A Bet

Liao Zixuan really wanted to find a flaw in the girl's words.

For example, perhaps Vivian had actually fallen off a cliff, survived the disaster, picked up a mysterious ring, and found a super-powerful old man living inside it. Uh, sorry—for now, it looked like it should have been an old woman instead.

Unfortunately, Liao Zixuan had long since known every inch of the little girl's body. Forget rings, necklaces, and other jewelry—even a poor girl like her had no chest wrap to wear. No wonder she was already this old and still had nothing to show for it.

Ahem, that was getting off track.

Since there was no old man or old woman's cheat, could her body have been invaded by some evil soul, with the usurper taking over her body?

All right, Liao Zixuan admitted that he usually read too many novels.

Because whether it was the extraordinary perception that came from his Dark Flame Wolf body or the game system, the girl before him—Vivian—showed not the slightest abnormality.

In other words, the Vivian before him was simply Vivian. There was absolutely no mistake about that.

Hmm.

That was a relief. A relief, my ass!

Wasn't she supposed to be a Cannon Fodder NPC? Wasn't she supposed to be an ordinary, helpless, useless little village girl whom everyone could bully?

So why had he ended up with a split personality?!

A split personality would have been one thing, but what was this other personality? A battle master? A magical prodigy? A peerless genius? A scythe-wielding maniac?

Hello?

Someone was blatantly cheating! Was nobody going to do anything about it?

They had the same body, were both called Vivian, and were both impoverished little girls who shared the same experiences. So why was this personality so ridiculously overpowered?

Good grief, even novelists wouldn't dare write something like this, would they!?

He had even said he would raise her into a legendary great Witch. What was there left to raise?

If the Vivian standing before him right now—with an expression that said, "Everyone here is trash," "I'm the best in the world," and "Tsk, that's it?"—still didn't count as a Witch, then tell me, what the hell did count as a Witch?!

Where was his white lotus? Where was his sweet, naive girl?

Liao Zixuan wailed inwardly. He listlessly flopped onto the ground, the little tail behind him swishing back and forth in deep gloom.

"Heh heh, you... don't seem afraid of me at all?" Although Liao Zixuan had not said a word, his behavior as a Wolf Cub still made Vivian's expression turn cold and her tone sharpen.

She had always been the one giving others dirty looks.

"Always" meant ever since she was born and had used this body for the second time. Well, counting this time, it was only her second time.

Liao Zixuan lazily yawned.

His battered spirit finally recovered a little, because he had discovered the fatal flaw of Vivian's Second Personality.

Her brain didn't work very well.

"Are you Vivian?"

"Yes."

"Am I Vivian's Summoned Beast?"

"Yes."

"Do we have a life-bond contract?"

"Yes."

"Then why should I be afraid of you? Because you're her Second Personality? Because you have a terrible personality? Because you like violence and don't speak reasonably?"

"..."

After Liao Zixuan rattled off that barrage of questions, Vivian fell silent.

Seeing that this girl seemed to have it rather hard, the Wolf Cub's heart softened a little. He lowered his tone and began speaking properly:

"Please, don't think a Second Personality is anything rare. I've seen plenty of them. Relax. It's no big deal."

As he spoke, Liao Zixuan waved his little wolf paw with an air of maturity.

Incidentally, the reason he could now argue so freely and fluently with Vivian instead of merely transmitting vague thoughts, as he had before, was entirely due to this Second Personality's powerful control over magic.

"You've seen other people with a Second Personality?" Vivian's tone became unusually urgent, as if she was desperate to know.

The girl even stumbled over her words. "Second Personality" was a completely unfamiliar term to her. Or rather, this was the first time she had learned that she was not evil, strange, or heretical, but something called a "Second Personality"—and that there were many others like her.

"Come, come, sit down. I'll explain it to you slowly."

Compared with this brand-new soul, who had been blessed by the heavens and given cheats but was ultimately still a baby who had not seen much of the world,

Liao Zixuan, who had read countless books and watched countless films back on Blue Star, had far too much he could bluff—ah, no, explain in detail.

"Most Second Personalities, especially those acquired later in life, originate from the need to protect the original personality. When they encounter something unbearable but necessary, the Second Personality appears and takes over."

"For example, killing someone."

"Think carefully about how you were born. Did something severely traumatic happen to Vivian back then?"

After Liao Zixuan finished speaking, the girl did not answer.

But the look of recollection on her face clearly showed that he had been more or less right.

"So... I was born because Vivian needed me?" After holding it in for quite some time, Liao Zixuan never would have expected the girl to come up with that sentence.

"Of course."

"It was precisely because she couldn't handle it that she needed another completely different version of herself—you—to help her overcome that obstacle." The Wolf Cub nodded with deep conviction.

"Then Vivian... won't she hate me? After all, I..."

Seeing the girl before him hesitate, Liao Zixuan hurriedly raised his little wolf paw to call for a timeout.

Good grief!

Just unbelievable!

Despite looking like a little demon on the outside, she was actually a hidden tsundere. And the object of her tsundere behavior was none other than the original personality, the completely opposite white-lotus Vivian. This was simply absurd!

Utterly absurd!

"The Second Personality secretly loves me dearly but is too stubborn to admit it, so she pretends to be an aloof villain in order to protect me..."

Liao Zixuan finally understood.

The Second Personality before him was not genuinely stupid. Her brain only stopped working whenever the topic involved Vivian, the original personality.

"Don't worry. She definitely won't hate you. In fact, I'll bet that once she learns of your existence, she'll take the initiative to try communicating with you."

"Heh, her? That coward?" The girl turned her head away, clearly suffering another bout of her old tsundere habit.

After all, wouldn't anyone be frightened upon discovering that another consciousness existed inside their body?

"A coward?"

On the other side, Liao Zixuan shook his head after hearing her.

"Would a coward dare come all the way to Claw Forest alone to gather medicine for her younger brother's illness? Would a coward dare oppose the Fire God Cult even while knowing she was about to be hunted?"

"Being brave doesn't mean blindly charging forward. That's just being an idiot. Being brave means being utterly terrified inside, yet still choosing to move forward."

After finishing, the Wolf Cub looked at the girl, who seemed to understand but not quite. He took advantage of the moment and made a deal with the Second Personality.

"Dare to make a bet?"

"A bet?"

"Yes. Once the original personality, Vivian, regains consciousness, if she really calls out to you of her own accord, then you..."

"You absolutely mustn't refuse her. How about it?"