122: Chapter 122 The World's Torture

Su Bai finished calibrating the last segment of the silver-blue circuit.

The surface of the Stand Card glowed quietly on the card-making table; the pattern of the golden beetle seemed alive, breathing slowly.

He put down the card-making pen and flexed his stiff wrist.

"The rules of the test are very simple."

Wei Xiaoyu stood in the center of the courtyard, her expression as taut as a drawn bowstring.

She had already changed into her combat uniform, the deep purple high-collar lining wrapped tightly around her neck, yet her hands couldn't help but clench and unclench repeatedly.

Another person stood by the edge of the courtyard. Wearing a deep cyan military uniform, he was tall, and his features bore a five or six-point resemblance to War Emperor Wei Potian—this was Wei Tianlong, Wei Xiaoyu's uncle.

Tonight was his niece's first time testing a Stand Card, and he couldn't rest easy, so he had come specifically to watch over her. At this moment, he was leaning against the trunk of the old locust tree with his arms crossed, his brow furrowed into a deep groove; his expression hadn't been good since Su Bai mentioned the word "interrogation" earlier.

"The will of the Stand has been completely embedded into the circuit." Su Bai walked up to her, turned the card over, and pointed to the ring of dark golden Mental Power sensing patterns on the back. "After activation, it will conduct an interrogation based on your mental strength."

"...Interrogation?"

"Correct. The degree of interrogation represents the Mental Power conduction density curve." Su Bai handed her the card. "To put it simply, the better you can withstand its questions, the stronger the Stand will be. If you can't withstand it—"

He paused.

"What happens if I can't withstand it?" Wei Xiaoyu's voice drifted up a half-octave.

"It will probably be very unsightly."

"What do you mean by 'probably very unsightly'! Explain clearly!"

Su Bai thought about his wording. "Unsightly in the literal sense. Just imagine, you might end up kneeling on the ground or something—"

"Isn't that even more miserable than dying!!"

Kyubey squatted on a branch of the old locust tree, its tail sweeping slowly back and forth twice.

[Su Bai, her heart rate has already exceeded 140 beats per minute.]

"Normal. Everyone is nervous the first time."

[Was your first time like this too?]

"I was forced by the system that time; the nature of it was different."

Wei Xiaoyu had no time to pay attention to the banter between the human and the cat. She stared down at the card in her hand; the dark golden beetle pattern shimmered with a cold light under the moonlight. The card felt ice-cold to the touch, and just holding it made her feel a faint, hovering sense of oppression drilling from her fingertips into her brain.

"You only need to do two things." Su Bai held up his fingers. "First, strike the pose. Second, shout 'Za Warudo'. The card will handle the rest itself."

"...Does it have to be that pose?"

"Which one?"

"The one—the one you demonstrated before—twisting the waist backward, one hand covering the face, the other hand pointing forward—"

"Correct. It must be that one. The angle of the waist must align with the second phase axis of the card's circuit. If the deviation exceeds five degrees, the Stand's stability will collapse."

The color drained from Wei Xiaoyu's face in an instant.

She remembered lying in bed tossing and turning last night, unable to sleep, sneaking in front of the mirror to practice this pose several times. Every time she practiced it, she wanted to smash the mirror, but if she smashed it, she wouldn't have a mirror, so she restrained herself. Later, when she practiced it for the fifth time, she realized one thing—if you ignore the embarrassment, this pose is actually quite cool.

Of course, this thought only survived for a fraction of a second before she strangled it to death herself.

"Za Warudo," Su Bai said.

"...What?"

"You haven't practiced shouting the line yet. Do it once."

"Now? Here?"

"Yes."

Wei Xiaoyu's lips twitched. She looked at the old locust tree in the courtyard, looked at Kyubey squatting on the windowsill, and looked at Su Bai's face, which didn't look like it was joking at all.

"...Za, Za Warudo."

"Too quiet. Mental Power won't be able to infuse."

"Za Warudo!"

"Not enough momentum. Are you telling the enemy, 'Please let me try to punch you'?"

Wei Xiaoyu gritted her teeth. She stirred all her shame, anger, unwillingness, and the resentment from staying up until three last night all together, and took a deep breath—

"ZA—WARUDO!!"

The leaves on the old locust tree rustled from the sound waves, and Kyubey's ears stood straight up.

"...Not bad," Su Bai nodded. "Maintain this volume."

Wei Xiaoyu felt like she had never wanted to die more in her life. But she had no way back; she remembered every single thing she had promised Su Bai while kneeling in the moonlight last night. She was not allowed to die on the stage. So, standing in the courtyard striking a pose and shouting lines was the price of survival.

She took a deep breath.

Then she twisted her body into the pose she had practiced countless times. Her waist bent backward, her left hand covered half her face, her right index finger pointed straight diagonally upward, her knees slightly bent, her center of gravity lowered, and the angles of her joints were precisely locked within the deviation range of the phase axis Su Bai had mentioned. The moonlight shone from behind her, casting her entire figure into a dark golden silhouette.

"—ZA WARUDO!!"

Her voice didn't crack. This time, it truly exploded out from her dantian.

The card exploded with light in her palm.

It was not the light of a Magical Girl. It was something deeper, more violent—like an entire star had been crushed and poured into the card—a purple-gold. Light gushed out from every engraved line of the beetle pattern, dragging dense streams of light through the air. Those streams of light weren't falling downward; they were floating upward, each thread of light climbing against gravity, weaving into a huge silhouette behind Wei Xiaoyu.

The silhouette became clearer and clearer.

First, the torso. Broad shoulders and a narrow waist, the lines of the muscles like a statue from ancient Greece endowed with life. Then the limbs; the arms were thick enough to crush a military vehicle with one hand, and each finger joint was embedded with a ring of dark golden gears, the gears turning, turning extremely slowly. Then the head, an angular human face, no nose, no lips, only two rows of tightly closed metal teeth, and—

A pair of eyes.

The dark golden pupils opened under the moonlight.

[The World] had descended.

Hum—!!

It wasn't a sound; it was a vacuum blast caused by the air being displaced. The bluestone slabs in the courtyard cracked instantly the moment the Stand descended; the branches of the old locust tree were bent downward by an invisible force, and the leaves curled up as if drained of moisture. Even Kyubey, hiding on the windowsill, had its tail puffed up into a ball of white fur.

[This Mental Power density—] Kyubey's voice was rarely tinged with a ripple of emotion. [It is no longer in the category of a Tier 2 card.]

Su Bai didn't speak; he was watching Wei Xiaoyu.

Wei Xiaoyu was also looking at [The World]. She tilted her head back, her dark golden pupils reflecting the Stand's dark golden eyes, which were the same color as hers but had a completely different temperament. Her breathing was accelerating, but not because of fear; it was because she felt an unprecedented power pouring from the card's circuit into her limbs and bones. Every blood vessel was burning, every muscle was expanding, and the depth of her magic pool was expanding at an completely unreasonable speed.

"So strong—"

She subconsciously clenched her fists, and the magic sparks exploding between her knuckles were at least three times brighter than usual.

Then [The World] lowered its head.

Those dark golden pupils locked onto Wei Xiaoyu's eyes, less than half a meter away.

Wei Xiaoyu's smile froze on her face.

The Stand's lips didn't move, but a voice exploded directly in the depths of her brain. Thick, deep, and carrying a certain indifference of looking down on all living beings, every word sounded like a hammer striking an anvil.

[To desire to dominate the world, one must first transcend all fear.]

Violence and arrogance surged within the dark golden pupils.

[Answer—does your soul possess the hegemony to devour all things?!]