Chapter 56 Swan Castle (First Update)
Yu Naixin seemed to realize that something was wrong with her face. She reached out and touched her cheek, then frowned slightly and quickly bought a small bottle of powerful makeup remover oil priced at 29 Sweet Coins from the system's regular shop.
Yu Naixin had only managed to apply the makeup remover to her right cheek twice when she heard a knock on the door of the storage room.
"Is anyone inside?" asked the head maid, Rosluna.
Yu Naixin immediately put the small bottle back into the system screen, and at the same time took the paper dog out of the props. As usual, she had the priest's folding fan and the paper dog hide in the shadows and wait for her next instruction.
Carefully and slowly opening the door to the storage room, Yu Naixin revealed only the left half of her face, making eye contact with Luo Siluna for the first time in reality, her eyes somewhat timid.
The comments in the live stream were no different from the previous two simulations. Some were complaining that it was a rare treat to see Yu Naixin in a maid outfit, but with such an ugly makeup, while others were marveling at Yu Naixin's superb acting skills, as if she really was a timid and nervous little maid.
The same look of surprise appeared on Rosluna's face as it had during the previous two simulations.
“An unfamiliar face,” she glanced at Yu Naixin, “is she the cleaning maid who started three days ago?”
My initial identity has already been sent to me by the head maid, so this is my current identity.
Yu Naixin was taken aback by what she heard, seemingly not quite understanding what Luosiluna meant.
During this process, Yu Naixin tilted her head slightly with some confusion, naturally exposing the right half of her face to Luosiluna's view.
Just now, Yu Naixin applied makeup remover to her right cheek, leaving an irregularly shaped white mark that contrasted sharply with the surrounding grayish-black skin, making it particularly noticeable.
It instantly revealed the fact that she was wearing fake makeup.
Luna Rossilina: "...?!"
Rosluna's previously calm gaze suddenly changed.
"Your Highness?!" She stepped forward, her voice trembling with emotion. "What are you doing here?!"
【Huh? What's going on?!】
[Where did this princess come from? Oh, the background description for this episode mentions a princess from Swan Castle... Damn, I thought she was one of those background NPCs, turns out she's just a female guest?!]
The banquet was originally intended for the princess to choose a husband, so it makes perfect sense that the female guest is a princess; it would also make things much easier.
Judging from her outfit and that dark, ugly makeup, the female guest's initial identity should have been the cleaning maid mentioned by the maid NPC. The princess's identity was a hidden one that required her to find clues to discover, but unexpectedly, the female guest revealed it so quickly by accident...
[I knew it! I couldn't see what the little witch was putting on her face because the lighting was too dim. And she's so quick! Turns out it was makeup remover she bought after noticing something strange on her face!]
Yu Naixin looked as if she were discovering for the first time that she was a "princess," her eyes wide with an expression of undisguised surprise.
Without Yu Naixin needing to make any further efforts, the thoughtful head maid sent over all the relevant explanations and information.
"You..." Rosluna's expression was somewhat sorrowful, "Are you still planning to elope?"
“Three days ago, when His Majesty said he would hold a banquet for you in the castle to choose a suitable husband, you were very resistant and unwilling…”
"At the time, I thought you just hadn't figured it out yet. After all, as His Majesty said, there are just too many eyes coveting Swan Castle. If the castle doesn't take the initiative to win over some of them to counterbalance and resist them, the only result will be that they will attack it together and divide it up!"
“You are His Majesty’s daughter, you must understand His Majesty’s intentions in doing this.”
Yu Naixin's eyes flickered almost imperceptibly.
The idea that arranging blind dates for the princess was to protect Swan Castle was something she had never heard before.
However, the background of this program is quite reasonable. If the female guests choose to pursue one or more male guests after arriving at Swan Castle, they can still find a way to survive and get out of this program instance. But if they do nothing and remain indifferent, they will be torn apart and devoured by the four male guests after the 7 o'clock deadline.
Rosluna continued, "After making his decision, His Majesty immediately packed his bags and left the castle the day before yesterday to seek possible assistance from further away. He won't be back until the day after tomorrow at the earliest, leaving you, the castle's master, alone..."
Looking at Yu Naixin's rough, cheap black and white maid dress, she gradually pieced everything together: "Three days ago, you recruited a large number of the lowest-ranking cleaning maids to the castle under the pretext that the banquet needed many people. Was it so that you could disguise yourself as one of them today, so that you could avoid our notice and successfully escape the marriage?"
very good.
Yu Naixin silently applauded the head maid in her heart.
At this point, the prerequisites for regaining her "princess" status have been largely met.
Yu Naixin could not possibly let anyone know about the existence of the simulator.
Although Yu Naixin hardly ever reads the comments in her live stream, she hasn't forgotten the "gift package" that the viewers in her live stream gave her when she first came to "Heartbeat 1000%".
Yu Naixin had actually thought about what would have happened to her in the first episode if she hadn't had the simulator as a cheat code.
The answer is that surviving the show shouldn't be a problem, and achieving a certain degree of purification is not impossible.
If she were to actually enter Cocoon Village from the beginning, she wouldn't be as subconsciously relaxed and unguarded as she is in the simulator.
However, if that happens, when Yu Naixin comes out of the first episode, her condition will probably be worse than if she died three times in a row in the simulator.
Yu Naixin specifically asked Priest Folding Fan about the "audience" in the dressing room.
Unfortunately, the priest's folding fan's encyclopedic function was limited to the scope of the segment. The "audience," being outside the segment, had less information than Yu Naixin, the guest on the show.
According to Yu Naixin, the "audience" is crucial to the entire "Heartbeat 1000%" show.
The various pieces of information she obtained from the simulator needed to have a general explanation of their source in the real-world counterpart.
However, only a general explanation is needed.
Once she naturally takes over the authority of the "princess" identity, many things can be explained directly using the information that comes with the authority, without needing to explain each thing in detail as in the last dungeon show.
Having experienced the entire episode of the Cocoon Village show and the two simulations in this episode, Yu Naixin will not easily underestimate the gaze of the "audience" from outside the show, but she will not care too much or worry about it either.
She knew what she had to do.
[Wow, so much information right from the start of the show? It's making my head spin...]
[After all, it's a mutated fusion dungeon, so it's normal for it to be difficult and fast-paced. There are a full four dungeon guests, second only to the Domain Lord, waiting eagerly!]
[The female guest was lucky enough to accidentally uncover her hidden identity right from the start!]
[This maid knows so much; she's clearly not an ordinary NPC!]
“Your Highness…” Roseluna sighed deeply. She looked into Yu Naixin’s eyes and said solemnly, “Are you really not interested in choosing those four distinguished men as your husbands?”
“I am your only head maid. If you are determined to do this, I will do everything in my power to help you—”
At this point, Rosiluna suddenly fell silent.
Her heavy yet resolute expression faltered for a moment, as if something had severed her train of thought, and she completely forgot what she was about to say.
[What's wrong with this NPC? He's acting like he's suddenly been hypnotized?]
[Holy crap! I've seen this before. It's the production team of "Heartbeat 1000%" getting involved! To prevent the leakage of information that's outside the guests' authority!]
【?! Did that maid NPC just say something incredible? I have absolutely no recollection of it!】
Looking at Luo Siluna like this, Yu Naixin couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache in her eyes.
Even though the head maid is in this state herself... she still thinks about helping the new female guest escape from the four male guests.
From the very beginning of this episode, Yu Naixin noticed something strange.
The production team of "Heartbeat 1000%" does indeed favor the show's guests, but the various measures it has taken for the show's episodes are all at a relatively macro level.
For example, the guest in the instance must meet certain hunting conditions before they can take action against the guest in the program, or the guest in the program can be provided with a system shop as assistance.
Specifically, in the "Swan Castle" segment, the four male guests were confined to the banquet hall on the first floor of the central tower after entering. Without the permission of the other guests, they could not freely go to other parts of the castle until the deadline.
The fact that the show's guests were dressed as cleaning maids at the very beginning, and even given them makeup that could fool all the male guests, were all too meticulous and didn't seem like something the production team would do.
If "Heartbeat 1000%" had been this meticulous, Yu Naixin would never have been able to successfully obtain the "Mountain God" privileges in the "Cocoon Village" episode.
Given the very limited number of variety shows she had participated in, Yu Naixin didn't draw any conclusions based on this oddity, as it was very likely a misunderstanding caused by her lack of experience.
However, in the two subsequent simulations, Yu Naixin directly confronted the four male guests in one instance and mainly followed Luo Siluna to find clues and gather information in the other, making the contrast even more pronounced.
The head maid NPC, Luna, embodies the same attention to detail that Yu Naixin observed in her opening outfit and makeup.
She is the most well-developed and proactive NPC in the entire Swan Castle, even surpassing the old butler Devman, who also has a unique name.
She possesses spiritual power that NPCs should theoretically not have, and she holds the key to the only normal passage to the princess's residence on the fourth floor of the central round tower.
She was incredibly generous with the information she shared with Yu Naixin, a guest on the show, and she was completely open to giving Yu Naixin the important golden key without hesitation. She even poured all her spiritual power into the golden key so that Yu Naixin could use it alone.
Everything points to one fact.
Rosiluna is not an ordinary NPC.
Strictly speaking, she is not an NPC at all.
In the final simulation, Yu Naixin targeted Rosiluna to rewind time. When she saw that Rosiluna was left with only bright red blood in the hands of the vampire duke, she was completely certain of this.
She looked exactly like Yu Naixin herself when she was turned into a pool of blood by the paper doll boy during her first simulation in Cocoon Village.
As for Rosiluna herself, she is the surviving fragment of the souls of the countless female guests who died tragically in "Rose Spire" and "Moonlight Town".
That's why she possesses a negligible amount of spiritual power, as well as far more authority, information, and autonomy than ordinary NPCs in Swan Castle.
Whether it's Yu Naixin's identity as a "cleaning maid," or "three days ago His Majesty wanted to choose a husband for the princess, but the princess refused and ran away from the marriage," or "the princess recruited a large number of cleaning maids three days ago," all this information was revealed by Luo Siluna.
As long as the show's guests notice her and gain her favor, Rosiluna will do everything she knows to tell them everything, give them all her spiritual power and special items, and help them survive in this episode.
Even if she undergoes mutation by following the rules of NPCs, Luna is able to stop her mutation process and even reverse it after Yu Naixin provides a reasonable explanation.
Even in this real-world instance, when Yu Naixin, as a "princess," attempted to "escape her marriage," Luo Siluna couldn't help but want to help her.
Because she knew all too well what kind of terrifying demons the four male guests on this episode of the show were.
Yu Naixin is her successor, another pitiful person who shares her plight.
However, the last vestige of her divine soul was insufficient to support Luo Siluna's behavior, which completely violated the rules of the "Heartbeat 1000%" program.
Luna could only have her thoughts forcibly cut off.
Including the measures she had previously arranged to disguise herself as a guest in order to increase the survival rate of new guests, the production team also made her forget all of them before the show even started.
As the combined soul of the female guests who had been killed time and time again by the four male guests, Luluna was powerless to resist when she encountered a killer like the Vampire Duke, and her soul was completely scattered.
They're all connected.
The predecessors to this episode were the two episodes, "Rose Spire" and "Moonlight Town".
Yu Naixin has a wide range of knowledge; she knows a little about all sorts of things.
The Latin word for "rose" is "rose," and the Latin word for "moonlight" is "luna."
The combination of "rose" and "luna" results in the transliteration "罗丝露娜" (Luo Si Lu Na).
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A note from the author: I was feeling really unwell the past couple of days. Please remember to take precautions, everyone. I've tested positive so many times already…
A long and detailed update! There's more today!
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 23:56:52 on August 7, 2024 and 09:15:24 on August 11, 2024!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: NiniNini (4 bottles); Banlanzhong (1 bottle); echogao (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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