Even just playing a game, Vinny still had to spit out [Virtue] for Aesphyra. He was really, truly exasperated.

“Vinny, don’t be afraid. The moment I draw a key, I’ll come over and save you!”

Even in a game, Shicodale was the most considerate. The instant he saw Vinny in trouble, he rushed to help.

“Thanks, Dale, but you should worry about yourself first.” Vinny said helplessly. “This is an elimination game. Once your HP runs out, you lose, you know.”

“Hmm~ let me think… If we’re only playing a game, it doesn’t sound that fun.” Aesphyra suddenly gave a soft laugh. “I think everyone feels the same way, right?”

“I’m asking you, what are you trying to pull this time?”

Locked in the cage, gripping the bars like a proper inmate, Vinny’s face was full of dark lines.

He had spent enough time with Aesphyra to know at a glance that this white nutball with black bean-paste filling had a belly full of bad water and definitely was not up to anything good.

“How about we add a rule?” Aesphyra suggested. “The final winner gets a reward, and the loser with the lowest score gets a punishment. How about that~?”

“Seriously? Sounds like you’re drawing the bull’s-eye after you fire the arrow.” Vinny complained. “You see I got screwed at the start and got locked in a cage, and then you bring this out, huh?”

“Vinny, you’re not allowed to call yourself ‘this young master’ right now,” Aesphyra said, amused. “You’re the Dawn Saintess at the moment. For everyone else’s game experience, get into character. Calling yourself ‘this Saintess’ is acceptable.”

“Get lost! You don’t get to take advantage and then act all innocent.” Vinny snapped.

“Eh? How can you say that, Vinny?” Aesphyra tilted her head. “This place can simulate a girl’s voice, you know. Hearing you use this voice to say that kind of thing is really strange. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Mirexia—she’ll definitely agree.”

Vinny reflexively glanced at Mirexia, only to see her keeping her mouth shut, not saying a word.

Great.

“Let’s go with majority rule. So, does everyone agree to a reward-and-punishment system?” Aesphyra looked around at the others.

“I agree.” Milian was the first to raise her hand. As for the reason, Vinny felt it was obvious: that golden-haired little gremlin saw him in trouble and was gloating. The moment she heard the loser with the lowest score would get extra punishment, of course she was all for it.

She would love to see Vinny eat dirt.

Locked ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ in the cage, Vinny clenched his fists.

“That makes two votes.” Aesphyra turned to Mirexia and Isatia. “Mirexia, don’t you want to give it a try? What if you win?”

“Isatia, don’t you want to try? Or is it that you think you can’t win at all?”

“Three votes.” Isatia crossed her arms, calmly meeting Aesphyra’s gaze.

“As for me, either way is fine.” Mirexia turned her eyes aside.

“Oh? ‘Either way is fine’ counts as agreeing, right?” Aesphyra then turned to Vinny. “So? Vinny? We’ve already got four votes over here.”

“Even if you and Dale vote against it, it’s useless. Minority obeys majority.” Aesphyra smiled, already confident of victory.

“Eh—eh?” Shicodale, directly skipped over, had been about to say something, only for Aesphyra to go straight to canvassing votes and jump past him entirely.

“You’re not allowed to complain unless you want to go against what everyone wants.”

“You hateful pocket-sized little bread roll!” Vinny bared his teeth inside the cage. In his imagination, he was a ferocious beast trapped behind bars, ready to rampage the moment he broke free.

Little did he know that in everyone else’s eyes, he looked more like a delicate Saintess locked in a cage, putting on a fierce front while actually being all bark and no bite—using these barbed, sniping lines to cover up the fear and unease inside.

“Pfft, Vinny really is as cute as ever~” Aesphyra giggled.

[Virtue +60.]

[Current Virtue: 6844.]

Ugh, this damned white-furred nutball was definitely an S. Was seeing him suffer really that fun for her?!

[Virtue +80.]

[Current Virtue: 6924.]

[Virtue +20.]

[Current Virtue: 6934.]

[LOL, Tangtang wrote till they were so out of it they even messed up the math.]

[Virtue +40.]

[Current Virtue: 6974.]

[Virtue +50.]

[Current Virtue: 7024.]

What??

Staring at the string of [Virtue] changes, Vinny felt a little dazed.

What was going on? Was it Mirexia popping off again??

No, these [Virtue] increments didn’t quite feel like they were coming from Mirexia alone.

Could it be that multiple Destiny Heroines were contributing at once??

Vinny was stunned, scanning the gathered heroines one by one.

Who was it? Seeing him locked up, so anxious she was about to bite the bars, and still having emotional surges—who was this much of a pervert??

But just from their expressions, Vinny couldn’t distinguish anything. Their faces all looked… pretty normal.

No way it was all coming from Aesphyra, right?

“In that case, it’s decided. The final winner gets to make the loser with the lowest score do Truth or Dare. How does that sound?” Aesphyra swept her gaze over everyone. “No objections, right?”

At her words, everyone fell silent.

Mirexia glanced at Vinny several times, clenching her fists a little, but ultimately didn’t say anything.

“Hold on, I do have an objection!” Vinny shouted.

“Vinny, you’re really not very cooperative. Nobody else is objecting. You’re the only one.” Aesphyra raised an eyebrow.

“Well no kidding? I’m the one locked up. You only bring this up after I draw Iron-Thorn Cage—how is that not deliberately targeting me?!” Vinny said indignantly.

“Okay, okay, we’re not going to ask for anything excessive. Or are you already convinced you can’t do it, Vinny?” Aesphyra deliberately tried to provoke him.

“Can’t do it? You’re the one who can’t. I’m perfectly fine right now! I just think it’s unfair!”

No matter where or when, how could a man admit he “can’t”?

“Not bad, not bad. That’s the right mindset. As expected of Vinny~”

“Tsk!”

“And, like I said, Vinny—stop using ‘this young master’ as your title. Right now, you’re a fragile Saintess, imprisoned and waiting for someone to save you~”

Vinny was about to pass out from rage thanks to this rotten nut.

Next, it was Milian’s turn to roll the die. She rolled a two, moved two spaces, and drew a little box from a random tile.

“What’s this?” Milian turned the small red box over in her hand. When she opened it, there was a key inside.

“Oh my, you already drew a key? I thought Vinny would have to stay locked up a while longer. So, Milian, are you going to use the key to save Vinny?” Aesphyra asked.

“Huh? Save who? That blue-haired one?”

Milian glanced at Vinny. She had to admit, his current appearance inside Immersive Mode was extremely misleading: a Saintess locked in an iron cage, delicate and forcing herself to act tough—just looking at her made you feel like you couldn’t bear to not rescue her. Even Milian had to quickly look away, afraid she’d go soft.

But Milian knew that behind that exterior was that hateful blue-haired pest. The whole look was nothing but a fake skin!

So she turned her head sharply aside, ignoring the desperate, hopeful gaze Vinny was sending out from the cage.

“Can I choose not to save him?”

“Of course. This is your game, Milian. You get to decide.” Aesphyra said.

“Wha—?” Vinny pressed his lips together. Right now he really wanted to shout, You pointy-eared menace, did you forget our glorious past together?!

Except when he thought about it carefully, he realized he and Milian really didn’t have much of a “past” at all. He had humiliated her in public, and that golden-haired gremlin had loudly sworn she’d get revenge someday.

“In that case, fine. I choose not to save him.”

As she spoke, Milian even tossed the key away. It landed not far ahead.

“Did you really have to go that far…?” Vinny gripped the bars tight.

“Tch.” Milian gave him a scornful side-eye.

“Don’t worry, Vinny, I’ll pick the key back up right away!” Shicodale blurted.

Off to the side, Milian clicked her tongue even more unwillingly.

Then it was Shicodale’s turn to roll. If he rolled a six, he could get to the key.

Seeing this, both Shicodale and Vinny swallowed.

The die hit the ground and rolled. Just as it was about to stop on a six, it tipped and came to rest on a one.

“……”

Yeah, the Destiny Heroines weren’t all cut from the same cloth. Shicodale’s luck had always been pretty terrible, second only to Vinny himself—he only really shone when it came to “meeting helpful people.”

They couldn’t count on Shicodale. Next up was Isatia, and she perfectly demonstrated the kind of fortune and destiny a Destiny Heroine should have—rolling a six and landing on a full-attributes bonus.

Then came Mirexia. As expected of a Destiny Heroine, after watching how the others played, she had gained a basic understanding of the game. She gradually figured out how to play: the main things to pay attention to were how to obstruct and attack others in-game, how to defend against their attacks, and then all the miscellaneous items.

Locked in the cage, Vinny had initially hoped one of the Destiny Heroines would come save him and let him out.

Instead, once they got used to the game, they started fighting like crazy. Isatia and Aesphyra especially—both had strong mechanics, sharp game sense, accurate reads, and ridiculous luck.

Naturally, the clashes between those two were the fiercest. The others weren’t much better off. They were quickly dragged into a free-for-all and started attacking one another as well.

“Hey, I’m talking here—did you all forget about me or something?”

Vinny, caged from start to finish, could only swear he was never playing this garbage game again. The player experience was abysmal—locked up the whole time, watching everyone else have a blast while he couldn’t do anything.

It really was jail time in every sense.

He could only say that a Self-Sabotage card was indeed a Self-Sabotage card. Even if it didn’t kill him outright, this round of the game was basically nothing to do with him anymore.

“No, seriously, will someone come save me?!”

The cherry-haired girl inside the cage watched the Destiny Heroines brawling all over the map and spoke in despair.

He knew this was a points-based game. It didn’t care about survival time—only about who had the highest score when the game ended. Kills, getting rewards, even the number of steps walked all gave points.

And he? Stuck in place from the beginning, his score frozen, forced to watch the Destiny Heroines’ scores soar far past his while they ignored him like he didn’t exist. Nobody was even listening when he called out.

On top of that, for some reason the heroines had formed a bizarre tacit understanding: whenever someone was about to pick up the key, somebody else would rush over to interrupt, blast the key away, and stop anyone from saving him.

Once or twice could be called coincidence, but after it kept happening, it was hard to believe they weren’t doing it on purpose.

What were they trying to do?!

Still, it wasn’t like every heroine ignored his cries. Every time he asked for help, he would at least get Shicodale’s, “Vinny, please hold on a little longer, I’ll pick up the key any second now!”

He couldn’t help wondering if that kid hadn’t really gotten into character for real.

It was moving, in a way—like his daughter was finally trying to shoulder some of her old father’s burdens. But when he remembered Shicodale’s intelligence and luck stats, Vinny felt that his hope was extremely faint.

He was going up against a whole group of dominant Destiny Heroines. Could a weak Destiny Heroine like Shicodale really be their match?

Reality proved that Vinny hadn’t underestimated Shicodale—he’d actually overestimated him.

Vinny could tell Shicodale was really doing his best, but no matter how hard he tried, he was still an outsider to this game.

Milian didn’t bother attacking him, and the other three Destiny Heroines barely even registered his existence. They couldn’t be bothered to fight him; all their firepower was focused on whoever they saw as a real opponent.

Under those conditions—drawing almost no aggro whatsoever—Shicodale still exhausted himself trying to pick up the key and still never managed it.

Vinny honestly ran out of commentary.

How to put it… it was like, “Everyone looks down on you, but somehow you’re still the funniest one here.”

Bored out of his mind in the cage, Vinny watched and watched—and suddenly felt like he’d had a revelation, some dragon-field enlightenment moment. Something clicked.

Was there a possibility—just a possibility—that the heroines were doing this on purpose?

They were deliberately pretending not to hear him, each fighting for herself, all trying to take first and become the final winner, then end the game.

That way, his score would end up dead last, and the final winner would get to make him do Truth or Dare.

As that thought formed, Vinny suddenly felt like the entire nature of the game had changed.

He wasn’t a player. He was more like a “prize” placed on a stand, unable to move, while a whole crowd below fought over him, beating each other bloody for the right to claim him.

And prizes, naturally, had to be kept right where they were. How could they be let out?

The metaphor wasn’t exactly precise, but that was how it felt to Vinny.

No way. This wasn’t right, was it??

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep