Chapter 161: Rewind and Repeat

Words : 1207 Updated : Oct 8th, 2025

Chapter 161: Rewind and Repeat The girl froze, then quickly caught herself, her face flushing with embarrassment: "Sorry, Kath... I mean, three ladies. I lost everything and can’t pay you right now." Cold sweat broke out on her palms—that was way too close! She’d almost blown it. Her current self wasn’t supposed to know their names. Hearing this, Kathy waved it off: "Don’t worry about it. You can pay us when you get home." Heidi didn’t argue, and Grace just shrugged. "Thank you!" The girl looked touched. No matter how many times this happened, they were always so kind. "Let me introduce myself properly—I’m Kiri!" The three girls were caught off guard by the sudden topic change. "I’m Kathy." "Heidi." "That’s Grace." Kiri beamed like the moon. Last time had been the same, except they’d introduced themselves first. Her eyes lit up with admiration: "Oh wow! I know who you are—this year’s three great spiritual awakening prodigies!" "That’s right, that’s us!" They really were prodigies, so word getting around was pretty normal. Drawing on familiar memories, Kiri easily fell into step with the three girls. Suddenly, Heidi put her hand on the girl’s shoulder, looking puzzled: "Where’s your psychic energy?" Kathy and Grace suddenly realized that in their perception, this strangely dressed girl had absolutely no psychic energy in her body. They’d only seen this in regular people... "This..." Oh crap! After dying and going back to square one, she’d forgotten about this. Kiri’s mind raced. She held up her hands: "Psychic energy? I haven’t awakened yet, so why would I have any?" "Mm-hmm, makes sense." Grace nodded. No awakening naturally meant no psychic energy—perfectly logical. Heidi ignored her thick-headed teammate and cut straight to the point: "Kiri, how did an ordinary person like you end up here? In the monster-infested Withered Lands?" This was clearly fishy. Plus those weird clothes she wore—not just Ember City, but none of the neighboring city-states had ever seen anything like them. Heidi curiously felt Kiri’s clothes: "So soft, but such cheap material." What strange stuff. Kathy got what Heidi was driving at, but her gut told her this girl wasn’t bad news—at worst, she had secrets she couldn’t share. "If you can’t talk about it..." "Um..." Kiri hesitated, her mind already spinning a believable story. "There’s no point hiding this. I live in Rock Sand City and work as an apprentice at Pergina’s Alchemical Treasures. I accidentally touched some mysterious contraption my mentor had set up and got teleported here." "Ah, I see." Grace nodded, buying it completely. Heidi still looked skeptical: "Spatial teleportation? I’ve never heard of any alchemical master in Rock Sand City who could whip up spatial teleportation devices." Facing Heidi’s grilling, Kiri had seen this coming. In her memory, maybe because Heidi was on the short side, she was extra suspicious of everything. "My mentor, Pergina. She’s a reclusive alchemical master who doesn’t care about fame or money, so there aren’t any rumors about her floating around." Thinking of her mentor, Kiri felt genuine admiration bubble up. That was someone even the future Eternal Annihilation Demon King deeply respected and personally visited. ’Every time I’m reborn, as long as I went to see my mentor, she’d just symbolically charge me a few gold coins and take me on without any tests.’ Kiri always suspected the great mentor knew about her weirdness. Otherwise, how could she explain why every rebirth, mentor would "accidentally" drop priceless "Valkyrie Sacred Relics" for her to handle? It was because of this that she could inherit the legendary Valkyrie class and start her grand mission of taking down the Demon King! Everything was just too convenient—it had to be mentor’s doing! "A reclusive alchemical master?" Heidi was half-convinced, but she could tell the admiration in this girl’s eyes was genuine. Could there really be some hermit alchemical master hiding out in Rock Sand City? Grace put her hands behind her head, totally unbothered. Just an ordinary person—Heidi was being way too paranoid. "Kiri, want us to escort you out?" "That would be amazing!" Kiri jumped at the offer, looking grateful, her eyes crinkling with her smile. ’Grace acts all carefree but she’s always one step ahead when it comes to reading what people need.’ Heidi put on a pouty face: "Won’t this mess up our monster hunting?" Kathy grinned: "Come on, Heidi. We’ve been out here long enough. Perfect excuse to head back and take a breather." Grace agreed: "Rock Sand City—none of us have really explored it. We can do some sightseeing while we’re at it." While her two friends chatted, Heidi kept her eyes on Kiri, lightly rubbing two fingers together. Kathy and Grace turned away, pretending not to notice their teammate’s little gesture. "..." Kiri’s eye twitched, internally screaming: ’I don’t remember this happening last time!’ Still smiling sweetly: "After you escort me back, I’ll definitely give everyone a really generous reward!" "Generous? How generous?" Heidi’s eyes immediately turned into dollar signs. Her instincts told her this girl, who was obviously more than she seemed, would give their team an absolutely killer reward! "This... this generous!" Kiri spread her arms wide, as if a mountain of treasure chests glittered in her embrace. Heidi was mesmerized, lost in daydreams... "Ahem! AHEM!!!" Kathy couldn’t take it anymore and coughed loudly several times to snap Heidi out of it. Heidi came back to earth and "reluctantly" nodded: "Since everyone’s on board, this escort mission is a go!" "Let’s move out!" The group started leaving the Withered Lands... In the group, after the joy of "reunion," Kiri finally had time to sort through her thoughts: "Right about now, the Golden Sand Society has probably already teamed up with the Black Sinners and set up their sacrifice ritual." Though it was eventually stopped, it still did serious damage to Rock Sand City. "This was also the first time Carlos Valois showed off his terrifying power to the world." Thinking about Carlos Valois’s mind-blowing growth rate, scary personal combat skills, and absolutely bone-chilling subordinate forces, Kiri felt both incredibly pumped and deeply worried: "This time, I absolutely have to stop the Eternal Annihilation Demon King from being born!" She’d died countless times before—whether trying to prevent the Eternal Annihilation Demon King’s birth or taking down the Dark Mist Demon King, she’d failed miserably every single time. This time was different. Going back to the very beginning, anything was still possible. She’d deliberately lied to get to Rock Sand City fast. Besides reuniting with her mentor and switching to the Valkyrie class, most importantly, she could meet Carlos Valois early. Right now, his power wasn’t too scary yet, and his humanity was still in the driver’s seat. With the right moves, she could seriously boost his humanity and massively cut down the chances of him becoming the Eternal Annihilation Demon King! Kiri glanced at her "dear friends" who were seriously keeping watch around them. She thought quietly: "Kathy, Heidi, Grace, I’m sorry." After trying so many times, this was the only way. I’ll stick with you. "Achoo!" × 3 The three girls sneezed at the exact same time. "Heidi, quit messing around!" "Kathy, it wasn’t me!" "Feels like something good’s about to happen."

Chapter 161: Rewind and Repeat

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