Read Novel Full Chapter 424: Perfectly Aligned Goals
Chapter 424: Chapter 424: Perfectly Aligned Goals
She pressed her lips together, hesitating, then whispered, "My parents refuse to help anymore unless Arthur is taken out."
Damien’s smile widened. "That’s simple. You just need to enter Ivy’s base and ask someone to get Arthur out."
Angelina’s face drained of color. "I don’t have enough power to even enter the base."
At that moment, Damien reached into his clothes and took out a ring. When Angelina saw it, her breath hitched.
Damien placed the ring in her hand. "Give this to someone who can turn invisible."
She frowned, looking up at him. "Why?"
"As long as they wear this ring," Damien continued calmly, "their invisibility will slowly transfer to you."
Angelina’s fingers tightened around the ring, her heart pounding violently. ’So this is the plan...’
For a very brief moment, Angelina was tempted.
The ring lay in her palm, cold and heavy, as if whispering promises straight into her bones.
’As long as I give this ring away... I can gain power,’ she thought. Power meant survival. Power meant she would no longer have to crawl and beg.
But the thought barely lasted a heartbeat.
She shook her head and pushed the ring back slightly. "I can’t take it," she murmured, her voice low but firm.
"My conscience won’t allow me to steal someone else’s power and pretend I’m fine with it."
Damien stared at her, his eyes dark and unreadable. For a fleeting second, something that almost resembled interest flickered through them.
Then he scoffed softly. "You’re truly naïve," he said coldly. "If I were in your place, I would’ve accepted it long ago without a second thought."
Angelina fell silent. She lowered her gaze, her fingers curling into her sleeves, and said nothing.
Seeing her reaction, Damien smiled faintly, as if he had already anticipated it.
"It’s too early anyway," he continued lazily.
"You don’t have to use it now." His tone shifted abruptly, sharp and chilling. "But if you fail to deliver human meat at the scheduled time, I’ll make sure you don’t die a pleasant death."
The cave seemed to grow colder the moment those words settled in the air. A shiver ran down Angelina’s spine, and she bowed her head instinctively. "I... I’ll find a way."
Damien’s smile widened. "Good girl."
He pressed the ring into her hand. This time, Angelina didn’t resist. Her fingers closed around it as if accepting a sentence rather than a gift. Without another word, she turned and began to walk away.
Damien’s voice followed her, sharp as a blade slicing through her back. "Think carefully about everything. If you ever dare betray me, your fate will be worse than a dog’s."
Angelina said nothing. She walked out of the cave, her steps unsteady.
Outside, the sky burned mercilessly overhead, heat pressing down on her shoulders until it felt suffocating.
As she stared up at the glaring sun, a sudden urge to die welled up inside her chest. ’What’s the point of living like this?’ she wondered bitterly.
Nothing in this apocalypse had gone her way. Once, she had believed that as long as she stayed with Damien, she would live a good life.
But after getting together with him, he had transformed into something beyond human... half man, half monster. Now he forced her to beg for food like an animal.
Her parents weren’t any better. They only cared about their own survival, their own comfort. She had no plan, no escape, no place to retreat.
’Should I just die?’ she thought. ’Would that make everyone happier?’
The thought left her heart heavy and hollow.
Angelina wasn’t inherently evil. She had done bad things in her life, yes, but she had never wanted to take someone else’s life.
That was why, when Ivy had been mistreated, she never spoke up against it and sometimes even helped quietly.
But when Ivy was beaten, she always backed away. Not because she approved, but because she couldn’t bring herself to do something so degrading, so cruel.
Her entire life had been filled with one constant.... begging.
As a child, she begged her parents for affection. As an adult, she begged fate for a good partner.
And now, she was reduced to begging for food for her own fiancé, and for herself. She traveled endlessly, every step filled with fear that zombies might tear her apart.
If not for the star Damien had given her, the one that made her almost invisible to zombies, she suspected she would have already died in their hands.
Lost in thought, Angelina suddenly considered running away. ’If I disappear,’ she thought, ’neither Damien nor my parents will find me.’
The hope flared briefly... then died.
Damien would always find her. He always had a way.
With a disheartened expression, she turned back toward the military zone, her shoulders slumped.
She forced herself to search for a new target, even though every step felt heavier than the last.
.............................
Far away from her, Ivy bent forward, stretching and flexing as a familiar itch spread across her hand.
In the next second, the world blurred, and she appeared inside her temporal storage.
She waited.
Sure enough, items began to fall from above.
This time, it wasn’t vegetables or medicine. Instead, fruit rained down... apples and oranges rolling across the ground. Ivy blinked in surprise. ’Fruit?’
Curious, she picked up an apple and took a bite.
Sweetness exploded across her tongue, crisp juice flooding her mouth. Her eyes widened slightly, and she nearly let out a sound of delight. The taste was incredible.
After finishing the apple, a sudden craving struck her.
’Candied apples...’ she thought, imagining the fruit dipped in sugar, hardened into a glossy, brittle shell.
She was just about to prepare one when a familiar sound rang out.
[Ding.]
Ivy froze, then straightened in excitement.
A mission.
For the first time, she had been assigned one.
[Protect the researchers and test subjects in the Moon Base research facility.]
Ivy stared, stunned. This was exactly the place she had been gathering information about.
’How...?’ A chill crept up her spine. ’Is someone watching my every move?’
Yet, at the same time, the mission aligned perfectly with her goals.