"What...?"
This sudden turn of events plunged the entire banquet hall into a dead silence.
After a moment, Lu Sha snapped out of his shock. He excitedly slammed his hands on the table, trembling as he pointed at Jiang Yan and shouted:
"7:6! Eliminated! He’s been eliminated!"
"Wait!"
Jian Hou anxiously stood up and positioned himself in front of his friend. He looked at the maid at the end of the long table, raising her arm, and protested: "But only players are supposed to cast votes, right?!"
The maid remained silent, still holding her arm up.
Her face, coated in white powder and resembling a plaster sculpture, twisted into an eerie, mocking grin. Her jagged teeth were exposed to the air, and her dark, cavernous eyes reflected the pale, innocent face of the little prince sitting in the center, accused by everyone of killing his husband.
"This is cheating! It’s rigged!" Jian Hou angrily accused.
Tao Shi and Cao Youfeng were hurriedly trying to communicate with their personal systems, but the [Main System]'s notification sound still echoed:
Beep!
[Main System Notification: Voting results…]
Everyone held their breath, listening intently to the judgment from the main system.
Beep!
[Real NPC Jiang Yan—Eliminated!]
"..."
After a moment of complete silence, the banquet hall suddenly erupted into chaos, like a storm breaking out in the clear sky.
"Eliminated!! He’s been eliminated! Out! Public vote! This is absolutely fair!"
"The maid pointed at him! He must be the one who killed him!"
"Beep... eliminated... beep..."
The four new players were excited and ecstatic. They didn’t care whether Jiang Yan was really the murderer; what mattered to them was that after Jiang Yan was eliminated, they would temporarily gain "clemency" from the main god.
Once this monster-like young man, capable of summoning that god, was eliminated, their chances of winning in the game would increase significantly!
As for the boy with the colorful braids, he harbored secret, dark thoughts—he was going to have him.
His red eyes were fixated on the delicate, almost doll-like elven prince sitting at the center of the long table, and the blood in his veins seemed to boil.
Yu Jia and Lu Sha hadn’t expected the main system to directly eliminate Jiang Yan. After all, in previous dungeons, the main system's favoritism toward Jiang Yan was well-known among all players.
The two major guilds had held countless meetings and overturned numerous plans regarding the killing of Jiang Yan. They had even prepared to directly confront the main system, yet this simple voting result led to his elimination??
Jiang Yan—the real NPC who had been infinitely favored by the main system, granted unimaginable privileges, and was relentlessly hunted by the two guilds to no avail.
And now... he had fallen??
"This is impossible!!"
Tao Shi anxiously questioned his personal system: "What’s going on?!"
"Perhaps... Perhaps we got it wrong from the start?" 875 anxiously looked at the collected data. "Jiang Yan isn’t—"
"Impossible!" Tao Shi quickly interrupted. "The boss cannot make a mistake!"
875 frantically hammered the keyboard, sweat dripping down his face.
Yes, it was impossible!
How could Black Spade K make a mistake? This was absolutely impossible!
But… how could Jiang Yan be eliminated with such a simple vote? Why would the main system allow an NPC to directly eliminate Jiang Yan?
Something was wrong… there had to be an error!
[As expected, he’s a BUG. The main system is starting to self-correct!]
[Self-adjustment, clean deletion, ahhh! No!! I won’t accept this!!]
Beep!
[Main System: Eliminated Real NPC Jiang Yan]
[Penalty Announced…]
The voice of the main system pulled all the players’ emotions into focus.
At this moment, the long table in the banquet hall, with its thirteen people, resembled the famous painting The Last Supper—but it was a distorted, chaotic Last Supper.
Everyone was falling into different states of madness, except for Jiang Yan, who had been eliminated.
He stood in the position of Jesus, his clear, glass-like eyes reflecting the various expressions of the players around the long table, eventually focusing on the giant maid’s delicate face, the one who had cast the critical vote for his elimination.
Unnoticed, she had already taken the position of Judas.
The Traitor
The maid’s dark eyes loomed larger and larger in Jiang Yan’s gaze, a flicker of fragmented electric distortion flashing across one of her pupils.
Jiang Yan was stunned.
Amidst the mixed emotions of gloating or sorrow from the players across the server, the Main System announced the punishment result above the chaotic and frenzied banquet hall:
Punishment Announced—
[Real NPC Jiang Yan, Pollution Countdown: Ten, nine, eight...]
[What the hell... The main system really made the decision to kill him?]
[Does this prove that he’s indeed a Bug?]
[Dawn Guild is probably in chaos now, they’ve been betting on him for so long.]
[...Five, four, three...]
As the countdown numbers drew closer to "zero," Jiang Yan’s porcelain-like skin grew increasingly pale, with fine, black cracks resembling porcelain fractures appearing along his cheeks.
"Yanyan!"
Jian Hou was frightened by this sudden turn of events. He quickly pulled his friend into his arms, pulling out the item he had just obtained from the main system to control time. The massive golden item hovered above the increasingly distorted banquet hall, attempting to fight back against the main system.
However, it was all in vain. Time remained unaffected, and the countdown in the air continued to broadcast steadily.
[It’s over, there really is no reversal now.]
It’s over, witnessing this historic end.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The cracks on Jiang Yan’s face had now spread to the corners of his eyes, making him look like a broken porcelain doll.
However, his blue eyes did not dim, as the souls of those who were about to be polluted typically would. Instead, they shone with a dazzling brilliance, like diamonds.
The once frantic and excited crowd in the banquet hall fell into silence, watching the scene of Jiang Yan’s pollution unfold. The sound of a delicate wind chime echoed through the hall, representing the shattering of the soul of this Real NPC who was about to be tainted.
[…Three, two...]
[Prepare to take a screenshot!]
[The game forums are already exploding!]
[Everyone wants to witness the fall of a legendary Real NPC! Sigh…]
Crack!
Jiang Yan’s blue eyes cracked open like a shattered glass ball, with blue glowing specks spreading throughout the air.
"Yanyan..."
Jian Hou's cries echoed beneath the vast, circular dome.
The maid, whose arms were still raised, had electric sparks flickering in her eyes, and the smile at the corner of her mouth stretched wider, even reaching her ears.
[Finally... It’s really over.]
Bang!
Suddenly, a loud sound erupted from Jiang Yan’s abdomen, like a balloon bursting. Thick green mist surged from his body, spreading like a tidal wave and violently throwing Jian Hou away from him.
"Teacher!" Tao Shi caught Jian Hou as he were knocked away by the mist, concerned, "Are you alright?"
Jian Hou shook his head.
As he about to speak, the mist had already spread to every corner of the hall. The air became thick and heavy, as if the people inside were submerged in a cold, damp, dark green swamp deep within a black forest. The Main System, which had been announcing the countdown, seemed to be clogged, as if the swamp's "mud" had seeped in:
[One, two, two, two, one,zzzz...]
"What... is this?"
Jian Hou looked around, confused, as the black mist pressed down on them.
Just as his voice trailed off, there was a sound of "crack," and black tentacles with round, dark green eyes extended from Jiang Yan's shattered body. It was like a black devil's flower breaking free from its seed’s constraints.
The tentacles twisted wildly through the mist, heading straight for the maid standing in the "Betrayer" position. The leading tentacle, which had a massive mouth full of sharp teeth, opened wide and swallowed her whole.
There was a sound of "crunch-crunch" as it chewed, then a "gulp" as it swallowed.
The tentacle then quickly retracted back into Jiang Yan’s shattered abdomen, as if returning to its nest.
Beep—
[System NPC repair successful!]
[Main System Announcement: Apologies! Due to a system NPC malfunction, there will be compensation in points after the dungeon ends! Thank you for supporting the Main System!]
The thick mist dissipated, and Jiang Yan, shattered like a porcelain doll, tilted his head, sitting in place. His blue eyes were silent as crystal-blue specks of light began to fly toward him, slowly repairing the cracks in his shattered porcelain-like body.
There was complete silence across the entire server.
Until the last crack was repaired, Jiang Yan's raven-like eyelashes fluttered slightly. He regained his senses and suddenly noticed that the maid, who had been standing in the "Betrayer" position, had disappeared. The players sitting at the long table were now staring at him with looks of horror, as if they had seen a ghost.
Jiang Yan instinctively looked at Jian Hou, only to see that he too had a dazed expression, not understanding.
"What happened?" Jiang Yan asked.
Three simple words.
It was like pouring cold water into a boiling pot of oil—suddenly, the entire server exploded with activity!
[What the hell?!!]
[This... this, this, this, this...]
[The last second?! Just one second?! You’re telling me the Main System had a bug?!]
[Earlier, everyone was saying Jiang Yan was the bug! They said the Main System was going to delete this bug, and now the Main System itself has a bug?!]
[What is this?! When has the Main System ever had a bug?! How can the Main System have a bug?! It was created by the god!]
[Witnessing history! Isn’t this witnessing history itself?!]
[Come on! Repeatedly chant: He is Jiang Yan, He is Jiang Yan, He is Jiang Yan... So it’s not surprising.]
"Yan Yan"
Jian Hou rushed over and collided with Jiang Yan, who felt like he was about to fall apart.
"This is impossible... This is impossible!!" Lu Sha's eyes were bloodshot, glaring wide.
Yu Jia struggled to stay calm, but the hands that seemed to be pulling transparent puppet strings still trembled uncontrollably.
As for the four new players, they were completely speechless. Their pupils were shaking, their eyes filled with shock and fear.
On the other hand, Tao Shi and Cao Yufeng reacted completely differently. They shouted “Awesome!” repeatedly around Jiang Yan, having no other words to say.
Tao Shi’s personal system, 875, was clattering on the keyboard in the main control room, pounding away while suppressing a voice that said, "I knew it wouldn’t go wrong... It couldn’t go wrong! The four major guilds have held so many meetings, analyzed so many data sets, how could it go wrong??"
Tao Shi looked at Jiang Yan who was surrounded by Cao Youfeng and Jian Hou, looking confused, and smiled slightly before responding, "Got it, continue with the plan."
At this moment, the entire banquet hall was like a painting that had been messily stirred in a drawing software, distorted and unrecognizable.
Just as Jiang Yan was piecing together everything that had just happened from Jian Hou and Cao Youfeng's descriptions, frowning tighter and tighter, the door to the banquet hall was pushed open once again...
A sharp sound echoed as a giant man from the Giant Clan, dressed in black leather boots adorned with a golden emblem and a long figure, walked in against the light.
The moment Jiang Yan saw the man, he was momentarily stunned.
Meanwhile, the other players at the scene had yet to react.
Clack, clack, clack...
The black leather boots made crisp sounds as they clicked against the polished golden floor. As the man drew closer, everyone's eyes widened more and more until he stopped in front of the long table, taking the place previously occupied by the maid, the position of the master of the banquet. Jian Hou, in shock, exclaimed:
"Yu Xiu?!"
[Wasn’t the king dismembered?!]
[What the hell?! What’s going on?!]
[What is this?!]
A Little Note from the Translator
Hi there! 😊
I want to give a HUGE thank you to DevilPending for your incredibly generous donation! I just opened my PayPal today and your support truly touched me. It means a lot to know that you appreciate the work, especially since I’ve been offline due to some issues.
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With love, Chy
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