450: 8.50 Listen Here, Missy

8.50 Listen Here, Missy

The ground suddenly vanished under Lu Yizhou's feet and his heart lurched as a sense of weightlessness wrapped around him in a tight cocoon.  0

The forest had split into two like an awakened monster who finally opened its mouth wide to devour its first prey for ages. A split second when he was suspended in midair, Lu Yizhou glanced down and only saw boundless darkness with no limit in sight.

His pupils dilated heavily as adrenaline rushed to his head. What would happen if he were to fall in there? He must be done for sure. Without him, Diana would carry herself to the final fight, kill his lover and emerge from this world as the winner. No! Lu Yizhou could not allow that to happen! To escape from his current predicament, 'Time Rewinder' was the only skill he could use. He should go back to one minute in time and stop Diana before she could attempt anything! 

Just as he was ready to activate the skill, two things happened around him all at once.

Out of nowhere, Ailín charged out behind a tree and jumped on the defenseless Diana from behind, totally taking her off guard as he tackled her to the ground. Diana's thin body was no match for Ailín's fat and heavy one. No matter how she screeched and struggled, she could not escape, especially when Ailín was twisting both of her hands behind her back.

Second, a red glow suddenly erupted from Ozzie's body. She grew hotter and hotter. Bigger, Lu Yizhou noticed numbly. Her body enlarged with a speed so quick that in a blink of an eye, she had become even larger than Lu Yizhou himself. Under Lu Yizhou's shocked gaze, a pair of enormous silver wings sprouted behind her back, bony and sharp on its edges. Lu Yizhou's body was caught midair and brought out before the Earth stitched itself up and swallowed him inside.

[[Player Irene has successfully unlocked the condition for her familiar's evolution. New form for 'Ozzie' is unlocked! Please check the system profile for more details!]]

Harsh wind slapped against Lu Yizhou's face as Ozzie carried him flying across the air.  'O–Ozzie…?' Everything had happened so fast that Lu Yizhou still could not wrap his head around it.

'Oh my God, I am so cool!' Ozzie squealed excitedly as she slowly lowered Lu Yizhou to the ground. 'Daddy, Daddy, look at me meow! Do I look badass?!' 

Lu Yizhou turned to catch Ozzie's new form the same time as she posed with both of her wings expanded fully in the air. It was wholly white, thin with its bone structure defined, and reminded Lu Yizhou very much of a bat's wing. There was a white tuft of fluffy fur on the very tip placed like a pom pom. As for her body… it was exactly the same as before. Only… huge. Enormous, with an additional straight spiral horn growing from the center of her forehead. She was a… gigantic cat with a horn and wings. 

'How can you do it...?' He could not help asking.

'I don't know either meow!' Ozzie answered in naive confusion. 'I just really wanted to save Daddy and voila, all of a sudden I found that I have the power to do so!'

Lu Yizhou was rendered speechless. What was this convenient timing? He did not even know that such a thing was possible! He reached out to pat her fluffy head. 'Very… badass, indeed. Thank you for saving my life, Ozzie.'

'Hehe…' Her nose turned up even higher, looking so proud of herself as she struck a pose this way and that. Rolling to her back, she purred out loud. 'That's what I should have done meow!'

He ruffled Ozzie's head a few more times and scratched the back of her ear before turning to the other two audiences, whose eyes were wide in shock as they stared at the creature in front of him. Even Diana was so shocked that she stopped struggling.

"That's your cat…?" Ailín asked, breathless.

Lu Yizhou nodded, feeling immensely proud of Ozzie for some reason. He shifted his gaze to Diana who finally snapped back to her senses. "What…" Desperation tinged her tone. "What kind of creature is that?! Why didn't 404 warn me about this before?! If… If I had known that you have this card up your sleeves, then I would not have—" She choked on her words, hot tears spilling out of her eyes. With her face pressed against the ground like this, she looked very wretched and pitiful.

Unfortunately, Lu Yizhou, this stone hearted man, would not be moved even as hundreds of women were wailing under his feet. He told Ailín sternly. "Don't let her go. You have seen the kind of thing she could do."

"Don't worry… she won't be able to escape." Ailín offered him a helpless smile. He finally got up and pulled Diana up with him. Only then did Lu Yizhou notice the pair of cuffs closed around Diana's wrists, ones that were usually used by the police. The only thing different was that it was currently glowing in an amber light. Realizing the line of Lu Yizhou's sight, Ailín explained. "It's one of the skills I obtained from the previous quests. It will bind and nullify a person's skill for the next three hours. She won't be able to try anything funny."

Lu Yizhou looked at Ailín with a perplexed look. "How much have you heard?" For him to be able to catch Diana off guard at the right moment, he must have been hiding somewhere else and biding his time until he found a perfect opening.

"Ah… I don't hear anything!" He put up both hands in a gesture to surrender. "Nothing is logical about this world, both the players and the game. You have a few skeletons in your closet and so do I. You have no idea what kind of people I have encountered before, Miss Irene." He shook his head with a helpless chuckle. "Compared to them, you can be considered as an angel. As long as our goal to complete the game remains the same, then I will not care where you come from."

Lu Yizhou… was actually at a loss of words. He had never met someone like Ailín before. In one glance, he appeared completely ordinary. But the more you got to know him, the more layers he had. He was sleazy, easy-going, yet intelligent and quick-witted at the same time. 

In the end, Lu Yizhou could only convey his gratitude. "Thank you, I owe you one." In the future, if Ailín were to get into a life-and-death situation, Lu Yizhou would try his best to save him. He added after some thought, "Don't tell the other two."

Ailín snorted and rolled his eyes. "Please, I won't. They are just kids, after all. Heavens, I am really not young anymore." After saying that, he turned away and pulled out a flask of liquor out of nowhere.

The corner of Lu Yizhou's lips twitched. That's right, if they were to compare age, then Ji Yan and Olivia would be considered as children in their eyes. 

Speak of the devil and the devil comes. From afar, Ji Yan called out with an excited wave of his hand, Olivia huffing and puffing behind him, looking like she was going to faint from the run at any moment.

"Thank God you're both fine!" Ji Yan stopped in front of them, breathless, and wiped the sweat on his face. "How can you run so fast—woah!" He finally noticed Ozzie who was grooming herself behind Lu Yizhou. "What is that?!"

'Ah…!' Ozzie perked up in excitement. She deliberately brandished her claw and flexed her wings, eyes landing squarely on the petrified Olivia. 'I remember you saying that I am a stupid cat. Hehehe, what do you think? Do I still look stupid to you, hooman?'

Olivia's lips quivered before a sharp scream erupted from her throat. She pulled Ji Yan in front of her and firmly used him as a human shield. "H–Help, Ji Yan! It wants to kill me! I swear it wants to kill me!"

Ji Yan sputtered. "W–What?! How can it— But it looks so cute!"

Lu Yizhou let Ozzie distract the two protagonists as he crouched down in front of Diana, who glared up at him with tears pooling on the corner of her eyes. "You won…" she hissed in both anger and misery. "Why won't you kill me? You should have killed me when you had the chance!"

Lu Yizhou told himself to be patient. He could not be carried away by anger. There was something more important he had to know. "I have a few questions to—"

She spat right onto Lu Yizhou's skirt, sneering. "Do you think I will do whatever you want just because you have caught me?"

Veins popped up on Lu Yizhou's forehead as the thin string of his patience snapped. Alright, then. So she wanted it the hard way.

He clamped down on Diana's small head with his palm, lips tilting into a chilling smile. "Listen here, Missy. You said you know me from 666's post, then haven't you known how many people I have killed simply because they offended me? This skull of yours is not that hard… It will be so easy to smash it to pieces." He leaned forward and whispered in a soft voice. "I won't let you die so easily, you know?"

"Y–You dare!" She gritted out, albeit Lu Yizhou could see that fear had begun to seep into her eyes. Good, other than greed, fear was the best emotion to manipulate in someone.

"You don't want to take my offer, your loss." Lu Yizhou shrugged. "I have no idea what kind of nonsense 404 has planted into your mind— but tell me, that system of yours… where does it come from?" 

Shock painted over Diana's features, seemingly not expecting that Lu Yizhou's first question would be like that. "I–I don't…"

"Let me change my question. 404, is it your original system?" Lu Yizhou's eyes gleamed in sharp glint. "Has it been forcing you to do these missions one after another, saying that you have to listen to it if you want to leave the simulator?"

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A/N: Thank you ArcaneMag, VitaminCdotC, GirlWithHair_99 and others for giving VSS 132 GTs! ^^ You guys are awesome! Thank you for supporting VSS and please continue to do so~! xoxo, delana (05/09/22)

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