My eyes fluttered open, but the first thing I sensed wasn’t the blinding lights—it was that I was coated in a thick layer of slime.

Divinity Spirit of the Jade Moon is diligently instructing Disciple Amelia

I reflexively shot up: “Zhige!”

A little shriek followed, and I quickly recognized it as Amelia and calmed down. She was holding a large vial of kraken’s mucus in her hand. My reaction caused her to jump back and get the mucus stuck her curly hair.

I scooted forward and was surprised to find myself slipping on the moving train’s floor like it was an ice-skating rink.

“Sorry,” I said, reaching over to her. “Some got stuck in your hair, Amelia.”

I lifted my arm and wiped it off her, noticing that most of my wounds were healing over… but my attire was different.

I could spot the others through the window connecting the different train cars, and I realized they had moved. Yang and Wei were speaking to one another, seeming rather tense, while Yue was moving her arms around her to test her strength.

I was now only in my tank top, and my long pants had been rolled all the way up past my knees. No wonder it was just me and Amelia in this car, but I still felt incredibly awkward in front of her, my cheeks flushing from embarrassment.

“Did they seriously leave you to play medic?” I ignored the way my clothes got dirty and oiled when I rolled them back down.

Amelia gave a nervous nod and looked down at the ground. Even if we were in the same party, it was still humiliating for me to have been passed out and dependent on a child I just met.

[Observers Chat]

Socrates: Amelia wants your praise, Jia Li

Socrates: Archangel Michael better be ok :( I hope you thought this all through

The first notification caught me off guard, but when paying closer attention to Amelia, she had the face of an expectant child.

I wiped down my hand before placing it on the top of her head, ruffling her blonde hair. “Thank you, Amelia. I’m feeling much better thanks to your help,” I replied in a cheery tone, giving her a bright smile.

Hopefully I still didn’t look like a rip off Freddy Kruger or the effect would’ve been quite traumatizing. I didn’t want to be the feature on her next “biggest fear” poster, too.

Amelia’s face immediately lit up as she looked at me with sparkling eyes. “Thank you, Peijin!”

[Observers Chat]

Socrates: AWWWWWW OMG

Socrates: Archangel Michael gave me stars to sponsor you if you’re nice, since he’s on trial right now at the heavenly court for colluding despite his obligations as an Archangel

Observer ‘Socrates’ sponsors 5,000 stars.

I didn’t know how a child could be this pleased by a few words. It was rather cute to see how happy Amelia was from such a simple gesture. I never received words of praise when I was a child, and I wondered if I would’ve reacted similarly if I had. Maybe I wouldn’t be so twisted, either.

But how many stars did Archangel Michael give to Socrates?? Did they talk with each other? Did Socrates talk to other people than me?

I shook my head back and forth. Of course they’d talk. Why the hell was I getting hung up on that?

“Let’s head back to the other metro car, Amelia.” I ushered her and threw on the blue hoodie she handed me.

As I was pulling the hoodie over my tender arms, she tugged on the jacket’s fabric. “Wait, Peijin. Your tattoo.”

“Ugh, I know. It’s such an eyesore. I need to get rid of it,” I grumbled, scrubbing at the top of my skin as if it were a washable ink.

Amelia quickly interjected and brought her hands into fists in front of her. “No, it’s not! I think it’s very nice!”

I didn’t need a skill to know that she was lying.

“But I meant that when you passed out… it wouldn’t stop sparking. Even Chang showed up since it was giving him an issue with the system.”

“That’s just because Chang is bad at his job. Let’s head back.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

[Observers Chat]

Nipon23: jia li forgets about her past occupation as a shitty pest control worker…

If it was up to me, I would’ve blocked him by now.

There were three big differences from Surviving My First Run that I still couldn’t explain: Eternal Wish, the Major Arcana, and Scathing Reviewer. The observers, thankfully, were just like pleasing the gods, and as long as they didn’t find out I was the author, I wasn’t worried about review bombs and damaging my spiritual energy and potential of becoming a god.

The Eternal Wish was a deadbeat sponsor that had an unspeakable amount of power and used it only to tie me down to him. I needed to eradicate him to fulfill Athena’s contract and for my own sanity.

The Major Arcana rivaled karmic restraints to a terrifying degree. Hacking the system, branding me with this tattoo, and who knew what else they would do? The fact they could overstep karma gravely frightened me, and if they ever decided to come after me, there was nothing I could do.

I lowered the sleeve of my hoodie, making sure it covered the entire tattoo. The hoodie, sensing what I wanted to do, grew a few sizes.

Scathing Reviewer… it was a strange skill. It seemed to do a variety of things. It stopped any other disciples from analyzing me or my skills, but it also randomly activated. And when it did, I felt myself longing for my party. It made me soft.

Who could have corrupted my perfect novel so much that it almost felt foreign to me? Once I became a god, I’d destroy the system and take them all down with me.

“Hellooo, my lovely subordinates!” I swung open the car door and stepped into it, letting Amelia walk in before me.

Yue looked up at me with an already exasperated expression, like she wanted to pass out and die.

“The Wicked Witch of the West is back,” she said in a slow, annoyed tone, sitting on the metro chair. A glowing chest was before with three blue skills floating above it.

My eye twitched at her coarse remark, since I was pretty sure an observer had called me that before, and I moved to stand in front of her.

I had never been so inclined to hit a woman.

“Liu Yue!” I roared, grabbing her shoulders and violently shaking. “Do you know what I just went through for you? I can’t believe you seriously trust Yang more than me! I went through hell to get you out of that dungeon, but you would easily run off with Yang?!”

We were back to stage one, but the emotion carried in our glances now held something different.

Her head wobbled back and forth before she grabbed my arm and stopped me.

“You’re surprised by that? You fucking kidnapped me after knocking me out to make me join your party! And you hate me, too, of course I thought you’d leave me!”

“I’d never leave you, you idiot! I’m so pissed that you’d even say that!”

We both froze at my words, Yue blinking at me with an expression of utter disbelief. I quickly let go over her and turned away.

[Disciple Yue has activated Lie Detector!]

[Lie Detector confirms Disciple Peijin’s words as truth.]

I turned to face Yue once more, this time gawking. “Are you fucking kidding me?! Stop using your skills on me! How the hell did you even get these skills, you damn farmer!” I continued shouting at her, shaking her violently once more. “Did you make a deal behind my back with the devil or something? You’re picking up skills like a scavenger. You’re like a hyena!”

“A hyena?” she exclaimed angrily, but to my surprise, she suddenly burst out laughing. “Look how red your face is, Peijin!” She laughed so hard she held onto her stomach and wiped tears from her eyes.

I could feel the heat rise in my face, adding to my already red cheeks before I scoffed and turned away from her.

‘Profiling’ and ‘Lie Detector’ were rather passive skills but obtaining them gave a significant advantage in this world. And with skills as unreliable as mine, I desperately needed skills like those for me to count on.

“I’m seriously about to kill you, Yue,” I grumbled and turned back toward the rewards chest. Technically, there wasn’t any criminal justice system or death penalty anymore to punish me.

[Disciple Yue has activated Lie Detector!]

[Lie Detector confirms Disciple Peijin’s word as false.]

I scoffed, and Yue snickered in response. Both of us were too shallow and cocky to ever address head-on how we felt after her dungeon room. But there was an air of respect between us now that wasn’t present prior.

Above the chest, three blue skills were glowing.

[Magician’s Hand

Mark of the Beast

Possession]

I began, clearing my throat. “Yue, you sho–”

Yue quickly cut me off, shoving me aside. “I’m going to pick ‘Possession.’”

I sighed and gripped my temples, already regretting the fact I survived the last dungeon.

[Hindsight activated!]

“Yue,” I began strictly, “You should pick ‘Magician’s Hand.’ It’s an illusion skill, and that’ll pay off a lot in the later rounds. If there’s a skill like possession for demon disciples, there’s a divine skill like exorcism that’ll harm you.”

Her nose scrunched as she looked down at me, crossing her arms. “Is there a reason you keep advocating for all of us to pick passive or defensive skills?”

Well, at least we both agreed that ‘Mark of the Beast’ was out of the picture.

“Defensive skills take time and patience to develop, so it’s good to get them early in the game. You can get more offensive skills like ‘Possession’ or ‘Mark of the Beast’ with strength later. Have you never played a video game?”

“Who made you the boss?”

“I did. It’s a tyranny.”

Yang chuckled behind me before he decided to sit down on one of the metro seats. Wei threw Amelia into the air and she landed on Yang’s lap, who then threw her back, causing her to squeal in jittery excitement.

“Yue,” I continued, “‘Magician’s Hand’ allows you to warp the mind and space around people. It’s the same thing as the dungeon you just went through. ‘Possession’ requires you to actively control someone—you leave yourself vulnerable when using it.”

Pursing her lips, Yue glared at me for a moment longer before letting out a long sigh and turning toward ‘Magician’s Hand.’

I smirked cockily as she did so. At the rate she was gaining skills, she’d pick up

‘Possession’ soon in the future. My luck was so bad, it’d probably happen today just because I didn’t want her to have it.

Before she selected it, Yue quickly clarified her intention.

“I’m only picking this because you saved me. I’m paying back my debt,” she said with a grumble.

“That’s a bad mindset to have. Don’t do something for anyone else, ever.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Yue waved her hand dismissively at me, throwing her long black hair over her shoulder and clicking the skill.

I smiled warmly and gave her a hard smack on the back. “See, you’re not that stupid!”

[Disciple Yue has activated Magician’s Hand!]

Yue’s eyes were glowing an ominous purple as she stared deep into my soul. The train around me crumbled into dark ash into darkness until I was floating in nothingness.

“Stop.”

My words immediately snapped the illusion, and the train returned. Yue reverted to her original appearance, giving me nothing more than a warm, innocent smile. She put her hand on her hip and swiveled around to face Yang while I dumped the rest of the rewards into my bag, rolling my eyes at her childishness.

The train had begun to slow before finally coming to a halt, jolting us forward. The doors were about to open.

“Pervert Yang,” Yue said, “Any last words before we’re teleported into your torture chamber?”