Chapter 372: A New Form of Coercion
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Sunlight filtered through the trees of the forest, scattering its rays on the young princess’ white dress. Her raven-black hair shone like silky satin. The contrast created by her black hair made it difficult to tell if her dress was whiter or her skin was fairer. Her fine black hair floated around her under the golden rays of the sun. The princess pursed her lips into a thin line as her expression grew darker and darker. A slender woman with a pair of huge skeletal wings stood just a few steps away from Snow White.
“Oh, so there was poison on your lips.”
From Snow White’s perspective, the loathsome woman in front of her showed an idiotic expression as she wiped her mouth as if nothing had happened. After that woman contemplated her situation for some time, she turned to leave, much to Snow White’s chagrin.
“Stop!” Snow White couldn’t help shrieking immediately.
“What?” Lin Sanjiu slowly turned back and stared at the princess behind her with a pair of cold amber eyes. “If you want to know why I’m not poisoned, I guess you haven’t heard of Mickey Mouse’s family.”
Snow White froze for a second. She apparently did not get what Lin Sanjiu meant.
Lin Sanjiu flashed a slight smile but did not explain it. No matter how similar this Snow White looked to her original character, Lin Sanjiu was still affected by the traumatic experience with Mickey Mouse. Lin Sanjiu activated her [Defence Forcefield] even when she was just shaking Puppeteer’s hand, so obviously, she would do so when she let her lips come in contact with a cartoon character she didn’t even know.
While Snow White was still confused by her answer, Lin Sanjiu had already turned away. She looked down at one of the dwarfs and asked, “I’ve already saved her. Shouldn’t you guys repay me for my help? Regarding the location of that yellow bird—”
Before Lin Sanjiu could finish her sentence, her wings suddenly opened. It whipped up a gust of wind which stirred up the fallen leaves on the ground. Unexpectedly, her wings did not deflect any incoming attack. Lin Sanjiu heard a soft swoosh. She immediately felt her wings jerk. She found herself moving a little slower and she suddenly felt a numbing sensation around her ankles.
When Lin Sanjiu turned around, she saw that Snow White’s black hair was now like a web in mid-air. The strands of hair had wrapped themselves around Lin Sanjiu’s pair of wings and her ankles. They looked like ordinary hair, but when Lin Sanjiu struggled to free herself, she couldn’t make them budge even the slightest bit.
Surrounded by the black and intricate ‘hair’ trap she had set, Snow White narrowed her crystal blue eyes menacingly. She took a step out of her coffin without saying a word. The moment she stepped on the forest floor, the dwarfs scrambled and ran deep into the forest. The little folks disappeared within a split second.
“Well, looks like you’re Miss Unpopular,” Lin Sanjiu wiped her face with her hand and sighed. “If you’re this powerful, why don’t you go and deal with your stepmother…”
Lin Sanjiu did not know which part of her remark offended Snow White, but the princess hissed sharply and lunged at her abruptly. When Snow White lunged at her, Lin Sanjiu almost assumed that the princess was a close-combat fighter, so she was a little taken aback. However, just as she charged at the young lady head-on, her opponent suddenly dissipated in the air, like bubbles.
The moment Snow White disappeared, something tightened around Lin Sanjiu’s wings. It was as if a large hand was holding her wings. It started yanking her wings upward. A pang of intense pain shot straight up to her brain and Lin Sanjiu couldn’t control herself from letting out a soft yelp. She felt as if she was going to be torn apart—alive. Enduring the pain, she turned around and found that the countless strands of hair that had wound themselves around her wings were outstretched and were tugging her wings skyward. They were violently yanking her wings upward… Meanwhile, the other strands of hair around her ankles kept her feet pinned to the ground.
Gritting her teeth, Lin Sanjiu pulled out her [Vibroblade]. With a swift gesture, she brandished her Vibroblade toward the layers of hair. Unfortunately, her seemingly unstoppable Vibroblade was actually deflected by Snow White’s ductile hair.
Momentarily, Snow White faint laughter rang out throughout the forest.
Enduring the waves of savage pain that came on stronger and stronger each time, Lin Sanjiu smirked icily. She stored her [Vibroblade] very quickly. Even though her face had become paler due to the pain, she was visibly unruffled by the situation. “Sigh, I have a question that only you can answer. If you’re trying to tear me apart with all your hair, are you bald right now?”
A harrumph rang out throughout Lin Sanjiu’s surroundings. It was impossible to tell the actual origin of the sound. Without any warning, before Lin Sanjiu could even sense anything with her hypersensory state, Snow White suddenly appeared behind her. The princess was floating in the air and she still had her black raven hair.
Snow White drifted through the air like a bubble and landed on Lin Sanjiu’s shoulder. Just as the princess’s knees touched Lin Sanjiu’s shoulder, Snow White disappeared with a chortle when she noticed Lin Sanjiu’s hands heading toward her at lightning speed. Lin Sanjiu’s powerful punch only sailed through empty air.
The second Snow White disappeared, Lin Sanjiu felt an instant numbness radiating from the two patches of skin on the back of her shoulders that came in contact with the princess. In the blink of an eye, Lin Sanjiu suddenly couldn’t feel anything from those two patches of skin. It was as if a black hole had sucked away two spots in her hypersensory state. With two missing area, her hypersensory state began to fail.
“If I plant two ‘poison seals’ on you, you will be meeting my prince very soon,” Snow White’s lithe voice reverberated through the forest. She sounded extremely gleeful as if the sight of her enemy hoisted in the air was something that was very laughable. “When you meet him, you must apologize to him sincerely.”
The tall woman with light amber eyes pursed her lips. Without saying a word, the woman tugged at her own wings as if to counter the pulling force that grew stronger every second. However, there was too much hair around her. The layer of hair was so thick that they blocked the sunlight from reaching her. Compared to the force acting against her, no matter how much strength Lin Sanjiu’s arms possessed, they could not prevent her wings from being pulled even further.
Snow White seemed very pleased with the current situation. She started humming with her sweet, oriole-like voice. The young princess appeared once more. She now floated in front of Lin Sanjiu. Stretching out her hands, Snow White suddenly held Lin Sanjiu’s shoulders—
This time, however, her fair hands sank through Lin Sanjiu’s shoulders. It was as if they were running through bubbles, there was nothing. Snow White stared blankly at her hands which had penetrated the non-existent body in front of her. She looked up and saw Lin Sanjiu.
Lin Sanjiu crooked her head and grinned at the princess.
“You aren’t the only person in the world that knows how to make use of afterimages.”
Even though Snow White could see the movement of the mouth staring back at her, Lin Sanjiu’s voice came from a different direction near her. Just as Snow White realized she was in trouble, she felt someone carrying her waist. Before she could react with any of her skills, she felt an immense force hit the back of her head. As her vision turned black, the massive web of hair floated down from mid-air. Before they touched the ground, they disappeared one after another.
Lin Sanjiu stood on Snow White’s back as she buried the princess’ head into a pile of fallen leaves. Unsatisfied, Lin Sanjiu decided to just sit on the princess’ body. She shook her skeletal wings and felt her sore back muscles before letting out a resentful grunt. In a moment of desperation, she remembered a book she had gotten from Kisaragi Library: [How to render]. If she didn’t think of it, she might only be able to react to Snow White’s attack passively…
[How to Render]: People can see because of the presence of light. This effect of this book creates a powerful distortion of shadow and light. Please slowly explore its uses.
Activation note 1: When you place a chopstick into a bowl of clear water, it would look bent. This distortion is caused by refraction. As the user, Lin Sanjiu, has learned about this property of light in physics class in middle school, she is able to activate this illusionary effect.
Note: Even though the user can ignore the usual physics regarding refraction through air, the distance between the optical illusion and the true object is limited by the user’s capabilities and the user’s familiarity with the uses of this book. Additionally, no matter how much this effect improves, the illusion can only last for 30 seconds. This effect can only be used once every ten hours.
As Lin Sanjiu’s wings and ankles were completely bound by Snow White’s hair, Lin Sanjiu could not move her body. Due to the limitations of her Special Item, the illusion was actually still very close to her true location. When Snow White reached out to hold her shoulders, the princess’ hands nearly touched her. However, Lin Sanjiu clenched her teeth and went all out. Twisting her body away from those hands, she took the risk and grabbed the princess. When Lin Sanjiu recalled the pain coursing through her body when she chose to do that, she felt a bout of anger once again.
Lin Sanjiu pulled Snow White up by grabbing her hair. She made a gesture and something appeared in her hand. She smashed the item right into the young lady’s face, “You look a little more bearable dead! So bloody eat up!”
The smell of apple immediately assaulted Snow White’s nose. This was the same piece of poisoned apple that Lin Sanjiu had spent 15 stamina points on.
Once she caught the whiff of her bane, Snow White started struggling. She waved her arms and feet, struggling like a fish out of water. She clamped her mouth and mumbled, unwilling to eat that apple. However, her feeble attempt to resist could not counter the force Lin Sanjiu exerted on her jaws.
When she saw the apple moving past her teeth, Snow White suddenly cried loudly without any warning. “Bwahhhh!”
Her resounding wail rang out through the forest. Lin Sanjiu was stunned and that made her stop.
“I-I’ve already been poisoned once by my stepmother,” she cried out. She had already become breathless despite only crying for a few seconds. “You want to poison me again! Not only are you going to poison me; you’ve also killed my prince! Without my prince, why should I still live? Now my stepmother can just attempt to kill me as many times as she wishes!”
“Now you’re trying to reason with me?” Lin Sanjiu was angry but she also found it very funny. Just when she was about to say something, one of the dwarfs stuck his head out, trembling with fear.
“Excuse me, are you planning to kill the princess or will you spare her?” the timid dwarf asked.
“Is this another multiple-choice question?”
Lin Sanjiu shuddered once. She looked at the dwarf and then at the princess on the ground. The latter was bawling her eyes out. She was crying so badly that Lin Sanjiu was even worried if the apple would just slip down that princess’ throat. When she thought of this, Lin Sanjiu quickly grabbed Snow White’s neck and shouted, “Stop crying! I am not going to kill you!”
Snow White sniffled and stopped crying immediately. Bleh. She spat the piece of apple out.
Strangely, no matter how many times that apple had been swallowed, it looked as if it had been just sliced. Just as before, it seemed to be in a pristine condition.
“I spent a good amount of stamina points on that…” Lin Sanjiu waved her hand and stored the apple. Without standing, she sighed and stared at the back of Snow White’s head, “What do you people want from me?”
A sobbing, nasally voice came from the head full of luxuriant black hair, “I don’t care. You need to get rid of my stepmother. Otherwise, this won’t be the last you hear from me!”
“Do you guys think you can just pressure me into doing what you want like this?” Lin Sanjiu snorted, “I don’t have time to deal with this nonsense, I still have to—”
Snow White turned half her face toward Lin Sanjiu gloomily, and her eyes were still red, “You are chasing a yellow bird, right? There are many of that sort of birds in my kingdom. If I release a few of them, they would be able to track that particular yellow bird of yours. How about it? Will you help me?”
Apparently, once Lin Sanjiu defeated Snow White but spared her life, a “blackmailed” option was developed… Lin Sanjiu didn’t really have a choice. Even though she was still angry, she finally stood up from Snow White’s body with a disgruntled expression.
Lin Sanjiu kicked Snow White a few times with her filthy and heavy boots before commanding the princess coldly, “Lead the way!”
When the dwarfs saw Snow White standing up pathetically, they slowly popped out from their hiding spots and crowded around her. They seemed a little afraid of their princess as they followed behind the young lady without making a sound. They maintained a fixed distance away from the princess.
“Where is Snow White’s kingdom? Is it far from here?” With these thoughts running through her mind, Lin Sanjiu followed the group of “people” of varying heights, distractedly. However, after they walked to the top of a hill, her eyes widened.
How could she have forgotten? This cartoon world was as random as they come.
“This journey had been quite tough,” the dwarfs whispered to each other, acting as if they had completed a huge feat. “We’re finally here.”
Standing at the top of the hill, a foggy city appeared on the horizon. Despite the fog, Lin Sanjiu could tell that the city was quite big. The countless roofs with varying colors and heights stretched boundlessly into the distance. Straining her eyes, Lin Sanjiu observed the city carefully. Shocked, she couldn’t keep herself from turning to Snow White, who did not look any better.
“Your kingdom… looks…” Lin Sanjiu couldn’t really find the right word. After thinking for a moment, she uttered, “…spooky.”
