I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

However, Annie immediately understood and asked, "How do I contact the floating city? Can I do it with the help of the game rules?"

“Of course, it’s with the help of the game rules.” Duke nodded. Although he was talking to Annie, every word he said was not meant for her. “First, change the time speed ratio to make the inside and outside of the game synchronize for a short time. Then, choose a communication target and have a conversation through a stable spatial channel.”

Duke was spouting nonsense with a straight face. What he said was no different from "how to put an elephant in a refrigerator in three steps," all jumps to the result without any process.

If this were a Cinderella story, these subtle and nuanced words would undoubtedly become reality, but in this game, will they?

As it turns out, the rules of this alternate dimension are somewhat similar to the original Cinderella game with its all-powerful wish-granting machine. As long as the player is in the game of Truth or Dare, it will try its best to satisfy the player's own definition of the rules.

With the help of another dimension, a cross-dimensional communication was established with the others in the floating city.

"There's another problem. How much money should I borrow?" Annie tilted her head and asked a somewhat delicate question before contacting the outside world. "What criteria should I use to borrow the money?"

Duke said with ill intent, "Based on the standard that what you have is definitely not presentable."

“Oh.” Anne nodded, then called out, “Hello, is that Eve?”

Her contact was none other than Eve, the potion-wielding witch, who appeared to be the second-in-command of the floating city.

Annie is a renowned researcher in the floating city, while Eve is undoubtedly a top-tier medical scientist. Although they work in different fields, they have a very good relationship in private.

"Hello, who is this...Annie?" Eve's voice sounded a little distorted, even a bit like a live microphone, but it was still recognizable. "What's going on?"

"Don't worry about the details." Anne waved her hand casually, not caring whether Eve could see her, and continued, "Can you lend me some money?"

Eve readily replied, "How much do you want?"

"10 gold coins".

Eve, Duke: "?"

Under Duke's shocked gaze, Annie blinked innocently, her expression conveying the message, "You're the one who said you'd borrow money based on whether you could come up with it immediately."

Goodness, so you're a super-rich woman who can casually pull out 9 gold coins?!

Duke was shocked.

Is it too late for me to throw myself at a rich young woman now? I don't mind any "rich woman's happiness ball," really.

"Hiss, is your research lacking funding?" Eve gasped when Annie abruptly asked for money. Even for her, it would be difficult to come up with such a large sum of money all at once, but she clearly valued Annie's abilities highly and immediately said, "Okay, I'll arrange it for you later and give you 10 in research funding."

"it is good."

With that, the interdimensional dialogue led by the other dimension came to an end. Annie nodded with satisfaction: "Although it's not quite what I originally wanted to do, I managed to swindle a lot of funding... Thank you, Duke."

"You're welcome?"

Faced with Annie's genuine charade, Duke's lips twitched slightly. He was about to speak, trying to mend his relationship with the super-rich young woman in front of him and get a share of the 10 research funding she had just swindled.

But at that moment, the ethereal voice rang out again, though for some reason it sounded somewhat weak.

"The adventure was a success."

"Round 15... Duke."

"Please choose: Truth or Dare?"

“A dare.” Duke raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think its voice sounds a little strange?”

"Indeed, it sounds a bit like a middle-aged man who's exhausted from a night of hard work and feels a bit weak the next day."

"? Making dirty jokes, huh?" Duke rolled his eyes. "I already have a dirty joke sprite by my side. You can't compete with Amber for that persona."

Whether it's theoretical knowledge or practical experience, you've been utterly crushed by that perverted elf... cough.

"Tch, I thought you liked this kind of personality." Annie shook her head with some regret, then read out the contents of a card: "Please hunt a Thunder Desolate Dragon."

Chapter 133 The True Colors Are Revealed

"Please hunt a Thunder Desolate Dragon."

After Annie read those words, a black and yellow wyvern appeared in front of them. It didn't look like a young adult, and its body wasn't fully developed yet, but even so, it was still bigger than Duke and Annie combined.

"Roar--"

Lei Huanglong roared to the sky, lightning flashing around its body. The static electricity generated in the air made Duke feel his hair about to stand on end. He squinted and turned back to ask, "Is the card really about Lei Huanglong?"

The Thunder Desolate Dragon is a short-lived sub-dragon species that appeared briefly in ancient times. A legendary dragon descendant once emerged from it, making this sub-dragon a household name. However, with the passage of time, the once-prosperous Thunder Desolate Dragon is now on the verge of extinction. Apart from a few powerful but infertile top-tier individuals, there are almost no Thunder Desolate Dragons left.

An old Thunder Dragon is a rare animal that is a thousand times more precious than a giant panda, let alone a young dragon like this.

"No, I was just trying it out. I didn't expect it to actually work!" Annie stared at the young Thunder Dragon with shining eyes, wishing she could dissect it for Duke. She asked somewhat absentmindedly, "Is there anything else you'd like to add?"

"Since it's a rare Thunder Desolate Dragon, perhaps it's a descendant of that legendary dragon? The dragon crystals inside its body must be fully developed, right? It wouldn't be surprising if it had some special organs worth studying, would it?"

Annie, enlightened by Duke's suggestion, quickly added, "The body size ratio must be maintained at 0.618, the skeleton should ideally exhibit signs of dragon marrow mutation, and the voltage and current of the dragon breath must..."

With Duke and Annie adding their own comments, the young Thunder Desolate Dragon underwent a subtle change, and his aura gradually grew stronger—although their demands were harsh and strange, they generally made the Thunder Desolate Dragon stronger.

Seeing that Duke and Annie didn't seem to be stopping, Lei Huanglong, as if being ignored, roared and pounced on them.

"Roar!"

In their view, its sudden attack was simply an ethereal voice saying, "That's enough."

Duke and Annie casually dodged its attack and exchanged a relaxed conversation:

"Tsk, looks like I chose the wrong adventure. The monster-hunting adventure has to start before I've even stacked up enough buffs."

"Take it slow. We can't create a monster that neither of us can handle, can we? We need to give this alternate dimension a boost while ensuring we don't get eliminated."

After more than a dozen rounds of probing, Duke and his companion had basically determined that the core of the Witch Game was the ethereal voice and the rules of the alternate dimension itself. At the same time, players could define the rules of Truth or Dare themselves, making the game what they wanted.

Those adventurers who arrived out of nowhere were trapped in their preconceived notions and unable to break free from their habitual thinking.

In some ways, this game is similar to Cinderella, but its power is far less than that of the all-powerful wish-granting machine that can respond to the entire world. Just a dozen or so questions were enough to make that ethereal voice show its weakness.

Therefore, the method to pass the level is also very simple.

In Truth or Dare, various additional rules are proposed to push the power of the core of the alternate dimension, namely the ethereal voice, beyond its limit—simply put, it's about exhausting the referee of this game by constantly altering the rules.

Compared to Truth or Dare, the rules of Dare offer more room for manipulation and make it easier to give the ethereal voice a boost, which is one of the reasons why Annie chose Dare.

After dodging the Thunder Desolate Dragon's attack, Duke immediately launched a counterattack. He raised his Neon and fired a shot. A red lightning bolt crossed space and struck the Thunder Desolate Dragon. It howled in agony as the Dark Corrosion damage rapidly destroyed the Thunder Desolate Dragon's body, leading to its death.

"Instant kill" bullets have never been particularly prominent in the Japanese ammunition storage system. After all, for Duke now, pure destructive power combined with a certain probability of instant death is practically useless in most situations. But in this case, a single bullet can solve a lot of problems...

"Damn it! What are you doing? If you use Death Finger, you'll lose all the loot!" Annie's expression changed slightly upon seeing this. She pulled out a boning knife-like object from her pocket, threw it to Duke, and shouted, "Cut it off!"

Duke instinctively caught the boning knife and heard the system notification sound:

[Item discovered: Annie's scalpel.]

[Road Name: Anne's Scalpel.]

[Item Description: As a skilled necromancer, this scalpel, crafted from the spine of a bone dragon, has solved many of Annie's problems.]

[Item Effect: A magical enchantment that efficiently disintegrates corpses.]

At the same time, he heard Annie add: "The magic crystals of the Thunder Desolate Dragon can sell for at least 1 gold coins, and the high-quality dragon scales, dragon blood, and even dragon meat are also very valuable."

Her goal was definitely to study the endangered sub-dragon, but Anne knew she would have to tell Duke the price of the materials before he would take it seriously.

"I'm out?!"

Duke immediately took out his World Watch and pressed the button that symbolized stopping time.

In the next instant, the part corroded by the Dark Corrosion damage was cut off separately, and the remaining part was also neatly cut into pieces and placed in front of Annie along with the scalpel.

"I know you want it. Go back and settle the bill, thank you."

"Don't worry, I'll transfer the money to you when we get back." Annie nodded, put away her scalpel, took out her bone staff, pointed it at the shattered dragon in front of her, and said with a smile, "I'm also looking forward to seeing you live happily with my money, darling."

Duke couldn't help but shudder.

It's all because Annie has acted too normally since we entered the game; I almost forgot that she's my perverted stalker!

His lips twitched slightly, and he deliberately said, "Great, now I can go out and have fun with Amber."

Anne said nothing, only looked at Duke, maintaining her somewhat eerie smile, and then softly sang:

"Manipulating corpses."

Under the influence of magic, the shattered corpse of the Thunder Desolate Dragon began to move, and she used this magic to scan the Thunder Desolate Dragon's body structure, eventually drawing a conclusion.

"This is a normal Thunder Desolate Dragon. No matter how you look at it, its body structure is that of a real life. But strangely, you can't find any remnants of a soul in its body. It's just a simple body."

Anne sounded relieved. Sure enough, even with the strange rules of the alternate dimension, it was impossible to create a complete life out of thin air—she seemed unaware of just how outrageous the power of the Cinderella Game really was.

Duke clicked his tongue, and upon hearing the ethereal voice, said weakly:

"Round sixteen... Duke."

"The Great Adventure".

Without hesitation, Anne pulled out a card and, revealing her true intentions, read it aloud:

"Kissing someone you hate."

Duke: "?"

Chapter 134 The Lingering Ghost

"Kissing someone you hate."

She had been pretending to be a normal person since the start of the game, lowering her guard, and then suddenly had a breakdown that reminded him of her stalker nature. Finally, her true colors were revealed, and the whole thing was exposed.

Good guy.

Cow, Annie, cow.

"But here's the problem: I don't like you, but I wouldn't say I hate you either, would I?" Duke pursed his lips. "Even if I kissed you, it wouldn't pass muster."

"You must still be a little annoyed, right?" Annie's face flushed an unusual red, and she looked extremely excited, wishing she could take the initiative and have a close encounter with Duke. "Try your best, only if you hate me can you avoid being eliminated."

She's mentally unstable, why does she have to make others hate her?

Duke rolled his eyes and then slowly said, "The difficulty of this truth or dare game is not reflected in objective conditions, such as the difference in space and time between me and the floating city, or whether the Thunder Desolate Dragon is extinct... So the difficulty of this game is not reflected in whether the object of my hatred is present or not, but whether I am willing to take the plunge."

"So, who is the person you hate?"

“Someone named Talia?” Duke shrugged. “But she’s dead, and we don’t know…”

Before Duke could finish speaking, a petite woman who looked to have just come of age appeared before them. She was wearing a gorgeous nightgown and a crystal crown on her head. She was lying on the ground with her eyes closed as if she were asleep.