"You... aren’t you already dead?!” Jian Hou exclaimed in shock.
“Dead?” Yu Xiu smiled and responded politely, “Mr. Jian, you must be mistaken. It was our great and honorable King who was murdered last night. I am merely the ordinary steward tasked with managing this castle on their behalf.”
The flipped crystal chandelier cast grotesque shadows, distorting his handsome face. The eerie green glow in his smiling eyes only made his presence more unsettling.
[Huh? Steward?? Didn’t the steward show up earlier? Did he look like this?]
[Definitely not like this! Maybe the system bugged out and reset the NPC data...]
[So, is the system really running out of NPC data now?! Why is it him again?!]
[Sorry, I’m new here... Is this NPC famous or something?]
[Famous? You could say that. He was pretty well-known for his previous life with his ex wife]
[May I ask... who was his ex-wife?]
[That’d be... Jiang Yan.]
[...What?!]
At this moment, Jiang Yan was still trying to process the chaos with his barely-clear mind.
First, the system NPC, the maid developed a bug. He had seen the strange glitching lights in her eyes. Then, everything had gone black, and he had lost consciousness.
Jian Hou had told him that Yu Xiu had crawled out of his abdomen and devoured her.
663 (the personal assistant AI) explained in his mind: “When a system NPC develops a bug, the main system usually sends another system NPC to reclaim it.”
“Does he... still count as a system NPC now?” Jiang Yan asked.
“Yes,” 663 confirmed.
“I blacked out just now.”
Jiang Yan asked, “Has there ever been a case where a system NPC malfunctioned like this before?”
663 was silent for a moment. “No.”
An unsurprising answer.
By now, Jiang Yan was well aware of how many anomalies in the game seemed to revolve around him. And at this point, it all appeared to be connected to one person.
Jiang Yan lifted his gaze, locking onto those deep, eternally amused emerald-green eyes that always carried a faint trace of mockery.
A glimmer of gold flashed briefly in Yu Xiu’s pupils—so fleeting that Jiang Yan almost dismissed it as his imagination.
What... is this guy up to?
Jiang Yan wanted to question him directly, but here, neither he nor Yu Xiu had the privilege of speaking freely.
They were NPCs.
For a moment, a wave of helplessness rose in Jiang Yan’s heart.
He glanced at the Divine System parasitically embedded within his personal system interface, at the golden threads extending from the wrists of his soul. These threads connected him to his so-called “followers,” weaving an intricate web of gold.
He knew that as time passed and the Divine System tasks progressed, this web would grow ever larger. More and more players would find themselves standing at the other end of those threads, like prey ensnared in a spider’s trap.
And he... was like bait, trapped in the heart of the web.
He couldn’t escape, couldn’t break free. He didn’t even fully understand the purpose of the web or the one who had spun it.
What role did Yu Xiu play in all of this?
A bait to lure him, the true bait, into the trap?
Or something else entirely?
Jiang Yan quietly observed his “husband,” who was standing calmly amidst the terrified stares of the others. A faint trace of scrutiny flickered in his cold, sapphire eyes.
Or perhaps... the hunter spinning this immense web?
Yu Xiu’s smile deepened as he walked toward Jiang Yan. Without hesitation, he scooped up the smaller man from his seat as if lifting a fragile porcelain doll.
Jiang Yan didn’t resist, letting Yu Xiu hold him.
Lifting Jiang Yan’s chin with his gloved fingers, Yu Xiu’s voice took on a mocking tone, laced with amusement. “Look at this poor little butterfly! First, he loses his beloved husband, and now he’s accused of being the one who killed him. Tsk, tsk.”
The system experienced a bug, and now the instance requires a new NPC to pull the narrative back on track.
Thus, after saying this, Yu Xiu straightforwardly declared, "Everyone! Cast your precious votes!"
Why vote?
No explanation was given.
Who participates in the voting?
That was not clarified either.
Since the narrative of the instance had already progressed once, Yu Xiu's appearance now merely served to fill the vacancy left by the faulty NPC, directly pushing the plot forward.
At the long table adorned with golden and silver tableware and lavish dishes, the players' expressions were all exceptionally grim except for Geng Hui, who had lost her human form and now resembled a snail without its shell.
Her eyestalks, with round bulging eyes perched on the ends, were fixed intently on Jiang Yan, who was held in Yu Xiu's arms.
The remaining three new players reacted similarly to each other, their gazes also locked on Jiang Yan.
Some were filled with curiosity, some with hesitation, but mostly with fear.
They had to vote again...
Previously, they had cast their votes for Jiang Yan, with the decisive vote coming from that system NPC. However, the result was the main system declaring that the NPC was faulty and calling for a revote.
This time, if they were to vote for Jiang Yan again... that system NPC was clearly his husband!
Victory would no longer be theirs.
And at this moment, the system NPC in their minds was frantically warning them:
"Don’t provoke Jiang Yan! Don’t provoke Jiang Yan! Don’t provoke Jiang Yan!"
Heaven bears witness!
At this point, where would they even find the courage to vote for Jiang Yan again?
But... if they didn’t vote for Jiang Yan, who else would they vote for?
The murderer who killed the king... there wasn’t a single clue, they knew absolutely nothing!
While the players' grim expressions were partially due to the absurdity and illogicality of the instance's progression, the real reason was—
"It’s way too forced!"
Cao Youfeng adjusted the bandages on his body and directed a dark, foreboding look at both Yu Xiu and Jiang Yan.
“What?” Jian Hou asked in confusion.
“This plot twist is way too forced,” Cao Youfeng replied.
Jian Hou stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
However, Cao Youfeng picked up the glass of red wine in front of him, sniffed it cautiously, confirmed there was nothing suspicious, and even scanned it with a Data Concealment Card before downing several gulps. Only then did he start to explain:
“A system NPC malfunctioning like this has never happened before, but instance rewinds? Those happen from time to time.”
“Instance rewinds?” Jian Hou asked.
“Yes. To put it simply, it’s when an instance’s storyline deviates from the main system’s intended plot due to unforeseen events. To ensure players can still complete the instance, the system will directly intervene, re-rendering the deviated section of the plot to align with the original storyline. That’s what we call an instance rewind,” Cao Youfeng explained.
“That’s way too unintelligent!” Jian Hou complained. “Can’t they design more branching storylines for players to choose from?”
“Exactly!” Cao Youfeng agreed. “But as you can see, while our main system is incredibly powerful, it’s neither smart nor meticulous. It can only design these simple, direct, and singular storylines, then rely on its overwhelming power to force players into submission within the instance.”
"In normal circumstances, an instance rewind should involve replaying the entire faulty plotline from the start. While instances may look like games to us, to the NPCs, they are their world. When their world encounters an error, the system should rewind it, not skip over it entirely.
"Take the real world, for example. If a bug caused an error in the settings for a Monday, the proper way to address and fix the issue would be to rewind time and everyone’s memories back to Sunday, and replay Monday correctly.
"If you simply skip Monday and jump straight to Tuesday, we—this group of NPCs missing Monday’s memories—would immediately descend into chaos.
"Forcing the timeline forward like this would strip the world of its realism and turn it into nothing more than a crude game of the gods."
Cao Youfeng chuckled softly at his own words. "Of course, it’s always been a crude god game. It’s just that, in the past, this was only reflected in illogical instance storylines. But today..."
The single visible eye of Cao Youfeng, the other covered by a white bandage, reflected the image of the "giant butler" cradling the "elven prince." His voice dropped slightly as he added:
"Today, it seems to have spiraled out of control."
Jian Hou frowned deeply. "Why? Why would it spiral out of control? Aren’t all instances pre-designed by the system? Even the code of god can malfunction?"
"What’s so surprising about code errors?" Tao Shi interjected. "Programs are never perfect. As long as they run, that’s enough. When errors occur, you patch them in time so the world continues to function, and the NPCs in that world remain unaware.
"But if the system doesn’t choose to repair the error and instead forces the world’s timeline forward... that can only mean one thing."
"That the god no longer have the power to fix it," Yu Jia finished, his gaze fixed coldly on Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan listened to the conversation between Jian Hou, Tao Shi, and Cao Youfeng, his brows knitted tightly together.
When his eyes met Yu Jia’s cold and hostile stare, his heart sank.
The god no longer have the power to fix it? What does that mean?
Could it be that the main god of this world is on the verge of falling? Is this game world about to collapse?
Jiang Yan instinctively looked at his [Divine Persona System]. Could this be the reason this [Side Quest] had appeared?
The main god, unable to fully control the game world for some unknown reason, might have chosen him as a divine proxy to gather faith, thereby restoring the god’s power and reestablishing control over the game?
[Divine Persona Upgrade System: S]
[Judgment Quest Progress: 20%]
[Number of Followers Saved in Instance: 7]
[Faith Power Accumulated: 9%]
[Grace Value Accumulated: +2%]
[Task Completion Rate: 10%]
[Task Hint: Piece together the life montage of your follower, Lu Wei, complete their judgment, and gain faith and grace values!]
The blue data interface scrolled across Jiang Yan's icy blue eyes.
No!
Something doesn’t add up.
This so-called [Side Quest] had only just been issued to him, and yet the task progress was already at 10%, with faith accumulation at 9%.
From what he understood so far, the instance was packed with combat scenarios, and each time a follower used faith power, the faith value increased by 2%. While the exact conditions or environment required to utilize faith power remained unclear, the mechanics didn’t seem particularly complex.
In fact, the [Divine Persona System]’s task guide felt almost absurdly straightforward—childishly so.
If the main system truly relies solely on the [Divine Persona System] in his hands to gather faith and restore its control over the game, then the entire game world is nothing more than a joke!
Or... could it be that he isn’t the only one in the game with this system?
Unlikely.
The information 663 provided about the [Divine Persona System] explicitly stated that this side quest comes with [Divine Descent], and before his own [Divine Descent], this feature had always been regarded as mere myth within the game.
So... what’s the real reason?
Jiang Yan worked to piece everything together in his mind.
His inexplicable entanglement in the game; the now-mysterious identity of Yu Xiu; his and Jian Hou’s accidental entry into the game; the bizarre chase that followed; the game deity that seemed to be losing control yet constantly making exceptions for him...
The golden spider silk formed an impenetrable web, and the cyan butterfly within struggled relentlessly.
At that moment, a pair of large hands lifted Jiang Yan’s chin, forcing him to meet Yu Xiu’s smirking emerald-green eyes.
“Is a direct vote too difficult for everyone?” Yu Xiu asked, his voice casual yet compelling as he held Jiang Yan’s porcelain-white face in his hands, not even glancing at the other players.
All eyes turned toward the pair.
Yu Xiu or rather, the steward was taking control.
The steward with his eerily green eyes, began forcibly driving the instance’s progression.
Cradling the prince who was supposed to belong to the late king, his hands moved with audacious familiarity. One finger played teasingly with Jiang Yan’s soft, petal-like lips, while the other toyed with his fragile, glass-like wings, savoring the way the beautiful little prince trembled as he clutched at the lapels of his tailcoat.
Yu Xiu chuckled lightly and said, “Then how about this why don’t each of you recount what you were doing last night, when His Majesty was murdered? Hmm?”
The players’ faces collectively paled once more.
In response to the hand venturing too boldly near his lower abdomen, Jiang Yan released his grip on the other’s lapels, instead wrapping his arms around Yu Xiu’s neck to stop him.
The next second, this audacious steward actually gave him a slap on the backside, laughing as he said,
"Your Highness, would you like to speak first?"