"But…" Xiao Qi sounded hesitant, like it wanted to say something but couldn't.

"You're hesitating because you're debating whether to tell me something," Mo Bai guessed. "Let me take a wild guess. You're trying to warn me that letting this Daddy drink that alcohol could put me in danger, aren't you?"

Xiao Qi froze for a moment before replying with a voice full of surprise. "How did the player know what Xiao Qi was going to say?"

Mo Bai smiled faintly. "Because you don't have permission to reveal information outside the official rules. If it were something I absolutely wasn't allowed to know, you wouldn't even be able to access it, let alone hesitate.

The fact that you hesitated means that this is something I should know but might have overlooked. Something that could technically be considered as crossing a line if pointed out.

Given what we're talking about, it has to be related to me trying to get rid of Daddy while he's drinking.

There are two possibilities here: whether I can kill Daddy, and what happens when he drinks.

You're trying to tell me that while the sleeping pills will work on him, they take time to kick in. And when Daddy drinks, he always becomes violent and attacks someone nearby. Since it's just him and me in this house, that means I'm the target. Before the drugs take effect, he'll attack, and considering his insane strength and healing, I wouldn't survive it.

And since Daddy has high regeneration and insane defense, you're worried he'll beat me to death before the pills knock him out, but you also can't openly reveal his defensive stats.

In your database, my kitchen knife, the metal bat, and even the tungsten steel hook I made with my ability can't harm him at all, can they?"

Xiao Qi sighed. "Xiao Qi is getting tired of saying 'yes.' Player, why do you seem to know more than my data logs?"

"I'm just making logical deductions," Mo Bai replied calmly.

Xiao Qi sounded genuinely puzzled. "If you are that intelligent, why are you still set on attacking Daddy? You must realize you have no chance of winning. None of your weapons can even scratch him, while one hit from him could kill you instantly."

By now, Daddy had already finished his first bottle and was gulping down the second, the alcohol gurgling audibly down his throat.

Mo Bai watched him drink both bottles clean and smiled faintly, forming a small, knowing curve of her lips. "Xiao Qi, there's a reason I mixed painkillers with sleeping pills into the alcohol."

"Re… reason?" Xiao Qi stuttered, unable to keep up with her thought process. "Xiao Qi doesn't understand."

Mo Bai's gaze softened slightly as she spoke, her voice distant. "When I first moved here, my body hurt so much I could barely breathe. Painkillers were the only thing that made life bearable for a while. Back then, I didn't think I had much time left. I didn't care about my health, so I often took too many at once.

One day, I overdosed. My nerves got damaged, and I started hallucinating."

She paused, not elaborating on what exactly she'd seen during that terrifying episode, nor how she had managed to survive it. "After that, I stopped abusing medicine and started cherishing life more. I wanted to live as long as I could.

But that experience taught me something important: overdosing on those painkillers causes severe sensory distortion, and even hallucinations."

Her lips curved slightly. "If Daddy is biologically no different from a human, then taking that much of it should mess with his perception too."

While chatting casually, Mo Bai quietly wheeled herself over to the wardrobe and opened the door where Mommy's body was hanging.

Rule Seven stated that Daddy's eyesight was poor. At this distance, she was confident he wouldn't clearly see what was inside the wardrobe. To him, it would only look like Mo Bai was moving around the room.

Once the door was open, she rolled backward until she was pressed against the farthest wall, calmly sitting in her wheelchair.

Her expression was serene with no sign of fear or panic before battle. She had already done everything she could, and the rest was up to fate.

At that moment, Daddy finished both bottles. His mood darkened instantly, rage flaring like wildfire.

He slammed his massive hand down, shattering Mo Bai's dining table in one blow. Then he turned toward her with eyes gleaming with a dangerous, predatory light.

Mo Bai acted like she didn't see him. Instead, she widened her eyes in fake terror, staring toward the wardrobe, and screamed, "Mommy! What are you doing there? When did you hide in the closet?"

Her voice snapped Daddy's attention toward the wardrobe. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air, his bloodshot eyes narrowing on the door.

From his blurry vision, Mommy's body hanging there looked like she was standing upright.

Mo Bai screamed again, perfectly convincing in her fear. "Mommy, don't come closer! Mommy, your nails are scary! Don't hit me!"

Her words painted the scene for him, successfully feeding his imagination.

Drug-induced hallucinations don't appear out of nowhere. They build from familiar images and memories.

Mommy's phone had been full of videos showing her fights with Daddy. Those memories were already burned into his mind.

Combined with the drugs, the sudden "appearance" of Mommy, and Mo Bai's voice guiding him, Daddy's delusion would naturally shape itself into a terrifying image of Mommy advancing toward him, ready to attack.

A guttural roar tore from his throat as his muscles bulged. He lunged at the wardrobe, tearing into Mommy's body with his teeth and fists.

Mo Bai sat quietly in her wheelchair, watching him.

Mommy had planned to use Mo Bai as a shield, but now, Mommy's corpse had become her shield instead.

Xiao Qi made a sound like a gasp. "The Player actually manipulated Daddy's hallucination! You do not even have that ability!"

"I didn't manipulate anything," Mo Bai said calmly. "I just knew what he'd probably see after taking those drugs."

"What did you see, then?" Xiao Qi asked curiously.

Mo Bai didn't answer.

Understanding her silence, Xiao Qi changed the topic. "Daddy is venting all his rage on Mommy's corpse now. The Player is safe for the moment. But Xiao Qi still does not understand. How will you actually finish him off? You cannot hurt him physically."

"I have a way," Mo Bai replied, pulling back the blanket over her lap to reveal something wrapped in a towel.

Inside was a severed hand, its five nails gleaming cold and sharp under the light.

"That is Mommy's hand," Xiao Qi said softly.

Yes. When Mo Bai had cleaned the room earlier, she'd cut off Mommy's hand with the kitchen knife.

Daddy's skin was tougher than armor. Nothing she owned, including the bat and knife, could pierce it.

In this game, the only thing capable of wounding him was Mommy's claws.

"But you cannot use those nails yourself," Xiao Qi said anxiously. "Daddy's heart is over one point eight meters high. You are in a wheelchair, so you cannot jump that high. Even if you could, he would dodge. And even if you hit him, you do not have Mommy's strength to drive it through his heart."

Mo Bai smiled faintly. "Who said I was going to do it myself?"

Just then, Daddy's massive body began to sway.

He had shredded the corpse hanging on the door and now believed he'd finally killed Mommy. His body relaxed, exhaustion washing over him as the sleeping pills began to take effect.

He let out a huge yawn as his movements slowed.

Mo Bai then tossed the severed hand toward him.

It didn't fly like a weapon. It just rolled silently across the floor, stopping near his feet. With his bad eyesight, he didn't even notice it.

Moments later, the drugs fully kicked in. Daddy lost consciousness while standing, then his body tipped backward.

Mo Bai seized the chance and activated the first form of her Environment Optimization: altering physical structure.

The hand's volume was well within her one-liter limit.

It straightened upright, moving ten centimeters across the floor.

Watching carefully, Mo Bai guided it again, once, twice, each move draining her mental energy, until it was positioned right beneath Daddy's heart.

And then the giant fell.

With all his massive weight, his body slammed down right onto the upturned hand.

At that precise moment, Mo Bai activated her ability again, fixing the hand firmly in place so it wouldn't move even a millimeter.

Daddy's enormous body crashed to the ground, and the five sharp nails pierced straight into his heart.

The sleeping pills weren't just sedatives at that dosage. They also numbed all pain perception like a makeshift anesthesia. Even fatally wounded, Daddy still didn't wake up.

He remained pierced by the hand, uncertain whether he was dead or alive.

Mo Bai stared at him for a long time, her whole body tense, afraid he might suddenly rise again.

Silence fell over the room.

Then... drip.

A soft sound broke the stillness.

She looked down and saw a red droplet of liquid staining her blanket.

Touching her face, she realized that her nose was bleeding.

Her ears were bleeding faintly too.

Xiao Qi said, "Player, you could only move the hand three times. When you fixed it in place just now, that counted as a fourth activation. The impact from Daddy's fall should have crushed the hand, not impaled him. You used your mental force to hold it steady against that weight. The backlash severely injured your brain."

"That doesn't matter," Mo Bai said weakly. "Tell me... Is he dead?"

"No signs of life detected. Congratulations, Player. You have succeeded… in the most unbelievable way possible."

The monstrous giant had been killed, and Mo Bai didn't even from her chair.

By using every tool and ounce of strategy at her disposal, she had orchestrated a flawless assassination.

When she was finally sure that Daddy was dead, Mo Bai exhaled a long breath of relief.

Then her vision began to blur, and a sharp ringing filled her ears.

"Xiao Qi," she said faintly, "I remember there's a healing potion in the system shop that costs one thousand points, right?"

"Yes. It heals physical injuries but doesn't restore mental energy," Xiao Qi replied. "Do you want to redeem it?"

"Confirm redemption."

Her point balance dropped to zero, and a red bottle appeared in her hand.

She drank it immediately, and warmth spread through her body as her wounds sealed and pain faded. Even her crushed shoulder bone healed perfectly. Fatigue and dizziness melted away, and she was back to peak condition.

Only her energy bar remained empty, so her ability couldn't be used at the moment.

But it didn't matter since the danger was gone.

Once she'd recovered, she asked, "So… does this mean I've cleared the stage?"

"In theory, yes. The rewards have already been distributed."

With a thought, Mo Bai opened her points interface. Her balance had risen to three thousand, with a note below it:

[Daddy is dead. Player awarded 3,000 points]

"That's a lot more than Mommy gave me," she mused. "Why'd you say 'in theory,' though?"

"Because you did clear it, but not all the problems are over. Based on newly unlocked data, you might have triggered something bigger."  Xiao Qi replied.

Mo Bai was about to ask what that meant when a ringtone suddenly filled the silent room.

The sound made her heart jump. In a room with two corpses, hearing a phone ring in the middle of the night was the last thing she expected.

She frantically searched until she found the source. It was her own phone.

Someone was calling her!

When she looked at the screen, her eyes widened.

This time, the caller ID wasn't "Unknown."

The caller ID clearly displayed: Love and Care Orphanage.