In the hotel's rear courtyard, rain continued to stream through the skylight. Twelve deity statues stood beneath the cold blue night sky, but only six retained their complete forms.
Three Ks held his Wish Slip before Lady Lu's statue and set it alight.
“I'm actually starting to regret something,” he told Just Plain Rude.
“Regret what?”
“I was too greedy!” Three Ks confessed. “Blinded by money, couldn't see past the end of my nose. When I first chose which deity to worship, all I could think about was how much extra money I could rake in every time.”
Just Plain Rude paused, then said, “Hey, that's normal. Who doesn't want more money?”
“Right? Greed and lust are only human. But I was so focused on getting rich that I never stopped to consider whether I'd be able to survive long enough to take the money out with me.”
“Well, I wouldn't say they're universal. I'm not lustful, for one.”
Three Ks: “…”
“I'm trying to compliment you on your foresight, you know. Why do you have to make things difficult for me?” Three Ks grumbled.
It took Just Plain Rude a moment to catch on.
“Compliment me?”
“Yeah! I'm praising you for not letting money blind you. Speaking of which, why did you choose the Martial God in the first place? How did you resist the temptation of money? Teach me your ways.”
Just Plain Rude bowed deeply before the Martial God's statue, then held his Wish Slip close to the candle stand and let it burn slowly.
Quite some time passed before he answered.
“When I was little, I was short and ugly. Skinny, too. I was always getting bullied. If you were in my shoes, wouldn't you wish you could grow taller and stronger?”
Three Ks thought he probably would.
But you can customize your character's face in the game. Couldn't you just make yourself taller and stronger? Why go to the trouble of praying to a deity?
He kept that thought to himself.
Instead, he offered some considerate reassurance.
“Don't be sad. Your miserable childhood gave you a sensible head on your shoulders.”
Just Plain Rude: “…”
Three Ks's Wish Slip finished burning, and his holographic screen chimed.
[You have offered a sincere prayer before your deity. Your deity has granted your request.]
[Personal Assets: +50,000]
A question mark practically materialized above Three Ks's head.
“Wasn't it thirty thousand last time? This time I got fifty thousand!” he exclaimed. “So the results of a wish are random?”
He pressed his palms together and began bowing frantically to Lady Lu.
“I'm sorry! Everything I just said was nonsense! I don't regret a thing! I swear I'll follow you until the day I die!”
Just Plain Rude: “…”
After finishing his bows to Lady Lu, Three Ks turned and began bowing to Just Plain Rude instead.
“How much of a Physical Strength buff did you get from your wish?”
“Physical Strength: +150. That's equivalent to three levels.”
“So what level does that put you at now?”
As he spoke, Three Ks tried to sneak a look at Just Plain Rude's phone.
But Just Plain Rude had already dismissed the interface and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
“We started with about the same stats. Can't you do arithmetic with numbers under ten?”
“Sure, sure. Anyway, you've gone from carrying a peashooter to packing a cannon. You're way stronger than me now.”
Three Ks continued bowing to him.
“For old times' sake, after everything we've been through together, I'm begging you. Get me out of here in one piece.”
Just Plain Rude opened his mouth.
After a long pause, he said with an expression of utter exasperation, “I really don't know what to do with you.”
They spent some time at the altar before visiting the small shops outside the hotel.
They had already used their one opportunity to purchase weapons, so the weapon shop no longer existed as far as they were concerned.
The seaside equipment shop had its doors and windows firmly shut. A large sign hung outside:
TEMPORARILY CLOSED
Only the general store owner was still stubbornly keeping his business open despite the wind and rain.
With plenty of money in his account, Three Ks felt considerably more confident.
He waved a hand grandly.
“Give me a whole bunch of every potion you've got that boosts stats.”
The shopkeeper answered without much enthusiasm.
“They're on the shelves. Help yourself.”
Naturally, this took them a while longer.
By the time they reached the checkout, Three Ks was beginning to look guilty.
“Haven't we been dragging our feet for too long? If we take much longer, won't Smiley have enough time to finish off the boss all by himself?”
“No. He might not even have found him yet.”
“How do you know?”
Three Ks looked at Just Plain Rude in bewilderment.
“That's a boss we're talking about. If he actually found him, there'd be a system notification, wouldn't there?”
“Oh, right! That makes so much sense.”
He had barely finished speaking when a muffled rumble suddenly reverberated across the entire seafront.
The ground shuddered twice.
Three Ks jumped and grabbed Just Plain Rude to steady himself.
“What the hell was that? Am I dizzy, or was that an earthquake? I swear I just saw the hotel building shake!”
He waited for an answer, but none came.
When he turned to look, he found Just Plain Rude staring at the building, his face drained of all color.
“What's wrong with you? You look awful!” Three Ks asked.
Awful was an understatement.
His face was as white as paper.
Just Plain Rude said nothing. He broke into a run toward the hotel, and Three Ks hurried after him.
The two rushed into the hotel elevator, where Just Plain Rude immediately slammed his hand against the button for the eighteenth floor.
Three Ks was confused.
“Why are you going to the eighteenth floor?”
Just Plain Rude finally seemed to come back to himself a little.
“Oh… I'm a bit worried about our teammate.”
Three Ks quickly pressed the button for the second floor.
“Have you lost your mind? Didn't he go looking for Sushi Bar? If anything happened, it'd be in Room 202.”
Just Plain Rude's lips moved, but he didn't argue.
However, when they reached Room 202, they found the entire corridor deathly silent.
The stale, decaying smell of dust that had accumulated in long-unoccupied rooms permeated the narrow passage, which seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.
Three Ks: “…I'm starting to get scared.”
He turned, hoping to huddle closer to Just Plain Rude and ease his nerves.
But the corridor lights were coated in dust, their glow far too dim. Under that light, Just Plain Rude's face looked almost unnaturally pale.
Scarier than a ghost.
“Buddy.” Three Ks was close to breaking down. “Could you at least slap your cheeks a couple of times? Get some color back into your face. You're freaking me out.”
Just Plain Rude actually slapped his cheeks twice.
Unfortunately, he seemed so distracted that the movements looked unnervingly mechanical.
Fuck. That's even scarier…
Three Ks hurriedly looked away.
He pulled out his phone, tagged ^ ^ in Team Chat, and typed as quickly as he could.
Three Ks: We've used our Wish Slips and bought our medicine. We're standing outside Room 202 now, but we can't find you. The whole building shook just now, too. Did something happen?
After sending the message, he grew a little worried.
Apart from that one time Smiley had asked whether they had suitable weapons, the guy had never said a word in Team Chat.
“Maybe we should start searching floor by floor?”
Three Ks had just pulled Just Plain Rude back into the elevator when his phone vibrated.
This time, Smiley had not only replied, but done so almost immediately.
His tone, however, was perfectly calm.
^ ^: He's not in 202.
Three Ks: Sushi Bar? Did he hide in another room? What floor are you on? We'll come find you!
^ ^: 18.
“He really is on the eighteenth floor!”
Three Ks immediately pressed the button.
He was about to praise Just Plain Rude for his foresight when another message from Smiley appeared.
^ ^: [Image]
The picture loaded rather slowly inside the elevator. Three Ks tapped it and waited several seconds before the contents finally appeared.
It showed Sushi Bar, whom he had met only once.
The man was curled up unconscious in an armchair. He and the chair had been bound so tightly together that he couldn't move.
“!!!”
After everything that had happened, Three Ks instinctively assumed Yu Qing had tied Sushi Bar up himself.
He typed three exclamation marks into Team Chat and was about to shower Smiley with praise for his overwhelming power and astonishing speed in taking down a boss.
But his fingers froze before he could finish typing the first word.
Wait…
If the boss really had been defeated, they should have received quest completion notifications and a whole pile of achievement rewards.
Yet the System Notifications interface remained completely silent.
Not a single notification had appeared.
That meant Sushi Bar hadn't been tied up by Smiley.
He had already been in that state when Smiley found him.
But if their teammate hadn't done it, who else could have tied Sushi Bar up…?
The elevator swayed as it ascended, its steel cables creaking and straining overhead.
Amid those creaking sounds, Three Ks began recalling everything that had happened earlier.
His face grew paler and paler.
Then, with a metallic clank, the elevator reached the top floor.
And Three Ks felt as though he had been plunged into an icy abyss.
Just before the elevator doors opened, he struggled to raise his eyes.
In the broad mirror before him, he saw Just Plain Rude standing behind him.
At that very instant, his companion's hair began growing wildly. His arms twisted and stretched into grotesquely elongated limbs, and his mouth split open across an otherwise expressionless face.
Three Ks tried to run.
It was already too late.
Just Plain Rude had transformed into something indistinguishable from the vicious ghosts they had encountered before.
Three Ks felt an icy arm coil around his neck.
Large patches of livor mortis mottled its deathly pale skin.
Sharp fingernails pressed against the artery in his neck, while wet strands of hair wrapped around his body, writhing as though alive and forcing their way into his ears and mouth.
Just Plain Rude's voice sounded beside his ear, almost like a sigh.
“I really did want to get out of here with you. Unfortunately…”
He might have been full of regret, but Three Ks was scared half to death!
He let out a shriek and struggled with everything he had, kicking and thrashing wildly.
The image of Lord Spicy Soup having his head torn open and devoured by ghosts flashed through his mind.
Terror swallowed him whole.
“AAAAAAAAAH—!”
When someone was that frightened, words were impossible.
Three Ks screamed and desperately tried to crawl out of the elevator.
At that instant, the elevator doors suddenly slammed together, causing Just Plain Rude's fingers to loosen slightly.
Three Ks bolted through the opening like a madman.
The corridor had never seemed so long.
He ran with everything he had until, at last, he spotted a figure in a suit standing at the far end.
Smiley!
Three Ks staggered up to him and braced himself against the wall.
The sheer terror he had endured sent his stomach into violent convulsions.
He grabbed Smiley's arm, trying to speak.
Instead, the moment he opened his mouth—
“BLEURGH—!”
Three Ks struggled to open his mouth several more times, finally vomiting up an enormous clump of hair.
He caught sight of the hair on the floor and promptly retched again.
“BLEURGH—!”
…
He felt as though he might actually vomit himself to death.
Using the last of his strength, Three Ks shook Smiley's arm.
“Help… help me.”
Smiley finally turned his head and looked at him without expression.
He had Just Plain Rude's face.
Three Ks: “…………………………”
His eyes rolled back.
He began sliding down the wall, ready to die on the spot.
Suddenly, a pale, powerful hand emerged from the darkness.
It seized the back of his collar, yanked him sharply backward, and delivered a swift, decisive slap across his face.
SMACK!
Three Ks jolted, clutched his cheek, and came to his senses.
Only then did he realize that the entire nightmarish sequence of running endlessly through the corridor had been an illusion.
He hadn't reached the far end of the corridor at all.
He had been wandering in circles right outside the elevator, and had nearly thrown himself into the corpse-spotted arms of Just Plain Rude.
“Get farther away.”
A cold voice sounded beside him.
Three Ks whipped his head around.
All he caught was a glimpse of polished leather shoes striding past.
He blinked once.
In that brief instant, someone appeared behind Just Plain Rude's grotesquely twisted body.
The man wore his hair in a loose wolf-tail, and his eyes glowed like ghostly flames.
Without a trace of expression, he seized the back of Just Plain Rude's head.
His pale fingers curled around to the front, supporting the creature's chin.
That single moment seemed to stretch into eternity.
Just Plain Rude's body went rigid.
Slowly, he raised his eyes.
The man lowered his gaze toward the ghostly creature before him, which had long since lost any semblance of humanity.
He let out the faintest sigh.
Then he twisted sharply.
CRACK!
The ghost's neck snapped sideways.
Its head hung limply, utterly lifeless.
Throughout the entire process, the man had not uttered a single word apart from that quiet sigh.
…
Three Ks stared with wide eyes, remaining dazed for a long time.
Finally, he slumped against the wall.
He watched Smiley release the creature's neck.
Just Plain Rude, the same guy who had once rolled around on the floor with him in a desperate struggle for survival, collapsed onto the filthy floor.
His eyes stared back at them through the gaps in his wet hair.
They remained open.
Three Ks felt a complicated mixture of emotions.
He glanced at Smiley, who was walking toward him, and hesitantly asked, “Could I… Is it safe to touch him now? Could I close his eyes?”
Smiley paused briefly.
“Suit yourself.”
Three Ks spent a moment gathering his courage before preparing to stand.
But then he saw something.
Behind Yu Qing, Just Plain Rude lay sprawled on the floor.
His eyes suddenly blinked.
And his tightly pressed lips split open once again.
“WAIT!!!” Three Ks cried out in alarm. “HE'S NOT DEAD!!”