Apocalypse Villainess? Nah, I'm Nice

Paige Summers stared intently at Silas Dudley for a long moment, then suddenly smiled.

’So... Marcus Monroe was right. It really is a trap.’

’Thankfully, they had already considered this possibility.’

This time, she raised her head, no longer deliberately looking up from below to affect a sinister air. She reverted to her usual self and laughed cheerfully. ”So you saw through me! Alright, I lose this round! But where did I slip up?”

Silas Dudley tilted his head, looking at her. He hadn’t expected this kind of reaction.

He thought she would be nervous and scared at being found out, or that she might lash out to cover it up... but in the end, she did nothing.

’But, I have to admit,’ he thought, ’seeing her like this, the woman is actually quite clever. She’s not as repulsive as I thought. Far from it, she has a certain something that those delicate little things lack.’

’Prey like this is rare. It would be a shame for her to die just like that!’

As these thoughts ran through his head, Silas Dudley said nonchalantly, ”You didn’t know? You were my target from the very beginning! The Lowell Family was just a convenient side-show, to make things more interesting. Besides, with their lives as bait, I guessed you would do whatever it took to come to me!”

Hearing his words, Paige Summers was at a loss for how to describe her feelings.

’She thought she was solving a problem for the Lowell Family, but she never knew that from the very beginning, they were only involved because of her...’

’But why?’

’Why would this man go to such great lengths to make her come to him?’

Silas Dudley glanced at her. ”Think I’m a psycho?”

Paige Summers nodded without hesitation. ”Yes!”

Silas Dudley let out a soft laugh, not at all angry. ”This just shows you’re still too inexperienced. What are these petty little tricks in the grand scheme of things?”

As he spoke, he raised an eyebrow, his expression dismissive, as if the lives of the Lowell Family were less than ants in his eyes.

Paige Summers was silent for a long moment before she said, ”Is that so? I don’t think I could ever achieve that level of experience in my entire life, nor could I learn such ’petty little tricks.’”

”Are you angry?”

”No, just disappointed.”

”Why?” Silas Dudley seemed surprised she would say that. He slowly got off the bed, adjusted his clothes slightly, and walked toward her.

He wore a loose, white silk robe, casually tied in the middle with a sash. Paired with his extremely handsome face, he looked languid and alluring.

The top of the robe revealed his collarbones and half his chest, his skin pale and his muscles well-defined, giving him a statuesque quality. Below, the slightest movement caused the hem to flutter, revealing long, powerful legs, with even the space between them partially visible... Paige Summers lowered her gaze and took two uneasy steps back until her back was against the wall.

Silas Dudley smiled smugly and stopped a meter in front of her. ”See? No woman can escape my charm!”

Paige Summers was silent.

’So he thinks I’m mesmerized? All I want to say is, is he a gigolo, dressing like that!’

’Truly, the world is never short of weirdos!’

Seeing her silence, Silas Dudley became displeased. Just then, a sharp, short scream came from outside. His face instantly changed, becoming utterly savage. Ignoring Paige Summers, he stormed out of the room in a rage.

Paige Summers was silent again.

She turned her head and saw a middle-aged man entering from outside, clearly intending to ”invite” her to come along. Suppressing a sigh, she walked out.

One after the other, the two of them arrived in the main hall.

By this time, Silas Dudley was already whipping someone with a long whip—the same woman who had been lying on the floor, bound by ropes.

But his whipping style was completely different from that of the man in the uniform.

The uniformed man’s technique had been precise; although he whipped her, he only left red marks, not bruises. But with Silas, every lash tore the woman’s skin and split her flesh, spattering blood everywhere. It was a terrifying sight. The strange thing was, though the woman writhed in agony, she never made a sound.

Everyone else had stopped what they were doing and watched the scene in silence.

For a time, the only sound in the hall was the whistle of the whip cutting through the air.

Paige Summers inconspicuously scanned her surroundings and noticed two new people standing before the hall’s main seats.

She didn’t recognize the younger one, but the slightly older man was someone she had met once before: Kent Kane, the commander of the Second Division of The Power Corps! He stood there a little stiffly. Although his expression was relatively calm, his eyes clearly betrayed his astonishment at the scene unfolding before him.

’Even if this isn’t his first time here, he’s definitely not a regular,’ a thought flashed through Paige Summers’s mind. She quickly figured out why he was here.

Regarding what had happened before, although Jean Shields and Commander Chandler had targeted the Dudley Family, the Dudley scion involved was a soldier under his command. He was bound to be implicated to some extent. His background wasn’t that strong, so things must have been difficult for him lately.

His presence here clearly meant he had chosen a side and wanted to latch onto Silas Dudley for support.

As for Kent Kane, he had recognized her the moment she walked out.

Of course, he had no intention of greeting her.

Although he could be a bit of a sycophant, he wasn’t one of those rich, spoiled brats who did whatever they wanted just because they had family backing. He was mostly focused on improving his own strength and status, and he didn’t frequent places of debauchery.

For him, meeting here like this was truly awkward.

Not to mention, when he had first come in and seen the naked women, he had entertained more than a few lecherous thoughts.

Of course, Silas Dudley’s whip had now completely snapped him out of it.

Looking at the horribly maimed woman on the floor, a chill ran down his spine.

When Silas Dudley had suddenly run out, grabbed the whip, and started lashing the woman, he had said, ”You like to scream, don’t you? Now I’ll give you plenty to scream about!”

’If this were a mission in the army, then of course you couldn’t just cry out. But what is this situation?’

’These people were indulging in debauchery. In a situation like this, it wouldn’t be strange to shout, let alone let out a single cry! Yet Silas Dudley had turned vicious over it, striking a ruthless blow.’

’His original intention in coming here was to latch onto a powerful patron, yes, but now, he wasn’t so sure.’

’A person this capricious and cruel... even if he is a Tenth Rank Superpower User, how far can he really go? And is choosing to follow him a good thing or a bad thing?’

While mulling over his own affairs, he also tried to guess the reason for Paige Summers’s presence.

When he saw Silas Dudley, having finally vented his anger, toss the whip aside and walk toward Paige Summers, he thought he understood.

’So that’s how it is...’

’No matter how powerful she is, in the end, she’s just a woman!’

’What else could it be?’

’She must be here for the same reason I am!’

’The only difference is the price we each have to pay!’

Believing he had discovered the truth, his gaze toward Paige Summers changed, now tinged with a trace of contempt.

Paige Summers was very perceptive. Though she said nothing, she sensed his change in attitude and couldn’t help but roll her eyes inwardly.

By now, Silas Dudley had reached her. He showed no intention of acknowledging Kent Kane and the other man; clearly, in his mind, they were nobodies.

”Come here! Come with me to wash my hands. This trash is so filthy!”

A shadow passed over Paige Summers’s eyes, but she didn’t argue, quietly following behind him. They returned to the simple suite, and the middle-aged man stood guard at the door.

Silas Dudley spent a long time washing his hands in the bathroom before coming out. His mood had clearly improved. He put his gentle mask back on and gestured for Paige Summers to sit with him on the sofa.

”Pardon my rudeness,” Silas Dudley said with impeccable grace. Looking at him now, you would never guess he had just been whipping a woman like a madman. ”Did I scare you?”

Paige Summers didn’t answer, instead asking a question of her own. ”You went to all the trouble of getting them from the Power User Federation just to groom them into your sex toys?”

Silas Dudley’s lips twitched. ”You’re quite direct. Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you right now?”

Paige Summers said, ”Did you set this whole trap just to kill me?”

”Yes!” Silas Dudley nodded earnestly, then smiled again. ”What, you don’t believe me? But that’s the truth. Of course, that was the plan before. Now... I’ll have to reconsider...”

A thought stirred in Paige Summers’s mind.

”I don’t recall ever offending the Dudley Family...”

Silas Dudley looked at her, as if suddenly remembering something he was proud of. ”Follow me.”

He led her to the back door of the small building. Outside, a hundred-meter-long open-air corridor stretched out directly from the entrance.

As Paige Summers stepped onto it, she couldn’t help but look around.

Lush, mutated plants grew on both sides. Beyond them lay a vast forest, as if the entire house was enveloped by it.

For a moment, she couldn’t guess where she was, so she retracted her gaze.

At the end of the corridor was a single-story wooden house. It looked very ordinary, with a nostalgic feel. It had a double door with metal ring knockers.

Silas Dudley pushed one of the doors open and led her inside.

As she stepped inside, the floorboards creaked. Paige Summers then realized the floor was also wooden and seemed quite old.

There were no windows in the room; it was pitch-black everywhere.

But soon, Silas Dudley took a candle from a nearby cabinet and lit it.

In truth, Paige Summers didn’t need the light to see. The wall directly opposite the door of the very spacious room had been hollowed out to form an altar. The platform inside was low in the front and high in the back, sloping slightly. On it were rows of small wooden tokens, each inscribed with ”The Spirit Tablet of XXX.” The tokens were arranged in three tiers, totaling more than thirty in all.

Silas Dudley placed the candle on the left corner of the altar table. ”Do you know what these are?” he asked, pointing.

”Of course.”

Paige Summers scanned them from left to right. Most of the names were unfamiliar. However, her gaze froze when it fell upon the column of tokens in the very center. On the white token in the front row, black characters as dark as ink were carved: ”The Spirit Tablet of Owen Reid.” And the one behind it was, shockingly, ”The Spirit Tablet of Sheldon Reid.”

These... were actually the tokens for the Reid father and son!

Following her gaze, Silas Dudley, who was standing to the side, revealed a strange smile.

”Good eyes. It seems you’ve found what I wanted you to see.”