Jing Ye stared at the Villain Simulator's options and slammed his hand down on "Yes"!
Whatever that Herta family was plotting, he was going to drag it all into the open.
Those little Herta dolls with the child-Herta faces—whatever they were up to, he was going to blow the whole thing wide open.
He'd just thoroughly humiliated Herta herself, not just stripping away all her dignity, but tearing apart every last fig leaf she had, smashing both her pride and her most precious things to pieces.
Those little doll-Hertas were going to stop him?
As his hand struck the panel, a clear shattering sound rang out from the Villain Simulator.
[Confirmed: "Light-Fingered" trait fully shattered.]
[As "Light-Fingered" breaks completely, you gain 100% of the magic power available, and at the same time feel your mind hollowed out, weak and barren.]
[You feel more stupid and sluggish than ever, like your brain is a block of stiff, rotten wood.]
[Your vision of the world grows hazy. The knowledge you once possessed flows out of your mind, becoming distant and difficult to grasp.]
[Still, the magic power gained by shattering the trait remains untouched.]
[You feel your power swell to unprecedented heights, like you could turn the entire university into a giant cake with a casual spell.]
[Armed with this power, you are full of confidence and decide to go on the offensive.]
[Instead of sitting and waiting for the Herta family to come for you, you decide to hunt them down yourself.]
[You scry their location with magic and pinpoint the time when they will all gather.]
[You teleport directly to their meeting place, shocking all the Herta clansmen gathered around the altar.]
[None of them can resist; the moment you arrive, your magic completely suppresses them.]
[With a thought, you tear away all their cloaks. Just as in the scene you saw before you died in an earlier run, every single one of them has the exact same loli Herta face and obvious doll joints.]
[All of these "Hertas" turn to stare at you—along with the mastermind standing in the center of the altar, the only one whose hood has not yet been removed.]
[You lock eyes with the mastermind and suddenly notice Ruan Mei and Herta nearby, witnessing everything.]
[It turns out your enemy had long since noticed your magical surveillance and divined that you would launch a preemptive strike, so she captured Herta and Ruan Mei in advance.]
[But your magic is stronger, your sixth sense sharper. You arrived before she could act on them, interrupting her ritual so Herta and Ruan Mei are unharmed.]
[Herta stares straight at you. Ruan Mei's eyes are empty.]
[They don't mistake you for the mastermind's ally. Ruan Mei's intellect easily recognizes that you are on the opposite side, and the fully restored Herta sees through the situation at a glance.]
[Of course, neither of them has recovered from what you did to them.]
[Under your gaze, the mastermind finally raises her hands and pulls down her hood…]
Jing Ye watched the Villain Simulator text intently. All of this was precisely the choice he'd made: with overwhelming power, he couldn't possibly let the enemy have the initiative.
He hadn't expected, though, that they would counter by capturing Herta and Ruan Mei first.
Thankfully, the power from fully shattering his trait was enough. Despite that, the crucial moment would unfold on this altar.
Who was the mastermind? Why gather Herta, Ruan Mei, and himself here?
Everything would be revealed now.
But then the Villain Simulator displayed something he never expected—
[When the mastermind removes her hood, the face revealed beneath shocks not only you, but also Herta and Ruan Mei!]
[Under the cloak is a "big Herta" identical to the one you know!]
[Unlike the loli-Herta dolls surrounding you, this "big Herta" has the same mature face and real, living body as the one you recognize.]
So… was she the same "big Herta" who'd just treated him like a dog and tied a leash around his neck?
No. As chaotic as that big Herta's behavior had been, the evil radiating from this one was on a different level.
Just as Jing Ye suspected, the Villain Simulator continued:
[The surrounding loli-Herta dolls are shocking enough. This "big Herta" is beyond anything you expected.]
[What stuns Herta and Ruan Mei even more is that you seem unsurprised by the doll "Herta family," yet shocked to see this "big Herta."]
[They can't understand how you have such powerful magic or why you seem to know the Herta family's true nature.]
[At this moment, in both their hearts, you become the key to breaking this deadlock, the only person they can rely on—despite what you've done to them.]
[For now, the horrible things you did to them seem temporarily pardoned. You are once again a "hero" in their eyes.]
[The "big Herta" who revealed herself grins savagely as she meets your gaze.]
[Your magic clashes with hers, and you are startled to find that her power equals your own.]
[In that tense duel, you feel how vile her power is. Without a doubt, she's an old monster who has clung to life through blood and twisted magic for centuries—a true villain.]
[You are more certain than ever that this "big Herta" is not the same woman you know.]
[But you have no time to dwell on that. Your initially even match with her doesn't quite fit the 100% victory you saw in your divinations.]
[Soon, you realize why your foresight showed a guaranteed win—]
[Herta, who was tied up moments ago, suddenly joins the battle, breaking the stalemate between you and "big Herta," startling you both!]
[Just moments ago, Herta was helpless; now, she's wielding magic freely.]
[Herta had already been secretly learning magic from the moment you displayed it. Once you returned all her stolen wisdom, her miraculous talent bloomed.]
[Your duel with "big Herta" acted as a perfect training ground. In that short time, Herta grew strong enough to stand on equal footing with both of you!]
[With Herta joining in, the once-balanced fight gradually tips. That balance of power finally collapses in your favor.]
["Big Herta" can't accept this outcome. She screams that "it shouldn't be like this," refusing to face defeat—but in the end, she's overwhelmed by your combined power.]
[As she lies dying, "big Herta" reveals the truth: she had long used her magic to peer into the future through divination.]
[In that future, someone called "big Herta" stands at the top of the galaxy.]
[But the future she saw… wasn't hers.]
[With her last strength, she projects her divined future into a crystal, then gives Herta a twisted smile.]
[In the crystal, you see "big Herta" commanding her army of loli-Herta dolls in a kitchen, making a mess.]
[You also see the future "big Herta" turning a massive space station into a magical cake with a tap of her staff.]
[The "big Herta" in that future is the one you know.]
[You, Herta, and Ruan Mei are chilled to the bone as you study the image.]
[The future "big Herta" greatly resembles the wicked one before you—same doll army, same overwhelming magic.]
[But the "big Herta" in the crystal is clearly the one you know.]
[So who is the evil "big Herta" facing you now…?]
[You all feel how foul this "big Herta's" power is. With her confession, you glimpse her past: born a noble young lady, she used magic to secretly kill and drain blood, clinging to life for centuries.]
[There's no doubt—this evil "big Herta" will die here.]
[The one destined for the future is the innocent Herta who has done no wrong.]
[But the evil "big Herta" refuses to accept that end—]
[She can't stand that her centuries of struggling will only benefit someone else.]
[So she lays bare the one unsolved mystery: the true nature of the Herta you know.]
["Why do you think the future 'big Herta' commands a vast army of dolls, why they can all move at her will?"]
["Why do you have such monstrous magic talent, why can you turn space stations into your labs with a flick of your hand?"]
[Her shrill laughter makes you uneasy. Herta frowns deeply.]
[In front of your eyes, "big Herta" spits out the truth, like a final, vicious curse:]
["It's because you, Herta… you're a doll too. A doll born from magic!"]
["You're just one of the countless dolls I created, the only one who happened to receive my condensed magic core and gain self-awareness!"]
[You and Ruan Mei widen your eyes. Herta is a magical construct, born from magic cores and dolls?]
[She isn't a living person like you at all, but just a doll?]
[The Herta you know is, in essence, the same as the loli dolls around you?]
[Herta herself isn't surprised. Once you returned all her wisdom, she'd already discovered the truth about her own body.]
[The only thing she didn't know was the mastermind's true motive and the contents of that forbidden grimoire.]
["Big Herta" explains: this incarnation of Herta is a one-in-a-million miracle, the sole hope she and her dolls have painstakingly pursued over centuries.]
[When that near-impossible magic core fused with a doll, the Herta you know was born.]
[From birth, Herta has possessed unprecedented magical talent and wisdom—the very things "big Herta" sought all along.]
[The Herta family needs to drain this miracle's wisdom to draw the gaze of the god recorded in the forbidden text—]
[The Aeon of Erudition.]
[With a doll core that provides endless energy and a magic prodigy like Herta, the Herta family can reach the forbidden pages they crave.]
[Only by combining "big Herta" and this new Herta could they gain the Erudition's attention.]
[As she speaks, you finally understand her purpose.]
[By rights, Herta should have been sacrificed the instant she was born.]
[But then you stole her wisdom with "Light-Fingered," ruining the plan and forcing them to delay.]
[The first time you died at their hands, Herta was probably sacrificed as well.]
[Your victory over her in that first match showed "big Herta" there was enough wisdom in play.]
[But when you replayed the match in another simulation, you extracted a promise of silence from Herta, so the family never discovered this.]
[That's how you and Herta survived into university and met Ruan Mei…]
[As your trio displayed more and more brilliance, the "Herta family" finally set their sights on you.]
[Until now.]
[After so many simulations, you've shattered "Light-Fingered" completely for power. There are no retries left; if you die again, Herta will be sacrificed at once and the dungeon will break, trapping you in an endless bad ending.]
[Luckily, you succeeded. Your power let you stand on equal footing with "big Herta," giving Herta time to awaken her magic talent and finally defeat the mastermind.]
[With "big Herta's" death, all her dolls and magical reserves flow back into Herta.]
[Unlike the twisted creature who'd survived on bloodshed for centuries, this newborn Herta still has a pure, childlike heart.]
[She repays every drop of that blood, compensating all the families who lost loved ones to "big Herta."]
[The dead "big Herta's" wisdom now belongs to her as well.]
[With the villain gone, Herta becomes the only "Herta" in existence—the true "big Herta."]
[There is no more Herta family, no more assassinations, only a true genius left in the world.]
[Later, as she cleans up the mess, Herta suddenly questions you: did you know about all this from the beginning?]
[With her fully restored mind, she easily connects your cruelty toward her and Ruan Mei with your sudden surge in magic.]
[Her interrogation is almost unnecessary—you don't answer, but she reaches her own conclusion:]
[You did all those vile things to her and Ruan Mei so you could save them, choosing to be the villain in their hearts.]
[You only smile, noncommittal.]
[You've reached the end. Does your motive really matter anymore?]
[Suddenly, you collapse. The Herta and Ruan Mei who once despised you both panic.]
-------
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