Chapter 25
I lunged for my backpack and dug out the sewing kit I had prepared.
I stood by the door with a sweet smile and said, “Dad, do you need me to darn that sweater for you?”
Bernard was hauling two burlap sacks filled with rations.
I could just make out a few severed fingers poking out of the bag.
His stomach was slit wide open, dragging a tangled mess of intestines across the floor.
Of course, with my terrible eyesight, all I saw was red yarn.
The yarn seemed to have a mind of its own, writhing and knotting together. It left a trail of blood wherever he walked.
When Bernard saw me, his ghastly face crinkled into a smile as bright as a summer day.
“Well now. I knew it would be a good day when I heard the bluebird sing this morning. Alice is home.”
Tears stung my eyes.
This was family.
Even with my face destroyed and their memories gone, they recognized me instantly.
I quickly stitched up the old man’s belly.
Then I pulled a box of face masks from my bag and handed it to the charred little old lady.
“Mom, it’s cucumber scented. That’s your favorite.”
Eleanor usually cared about her looks, but she ignored the box and pulled me into a hug.
She touched my scarred face with trembling fingers.
“Damn them. Who did this to my beautiful girl?”
She started to weep.
“Don’t worry. Mommy’s going to make them pay.”
The little old lady was burning from the inside out, her body charred black, yet she was ready to fight the world for me.
She was like a mama bear protecting her cub, and it moved me to tears.
The chat feed was confused.
Chapter 25
49.43%
[Umm, is this anonymous player actually the long-lost Ning?]
[Not sure yet. Let’s keep watching.]
After the reunion, we fell right back into our old rhythm.
I cooked, Julian washed the dishes, and we talked about maybe having another baby.
But the domestic bliss didn’t last long.
The dungeon mission was looming over us.
I had to eliminate the monsters in the Nine-Tiered Spire to survive.
The problem was that my family members were the monsters I was supposed to kill.
This was a new Rank-S dungeon, and the players were running around in a blind panic with no map.
Everyone else thought the eighth floor was a death trap, so they stayed away.
But I was running out of time.
I needed a solution.
The next day, just as I was heading downstairs to investigate, I got a message from Evan, the musclehead on the seventh
floor.
[Hey there. We made peace with the monsters down here. Come on down if you want intel.]
It was perfect timing.
They were handing me exactly what I needed on a silver platter.
I wasn’t afraid.
I held up my phone and started complaining to my family immediately. \
“Meg! Listen to this. There’re bad people trying to hurt Mommy again.”
“Sob… Mom, Dad, I think there’s something wrong with this dungeon.”
“Honey! They’re plotting against me. Say something, Julian!”
My four doting monsters couldn’t resist my dramatic performance.
Julian gazed at me with deep, dark eyes and a doting smile.
He held out his hand.
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The readers' comments on the novel: Her fifth daughter died, so she deleted his bloodline.