Chapter 244: Bi Gelei Must Find the Answer Herself

For a moment, Bi Gelei wondered if she'd misheard, fixing her luminous, ruby-like eyes on Marie, who still wore her eerie doll-like expression—yet from the faint shift of her pupils, Bi Gelei thought she detected a hint of smugness, whether real or imagined.

"Just ask him directly? Ask why he adapted to this world so quickly."

"He told you?" Bi Gelei found it incomprehensible, but Marie simply nodded.

"Correct. He didn't just tell me the method—he showed me directly."

"..." Bi Gelei's face flushed red. She opened her mouth to say more, but Marie had already turned her head away.

"Kiddora is easy to talk to. If you want to know something, just ask him directly—don't play riddles with him."

Seeing Marie about to leave, Bi Gelei hurriedly said:

"If you already know, tell me. Name your price—I'll pay it."

"No. Kiddora told me, but he didn't grant me permission to tell others, so I can't tell you. If you want to know, go ask him yourself." Marie's voice remained cold and flat, but Bi Gelei, who knew her well, instantly realized this creature was deliberately making things difficult for her.

Though Bi Gelei had already decided to ask directly, having her subtle scheme exposed just now made it impossible for her to return—her pride as a Vampire Queen refused to let her appear foolish, let alone walk over there alongside Marie, which would only make her a laughingstock.

"Fine, don't tell me—I'll go see for myself!"

Bi Gelei clenched her teeth, then transformed into a small bat and flew out through the labyrinthine pipes inside the Demon Lord's Castle...

"The secret must be that village Marie built for Kiddora. That's when they grew closer. If she's willing to show it to me, the clues should be there. If I can't get in or am stopped, I can ask outright—better than me initiating the question."

Bi Gelei's logic completed its loop; her tiny wings beat as she flew north. As the second wave of residents in the Demon Lord's Castle, after Dobio, she had spent nine years exploring every inch of this land—unlike players who couldn't climb mountains or cross seas, she knew for certain what lay beyond the mountains—

Beyond the mountains: nothingness.

This land was not like her original world, composed of countless planets in a universe—it was merely a flat expanse of tens of thousands of square kilometers, floating in empty void, as if ripped from somewhere else by some great being.

This unstable state made one wonder if it might collapse at any moment.

As a top-tier mage, Bi Gelei controlled several space-related spells, such as the summoning technique to call forth familiars from other dimensions. Theoretically, by adjusting the parameters, she could reverse the spell and send herself to her familiar's world. Though highly uncertain, it was still better than staying on this fragile, crumbling sandbox.

But the problem was, her magic was restricted—not just hers, but every resident of the Demon Lord's Castle. Their powers were constrained within a rigid framework.

There were no magical elements, yet as long as one stayed within the framework's limits, spells could be cast. But even a slight deviation beyond those limits resulted in certain failure.

Bi Gelei had asked others: Wolf, who used innate magical energy; Evelyn, who drew from natural forces; Naiwen Mu'en, who commanded shadow power; even Marie, who forged and controlled dolls using resentment energy—all were bound by the same restriction.

To break this limit, everyone was pursuing their own methods. Naiwen Mu'en continuously excavated the Shadow Plane, using permitted shadow techniques like Shadow Step and Shadow Stealth to fix a temporary shadow realm, then expanding it endlessly to create zones where shadow magic could be freely used.

Melo, the foolish fish, was attempting to gather a sea authority from marine life, then organize a ritual sacrifice to her deity for divine aid.

Bi Gelei herself was also pursuing a grand plan—but whether clever or crude, all required immense time, and no one knew how long this broken world would last.

In the early days, some had considered uniting to accomplish something great, but the problem was: aside from the two skeletons and Dobio's system, everyone's systems were entirely different.

Wolf was a bloodline creature akin to a warlock; she was a mage who commanded magical elements; Dobio inherently possessed magical energy; Naiwen Mu'en was a shadow dominator; Evelyn was a ranger who drew from nature; Marie was a "Fusōshin" spirit using power called 【Fear】; Melo was a priest who commanded divine faith power. Such a disparate group of "Demon Lords" could never unify their abilities.

But Kiddora was different!

Though he lost the ability to return to his true form (the three-headed dragon Xingtian) upon arrival, he quickly found a way to wield his power. Just the single strike that shattered the castle gate was proof enough—he had broken through the template's limits—

Because this world's template simply did not support such large-scale, high-output power.

Excluding the impossible possibility that Kiddora was a native of this world, the only answer was that he had deciphered this world's rules.

"It must be related to those Talisman and Spell Lines."

Bi Gelei thought so, but the Talisman and Spell Lines were issued by them—they even collected piles of them from dungeons every few days. Regardless of what they claimed publicly, privately they had studied them, yet the results were the same as their earlier attempts to understand dungeon mechanics or the Hero's resurrection: utterly fruitless.

As Bi Gelei pondered, she arrived above the Hidden Village. Looking down at the throng of players, she considered briefly, then discarded her previous signature skin. Instead, she transformed into a human face closer to Marie and Kiddora's.

An oval face, features less defined but balanced. Since she'd heard heroes say they had no aversion to white hair and red eyes, she kept her hair color unchanged, but changed her attire to resemble that of the "cultivators," then glided gracefully toward the Hidden Village—

"Hmph. 'Ask and he'll tell'? You two are hometown buddies, of course you're close!"

Carrying her own unconvincing sarcasm, Bi Gelei stepped over the threshold of the Hidden Village...

(End of Chapter)