.

“I knew I was dying anyway. My teeth and hair had all fallen out, my body was aging, and I smelled like rotting meat. I didn’t want to die. I had to try.

“I voluntarily transferred my consciousness into the mirror. I don’t know what method they used to fix my consciousness there, but I survived. They called me the True Self mirror.

“They told me they were giving me a difficult task: to awaken the True Self hidden within the Queen Bee. Then they packed me in a suitcase and shipped me back to this country.

“I was locked in the dark, waiting for I don’t know how long. It was more painful than prison. No one spoke to me. I was all alone.

“Until two months ago, someone told me the opportunity had come. As long as I could awaken the Queen Bee’s True Self, I could change bodies at will afterward. If I had the skill, I could even take over the Queen Bee’s body.

“I followed their instructions. I waited until a blindfolded person saw me, then I controlled that person, manipulating them to open two nests and wait for the Queen Bee to enter.”

“Are you sure the Queen Bee they mentioned is me?” Xia Mi asked.

“They showed me your photo,” the True Self mirror said.

Xia Mi glanced at the time. The True Self mirror’s story was too long, she only had five minutes left.

The True Self mirror said, “Xia Mi, let me go. Give me that mirror, and I’ll go back inside and release the consciousness within it.

“My ability is very strong. I can become a member of your team, a powerful tool for you. Isn’t that better than killing me?

“I hate those white-coats too. They turned me into this, and I want revenge on them! Let me cooperate with you.”

The True Self mirror pleaded using Fang Zihan’s young face, its expression vivid and pitiful.

Xia Mi said emotionlessly, “I will not trust a mirror that defaults on debts, smuggles itself across borders, collaborates with an evil organization, and finally took the chance to kill all my teammates.

“You never thought about turning over a new leaf. You heard that Etornit valued the Queen Bee, and you wanted the Queen Bee’s power.

“Anyone who can become Rong or Shi must have intense desires. You are a greedy person, you would never be satisfied shrinking back into a mirror.

“If you wanted to cooperate with us, you would have revealed your identity and assisted us the moment you saw the Eye.

“You destroyed your only chance to save yourself with your own hands.”

As Xia Mi spoke, she pressed her hand against the grey Fang Zihan’s forehead and released the Silkworm.

Still only 10 Zhuo Coins.

“Too much trouble,” Xia Mi said.

She reached out toward the remaining people simultaneously, using the Silkworm to wrap all six of them at once, absorbing the Zhuo Energy from their bodies simultaneously.

There were only a few people left in the nest. These were the only targets the True Self mirror could transfer its consciousness to. By absorbing the Zhuo Energy that didn’t belong to them at the same time, she could cut off the True Self mirror’s retreat.

This time, the True Self mirror entered Mi Xiangyan’s body. Sensing Xia Mi’s intent, it finally panicked.

It opened its mouth to plead, but everyone’s jaw had been dislocated by Xia Mi. It couldn’t speak, only letting out “ah, ah, ah” cries.

Xia Mi’s heart was as cold as iron. She steadily absorbed the energy from everyone. When the last wisp of Zhuo Energy belonging to the True Self mirror was devoured, the six people collapsed into unconsciousness.

This time, Xia Mi absorbed a full 500 Zhuo Coins.

Such a massive amount of energy must have been the True Self mirror’s main body.

Xia Mi closed her eyes and reflected on what she had just done. She couldn’t help but sigh, “I, am really cool!”

There were no spectators for this battle, and no one to praise her.

But that didn’t matter, she could praise herself.

Once she’d had her fill of self-congratulation, Xia Mi removed the cloth covering the mirror. When she had first entered this room, she had brought along the physical form of the True Self mirror that had been in the hands of the grey Liao Tianhua.

The moment Xia Mi removed the cloth and the mirror caught the light, a door appeared. Shield stepped out from within.

Eye had sensed that the True Self mirror’s control had vanished, and so it had dissolved the black nest.

As soon as Shield appeared, the mirror shattered into fine powder.

At the same time, Xia Mi felt the two Domains on the outskirts of the Pharmaceutical Factory vanish simultaneously.

Her teammates lying on the ground began to groan and whimper in pain.

Liao Tianhua clutched his badly swollen face, his voice slurred as he called out, “Xia Mi!”

As soon as he spoke, his jaw clicked out of place again.

Xia Mi looked at her battered teammates with a guilty conscience, giving a dry laugh. “Well… you know… Isn’t Captain Liao here to help?”

She hurried to Liao Tianhua’s side and held out her hand with an air of resignation. “Captain Liao, go ahead and absorb as much energy as you need. Take whatever it takes!”

Perhaps because she felt so guilty, Xia Mi didn’t even feel a flicker of killing intent this time. She allowed Liao Tianhua to take 300 Zhuo Coins from her.

Once all their teammates were healed, Xia Mi took the initiative to give Liao Tianhua another 80 Zhuo Coins, helping him top off his balance to 100.

Seeing Xia Mi’s guilty expression, Qiu Hailan came over and patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t feel bad. You did the right thing!”

Mi Xiangyan added, “Didn’t we get a perfect clear?”

Xia Mi breathed a sigh of relief and let out a yawn. “Yeah, a perfect clea—”

Before she could finish her sentence, she hit the floor with a heavy thud. She was too exhausted to even keep her eyes open and fell fast asleep instantly.

That was right. She hadn’t slept for three days and three nights.

She was so tired.

Translator’s Notes