Su Yao looked at the Prince with a questioning gaze.

She thought his “approaching” referred to her emotions finally stabilizing, her danger level decreasing.

Or perhaps it meant she was finally decently dressed.

Su Yao: “What clothes?”

The silver-haired young man tilted his head, “The one you were wearing before… the trench coat that looked like only someone your lover’s build could wear?”

Su Yao: “?”

Could he please stop bringing that up!

Su Yao rolled her eyes, “Isn’t my lover you? You swore I liked you, then forgot? I’m so heartbroken.”

Dylan hesitated, “…If your tone had a hint of genuine emotion, Duchess, I could have played along.”

When Su Yao returned to the ship, Saturday informed her that the Crown Prince had agreed to the meeting.

She, the Crown Prince, and the Royal Household Department Director joined a voice channel.

“Gentlemen, good day.”

Su Yao greeted them, getting straight to the point, “I think you’ve all heard about my unfortunate encounter, and you’ve also received the perpetrator’s data.”

A B-class wanted criminal infiltrated the depths of the Ole star region and attacked a major noble of the kingdom.

“The head of the security department at the Erks star system border checkpoint, Piazzi, accepted a bribe of tens of billions, colluded with a local criminal group, and allowed them to exploit system loopholes, creating fake IDs that could pass machine detection, sneaking into the Ole star region…”

Theoretically, the outermost border checkpoint was the strictest, with the most procedures.

After entering the Ole star region, except for the capital star system, most star systems were more relaxed regarding entry.

“There are countless people making fake chips at the border, but most are scammers; their chips fail detection.”

The buyers were arrested and imprisoned, so they had no time to seek revenge.

However, the criminal group colluding with officials was different.

Their chips passed detection, so they not only smuggled their own people in, but also sold the chips at exorbitant prices.

Su Yao paused, “Your Highness, Piazzi has a personal grudge with your father; this is easy to find out. Many years ago, His Majesty the King believed he was morally corrupt, leading to his transfer to Erks.

To put it another way, Piazzi’s classmate, Alesi Paste, who became a public official with him, they had similar grades and starting points, and now she is the Minister of the Kingdom’s Justice Department. Compared to her, Piazzi’s position is too low.”

“Easy to find out?”

Rui An asked back, “How did you find out?”

Su Yao: “That’s not important.”

Because she happened to remember the relevant details about this person from the novel.

This character’s corruption indirectly killed the heroine’s family.

Of course, all of that had already happened.

The heroine’s adoptive parents had been dead for years.

It’s just that, according to the original setting, these things wouldn’t be revealed until a few months later.

Su Yao: “You can also investigate what else he’s done… but most importantly, if this gets out, you’ll be in a lot of trouble.”

What constituted “getting out”?

Corruption wasn’t uncommon.

Every year, a batch of officials were dismissed for this reason.

However, the royal family publicly had no real political power.

If the public knew that they were still secretly manipulating the promotion and transfer of public officials, it would cause even more turmoil.

Su Yao: “It’s hard to say whether Piazzi was behind my attack, after all, he let those people in—”

The voice channel fell silent.

The Royal Household Department Director remained silent, clearly aware that it wasn’t his turn to speak.

After a while, the Crown Prince’s low voice, tinged with anger, came from the channel.

“…You’re threatening me, aren’t you? What do you want?”

Rui An was indeed angry.

He didn’t deny Su Yao’s guess, because it made sense. Compared to himself or his father, Su Yao was a much easier target.

As for other royal family members?

Piazzi hated the King; if a few of the other royals died, the King might secretly be happy.

Su Yao was different.

She was the fiancée the King had longed for for his Crown Prince.

And—

Even without mentioning Su Yao, Piazzi’s actions angered Rui An immensely.

Allowing members of a criminal group to enter the country?

What were they doing there?

Nothing but the most serious illegal transactions.

The traded goods ranged from living people to contraband drugs and various weapons.

“Speak.”

On a scenic island, in the sun-drenched living room of a villa.

The blond young man, suppressing his anger, stood up from the sofa.

Ruan Jiao sat beside him, casting a worried glance.

She had just completed a phase of test training and was resting while the healer team downstairs designed support plans.

Even though Duchess Su was attacked, the Crown Prince still took her away from school to this island for training.

“Maybe it’s just a play Su Yao directed herself.”

Rui An even said so, “She’s the type to do that.”

Ruan Jiao thought he had a point.

Perhaps she wanted to play the role of a pitiful victim to ease their relationship, or to attract the Prince’s attention.

“Su Yao, tell me, what do you want?”

But at this moment, the Crown Prince asked the Duchess on the other side in a gritted-teeth tone.

What were they talking about?

Ruan Jiao suddenly felt anxious.

Had Su Yao really gotten some kind of handle, enough to threaten Rui An into obeying her?

What would she demand?

To bring the wedding forward?

Or to demand that the Crown Prince spend more time with her?

Or even have more intimate contact?

“…It’s simple.”

Su Yao was very calm, “Your Highness, let’s call off the engagement, the proper way. The royal family will issue a statement, and we will have no relationship. You’re free to date or hook up with whomever you want.”

Rui An was stunned, “You want to call off the engagement?”

Ruan Jiao widened her eyes, unable to believe what she heard.

How was that possible?!

Su Yao actually proposed breaking off the engagement?!

“Your Highness, you might say that you can’t make this decision alone.”

Su Yao said calmly, “But I think that if you insist, His Majesty the King will eventually agree.”

In the book, the King also didn’t want him to marry Ruan Jiao, and eventually compromised.

Rui An said coldly, “Su Yao, I’ve said it before, Miss Ruan and I are just classmates. If you’re angry about what happened at the banquet and want to use this to blackmail me, you’re wrong.”

He took a deep breath, “Don’t think that your bloodline, our compatibility, will make me obey you. Perhaps I can’t find a more suitable fiancée than you, but for me, these things aren’t that important.”

“Oh, really?”

Su Yao’s voice became sarcastic, “What if I think the same way? That’s why I want to break up with you?”

“You—”

Su Yao sneered, “You can’t accept it, right? Because you think you’re superior to me, more noble than me. You can ignore bloodline and status, look down on me as your fiancée, and even get rid of me when necessary. But I don’t have your courage and vision. I have to value these things, so I can’t give up on you, right? That’s what you think, right?”

Ruan Jiao didn’t hear what Duchess Su said.

But at that moment, the Crown Prince’s face was incredibly grim.

“It’s ironic, Your Highness. I thought your most pathetic and ridiculous moment was when you trembled before your cousin disguised as the Emperor of Selaya.”

Su Yao laughed.

She wasn’t afraid of offending the male lead verbally.

In the original story, after he and the heroine got engaged, many people spoke ill of them because of the heroine’s bloodline.

Those people were all fine.

They were just slapped in the face by the S-class heir the heroine gave birth to.

Yes.

Just slapped in the face.

No injuries, no imprisonment, no death.

They had said much worse things than she had.

That was the male lead’s personality. If he were more vengeful or aggressive, with his abilities, fewer people would dare to confront him.

Rui An was silent for a few seconds, “Are you serious?”

“I am,” Su Yao sighed, “First, I don’t like you. Second, I don’t want to be involved in various crises because of this engagement.”

Rui An certainly wanted to break off the engagement too.

When they made the engagement, the Crown Prince was reluctant but accepted it.

But later, he met Ruan Jiao and saw his fiancée’s “true face,” he must have deeply regretted it.

“Hmm,” Rui An said heavily, “I understand.”

Then he left the voice chat.

The channel fell silent.

“Minister.”

Su Yao said to the other listener, “I’m sorry, I really don’t want to wait for a better opportunity, because I can’t stand it for another day. Regarding this engagement, I just want to inform you, after all, the royal family needs your approval to issue an official statement.”

Of course, it was actually the King’s approval.

Today’s conversation, including what happened at the banquet—

Would eventually be known to the King.

He might be angry with Ruan Jiao, or he might imagine other things, but those wouldn’t concern her.

Judging from the various plots in the original story, the biggest obstacle between the male and female leads was the male lead’s father.

He hated Ruan Jiao, not just because of her bloodline.

He also thought that the heroine’s feelings weren’t pure, that she wanted to use his son to take revenge on her family, and yet his son was hopelessly devoted, played like a puppet.

It was only after the heroine gave birth to an S-class heir and was always kind to the male lead that the King gradually accepted her.

“I understand, Duchess.”

The Royal Household Department Director’s tone was heavy, but he didn’t give any further response.

According to Ole law, the marriage of two people was nobody else’s business, and even parents couldn’t interfere, but involving the royal family added many unspeakable unspoken rules.

After the call ended, she received a voice message from Dylan.

Su Yao spoke frankly, “I gave your cousin a good scolding.”

The Prince chuckled, “Even if his self-esteem suffers, he’d be happy to break off the engagement. But… he also knows he’ll face a lot of trouble because of it.”

Dylan explained that before the Crown Prince’s engagement, the King had been secretly contacting foreign S-class nobles, trying to collect their biological information to find a highly compatible partner.

The Crown Prince was extremely annoyed.

He didn’t know Ruan Jiao back then, but that didn’t stop him from resisting his father’s actions.

Dylan said sarcastically, “Your appearance solved that problem. You see, my uncle is too afraid of the throne falling to my children.”

Su Yao: “Hmm? Don’t you even have a fiancée?”

Dylan: “He got the news from somewhere, heard I have several children outside, all showing bloodline characteristics of the Reptilian order—”

“Really?”

“Ha?” Dylan laughed, “Of course it’s fake. It was a rumor I spread deliberately. I just wanted to mess with them.”

Su Yao: …

The King actually believed it?

Of course, he might have only half-believed it, but that was enough.

Dylan laughed for a while, “As for now, I think he really cares about his classmate.”

“Ruan Jiao?”

“Yes,” Dylan chuckled lightly, “At the banquet, I just glanced at Miss Ruan, and he got nervous. His psychic field was different.”

Su Yao wasn’t surprised, “So he’s worried that the King won’t accept her?”

“Maybe,” he said vaguely, “He does value her, but maybe not to that extent.”

“…Indeed.”

After all, the male lead didn’t break off the engagement. The author wanted to create a forbidden, ambiguous atmosphere and make him conflicted.

He didn’t like the heroine from the start.

Initially, he just treated her as a junior who needed care, appreciating her personality and abilities.

It was certainly more than that now, but probably not to the point of wanting to marry her immediately.

“Right, one more thing…”

Su Yao had been trying to recall her experiences during her awakening.

But like a dream, the things she could remember became fewer and fewer upon waking, and it was difficult to add more.

However, she vaguely remembered a feeling.

A familiar, close, indescribable sense of security, like a lone wolf wandering for a long time, finally returning to its pack.

Thus, she was able to relax.

Although she wasn’t a wolf, the feeling was very similar.

Moreover, her genetic ancestors, at least the lion part, were capable of both solitary and group living.

Su Yao tentatively asked, “You can transform into other races, right, Your Highness?”

“I can only change my appearance, adjust my body temperature. True aura is difficult to imitate, my dear. Even if I transform into a Lion Scorpion, you won’t think I’m one of your kind. Otherwise, I could try to soothe you.”

Dylan sighed regretfully, “And our compatibility is below 50%, so the efficiency will be low.”

Su Yao didn’t speak.

She never thought it was Dylan who soothed her; if it were, he wouldn’t have hidden it.

“However, I heard about your…”

Dylan paused, retracting the word “lover” he was about to say.

“Your little rose’s race can do it. With just a little contact, they can perfectly imitate other creatures.”

Su Yao: “?”

That was an even more absurd answer.

“Did you encounter someone?”

Dylan reacted quickly, “Some people’s hypnotic abilities… can create hallucinations, making you feel that they are your family, lover, or someone you can trust.”

That was possible.

Su Yao responded, “Perhaps. I remember one person’s ability was troublesome, but I don’t remember the details.”

“Hmm, judging from the corpses, your activity was limited to that street block?”

Dylan said, “And speaking of corpses, they almost all have implants for auxiliary combat. They don’t seem like ordinary people. If they were all members of a gang, it’s normal for their leader to have some with special abilities.”

They discussed for a few more sentences. Dylan asked where she was going next.

“Capital star.”

“Hmm? You’re going to see the killer? I’d like to remind you that the truth of such things is usually hidden beneath layers of appearances.”

Su Yao didn’t speak.

Indeed, there were other suspicious points to this matter.

Dylan suddenly said, “You know I experienced many assassination attempts and kidnappings as a child, right?”

Su Yao did know this, “That’s the case for royal family members, right? The Crown Prince probably experienced even more?”

“Indeed,” Dylan confirmed, “Actually, most of the time, the assassins were dead before they even got close to us. But when you start investigating the mastermind… you often get useless answers.”

He said softly, “There are many special abilities in the world to deal with this kind of situation. The killer’s memories can be modified, emotions can be implanted, hypnosis, brainwashing… making you conclude during interrogation that the assassin had a personal vendetta against you is one of the simplest and most effective methods. My mother told me that.”

Su Yao was silent for a while, “You mean someone might be manipulating all this behind the scenes.”

“The brilliance of this method lies in the fact that our families… have countless enemies. In fact, any family that can produce an S-class is like this.

All countries are using various methods to appease citizens with S-class bloodlines, giving them privileges, because their ancestors demonstrated power, deterring and even eliminating those who dared to look down on them, those who tried to be their equals.”

“Wow,” Su Yao exclaimed, “That’s a dangerous statement.”

“I’m stating a fact. That’s their thinking, not mine. If you ask me, I think we have superior aspects and inferior aspects. The lower the bloodline rank, the less the awakening anomaly affects them. I’ve seen videos of me going crazy, my dad recorded them. I didn’t look noble at all.”

Dylan sighed softly, “Ah, those poor androids.”

Su Yao: “?”

It seemed that this person’s awakening anomaly was related to being in heat.

Su Yao: “But, androids? People? Shouldn’t they have used android monkeys directly if they were prepared?”

Dylan was silent.

Su Yao felt something was wrong, “Wait, wait a minute, I’m kidding, right?”

Dylan pondered, “There were both. So, the scene was really unsightly. My mother said I was like a monster forcing the protagonist into sex in a low-grade erotic horror film.”

Su Yao: …

Su Yao: “What are the healers doing?”

“They’re working hard, but it’s not working quickly. Mainly because they’re far from me and dare not get too close, and my parents seem to enjoy recording my embarrassing moments.”

Dylan sighed, “According to them, they had similar experiences when they were young, and their parents treated them the same way, so I forgive them. On the bright side, I probably won’t have children, so this vicious cycle might stop.”

“Wait,” Su Yao caught the key point, “Can you really choose not to have children? As a member of the royal family?”

“Yeah, after all, my uncle hopes I have many children, don’t you think?”

This was obviously sarcasm.

The King certainly hoped he wouldn’t have children, so he wasn’t in a hurry to arrange his marriage.

Su Yao: “Okay, I asked a stupid question. So, do you think I should continue investigating?”

Dylan: “It’s your business. I’m just telling you there’s this possibility. But I advise you to get used to it. Our ancestors left us not only bloodlines but also endless enemies. So… this is something that’s hard to solve completely.”

Su Yao fell into thought.

Dylan really didn’t take it seriously, even asking her if she wanted to go out and play, “After all, you just tried awakening; you need to rest and relax.”

Su Yao snapped out of it, “I wanted to play games to pass the time, that’s also a kind of relaxation.”

“Uh,” Dylan was speechless, “If it’s a competitive game, you’ll still need to be highly focused and tense; that’s not relaxation.”

Su Yao: “…Oh.”

She couldn’t say, “Sorry, I’m afraid I’ll die tomorrow, so I decided to quickly do something I haven’t done before, no matter what it is.”

She walked through the upper deck corridor to the entertainment area where the game pods were located.

A nearly two-meter-high pod, a smooth, shiny silver-white alloy shell, with the abbreviation of Huafeng Company’s logo on the back, contained complex life support systems and a comfortable seating area.

“Saturday, if there’s any new news related to my attack, send me a reminder and have me log off. If it’s some random person contacting me, just leave it for now.”

“Understood, Your Grace.”

She sat inside, and the pod slowly closed.

After a series of biological information checks to confirm her identity and signing various user agreement notices, she finally completed account initialization.

She randomly entered a nickname, clicked next, and found herself in a sea of games.

More than ten promotional projections from different games surrounded her from all directions, filled with dazzling lights and bombarding sound effects.

The most prominent was “Legend,” the hottest game, which had just started its first limited-number test.

The official had released 500,000 test qualifications, which seemed like a lot.

But the current universe population exceeded 100 trillion. Even if not everyone liked playing games, 500,000 was still too few.

The game was a fantasy power system of guns, swords, and magic.

The story background was also in space.

Su Yao chose this game and started creating an account.

Each player could choose different birthplaces; the game offered more than ten planets of different colors.

Various information floated beside them: orbital period, atmospheric pressure, surface temperature, and data like the local civilization level and armed forces.

However—

This was the first phase of testing, so only one planet was available; the others could only be viewed.

She adjusted her face, changed her appearance, retaining her voice and figure.

The beginner equipment was uniform: a motorcycle-style jacket, pants, and boots, sized to fit the player’s body.

The color could be changed, but not the style.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a base surrounded by a protective shield. Iron-gray buildings and training grounds formed a solemn steel forest.

A queue was not far away, about a dozen people, each wearing the same clothes, but in various colors.

Su Yao dyed her clothes white and silently joined the colorful queue.

She stood at the end of the queue and quietly asked the person in front, “Excuse me, are we getting weapons here?”

“Yes,” the person in front nodded, “The initial test benefits are here. Everyone gets to choose a set of equipment and a random silver weapon!”

The person further ahead also turned around, “Hey, did you guys read the guide? Are you going for the forest set or the furnace set?”

They immediately started chatting enthusiastically.

Su Yao listened quietly until someone asked her what she thought.

Su Yao: “I don’t know, let’s just choose a set randomly. I have mild decision paralysis—”

Another person came to the end of the queue.

Strangely, the person walked forward without looking, seemingly not intending to join the queue.

He had already walked past them.

But when she spoke, he suddenly stopped, glanced back, and slowly walked to the end of the queue.

Maybe he didn’t know this was a queue for equipment?

He only found out after hearing her speak?

Su Yao paused and looked at the person behind her.

He was a muscular, exceptionally tall black-haired man, with a very imposing figure, broad shoulders and long legs, and a very well-proportioned and superior build.

He used the game system’s default passerby face, and his clothes were all dyed black.

He was looking at her with a very subtle expression.

He seemed a little surprised.

A question mark appeared above Su Yao’s head, “What’s wrong?”

The black-haired man lowered his gaze, his voice low and deep, “I just didn’t expect this to happen. I could meet someone here—”

Su Yao looked at him in confusion.

The black-haired man was silent for two seconds, “Who has the same decision paralysis as me.”

Su Yao: …