VAP - Chapter 25
Chapter 25: The Sleeping Beauty Whose Words Are Law (24)
Qi Jiu's gratitude was genuine, and so was her happiness.
The original plan was to deal with them one by one, which would have been time-consuming and a drain on her Esper Ability. She never expected to be able to round them all up at once.
So many years had passed, yet these brats' lackeys were still lackeys, still gathering to eat, drink, and fool around with their boss. She almost wanted to sigh at how little they had accomplished.
Wu Xiude couldn't understand. "Your Esper Ability is supposed to be teleportation, right? Who gave you the confidence to think you could beat me?"
Qi Jiu sounded bored. "Playing the wolf in sheep's clothing in front of someone like you is no fun."
She said listlessly to Yue Du, "You're right. Let's make this quick. There's no point in toying with him."
Yue Du played the professional hype man. "Of course. The Host is wise."
The more nonchalant she acted, the more pressure they felt.
Wu Xiude sensed the danger. Seeing only a short knife nearby, he hurriedly shouted to Wei Jingpeng, "Brother Peng, lend me your blade!"
Wei Jingpeng glanced at Qi Jiu, then coldly distanced himself. "This is my blade. Use your own."
Wu Xiude was so furious he could have keeled over. He had no choice but to grab the short knife, shove aside the lackey next to him, and charge.
He was an enhancement-type Esper who had strengthened his physical power. His body was a mass of knotted muscles, making for a terrifying sight.
Qi Jiu raised a hand. "Freeze the person named Wu Xiude in place before me."
She spoke extremely quickly. Wu Xiude had already raised his knife, but his entire body was frozen, unable to move.
The tip of the blade was less than half a meter from Qi Jiu.
Qi Jiu said with a hint of regret, "What's the rush? You made me speak faster than I wanted to."
Wu Xiude grew more panicked. "What did you do? Is this your Esper Ability?"
Qi Jiu replied, "Do you think I'm going to tell you?"
Obviously not.
Wu Xiude gritted his teeth, his mind racing. "Wei Jingpeng, why are you just standing there watching? If she's doing this to me, she definitely doesn't plan on leaving any survivors! Do you want to die?"
Wei Jingpeng held his long blade horizontally across his chest in a defensive posture. "What do you think an ordinary person like me can do?" he shouted back.
He then turned to Qi Jiu and said earnestly, "Miss, you don't have to worry. I won't breathe a word of this to anyone. Even if someone else here talks, my Wei family will help take care of it."
Then, he asked cautiously, "Have you heard of the Wei family?"
Qi Jiu knew of them but didn't care. "Relax," she said. "I can't be bothered to deal with bystanders. As you all said, I'm here for revenge, and revenge needs to be done right."
So, how to get revenge?
The mission requirement was: Make those who bullied her feel the fear of vengeance.
Judging by the current situation, these people all seemed plenty terrified, yet there was no notification sound indicating the mission was complete.
"Do I have to beat each of them up? Or should I just kill them?" Qi Jiu muttered to herself.
The pampered young masters opposite her were already on the verge of despair. Hearing her words, they completely fell apart.
They knew what they had done, and they remembered how a suddenly changed Qi Jiu had retaliated against them, forcing them to transfer schools and leave the city where they'd grown up like stray dogs.
But back then, society still had rules! At least they knew nothing truly terrible would happen to them!
But now? In this situation, it was entirely possible they could all be killed right here!
A shorter young man standing at the back took out his phone as silently and stealthily as possible.
Yue Du said, "Someone's trying to send a message."
"I see him," Qi Jiu replied.
"Move everyone's phones in this room in front of me," Qi Jiu said, raising her voice.
The Word Spirit took effect. Phones flew through the air, forming a pile in the empty space before her.
Their last hope of escape was cut off. The faces of the young bullies turned ashen.
Without a second glance, Qi Jiu went back to contemplating the mission.
Since I'm using my Esper Ability anyway... she mused. Might as well give it a try.
"Make them experience the fear of vengeance."
She simply repeated the mission requirement aloud.
Yue Du was speechless. "..."
That can't possibly work, can it? At the very least, she should have stated the command in more detail, like adding their names or something.
But in fact, Wu Xiude and the four men behind him were indeed targeted by the Word Spirit ability.
The four young bullies immediately fainted and collapsed. Wu Xiude, still under the effect of the previous command, couldn't fall. He remained standing rigidly in place, but his eyes had rolled back into his head. He had clearly passed out as well.
Yue Du was stunned for a moment, then her brow furrowed.
Are commands like this—ones that inflict fear and pain—easier to execute, just like destructive commands?
Qi Jiu had no idea what her system was thinking. She was probably just too lazy to remain standing, so she walked over to a sofa, sat down, and waited for the result.
Wei Jingpeng watched her cautiously.
Without looking up, Qi Jiu said coolly, "What are you looking at?"
A chill ran down Wei Jingpeng's spine. He quickly averted his gaze, not daring to reply. This woman was terrifyingly strange!
After a few minutes, amidst the pained groans of the unconscious men, the notification finally sounded.
"Ding! Side mission complete. Reward: 100 points."
Qi Jiu wasn't very satisfied. "That's not a lot of points."
Yue Du replied, "It's plenty. Back in training, we saw cases of hosts who worked themselves to death for just 10 points."
Qi Jiu retorted self-righteously, "They are them, and I am me."
Before she had even finished speaking, the notification sounded again. "Ding! Detected that the level of pain experienced by the five bullies has gone off the charts. Congratulations to the Host for exceeding the mission parameters. Reward doubled. +100 points."
Qi Jiu said calmly, "See? I told you I'm different."
Yue Du was speechless again. "..."
Are you sure you're not the Main System's favorite child?
Whether she was the favorite child or not, Qi Jiu had earned a total of 200 points for the effort of speaking a few sentences.
The four lackeys regained consciousness. Their first instinct was to frantically check if their bodies were still intact, their faces etched with terror.
When they looked at Qi Jiu on the sofa, it was as if they were seeing some kind of monster. They could barely breathe.
The ringleader, Wu Xiude, was still unable to move, forced to stand rigidly in place as his eyes darted about wildly.
The instinct for survival overrode everything else. He called out meekly, "Qi... Qi Jiu... Sister Qi, I know I was wrong! I didn't really do anything that terrible back then, did I? It's been so many years, you must have let off enough steam by now, right?"
Qi Jiu tilted her head. "Personally, I don't really care," she said coolly.
Did that mean she was letting it go? Hope flickered across the young men's faces.
Qi Jiu continued, "I may not care, but the girl from back then certainly did."
The Five Bullies: Is there a difference???
Ignoring the bewildered young men, Qi Jiu raised her eyes slightly, her gaze shifting to Wei Jingpeng's group and the bikini-clad women in the corner.
Stared at by those eyes, which were as deep as an abyss, the onlookers instinctively assumed a defensive posture. Wei Jingpeng forced himself to remain calm. "I trust you won't go back on your word?"
Yue Du thought, "..."
Your voice is trembling, you know.
Qi Jiu yawned, clearly bored by the whole affair.
Instead of answering the irrelevant man's question, she opened her hand in their direction. Her slender, pale fingers seemed to hold an incredibly dangerous power.
"Erase all their memories from the past hour," Qi Jiu stated calmly.
Yue Du watched as the gazes of these unlucky people turned dull and vacant. The power of the Word Spirit was crudely and mercilessly erasing what should not exist.
While they were in a daze, Qi Jiu rose from the sofa. "Move me and these five people to the man-made forest two thousand meters from here."
The next moment, their figures vanished.
Six figures suddenly appeared in the deathly silent woods. The terrified screams of the young men shattered the tranquility.
Qi Jiu leisurely glanced around.
This man-made forest was vast, home to a wide variety of trees and herbaceous plants, as well as numerous small, wild animals.
In an era where flora and fauna were mutating one after another, no one knew just how dangerous these woods had become.
Wu Xiude's eyes widened first. "Qi Jiu, do you know what you're doing? This is murder!"
They would die. They would definitely die here! How could an ordinary strength-enhancement Esper possibly contend with the countless dangers lurking in these woods?
Qi Jiu lowered her eyes wearily. "You already knew that, didn't you?"
Not wanting to hear any more nonsense, she warned them before they could start shouting, "If you want to scream and attract those things over here to hasten your demise, I have no objection."
The five men opposite her instantly fell silent, like frightened chickens.
This whole process was so boring.
Qi Jiu turned away indifferently. "I want to go back and rest," she told Yue Du.
At the same time, she spoke aloud, "You can all stay here. Whether you live or die is up to you."
In truth, they wouldn't survive.
In Qi Jiu's peripheral vision, an unusually tall weeping willow lifted its branches. In the soil beneath it, a dark fungus released a pale-colored gas.
"Wishing you bad luck. You're welcome," Qi Jiu chuckled.
This, too, was a way to use her Word Spirit, wasn't it?
Wei Jingpeng was the first to recover from the daze.
He took a few seconds to assess the situation. As his gaze swept across the room, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Where was Wu Xiude...?
No, it wasn't just Wu Xiude. The four guys who usually fooled around with that rich heir were gone too.
Ignoring the bikini-clad women, who were wondering how they had suddenly ended up in a different place, Wei Jingpeng instinctively reached for his phone, only to find his pocket empty.
The phones—a dozen or so of them—were lying on the floor diagonally across from them, stacked in a neat pile. The scene was so bizarre it made his skin crawl.
Wei Jingpeng cautiously walked over, found his own phone, and turned it on.
The time was 8:03.
He had checked the time just a few minutes ago, and it had clearly been 7:00 on the dot!
What was going on? What had happened? Where had Wu Xiude—their guarantee of safety against the mutated beasts—gone?
As his thoughts churned in confusion, a military jeep approached from the distance and stopped outside the villa.
Wei Jingpeng's phone received a message:
"Young Master Wei, we've arrived. Please bring your friends down immediately."
Wei Jingpeng was silent for two seconds, mentally calculating how many people the jeep could hold. Then, he put on a gentle, refined smile and asked one of the bikini-clad women beside him, "Shall we go together?"
"I don't know where Xiude and the others went, but time is short, so we can't wait for them. We can't just leave you girls here all alone, so let's go together."
At his invitation, the women let out suppressed cries of joy, thanking him profusely.
Even knowing they might not survive, even knowing they would be the first to be thrown out as bait if they encountered a mutated beast, it was still better than staying here to die!
Everyone scrambled downstairs. All memory of the languid young woman had been completely erased from their minds.
In the neighboring city of Shengjing.
The moment Qi Jiu teleported back home, she fell into a deep sleep without any warning.
Author's Notes
The defining characteristic of the Word Spirit ability is—all output relies on the mouth.
The missions are about to start piling up. Qi Jiu's leisurely days are coming to an end.
Thanks to her efforts, Yue Du will get a body in the next chapter. The couple will join forces to dominate the small world!
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