At this moment, all doubts were finally resolved.

Wen Renxi was not a player; she was a native!

Therefore, when they first arrived in this world and discussed the mission, Wen Renxi did not participate. It wasn’t that she, as she told Han Jiao, felt their communication was foolish, believing that in a dungeon where only one person could clear it, everyone was an enemy, and communication was unnecessary.

She simply wasn’t a player, so how could she participate in the discussion?

It was because of their disregard for the natives and the anomalies they revealed during their discussion that she sensed something was wrong. She specifically chose to share a room with Han Jiao not because Han Jiao was young, but because she seemed more easily deceived, and Wen Renxi needed to obtain information from her.

She had let Zaoya go because she truly wanted her to escape, not caring about the mission. As a native, she had no mission.

At this moment, Lu Lu and Huo Yu recalled their brief interactions with Wen Renxi, and the more they thought about it, the more their hearts sank.

The Snow Wedding Gown dungeon was dangerous, but at least before officially entering Shangyang Village, the place where the events occurred, there should have been a safe period. How could they have imagined that before entering Shangyang Village, a native of the nightmare world had already noticed their presence and infiltrated them?

Thinking that this was a nightmare world with no living people, Huo Yu and Lu Lu felt a chill rise from the soles of their feet.

A native of the nightmare world had discovered their existence as players and was fighting back, and they were completely unaware of such a dangerous presence lurking among them.

It was terrifying.

Her purpose from the beginning was to learn about their mission from Han Jiao and interfere, which made them even more certain that Jiang Ming and Huang Pingyu had died by Wen Renxi’s hand.

Wen Renxi didn’t know they were blaming Jiang Ming’s disappearance on her, but it didn’t matter.

She didn’t mind them being shocked and suspicious. All she had to do was buy time for Zaoya to escape. Nothing else mattered.

“…How could you possibly know we’re players?”

This was a nightmare world!

Was she an awakened NPC? Even more terrifying.

Both were young and had read novels. Before the nightmare world descended, they had seen many stories about NPCs in games or characters in novels awakening, so it was easy for them to think of this now.

“Why couldn’t I know?” Wen Renxi tilted her head, her well-behaved hairstyle making her look cute, but the blood dripping from her knife added a chilling touch.

“Because to you, we’re just insignificant native NPCs?”

Huo Yu: “…”

Lu Lu: “…”

To be honest, hearing these words from an NPC was terrifying, especially from an NPC in a nightmare world.

“Truly arrogant and condescending.”

“We have no intention of being your enemy, we just want to complete the mission and leave.”

Faced with an awakened NPC, Huo Yu’s attitude became more cautious. “We’ll leave as soon as we complete the mission.”

“The mission where you drag a girl, persecuted by her environment, forced to marry a dead man, who finally escaped hell, back to be buried alive in a coffin with a corpse?”

Wen Renxi’s face still held a curious smile, as if she were genuinely asking out of curiosity.

“Truly arrogant and condescending.”

Even Wen Renxi wouldn’t be this arrogant and condescending.

Her system had once said that her attitude was completely unlike a demon king who had risen from a lowly demon to unify the demon world. She seemed more like a human, not an unrestrained demon.

That was naturally because Wen Renxi identified more with her human identity.

She still hadn’t forgotten her time as a low-level demon, raised as food by other demons, always in danger of being served on the table.

And because of her special race, her kind were food, edible to any demon, their strength making them even more delicious, just a more delicious dish.

Wen Renxi had only survived those days by holding onto her belief that she was human.

She was human.

So, there were things she wouldn’t do.

She was human, so she wouldn’t take lives just because she had the power, because she was strong, just because of a whim or preference.

“We just want to live. We’ll die if we don’t complete the mission.”

Lu Lu remembered Zaoya crying as she was forced into the coffin, her expression desperate and helpless. As a girl, how could Lu Lu not empathize? This was why she later made those snide remarks to Zaoya’s brother.

She wanted to say they were also helpless, but this reason couldn’t convince Wen Renxi.

“So? You want to live, but Zaoya doesn’t? Does she deserve to die? Are your lives precious, but Zaoya’s isn’t? Should she die for your mission, for your lives?”

Why?

Huo Yu and Lu Lu were speechless; all their excuses seemed weak under Wen Renxi’s questioning.

They hadn’t thought about this. After arriving in this world, all they thought about was quickly finding Zaoya and handing in the mission.

Unable to refute, they had to continue.

—What else could they do?

“Let us go, and we’ll let Zaoya go. We promise not to look for her.”

Huo Yu suggested cautiously, looking at Wen Renxi warily.

Wen Renxi pitied Zaoya.

So, they would promise not to look for Zaoya, wouldn’t that work? And with Wen Renxi around, they didn’t dare confront an awakened NPC.

The nightmare world was dangerous enough; an awakened native was infinitely more so.

They had other options besides Zaoya.

If they gave up on Zaoya, they still had time to convince Mr. Hu to choose someone else.

This choice wasn’t difficult.

But Wen Renxi didn’t want that.

She knew what Huo Yu meant: leave Zaoya alone, and they would find another girl, sparing Zaoya.

But as Wen Renxi had thought before, those girls were all Zaoya.

She had originally wanted to destroy Hu Jizu’s coffin in the dark, to help Hu Jizu reincarnate, to prevent his corpse from rotting, and to fundamentally eliminate the possibility of the Hu family finding a snow bride to be buried with him.

But she quickly realized it wasn’t that simple.

Without the body, there was still an empty tomb. If the Hu family wanted, there would be a snow bride. Realizing this, Wen Renxi had wanted to turn around and slaughter the Hu family.

Fortunately, she remembered that she was human, a college student, and finally suppressed the malice in her heart.

She had to think of another way.

Unfortunately, she was just a student, and there was no signal here. She couldn’t even call the police, otherwise, she would have reported them for feudal practices, ghost marriages, and attempted murder.

But since arriving here, Wen Renxi had found no signal on her phone. She couldn’t make calls or send messages, and she didn’t dare leave, worried that another girl would be harmed before she returned.

As for those girls who wanted to be chosen as the snow bride? They were no different from Zaoya. Wen Renxi wouldn’t justify their lack of resistance or respect their choices because they hadn’t resisted like Zaoya.

It wasn’t what they deserved, nor what they truly wanted, but the concept instilled in them by their environment.

Just like in ancient times, when a woman lost her husband, it was considered loyal to remain a widow or die with him.

This was just a concept imposed on them by their environment.

“To complete your mission, to survive, a girl must die. So…” Wen Renxi suddenly moved, charging forward, her knife aimed at Huo Yu’s face, her voice trembling, with a hint of a sob, “To let those girls live, you should die, right? You’ll understand, won’t you?”

After all, isn’t that what you’re doing?

Wen Renxi’s attack was too sudden. Huo Yu couldn’t dodge. At the critical moment, his trump card finally activated, teleporting him to the other side of the hall. Wen Renxi’s knife only cut a strand of his hair.

After escaping, Huo Yu didn’t wait for Wen Renxi to attack again, immediately using a speed-boosting item to flee.

When Wen Renxi attacked Huo Yu, Lu Lu had already sensed something was wrong and escaped.

After stalling and talking to Huo Yu and Lu Lu for so long, Zaoya should have escaped far enough. It wouldn’t be easy for them to find her again.

Wen Renxi couldn’t find Zaoya either, and she had something else to do.

Her partner, Han Jiao, still hadn’t appeared.

Knowing Han Jiao, she should have arrived by now. Her absence meant only one thing.

Han Jiao was in trouble.

She didn’t know if it was the players or the villagers who had targeted Han Jiao.

Whether as a partner, to use Han Jiao to find Zaoya, or simply because Han Jiao was a girl who shouldn’t be harmed by these demons, Wen Renxi had to find her first.

Knowing that Han Jiao was most likely not killed, but taken to the Hu family as a bride, Wen Renxi didn’t waste any time and headed straight for the Hu residence.

Half an hour earlier:

Han Jiao was grabbed in the alley and dragged away. Despite having many items, she was helpless, unable to break free.

She was taken to the Hu’s.

The villagers’ faces looked eerie in the dim light, their greedy, twisted smiles painted on.

“Mr. Hu, the bride is here!”

“Young Master Hu will love the bride!”

“Hehehe, wedding night, wedding night, wedding night!”

Surrounded, Han Jiao couldn’t move. After the villagers’ words, Mr. Hu’s gloomy eyes fell on her, and he smiled.

“Good, good, you’re my good daughter-in-law.”

“Jizu will love the bride. Change her into the wedding gown!”

Han Jiao was terrified, but unable to protest, her body restricted.

She watched as they dressed her in a white wedding gown, just like Zaoya’s, a perfect fit.

After the gown, she heard music.

Not an illusion, wedding music.

“The bride is entering the bridal chamber!” The matchmaker announced, leading Han Jiao by the white silk to the red coffin in the courtyard. Two strong women grabbed her arms and shoved her into the coffin.

“Aaaaaah—”

Qin Guoan and Qiu Yuanzhi, also searching for Zaoya, had just returned. Not recognizing Han Jiao in the coffin, they thought someone had found Zaoya first, their faces paling.

Someone cleared the dungeon?

It was over!

After Han Jiao was pushed in, the coffin lid slammed shut. The moonlight and candlelight vanished, plunging her into darkness.

She cried and pounded on the lid, trying to open it. Hu Jizu’s rotting corpse was beneath her; she was going crazy.

As if that wasn’t enough, she felt a tremor below, then a cold, rotting arm wrapped around her waist, a stench filling her nostrils.

Han Jiao froze.

The arm around her waist… what was it?

What the hell was it?!!!!

What else could it be, it was Hu Jizu, dead for eight days!!!!

“AAAAAHHHHHHH—”

She was losing her mind!!!