Forced to Act out a Strange Script with a Rival - Chapter 31

Si Xiaoxiao was in so much pain that she cried out. She bit down hard…

[Your mission is to convincingly portray the Perverse Warden and complete a hidden objective.]

[You are the supreme Warden of the Rose Kingdom. The life and death within the Black Abomination Prison rests on your whim.

The woman dragged into your prison was your only star-filled night and summer of your youth.

You once etched your old vows onto cold iron and spent long, cold nights together.

Yet, the rebellion was like an abyss. She disappeared, carrying a secret treasure capable of incinerating the world.

Your reunion was amid the smoke of battle.

At the end of a rainy alley, she was the sharpest blade of the Revolutionary Army.

You pulled the trigger, the sound of her shattered knee piercing the rain.

Gazing at her collapsing figure, you clenched your ceremonial sword.

She is your mortal enemy, nothing more.]

Who am I—

I am the Warden of the Black Abomination Prison—

No, that’s the role I’m playing, I am supposed to be Li Ting !

Li Ting suddenly opened her eyes, her mind in a daze, as if she had truly become that Warden who upheld family honor and drew a blade against her closest friend.

But soon, she suppressed this emotion. She recalled her own name; she remembered the falsehood of this world.

Her vision was occupied by a cold, suffocating greyness.

Li Ting found herself standing in the center of a narrow, towering corridor.

The floor beneath her was rough, slick flagstone, with deep, suspicious grime congealed in the cracks. The entire environment was frighteningly cold and sinister.

On both sides were soaring, endless rows of cells constructed from massive, cold, rust-eaten metal bars.

Through the gaps in the bars, a few pairs of cloudy, numb, or malicious eyes occasionally flickered, like wild beasts in the dark scrutinizing their prey. Yet no sound emerged; there was only a chilling, oppressive silence.

The prisoners no longer lacked faces; they truly seemed to have become one vicious, heinous, and utterly depraved convict after another.

The System seemed to have upgraded once more, vastly improving the realism and detail of the instance world.

Moreover… Li Ting lowered her eyes, guessing in her heart, this System might now also possess the ability to influence human emotions…

The air was thick, like solidified grease. Every breath carried a dense, sickening mix of odors.

Rust, stale blood, plus a deeper, foul smell like slowly rotting corpses, together created an overwhelming sensory shock, making one not want to stay for a single moment.

Li Ting’s silk blouse and trousers had vanished, replaced by a deep-black uniform with an exceptionally straight cut and rigid lines.

The material was heavy, with a leather texture. The shoulder boards were cold, silver-grey metal, engraved with intricate and ferocious patterns of thorns and chains. While not exactly the same as the one Si Xiaoxiao wore previously, it was a similar model, making Li Ting look tall, long-legged, and commanding.

However, where Si Xiaoxiao had a whip hanging from her waist, this time she had a metal ruler, about a foot long, entirely black, with a cold, matte finish.

This System seems to even customize outfits for different people, adding special small accessories for pairing. It’s certainly putting excessive effort into strange places.

Li Ting slowly walked towards the heavy iron door ahead, which was adorned with a ferocious beast-head door knocker.

With her previous experience, she was certain that Si Xiaoxiao would be on the other side of that door.

The guards in front of the depressingly small interrogation room were no longer faceless. They had been replaced by ordinary faces, losing their former coldness, yet their human-machine quality was still pronounced and highly mechanical.

Not being an exact replica of the real world was perhaps good news.

Li Ting pushed open the heavy iron door without hesitation.

As she had expected, Si Xiaoxiao was indeed seated behind the door.

Si Xiaoxiao sat with her head bowed in the interrogation chair, her wrists and ankles bound by heavy shackles that shimmered with a cold, metallic luster. The oversized prisoner uniform hung loosely on her, making her figure appear even more fragile and delicate.

Her voluminous, slightly curly blonde hair was now disheveled, scattered across her pale cheeks and neck. The hair on her forehead was slicked back with sweat, clinging miserably to her skin.

However, the moment she saw Si Xiaoxiao, a powerful sense of betrayal, almost tearing her apart, began to surge through Li Ting’s heart. It was like a venomous vine wrapping around her reason, burning her body like wildfire.

She could not tolerate her closest friend abandoning honor to join the revolutionary rebellion—this was the intense emotion belonging to the Warden role.

The sound of Li Ting’s boots on the damp floor seemed to startle Si Xiaoxiao from her doze.

She lifted her head in confusion, her body trembling slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Then, with immense terror, she lifted her head fully, confusedly.

Her beautiful cat-like eyes were now filled with the disorientation of being forcibly awakened from the darkness, a huge fear of the strange, brutal environment, and disbelief at her own predicament.

She didn’t seem to have fully recovered from the identity swap, like a panicked small animal caught in a trap.

These were all emotions belonging to Si Xiaoxiao herself.

Subsequently, Li Ting clearly saw Si Xiaoxiao’s gaze shift.

Something deeper and more complex quickly replaced the initial terror. Her pupils lost focus, piercing through the current scene and plunging into a torrent of distant, painful memories.

Her shoulders slightly tensed, and her jawline tightened. Her entire demeanor underwent a subtle transformation in an instant. After being injected with emotions and memories by the System, she changed from a fragile prisoner into a warrior burdened with a heavy past, whose eyes hid a deep fire.

Li Ting had experienced a similar state at the very beginning of entering this world, like watching a movie in a confined room, being forcibly dragged and integrated into someone else’s life.

Next, it would be up to them to continue the destiny of these two rivals, who were more intimate than anyone else under the heavens.

“ID 623,” Li Ting spoke first, her voice deliberately lowered and imbued with a metallic coldness. Every word was like a needle quenched in ice, precisely pricking Si Xiaoxiao’s eardrum and heart: “Where did you hide the secret treasure?!”

She resolved to keep the core of the confrontation focused on the secret treasure, as she had done last time.

Si Xiaoxiao, awakened from the background story, quickly reacted. Casting aside her own ‘correctness,’ her actions carried a touch of world-overthrowing madness: “The secret treasure? Warden, didn’t you already take away my most important treasure on the bed that night?”

She was provoking, answering perfectly in the persona of a masochistic, obsessed woman.

The Warden’s emotions relentlessly battered Li Ting.

She would deliver the Warden’s response.

“ID 623—” the Warden’s voice contained thunderous fury as she sternly rebuked: “Stop with the pretty words.”

Her former moonlight was debasing herself like this—how could she not be enraged?

It was all those damned revolutionaries who had brainwashed the Kingdom’s Rose, making her utter such words!

In the bar, the woman had intoxicated her, and she had chased the shadow of her old friend, unwilling to wake up.

She had thought her dearest friend had returned, and they had indulged in intimacy. Who knew it was all a pretense!

Her most beloved friend had come for the revolution and was no longer the person she used to be.

Since the Rose had been stained—then let her destroy it.

The seed of tyranny had already taken root in Li Ting’s heart.

“I command you, take off your prisoner’s uniform.”

Even if it is to be an insult, it can only be done by my hand, I must personally humiliate you—

Si Xiaoxiao’s pupils suddenly constricted. The flame of humiliation instantly overwhelmed the earlier, deliberately crafted flippancy. She sharply raised her head, her bright smile now completely filled with rage: “I refuse, Warden.”

The words “Warden” were ground on Si Xiaoxiao’s tongue, sounding like a soft whisper to a lover.

“You are now merely a prisoner, begging for mercy—” a flash of dark pleasure crossed the Warden’s eyes. She enjoyed the twisted gratification that came with absolute control: “This is an order, not a negotiation.”

Si Xiaoxiao sneered, the light in her eyes shooting directly into Li Ting’s, meeting her gaze without fear: “My dearest friend, do you wish to continue the pleasure of that night?”

“Absurd!” The Warden’s eyes were utterly devoid of emotion, holding only a deep, heart-stopping indifference.

“Believe me, in this decaying country, only you and I can rebuild order, my love, believe me—”

A trace of near-hysterical laughter bloomed in those cat-like eyes, and her voice carried a strange, compellingly seductive penetration.

“—Bastard!” The Warden’s calm composure finally fractured slightly.

Despite being a prisoner at the mercy of others, she still possessed an unyielding, dauntless grace.

She was like a saint, encompassing everything, her eyes gentle, as if Li Ting were her child: “Dearest friend, I shall bestow upon you my wholehearted love—”

Rage erupted like lava. The Warden’s left hand, clad in a leather glove, swiftly drew the jet-black metal ruler from her waist. Without reservation, and with a whistling sound, she heavily struck Si Xiaoxiao’s shoulder: “You refuse a toast, so you’ll drink the penalty wine!”

“Agh—!” The sharp pain exploded instantly. The ruler’s sharp edge transmitted a burning sting through the rough prison uniform and into her flesh.

Si Xiaoxiao was in so much pain that she cried out. She bit down hard on her lower lip, tasting the dense metallic flavor of blood.

The dual emotions of Si Xiaoxiao and the Revolutionary prisoner overlapped simultaneously. Neither of them had anticipated the ruler would actually strike.

In Si Xiaoxiao’s subconscious, she always felt Li Ting wouldn’t truly hurt her, but when the ruler genuinely landed and she truly felt the pain, grievance and panic intertwined in her heart.

Simultaneously, a strange pleasure began to spread through her heart, and madness continually expanded.

The noble Warden seemed not to notice the instantaneous welling of moisture in the prisoner’s eyes or the profound sense of grievance. She retracted the ruler. The black instrument spun deftly between her leather-gloved fingers, emitting a cold, ominous gleam, like a serpent’s tongue.

“Blasphemy.”

Her voice remained steady, chillingly devoid of emotion. At this moment, she was the perverse Warden: “It seems ID 623 needs a more profound lesson to learn the meaning of the word ‘obedience’.”

The hand in the black leather glove slowly lifted and gripped the prisoner’s chin. The cold fingertips exerted an undeniable force, compelling the other party to look up.

“Since you won’t take it off yourself,” the Warden’s voice was like cracking ice, whispering into the woman’s ear with a cruel declaration: “Then I shall… do it myself.”

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