Baby King cleared his throat and announced in a childish yet arrogant voice, "Welcome to the Boss Lady System. Your first dungeon is someone you know all too well: Cinderella."
Through the system's massive holographic screen, Valerie witnessed a horrifying scene.
The famed Cinderella was wearing threadbare, ill-fitting clothes, kneeling on the floor and scrubbing the tiles like a dog. She was covered in soot and grime, her usually radiant and naturally beautiful face completely obscured by the dark ashes.
"Ptoey—" The elder stepsister, Iris, spat a glob of green phlegm onto the floor. With an arrogant and domineering sneer, she said, "How exactly are you scrubbing the floor? Why is it getting dirtier the more you wipe?"
Cinderella immediately scrambled to wipe up the disgusting phlegm. "Iris, I'll scrub it properly. Please, don't be angry."
With that, Iris lifted the bucket of filthy mop water and dumped it right over Cinderella's head.
Splash—
Cinderella was instantly drenched. It was a freezing early winter morning. With no winter clothes to keep her warm and soaked in icy water, Cinderella hugged her arms to her chest, her teeth chattering as she shivered violently.
Fanny scoffed, "I love watching you shiver from the cold. You look like a hairless rat that fell into an ice hole—disgusting yet pitiful."
Saying that, she leaned in and slapped Cinderella across the face several times. Smack! Smack! Smack! Cinderella's cheeks quickly swelled, turning bright red.
Iris clapped her hands in delight. "Perfect! Now that you're swollen like a pig, you can never be the belle of the city again."
Fanny pinched Cinderella's delicate chin tightly. "It's all your fault. You have such a pretty face and a perfect figure. It makes me so jealous I want to shred this face of yours to pieces. What should we do about it?"
Iris gleefully handed her a sharp knife. "Fanny, do you think it'd look better if we slashed this pretty, rose-like face ten times, or if we carved an ugly turtle on it?"
"Let's slash her ten times first to make sure her face is completely ruined, and then carve an incredibly ugly turtle with 'Cinderella' written on it," Fanny replied.
Iris nodded. "Great idea. You slash her first, and I'll draw the turtle."
"Hahaha—" The two malicious women dissolved into fits of cruel laughter.
Her face deathly pale, Cinderella clasped her hands together and begged, "Please, I'm begging you, don't ruin my face."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Watching this from the system's void, Valerie couldn't sit still any longer.
That drenched, trembling girl being trampled underfoot looked exactly like her when she was desperately begging for mercy in that restroom. Cinderella's submissive, unresisting eyes pierced Valerie's own like a poisoned thorn, filling her with a suffocating rage.
"So, blind submission from the weak doesn't earn the abusers' sympathy at all. It only excites them more." Valerie gritted her teeth, an unprecedented ruthlessness igniting in her eyes.
Baby King spat out his lollipop and let out a cold laugh. "What? Feeling empathetic? When you were crawling by that toilet being tortured, you looked way more like a dog than she does now."
"No!" Valerie snapped her head up, her eyes as fierce as a newly awakened wolf cub. "I'm going to save her! I'm going to pull her out of that mud!"
It was as if saving Cinderella meant redeeming her own cowardly, past self.
"Alright, as you wish."
[Ding! Dungeon teleportation initiated. Novice Gift Pack issued: Forged Royal Gold-Tier Invitations x3, and Royal Court Attire.]
Baby King's cold electronic voice echoed: "Countdown begins. Cinderella's initial HP is 100. For every slash she takes, 10 points will be deducted. If her HP reaches zero, the host will suffer brain death alongside her."
Flash—
A burst of white light illuminated the corner of the cold, dusty grand hall of the ancient castle. Valerie was instantly teleported in.
Not far away, Fanny was pressing the sharp tip of the knife against Cinderella's pale, beautiful cheek. The blade had already pierced the skin, oozing a glaring trickle of blood.
"Fanny, her Grecian nose is so pretty. Why don't you slice it off so I can keep it as a little toy?" Iris shrieked with excitement.
The younger stepsister covered her mouth and echoed viciously, "Yes! Let's see what she uses to seduce the noblemen in the city after that!"
Just as the second slash was about to violently descend—
BANG!
The heavy, closed oak doors were violently kicked open by Valerie! The freezing winter wind instantly howled into the grand hall.
The massive commotion startled the two stepsisters so badly they shivered, the knife halting in mid-air.
Draped in a luxurious black velvet cloak, Valerie stepped in with slow, authoritative strides. She walked into the hall like a queen inspecting her territory. Raising her chin slightly, she looked down at the two stepsisters with extreme contempt, as if looking at two cockroaches.
"Who are you?! How dare you trespass into the Baron's estate!" Iris shrieked, trying to muster her courage.
"Watch your tongue, you vulgar country woman." Valerie's eyes were icy. She directly threw the scroll, sealed with pure gold royal wax, onto the luxurious carpet in front of them.
"I am His Highness the Prince's Chief Court Lady. I am under orders to patrol the city and distribute the highest-tier golden invitations for next week's royal selection ball." Valerie's gaze swept over the hems of their dresses, which were stained with dirty mop water, and she let out a cold sneer. "But what I see right now doesn't look like noble ladies. You look like street hags."
"The... the royal selection ball?!"
Hearing those words, an explosive, greedy green light instantly sparked in Iris and Fanny's eyes. The knife in Fanny's hand dropped to the floor with a clatter.
"No! Lady Envoy, you misunderstood!" The elder stepsister, Iris, instantly forced her voice into a sickeningly sweet pitch, squeezing out a fragile smile that looked uglier than crying.
"We... my sister and I are the kindest people! We wouldn't even dare step on a spider!"
Fanny immediately followed suit, taking off her expensive wool shawl and roughly wrapping it around Cinderella. She forced a fake smile, "Look, see how harmonious our sisterhood is?"
Watching these two hypocrites change their tunes so quickly, a strong wave of disgust rose in Valerie's chest. But she didn't expose them. Instead, she played along, a smirk curving her lips:
"Is that so? Well then, starting today, I will personally stay at this estate to observe. You must prove to me that you have the qualifications to become noble, virtuous princesses!"