A silent curse echoed in Liu Feiyang's mind as his feet instinctively stepped backward. He quickly glanced at the countdown timer ticking away on the blood-red system screen.
*4 minutes 12 seconds.*
If he died right now, everyone would be erased. This Player No. 4 probably hadn't noticed the warning screen yet, or she was just a reckless lunatic willing to blow herself up along with everyone else. Feiyang didn't have time to analyze her motives; his eyes rapidly scanned the incredibly barren bedroom for a weapon.
No swords, no daggers. There was only a thick ceramic water pitcher sitting on the bedside table.
Dim moonlight filtered through the fluttering balcony curtains. The slender silhouette of a woman stepped into the room with absolute silence. In her hand, she clutched a sharp wooden stake that looked like it had been broken off from a chair leg in the dining hall. Her eyes were wide with sheer panic and desperation.
"I'm sorry..." the girl with thick glasses—Player No. 4—muttered, her voice trembling. "If I kill the villainess, maybe this game will just end right away. The system always lies... I just need to go home!"
She raised the wooden stake and lunged directly at Feiyang.
"You crazy bitch!"
Feiyang cursed out loud. He twisted his body to dodge, but the cumbersome, voluminous hoop skirt caused him to trip over his own hem, losing his balance and crashing onto the bed. The sharp wooden stake grazed his shoulder, plunging straight through the pillow and sending feathers bursting into the air.
Player No. 4 didn't give up. She raised her weapon once more, aiming to drive it straight down into his chest.
Feiyang didn't hesitate. Seizing the moment her hands were raised, he used both feet to plant a violent kick directly into the girl's stomach. The force of the strike sent her flying backward, crashing heavily onto the floor as her thick glasses went flying across the room.
"Listen to me first!" Feiyang scrambled to his feet, struggling to balance in the heavy dress. "If I die, you and everyone else die too. The system literally just flashed a warning, look at your own screen!"
The girl, who was crawling around searching for her glasses, froze. Her blurred eyes widened as she noticed the red text flashing in the corner of her vision.
**[ Alert: If 'The Villainess' dies at the hands of a player, this round will result in immediate failure. ]**
"N-no way..." The girl's face drained of color, her body shaking as fresh waves of terror crashed over her. "Then... then what am I supposed to do? If the prince kills you tomorrow, aren't we all going to die anyway?"
Feiyang walked over, picked up her glasses, and handed them back to her with a long sigh. "At least for now, we're in the same boat. The condition is to stall our deaths as long as possible, not to look for stupid ways to end the game like this."
The girl took the glasses and put them on. Her body was still trembling, but a fraction of sanity had finally returned to her eyes. "My name is... Zhang Liyin."
"Feiyang," he replied shortly. "Get up. If you cooperate, I might actually have a way for us to survive."
Liyin nodded, realizing she had no other choice. Suddenly, Feiyang's system screen flickered, shifting to a calm green.
**[ Emergency Quest Completed: Successfully Thwarted the Assassination ]**
**[ Reward: Unlocked Passive Skill 'Danger Sense (Low Grade)' ]**
Before Feiyang could even review the details of his new skill, the heavy thud of leather combat boots echoed from the corridor outside his room once again.
*Thud... Thud...*
The footsteps stopped right in front of Feiyang's bedroom door. Liyin flinched violently, instinctively scrambling to hide behind the wardrobe.
*Knock, Knock.*
Two sharp knocks rattled the door, echoing loudly in the silence, before the familiar, deep voice of Prince Edward drifted through the wood.
"Liu Feiyang... I forgot to tell you something."
Liu Feiyang's heart skipped a beat. His hand instinctively reached for the door handle. The newly acquired passive skill, 'Danger Sense,' sent a chilling shiver racing down his spine—a clear warning that the person outside the door was ready to break it down at any given moment.
Zhang Liyin, who was still hiding behind the wardrobe, clamped both hands tightly over her mouth. Her face was so pale it was completely devoid of color.
"Is there something else, Your Highness?" Feiyang asked, forcing his voice to remain as even as possible, trying his best not to let any trembling slip through.
Silence enveloped the space for a brief moment before Prince Edward's deep voice drifted through the wood once more.
"Do not lock the balcony doors tonight," the prince said flatly. "If I find them closed... I will assume you are trying to hide something from me. And the penalty for treason is immediate execution, without exception."
With that final sentence, the heavy thud of leather boots began to distance itself immediately, leaving behind a thick layer of tension that still hung heavily in the room.
Feiyang let out a long breath. He quickly turned to look at the wide-open balcony doors, where the night wind was violently whipping the curtains back and forth. If he had been too impatient earlier and closed the doors to block out potential assassins, his head might have already been severed from his shoulders by now.
"Is... is he gone?" Liyin asked, her head slowly peeking out from behind the wardrobe, her voice still shaking.
"He's gone," Feiyang replied, walking over to the small table in the center of the room and sitting down on a wooden chair. "But this means our situation is much worse than we thought. The prince isn't just coming to kill me tomorrow morning; he's actively watching my every move tonight."
Liyin walked over to join him, her posture utterly defeated. "Then what are we going to do? Does that map help us with anything at all?"
Feiyang unrolled the old parchment on the table. The incoming moonlight was just enough to illuminate the partial routes the system had unlocked for him. The map displayed a labyrinthine network of corridors, with numerous rooms still completely submerged in dark fog. However, there was one specific spot located at the very bottom floor of the castle that blinked with a faint blue light, accompanied by a label: *'Ancient Noble Family Library.'*
"Here," Feiyang pointed at the blue dot. "In standard villainess games, information regarding the protagonist and the secrets of the castle are usually hidden in the library. If we want to know why the prince hates Liu Feiyang this much, and why the system set the condition to stall our deaths, we have to go here."
"But out there..." Liyin swallowed hard. "What if the prince is patrolling? Or what if there are other players lying in ambush?"
"That's exactly why I need you to help me," Feiyang looked up at her, his gaze resolute. "Moving around alone in this ridiculous dress is highly impractical. It's too cumbersome. You need to be my scout and watch my back."
Liyin paused for a moment before giving a slow, definitive nod. Since she had no other choice, following this man—who seemed calm and handled high-pressure situations remarkably well—offered a much better chance of survival than running off to die alone.
"Alright," she answered.
Feiyang gave a faint smile. He reached down and firmly tore away the lower layers of the voluminous red hoop skirt, the sound of tearing fabric echoing sharply through the quiet room. It allowed his legs to move a bit more freely. Although his current appearance looked entirely absurd, in a death game like this, aesthetics were no longer a necessity.
"Let's go," Feiyang said in a low voice. "Before the night runs out."
The two of them quietly cracked the bedroom door open and stepped out into the dark corridor once again, completely unaware that leaving the room this time would lead them straight toward the dark secrets of the castle that the system had intentionally hidden away.
The darkness in the corridor seemed to have grown thicker than before. The light from the wall-mounted candlesticks flickered weakly, on the verge of dying out. Feiyang and Liyin moved stealthily along the carpet, guided by the map in Feiyang's hand as it directed them down toward the basement.
Feiyang's passive skill, 'Danger Sense,' remained active. It wasn't triggering a violent alarm, but rather a persistent, suffocating sensation heavy in the air, a constant reminder that they were not alone in this silent hallway.
"Feiyang..." Liyin whispered faintly, reaching out to tug at his lace sleeve. "Around the corner ahead, there's a wide hall. My system is alerting me that something is moving."
Feiyang halted. Pressing his back against the cold stone wall, he carefully peeked around the corner.
What he saw wasn't Prince Edward, nor was it another player. It was one of their fellow participants—the studious-looking young man from the dining hall. He was currently on his knees in front of a pair of large doors, his entire body trembling as he frantically shoved something into his coat pocket.
"I found it... I found the game-clear item!" the young man muttered to himself, his voice raspy and unhinged. "If I just give this to the prince in the morning, I can go home..."
Suddenly, the ancient wooden doors right in front of him swung open on their own, completely untouched. The darkness within the room was incredibly deep and unnatural.
Feiyang's eyes widened as a figure slowly stepped out from that void.
It wasn't Prince Edward.
It was a man clad in ancient, pitch-black iron armor. The space beneath the helmet was hollow, revealing nothing but absolute emptiness. In his hands, he wielded a massive, heavy battleaxe.
"What... what is that thing?" Liyin's eyes went wide with shock, barely managing to smother her own gasp.
In a split second, the black-armored knight raised the axe high and brought it down heavily upon the young man. Before the victim could even let out a scream, his body shattered into gray light particles, scattering across the floor and vanishing instantly.
**[ Player No. 7 has been eliminated for trespassing into a restricted area without authorization. ]**
The system's flat announcement echoed in their heads, while Feiyang's screen flashed a brief red warning.
*A restricted area?* Feiyang knit his brows. He immediately looked down at the map in his hand. The spot where the armored knight stood was only a few meters away from the path leading to the basement library. And right now, that knight was turning its hollow gaze directly toward the corner where they were hiding.
The heavy clanking of iron hitting the stone floor resonated through the hall. It was walking straight toward them.