Mo Bai, who had long been prepared, maneuvered her wheelchair a short distance away and said coldly and distantly, "Who are you?"

She even subtly shifted her hand so that he could see the white gloves she was wearing.

If he were the Phantom Butterfly, he would definitely recognize them as the gloves worn by the butler in the Count's Castle, which possessed terrifying offensive power.

Up until now, Mo Bai only suspected the handsome young man's identity. But the fact that baiting the Phantom Butterfly had truly lured him out meant there was a 99% chance that the person before her was the Phantom Butterfly.

If he recognized the gloves, the last 1% of doubt would also be confirmed.

Mo Bai raised her hand and made a slicing motion toward him. The handsome young man immediately sidestepped to dodge, only to realize that she had merely gestured and hadn't actually activated Spatial Blade.

Mo Bai sneered inwardly as she let her hand fall naturally onto the armrest along the arc of her motion. She raised a brow. "What are you dodging for?"

"I was just worried you might act impulsively. You're too tense, as if you're covered in thorns. I'm here to help you," the young man said.

Mo Bai openly admired his refined, handsome features, making no attempt to hide her amazement or appreciation. But she still maintained her guarded expression. "I'll ask you one last time. Who are you?"

The young man replied, "I'm also a player. My name is Lin Xiafei."

Lin Xiafei¹. Butterflies are certainly flying insects that appear in summer. The Phantom Butterfly really knew how to pick a name.

"A player, huh? I thought you were my old friend, Phantom Butterfly," Mo Bai said deliberately.

Lin Xiafei stiffened for a moment, then gave an awkward laugh. "Phantom Butterfly… I've heard of it. It's an A-class monster, right? Why would you mistake me for a monster? And how could you possibly be old friends with an A-class monster?"

Mo Bai sighed. "You wouldn't understand. In the last instance, it helped me a lot. It paid the price of being expelled from the instance to help me eliminate a player-killer. I'm actually quite grateful to it."

Hearing this, Lin Xiafei could hardly keep up his disguise.

Mo Bai knew that the Phantom Butterfly was dying to kill her, yet she still continued, "As for why I mistook you for it, it's because you're just too good-looking. The Phantom Butterfly is also an exceptionally beautiful A-class monster. It's the most beautiful being I've ever seen."

Being praised for his beauty eased much of Lin Xiafei's anger. Politely, he replied, "You're the most beautiful one. My appearance is far inferior to yours."

Seeing him lower his guard, Mo Bai subtly rolled her wheelchair forward, narrowing the distance between them.

Lin Xiafei noticed her approach and sneered inwardly. He stepped forward as well and breached the safe distance, making them appear somewhat intimate.

But the moment they were near enough, Mo Bai suddenly sprang up from her wheelchair. In one swift motion, she pressed a palm against his chest and slammed him against the wall. One hand formed a blade at his throat as she threatened coldly, "Don't move. Move a single inch, and I'll kill you."

Lin Xiafei stared at her. "What are you doing? And if you're this agile, why are you still using a wheelchair?"

"Because things are more convenient if I use a wheelchair," Mo Bai replied. "The moment people see it, they tend to lower their guard, don't they?"

That was exactly why she kept using it.

Even if everyone knew her injuries had healed, as long as she remained seated in a wheelchair and appeared to rely on it for all movement, it left the impression that she was slow.

Once that impression is formed, opponents would struggle to defend against her true speed.

She merely needed to plant that suggestion in their minds.

"As for what I'm doing?" Mo Bai sneered. "Do you think I'd trust you? When we were injected with the serum, you waved at me. Did you think I didn't see? Whether you're a player or not, I'm always suspicious of anyone who shows inexplicable goodwill. If you truly wanted to be teammates, why didn't you join us from the beginning?"

Mo Bai would never easily fall in love. Even if she were to fall for the Phantom Butterfly, it would have to pay a price worthy of moving her heart.

She also wouldn't deliberately pretend to be stupid just to gather information. If she developed an affection at first sight and quickly fell in love, it would only make the Phantom Butterfly suspicious.

After all, she was the player who had thoroughly outplayed it in the last instance. How could she possibly be that foolish?

She intended to make one thing clear: if it wanted to get close to her, it had to hand over enough information first. It would have to take the initiative to confess.

Since the Phantom Butterfly had chosen this method to toy with her emotions, she would stand tall and profit from it.

She would make this creature, so fond of playing with love, understand how difficult it was to win the affection that she herself did not even value.

Lin Xiafei quickly raised both hands. "I didn't approach you earlier because your group was too conspicuous. As for greeting you alone and being friendly, it's because I think you're the smartest and most rational among them. You're likely the best teammate."

"Then why didn't you react after the injection?" Mo Bai asked. "Every other test subject seemed to suffer."

"That's because…" Lin Xiafei met her eyes and realized lies wouldn't deceive her. "…because I was never injected with the serum."

"Oh?" Mo Bai loosened her grip slightly. "How did you do that?"

Lin Xiafei reached into his pocket and pulled out a sealed glass vial filled with purple liquid.

"I hid this vial under my skin. When the needle pierced my skin, it didn't enter a vein and went into this empty bottle instead. All the serum was injected into it."

Mo Bai finally let go of Lin Xiafei. "Is the bottle special in a way that it can be implanted in the body? Or is it your ability that allows you to store objects inside yourself?"

"It's my ability," Lin Xiafei explained.

Of course she knew that this was the Phantom Butterfly's ability. It could even transform into a butterfly since its fabricated body was inherently illusory. Hiding objects inside a false body was perfectly normal.

"Oh? Then what exactly is your ability?" Mo Bai looked him up and down. "You're in the Observation Group, right? Our abilities are all related to appearance and beauty. Don't tell me your ability happens to be Mimicry, which is exactly the same as the Phantom Butterfly's?"

"Hahaha!" Lin Xiafei laughed awkwardly. "My ability is definitely not Mimicry. It's called Plasticine, which allows me to turn my body into modeling clay. Look!"

He pinched his fingers, and they deformed like soft clay that reshaped at will.

"I used this ability to hide the small bottle in my neck," he said.

Mo Bai sighed with feigned disappointment. "What a pity. I thought it was Mimicry. That would've been useful. You could turn into a researcher and enter restricted areas to investigate this instance. Plasticine sounds so useless."

Lin Xiafei: "…"

Mo Bai was practically scaring him to death.

She constantly gave the impression that she had already guessed that he was the Phantom Butterfly, only to dismiss the idea in the next breath.

After a few exchanges, Lin Xiafei, that is, the Phantom Butterfly, felt his heart rise and fall wildly, as if she were about to give him cardiac arrest.

I really want to poison and directly kill her, he ground his teeth silently.

As an A-class monster, it possessed two abilities: one was Mimicry, the power to transform into any object, and the other was poison.

Though it was called the Phantom Butterfly, its true form was not a butterfly, but a dull gray moth.

It originally had no consciousness and merely used the toxins on its wings to stun small insects for food, as driven by its instinct. Like any moth, it was compelled toward light, forever flying toward brightness, like a moth drawn to a flame.

Its consciousness was born in this Institute.

Captured and brought here as one of its experimental subjects, it was injected with a small amount of extract fluid, which enhanced its genes and awakened its awareness.

In its early stages, it was confined within a glass container alongside many beautiful butterflies.

All of them had been injected with the fluid, which developed a powerful urge to attack and devour each other.

The Phantom Butterfly emerged as the final victor and became the only insect left alive in the container. It devoured every butterfly and grew into a magnificent creature nearly a meter long, with dazzlingly colored wings.

The beautiful, dreamlike butterfly had gained intelligence and began observing the world.

In this world filled with glass enclosures, it noticed that the most valued beings were a group of large-bodied, upright-walking, sparsely haired two-legged creatures. They looked identical to the researchers, but even if they were also confined in glass rooms, the Phantom Butterfly did not regard them as the same species.

In the animal world, the strong devour the weak, and hierarchy was absolute. In its eyes at the time, the researchers were the highest-ranked beings, and all creatures in glass cages were lower life forms.

After becoming the sole survivor in the container, the researchers administered the second phase of the drug.

This time, the Phantom Butterfly understood what pain really was.

During the first injection, the Phantom Butterfly had possessed very few pain receptors, so it barely felt anything. But this time was different.

The agony was unbearable, and it could only writhed back and forth inside the glass container. Pain and despair were the first true emotions it had ever experienced.

And it was at that moment, watching the researchers observing it from outside the glass, that the Phantom Butterfly developed the desire to become one of them.

It believed that if it became a researcher, it would no longer have to endure such suffering.

With that thought, it transformed into the shape of a researcher.

The researchers' faces lit up with delight. They summoned several professors, who circled around it while frantically taking notes. But their joy made the Phantom Butterfly feel like it was in danger.

Painful emotions could drive its evolution, pushing it toward a higher form. Joyful emotions, however, were a threat because they made the researchers devise even more torturous experiments. This was the Phantom Butterfly's earliest understanding of emotion: it loved pain and loathed happiness and pleasure.

It hated the intelligent researchers because their intellect filled it with fear. It liked the foolish mutants instead, because they were also tormented by the researchers, and their status was even lower than its own.

The Phantom Butterfly was the only butterfly in the entire laboratory that survived the second phase of experiments. The researchers valued it greatly and planned to proceed with the third phase.

But at that point, it was not strong enough. All data indicated it would not survive Phase Three. So the researchers arranged enhancement training for it, stimulating its intelligence and teaching it human language.

After discovering that the Phantom Butterfly was learning human language, the researchers even locked it together with several emotionally unstable mutants. Like raising gu², they hoped it would devour the mutants just like how it had devoured all the butterflies.

But this time, the Phantom Butterfly couldn't defeat the mutants.

The mutants were immensely strong, and in the cramped glass enclosure, the butterfly couldn't fly freely or evade their attacks. It was seized, and its wings were torn apart. Naturally, it also started to hate those stupid mutants.

Because it was too valuable, the researchers rescued the Phantom Butterfly from the brink of death, treated its wounds, and used methods like electric shocks to stimulate further evolution.

Under their torment, the Phantom Butterfly awakened a new ability: Scale Poison.

Moth wings are covered in tiny scales. These scales shed powder, and some moth species possess toxic scale powder that can cause itching, stinging pain, and rashes in humans.

The Phantom Butterfly's scales were also toxic.

One type was a lethal toxin: a colorless, odorless powder capable of entering the human body through breath and pores. Inhaling just 0.1 grams was enough to kill, and humans had almost no defense against it.

The other was Hallucinogenic Scale Poison. It was also a colorless powder, but with a pleasant fragrance that changed according to a person's preferences. It entered the body the same way, but instead of killing, it induced vivid hallucinations.

Once again, the Phantom Butterfly was locked in a glass room with mutants, but this time, it was unharmed.

It used its Hallucinogenic Scale Poison to plunge the mutants into suffering. It perched atop their heads as it watched their hallucinations. Among the visions, the most common were scenes of obsessive, tragic romance: intense, tortured love stories. It was similar to binge-watching a drama series one after another.

Each time it finishes watching a person's hallucination, that person dies. Because it was not truly watching. It was absorbing their souls by extracting images directly from their minds.

This time, the Phantom Butterfly killed everyone in the glass enclosure, emerging as the sole victor again.

And through devouring so many souls, it uncovered the truth of the Institute. It learned that eventually, it would also be sent underground to be eaten by a terrifying monster.

So it escaped.

Taking advantage of a mutant riot, it escaped the Institute with other mutants.

It began to understand the world and tried to learn everything about humans. It discovered that the very mutants who had once injured it, who had torn its wings, were astonishingly foolish. They could be easily deceived, falling in love with the beautiful women and handsome men it mimicked. And because of love, they produced the joyful emotions that it deeply despised.

So it began to toy with their feelings by pushing them into pain and feeding on their anguished souls.

As the number of souls it devoured increased, it discovered that these souls propelled its evolution.

It gained the ability to move freely between different instances, to transcend rule restrictions, and to become stronger.

It also tried absorbing the souls of people who were not mutants, but it didn't work. It seemed that only the monsters produced by the Institute could help it evolve.

Thus, the Phantom Butterfly regarded mutants as its private reserve, merely tools for evolution.

It longed to become an S-class monster, perhaps something even higher. It simply wanted to break free from its constraints.

Yet it was still that moth inside a glass vessel, forever flying toward the light, and struggling to escape the enormous glass container enclosing it.

But the number of escaped mutants was dwindling, and its food supply was shrinking. The Phantom Butterfly would not allow anyone to harm its food.

Yet Mo Bai had killed its beloved enhanced mutant.

Originally, it had intended to poison Mo Bai directly. That would have been easy, and it didn't even need to approach her. It could simply disperse its Scale Poison into the central ventilation system and kill her through the ventilation ducts.

It knew the entire structure of the Institute.

This was its home ground. Here, it could silently kill every test subject and ordinary researcher.

But Mo Bai had been injected with the drug.

She had turned into an experimental subject as well.

Like the mutants, her soul could help it evolve.

The moment it saw the extract enter her body, the Phantom Butterfly changed its mind. It decided to make Mo Bai fall in love with it, then drive her into despair and consume her soul.

It had a feeling that Mo Bai was special. That her soul would certainly help it evolve into something far more powerful.

It needed her.

For that, the Phantom Butterfly was willing to help her.

After all, it didn't want Mo Bai to be devoured by the Ultra-Star Rank monster either. She had killed its beloved mutant, so she owed it compensation.

She should become its food.

With that thought, it suppressed the urge to poison her to death. Raising a hand, the Phantom Butterfly gave a gentle wave, and invisible Hallucinogenic Scale Poison enveloped Mo Bai.

Mo Bai caught a trace of crisp, cool fragrance and turned to look at him. "Lin Xiafei, are you wearing perfume?"

The Phantom Butterfly hurried to explain, "No, this is my…"

Before it could say natural scent, Mo Bai wrinkled her nose in disgust. "It smells awful."

Phantom Butterfly: "…"

Mo Bai activated her ability. She gathered the scented air around her and shifted it around the Phantom Butterfly instead. She compressed it and concentrated the poison around its nose.

The dense Scale Poison made the Phantom Butterfly feel dizzy.

Mo Bai waved her hand like a fan in front of her nose. "Smell it yourself, it's giving me a headache. Don't spray perfume in an instance. Are you trying to make sure everyone tracks you down? I think you're kind of dumb."

Phantom Butterfly: "…"

Why is Mo Bai so hard to seduce? Maybe I should just kill her.

Just as killing intent flared within it, Mo Bai muttered softly to herself, "But… I do like pretty idiots. I'm smart enough already, and I don't enjoy being around people as smart as me. A little dumb is cuter."

Hearing that there was still hope, the Phantom Butterfly suppressed its killing intent and offered a charming smile.

It heard Mo Bai ask, "Even if you didn't inject the drug, you can't hide that from the Institute, right? They drew our blood. Won't they discover soon enough that you weren't injected? What if they drag you back for another injection?"

Hearing her concern, the Phantom Butterfly felt a surge of pride. Surely, she would fall in love with it soon. It stepped closer and leaned toward her ear to whisper intimately, "Don't worry. I have my ways. Thank you for caring about me."

Mo Bai: "…"

No... This Phantom Butterfly is far too greasy. So greasy she could barely continue acting.

After seducing so many mutants, was this really the extent of its skill? Was the Phantom Butterfly so foolish, or were the mutants simply too easy to fool?

She stepped back several paces, returned to her wheelchair, and gave the Phantom Butterfly her honest feedback, "You misunderstand. I wasn't worried about you. I was just trying to extract the method for avoiding the blood test from you."

Undeterred, the Phantom Butterfly followed another step closer. "You're such a sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, kind girl."

Mo Bai: "…"

Maybe she should just join forces with Du Heng and Sheng Yan to inject the Phantom Butterfly with every player's serum. Then report it to the Institute and let the researchers feed it to the Ultra-Star Rank monster.

She couldn't keep up this act for even one more minute.