"When Vil-V reads literary works, she is a fundamentalist—only when 'reading,' of course. When she's creating, she's a lover of 'fan-revisions'."
To put it simply, Vil-V was a "secondary creator" who "re-created based on original plot points." Generally, the original plot, story, and character relationships would remain, but she would re-process details not written in the original and use them to modify parts of the plot.
Lin stood by Sakura side. He showed no pity for Little Red Riding Hood, who was clutching her chest in disbelief. He picked up the hunting rifle she had dropped and expertly chambered a round.
"In the original Little Red Riding Hood, she wasn't saved by a hunter, nor did she save herself. Her final end was simply being eaten by the wolf."
"You were vague about how the wolf learned the location of your grandmother's—no, the original version should be maternal grandmother—anyway, you intentionally changed it to grandmother to mislead us. How the wolf learned her address was left vague, and why the wolf didn't eat you at the end is also a question. After all, in every version, Little Red Riding Hood gets eaten at least once."
Thus, the fact that her identity as a hunter and the reason for her survival remained unknown was also a highly illogical point.
"Although your flaws are as numerous as the hairs on a cow, I'll mention the most obvious one: 'getting lost'."
Lin pointed at the sun overhead and spoke calmly: "Before we met that dwarf, we were constantly lost in the forest. Even after getting the two blades from him, the situation didn't improve—until we met you."
"When you appeared and guided us to kill the wolf, we were no longer lost."
Therefore, the most direct deduction was that Little Red Riding Hood was the one making them lose their way in the forest.
"You... you monsters..." Little Red Riding Hood covered her mouth, blood flowing between her fingers. She stared resentfully at the two terrifying monsters who had attacked her, feeling as if she had returned to five years ago, to the "Wolf" who had smirked while disguised as her grandmother.
"We aren't monsters. You are." Lin looked coldly at the weakening Little Red Riding Hood. "The real Little Red Riding Hood was eaten by you five years ago. You've just been pretending to be her. What you've been hunting all this time is actually your own past."
"I am not..."
"Then look at yourself now."
Little Red Riding Hood looked down. She was horrified to find that her hands had turned into sharp claws covered in thick gray fur.
And her face—it had elongated into a snout, with jagged fangs interlacing between her lips.
"You are Little Red Riding Hood, you are the hunter, you are the grandmother, and you are the Big Bad Wolf."
"Who you are is decided by yourself. So... we have already avenged you."
Little Red Riding Hood's face reverted to its original state. She was confused, angry, resentful... but upon hearing Lin last sentence, it turned into a sense of relief.
Immediately after, the silver blade pierced into her chest cavity emitted a glow. She watched it all calmly as she vanished within it.
Sakura slowly sheathed her blade, looking at the spot where Little Red Riding Hood had disappeared with a complex expression.
Who you are is decided by yourself... Could she also decide what kind of person she would be?
...
"Hua, I don't want to go out anymore. I'm so~ tired~"
Hua and Pardo, with her head hanging, walked into the villa. Pardo, like a house cat dazed by the sun, threw herself onto the sofa. Then, she sensed a chilling aura. She looked up excitedly—
Kevin sat not far away with an expressionless face, drinking a cold beverage. Noticing her gaze, he swept a cold glance over her, making the fur on her arms stand on end.
"Ahahaha... Boss Kevin, hello." Pardo stood up awkwardly and sat upright.
"..."
So scary. Whenever Kevin just stood there, he gave off the feeling that he was ready to tear someone in half at any moment. It was hard to tell if it was the cold air around him or that expressionless face he had learned from someone.
Kevin didn't pay attention to the little cat. He had noticed Pardo acting suspiciously around and inside the villa, searching for something, but he was too lazy to intervene. Strictly speaking, this was within Lin and Elysia jurisdiction; he shouldn't overstep.
"Woo~ Kevin! Pardo! Hua! Look what we brought back!"
Elysia walked into the villa cheerfully, holding a coconut crab. Eden, Aponia, and Su followed behind her.
"..."
Kevin was actually curious why Su could get along so well with them, without any gap, conversing naturally as if they were... besties?
Su didn't notice the way Kevin was looking at him. "Kevin, I found a pretty good coconut tree today..."
Coincidentally, the others had all returned as well. It was noisy until a door on the second floor was kicked open in exasperation: "Hey! Can you all be quiet! If Nuwa and the others dared to be this noisy in my lab, I would have fed them to the Honkai beasts long ago!"
The others looked up and saw Mobius standing there with a cup of instant noodles, glaring at them angrily.
"Ah, Mobius~ do you want to join us?"
"What is that?" Mobius looked at the thing in Elysia hand that looked like a giant fly and frowned. "A coconut crab?"
Compared to that delicacy, the instant noodles in Mobius hand were indeed much more pathetic.
"Yeah," Elysia said with a smile. "We'll have Lin—"
"..."
Suddenly, the hall fell silent.
They realized something.
The two best cooks among them were Lin and Sakura.
But right now, both were in the consciousness world. So... who was going to cook?
"I know a little bit..." Hua spoke up somewhat weakly. However, she could only stir-fry two ordinary home-style dishes, and the taste was just average. It wasn't just her; the others were in a similar situation, not to mention they didn't have ingredients for home-style cooking on the island.
"It's... it's just steaming it. It should be fine, right?" Elysia stared uncertainly at the coconut crab in her hand, which seemed to respond by looking at her with its little black ball eyes.
A while later...
"Waaaaah! Why is it still alive!" Mobius panicked voice rang out from the kitchen. "Didn't you kill it before putting it in the pot!"
"I thought it would die if I just threw it in!" Elysia voice was accompanied by the sound of clattering and banging.
"Wait, I remember steaming crab requires using ice water first..." Hua ran around trying to catch the escaping coconut crab.
Crack.
The fast-moving coconut crab was suddenly frozen into a block of ice.
Kevin stood before it, picked up the block that had completely turned into a specimen, and handed it to the dazed Hua: "It's iced now."
"..."