Chapter 16: Caught in the Crossfire
Cold Cemetery, Inner Zone.
The howling wind and blizzard reduced visibility to less than ten meters, the biting cold enough to freeze the soul itself.
A slightly slender figure walked across the snow. She was just over 1.6 meters tall, with light blonde hair braided into a fishtail. Her nose and cheeks were slightly reddened from the cold. Dressed in thick winter clothing, she moved at a moderate pace, exhaling white mist in steady puffs.
If heaven gave Adore Papa another chance to choose, she swore she would never activate the "Entry Ticket" that granted her access to the Treeborn World.
Adore Papa was a former violator of the Apocalypse Paradise. In truth, she was quite innocent. During a World War, as a member of the search team, she found the World Core and, without any resistance, handed it over to a contractor from the Reincarnation Paradise—a man known as Mad Doctor.
The situation at the time was predictable. As a member of the search team, Adore Papa and her companions found the World Core after a life-and-death struggle, leaving only her alive.
Under those circumstances, encountering Mad Doctor, who used his mark to disguise himself as an Apocalypse Paradise contractor, along with the similarly disguised Mr. J and the Dean, the three of them worked together to completely fool Adore Papa. She was deeply moved at the time, thinking these three teammates had traveled thousands of miles to support her.
Such a level of error was no simple misjudgment. As a result, the Apocalypse Paradise deemed Adore Papa a reserve violator.
This infuriated Adore Papa. She had fought so hard, yet the Apocalypse Daddy called her a traitor. She decided to fully become a violator.
Two world progressions later, Adore Papa had put on smoky eye makeup and a little leather jacket.
If Adore Papa were merely an Apocalypse Paradise violator, she would at most be hunted by Battle Angels. Before any action, there would always be negotiation therapy, and only if that failed would they resort to force.
What was Adore Papa thinking back then? She actually formed a temporary team with a Reincarnation Paradise violator and a Death Paradise violator.
To be fair, it wasn't entirely her fault. Those two urgently needed a healing-type collaborator. Although Adore Papa could only be considered a "secondary healer," something was better than nothing. They shared a certain task with her, and Adore Papa was tempted by the reward.
What followed was predictable. The Hunters and Death Rangers each had a 50% chance of pursuing her. In the end, a Hunter came.
That Hunter was mentally unstable, especially enjoying the thrill of the hunt. That cat-like woman would first set up an ambush, quietly waiting for her prey. Once the enemy entered her trap zone, she would strike like thunder, crippling most of their combat power, leaving a tracking mark, and then retreating.
That woman would toy with her prey bit by bit, watching the enemy move slowly due to severed limbs, stumbling and falling from severe blood loss.
What the madwoman loved most was, after having her fun, catching the enemy, claiming she wanted to test some ability on them—but deliberately leaving them alive. Then, due to "carelessness," she would let the enemy escape.
Just as the enemy was overjoyed at the prospect of escaping, she would suddenly appear and tear the despairing enemy apart.
The reason the madwoman did this was that her core ability allowed her to permanently enhance her strength by absorbing the enemy's fear.
In the madwoman's own words, fear has freshness. Relentless pursuit numbs the enemy, and the fear they emit loses its sweetness.
Conversely, when the enemy believes they are about to escape and a desire for life sprouts within them, suddenly realizing it was all an illusion, an extremely intense and sweet fear erupts.
During the pursuit by the madwoman, Adore Papa regretted becoming a violator. In those days, the madwoman had thrust her hand into Adore's chest cavity, caressing her warm and living organs. She had also experienced the madwoman sucking out one of her eyeballs with her mouth, then licking inside her empty eye socket with her tongue. Adore could even feel the woman licking her brain. She broke down on the spot.
Adore Papa survived because the madwoman happened to encounter a Death Ranger who was also on the hunt.
Hunters and Death Rangers have always despised each other. In the Hunters' view, Death Rangers are eternal second-place, all bald with barcodes on the backs of their heads. In the Death Rangers' view, Hunters are a bunch of madmen who don't know how to cooperate.
The cold wind howled, and Adore Papa shivered. After witnessing how terrifying the Reincarnation Paradise Hunters were, she chose to abandon her violator status, mine ores to atone, and rejoin the Apocalypse Paradise as a contractor.
Although she was no longer a violator, she still knew the trading channels among violators. This time, she used those channels to buy the "Entry Ticket" to the Treeborn World.
Adore Papa wasn't here to fight. She had thoroughly investigated the Treeborn World situation. Each entry had about 400 people, with 300 survival slots.
Adore Papa didn't care about that. She came to the Treeborn World to take a different path. She wasn't here for a killing competition—she was here to mine!
In Adore Papa's view, the world's mineral deposits were likely untouched. The participants were all busy fighting each other; no one had the leisure to mine. With such rich mineral resources, she could just hide underground and mine. How wonderful would that be?
Reality was harsh. When Adore Papa was dropped into the Treeborn World, she realized something was wrong. This time, there were 1,296 participants, but only 100 survival slots.
Adore Papa panicked. The surprises weren't over. When she was certified as a special Overlord-level unit, she almost fainted from "happiness."
After getting through the initial feelings of pity, helplessness, and despair, Adore Papa decided to latch onto a big shot. Among the four legitimate Overlord units, she would choose one to pay for protection.
Adore Papa looked at the names or codenames of the other four Overlord units and almost burst into tears: Reincarnation Paradise·Beheaded Night, Hell Walker·Solomon, Puppeteer·Gray Gentleman, and one of the most notorious killers in the modern Void, Crow Woman.
Adore Papa didn't dare approach any of these four. She figured that if she went to them, she'd be delivering herself as a warm meal. Those people would "devour" her without spitting out a single bone.
The wind and snow grew fiercer. Adore Papa exhaled cold mist. She chose the Cold Cemetery because she had a way to resist the soul-freezing cold here, thus blocking her pursuers. It was now midnight again, and she didn't dare stay in one place. She moved across the snowfield, hoping to survive another half hour to live through another day.
The cold wind whistled past her ears. Adore Papa stepped forward, her snow boots crunching on the snow. She took a normal step.
Click~
Adore Papa felt a numbness in her left calf. Looking down, a vicious animal trap had clamped onto her lower leg. She could vaguely feel the cold, piercing pain of metal touching her shinbone.
Under enemy attack, Adore Papa's perception fully activated. Starlike marks appeared in her pupils. In her vision, everything around her turned black and white.
No enemies nearby. This relieved Adore Papa a bit. But in the next second, she felt the numbness in her left leg fade, replaced by a surge of excruciating pain.
With a thud, Adore Papa fell to the ground. All her strength was now used to resist the agony in her left leg. The trap had been tampered with, likely coated with some pain-amplifying agent.
A sound of something cutting through the air came from above. With a crash, something landed from above, sending snow flying in all directions.
Adore Papa used all her strength to try to leap up, but suddenly, a fist wrapped in a crystal layer appeared before her eyes.
Bang!
Darkness engulfed Adore Papa's vision. From start to finish, she never knew who had caught her.
In the flying snow, Su Xiao looked at Adore Papa lying in the snow. He stepped forward and nudged her with his foot, confirming it wasn't a clone or illusion. He frowned. This was too easy to catch. If such an easy-to-catch special Overlord unit existed, why hadn't other participants caught her before?
The reason Adore Papa had lasted this long was that she had been "driving a train" in this extreme cold region. Whoever came to hunt her, she would wander around here, forcing the enemy to endure the soul-freezing cold while chasing her. Once the coordinate-sharing duration ended, she would hide in the underground gathering place, completely concealing her aura, refusing to come out no matter what.
This time, she was caught because of sheer bad luck. She had just left the underground gathering place when Su Xiao arrived. As a result, when the coordinate sharing began, she happened to be right above him.
An hour later, in the sealed hall at the innermost part of the underground gathering place, Adore Papa woke up near the throne.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Adore Papa writhed on the ground like a caterpillar. Her hands were bound behind her back, her legs shackled, a black cloth over her eyes, a metal collar sealing her perception around her neck, and her mouth sealed with special tape. Just then, she heard voices.
"Damn, almost burned me. Kaiser, the fire's ready. Should we put her in the pot now?"
"Put her in now. Once she wakes up, she'll struggle."
"OK, I'll lift the head, you lift the feet."
Hearing the last sentence, Adore Papa was certain they were going to boil her. She struggled violently, but was still thrown into a large pot.
Adore Papa didn't feel scalding heat. Instead, she felt a warm, comfortable sensation. However, her body energy was rapidly decreasing, and her health points fluctuated up and down.
"45.72°. Maintain this temperature for at least an hour."
"You make it sound so easy. Precise temperature to the decimal point? Are you even human?"
"I'm simulating a life spring to help her reach a better state."
"Damn 'life spring' in a giant pot."
Kaiser and Baha's conversation gradually faded in Adore Papa's ears. She only felt warm and comfortable, wanting to sleep.
Kaiser and Baha busied themselves around the large iron pot. Of course, they weren't going to stew Adore Papa. On the contrary, they were careful not to let anything happen to her.
Su Xiao watched for a while before losing interest. Just as he couldn't understand Kaiser's alchemical agent preparations, he also couldn't grasp Kaiser's "mysterious transcendentology."
Su Xiao stopped beside the stone throne. The completion device was already fixed to the four corners of the throne, making it look like a translucent frozen throne.
Su Xiao held the crown with one hand and sat on the semi-transparent ice throne. Honestly, he didn't feel much else, but his butt was definitely cold.
[The Stone Throne has been activated.]
[The Crownless Crown has been activated.]
[Certification phase entered. Detecting abilities that the Hunter can enhance through this special opportunity...]
[Certification complete. The following abilities can be enhanced through this special opportunity.]