Once Lin Ling had eaten her fill, she finally recovered from her state as a “starving Saintess post-training.”
She set down her wooden cup and let out a satisfied sigh.
“I've come back to life.”
“As expected, dinner is the final line of defense for civilization.”
After speaking, she looked up.
Then she froze.
Everyone at the dining table was looking at her.
Lin Ling blinked.
“Uh.”
She slowly set down the bread in her hand.
“Um...”
“Why is everyone staring at me?”
Just as she finished speaking, the space in the corner of the dining room suddenly vibrated slightly.
Three figures appeared almost simultaneously.
As soon as Aliviel landed, she reached out to smooth her long hair, which had been ruffled by the wind.
Cecil's hair was a bit messier than usual, and a vengeful smile played on his face.
Phelan, on the other hand, acted as if nothing had happened, still holding his recording board.
Only the tip of his pen was moving faster than usual.
Lin Ling stared at the three who had suddenly appeared.
“Gah!”
“Where did you guys pop out from?!”
Cecil looked at her with a beaming smile.
“We returned from a place with a great view, very cold air, and where we could smell dinner but couldn't eat it.”
Lin Ling: “?”
Aliviel smiled and reached out to press Cecil's shoulder.
“My dear, some things do not need to be explained in such detail.”
Cecil's tail stiffened.
“I agree,” he said.
Leticia looked at the atmosphere and slowly put down her utensils.
She realized that what they were about to discuss might not be something she should be hearing right now.
She stood up.
“Since the Demon King's Castle still has important matters to discuss, I will take my leave first.”
With that, she cast a glance at Lin Ling.
Her shimmering eyes lingered on Lin Ling. After a moment, she said softly:
“Lin Ling.”
“I will come find you later.”
Lin Ling nodded subconsciously.
“Oh, okay.”
Leticia left the dining room.
The door was gently closed.
The atmosphere in the dining room fell quiet.
Belatedly, Lin Ling shrank her neck.
“What's wrong?”
“Why is everyone suddenly so serious?”
Phelan stepped forward.
Instead of answering first, he took a playing card from his coat.
The edges of the card were lined with silver patterns.
In the center, a smiling devil icon was drawn.
It was identical to the one Lin Ling had found in her room that morning.
“Lin Ling.”
Phelan looked up.
“Do you know Kavia?”
Lin Ling stared at the card, her eyes widening.
“This is...”
She reached out and took the playing card.
The moment her fingertips touched the surface, the devil icon seemed to flash in the light.
“Is this Kavia's playing card?”
Lin Ling murmured.
She looked up at everyone.
“Where did you get it?”
Baroque crossed his arms, his face darkening.
“Last night.”
“A masked woman appeared in the meeting room.”
“She left this card behind after making a total mess of the room.”
Speaking of this, Baroque's face turned noticeably darker.
“She claimed to be your friend.”
Lin Ling: “...”
She silently looked down at the playing card in her hand.
Kavia.
The white smiling mask.
The devil icon.
And the card by her bed this morning that read, “Hope you enjoyed the performance.”
Everything was slowly connecting together.
Lin Ling suddenly thought of something.
“Um, well...”
She cautiously raised her hand and touched her ear.
“It might be because of this.”
With that, she took off the earring and placed it in her palm to show everyone.
It was an earring that looked very ordinary but carried a wondrous luster.
As soon as Baroque saw it, his expression became complicated.
“Is that the disguise item?”
“Yes.”
Lin Ling nodded.
“When Uncle Baroque was training me, I finally remembered that I had been wearing it all along.”
“It can disguise my stats.”
“But...”
She looked at the earring.
“I don't have anything else related to Kavia.”
Phelan didn't waste any time.
He pulled out a detection crystal and aimed it at the earring in Lin Ling's hand.
A faint light emerged from the crystal.
Soon, the Appraisal text appeared.
【Kavia's Disguise】
Phelan narrowed his eyes.
“It seems this is one of the reasons she appeared.”
Aliviel looked at the earring, then at the playing card in Lin Ling's hand.
“In other words, last night wasn't the first time she made contact with you.”
Cecil flicked his tail gently.
“Miss Pet, you really have a knack for bringing back extraordinary things.”
“I didn't know either!”
Lin Ling immediately defended herself.
“It's not like I got an instruction manual when I transmigrated.”
“Who knew a Deceiver from the game would come bundled with me.”
She placed the earring on the table.
The playing card was placed beside it.
“Because I really don't have anything else related to her.”
“If there's any connection, it should only be these two—”
Before she could finish.
The earring and the playing card lightly touched.
In the next instant, a thin white light lit up on the table.
“Huh?”
Before Lin Ling could react, the light suddenly seemed to come alive, crawling up her fingertips to her wrist.
A small smiling mask pattern adhered itself to her arm.
Lin Ling froze completely.
“Whoa!”
“What is this??”
At the same time, a line of text made of light flickered in the air.
Big surprise~
The handwriting was beautiful yet exaggerated, accompanied by a signature devil icon.
Anyone could tell at a glance who had left it.
The expressions of everyone in the dining room changed at the same time.
Ivelia was the first to raise her hand.
A dark-red protective spell instantly enveloped Lin Ling.
Baroque also stepped in front of her, his oppressive defensive mana suppressing the surroundings.
Aliviel's fingertips lit up with a charming purple spell formula.
Cecil's scorpion tail had already risen, its tip gleaming with a dangerous light.
Phelan cast a stabilization spell on Lin Ling while simultaneously following up with an Appraisal.
A faint magic light swept across Lin Ling's body.
In the next instant, Lin Ling's true stats appeared before everyone's eyes.
MP: 999999
HP: 1
The dining room fell instantly silent.
Even though Baroque had already seen it once this afternoon, seeing this absurd value that looked like a joke from the gods still made him furrow his brows tightly.
The smile on Aliviel's face vanished for a brief moment.
Cecil, for once, didn't crack a joke immediately.
Phelan's pen paused for a second before he began recording at an even faster pace.
Ivelia's gaze landed on that “1” and didn't waver for a long time.
Lin Ling hadn't even noticed everyone's expressions yet.
She was staring at the smiling mask on her arm that had appeared and disappeared, and she was practically about to jump.
“Whoa!”
“What is this?!”
She suddenly remembered.
Wait, she had Appraisal too.
Lin Ling immediately raised her hand and cast Appraisal on the mark that had just vanished from her arm.
Faint text floated before her eyes.
【Unfinished Deception】
【Consumes 10,000 MP to rewind one's own time. Automatically triggers upon death.】
【Are you really dead? Who knows~】
Lin Ling stared at these lines.
Silence.
She kept reading.
She read it once more.
She slowly raised her head.
Her eyes lit up bit by bit.
“Which means...”
“I might...”
“Be unable to die?”
In the next moment, Lin Ling's expression began to turn very dangerous.
It was the look of someone who had suddenly discovered they had obtained an incredible power, with strange background music starting to play in her head.
She clenched her fists, her eyes sparkling.
“What kind of power is this?”
“Has Miss Saintess finally entered invincibility mode?”
“Infinite resurrection?”
“Immortality?”
“This is the legendary—”
“Hehe.”
Cecil's voice drifted over from the side.
“It seems you are very satisfied with this item, Miss Pet.”
Though his hair was still a bit messy, it didn't stop him from mocking her in his usual punchable tone.
“But your expression has already been recorded by a certain recording maniac.”
With that, he pointed to the side.
Lin Ling looked in the direction he was pointing.
Phelan was standing nearby, writing so fast on his recording board that sparks were practically flying.
The tip of his pen was gliding rapidly.
His expression was as serious as if he were documenting a moment of extreme research value in the history of the Demon King's Castle.
Lin Ling instantly snapped out of it.
“Gah!”
“Don't write that down!”
“No, don't!”
She immediately lunged at Phelan.
As if anticipating this, a flight magic circle lit up beneath Phelan's feet, and he floated backward effortlessly.
At the same time, the pen in his hand didn't stop.
“Supplementary note: Upon learning that the item possesses a death-triggered rewind effect, Lin Ling briefly exhibited a clear state of excitement.”
“Don't add supplementary notes!”
Lin Ling kept lunging.
Phelan kept floating away.
“Facial expressions included shock, realization, excitement, and suspected self-inflation.”
“Don't write down ‘suspected self-inflation’!”
Cecil's shoulders shook with laughter next to them.
Aliviel covered her mouth with her hand, a smile returning to her face.
The tense atmosphere in the dining room was completely disrupted by Lin Ling lunging at Phelan.
Only Ivelia didn't laugh.
She stared at the spot on Lin Ling's arm where the mark had disappeared, her gaze deep.
After a moment, she spoke:
“Lin Ling.”
Her voice wasn't loud.
Yet Lin Ling stopped her movements immediately.
She was mid-lunge, her hands still poised to grab Phelan's recording board.
“Yes.”
Ivelia looked at her.
“You are not allowed to abuse this.”
Lin Ling blinked.
Ivelia walked over to her.
She didn't pay attention to Lin Ling's ridiculous MP.
She simply lowered her eyes and looked earnestly at Lin Ling.
“Do you hear me?”
“No matter how many times it can rewind.”
“No matter if it can truly keep you alive.”
“You are not allowed to treat death as something to experiment with.”
The dining room fell quiet.
The playful expression on Lin Ling's face gradually faded.
She looked at Ivelia.
Then she looked at everyone else around her.
They were all looking at her.
Their eyes were filled with concern for her.
A very obvious concern.
Lin Ling looked down at her arm.
The smiling mask had already disappeared.
But she could still feel a subtle warmth lingering there.
After a moment, she raised her head.
“Hehe.”
Lin Ling offered a smile.
“I value my life the most.”
She shook her arm, as if to reassure them.
“I'll obviously avoid using this unless absolutely necessary.”
“After all, dying sounds very painful.”
“And there are still so many foods I haven't eaten yet.”
Looking at their worried eyes, her smile softened a bit.
“So don't worry.”
“Miss Saintess cherishes herself very much.”
Rate on N.U.
