Vol. 6 Ch. 39

“Uncle Constantine.”

A soft, sweet voice echoed from behind Constantine in the dimly lit corridor.

He stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around. Standing before him was the daughter of the royal family.

Constantine didn’t respond immediately, instead quietly studying her.

Helena stood with her hands clutching the strap of her crossbody bag. Even in front of an unfamiliar ally, she showed no signs of fear.

The two of them, one tall and one small, exchanged glances for a brief moment. Helena blinked and smiled, asking,

“Everyone else is basically resting right now, Uncle Constantine. Why are you still out here doing tasks alone?”

“You’re wandering around too.”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“I’ve already checked your identity, little girl.”

Constantine’s tone carried a hint of coldness and straightforward probing as he spoke directly,

“You claim to be my teammate, another Vengeful Spirit player.”

Hearing Constantine expose her identity so plainly, Helena was momentarily startled.

But her surprise wasn’t because he knew she was a Vengeful Spirit—it was because she hadn’t expected him to be so direct.

Still, Helena couldn’t let her guard down completely. What if Constantine was testing her?

“This is my identity card.”

As if sensing Helena’s hesitation, Constantine revealed his identity card without delay.

Displayed on it was the code name of a Vengeful Spirit player.

“This…” Helena was momentarily at a loss for words.

“I don’t want to waste too much time proving my identity, little girl.”

Since they were unaware of each other’s identities and Constantine had the Roster item, he knew he had to take the initiative to confirm his teammate as quickly as possible.

Moreover, Constantine’s personality was straightforward. As he himself had said, he didn’t waste time on trivial matters.

His time was precious—because he needed to act before Leon completed his plans.

“So, you confirmed my identity before daring to approach me?” Constantine asked.

Helena nodded and explained,

“The briefing said I wasn’t sure whether you or Uncle Leon was the other Vengeful Spirit.”

“I initially wanted to test the waters, but Uncle Constantine, you saved me a lot of time and reduced my risk of being discovered.”

“If Constantine hadn’t exposed the truth so directly, and Helena had gone to Leon first, she might’ve wasted time and even risked Leon figuring something out,” Helena thought.

As for why Helena chose to approach Constantine first…

She simply thought the fire-breathing dragon uncle wasn’t as smart as Uncle Leon.

But now, it seemed that when it came to critical matters, Constantine was both cautious and efficient. He solved issues with the quickest methods possible.

At this point, the two Vengeful Spirit players confirmed each other’s identities using their respective items.

And now, there were less than ten hours left until the Vengeful Spirits Awakened event began.

“I want to ask you a question, Uncle Constantine.”

“What?”

“Since you already knew my identity, why didn’t you contact me earlier? That way, we could’ve worked together in secret and avoided being discovered by the others.”

Constantine’s response to Helena’s question was straightforward:

“I don’t like teaming up with others.”

“But you’ve been teaming up with Uncle Leon to complete tasks.”

Constantine’s eye twitched slightly. “…

That’s… only for my final plan.”

Helena tilted her head, blinking innocently,

“And what plan is that?”

Constantine didn’t intend to hide his intentions from Helena.

After all, there were only two Vengeful Spirit players in the entire game, putting them at a numerical disadvantage.

While Constantine didn’t like teaming up, if a teammate came to him proactively,

he wasn’t exactly going to reject them.

What’s more, when faced with a Vengeful Spirit who happened to be a child, Constantine remembered a certain saying from that idiot Leon:

“When playing games, winning or losing doesn’t matter, but you must make the kids happy!”

So, Constantine laid out his thoughts plainly:

“Leon and his team, the Good Faction, win by completing decryption tasks and using the clues and hints from task rewards to find the hidden source of the plague in the castle. By doing this, they can escape the pursuit behind them.”

“But for us Vengeful Spirits, our goal is to stop them. Normally, the strategy would be to interfere with their tasks and delay them as much as possible. Since we’re outnumbered, we should also focus on finding items with high offensive effects to eliminate their key players.”

“Hmm,” Helena nodded. “That makes sense.”

“But we could change the strategy. If we solve the castle’s mystery first and find the source of the plague before Leon does, no matter what happens, they won’t gain an advantage over us.”

Hearing this, Helena suddenly understood.

“So that’s it.”

“Uncle Constantine, you’re actually pretty smart!”

“But there’s one risk with this strategy, isn’t there?”

“Once we find the source of the plague, how do we hide it properly?”

Helena blinked, then suggested confidently,

“Don’t worry about that, Uncle Constantine. I have a Stealth item card that lets us hide in the castle’s secret passages.”

Constantine raised an eyebrow.

“There are secret passages in this castle?”

“Mm-hmm!”

Helena smiled smugly.

“So, I can be helpful too, right?”

Constantine paused for a moment.

Did this little girl take my earlier words as me doubting her usefulness?

After a moment’s hesitation, Constantine decided to clarify:

“I never thought you were useless. Not wanting to team up is just a personal preference.”

Helena nodded, seemingly understanding, before adding,

“But the Stealth card only works until the last half hour of the game. After that, all the castle’s secret passages will close, and we’ll still need to deal with Uncle Leon and the others.”

“Them?”

Constantine chuckled darkly.

“Once Vengeful Spirits Awaken begins, I guarantee that by the last half hour, Leon will be the only one left standing.”

Helena blinked, slightly skeptical. Though it was just a game, the aura of villainy surrounding the fire-breathing dragon uncle felt disturbingly real.

“When I get home, I’ll have to ask Mom about the history between him and Uncle Leon!” Helena thought.

“What’s going on, Dad? Why did you call us over in such a hurry…”

In the grand, castle-like hall, Leon had gathered his daughters and Constantine’s daughter together.

“Huh? Where’s Helena?”

Noa looked around but couldn’t see her friend.

“Moon, weren’t you with her?”

Moon rubbed her sleepy eyes and shook her head.

“I don’t know, Sister. When Dad woke me and Muse up, Helena wasn’t with us.”

Noa frowned.

“Could it be… Helena was taken by the Vengeful Spirit…”

“My father is missing too,” Hefei added, looking worried.

She turned to Leon.

“Uncle Leon, my father—”

Leon exhaled and organized the known information, condensing it into a single sentence:

“Hefei, your father… is the Vengeful Spirit player.”

“What?! That’s impossible—”

Leon raised a hand to calm her and then turned to Noa, who seemed equally anxious.

Under her father’s gaze, Noa—clever as always—had already begun to piece things together.

At first, she found it hard to believe, but after a moment, her tightly furrowed brows relaxed.

Lowering her eyes, she spoke softly,

“Helena is the other Vengeful Spirit.”