The two useless little idiots kept crawling, shouting, "The quest! The quest!" between screams.
Yu Qing was thoroughly fed up.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Amid the endless screaming, Three Ks shouted, "Click it! Click it! Click the quest! Those things aren't going to disappear until we finish it! AAAAAAH—!"
Just Plain Rude had been grabbed by the trouser leg by an arm covered in livor mortis. He kicked frantically at it, his legs pumping like a rabbit's, and burst into tears.
"Wait, that's not right! Didn't you say you were a coward? Why are we the only two screaming?!"
"What ill-mannered fool has been spreading such ridiculous rumors?" Yu Qing asked coldly.
Just Plain Rude: "?"
Yu Qing took out his key card and swiped the door open.
Avoiding the frenzied severed limbs, he kicked his two crawling teammates into the room, one after the other.
"Get inside!"
The door slammed shut.
The dismembered limbs immediately threw themselves against it, scratching and pounding while letting out piercing cries.
Three Ks and Just Plain Rude kept crawling for a few more moments out of sheer momentum before realizing they were temporarily safe. They collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath.
Even so, every cry from outside made them jump and shudder.
Following their instructions, Yu Qing tapped the quest title, 【His Treasure】.
Sure enough, a quest description appeared.
【Luo Yao was one of the island city's earliest entrepreneurs to develop seaside tourism, and also its youngest.
By the age of thirty, he had already amassed a fortune worth hundreds of millions. He built Blue Bay, the city's first resort hotel, around the offshore marina.
Although today's Blue Bay Hotel is considered hopelessly outdated by the residents of the island city and is notorious for being haunted, when it first opened, it drew enormous crowds and enjoyed unrivaled popularity.
Handsome, successful, and blessed with a happy family, Luo Yao was also once a familiar name in the business section of the Rose Daily.
But the last time he appeared in the Rose Daily, it was as the front-page headline.
A family of five had died in his own hotel, their bodies subsequently dumped into the sea they had so often gazed upon.
Afterward, hotel guests reported that they could frequently hear wandering ghosts wailing and lamenting that someone coveted his treasure.
Find Luo Yao's treasure.
【Tap here to submit quest item】】
Yu Qing tapped 【Submit Quest Item】.
A doorway outlined with neon lights appeared out of thin air.
Apparently, all they needed to do was find the 【Treasure】 and submit it through the doorway.
The countdown in the corner of his vision continued ticking away.
07:13
07:09
...
Three Ks and Just Plain Rude were also reading the quest description. The relentlessly decreasing numbers were making them increasingly frantic.
"The treasure! Where the hell is the treasure?!"
Just Plain Rude suddenly shouted, "Wait! Wasn't that family trying to get back to their room just now? Which door were they standing in front of?"
Three Ks froze.
"I think it was this one! The room we're in right now!"
"Then let's search the room!"
Yu Qing looked thoroughly displeased.
"This is my room."
Just Plain Rude: "Huh?"
"Besides, who would leave their treasure in a hotel room?" Yu Qing said coldly.
"You mean..."
Three Ks's eyes gradually widened in horror.
"They still have it on them? We have to open the door and ask them to hand it over?!"
Apparently, he'd guessed correctly.
Because the instant he finished speaking, Yu Qing pulled the door open.
The severed limbs immediately lunged toward them.
Yu Qing dragged the two useless little morsels out into the corridor and closed the door behind them, ignoring their looks of utter despair.
A severed hand immediately latched onto Three Ks.
Its bluish-white palm, mottled with livor mortis, reached for his face and clamped down hard, almost peeling the skin straight off.
Yu Qing addressed him.
"Perfect timing. Grab the hand you're fighting with and drag it through that ugly doorway."
Three Ks: "..."
What part of this is perfect?!
With considerable difficulty, Three Ks managed to tap 【Submit Quest Item】.
The doorway outlined in neon lights materialized once more.
Illuminated by its glowing frame, he finally noticed that the hand trying to tear his face off was wearing a ring and a wristwatch.
The countdown continued.
05:53
05:50
...
Three Ks had no time left to be afraid.
Still wrestling with the hand, he rolled straight through the doorway.
The neon lights immediately went out, and a notification appeared on the holographic screen.
【This item is too badly deteriorated to be identified. Please submit the complete item within the allotted time!】
Three Ks: "..."
Then why the fuck didn't you show up looking a little more presentable?!
"You've got some nerve calling the item old and incomplete!"
Three Ks was so furious that he almost forgot to be afraid.
His stubborn streak took over, and he attempted to wrench the ring and wristwatch off the severed hand.
Then he heard Yu Qing say, "The watch and ring are intact. It's the hand that's incomplete."
Perhaps it was because Yu Qing's voice was so cold, but in the present circumstances, his words carried an even more sinister chill than the severed limbs themselves.
Three Ks shuddered.
The implications were too horrible to contemplate.
"Are you saying the treasure is the person himself?" Just Plain Rude asked blankly. "His body? His life? His heart? But he's already fallen apart! Where are we supposed to find a whole one?"
The instant he finished speaking, he seemed to hear a sigh.
In the long, deserted corridor, the sound was especially eerie.
Just Plain Rude immediately fell silent.
Then he saw the person who was always complaining about dirt and disorder, the one who kept ordering him and Three Ks around, suddenly undergo a complete change in demeanor.
Yu Qing seized the frenzied severed hand, closed his eyes, and moved his lips a few times.
The blood flowing in every direction along the corridor instantly reversed course!
The ghosts' wailing abruptly grew louder. Their cries became so shrill and anguished that they seemed capable of piercing the eardrums.
Fine tendrils of blue-green and golden dust spread from Yu Qing's fingertips, their patterns resembling the markings on a butterfly's wings.
They enveloped the severed hand and continued to extend outward.
Wherever the dust passed, the flesh peeled away from the hand, leaving nothing but white bone.
Yet the dust continued to weave and spread, like a painting gradually unfolding, tracing the contours of the man as he had appeared before his body was torn apart.
Three Ks and Just Plain Rude drew sharp breaths.
Watching more and more white bones accumulate on the floor, they retreated.
They continued backing away until there was nowhere left to go.
Only then did they realize that the dust was weaving an entirely new skin.
Before their very eyes, Yu Qing stood enveloped in a haze of dust. He shed his previous appearance and, in the blink of an eye, slipped into the newly formed skin.
Now he looked exactly like the father of the family of five.
He was handsome and impeccably dressed in a suit, yet a terrifyingly sinister aura emanated from his entire body.
The moment the dust dispersed, the white kitten let out a long cry and leaped onto his shoulder.
Having witnessed the entire transformation, Three Ks and Just Plain Rude rolled their eyes back, nearly fainting on the spot.
Yu Qing paid no attention to their reactions.
He simply tapped 【Submit Quest Item】 again.
The neon doorway reappeared, and he stepped through it.
Ding—
A notification appeared on the holographic screen.
【Congratulations! Your search has yielded some results!
Items found for 【His Treasure】: 1/5.
Please find all the items and submit them together.
There isn't much time left! Please hurry.】
The countdown continued.
03:06
03:02
...
The notification announcing the successful submission was enough to bring the two teammates back from the brink of unconsciousness.
"It actually worked!" Just Plain Rude cried.
Then Yu Qing turned toward him, and he immediately fell silent in terror.
Even though his brain had practically stopped functioning and he could barely process what was happening, he could hardly forget what he had just witnessed.
Those piles of white bones.
That skin peeled away from living flesh...
Unfortunately, being frightened was of no use.
Because Yu Qing had already set his sights on him.
Only when their eyes met did Just Plain Rude notice a faint green glimmer deep within the other man's eyes, like ghostly flames flickering in the depths of the night.
"W-what is it?" he asked, trembling.
Yu Qing tilted his head slightly.
His face remained expressionless.
"Didn't you read the notification? We still need four more."
Since submitting one person had completed one-fifth of the quest, it wasn't difficult to guess what the remaining four items were.
Just Plain Rude: "So what?!"
He had a terrible premonition.
Before he could even attempt to flee, Yu Qing seized him by the wrist.
Just Plain Rude:"..."
Five seconds later, he was treated to another fully immersive, surround-sound screening of the horror film he'd just watched.
Except this time, his terrifyingly unpredictable teammate held him down right in front of the white bones.
He could only watch helplessly as another freshly made skin was pulled over his head.
His teammate's cool voice rang out.
"Hurry up! Don't you know how to put clothes on?!"
Just Plain Rude burst into tears as he struggled to put it on.
What a terrifying person! And the things he says are terrifying, too!
When he'd finished, he stood before the glass in the corridor and discovered that he had become the grandmother.
Having already resigned himself to his fate, Just Plain Rude raised a hand and pointed straight at Three Ks, shamelessly selling him out.
"He's over there! Crawling away as fast as he can!"
Three Ks had been trying to escape ever since Just Plain Rude was caught.
Unfortunately, his attempt had failed.
Half a minute later, he had become one of the twin little girls.
He covered his mouth, sobbing too hard to speak.
There was, however, one small consolation.
Just as he was crying so hard that he no longer dared make a sound, the elevator doors opened with a ding.
A hotel attendant stepped out, dressed in uniform and carrying several freshly cleaned garments.
They weren't wrapped in protective covers, so it was easy to see that they appeared to be a suit and a shirt.
The attendant was about to turn in their direction when he raised his eyes and saw the floor covered in bones and the walls smeared with blood.
He let out a scream, dropped the clothes, and turned to flee.
Unfortunately, Yu Qing caught him too and forcibly dressed him in another skin.
At last, Three Ks understood.
Even a dog that happened to wander past would never escape the devil's clutches.
Yet despite all this, their family of five was still missing a member.
They had the father, the mother, the grandmother, and one little girl.
The other twin was still missing.
And the countdown had already dropped below one minute.
00:49
00:47
...
Even if they jumped straight down from the eighteenth floor and grabbed someone from the reception desk, there probably wouldn't be enough time.
The countdown display had turned red.
Then the entire corridor seemed to begin counting down with it. Blood surged and churned, pulsing in rapid, violent waves, each throb faster than a heartbeat.
"What do we do?" Three Ks asked, his mouth dry.
Yu Qing stood still for several seconds, apparently thinking.
The next instant, he decisively swiped his key card, opened his door, and dragged Three Ks inside.
Under his teammates' bewildered gazes, he pressed the speakerphone button and dialed 1811.
Beep—
Beep—
The ringing stretched on, making everyone increasingly anxious.
The countdown continued.
00:21
00:18
...
At last, someone answered.
Mi Xiaobai's voice came from the other end.
"A few people suddenly appeared in the room. Did you bring them in?"
Yu Qing glanced at Three Ks's current appearance.
"Is there a little girl with two pigtails?"
"Yes, there is."
The countdown had almost reached its end.
00:11
00:09
Yu Qing spoke in a low, firm voice.
"Open that annoying Submit Quest Item interface, grab the little girl, and put her through the doorway."
Mi Xiaobai laughed and replied in a jokingly obedient tone.
"As you command. I'll get right on it."
With only two seconds remaining on the countdown, five figures passed through the flickering neon doorway, one after another.
Ding!
The holographic screen sprang into view.
【Congratulations!
All items have been successfully submitted.
The time-limited quest 【His Treasure】 has been completed.
Hidden achievement unlocked!
Your actions have affected the outcome of the instance.
Tap here to claim your special reward.】