Mu Li crossed his arms and thought about it earnestly:
“Because… you are better looking?”
Pei Kanyan let out a soft laugh and stepped forward once more. His towering six-foot-three physique suddenly exerted a heavy, suffocating pressure:
“Weren’t you just thinking about helping that monster carve its eyes?”
Didn’t all of this look like a performance put on together by this youth and that monster? They had played off each other precisely to lure him into unlocking the master bedroom.
How did he even know there was something inside that room?
Sensing that the atmosphere had turned perilous, Mu Li’s player sixth sense sounded a blaring alarm.
He shrank his neck and tested the waters: “Um… I do not understand what you mean.”
The moment the words left his lips, Pei Kanyan pinned Mu Li against the wall. One hand gently cupped the player’s neck, and his dark, freezing gaze locked onto the youth like a predator eyeing its prey as he questioned him from above:
“Are you one of her people? What is your actual purpose in approaching me?!”
Mu Li could clearly see the distinct, neatly arranged eyelashes of the man before him, alongside those gloomy, ice-cold pupils. Feeling the tightening grip around his neck, he froze in place.
Wait, did the player just get backstabbed by a teammate?
He opened his mini-map to check, and his jaw instantly dropped.
What the hell!
Red name!!
Assistant-san turned into a red name?!
When did this even happen? Wasn’t he green from the start?
If green-name bonds were too low, character info would not display, but the moment someone turned red, their status tags would brandish themselves brightly right above the NPC’s head.
[Character: Pei Kanyan; Level: +∞; HP Bar: +∞.] [Attack Power: SSS+; Defense Power: SSS+; Speed: SSS+.] [Warning! Extreme Danger! Warning! Extreme Danger!] [Please escape immediately, Player!]
The game interface began blaring alarms, flashing blinding red light frantically.
An urgent system warning rang in his ears, though for some reason, he could still detect a frantic undertone beneath the electronic noise.
Mu Li broke out into a cold sweat of pure terror.
Comparing his own health pool, which looked like a fragile little sprout, to the man’s infinite health bar, even his teeth started chattering.
Using every ounce of his strength, he wrenched himself free from the man’s restraint and directed his legs toward the staircase to flee.
He knew it!
How could a character with such a peerlessly perfect character model possibly be a normal NPC?!
Yet, he never expected that this NPC’s stats were entirely engineered straight out of a final BOSS template.
Even his max-level main character would have to struggle for a while to handle this, let alone this newly created, unequipped alt.
Oh no, oh no, was he serving himself up as post-meal dessert right on a silver platter?
Pei Kanyan allowed the youth to break free from his confinement, watching the boy’s panicked, fleeing back. His highlightless eyes were deep and ash-colored, keeping his true thoughts completely unreadable.
Misfortunes never come singly, however.
[Due to the player losing the weapon “Carving Pen” for too long, the equipment has been unequipped.]
As Mu Li ran, he heard the notification chime, stumbled mid-stride, and looked back.
The female ghost fiercely yanked the pen-knife straight out of her own chest, then snapped rigidly upright.
What?
Can monsters loot player equipment these days?
This is bad, this is really bad. Right now, Mu Li was facing two monsters, and his frail little physique would not even be enough between their teeth.
Yet, the female ghost ignored the player entirely, gripping the pen-knife tightly and lunging straight toward Pei Kanyan.
“Give me your eyes!”
Mu Li let out a breath of relief. Thank goodness, she was not after him.
He had assumed that with Pei Kanyan’s combat stats, he would not need to worry about a minor mob’s attack at all. Who could have known that once the female ghost seized the pen-knife, her attack power multiplied manifold?
Following a fierce clash, a bloody scratch was sliced right across Pei Kanyan’s temple.
Mu Li’s fleeing pace slowed down. He hid beside the stairwell, poking out just his eyes to observe the battle.
The female ghost’s wounds healed at blinding speeds, rendering the man’s attacks completely useless. As time dragged on, the balance tipped, and Pei Kanyan slowly fell on the defensive.
He was even beginning to struggle. Within a single breath, the pen-knife was already inches from piercing straight into Pei Kanyan’s eyes.
The female ghost’s blood-red lips parted to spit out two bone-chilling words:
“Almost.”
Yet, what did any of this have to do with Mu Li? Two red-name entities fighting each other to the death was an absolute blessing for a player.
Still, after pondering for a moment, Mu Li shook the thought of running away right out of his head.
Assistant-san’s initial status was a green name, and that prerequisite would not change. Therefore, something must have happened during the interaction to make him hostile toward the player.
Uh.
Could it be that the player’s attempt to carve eyes onto the statue made him think they were in cahoots with the monster?
What a massive misunderstanding!
With that realization, Mu Li poked his head out cautiously from the stairwell and called out to stop the female ghost:
“Wait a minute!”
Pei Kanyan was currently blocking the female ghost’s onslaught with his forearm. Hearing the familiar voice, he turned his head to look at the youth, a hint of incomprehension flashing through his gaze.
The female ghost did not stop, however. Mu Li exposed half his body and chimed in:
“Aren’t you looking for eyes? My eyes will be yours!”
As if triggering some sort of keyword, the female ghost whipped her head around toward the player, her maw gaping wide as if she intended to swallow the youth whole:
“You are going to give your eyes to me, and all for this man?”
Mu Li stepped a fraction closer and nodded: “Yes.”
The female ghost suddenly let out a spine-chilling laugh: “Heh, heh, heh. But he wanted to kill you just a moment ago.”
Mu Li spread his hands: “Just tell me whether you want them or not.”
The female ghost had not expected to encounter someone like this. She hesitated between the two of them for a moment: “Your eyes are also very pretty, but what a pity, I want his more!”
With that, she pressed her attack harder.
The tip of the blade was now a mere millimeter away from Assistant-san’s eyes.
A single millimeter!
Right at the moment of impact, Mu Li lunged forward, grabbing the blade barehanded. Blood streamed down his arm in a steady current:
“You have never met someone willing to offer them to you of their own free will, haven’t you? Otherwise, you have killed so many people, why are your eye sockets still empty?”
The female ghost’s movements faltered. He was right.
Eyes would eventually fade; she could only keep snatching other people’s eyes just to prolong her time, but she had never once received eyes offered willingly.
Could there really be a difference?
She seemed persuaded. The force driving the blade toward Assistant-san gradually diminished.
“Alright then, give me your eyes instead.”
The female ghost suddenly broke into a cruel, twisted smile.
The next instant, the player’s vision went completely pitch black.
Pei Kanyan watched as the female ghost slashed directly across the youth’s eyes.
The youth’s eyes instantly lost all light and focus. He stood blankly on the spot, looking utterly lost and helpless.
In their place, the female ghost erupted into manic joy:
“I can see, I can finally see, hahaha.”
Mu Li slowly blinked open his eyes, only to find that the entire game environment had transformed into a scene composed entirely of black and white line art.
It looked like a 3D model built halfway, before texturing and coloring could be applied.
Ah, figures.
Even if the player’s settings made him blind, how could the developers possibly leave the actual game screen completely black for the player?
Looks like as long as the female ghost is killed, color vision can be reclaimed.
Yet in the eyes of everyone else, particularly Pei Kanyan, this youth’s eyes were completely ruined.
No pupils, no focus, completely inorganic, leaving behind nothing but an endless expanse of white.
His clothes were soaked through with blood, plastered tightly against the youth’s frail frame, making him look all the more pitiful and helpless.
Pei Kanyan tightly furrowed his brows.
Even the dullest person would realize something was wrong in a situation like this, let alone someone of his caliber.
The look Pei Kanyan cast toward the youth carried a few extra layers of unreadable meaning.
The red name flickered and shifted into a yellow name in that exact instant.
Mu Li: “!”
Yet, whatever Pei Kanyan thought of next made his gaze turn icy cold once more. Mu Li watched helplessly as that yellow status indicator flickered a few times.
And turned right back into red!
Mu Li: “…”
Profanities scrolling across his mind by the thousands!
Mu Li sighed, feeling mentally exhausted as he addressed the female ghost: “You already got what you wanted, you can leave now, right?”
The female ghost looked at the player with a hint of wonder, pulling a bloodthirsty grin across her face:
“Leave? Why should I leave? Your eyes, I want all of them!”
Mu Li had anticipated this; how could a monster let go of a locked target so easily?
He gauged the timing, shoved the female ghost deep down the corridor with all his might, and yelled toward Assistant-san behind him:
“Run! Hurry and get out of here, I will stall her!”
Pei Kanyan tapped his fingers against his side twice, and actually listened to the player’s words.
He turned around and left.
What? He actually left?!
Mu Li wept tears of blood in his heart.
Seeing his target about to escape, the female ghost flew into a frenzy and attacked the player with full force:
“Let go of me!”
Now that the eyeless monster had acquired eyes, her combat capability rose to a whole new tier. Mu Li failed to dodge in time, and the pen-knife pierced straight through his heart, causing him to cough up mouthfuls of blood.
His health bar plummeted in a straight line: minus 10, minus 15, minus 20.
Until it hovered at a trembling, pathetic 1 HP.
I am going to die, I am going to die, I am going to die.
Mu Li stealthily prepared his pay-to-win resurrection token.
However, glancing at the mini-map, Assistant-san had walked some distance away, paused for a moment, and then turned right back around.
Only this time, he was holding a music box in his hand.
Mu Li silently put his microtransaction revival card away.
The already slender youth was now tortured by the female ghost to his absolute last breath. The pen-knife remained planted straight through his heart, and his shin bone was shattered into a twisted angle, his complexion completely pale without a single trace of color.
Yet, one of his hands stubbornly gripped the female ghost’s ankle. The female ghost dragged the youth’s broken body along as she marched forward, leaving a long trail of blood smeared across the corridor floor.
Even battered into such a state, he was still trying to stop her from going after him.
Pei Kanyan irritably clicked his tongue.
“So stupid.”
And thus, Mu Li watched as Assistant-san switched back and forth between red and yellow statuses a dozen times.
Heaven knows what kind of intense emotional turbulence this NPC was experiencing internally.
Finally, the system alarm stopped blaring.
It locked firmly onto a yellow name!
Mu Li: Not easy at all.
Neither friendly nor hostile, at least it meant he would not attack the player anymore.
With a soft utterance, Pei Kanyan delivered a direct knee strike that sent the female ghost crashing away.
Then, turning to the youth: “Bear with it.”
He pulled the pen-knife out of Mu Li’s body, and instead approached the music box statue to carve its eyes.
The female ghost struggled back up, pausing without launching an immediate attack, because the man who had fought her relentlessly moments before was now actually carving eyes onto the statue!
“Mr. Pei, you are basically helping me out here.”
Mu Li struggled to stand up, but his legs gave out beneath him, causing his head to smack heavily against the floor. He did not dare move anymore, terrified that even a twitch would drain that final 1 HP.
Pei Kanyan shook the music box in his hand, a look of mockery crossing his features:
“Who said the statue right now is you?”
Right at that moment, a chain of system notifications rang out:
[The player voluntarily sacrificed their eyes, completing the hidden quest: The Dancing Girl Statue’s Wish. Whoever lacks eyes seems destined to be mistaken by the statue as itself.] [The player has equipped the item “Music Box.” When the music plays, it appears to trigger a special state.] [The player has acquired the skill [Extreme HP Lock]. When health drops to 1 HP, enter an undying state.]
Wait!
Did the player just hear something extraordinary?
Lock… HP lock?!