Forced to Act out a Strange Script with a Rival - Chapter 81

Si Xiaoxiao felt like a Sleeping Beauty. It was as if she had been slumbering for an entire century; her consciousness slowly floated up from the boundless, dark depths of a deep sea, finally breaking free from its shackles to snap her eyes open.

Before her was the familiar, infinite pure-white system space. On the massive screen directly in front of her, Li Ting’s current movements were being broadcast in real-time.

She shook her head, which still felt somewhat heavy, and focused her gaze. She saw Li Ting hiding in a dim, cluttered convenience store. Facing her was none other than Lin Xiu—the fisherwoman who had previously appeared warm and rustic, but was actually harboring malicious intent!

What surprised her even more was that Li Ting wasn’t being held captive. Instead, it looked as if… she was interrogating Lin Xiu?

Lin Xiu was tied up with rope, kneeling on the ground with a face covered in tears and struggle. Meanwhile, Li Ting stood over her with a sharp, piercing gaze, pressing her with relentless questions.

“Eh???”

Si Xiaoxiao was instantly stunned.

Wasn’t this Lin Xiu part of the villain camp? Why is she suddenly “chatting” with Li Ting? And judging by the atmosphere, Li Ting is completely in control?

She felt as though she had missed exactly one thousand episodes of the plot! What kind of earth-shattering reversal had happened in the meantime?!

She had to admit, Li Ting always had her ways. Even in a place surrounded by wolves, she could rely on conversation alone to turn an enemy into a defector.

Si Xiaoxiao felt a sudden surge of reflected glory. The person she liked was indeed exceptional!

She watched intently, listening as Li Ting extracted the terrifying truth about the island from Lin Xiu.

Evil gods, sacrifices, curses… and the most crucial piece of information: while the phone in the convenience store could reach the outside world, any attempt to reveal the island’s secrets would trigger a curse.

Si Xiaoxiao’s heart leaped into her throat.

Such a dangerous curse! What should she do? Should she run? What will Li Ting do?

She tried to mobilize her mental energy to see if she could manifest as “Miss Tentacle” and project herself into the screen.

Unfortunately, she failed.

It seems I can’t help again, Si Xiaoxiao thought, feeling a sudden wave of frustration.

However, upon learning all this, Li Ting’s face showed not a hint of despair or retreat.

Her eyes were calm, carrying a sense of “burning her boats” in a final, desperate resolve. Without hesitation, she walked toward that old-fashioned telephone!

Ah?! Did I miss another episode? Has Li Ting already found a way to deal with the curse?!

She felt like her brain couldn’t keep up with the pace.

Next, she heard Li Ting’s shocking call to the police.

It wasn’t a cry for help; it was a report!

She was reporting “her own” sister as a fugitive murderer who had killed their father!!

Si Xiaoxiao’s brain stalled for a few seconds before she suddenly realized the brilliance of it.

What a clever move!

The curse only targeted those who revealed the island’s secrets, but Li Ting had completely exploited a loophole!

“Wow!!” she couldn’t help but exclaim within the system space, her eyes wide and round.

Then, she nearly jumped with excitement, turning to shout into the empty space: “System! System! Come out! So that’s why you set up that diary story! It was to provide the foreshadowing for this police report reversal, wasn’t it?! So Li Ting could reasonably bring in outside help! Right?!”

She wanted so badly to share the fact that the “Sister” she liked was a genius!

The system’s electronic voice rang out faintly, tinged with a hint of helplessness and fatigue: “Host, strictly speaking, a small bug occurred when this world was initially loaded. The timeline was adjusted… a bit too much. According to the original design, you were supposed to start from a stage of deep sisterly affection before any confessions had been made, playing out several daily life scenes of depending on one another and developing feelings over time.”

As it turned out, the system had accidentally loaded the time point “after the tragedy” had already occurred.

It was a miscalculation. “Forbidden” sisterly tropes were clearly so popular; the system wondered if some mysterious force had influenced the script.

“No wonder I felt the difficulty of this world was so high! It was a ‘Hell Mode’ start!” Si Xiaoxiao realized instantly, slapping her thigh. “So we triggered a hidden boss! System, your bug really screwed us over!”

Then, her clever eyes darted around. She immediately seized the opportunity to try and extort the system: “Since it was your mistake, shouldn’t you compensate us?! Give us some invincible items? Or a direct clear-level reward?”

“How could that be possible!! To rescue you from the hands of the Evil God earlier, this system consumed a massive amount of energy! I’m broke right now!” The system naturally wouldn’t let her open her mouth so wide. Its electronic voice was full of dissatisfaction and protest, like an old miser who had been wrongly accused of being stingy.

Si Xiaoxiao didn’t care. She stood with her hands on her hips, acting aggressive and righteous: “It’s because you didn’t let us ‘level up’ properly and skipped stages that this dungeon became so hard! Ultimately, it’s your fault! You must take responsibility!”

“System refuses to admit error and is initiating rebuttal procedures…” The system’s voice suddenly became robotic. It seemed to regret accidentally letting slip the detail about the world-loading bug.

Sigh, the ‘idiot host’ is simply too good at making the system let its guard down. I was actually baited.

Fortunately, this world was about to end anyway.

“Why is Li Ting crying!” At that moment, Si Xiaoxiao’s peripheral vision caught the big screen. She immediately stopped haggling with the system.

On the screen, Li Ting—who was still on the phone—suddenly had her eyes turn red as she spoke. Her voice began to choke up, and scalding tears fell without warning from those eyes that were usually so cold…

“Is… is this acting?”

To deceive the police on the other end, does she really need to get this into character?!

The crying looks so real?!

Si Xiaoxiao clicked her tongue in secret. She had to admit, Li Ting’s acting skills regarding crying scenes were indeed powerful; it made her own heart ache just watching.

“It’s not acting,” the system’s voice sounded flatly, carrying a trace of an imperceptible sigh. “She has truly empathized.”

Li Ting was cold on the outside but warm on the inside. Once she committed to something, she wouldn’t look back. She was extremely loyal and sentimental, which was exactly why she could become “possessed” by her own acting.

“Ah? Empathy?” The slow-witted Si Xiaoxiao didn’t react for a moment, asking: “Empathy for whom? That ‘patricidal’ sister?”

She hadn’t fully wrapped her head around the logic within the diary.

When she read the “forbidden love” story earlier, she had only looked at the surface level; she hadn’t thought as deeply as Li Ting had. Therefore, her understanding remained somewhat hazy.

“No,” the System stated calmly, revealing the biggest twist hidden behind the story: “Actually, the one who accidentally killed the father was the younger sister. The elder sister, in order to protect her, wrote that confession diary to take all the blame and fled to the island alone.”

Si Xiaoxiao blinked, stunned for a few seconds. Then she nodded with a look of sudden realization, though her focus was wildly off-mark: “Oh! So that’s it! I knew it! What sane person keeps a diary anyway? It really was a fake!”

System: “…”

It suddenly felt that its host’s nerves were, in some respects, thicker than a machine’s.

Unable to resist, the System nudged the little girl who was currently failing her “Emotional Intelligence” subject: “…Host, don’t you find this story… a bit moving? The sister sacrificed everything for her sibling.”

“Well, it’s moving… I guess.” The “flower vase” actress Si Xiaoxiao tilted her head, trying to feel it. There was a tiny spark of emotion, but clearly not much.

“What is up with that uncertain tone?!” the System couldn’t help but complain.

Then, a brilliant, vibrant smile bloomed on Si Xiaoxiao’s face again. She said lightheartedly, “But that’s not the final ending of the story! We—Li Ting and I—are about to perform the next part ourselves!! The tragedies of the past can’t be changed, but the ending of the future can be written by us, right?”

“…” The System fell silent for a moment, its electronic voice carrying a helpless sigh: “You… are terrifyingly optimistic.”

In a way, this heartless optimism was perhaps a powerful talent in itself.

The plot then reached its climax.

The villagers and the Evil God attacked, laying siege to the convenience store. Li Ting first fought with the villagers to buy time, then set the building on fire to protect herself.

“!!” Si Xiaoxiao watched with intense focus.

The fire spread rapidly; Li Ting was trapped inside!

Thick smoke billowed!

She couldn’t stay in there much longer.

No! I have to save Li Ting!!

Si Xiaoxiao immediately channeled all her concentration, desperately trying to control the tentacles hidden in the shadows as she had done before—to help Li Ting extinguish the flames or carry her out!

“Come out! Come out now!” she screamed in her mind, her will intensely focused.

However, even at this critical juncture, no matter how hard she tried or how much she mobilized her recently recovered mental strength, there was no movement in the shadows on the screen.

That power, which had once been so closely linked to her, now felt like a stone dropped into the ocean—the connection was completely severed.

Why isn’t it working?! It worked fine before! She didn’t understand why her abilities were failing at the most crucial moment!

In her extreme desperation, she could only turn to the System again. This time, her voice carried a sob and unprecedented urgency: “System! System! Do something! Is there any way for me to enter the stage?! You’re a dignified Yuri Script System—how can the other female lead be offline at every critical moment! How is the plot supposed to move forward?! Let me on stage! Right now! Immediately! Or Li Ting is going to burn to death!!!”

Seeing how frantic Si Xiaoxiao was, the System remained poised: “Don’t worry. The police will be on the island soon. Prepare to return to the real world.”

It didn’t want to interfere and waste energy again.

However, this time, the plot developed beyond the System’s predictions.

Suddenly, a torrential rain began to fall. While it dampened the fire, it also prevented the police—who were supposed to land and take control—from reaching the island on schedule.

What now?

Was it because of her previous interference that the boss of this dungeon had decided to burn its bridges?

The System fell into an eerie silence. Finally, it offered its most rational analysis: “Abandon this mission.”

Abandon?

Si Xiaoxiao never expected the System to say such a thing at a time like this.

The System explained that this world was a parallel universe belonging to her and Li Ting—them on a different path.

“If I abandon it, what happens to this world?” Si Xiaoxiao asked instinctively. Though she wasn’t the smartest, she could vaguely guess the answer.

In the previous Warden world, they had failed their mission, and in the second mission, they had played completely different roles. These were just versions of them on different world-lines.

The System didn’t answer directly, only repeatedly flashing a prompt: [Please confirm: Do you wish to exit the world early?]

“I don’t want to give up.” Si Xiaoxiao’s eyes were steady, clumsy yet stubborn. “The Si Xiaoxiao of any world-line would never give up on her Li Ting.”

To protect her sister, the younger sister chose to kill their father; to protect the younger sister, the elder sister took the blame and fled to a desolate island.

Just as Si Xiaoxiao believed: since they had come to this world, they were here to give these two sisters a perfect ending.

Thus, the prompt from the System changed: […Please confirm: Do you wish to burn Soul Energy to re-enter the script world?]

Si Xiaoxiao answered without a second of hesitation: “Of course.”

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