Chapter 206: Scenario Choices
What the fuck is this? Mandatory choices?
Uhtred stared at the four options floating in front of his face and couldn’t help but feel bewildered. Was this really how this scenario was going to play out? Would these stupid prompts pop up every single time he was backed into a corner or forced to make a hard call?
Ah, this is bad...
Among the options listed, he already knew his path. He had decided on his move before the prompt even appeared. But what bothered him was the future implications...
What if a situation came up where he hadn’t made up his mind yet? Or worse, what if the choices offered were things he would never naturally do?
To make matters even more annoying, a countdown timer was ticking down rapidly beside the prompt:
[00 : 00 : 10]
[00 : 00 : 09]
[00 : 00 : 08]
He had ten seconds to make his choice.
Over on the right side of his vision, his chat was exploding with viewers trying to push him toward their favorite outcomes.
The prompt had already shown the split among his ten thousand subscribers. Forty-five percent wanted him to act oblivious, while the remaining fifty-five percent was a mix of viewers who wanted him to fawn over her, challenge her, or be a complete murder-hobo and kill her.
That last choice was the most stupid of them all, but he was sure he would continue to see more options like that from viewers who just wanted pure chaos.
He might have entertained the idea if he knew Nayu An’s level, but for some reason, his Inspect skill was completely failing to work on her. And this wasn’t the usual blank feedback he got when using it on higher-level entities either. It simply refused to trigger at all.
Is it the scenario mechanism again?
Of course, he could always gauge her strength through his general perception, but maybe his body was still adapting, because even that was failing to yield a clear estimate.
He knew she was in the Nascent realm, though. That much he could feel.
He looked at the choices again and cursed under his breath.
Fuck it. I can’t please everyone anyway. Besides, option two was what I was going to do from the start.
Without wasting any more time, Uhtred focused his intent on the second choice: Act oblivious. He was going to play it like he originally intended.
The moment his selection registered, the world snapped back to life.
Sound rushed back into his ears, taking him slightly by surprise. He could hear the ambient rustle of leaves outside the window and the soft breathing of Nayu An kneeling beside his bed.
It was only then that he realized time had literally frozen when that prompt appeared. He had just been too focused to notice.
And Roy told us not to treat this place like a game, Uhtred thought, his lips twitching slightly. Time literally stopped just for me to make a choice!
The scenario resumed, and Uhtred maintained his act, staring at Nayu An blankly.
He watched as her expression morphed from surprise to confusion, and then finally to something like understanding.
She reached out with pale, trembling hands, carefully cupping his head and peering directly into his eyes to check for any reaction to her words.
When Uhtred offered nothing but a dull, vacant gaze, she panicked.
Nayu An scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping over her silk robe, and bolted toward the door.
She threw it open, her voice ringing out down the corridor as she frantically ordered the servants to bring the clan doctor immediately.
Watching her disappear down the hall, Uhtred’s frown deepened internally.
Her worry looked genuine. In fact, it was so intense that it made him uncomfortable. For a second, he even wondered if he was missing a vital piece of the original body’s memories.
Was it possible that Jor-than and Nayu An actually had some sort of secret, hidden relationship, and his memory assimilation had glitched out?
No way, Uhtred dismissed the thought quickly. Jor-than was a low-level warrior. Nayu An is the Heaven’s Chosen of the entire clan. They crossed paths four times in twenty years, and three of those were from a distance within a crowd.
Still, her reaction was way too extreme, and was beginning to weird him out.
In less than two minutes, heavy, hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway.
The clan doctor arrived, panting heavily as he was ushered into the room by Nayu An. The moment Uhtred saw the old man, a wave of recognition hit his mind from Jor-than’s memories.
This was Dr. Mo, the head of the entire medicine branch of the An Clan.
For a high-status elder like him to come running until he was out of breath meant one thing: Nayu An had used her authority as the clan’s Heaven’s Chosen to summon him with a very high level of urgency.
He rushed to Uhtred’s bedside very quickly as Nayu An shakily explained that something might be wrong with his memories.
He doesn’t look surprised to see me here, Uhtred noticed that immediately, watching the old man pull out his medical tools.
That means he was likely the one who treated me after I was brought back to the clan... which also means he is aware of whatever the hell is going on right now...
That realization led to a much darker conclusion.
Nayu An might be the young prodigy of the clan, but Dr. Mo was a senior elder. Any medical anomaly involving the Heaven’s Chosen — especially something as crazy as assigning a private room to a nameless warrior — would definitely be reported to the Clan Ancestor.
Which means...
Uhtred’s thoughts went cold and dangerous as the clan doctor began to assess him, checking his eyes, his pulse, and his vitals.
...I’m in danger!
There was no other logical explanation. Even if he tried to entertain the wild, impossible fantasy that Nayu An had secretly fallen in love with a random warrior, the Clan Ancestor would never allow it.
The Ancestor controlled the entire clan with an iron fist. He would never let the girl carrying their entire future ruin her prospects by binding herself to a nobody.
Yet here was Dr. Mo, calmly treating him in a private room without a single word of protest.
The higher-ups of the An Clan were definitely in on this. Nayu An wasn’t acting alone. They were prepping him for something.
But what exactly...?
"—Can you hear me, boy?" Dr. Mo asked after a quick body examination."What is your name?"
Damn, I have to respond. This old guy is very experienced. If I want to fake memory loss, I have to make it airtight or else he’ll smell my bullshit!