Mutual Redemption with the Villainous Boss [Infinite] - Chapter 20

Chen Jian stood up and shouted his rebuttal: “Bullshit! First off, Zhu Ci isn’t a sparrow! She’s a human, not a bird! Second, open your damn eyes and look—no one here killed—”

“Silence!” The gavel struck, cutting Chen Jian off. “There shall be no shouting in this court, or you will be expelled from the jury rows.”

Everyone fell silent. Chen Jian was still indignant, gritting his teeth in fury. Zhu Ci pressed her hand on him to keep him down. The Kite still stood at the plaintiff’s seat, head held high, a flicker of ferocity in his eyes.

Chen Liangyi, as gentle as water, spoke to the Crow Judge: “Judge, we simply wish to ask why the three of us are all defendants. After we split up last night, we each returned to our own rooms. If you say the Robin was killed, could he have been in three different places at once?”

“You have a point. Then let us proceed one by one,” the Crow Judge nodded.

The Kite let out a cold snort. “You certainly have a silver tongue. Why don’t you go first then?”

Chen Liangyi’s companions grabbed his arm in concern, telling him not to go, but he simply rose from his seat and summoned a scimitar. “It’s fine. I possess the SSR weapon, the Blade of Finality. They can’t do anything to me.”

“The Blade of Finality!” Chen Jian was envious. “How come all your weapons are blades, while mine is just a compass?”

“Wait, that compass of yours is actually a weapon?” He Fanghui asked in surprise.

Chen Jian gave an “un-huh” and said, “Yeah, it’s my initial weapon. Unexpected, right? That’s why I’m very weak.”

Zhu Ci stared intently at Chen Liangyi’s departing figure. An ill omen grew within her; the premonition was so strong she wanted to step forward and stop him, but Yu Jiayi held her back. “Don’t be reckless. Let’s wait and see.”

Chen Liangyi appeared to be a veteran of several instances. He seemed at ease as he slapped his blade onto the defendant’s table and sat down.

One of his companions, a burly man named Duan Jingchuan, looked up at the other two teams and said, “Don’t be fooled by Brother Chen’s good temper. He is actually incredibly powerful. In the last team instance, he ripped through Wandering-type RMs with his bare hands and hacked his way all the way to the exit.”

The others chimed in: “It’s true. If Brother Chen hadn’t led us—never looking down on us for being weak and saying neighbors should help each other—we would have died long ago.”

“He is the strongest. Just watch.”

It seemed they had immense confidence in Chen Liangyi. Even Ye Qingqing nodded in agreement, mentioning she had seen their team’s name on the leaderboard.

“There’s a leaderboard for teams?” Zhu Ci asked her.

“Yes, it’s also in the Central District,” Ye Qingqing explained. “At night, the individual leaderboard switches to a team leaderboard. You probably haven’t been there at night, so you wouldn’t know.”

The Crow Judge struck the gavel, drawing everyone’s attention. She set it down and spoke in a moderate voice: “The court is now in session.”

Everyone grew tense, except for Chen Liangyi, who remained calm and composed.

“Plaintiff, please state the charges.”

The Kite cleared his throat. “I accuse the Sparrow of using a knife to kill the Robin in the corridor last night!”

“Plaintiff, please present your testimony.”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” the Kite added.

“Very well,” the Crow Judge pointed at Chen Liangyi. “Defendant, please state your defense.”

“I did no such thing,” Chen Liangyi said, leaning back against his chair.

“Do you have a witness?”

“Huh?” He was stunned by the question.

“Defendant, do you have a witness?” the Crow Judge asked again, her patience thinning.

“Wait, Judge, does the Kite have a witness then?” Chen Liangyi pointed at the man opposite him.

“I saw it with my own eyes. That means I am my own witness,” the Kite said, patting his chest.

Chen Liangyi was moved to angry laughter by such illogical words. He retorted, “Fine. Then I saw it with my own eyes too. I saw it myself, so I am also a witness.”

The Kite leaped up, knocking over his chair. “Judge! He is lying!”

“On what grounds?” the Crow Judge asked. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the courtroom turned electric. The members of the jury waited with bated breath; a few even summoned their weapons.

“Exactly, how am I lying?”

Though Chen Liangyi asked, he was prepared. He knew they wouldn’t let him pass easily. In a critical moment like this, he just needed to find the right timing to cut them down with his blade the moment they attacked.

The Kite left the plaintiff’s seat. With his hands behind his back, he paced slowly toward the witness stand in the center.

“A sparrow is not a nocturnal animal. How could it possibly see at night?”

The sound of clapping rang out. The Cuckoo stood at the back, happily applauding until the Crow Judge told him to be quiet.

“I am a human, not a sparrow. Of course I can see my own actions,” Chen Liangyi argued, though he noticed his voice sounded a bit hollow.

“No, you are the Sparrow. You are sitting in the defendant’s seat, and I have accused the Sparrow. Naturally, it is you.”

“Fine, fine, I’m the Sparrow then,” Chen Liangyi gripped the Blade of Finality on the table, shifting into a combat stance. “And I killed the Robin. Now, you’re going to die too!”

He pressed down with his left hand, flipped over the table, and lunged with his blade straight for the Kite’s neck.

Thump.

The sound of the gavel echoed through the hall. Chen Liangyi was frozen in place, disbelief etched on his face, as the Blade of Finality clattered to the floor.

A blue barrier of light rose around the jury. Seeing things take a turn for the worse, Duan Jingchuan immediately grabbed his weapon and charged out. The moment he touched the blue barrier, he was struck as if by lightning. He let out a scream and collapsed, his body convulsing as he foamed at the mouth, terrifying the others into staying back.

Zhu Ci realized that what she feared had finally happened.

Chen Liangyi tremblingly leaned down to pick up the blade from the floor. The Kite picked it up for him and shoved it into his hand.

“Try it. Under the Rules, how will you use the blade the Rules gave you?”

The Kite smiled gloomily. Unnoticed, the Cuckoo, who should have been by the door, had moved behind him.

The Kite had long anticipated this outcome, saying only: “I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“What… what are the Rules?” Chen Liangyi gripped the sword, trying to swing it, but it felt as heavy as a thousand-pound stone.

The Kite did not answer him. Instead, he looked up at the Crow Judge on the bench.

The Crow Judge raised a hand. “The verdict: the Sparrow is guilty.”

“Execution.”

Chen Jian hid behind He Fanghui. “Execution? Execution!”

“No!” Duan Jingchuan, his body still twitching and his mouth full of foam, crawled toward the blue net. He struck it hard once more, only to be blasted back several meters by the electricity, crashing into the door.

He lay by the door, his head slumped to one side, seemingly lifeless.

Yu Jiayi summoned her Butterfly Blades and was about to strike the blue light, but Zhu Ci quickly stopped her.

“You absolutely must not!”

“Why!” Chen Liangyi’s companions roared through their tears. “How can you just stand by and watch? Brother Chen was the first one to go up and help you!”

“She’s right. We can’t get out. Forcing a breakthrough will only be futile and cause more casualties,” Ye Qingqing said coldly.

She had seen this in a beginner instance.

This was the Rule System.

“In this role-playing instance, there are rules. If this judge has decreed guilt, then the brand of sin will surely be applied. This blue light… I’ve seen it in other instances. This is the Rule System. Unless a ‘Rule-Breaking’ item card appears, you can never leave.” Ye Qingqing’s explanation sent a chill through everyone’s hearts.

Chen Liangyi gripped the sword with both hands, let out a roar, and charged forward, thrusting it at the Crow Judge’s heart.

The blade pierced her chest, but the expected disintegration into ash did not occur.

“How can this be! An SSR-grade weapon card should be able to resist any RM!” someone from the Destiny team cried.

Ye Qingqing said solemnly, “That, too, is the Rule.”

Under the Rules, any items are rendered useless.

Chen Liangyi’s eyes widened. The Cuckoo circled behind him, grabbing both his arms and pinning them, rendering him unable to move.

The Skylark and the Wren stood on either side, each suddenly wielding a massive scythe.

The Cuckoo turned him around to face the crowd and asked: “Sparrow, Sparrow, how did you kill the Robin?”

Two scythes were held before his eyes, barely a centimeter from his eyeballs.

“I didn’t! I didn’t kill him!” The sharp edges seemed to reflect in his pupils. He tried desperately to shrink away, but he couldn’t move an inch.

“If you didn’t kill the Robin, why is his breast blood-red?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know!” His composure had completely shattered. Without his power or his weapon, he was like a fish on a chopping block, left to be toyed with.

Those inside the blue light watched, frantically pleading and trying to stop it, but it was all in vain.

“If you didn’t kill the Robin, why did water flow through the corridor last night, and why is there the scent of blood on your hands?”

“Last night… last night! No! Last night I only…!” Chen Liangyi’s eyes cleared for a moment as he stammered his defense. “I only broke a picture frame!”

A picture frame? Zhu Ci caught the key information. She had also had water and a frame broken in two last night.

Ye Qingqing’s expression didn’t look very good either.

“What picture frame?” Chen Jian asked blankly, appearing completely unaware.

Could it be…

Zhu Ci thought of those last two lines of laughter. So this was the trap they had set for her, Chen Liangyi, and Ye Qingqing.

The picture frames contained portraits of the Robin. There were so many hanging in the corridor; destroying even one was considered killing the Robin.

As soon as Chen Liangyi finished speaking, the Skylark and the Wren raised their scythes simultaneously.

Amidst the screams of the players, the scythes pierced through his skull.

The surroundings fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the sound of the scythes being pulled out—the sound of metal scraping against flesh and bone—accompanied by a spray of blood.

One of his teammates fell to his knees in terror, his face twitching uncontrollably. Having never seen such a scene, he lost control of his bladder.

The Cuckoo let go, and Chen Liangyi slumped to the ground. The Crow Judge tapped the gavel twice: “The execution is concluded. Court is adjourned.”

The Skylark and the Wren each took a limb—one the arms, one the legs—and began to carry the dead Chen Liangyi out the back door. A man from his team shouted, “Wait! Where are you taking Brother Chen?”

“To the chapel. The High Priest will soon perform the last rites for him,” the Cuckoo answered, a grin stretching across his face. “Guests, do not worry. We will place Mr. Sparrow in the chapel first. The trial will resume shortly.”

The Crow Judge crossed her hands, and the Cuckoo bowed his head, praying alongside her: “Poor soul, you shall find peace at last.”

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