Six.

Yang let out a massive sigh of relief, letting his forehead fall and press against the carpeted ground.

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts is jumping with joy.

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts sponsors everyone in ‘Peijin’s World Dominion’ 5,000 stars.

I looked down, smiling slightly at Yang, before sprinting straight toward Amelia.

Gripping onto her shoulders, I shook her and her head swayed back and forth.

“Amelia, call back the dire wolf and let me use ‘Stone’s Aura!’” I urged, not waiting for a response. “Keep the blue hoodie for now in case something goes wrong.”

Amelia’s large blue eyes widened in confusion, but she followed my command. After a few moments, the dire wolf appeared beside her, his face bloodied. I promptly pressed my forehead against hers and blue sparks flew between us.

[You have temporarily acquired the skill Stone’s Aura.]

With ‘Stone’s Aura’ equipped, I could easily bypass my way into the dungeon with Yue, as the karmic parameters would not sense me.

I quickly flew through the glass with Zhige in tow. Thankfully, Zhige’s aura was also masked since he was my sword. I quietly slunk through the maze before finding puppet Wei. He held his sword tightly, and his steps were barely detectable as he stalked a distracted Yue.

The white ribbon on his arm, however, was not present.

I drew in a deep breath before launching myself toward puppet Wei, slashing through his abdomen with Zhige. Zhige’s power was unbelieve, and I looked down in pure amazement from the clean cut. Although Zhige managed to cut straight through his entire body, no blood or organs came out.

Puppet Wei let out a ghastly howl, turning over his shoulder and trying to stab me while his upper body slowly slid off his lower body. He began to disintegrate—black ashes falling from his skin and leaving nothing behind but a foul stench.

I kneeled on the ground, bringing up my hands to my chest in a prayer.

“May you find peace beyond this world,” I whispered earnestly, my eyes closed in a solemn manner. After pausing for a moment, I gathered the ashes and placed them in my bag.

[Observers Chat]

Socrates: Who knew you’d treat ghosts with such kindness and respect?

CactusLiver: Damn. Anyway, isn’t Zhige kinda OP? Sick

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts is moved to tears by your generous display.

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts sponsors 5,000 stars.

I smiled internally at the sponsorship but kept my expression solemn. Zhige looked at me, blinking expectantly.

“Good job, Zhige! Aren’t you just the cutest?” I gently rubbed Zhige and the red eye squinted into a pleased crescent.

Typically, the puppets used in arcs were lowly ghosts. In the ghost realm, ghosts still had to make a living and survive, and there were different categories—the ghosts impersonating my party members often forgot their past lives but struggled with poverty, illness, and abuse in the ghost realm.

Thus, they were easy for the broadcasters and gods to get a hold of for the arcs. Regardless, they were ghosts, not demons, and Archangel Michael inherently had a soft spot for wronged humans, even if they were alcoholics, gambling addicts, and scummy people.

They rejected becoming demons, and that was enough of a justification for salvation.

Suddenly, the black ground shifted beneath my feet, sending me crashing into the walls. The maze walls shifted around me.

[Hindsight activated!]

Yue must have been playing with the cube again. I was running out of time—soon, one more puppet would slink away and prepare to kill her.

I darted through the maze, now unsure of where I was. The walls shifted once more, and I crashed face first into a black wall.

“Urgh! ‘Hindsight,’ is this literally not your job?” The bridge of my nose ached from the impact, causing me to sniffle.

My body stiffened as ‘Hindsight’ analyzed the situation, and an ominous shadow now loomed over me.

I leapt to the side of the wall, pinning myself against a corner as a vicious tarantula slammed through the wall where I was once standing.

Shaking itself off, the insect crawled up the walls with its large furry legs striped red and black; its multiple beady black eyes and sharp fangs glistened under the theater lights.

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The tarantula raised its two front legs in the air in a threatening manner before pouncing for me—I quickly ducked and slid under it, whipping my head around to see my attackers.

Of course I was transported right in front of puppet Amelia.

“Zhige, go!”

Zhige flew out from my hand and immediately stabbed through puppet Amelia’s stomach, twisting its blade before shooting up vertically and splitting her upper body in half. No blood gushed out since she quickly dissipated into ash.

It was a rather gruesome sight to see the body of a child get viciously torn apart.

No longer under her control, the tarantula froze awkwardly on the wall. Zhige flew back into my hand, and I quickly slashed the head off the spider.

“May you both find peace beyond this world,” I quickly prayed, bowing my head. I gently scooped up their ashes and mixed them together before putting them in another compartment in my bag. Before they became ghost and beast companions, they were probably owner and pet in the real world.

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts is searching for more tissues.

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts sponsors 7,000 stars.

Demon Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas is happy you cared about the beast.

Demon Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas sponsors 2,000 stars.

A warm smile grew on my face from the Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas’ messages—they were few and far between, but they were earnest, unlike those from other gods.

Demon King of Resourceful Gobins wishes for your death!

Was that guy seriously back already? I hoped karma would keep him out of commission for a bit longer.

The amount of spiritual energy here must have been permitting more of the gods’ involvement—he was certainly too poor and lacking in spiritual energy to ever send a message right now otherwise.

Since the maze was shifting again, Yue must have been close to the end and a step closer to her death.

I tried to quickly navigate toward the end using the age-old hack, my hand brushing against the right side of the walls. I looked up and spotted the entire crew watching me from the glass, and they were pointing their fingers at me repeatedly, their mouths wording something I couldn’t make out.

I grinned and gave a big thumbs up, continuing to sprint down the maze. Yue’s annoying and ear-piercing voice could be heard now; following the sound, I finally spotted them toward the end of the stage.

Peeking past the black wall, puppet Yang and Yue seemed to be bickering. Yue held the ball high above her head, glaring up at puppet Yang while he tried to reason with her. Puppet Yang did a perfect job of mimicking the real version—his voice was firm but still soft enough that Yue didn’t feel challenged.

My blood ran cold at the sight.

Where was I?

Puppet Peijin was nowhere to be seen… and if the person who Yue trusted most would leave last like I theorized, then I was the wrong person to send down.

I quickly shook my head, brushing off the idea. Even if Yue drove me up a wall, she knew I held the party’s best interest at heart. I wanted to believe she valued me that much, at least.

“Zhige, can you sense puppet Peijin?” I whispered at the blade, twisting it in my hands.

Zhige slowly spun around before pointing at a corner, directing my body toward it. My arms trembled slightly as my grip tightened on the handle, and the giant black tattoo on my forearm wasn’t helping ease my nerves.

Above me, the rest of the party was still desperately gesturing toward me. They must have realized first that puppet Peijin had gotten in position.

“Good Zhige.” I praised the blade under my breath, stealthily approaching the corner. After taking in a deep inhale, I burst out from the corner and surged toward puppet Peijin.

To my surprise, she was already facing my direction, and as I approached, she easily dodged my attack. Her face was cold as she faced me, and in her hand, she held a replica of Zhige without the blazing red eye.

Zhige seemed to shake at the sight of the phony blade and grew larger in my hands, spiritual power raging through it. I prayed that stone’s aura would continue hiding its energy.

Puppet Peijin brought the blade parallel to her cheek before soaring at me, aiming countless horrifying strikes at me.

Sparks flew as our blades made contact, but she was quickly pushing me toward the wall.

“Damnit, I’m not going to lose to a stupid puppet like you!” I hissed, jumping back and lifting my sword up into the air.

At my words, puppet Peijin’s face flared with incomprehensible rage, and I was quickly reminded that she, too, was human, even if she was not me.

“Zhige, go!”

Zhige flew forward and pinned her against the wall before pulling back, fighting her alone. I sprinted away, heading toward Yue with my feet thumping on the hollow wooden stage.

“Yue!” I finally managed to catch up to her, and I was now staring at both her and puppet Yang. My chest heaved with every breath, and I was a far cry from the composed puppet Peijin fighting with Zhige back in the corridor.

Yue’s face immediately fell at the sight of me. “Weren’t you going to look for any traps? Why are you suddenly being incompetent again?”

“Y-yeah,” I stammered, sparing an awkward glance at puppet Yang. “I think I found one. You two should come check it out.”

Even if Yue didn’t trust me as much as Yang, I needed to pull this off. There wasn’t enough time for me to head back up and exchange places with Yang because Yue had already reached the end of the maze. The moment she’d try to leave, she’d be brutally betrayed by the puppet party. I needed to kill them and have her break free of the illusion before leaving.

Yue must have noticed all the red flags by now, especially when one of them was blaring alarm signals right next to her.

Puppet Yang grabbed Yue’s sleeve before she could step forward and quietly murmured into her ear. “Why is Peijin suddenly so breathless? She was perfectly fine moments before.”

My muscles tensed, and my throat ran dry. Yue turned toward Yang receptively before glancing at me one again.

“Seriously?” I gestured toward myself. “Yue, remember that conversation we had fighting the sea serpent? The one where you called me a bitch?”

I let out a big sigh of relief as soon as I saw her face drop in exasperation at my comment. Yue might have been insufferable, but so was I.

“Yang, she probably just ran back here to tell us about the trap. Besides, we already found the end. Let’s just check.”

Yes! I loved Yue!

[Observers Chat]

Socrates: Come on, Yue!! Get out of this!

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts is leaning on the table in anticipation.

Puppet Yang shook his head insistently. “Do you seriously think the real Peijin would have told us that? When has she ever told you anything, Yue? And now, she suddenly wants us to head back into the maze.”

Fuck!

On cue, all the maze walls dropped immediately, revealing puppet Peijin fighting with Zhige. Zhige froze as if suddenly gaining stage fright and flew across the stage and into my hand. Putting on a perfect performance, puppet Peijin desperately called out to Yue.

“Yue, run! It’s a trap!” Puppet Peijin cried before collapsing onto a knee, clutching an “injury.”

I now stood on a completely empty stage with the white lights searing into my skin, making me feel hot as sweat dripped down my brow. Holding Zhige’s menacing blade in my hand, I realized how much of a monster I looked.

Yue’s eyes surfed the now-empty stage and quickly realized that puppet Amelia and puppet Wei vanished. In a panic, Yue grabbed onto puppet Yang’s arm and made a dash for the exit.

I looked back up at the glass window, watching my party scramble and pound against the glass frantically. Even if this was my world, I wasn’t the protagonist of it. I couldn’t force my characters to be saved by me.

Regretful and bitter about my weak bond with Yue, I lifted a hand. My unwavering finger pointed straight at Yang.

“You,” I mouthed, jumping back to avoid puppet Peijin’s flurry of attacks.

His eyes widened in realization, but I nodded my head in affirmation.

Yang would use ‘Stone’s Aura’ and quickly descend; since I wouldn’t have time to rush back behind the glass, I’d have to deal with karma myself.

“Archangel Michael, are you ready?” I called out, balling my hands into fists.

Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts is ready to fulfill his side of the contract.

With a loud crackle, all the spiritual energy in the room seemed to suddenly condense into a glowing blue sphere at the center of the room before erupting in a blaze of light.