My eyes fluttered open, but the first thing I sensed wasn’t the blinding light searing into my eyes—it was the fact I was coated in a thick layer of slime.

Divinity ‘Spirit of the Jade Moon’ is quietly instructing Disciple Amelia.

I reflexively shot up: “Zhige!”

A little shriek followed, and I quickly recognized it as Amelia. She was holding a large vial of kraken’s mucus in her hand, and my reaction caused her to bury her face in her arms, the mucus dripping into her curly hair.

I scooted forward and was surprised to find myself slipping on the metro ground as if it were an ice skating rink.

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

Bringing up my arm to try and wipe it off her, it seemed as most of my wounds were healing over…but my attire was a bit different.

It seemed as if Amelia and I were now in a different metro car, as I could spot the others through the window just ahead. 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 as I rolled them back down. Wiping down my hands with a nearby rag, I let out a loud sigh.

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

Observer ‘Socrates’: Amelia wants your praise.

Observer ‘Socrates’: Also can you believe they muted me?? Why did you even let that be a feature? Archangel Michael better be okay.

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

I wiped down my hand before placing it on the top of her head, ruffling her blond 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.

Amelia’s face immediately lit up as she looked at me with sparkling eyes. “Thank you, Peijin!” She beamed, practically leaping out of her skin.

Observer ‘Socrates’: AWW OMG ToT

Observer ‘Socrates’: Archangel Michael gave me stars to sponsor you if you’re nice, since he’s on trial at the heavenly court.

Observer ‘Socrates’ sponsors 5,000 stars.

It was rather cute to see how happy Amelia was from such a simple gesture as I didn’t know a child could be this pleased by a few words.

And the money was a good plus, obviously. How the hell did Archangel Michael have enough money to splurge on a random Observer? Had Socrates and Archangel Michael been talking without 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 quietly ushered, picking up my bag and sliding my jacket back on.

As I was pulling the jacket over my arms, she tugged on the jacket’s fabric. “Wait, Peijin,” she stopped me, “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,” I shrugged dismissively. “Let’s head back.”

Observer ‘Nipon23’: Jia Li forgets about her past occupation before she became the holy god of fate and fortune.

Sometimes, I really didn’t know whose side he was on.

That being said, I was already aware of Amelia’s comments. I turned toward Zhige for the strange reassurance the blade provided and gently ran my hand down the blade. Right before I had passed out, those same red boxes were back.

The ones marked by the Major Arcana.

The same name that Feiyu’s party leader had carved into the side of their metro car.

I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do yet—what I wanted to achieve in this world. Ironically enough, it reminded me of my thought process before failing the National College Entrance Examination.

“Pei, pei, pei,” I murmured under my breath, and Amelia looked at me strangely.*

A part of me desperately wanted to find out who this mysterious group, or perhaps singular person, was. Who could have corrupted my perfect novel so much that it almost felt foreign to me?

Scathing Reviewer activated!

But another part of me desperately wanted to live simply with these characters. Even if it would just be a fabrication of my delusional mind, I found comfort in them. In fact, I found even more comfort in how predictable they were.

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Seriously, what the hell did ‘Scathing Reviewer’ even do? It kept randomly activating.

“Hellooo my lovely subordinates!” I swung open the car door and stepped into it, letting Amelia walk 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 with all of her weight placed onto her arms behind her. A glowing chest was before with three blue skills floating above it.

My eye twitched at her coarse remark, and I quickly walked up just in front of her.

I had never been so inclined to hit a woman.

Yang let out a surprised shout as I suddenly punched him right in the arm.

“Liu Yue!” I roared, grabbing her shoulders and violently shaking her with no regard to her state. “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! And you hate me, too, of course I thought you’d leave me!”

“I’d never leave you, you idiot! I’m so pissed off 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 Yang shifted his arm toward me to allow me to punch him.

Disciple Yue has activated ‘Lie Detection!

Lie Detection confirms Disciple Peijins’s words as truth.

I slowly let my fist drop from Yang’s arm and 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! Ha ha, you’re like a tsundere!”

“…”

I was seriously pissed off now. Profiling and Lie Detection were rather passive skills, but obtaining them gave a significant advantage in this world. And with skills as unreliable as mine, I desperately needed two skills I could count on.

“I’m seriously about to kill you, Yue,” I grumbled and turned back toward the rewards chest.

Disciple Yue has activated ‘Lie Detection!

“...”

Technically, there wasn’t any criminal justice system or death penalty anymore to punish me.

Lie Detection confirms Disciple Peijins’s words as truth.

“Oh, you were serious about that,” Yue said in a mildly shocked tone.

Observer ‘Socrates’: Murder is a sin. You can’t do that anymore. Archangel Micahel gave me your contract, too.

Were those two that close already? It couldn’t be helped, I knew that. Especially for those two, but it still surprised me since neither knew the other's real identity.

Yang let out an increasingly awkward laugh and walked up behind me, placing his hands on my shoulder. “Peijin just has a funny sense of humor, right?”

“I’m dead serious right now, Yang.”

“Ha ha, see!”

Wei’s voice sounded out after, and he was holding Amelia over his back, rocking his weight back and forth between his two feet.

“Peijin, what skill should Yue pick?” His voice was firm and still, but it held this nervous undertone to it.

Hell, if I had his poster, I’d be freaking out, too. And the worst part was he didn’t even recognize it.

I began, clearing my throat. “She sho–”

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

Above the chest, three blue skills were glowing.

Magician's Hand Mark of the Beast Posseession

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. You can get skills like possession or mark of the beast with strength later,” I added on, “Have you never played a video game? You already have offensive skills.”

“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 or dead 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 sometime 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 it because you’re this magical god of fate and fortune…and because you saved me, I guess,” she added on 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.'

The metro around me began to crumble away into darkness at the edge of my vision, and one of Yue’s eyes was glowing an ominous purple as she stared into my soul.

“Stop.”

My words immediately snapped the illusion as 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.

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

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