Chapter 5
by GideonChapter 5: Lilith’s Doll (4)
Only children are given choices. Adults, on the other hand, take everything.
And so…
Since they couldn’t break the cage open by force from the outside, they could simply find the key and unlock the door. That would allow them to restrain both Liliths just as easily.
The key…
Generally speaking, in a dungeon like this, the key would be placed somewhere near the cage. It had to be somewhere in this room.
An He calmly surveyed his surroundings. Eventually, his gaze settled on a shelf near the edge of the raised platform.
There, hanging quietly from a hook, was a set of keys whose color blended almost perfectly with the wall, making them easy to overlook.
Found it.
He smiled faintly. Under the furious glares of the two Liliths, he slowly controlled his vines, sending one over to the shelf to retrieve the keys. Then he unlocked the cage.
And then—
He used one vine for each girl, binding both Liliths tightly.
“What are you doing?!”
The Lilith on the left shrieked, her voice nearly cracking.
She stared at the players in disbelief, her little face flushed red with anger.
“Idiots!”
The Lilith on the right was clearly no less furious than the one on the left.
“Kill her!”
“Once you kill her, her heart will be yours to use! Isn’t that what you came here to take?!”
She glared at An He so fiercely that the veins on her forehead were practically bulging.
“All I need is to borrow her heart to open the tower door and rescue my doll! Didn’t we agree that you could have the heart afterward?!”
The Lilith on the right gritted her teeth.
“She’s practically delivered herself into your hands! What are you waiting for?!”
Huh?
Once the four players understood what was going on, they fell silent.
So…
They had been wrong all along. The doll that players were supposed to kill for the Hidden Mission wasn’t actually one of the two Liliths standing before them?
Then, aside from the one doll who was undoubtedly disguised as Lilith, the only other possible doll was…
Lilith’s beloved doll in the tower?
In other words—
The question of choosing between the two Liliths wasn’t a multiple-choice question at all. It was a single-choice question.
And one they absolutely had to answer.
Realizing this, An He narrowed his eyes.
According to the nursery rhyme, the way to identify the doll was by checking for flowing blood and a beating heart.
That made things considerably easier.
He carefully sensed the vines wrapped around the two Liliths, paying attention to every sensation they conveyed.
The faint smile on his face immediately froze.
Both Liliths had blood flowing through their bodies.
The movement of the blood obscured the sound of their heartbeats, while also masking the physical signs of a beating heart.
Wonderful.
So, how exactly were they supposed to determine which Lilith was the doll with a beating heart?
After remaining silent for a moment, An He informed the others of his findings.
And then—
Everyone fell silent.
Unfortunately, the two Liliths showed no intention of behaving themselves.
Their incessant arguing continued no matter how many times the players tried to stop them. Eventually, it escalated into a duet of loud, wailing sobs, making the players increasingly impatient.
They had originally intended to use their vines again to restrain the two Liliths and make them behave. However, they hadn’t expected both girls to raise their hands in perfect synchronization and grab each other’s throats.
The moment the vines dared to approach, the girls would simply tighten their grips.
How could they possibly risk using the vines now?
Talking them into calming down was useless, and they didn’t dare touch them either, lest they meet the same fate as Bai Xing. In the end, all four players could do was stand to the side and stare helplessly.
“Why don’t we just kill both of them?!”
Doro, whose brain was practically overheating from trying to figure out which Lilith was the doll, roughly scratched his neck.
He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt like his head was getting a little itchy…
Oh no. Was he finally growing a brain?
He had originally meant it as nothing more than an angry remark. He thought he could say it and be done with it.
But to his surprise, the two Liliths, who had been locked in a stalemate just moments earlier, simultaneously turned toward Doro with looks of utter disbelief, as though he had committed some unforgivable offense.
“How could you possibly hurt such an adorable Lilith?!”
“How could you possibly hurt such an adorable Lilith?!”
Their voices rang out in perfect unison. The two Liliths abruptly turned toward each other.
“Stop copying me!”
“Stop copying me!”
“How dare you!”
“How dare you!”
What followed was a series of increasingly elaborate insults, all delivered in perfect synchronization. Some of their remarks even included particularly colorful and culturally distinctive curses, introducing the players to an entirely new world of verbal abuse.
The four players quietly stood to one side, watching the spectacle like villagers sitting around eating watermelon while observing a pack of dogs fighting in the middle of the village.
Still…
They couldn’t shake the feeling that they had forgotten something.
Li Changming blinked.
Just as he was beginning to ponder this, An He interrupted their entertainment.
“Something is wrong with the time in this dungeon.”
Calmly, he gestured for everyone to bring up their status panels and check the dungeon countdown.
There was only…
One hour left before the dungeon ended?
Wait. Had time really passed that quickly?
That immediately brought everyone back to their senses.
“So, have you figured out which one is the doll?”
By this point, Doro had developed a fairly accurate understanding of his own abilities.
This dungeon wasn’t something a reckless brute like him could clear on his own. He would have to rely on someone clever to figure out the strategy.
Someone like…
An He, perhaps?
The man practically radiated intelligence!
“An He, I believe in your judgment!”
An He, having just been called out by name: “…?”
“Thank you. How kind of you.”
He wore a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Knowing that Doro was unreliable, and still having no idea what to do, An He turned his attention to Li Changming.
“…Should we just guess?”
Li Changming tentatively offered his rather underdeveloped suggestion.
There were only two Liliths, after all. That gave them a full fifty percent chance of getting it right.
If they chose incorrectly, the mission would fail. If they didn’t choose at all, the system would still declare the mission failed once the dungeon’s time ran out. They might as well take a gamble and see if luck was on their side.
An He thought Li Changming’s suggestion was excellent.
He hoped Li Changming would never make another one.
After all…
Not everyone could afford to spend 1,000 Points to offset the penalty for failing to clear a dungeon.
“The one on the left.”
Before An He could even turn to look at her, Ye Lingmei calmly spoke up, as though she had already figured something out.
“You’re lying!”
The Lilith on the left immediately panicked.
She was so flustered that she even forgot about the Lilith opposite her. Her eyes burned with indignation, as though she had just discovered the world’s greatest liar.
“You were the one who said Lilith was adorable! You said nobody would ever have the heart to hurt Lilith! How could you go back on your word like this?!”
All right—
Li Changming understood immediately.
A massive greatsword suddenly appeared in his hand. Without hesitation, he swung it straight down at the Lilith on the right.
“BOOM—!”
Amid a shower of shattered fragments, the Lilith on the right instantly dissolved into a pool of blood, leaving behind only a heart that continued to beat.
It was a golden heart.
And that heart—
Was slowly picked up by a small hand.
Lilith smiled as she clenched the heart tightly in her fist.
“Who was it you said you wanted to kill just now?”
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