The Time Regulator's adjustment had a certain range.
If other Soul Cards appeared within the regulator's range, its effect would automatically fail in order to prevent the Soul Card Master's Soul Cards from being exposed, while simultaneously warning both Soul Card Masters.
This alarm was similar to the warning for a Soul Card on the verge of death, with a piercing alert tone.
But perhaps because Shen Sui had been in a duel at the time, the Duel Instrument had automatically muted the warning.
Damn it!
Shen Sui panicked.
It was not that he feared Alice might be in mortal danger.
As far as he knew, the other Soul Card in the Dawn Continent was Isabella.
Thinking back, Xin Yuan Tanchun seemed to have mentioned that Isabella had been in a bad mood after Modena City was destroyed, so she had suggested that Isabella go on a shopping spree in Emerald City to relieve her stress.
And Alice was currently selling the gems from the Storage Box by his lake.
A cold drop of sweat slid down his forehead.
It had clearly been the height of summer just moments ago, yet now he felt as though he had fallen into an icy abyss.
Alice! Don't expose me!
Given Shen Sui's strength in the Dawn Continent, even if Isabella really pulled out a machete and demanded to know where he had been for the past thousand years, he would not be afraid. But he still could not determine Isabella's current stance. After all, Baris had stabbed Daybreak in the back back then, yet she was now praised as Daybreak's most loyal knight.
What he feared was betrayal by a comrade.
A thousand years was too long—long enough to change everything.
Even for an ageless, immortal vampire True Ancestor like Isabella.
Look, hadn't her figure changed? She had clearly been a flat-chested loli for ten thousand years, but judging by the Soul Card illustration in Xin Yuan Tanchun's hand, she was now unmistakably a mature beauty.
Therefore, before investigating the changes and stances of those former-game NPC comrades, Shen Sui had no intention of revealing himself and reuniting with them.
Alice arrived in Emerald City. She found a street dedicated to stalls selling gems and laid out the gems she had obtained from your Storage Box for sale.
Your taste was excellent. The gems left behind back then were all high-quality; although they contained little magic power, they were still quite popular.
Alice made a tidy profit.
A beautiful lady came to Alice's stall and took a liking to a ruby that was not particularly pretty.
"Where did you get this gem?" The lady's gaze swept over Alice.
Alice keenly sensed that something was off about the lady.
"Pa Yin Jia Lake."
"So it was from Pa Yin Jia Lake..."
the lady murmured.
She sat across from Alice and, as though chatting with a friend, began telling Alice her story.
Her name was Isabella.
Damn it! Just what I was afraid of!
Shen Sui nearly dropped the Duel Instrument in his hand.
She had a lover named Claude.
Hey, hey, hey! She's slandering me! She's slandering me!
Completely conquering Isabella was something I did during my first playthrough, when I took the harem route!
This playthrough, I only maxed out Isabella's affection! I never completely conquered her, okay?!
Shen Sui made the declaration of a scumbag.
Of course, Shen Sui could not really be blamed for this. If one viewed the player's habit of giving gifts to raise the affection of multiple NPCs in his past-life game through the lens of reality, it was absolutely player behavior—and the kind that targeted both men and women. Shen Sui considered his second playthrough to be a Vivian-only route. After all, Vivian was the only one he had thoroughly conquered and unlocked a wedding-dress CG for. In the game, Isabella had merely been a tool character whose affection had been maxed out.
Shen Sui had already been very restrained. He had not raised the affection of all those conquerable female characters, but Isabella was an exception. To have Isabella join him in fighting the vampire progenitor, he had needed to max out her affection.
So...
Don't connect games with reality!
Shen Sui scratched his head.
Claude had once loved giving her rubies like this—one every day, and every one of them identical.
Uh...
Of course they were identical, because from beginning to end, I gave you the same ruby.
This was a common operation in games. Since Dawn Link had a large number of conquerable characters, players who wanted to start a harem route could not avoid giving huge quantities of gifts, which would waste most of their time searching for presents. Thus, the game had a setting: every NPC had a fixed location for storing gifts. Without the NPC noticing, the player could go there, steal back the gifts they had given, and reuse them in a cycle.
The ruby Shen Sui gave Isabella had come from that very method.
He gave the ruby to Isabella to raise her affection, then, while Isabella was away, went to where she stored her gifts and stole the gem back.
The next day, he repeated the process until her affection was maxed out.
In the game, this was called making use of game mechanics. In reality, it was called being a bastard.
Unfortunately, Shen Sui now faced the awkward truth that the game he had played was actually reality.
"Actually, I knew that from beginning to end, he had only ever given me one ruby.
"He stole away the gift he gave me, then gave it to me again the next day.
"I should have been angry, but for some reason, I accepted his gift."
As if venting, Isabella told Alice the story of Claude for a very, very long time.
Alice sat and listened, nodding repeatedly in admiration.
Though she silently marveled at what a bastard Claude was, she showed no abnormality on the surface, as if she did not know Clyde at all.
"Do you know Modena City? Well, most people call it the City of Sin now."
Isabella suddenly began talking about Modena City.
Alice tilted her head, looking confused.
"It was destroyed not long ago." Isabella stared intently into Alice's eyes, seemingly intending to see something in them.
Alice blinked her innocent eyes and shook her head to indicate that she did not know.
"Ah, you really wouldn't have had contact with it. You're only a little third-tier girl, after all."
Isabella smiled in relief and let go of her suspicion toward Alice. It seemed that the ruby ending up in this little girl's hands had been purely an accident.
Isabella seemed to have suspected Alice.
Reading these words, Shen Sui came to that conclusion.
That made sense. The ruby had bounced back and forth between Isabella and Shen Sui before ultimately returning to Shen Sui's hands. If it appeared in Alice's possession, it was indeed highly suspicious.
Ah, so why was this ruby in the Storage Box?
It seemed that while fishing, he had discovered that the bag on him was full, so he had casually stuffed everything into the box. Later, he had been so focused on pushing Vivian's main storyline that he completely forgot about it.
"So, are you willing to sell this ruby to me?" Isabella asked.
"Yes." Alice nodded in agreement and silently put away the tag marked five Magic Crystals.
She held up five fingers to Isabella and said, "Five thousand Magic Crystals."
Alice had been moved by Isabella's emotional story, and charging only five Magic Crystals for proof of that relationship would have been far too cheap.
Alice decided to make the price of that relationship more expensive.
Damn it! You raised the price after hearing the story, huh?!
As expected of you, Alice!
Ding! You obtained the Spell Card: **Price Gouging**
Chapter Two would return to updating at midnight.
Before you continue