A Terrifying Mansion of Her Own

In her previous life, Yu Lingye had lived too lowly to ever touch the core intelligence.

But even someone at the very bottom, if they stayed among players long enough, could piece together fragments of the truth from idle chatter, quest scrolls, death records, and camp rumors.

This continent had countless factions. Every race had its own faith, and every city had its own laws.

Yet above all of that existed the so-called gods, from whom every faction's power of faith originated.

They never directly intervened in the continent's affairs.

They were more like spectators seated high above, watching wars, watching betrayals, watching civilizations tear each other apart in blood.

It was said that if an existence gained a god's recognition, they would be chosen as a Demigod Candidate and become the gods' spokesperson in the mortal world.

They would also have the chance to ascend into a True God and escape the cycle of worldly reincarnation.

It sounded incredibly grand.

The victors became gods; the losers went into the ground.

But this land had long grown weary of war, and none of the factions had the strength to wage another campaign.

As far as she knew, there were already three Demigod Candidates publicly known to exist on this continent.

She no longer remembered who they were. In any case, they had nothing to do with her now.

The earliest war closest to the present had been a localized conflict between Holy White City and the Frostspine Northern Alliance twenty years ago.

One side had seemingly included a Demigod Candidate.

To give this world new possibilities, the players who had been sent here were more like new variables thrown into a muddy swamp.

And now, Isolde's body belonged to a native resident, while her soul came from a player.

She knew the plot, the resource points, and which skills would rise to prominence in the early stages.

More importantly, she possessed the identity of the Castle's BOSS, along with a status panel that could disguise her.

This was practically a cheat handed to her for free.

The more Isolde thought about it, the brighter her eyes became. She suddenly set down her teacup and looked at Lia.

"Lia, as the Castle's owner, can I leave the Castle whenever I want?"

Lia answered quickly.

"Yes. The Castle has no permission restrictions on the owner's movements. The owner may leave at any time."

After a brief pause, she continued, "After the owner leaves, the Castle can activate different states according to the owner's wishes, including concealment, defense, trapping, and harmless mode."

"Everything will follow the owner's wishes."

Isolde slowly sat up straighter.

"So even when I'm away, the Castle can still operate?"

Lia said, "Yes."

Isolde asked, "Can it receive guests automatically?"

Lia said, "It can."

Isolde asked, "Can it kill guests automatically?"

Lia paused for a moment.

"If the owner defines them as prey, it can."

Isolde's eyes lit up completely.

Wow.

Wasn't this a fully automated resource collector?

She could go out and level up while the Castle ran a dungeon at home.

Greedy players could come in searching for treasure, and the Castle would shut the doors and unleash the monsters.

All the dropped items and materials would go straight into storage, where they could be sorted and kept automatically.

Wasn't this ten thousand times better than working herself to the bone for other people in modern society?

In real life, she could not even afford to rent a comfortable little apartment in the city.

But now, she had inherited a money-making mansion right from the start.

Other than being a little hard on players, there was nothing wrong with it.

After the excitement faded, Isolde quickly calmed down.

The Castle being able to operate automatically was certainly a good thing.

But she could not use it too frequently.

Luring in a few greedy players from time to time would not be a problem.

But if it happened too often, this place would be marked as a high-risk dungeon.

Players were not easy to fool forever. They would record locations, exchange information, and form teams to investigate.

By then, the ones arriving would no longer be early-game rookies like Zheng Chuan, Meng Yinyin, and Luo Qi, but mature teams equipped with scouting, purification, and advanced skills.

Isolde had indeed become the Castle's owner and obtained BOSS permissions.

But she was not stupid enough to put her own nest on display for everyone the moment she gained a slight advantage.

The Castle needed to stay low-profile.

It could hide within the gray mist, occasionally swallow a few foolish invaders, and maintain its defenses while she was away.

But her true, stable source of resources could not rely entirely on it.

Over the next two days, Isolde did not rush to leave.

She took Lia with her and walked through every part of the Castle, inside and out.

The Castle was far larger than she had imagined.

The outermost layer was filled with traps: gray mist, broken bridges, withered woods, false paths, and mechanisms hidden in wall cracks and beneath stone steps.

Most of the mechanisms had deteriorated with age. Some still worked, while others had been reduced to frightening shells.

Further inside lay the illusion array zone.

The illusion array in the eastern tower extended outward from here.

It could guide intruders to see what they wanted to see.

Some would see treasure chests, some would hear cries for help, and some would be led near the Banquet Hall.

After inspecting it, Isolde only had Lia temporarily adjust the illusion array to dispersal mode.

For the time being, she needed the Castle to remain hidden, not become famous.

Next came the guard posts.

Array positions had been left at corridor corners, stair landings, and underground entrances.

Valen had once cherished his life dearly and had arranged defenses almost everywhere he might possibly be attacked.

Unfortunately, years of neglect had dimmed most of the array markings, leaving only a few low-level Bone Puppets barely able to move.

Isolde had the Faceless Attendants drag those Bone Puppets into the underground laboratory.

She could repair them when she had time. There was no need to waste resources on them now.

The living quarters were relatively well preserved.

There were guest rooms, a dressing room, storage rooms, an abandoned garden, and a small greenhouse.

Most of the flowers and plants in the greenhouse had died, leaving only a few Blackleaf Vines alive.

They were bloodthirsty and could be used as traps or low-level magical plant materials.

Isolde casually had Lia make a note of them.

Anything useful would be kept. Anything useless could be thrown away later.

Valen's bedroom was at the end of the living quarters.

When she pushed open the door, the room was surprisingly normal.

There was a large dark bed, an old-fashioned wardrobe, a fireplace, a thick carpet, and a small round table by the window.

Though dusty, it at least looked like a place a person could live in.

Lia told her that by the later stages of Valen's mutation, his body could no longer enter the bedroom, so he mostly remained in the study and the Banquet Hall.

Isolde glanced at the bed.

In other words, it was not that he did not want to sleep in a bed. He had simply become too big to fit inside.

She sympathized with him for exactly one second.

After all, Valen had already been dismantled into materials and placed in storage. She was now the Castle's owner.

However, the study was the place that truly gave her a headache.

The moment the door opened, the stench of rotten flesh, potions, and old paper assaulted her.

Isolde nearly backed out on the spot.

When she had come to collect materials before, her mind had been entirely occupied with how to kill Valen, and she had not had the leisure to despise the environment.

Now that she was the homeowner, she could not stand the sight of the place at all.

Bottles and jars littered the floor, while bones that had not been properly cleaned lay in the corners.

The tabletop was sticky with dried, unidentified liquid. Several books lay spread across the floor, their page edges blackened as if something had licked them.

Isolde immediately ordered the Faceless Attendants to come in and clean.

Scrub the floor three times, open every window, and make sure the air circulated again.

She could live in a terrifying Castle, but she could not live in a garbage dump.

There were countless books in the study, stuffed into every gap in the bookcases, but she could not understand most of them.

Ancient script, Elvish, Dwarven, and several types of cipher.

She stared at them for a while and only felt her eyes ache.

The parts she could understand were mostly in the common tongue, along with the evil arts books familiar to the original owner.

She read two pages and quickly closed the book.

These things might be useful in the future, but she could not use all of them.

She admitted she was not a good person, but the original owner's methods were vile in a way that was simply too thorough.

Further down was the underground area.

She had already visited the underground laboratory many times.

The experiment tables, material cabinets, Soul-Sealing Rack, stitching tools, and black iron boxes used to store body parts were all still there.

After two days of cleaning, it at least no longer looked quite as much like a crime scene as when she had first awakened.

What truly caught her attention was the iron door on the floor below the laboratory, leading even deeper underground.

The iron door was wrapped in black chains. It had no handle, only a closed emblem.

The moment Isolde approached, a system prompt appeared.

[Unknown underground chamber detected]

[Current permissions insufficient]

[Unlock conditions unknown]