Just looking at those injuries made Leonard’s scalp tingle in pain.

"Uncle, move back a little," Suzy said quietly.

She gestured for the others to give her space before crouching beside Vanessa. Carefully, she poured a small amount of diluted spirit spring water into the woman’s mouth.

There were still things she needed to ask her.

She could not let her die yet.

After a brief pause, Suzy added a few drops of the spring water onto Vanessa’s ruined eyes as well.

"You really think she can wake up like this?" Leonard frowned.

From his perspective, Vanessa looked as though she would not survive another ten minutes.

"She should," Suzy replied calmly.

She trusted the spirit spring water completely.

And just as expected, barely three minutes after swallowing it, Vanessa’s eyelashes trembled faintly.

Slowly, her eyes opened.

Beside them, Leonard stared in complete disbelief.

Did it actually work?

Vanessa blinked sluggishly as her eyes gradually adjusted to the light. Her vision slowly sharpened from hazy shadows into clarity.

Then she saw them––two men. One woman. Strangers.

Vanessa blinked again and glanced around weakly, finally realizing she was lying inside a boat.

Her gaze returned to the three of them.

"You... saved me?" Her voice was painfully hoarse.

Each word scraped against her throat. The lingering burn from the pepper spray still stung, mixed with the metallic sweetness of blood rising in waves.

She had not even realized yet that her eyes no longer hurt. Or that she could see again.

"Yes," Suzy answered directly. "We saved you. You’re Vanessa, right?"

Vanessa froze. "You... know me?"

How did this woman know her name? But then... That voice sounded strangely familiar, like she had heard it somewhere before.

Vanessa stared at Suzy carefully. The more she looked at her face, the more familiar it seemed.

Yet she was certain they had never met in person.

"I’m Suzy."

Understanding struck instantly. Vanessa’s body began to tremble.

No wonder the voice had sounded so familiar. Back then, they had spoken through the surveillance cameras. And while they had never met face-to-face, she had seen Suzy’s photographs before.

"So... you were the one who saved me..."

Her emotions tangled painfully together. Just moments ago, she had exposed Suzy’s secrets to Wendy. Yet now, the person who saved her life was Suzy herself.

Fate truly had a cruel sense of humor. How could things line up this perfectly?

"How did you end up here?" Suzy asked. "And why are you hurt this badly?"

"I..." Vanessa hesitated instead of answering immediately.

Suzy noticed every subtle shift in her expression, but pretended not to.

Finally, Vanessa spoke weakly. "I got into a conflict with Wendy... and I lost."

Suzy’s eyes widened instantly. Almost reflexively, she turned toward Leonard. At the same moment, Leonard looked at her as well.

Their eyes met, and both saw the same shock reflected in the other’s gaze.

Vanessa had actually attacked Wendy.

What a pity, though. She still failed.

Then again, no matter what, Wendy was still the female lead. There was no way she would die that easily.

"These injuries..." Vanessa’s voice turned vicious with hatred. "That bitch did all of this to me."

By the end, she was practically gritting her teeth.

"She loves ambushing people. Loves taking advantage when others are vulnerable."

Overcome by rage and resentment, Vanessa suddenly coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.

Her condition visibly worsened by the second.

Suzy frowned as she looked at her. The woman before her was beyond saving.

The spirit spring water could barely keep her hanging onto her final breath, but it could not truly save her life.

Vanessa seemed to realize that herself.

Slowly, she closed her eyes, her breathing growing weaker and weaker.

For a moment, Suzy did not even know what else to ask. Everything she wanted to know had already been answered.

Vanessa had gone after Wendy. It was as simple as that.

"Suzy... I’m sorry..."

In the heavy silence, Vanessa’s faint murmur suddenly broke through.

Suzy pinned her with a cold glare. Vanessa had opened her eyes again, but her pupils were already beginning to lose focus.

"I... owed you a favor... heh... but I told Wendy about you..."

Every word came out with immense difficulty.

Suzy almost felt her head explode with disbelief. "So this is how you repay me?"

Even if she had never truly taken Vanessa’s promise seriously, she still had not expected her to expose everything directly to Wendy.

Wasn’t that basically trying to get her killed?

The next time she crossed paths with Wendy, it would probably end in bloodshed.

But Vanessa ignored her anger entirely and continued speaking to herself.

"Sooner or later... you and Wendy were always going to become enemies anyway... so it doesn’t really matter if I said it..."

The conflict between those two had existed from the beginning. All she had done was pour fuel onto the fire.

"Suzy... my parents’ deaths... you share part of the blame too... so now we’re even..."

Suzy genuinely could not listen anymore.

Was she supposed to carry this blame too? Back then, all she wanted was to disgust George and the others. Everything that happened afterward had nothing to do with her.

"Your parents were greedy. That’s not my fault," Suzy said coldly.

It was under George’s manipulation that the Sanders couple became obsessed with Wendy’s dimensional space.

Suzy had never held a knife to their throats and forced them to steal it.

Now they were killed by Wendy, and somehow that was her responsibility too?

The absurdity of it nearly made her laugh.

"In the end... it was because of you..." Vanessa muttered deliriously. "If you never told anyone... my parents wouldn’t have gone after Wendy... they wouldn’t have died..."

"Patrick... Patrick wouldn’t have... my child wouldn’t have either..."

Listening to her incoherent rambling, Suzy’s expression slowly turned cold.

She looked into Vanessa’s unfocused eyes, at the blood endlessly pouring from her wounds as her emotions spiraled out of control.

And yet, not a single ripple stirred within her heart.

"Are you finished?"

Vanessa panted weakly, her lips trembling as though she still wanted to say something more, but violent coughing interrupted her.

Several more mouthfuls of blood spilled from her lips, shocking to look at.

Leonard frowned and instinctively stepped back.

Thomas remained beside Suzy the entire time, his gaze fixed on Vanessa while one hand rested against the knife at his waist, ready to move at any moment.

"N-No... Suzy..." Vanessa finally forced out after catching her breath, her voice barely audible. "You think... you can beat her? You can’t... Wendy... she can’t be killed..."

Suzy’s brows drew together slightly.

"I killed her three times..." Vanessa whispered painfully. "She has some kind of shield... you can’t pierce it..."

She shut her eyes in agony. "She’s a monster... an unkillable monster..."

She had been so close.

Even now, Vanessa could not accept it.

Why could she not kill Wendy? Why did fate itself protect her?

Wendy had the system. And that terrifying protection. How unfair.

"So what?" Suzy said coolly. "Are you telling me this to scare me? Or because you expect me to thank you?"

Vanessa shook her head, then nodded weakly, as though even she no longer understood what she wanted to say.

She hated Suzy. She hated Wendy too. But she was dying. None of it seemed important anymore.

"Cough... just... don’t lose to Wendy..."

The moment she finished speaking, another massive mouthful of blood burst from her lips.

Then her eyes closed completely. This time, they never opened again.

She was dead.

The three people on the boat stared at her silently for several moments.

"She’s dead," Thomas said quietly.

Suzy lowered her gaze and nodded.

She could not quite describe what she felt at that moment.

Thomas looked at Suzy once before stepping toward Vanessa’s corpse. Without the slightest expression on his face, he grabbed the body and threw it back into the water.