Ye Shu wiped the blood from her brow, shot Lin Yaoyao a cold glance, and let the murderous intent in her eyes roam unhidden.
In the dim confines of the cavern, Lin Yaoyao could finally see her more clearly.
Despite the bloodstains marring her elegant face, Ye Shu's allure could not be concealed. White flames danced in her tired eyes, and a single bead of crimson emerged from her cracked lips—a strange, icy beauty clung to her like frost.
If before she was merely hoping to win her favor...
She no longer dared harbor that thought.
It dawned on Lin Yaoyao who stood before her.
No wonder she was the legendary overlooked power player of the novel! Her vigilance rivaled a hunted fox; little wonder she could still survive down here in the abyss. In the original story, Ye Shu was drugged by her wicked stepmother and hunted endlessly by the cavern’s ghosts and fiends… This was the perfect moment to cling to her coattails!
Getting thrown into this survival game world was agony enough—but at least the silver lining was seeing the overlooked female lead in the flesh, down here in underground night.
Ye Shu caught the way her eyes flicked up and down, and her displeasure grew. Without another word, she hefted her battered blade and turned to go.
"Wait... Ye Shu, I need to speak to you!"
Rushed by panic, Lin Yaoyao blurted it out before her sense could catch up.
Ye Shu answered with action: her peachwood sword came to rest on Lin Yaoyao's throat, her voice cutting through the gloom like ice. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"
Lin Yaoyao’s gut twisted—she’d made a mistake.
This Ye Shu, a side character whose fate had been reversed, was famously reborn from cruelty and betrayal. Trust came hard to her; she’d given up on people until she met the equally damned male supporting lead, and only after many trials together did the spark of humanity come back to her heart.
This should have been their first meeting—they shouldn’t know each other at all.
But she had called Ye Shu by name, and that alone would bring suspicion.
And suspicion was precisely what she had earned; Ye Shu’s wariness sharpened as she considered whether to simply finish off this seemingly harmless girl before her.
"Boss, it’s our first time meeting—you don’t have to be so intense!"
"Really, there’s no need to be so enthusiastic as to threaten me with a sword, right?"
Ye Shu: ".............."
She pressed the peachwood blade closer, tracing a thin bloody line on Lin Yaoyao’s slender neck.
The metallic tang of blood filled Lin Yaoyao's nose. Wide-eyed, she gazed at her tormentor, pleading: "I’ll tell you everything—anything you want... Please, boss, just let me go."
"I’m actually a transmigrator. Do you believe me?"
Ye Shu’s eyes wandered up and down Lin Yaoyao’s face, then she spat: "Idiot!"
Her face was the picture of calm, but panic churned inside.
Transmigrator—so this girl might know a lot about her.
Her card-awakened talents, and maybe more… What else could she know?
Ye Shu herself had transmigrated into this world, and now she accepted this possibility quickly—but she couldn't let anything slip.
"Boss, you have to believe me!"
"I’m telling the truth. Your stepmother drugged you—she used an inducer, didn’t she? But I swear, I won’t hurt you, and I’ll never tell anyone."
Ye Shu lowered her sword, sending up a wall of suspicion. "You say Lin Shuya drugged me?"
"That’s right. Your stepmother, Lin Shu, got the inducer from Ye Wan. In the game, you awaken your ice powers, and your very first card pull lands you an SSS-level upgrade… I’m honestly so jealous! Who wouldn’t want god-tier power?"
Lin Yaoyao poured out everything she knew, like beans spilling from a shattered jar, never once pausing for breath.
Ye Shu regarded her, a complex and unreadable look settling in her eyes.
She did have ice abilities, but they weren’t awakened—they’d been given to her by the cards. And upgrades weren't all she had, either.
"Wait—you said Lin Shu, Ye Wan…"
Weren’t they Lin Shuya and Ye Wanwan?
This so-called transmigrator had clearly read the original novel, but she seemed to have entered a world that didn’t match the story she knew.
"Boss, you have my word—I would never betray you!"
Lin Yaoyao held up three fingers, swearing a solemn oath.
To prove it, she pulled out a prop: a device that would explode her if she ever revealed Ye Shu’s secret.
With bright, clear eyes and a sheepish grin, she said, "Now do you believe me, Ye Shu?"
Ye Shu’s stare grew even more complicated.
If her only goal was to ride on coattails, this was a strange way to do it... Were all transmigrators really this clueless?
Who reveals their identity on first encounter? She clearly wasn’t afraid to die.
"I believe you."
"Now get lost, as far away from me as you can."
Ye Shu drove her away without a trace of politeness.
Ever since this game upgraded, bizarre characters seemed to be crawling out of every shadow.
Lin Qing, too.
It was odd how often they seemed to turn up near her.
But that boy hadn’t shown any hostility—and neither had this self-proclaimed transmigrator.
Ye Shu hurried off down the passageway, leaving Lin Yaoyao alone in the echoing dark.
"Truly heartless… I even swore myself to secrecy, and still little Ye Shu won’t trust me. That almost hurts," Lin Yaoyao muttered to the flickering darkness.
……
The daylight hours in the Underworld grew shorter and shorter.
By the eighteenth day, there were only seven daylight hours left—redeeming items and mining had to be crammed into that time.
Players fought viciously for a place at the head of the queue.
As long as business wasn’t disrupted, the monsters at the exchange didn’t intervene.
But that led to people losing their rewards in the blink of an eye—no sooner had a player left with a lantern or food than they’d be robbed.
Ordinary lanterns were useless for Ye Shu.
With the inducer in her system, ghosts sniffed her out wherever she went.
She refined all her mined crystals into higher-grade versions, exchanging everything for red lanterns.
High-level lanterns barely held the abyssal ghosts at bay. At the very least, they didn’t come at her like rabid beasts anymore.
A peculiar trend soon took hold in the cavern.
At some point, the ghosts who haunted the night stopped prowling after players. Instead, they swarmed together, heading in one collective direction—chasing after something unseen—and this gave many rookie players a fighting chance at survival.
[CottonCandyWithVinegar: No ghosts this round—this game is just about mining now. Easy stuff!]
[VanGoghsSunflower: Don’t you all find this weird? Something’s off here. A few days ago, ghosts swarmed every corridor—I lost 20 sanity points. But yesterday and today—not a single one showed up, it’s like they disappeared.]
[BitterMelonSashimi: My lanterns are completely wasted. What a joke. I worked my butt off mining, and for what? This survival game is a cakewalk!]
[RaindropsPattering: Isn’t this even better? Easy win, you’re still complaining?]
The chat exploded with cheers, giddy with their own luck.
Deep in one tunnel, a cavern ghost hovered right in front of Su Bai's face, close enough for her to feel its chill. She didn’t flinch, but looked down in worry at her foot, conjuring fire in her palm to hurl at the fiend.
Everyone felt so safe—if not for Ye Shu, who attracted all the ghosts, they wouldn’t have it so easy, safe enough to spam comments from their dark corners.
"Hrrr…"
With the last ember spent, the ghost melted away.
She pulled up her sleeve: a row of ugly blisters had formed, and the white skin of her arm was scorched, black and blistering against the pale flesh.