Li Zhu suddenly felt a void to his right. Looking over, he realized that Wang Kai had vanished into thin air at some unknown moment.
The grotesque woman in front of him, feeling ignored, let out a short, violent roar from deep within her throat. Slowly, she shifted her head to face Li Zhu. Although she had no eyes, Li Zhu felt as if he were locked in a direct gaze with her.
In the next instant, her featureless face began to transform. It was as if an invisible carving knife and paintbrush were incessantly sculpting and coloring her face. Her brows, eyeballs, nose, and lips formed at a rapid pace.
Li Zhu’s heart sank. It was his own face.
Under the white light of the computer screen, “his” face was illuminated bone-white, a bizarre smile creeping onto the lips. However, “his” hair remained jet-black and thick, cascading down to the waist.
Li Zhu: “…”
If you’re going to play a ghost, play a ghost. What’s the point of ruining someone else’s image?
Li Zhu couldn’t bear to look at the reflection of “himself” any longer. He scanned the room for a handy weapon. Last time, he had used a hairdryer he’d picked up to deal with the hair monster. This time…
A cold small knife was handed to him.
It wasn’t that mysterious deep-blue dagger, just an ordinary household knife.
La Lai glanced at him. Li Zhu actually felt he could discern encouragement and applause in that look. Then, she stepped back a few paces, found the best vantage point in the “audience seats,” and stood still.
Li Zhu: “?”
Simultaneously, the grotesque woman, having been ignored repeatedly, finally flew into a rage. Her hair grew and exploded outward, forming a massive row of dense steel needles atop her head. Even her eyelashes lengthened rapidly, and the black filaments wove into a fine, dense web in front of her, blotting out the light as it flew toward Li Zhu.
Li Zhu leaped to the side, evading the amorphous mass of hair. Seeing its target dodge, the hair attempted to change direction. Li Zhu quickly took several strides to reach the woman’s flank. Without hesitation, he slashed the knife across her neck.
The knife was dull. The first strike only left a white mark. On the second try, Li Zhu exerted more force. The moment the blade cut down, the flesh split open, and a few drops of bright red blood seeped out.
Li Zhu felt a surge of joy, but in the next second, he felt a sharp pain in his own neck. He reached up to touch it the blood dripping down was his own.
Li Zhu’s pupils contracted; his mind went blank.
The opportune moment vanished in a flash. In the next instant, the grotesque woman snapped her head 180∘ around, staring straight at Li Zhu. He was forced to be inches away from his own face, every hair on the skin visible. The woman reached out with a lightning-fast claw, her sharp nails gouging toward his eyes!
If this strike landed, Li Zhu’s eyeballs would surely be crushed alive, like ripe fruit squeezed of its sweet, metallic juice!
The woman even opened her mouth, her scarlet tongue reaching toward his eyeballs, eager to lap up the first taste of sweet nectar!
Right then, a sudden change occurred!
A dagger flew through the air, piercing straight into the woman’s extended tongue!
The strike was too fast. The woman didn’t have time to retract her tongue and instantly erupted in a scream of agony!
Li Zhu reflexively licked his own tongue, feeling grateful it was still there.
He had thought the dagger would, at most, sever her tongue at the root. However, he watched as a wisp of near-transparent blue flame leaped from the deep-blue blade. Wisps of white smoke drifted from the woman’s mouth as half of her maw was incinerated under the extreme heat.
The woman doubled over, coughing painfully as blue flames and white smoke billowed from her throat. Soon, she could no longer maintain a standing position. She collapsed and thrashed on the floor, screaming as the dagger, having entered through her mouth, plunged through her throat and gutted her internal organs, burning all the way.
In her final moments, she reached out a hand that revealed bleached white bone, as if seeking mercy from her executioner.
La Lai walked through the hazy white smoke, stepping over the items knocked down during the woman’s struggle, and arrived before her.
A glimmer of hope flashed in the woman’s eyes as she raised her hand higher: “Please… I beg you…”
La Lai looked down at her agonizing struggle with composure. “You should not have come to the human realm. This is your punishment.”
Before her eyes, the woman burned away completely, turning into a pile of pale grey ash.
Li Zhu asked, “How did she”
Before he could finish, La Lai anticipated his question and said calmly, “When Wang Kai and Zhou Wen left the dungeon instance, something from inside took advantage of a loophole.”
The unease Li Zhu had been feeling finally materialized. “So the Wang Kai from just now…”
“Did you really think he was Wang Kai?” La Lai sneered. She walked into the other bedroom and pulled back the duvet. Wang Kai was indeed lying there, fast asleep.
“Zhou Wen was already devoured by the thing possessing her. You can leave him a note to inform him of all this when he wakes up.”
Li Zhu: “…Wait, when did you realize the cause and effect of all this?”
La Lai gave him a flat look. “The moment we walked through the door.”
“And did you guess that thing’s attack method too? You just stood there and watched me make a fool of myself?”
“…I wanted to see how far human potential could go.”
“And your observation results?”
La Lai looked at him. “Hmm, you’re even stupider than I imagined…”
Li Zhu was so aggrieved he nearly collapsed. “You can’t say that! If you hadn’t misled me by throwing me that knife”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The outer door was pounded frantically, accompanied by a woman’s hysterical shouting: “It’s the middle of the night! What are you two fighting about? Do you want to sleep or not? If you’re not going to sleep, go use that energy on the bed!”
The two individuals, who had just resolved a major threat to social security, immediately tucked their tails and behaved themselves. Li Zhu silently left a note for Wang Kai with his contact information and the details of the incident. Then, the two of them left the building quietly.
After all the chaos, it was late into the night. Li Zhu realized belatedly that he hadn’t eaten dinner; no wonder he felt a bit hungry.
He asked La Lai, “Are you hungry?”
La Lai said indifferently, “I’m not.”
While it was logical for a non-human to not be hungry—and if she had said she was, Li Zhu would probably be the one terrified—he could still sense that La Lai’s mood wasn’t exactly bright.
However, Li Zhu drove around Wang Kai’s neighborhood for half a circle and couldn’t find a single restaurant that hadn’t closed. In desperation, he had no choice but to drive home.
“Calling a Michelin chef out of bed to cook for me at this hour would be inhumane. Why don’t we just make do? Do you want braised beef or mushroom chicken?”
Two bowls of steaming hot soup noodles were placed on the table. Li Zhu’s apron was a bit small, looking somewhat ridiculous on his tall, handsome frame, but for some reason, La Lai’s mood improved slightly.
She wanted to say she didn’t need to eat, but seeing Li Zhu looking at her with a beaming smile, she unconsciously drifted away from her cold, hard logic. She pointed to the bowl closest to her and said, “I’ll have this one.”
The soft, well-cooked noodles were swallowed down, sliding smoothly into her stomach along with the rich broth. Her internal organs, usually as cold and hard as stone, seemed to be warmed and softened. Paired with crisp green leaves and a tender poached egg, a bowl of hot noodles down the hatch eased her constant nervous tension. For the first time in a long while, La Lai felt a hint of relaxed drowsiness.
The light from the dining room chandelier cast a pale yellow halo on her eyelashes. Her aggressive shell of indifference gradually faded, making her look somewhat lazy and gentle.
La Lai pursed her lips and gave a fair assessment: “Your cooking isn’t bad. This is quite delicious.”
Li Zhu didn’t have the heart to mention that it was mostly thanks to the glory of Master Kong (instant noodles). The atmosphere was so pleasant that he smiled as well. “So, be a little gentler to me next time. If I die, no one will be around to prepare good food for you.”
A flicker of a smile appeared in La Lai’s eyes.
The next day, when Li Zhu woke up in his two-meter-wide bed, he happened to hear the chime of a text message. He grabbed his phone and saw the sender was a stranger:
Brother Li, thank you for the warning, but I’ve decided I won’t be coming with you.
Li Zhu frowned, ran a hand through his messy “bird’s nest” hair, and sat up to dial the number. The person’s ringtone was an old song: “Love has no stops, wishing to drive toward the end of time…” Just as the first line finished, the call was answered.
At first, the other party didn’t speak. Li Zhu could hear the person on the other end breathing quite heavily.
After a long moment, a familiar male voice spoke in a deliberately hushed tone: “Brother Li, thank you and Sister La Lai for coming to my home to save me. I… I really didn’t expect you were my boss’s… some of the things I said before…”
Li Zhu interrupted him. “I’m not asking about that. Where are you now?”
The other party didn’t answer. However, Li Zhu could hear a very noisy background: shouting, footsteps, children playing, announcements, the sound of a train passing…
“Are you at the train station?”
Wang Kai’s voice sounded almost tearful. “Brother Li, I really can’t stay in this city anymore. Ever since I woke up, every time I walk through the rental apartment, I feel like Wenwen is crying behind me, asking why I didn’t save her. I left the apartment, but every time I pass a bookstore, a coffee shop, a bar, or a street BBQ stall, I remember that these are places she and I went together…”
Li Zhu listened quietly, not interrupting him.
Wang Kai paused for a few seconds and gave a hollow laugh. “I… I can’t face you guys anymore, either. I once thought the experience in the Pretty Middle School dungeon was just an interlude in our lives, but I didn’t expect it to be the final swan song.”
“So where are you planning to go?”
“Nancheng, I think. I saw online that there’s a guild organization for players gathering there. I want to join them, carry Wenwen’s life on my back, and survive together.”
Li Zhu was speechless for a moment.
Before he could say “take care,” the line went dead with a busy signal. Likely due to a poor signal, the call was cut off.
After this encounter, Li Zhu was no longer sleepy. Just as he was pulling on his pajama pants, the door swung open with a thud.
La Lai walked straight in, saw the scene, and then slammed the door shut again with another thud, retreating outside.
Li Zhu’s pajama pants were only halfway up. He looked down at his rather impressive morning wood, then at the bunched-up duvet beside him. Logically, La Lai shouldn’t have seen anything in that brief glance, especially with the duvet as a shield. But what if an Evil God’s eyesight was extraordinary?
Li Zhu pulled up his pants in a few quick motions, then went to the bathroom mirror to confirm that his face which could easily allow him to debut as a male model—had no flaws before slowly opening his bedroom door.
La Lai stood at the corner outside his room, arms crossed, her face as cold as frost and snow.
But Li Zhu could swear that the moment he stepped out, La Lai’s gaze flickered rapidly toward his lower body.
However, the expression on her face didn’t change in the slightest. “Meng Luo just texted me. She asked if she could team up with us for the game. She saw on the game panel that the countdown for the next dungeon entrance is two hours.”