IRM Chapter 14

Ji Chi silently swallowed his saliva, feeling that he also needed to calm his nerves.

So this was the Saintess’s true character? Ji Chi was full of question marks. He could almost imagine that if this scene had been witnessed by those players from his previous life, it would have been doomsday for countless otaku.

Whether it was doomsday for countless otaku remained to be seen, but it was definitely doomsday for Evan right now.

His faith somewhat collapsed as he stammered “Huh?” in a daze.

Saintess Coralie pulled at the corner of her mouth and rolled her eyes dramatically. “Get down once you’ve come to your senses. If you’re scared, learn from your roommate and hide behind while holding the child!”

Ji Chi, who had the little undead tucked under his arm: “???” How did this personal attack land on me?

Saintess Coralie didn’t want to deal with these two useless men. She threw Evan down from in front of her like discarding trash, shook the reins with both hands, and bright light elements rose around her body as she leaned forward and charged into the goblin ranks.

The magical beast drew closer and closer to the goblins. Saintess Coralie could almost smell the fishy stench wafting from their bodies. She stared intently at the constantly narrowing distance between the two sides, her lips moving lightly and quickly.

Just as the goblins’ drool-covered fangs were about to bite into Saintess Coralie’s leg, her eyes turned cold and deep. Without panic, she calmly drew her wand from her leg side and swung it downward.

A blindingly bright light orb shot out from the tip of her wand, spinning rapidly around Saintess Coralie and the magical beast. Trailing afterimages, it crashed into every goblin that tried to approach, producing terrifying roars and the smell of burning flesh.

The goblins screamed in agony and scattered in chaos, trying to avoid this terrifying woman.

But Saintess Coralie had no intention of letting them escape. She smiled slightly, her gentle smile soft and beautiful, yet faintly hiding madness suppressed to the extreme.

Just then, the light orb circling around her suddenly split into pieces, chasing after each individual goblin. When they struck flesh, they exploded, and foul-smelling blood and severed limbs scattered throughout the entire forest amid bursts of explosive light.

Ji Chi, holding the child, and Evan, who had fallen to his knees, immediately turned pale.

They looked at Saintess Coralie who had gone mad with killing on the battlefield, then at each other, both seeing bewilderment in the other’s eyes.

As the light gradually subsided and the dying wails of the goblins also died down, amidst the carnage, Saintess Coralie sat upright on her magical beast, looking down at the battlefield with disdain and arrogance in her eyes. She sheathed her slender wand like a sword and controlled her magical beast to pace lightly back toward them.

Evan still had a streak of goblin blood splattered on his face. He numbly raised his hand to wipe it off, trembling on his thin legs as he struggled to stand up from the ground. The sandbags that had been tied to his legs had also fallen to the ground during the process of being thrown from the magical beast.

Saintess Coralie sat astride the tall magical beast. As she passed by Evan, she glanced down at him, then withdrew her gaze and gave a light sneer. “Another one ruined by the Church…”

Evan straightened his body and pressed his lips together. The palm holding his wand inside his robes was drenched in sweat, and the pointed wand trembled slightly along with his right hand.

He had thought too highly of himself, believing that as long as he kept working hard, he could save everyone.

In reality, he couldn’t save anyone, and even had to hide behind others seeking protection… He was still the same as before.

Evan bit his lower lip until it turned pale, his thoughts once again falling into a chaotic quagmire.

Ji Chi sensed the fluctuation in Evan’s emotions and frowned. He discovered that tonight’s Evan was vastly different from usual. Although his little roommate would occasionally do something foolish, he would never display such extremely negative emotions.

The previous fear, daze, and now self-loathing.

This was completely unlike the expression a little sun should have.

Ji Chi didn’t know how to comfort him and felt somewhat at a loss. His raised hand paused for a moment, but he still gently placed it on Evan’s shoulder. “Don’t overthink it. Everyone has things they’re good at. The people of Bien Village are still waiting for you to save them.”

Saintess Coralie dismounted from the tall magical beast and shook off her clothes that were covered in blood and flesh fragments. She inadvertently heard this sentence, and her eyes dimmed as she softly repeated, “Everyone has things they’re good at…”

After saying this, she gave an ambiguous light laugh, turned to glance at Ji Chi, and her expression became somewhat mocking again. “So what are you good at? You’re very talented in magic. I’ve heard about your spell that turns fragments into whole, and I used it today too. It’s very powerful…”

Saintess Coralie raised her pale, slender right hand to look at it. Just now, with this very hand, she had tried combining three different spells together for the first time, easily killing more than ten goblins. “But I’ve observed for a long time, and you really aren’t interested in magic, so what exactly are you good at? An all-element genius?”

Having exposed her true personality, Saintess Coralie no longer wanted to hide anything. She stared fixedly at Ji Chi, her deep blue pupils in the twilight showing not a trace of warmth.

Ji Chi was silent for quite a while.

He really wasn’t good at anything. Twenty-five years imprisoned by a weak body had worn away all his talents. If there was anything different about him from others, perhaps it was just that unyielding perseverance.

However, since coming to this world and living with a group of energetic and lively youngsters for so long, Ji Chi discovered that he might actually be good at some things.

Ji Chi pulled the little undead that had slipped down his arm back up and said with a serious face. “Probably babysitting.”

The little undead, who was clearly already dead but still felt uncomfortable being squeezed: “???”

Saintess Coralie dropped her half-smiling expression, gave Ji Chi a cold look, turned around and conjured a light orb with her finger. “Let’s go. A pile of severed arms and legs—is it comfortable staying here?”

So which young lady’s masterpiece is this—Ji Chi sighed inwardly. Are rebellious teenage girls really this moody…

He helplessly turned around and was about to lift the little undead onto the magical beast’s back.

“Watch out—” Just as everyone was relaxing, Evan suddenly roared out, his heart-wrenching voice as sharp and desperate as if he were immersed in a nightmare.

He lunged forward in one swift motion, shielding Saintess Coralie behind him, moving so quickly that no one could react.

Evan had no time to chant spells to cast magic. He could only stick out his chest, his slender wand held futilely in front of him. In his pupils was reflected a pitch-black sharp claw, bringing a foul wind as it clawed toward his chest.

It was a goblin that hadn’t died yet. It had been hiding among a pile of scattered limbs, and no one had noticed it still had breath left.

Though it wasn’t far from death either, its half blood-soaked body, filled with violent rage and madness, swung its final strike at Evan who was blocking in front of Saintess Coralie.

Ji Chi’s pupils suddenly contracted, and he kicked hard off the damp soil with his toes, rapidly darting toward Evan’s direction.

All players of Demon Sword Continent were familiar with one common knowledge: when a monster’s health dropped to a certain level, it would enter berserk mode, and in this state, their attack power would reach 2 to 3 times normal.

That little fragile Evan definitely couldn’t withstand even one hit—he would die.

The blood-stained claw tip had already pressed against the academy badge under Evan’s cloak. Evan slowly lowered his head, watching helplessly as the sharp claw penetrated his cloak, split the badge, and touched his tender skin.

Just as shock and anguish intertwined in Ji Chi’s eyes, “Bang—” a sudden burst of light spread from Evan’s body, forming a warm yellow protective barrier around him and Saintess Coralie, bouncing the broken goblin to a tree trunk beside them with a tremendous crash of shattering bone and flesh.

The goblin that had been slammed against the tree trunk was no longer recognizable in its original form. The bloody mess made it hard to imagine what kind of damage it had suffered.

Evan hadn’t yet recovered from his near-death despair. His gaze slowly moved away from the hole in his chest, looking with bewilderment at the goblin that was as dead as dead could be. “Ah… how did it die?”

Ji Chi, who couldn’t brake in time and crashed into the protective barrier, losing 5000 armor points, heard this and felt an intense urge to complain explode in his heart!

Stop caring about that goblin that was already at critical health! Do you know how many armor points I just lost?

Five thousand! A full five thousand! Do you know how many little fragile characters could die with that much health? You don’t know!

Even the final bosses I’ve encountered didn’t deal 5000 damage in one hit. Actually, you’re the real boss, aren’t you?

Ji Chi touched the dimmed orange equipment talisman on his chest, feeling that those intense emotions just now had ultimately been wasted.

He kept a stiff face and calmed down for a while before carefully examining the protective barrier around Evan. After realizing what it was, his eyes widened slightly, and he felt even worse.

The Dawn wand that Evan wielded was very famous in the Demon Sword game, not because its attributes were incredibly overpowered, but mainly because of a passive skill it had that was very… luck-testing.

[When attacked, there is a 0.01% chance to trigger blessing: Divine Protection]

[Divine Protection: Forms a protective barrier within a 2-meter radius of the character for 300 seconds, nullifying any attacks and reflecting five times the damage.]

A five-minute invincibility shield with five-times damage reflection was indeed god-like in the game, but this 0.01% trigger rate was truly minuscule. Many players believed this was set up by the officials to mess with them.

When this weapon first came out, mage players all grudgingly farmed one despite their complaints, then began their journey of getting beaten up—competing to see who could trigger the protective barrier fastest (who was luckiest).

During that period, bored players even created a trending topic on Weibo—#Did you get beaten into a barrier this month?#

Note: not today, not this week, but this month, which showed just how infuriatingly low the probability of this passive skill was.

And now, the young man before Ji Chi had triggered this skill on his very first attack after obtaining the wand…

Ji Chi, who had always known his luck was terrible, smiled stiffly 🙂

Evan hadn’t emerged from the shadow of near death. He was in a dazed state, moving his feet and trying to reach out and touch the warm barrier protecting him, but found that the boundary always followed his movement and could never be touched.

“What’s happening?” he murmured, his confused gaze sweeping over the speechless Ji Chi and then over the silent Saintess Coralie.

Saintess Coralie raised her head and looked deeply at the gradually emerging relief in Evan’s expression. She turned and climbed onto the magical beast’s back, gripping the reins so tightly her knuckles turned white before slowly loosening her grip. She shook the reins, making the magical beast trot forward.

As she passed by Evan, a vague whisper carried by the wind brushed past his ear. “About what I said earlier… sorry…”