Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Song Qingxiao could not enter through the front gate, so she climbed into her house through a window at the back. The sound of thunder outside still rang out loudly. She could hear her mother snoring after she got drunk and fell asleep, completely unaware of the horrors her daughter had been through.
She left traces of water on the windowsill when she climbed in, but Song Qingxiao did not have the strength to deal with it then. The windows slammed back and forth non-stop from being blown about by the wind and rain, making a clattering sound as they moved.
Song Qingxiao collapsed onto the floor, utterly devoid of any energy. She could barely move even a finger. She still held the dagger in her right hand. It seemed to give her a sense of security to have it there.
The aftershock of the murder hit her out of the blue, and the taste of blood in her mouth made her stomach churn. She retched a couple of times and spat out some water. After she repeated it a few times, she finally settled down and began to pay attention to the prompt in her mind.
The cards in her consciousness had disappeared as she left the space. It seemed to be replaced by a completely new interface that showed the total number of credits she had.
200.
It was the reward for completing the trial. Song Qingxiao tried to interact with the credits in her consciousness, and an interface that allowed redemption appeared in her mind. She checked out the interface, but there were a few things there. The first thing that caught her eye was the first item—Imperial City currency.
The credits required to exchange one hundred thousand Imperial City dollars was clearly displayed on the interface.
20.
If one remembered clearly, Song Qingxiao’s family was not well-to-do. Her father had committed an offense a long time ago and left behind a huge debt. Her mother was an alcoholic…
Song Qingxiao had relied on her stellar grades to obtain the subsidies and loans given by the royal family to outstanding students to help them complete their education. She still had student debt, which was why she was so desperate to get a job as soon as she graduated.
The 200 credits that she possessed could be used to redeem an enormous sum of money. It would allow her to pay off her debts and live a less financially constrained life. That sum of money would have been extremely attractive to Song Qingxiao if she had not already experienced the horrifying trial of nearly losing her life in that mysterious space.
However, her previous encounter had left her significantly on edge and on high alert ever since she left the space. She had already removed the mouse cord that the doctor had wrapped around her neck. She even managed to kill the doctor.
Despite that, the dark cloud that hung over her head from that encounter had not vanished. She still felt like danger was a shadow that constantly followed her. It was as though the threat to her life had not truly disappeared, and it made her extremely uneasy.
Until then, no matter how hard she tried to pretend that everything that happened last night was just a bad dream, the evidence was too overwhelming for it to be imaginary.
The ‘Trial of God’ was real, and there was no doubt that she narrowly escaped with her life from the space as the only one out of the nine to achieve that temporary reprieve. She had a bad premonition that her success in the first trial did not mean that she was out of harm’s way. It was not the end. It could merely be the start of the game.
It was like a grand door to a new universe had opened before her. Since she stepped in, it was impossible to leave. The rules in the real world did not apply there. Everyone who wanted to survive needed to do their best to fight for their lives.
Those credits were not easily obtained. Even though money was extremely enticing to her, Song Qingxiao was more interested in surviving than becoming rich overnight. She removed the idea of cashing out the money from her plan without hesitation.
Apart from money, there were other things in the interface that she could redeem with her credits. She could exchange her credits to get guns, ammunition, daggers, machetes, and a long whip. The price of a gun was 100 credits, but she needed to obtain bullets separately. Each bullet cost 50 credits.
Even though Song Qingxiao still did not understand the rules of how the credits were obtained. She had a total of 200 credits. She frowned.
Under the weapons selection, there was an option to change or upgrade bloodlines. That option cost 200 credits. She touched it with her consciousness and received a prompt.
‘Once selected, the bloodline cannot be changed.’
There was a mysterious sign next to the option to change bloodlines. The sign said ‘Special Reward’.
The token’s cost was precisely 200 credits. The option was not clearly displayed like the previous options such as money, weapons, and the bloodline upgrade. It seemed to represent that it was something unknown.
Song Qingxiao was a little hesitant. It might be because she had very few credits, and there were not many items that she could select. After all, she was not going to consider money for the time being. Guns and bullets could keep her safe, but they were too flashy. She would not be able to rely on them as a secret weapon to gain victory.
The option to change or upgrade her bloodline stirred her curiosity. However, what really caught her attention was the sign that displayed ‘Special Reward’. She felt that something waited for her behind that sign.
After she hesitated and changed her mind multiple times, she gritted her teeth and changed her choice from the option to change or upgrade bloodlines to select the Special Reward. A prompt appeared in her mind, ‘Have you selected the Special Reward?’
Song Qingxiao took a deep breath in and selected, ‘Yes’!
It was a gamble. It was possible that the ‘Special Reward’ would not be something she hoped for, but there was a chance that it would be a pleasant surprise. She lay on the ground as she bit down hard on her lower lip.
Once she had confirmed her selection by picking ‘Yes’, a prompt appeared in her mind, followed by a bout of sharp pain. It was as if the nerves in her brain had suffered a significant blow. Even though Song Qingxiao expected something like that after selecting the prize, she nearly lost consciousness.
In that moment of crisis, Song Qingxiao gripped the dagger in her hand tightly and pierced her thigh without hesitation. The tip of the blade pierced through her wet clothes and sliced through her skin, making a tiny cut. The slight jolt of pain was nothing compared to the pain in her brain, but it was enough to help her hold on so that she did not faint.
A large amount of strange and unfamiliar knowledge appeared in her mind. Her gray matter seemed to be used to its maximum potential. She felt her brain heat up, and her vision went dark before her. She closed her eyes, but she still felt the world spinning around her, making her feel sick.
Her head felt like it was about to explode. Time seemed to pass incredibly slowly. That kind of pain was far more brutal and unbearable compared to the choking sensation of being strangled by the doctor.
Song Qingxiao did not know how much time had passed. All she could do was endure it until she received the reward in its entirety. At that moment, she felt more tired than she did in the space during her fight to the death with number four. She felt as though she was about to pass out.
She opened her mouth and gasped silently. Her clothes, which had been drenched by the rain, were soaked once again by the copious amounts of sweat. She still had lingering effects from her previous headache. It took her a long time before she managed to suppress her fear and examine the reward that she obtained.
As soon as she had that intention, the phrase ‘Nine-Word Secret Order” appeared in her mind. Before she had the chance to examine it closer, her consciousness was like a string that had been stretched too far and had reached its limit. With a loud bang, Song Qingxiao instantly fainted.