My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 127

by Little Panda

Vanishing Powers?

“Then tell me, what did you eventually do with Grandmother after she turned into a zombie?” Even though Mu Ning knew there was no saving anyone who had turned into a zombie, she still couldn’t help but cling to a tiny, faint hope that her grandmother’s ultimate end might have been slightly better.

Yet, Mu Ning’s question only earned her looks from the Mu family as if she were a lunatic.

What did they do? What else could they have done? Of course they treated her like any other zombie—blew her head off and finished her then and there!

However, once everyone caught sight of the thorn-covered vine whip in Mu Ning’s hand, they collectively chose to hide that answer from her. Mu Chengzhi swallowed hard a few times before stammering out a tactful lie. He told Mu Ning that her grandmother had lost her mind after turning into a zombie, unable to understand human speech and biting wildly like a monster. They’d had no choice but to restrain her first, and then… they buried her in the backyard of their old family home.

Mu Ning didn’t even need to look at their shifting, evasive eyes to know there wasn’t a single word of truth in his answer. All she could do was channel the pain and despair in her heart into burning rage. She stared coldly at Mu Chengzhi and mocked him without mercy. “Oh? You keep spitting out how I’m an unfilial daughter, Father, but what about you? For Grandmother—for the mother who painstakingly raised you—shouldn’t a filial son like you have offered himself up to her mouth to feed her? You buried her just to save your own skin. What kind of filial son is that?”

On what grounds? Why was Grandmother dead while people like you got to go on living?!

“Bullshit! You unfilial daughter…” Mu Ning’s sarcasm enraged Mu Chengzhi once more, but the vine whip in her hands forced him to swallow his anger. At the same time, his eyes darted shiftily toward Zhou Zhilong, who was standing idly by. He hoped this prospective son-in-law of his—who was also a 6th-order esper—would step in and help subdue this unfilial daughter.

How could Zhou Zhilong, who was still trying to maintain his devoted lover persona, pay any mind to Mu Chengzhi’s hinting glances? He merely gave Mu Chengzhi a subtle shake of his head, then stepped forward to continue coaxing Mu Ning with gentle words. He consoled her, saying that although her grandmother had passed away, once she married into the Zhou family, his own grandmother would cherish her as her very own granddaughter.

The moment Mu Chengzhi heard “marry into the Zhou family,” his eyes lit up. He quickly cut in to build on Zhou Zhilong’s words. “Exactly! Exactly! Even if your grandmother is gone, Grandfather is still here! Since you’ve returned for his eightieth birthday, we should choose an auspicious day and hold the wedding for you and Xiao Zhou at the same time!”

After all, wasn’t their primary motive for going through all this trouble to fetch her from so far away to secure this marriage alliance with the Zhou family?

Mu Ning watched with cold eyes as Mu Chengzhi and Zhou Zhilong began arranging her marriage as if she weren’t even there. Only when the two of them had mostly finished their discussion, to the point of almost settling on a date, did she let out a cold laugh. “Are you both really so certain that I’ll just meekly cooperate and marry Zhou Zhilong?”

Since Grandmother was gone, she had absolutely no attachment left to this so-called Mu family. Right now, even looking at their hypocritical faces made her feel physically sick. When she was younger, she couldn’t escape their control. Later, after getting into university, she had worked hard to distance herself from them. Now, in the apocalypse, she was a 6th-order esper. If the Mu family still thought they could control her and use her as a bargaining chip to secure their own interests, they were living in a fantasy world!

“You unfilial daughter! What did you say?!”

“Ningning… you… wasn’t our marriage decided from the very beginning? Do you really have to break my heart like this?”

Faced with Mu Ning’s rejection, some people simply refused to wake up from their delusions. Especially Zhou Zhilong. In his mind, he had already claimed Mu Ning as his wife. Her powers would be his, and all the crystal cores she had gathered along the way would be his too! Now, she was saying she wouldn’t marry him? What a joke!

“Ningning, stop talking out of anger. As a woman, isn’t getting married inevitable for you sooner or later? Since we already have an engagement…”

“Who says I have to get married? Besides, did I ever agree to this engagement?” Staring at Zhou Zhilong’s hypocritical, self-righteous display of fake affection, Mu Ning felt increasingly repulsed. She didn’t want to spend another second playing along with this room full of people. She couldn’t stand being in this room for another moment. Tossing those words aside, she violently cracked her vine whip, forcing Zhou Zhilong to stumble back two steps to get out of her way. Then, without looking back, she headed straight for the door.

“Stop right there! You unfilial daughter! If you dare to leave today, you… you…”

“Ningning! Do… do you really hate the idea of marrying me that much? When I love you so deeply… If you keep acting like this… I’ll really get angry!”

“Angry? What can someone like you even do if you get angry?” Hearing Zhou Zhilong’s threat, Mu Ning cast a contemptuous glance over her shoulder, her pace never faltering for a single second.

That single contemptuous look shattered the mask of devotion Zhou Zhilong had been desperately maintaining. His expression darkened, and his voice turned ice-cold as he warned her once again, “Ningning, do you really have to make me angry like this?”

“Pfft!” This time, Mu Ning didn’t even bother to look back, leaving Zhou Zhilong with nothing but her proud, aloof back.

“Mu Ning! You forced my hand!” Zhou Zhilong glared at her back, his teeth gnashing as he roared word by word, “What are you all standing around for? Get out here! Bind her!”

The moment the words left his mouth, a crowd of espers burst through the door. The leader, a thin, gloomy man, was grinning sleazily at Mu Ning.

“Oh, Young Master Zhou? So this is your fiancée? What a beauty! You really want me to deal with her? You sure don’t know how to treat a lady gently~”

Facing this scrawny man, Zhou Zhilong’s tone became noticeably more respectful. “Ping-ge, I’ll have to trouble you. My fiancée is being a bit disobedient. Once you help me restrain her, I’ll give you a million Level 1 crystal cores.”

“Aiya, Young Master Zhou, you’re treating me like a stranger! With our relationship, there’s no need to talk about crystal cores~ Fine, fine~ Since it’s a matter between husband and wife, I won’t pry too much. I’ll help you restrain your fiancée. But Young Master Zhou, with such a gorgeous beauty… you shouldn’t be too rough on her~” Having said his piece, the scrawny man named Ping-ge fixed his eyes on Mu Ning once more, scanning her up and down.

Mu Ning couldn’t tolerate his disgusting, sordid gaze for even a single second. Without waiting for the squad of espers to make their move, she raised her hand and unleashed several ice cones at them. Yet, the instant she threw them, she felt the esper energy inside her body vanish, as if instantly sucked dry by some invisible force. The ice cones she had projected dissolved into nothingness midair.

She couldn’t use her powers? Panic flared in Mu Ning’s chest. She tried once more to channel her energy, but to her horror, the reservoir of power that should have been brimming inside her was completely hollow. She couldn’t wield even a fraction of it.

The ability of the man in front of her was behind this!

Meeting the smug, sinister smirk on the scrawny man’s face, Mu Ning instantly realized that her missing power was connected to this 6th-order esper! She had simply been too careless. Unlike H City, A City was a massive metropolis that served as the nation’s capital before the apocalypse. It had already drawn in countless talents. Post-apocalypse, the number of espers gathered at A City’s Ning’an Base was bound to be vastly superior, with far more powerhouses among them…

Realizing she was utterly powerless to use her abilities, Mu Ning decisively abandoned any further attempts to attack the espers in front of her. Instead, she swiftly drew a dagger from her waist pouch. It was the dagger Ren Chenxi had gifted her. If she recalled correctly, it was only a few days after they had slain the 8th-order mutated octopus on the beach that Ren Chenxi had handed it over. Back then, Ren Chenxi had told her that while her powers were formidable and her tier was high, there would always be times when her energy ran dry. Carrying a dagger for self-defense in critical moments was a necessity.

And now, with her powers disabled, the dagger Ren Chenxi had gifted her was going to be put to use after all…

Mu Ning cast a bitter glance at the dagger in her hand. A second later, her gaze turned fierce as she glared at Zhou Zhilong, who had discarded his disguise entirely and was grinning with smug satisfaction.

Flinching under her lethal stare, Zhou Zhilong instinctively shrank his neck and took a half-step back. But once he noticed that the weapon in her hand was merely a short—albeit sharp-looking—dagger, the smug smile returned to his face.

“What is it, Ningning? Have you realized that you can’t use your abilities anymore? But… surely you don’t think that without your powers, a tiny short blade like that is going to let you take on all of us at once? I suggest you put down that little knife. There’s no need to invite unnecessary physical pain. You know how deeply I love you. If you get hurt, my heart will bleed too…”

Mu Ning knit her brows in disgust at his sickening, theatrical pleading. She squeezed the hilt of her dagger, her thoughts drifting back to Ren Chenxi against her will. Why was it that when both had disguised their deeper feelings, one of them could make her willingly fall, while the other made her stomach churn at a single glance?

Mu Ning’s brief lapse of attention was taken as a sign of helpless surrender by the Mu family members, who had previously been cowed by her coercive pressure. Instantly, their deflated bravado flared back up. Especially Mu Chengzhi—he lunged forward in three quick strides, raising a hand high to deliver a savage slap to Mu Ning’s face. “You unfilial daughter!” he barked as his hand swung down. “Weren’t you acting so high and mighty? You even dare to lay a hand on your own father? Go on, try hitting me again!”

But before his insult could even leave his mouth, and before his palm could land, a sudden, blinding pain shot through his palm. Shocked, he snatched his hand back. He looked down and saw a deep gash sliced clean across his palm, dark blood welling up rapidly from the wound. Meanwhile, the blade of the gleaming dagger in Mu Ning’s hand was already stained with fresh crimson.

“Y-You unfilial daughter…” Facing Mu Ning’s vicious gaze again—one that looked ready to tear him to pieces—Mu Chengzhi threw his paternal dignity out the window. Cowardly clutching his bleeding palm, he staggered back several steps. Yet, retreat only left him feeling deeply resentful. He spun toward Zhou Zhilong and roared in a furious frenzy, “What are you standing around for?! Get your men to bind this unfilial daughter right now!”

The author has something to say:

Mu Ning: Who says I’m going to get married? I’m going to marry a wife in the future!

Xixi: Marrying me isn’t good enough?

Mu Ning: Yes, yes, yes. Whatever you say, wifey~