Where's the cute girl we were promised? She's completely wiped out S-rank dungeons!

"In that case, let's do as you said and find a place to rest first."

On the way, Song Yuan originally wanted An Xiaoyou to give her a detailed report on her situation, explaining how she had shaken off Liu Gaosheng. However, An Xiaoyou was also running out of energy. She said into the communicator that she was safe and told Song Yuan and the other two to take care of themselves. She desperately needed half an hour of deep sleep to recharge. After saying that, she fell fast asleep.

There was nothing she could do, so Song Yuan checked her watch and prepared to call her when the time came.

The three of them couldn't stay on the fourth floor any longer, so they went down to the second floor. The second floor also had teachers' offices, but the conditions were slightly worse than those on the fourth floor.

The [Land Torpedo] item was so intimidating that it even affected the monsters on the second and third floors, who then disappeared without a trace. As a result, the three of them were able to pass through the area relatively smoothly.

Xu Tai'an opened the door to the lounge, and Song Yuan pulled Qiao Ran inside, looking at Xu Tai'an:

"Let's remove the control from him first. Where's your item?"

Xu Tai'an opened his palm: "Here it is."

[Player "Xu Tai'an" used the divine item "Soul-Soothing Pendant," which can eliminate one instance of mental attack below S+ level, including S+ level. It has a 12-hour cooldown after one use. Are you sure you want to use it?]

After pressing the confirm button, a light blue crystal pendant landed in her palm. The pendant had a simple appearance; the chain was made of beige woven straw cord, with the end irregularly wrapped around the crystal.

Xu Tai'an slipped it around Qiao Ran's neck, and a thread that was still emitting a faint blue light dangled from Qiao Ran's fingertips, falling weakly to the ground. Then, like a snake, it darted to the corner of the wall and slipped away through the crack in the door.

As soon as the puppet strings disappeared, Qiao Ran seemed to lose all support and fell straight down, face down. Perhaps because the puppet strings had absorbed some of his mental and physical energy, his previously normal complexion suddenly turned weak.

Song Yuan helped him up and put him on the bed in the lounge. She carefully removed the pendant from Qiao Ran's neck and returned it to Xu Tai'an.

"Thanks."

"It's fine......"

Xu Tai'an took the prop, and just as she was wondering what to say next to avoid feeling too awkward, Song Yuan spoke first:

"We've located the power distribution room; I can draw you a simple map. As for the key, we don't know how to obtain it yet. I'll notify you via the intercom if we find out later."

"Huh? Oh..."

Xu Tai'an seemed to have been doused with cold water, and immediately wilted. Song Yuan's words weren't wrong, but her tone was too serious and too unfamiliar. It was as if she was treating a temporary partner, not a teammate she'd known day and night—which was true, they'd only known each other for half a day.

She hesitated for a moment, then asked somewhat guiltily:

"Um... so you're not upset that I recklessly used up my stamina to vent my anger, and only restored fifteen health points to you? Your health should still be dropping..."

In that situation, if she simply wanted to restrict the puppeteer's mobility, she wouldn't have needed to load so many bullets. Chun Chun hadn't seen this scumbag for too long, and unable to suppress her grief and indignation, she acted impulsively.

Logically speaking, with her talent, it shouldn't be a problem for her to help Song Yuan increase her health to over sixty.

It shouldn't be like this now, where even the wounds can't heal. As long as the wounds don't heal, health points will continue to drop. It's only a fraction of a second, but it's still quite agonizing.

"You're not even on my team," Song Yuan said without looking up as she opened the system shop, "What right do I have to blame you?"

Xu Tai'an: "...Oh."

Why do I suddenly feel a little sad?

Song Yuan ended up buying two bottles of iodine, drinking water, white towels, and ten rolls of medical bandages. She unbuttoned her shirt, looked at her, and tilted her head:

"Could you lend me a hand? I can't see the incision on my back."

"Okay! Good..."

Xu Tai'an had never taken care of anyone like this before, and was initially a little embarrassed. But seeing Song Yuan's calm and expressionless face, he no longer felt shy. He deftly disinfected the wound, wiped away the blood, and then wrapped it up tightly. The room was quiet for a moment, with only the sounds of breathing and water washing the towel.

"Do you know the puppeteer in the real world?" Song Yuan suddenly asked. "You seem to hate him a lot."

Xu Tai'an paused in wiping away the blood, and after a long while, he squeezed out a very soft sound from his throat:

"Hmm." After saying that, she added, "I hate it especially."

The hatred was so intense that someone who had suffered from aphasia for two years instantly regained her speech upon seeing him again and began to hurl insults at him—however, Xu Tai'an, like Qiao Ran, seemed to be a well-mannered, obedient young lady. So even when she cursed, she only called the man a demon and wished him hell.

If it were An Xiaoyou, he'd probably curse his ancestors for eighteen generations in a minute before he was fired.

"May I ask what the reason is?"

Xu Tai'an finished bandaging Song Yuan's wound and tied a simple bow at the end. Song Yuan took a clean new shirt from her system inventory and put it on, calmly saying:

"If you don't want to answer, just say you don't. I was just asking casually."

Xu Tai'an shook his head and sat down next to Song Yuan:

"It's okay, it's not a shameful experience for me."

Anyway, she's exhausted and can't fire her gun for the time being. The puppeteer will need some time to fully recover, and with the outside world once again engulfed by vengeful spirits, it won't be easy for Liu Gaosheng to find this place in the short term.

Now is a rare moment of respite, and she's just idling around anyway. Besides, two years have passed, and it's good that someone can listen to her recount those long-buried stories.

Unfortunately, she encountered a huge problem as soon as she uttered her first sentence:

"He is my...my, my ex..."

Song Yuan said it for her: "Ex-boyfriend?"

Xu Tai'an breathed a sigh of relief, clutched his chest, and nodded: "Yes, thank you. Even after all these years, I still don't want to admit that I ever had such a relationship with him."

She met the puppeteer, or rather, "Duan Fengye," in college.

During her freshman year of college, she went abroad to study. At that time, a shocking serial murder case occurred, plunging the nation into the fray.

The serial killer had murdered over eighty people using the same method, a brutality that is utterly appalling. All the victims shared one common trait—they were beautiful.

The victims were almost all renowned handsome men and beautiful women, and each of them suffered varying degrees of humiliation and abuse before their deaths. Often, by the time the police discovered them, the victims had been tortured beyond recognition.

The serial killer was particularly fond of torturing his victims while they were still alive, forcing them to play various "survival games" and crushing their hope for survival bit by bit. And after it was all over, he would take a part of their body.

Nobody knows what those parts were used for after they were removed.