In the original game, the final wrap-up event of Chapter One was designed with a time-limit mechanic, the underlying logic of which was cruel and realistic.
Players had to investigate clues, deduce tracks, and ultimately find Silvia's hiding place within the allotted time.
Only by successfully arriving before time ran out could they save her.
And when players went through hardships to reach the scene before the countdown ended, they would usually see a scene like this:
Silvia collapsed in the center of the magic circle, still unconscious.
Meanwhile, Professor Audrey, the kidnapper at her side, would have slipped into a completely uncommunicative state of madness, entering combat the moment the player drew slightly near.
Naturally, this sparked long-standing questions within the player community:
Why did Professor Audrey, as the kidnapper, rapidly degrade from a calculated criminal into a completely mindless lunatic during the time the player was rushing over?
During that blank period while the player was desperately investigating and running, what on earth happened inside this dilapidated shack?
However, in the flow of the game, players were destined never to learn the answer to this critical question through normal gameplay.
Because no matter whether it was a second playthrough or a third playthrough, no matter how thoroughly players understood the cause of the event and the characters' backgrounds, they could not skip the process of investigating, deducing, and rushing over.
Every single time they pushed open that broken door, they would always face Audrey whispering madly and Silvia lying unconscious.
The process that caused Audrey's mind to completely collapse was forever sealed away in the game's background code and the players' imaginations.
But that was just a game.
It was the original work following fixed scripts and procedures.
But now, this was reality.
Greg didn't follow the steps from the game.
He didn't investigate those scattered clues, didn't engage in tedious dialogues with NPCs, and didn't run all over the academy.
Relying on his foreknowledge of the script, he took the shortest route straight to this destination he already knew so well.
Thus, when he arrived at the scene, the sight he witnessed had a subtle yet crucial difference from what players of the original game saw when arriving at the last second.
He saw Professor Audrey while she still possessed her sanity.
At the same time, Greg also felt a trace of confusion.
According to the original game's progression, when the player arrived, Silvia was supposed to be unconscious.
But right now, although Silvia was bound, she was definitely awake, with tear tracks and terror remaining on her face.
Had Silvia not been unconscious all along, or did something happen to her later that caused her to fall unconscious once more?
That thought flashed through Greg's mind.
"Senior Greg...! How are you here?!"
Silvia's voice trembled with the relief of surviving a disaster, mixed with an indescribable excitement.
She came from an ordinary rural village, and her greatest entertainment in childhood was flipping through worn, yellowed fairy tale books traded from the market.
At this moment, framed against the moonlight and dust, appearing as if ripping through the darkness, Greg instantly overlapped with the images in her memory of princes who always appeared at the most critical moment, overcoming every obstacle.
It felt as if, as long as he was there, even the deepest despair could be dispelled, and even the greatest danger could be resolved.
The girl was no longer terrified, feeling an unprecedented sense of peace instead.
Hearing her call, Greg temporarily withdrew his sharp gaze from Audrey and their surroundings.
He stepped over to Silvia's side in a few strides, crouched down, and nimbly began untying the rough knots around her wrists and ankles.
"Didn't I tell you before?"
He spoke without looking up as he untied the ropes, his voice not loud, yet falling clearly into Silvia's ears:
"If you run into any trouble in the future... I'll definitely help you."
It was a very ordinary sentence, hardly even a promise.
But after plunging into near-total despair, hearing again the words she had once heard in the dim dungeon passage...
Silvia felt her heart take a fierce yet gentle impact, as if struck by something warm and powerful.
In that instant, she felt as though she finally understood what this emotion swelling inside her truly was.
"Greg... You are that Greg Sass?"
Professor Audrey's chilly voice sounded once more, carrying unhidden disgust and the anger of having her plan interrupted.
Although Greg hadn't taken her Magic History course, as a former celebrity of the academy, Audrey obviously recognized his face.
"Many in the academy, including myself, thought you couldn't take the humiliation and went off to end your own life in some deserted corner."
Audrey's gaze scraped over Greg's dust-streaked face like a cold blade:
"Yet I didn't expect you to still be clinging to life. Truly... an unpleasant stubbornness."
Tossing the untied ropes aside, Greg slowly stood up, dusted off his hands, and finally looked Audrey straight in the eye, curling his lips into a cold smile:
"A bad life is better than a good death. Can it be that an Associate Professor like you... doesn't understand such a simple truth?"
"You...!" Incensed by his lukewarm backtalk, Audrey knit her brows tightly.
As an old-fashioned, stern scholar, she already loathed ignorant and misbehaved delinquent students like Greg.
At this moment, not only had he interrupted her grand scheme, but he also dared to talk back with such an attitude—it was practically a double provocation against her!
"It seems you truly are as others in the academy describe—foolish without even realizing it!"
Audrey's voice rose slightly in anger. She tightened her grip on the stone tablets and vials in her hands, the mad glare in her eyes deepening:
"You clearly noticed my actions, yet instead of reporting to the academy, you chose to come chasing after me all alone... What? Do you really believe that a piece of trash like you, whose second-year level is still pitifully stuck at LV10, can stop me? You simply don't know your place!"
Heh, your intelligence updates way too slowly. That's ancient history from who knows how long ago.
The current me could beat you with one hand, okay?
Greg was just about to open his mouth to mock her a bit and vent some of his frustration over his plan being disrupted.
But just then, Nightmare's ethereal voice suddenly sounded in his mind with a rare trace of seriousness:
"My other half, set aside your meaningless bickering for a moment. Look closely at those stone tablets she holds tightly. Do you not find... the patterns upon them somewhat familiar?"
Hearing this, Greg immediately focused his gaze over.
Looking closely, those stone tablets were dull in color, made of a material that was neither metal nor stone, with irregular edges and surface etchings of extremely complex, twisted patterns that seemed to pulse with a certain rhythm.
The flow and feel of the patterns on a few of them...
Seemed to share similarities in style and certain basic structures with the stone fragments Nightmare had picked up from various places in the dungeon over the past few days and assembled like precious treasures!
Rate on N.U.
