『Congratulations on successfully clearing the instance “Becky Mountain Psychiatric Hospital”! Instance rating: A-; Escapees: Qin Guan,??; MVP: Qin Guan』
『Instance clearance rewards have been settled. Total: 3278 points have been credited to your account. Current balance: 106215 points』
In the system space, a soft, bouncy little ghost dumpling that looked like a tiny octopus popped out of nowhere with a “whoosh…” and plunged straight into Qin Guan’s arms.
“Wow, Boss… you were amazing in this instance, meow! So cool it was unreal, meow! You cut off that dean’s head without even lifting a finger! We’ve already earned a hundred thousand points, meow! What a glorious milestone, meow!”
The little ghost octopus lay happily on Qin Guan, burying its face in his arms and inhaling deeply, while its short, plump tentacles slapped around happily.
“I knew it! With your help, Boss, I’ll definitely become the great King System 191 who dominates the entire Filth Room, meow!”
Qin Guan helplessly pried the little thing off himself.
This was a rather unique type of Grotesque in the Filth Room. They called themselves “Systems.”
Whenever players cleared their first Filth Room instance and officially entered the Atrium, they would each be assigned one to help them quickly understand the Filth Room’s operating rules, as well as handle Filth Room livestream processing and daily point exchanges.
As for the one in Qin Guan’s hands, it called itself “the great King System 191″… proud and clingy… He had no idea whether it should be sent back for repairs.
The octopus dumpling 191 did not care what Qin Guan was thinking. Relying on its soft, squishy body that was impossible to grab, it kept pressing itself against him and rubbing furiously.
“Boss, you don’t know this, but our ratings were super high this time, meow! Especially when you fought the dean all by yourself at the end… the viewer count in the livestream room went straight through the roof, meow!”
Hearing this, Qin Guan vaguely felt that something was wrong.
“By myself? Then what about Lu Chuan?”
191 looked up, equally confused, at Qin Guan.
“Who is Lu Chuan, meow? Boss, did you get your brain knocked out… waaahhh!!”
Before it could finish, a handsome face peeked out from behind Qin Guan and flashed a grin at the little octopus. In an instant, the little ghost dumpling that had just been clinging to him and could not be peeled off tumbled and scrambled eight hundred meters away.
“Waaahhh! A ghost! There’s a ghost!”
Lu Chuan moved with lightning speed. In just a few motions, he grabbed the little thing back and kneaded it in his hand however he liked, squishing it flat and rolling it round until it squeaked.
The little octopus frantically waved its short, stubby tentacles in resistance, nearly bursting into tears.
“Boss, I’m going to be eaten, meow… waaahh, save me, I’m going to be squished into a takoyaki ball, meow!”
Qin Guan pressed a hand to his forehead. “…Lu Chuan, let it go first.”
Hearing Qin Guan speak, the man gave the little dumpling a light, dismissive glance before loosening his grip just a little.
191 took the chance in the blink of an eye to hide behind Qin Guan, clinging to his shoulder and peeking out warily at Lu Chuan.
“Boss, this person has the aura of an evil, powerful Grotesque on him! Stay far away from him, meow!”
“I advise you to get out of my and Boss’s system space right now, meow! Otherwise, don’t blame King 191 for giving you a lesson!”
Lu Chuan tilted his head. “But I’m already his person. Even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t.”
As he spoke, he slowly opened his hand. The plain band ring was now sitting properly on the ring finger of his right hand.
“What?!” The octopus dumpling was struck by lightning and turned back to look at Qin Guan in disbelief.
“Boss, how could you marry this kind of person as a wife, meow! You can tell at a glance he’s not a proper ghost!”
On the other side, Qin Guan’s expression changed abruptly. He grabbed Lu Chuan’s wrist and gritted out, “Who told you to put the ring there? Take it off!”
“Ah, this one? It doesn’t come off anymore.”
Lu Chuan gave a hum of unclear meaning and let Qin Guan touch his finger.
However, just as he had said, no matter how hard Qin Guan tried, the ring on Lu Chuan’s hand fit so perfectly that it was unexpectedly snug, as if it had been welded into his flesh. No matter what, it would not come off.
Lu Chuan lowered his eyes and looked at the top of Qin Guan’s head.
“This is the Proof of Vows. Once the Contract is made, unless I die, it will never come off until the deal is finished.”
“Then why did you put it there?”
“Hm?” Lu Chuan raised an eyebrow in surprise.
He took Qin Guan’s palm and placed his hand over Qin Guan’s.
Qin Guan’s hand was pale and slender, with clearly defined knuckles, very beautiful. By comparison, his own hand was nowhere near as elegant, and its roughness was obvious at a glance.
The two rings pressed lightly against each other, making a faint, delicate sound.
Lu Chuan tilted his head and looked for a while, then laughed like a child: “You wore yours here, so I wanted to be the same as you.”
Qin Guan studied his eyes and only then belatedly realized something.
As an instance boss, Lu Chuan had been locked inside the psychiatric hospital since the start of his memories. He had no channel at all to receive outside information, let alone know what a ring meant.
On the other side, 191 sharply caught the key phrase “Proof of Vows.” After Qin Guan’s explanation, it finally understood this fellow’s origins.
“As expected of our wise and mighty Boss! Clearing an instance and even taking a powerful Grotesque as a wife… absolutely amazing, meow!”
After several failed attempts at correction, Qin Guan no longer wanted to bother with this guy’s bizarre train of thought. He simply waved his hand and told it to explain what it had meant by clearing the instance alone.
The little octopus dumpling waved its tentacles and floated into the air, reopening the livestream that had just ended.
“Exactly what it sounds like! The footage of Boss in the Becky Mountain Psychiatric Hospital, I broadcasted every single bit of it exactly as it happened, meow! There wasn’t the slightest trace of this person in it, meow!”
191 activated the livestream replay function and showed Qin Guan the footage from the instance just now.
Phantom characters scrolled rapidly, reflected in Qin Guan’s handsome side profile. Lu Chuan, bored out of his mind, could only stare blankly at the little mole behind his ear.
Sure enough, as the system had said, whether in the ward, the elevator, or the operating room, the livestream footage showed only Qin Guan’s figure from beginning to end.
What was going on?
From the moment each person bound a system, they were forced to start a death livestream every time they cleared an instance, using their suffering to entertain others. But fortunately, they also received more points because of it.
“Let me check! Filth Room livestreams can’t possibly have bugs! Why can’t this guy’s footage be displayed!”
The little octopus dumpling lunged over with bared teeth and claws.
Although Grotesques like “Systems” had no attack power and almost no combat ability, they possessed the ability to query, record, and spread the attributes of all things.
They could precisely convert any entity or non-entity they came into contact with into data, and then find its weaknesses from that data.
It was by relying on this ability that they built the entire Filth Room livestream network.
The little octopus dumpling’s tentacle, carrying the system’s “conceptual power,” reached toward Lu Chuan.
No matter what kind of existence it was, before this power, there were never any secrets.
Lu Chuan smiled without dodging or flinching, letting it come closer.
However, the moment the little dumpling’s transparent tentacle actually touched Lu Chuan’s forehead, it froze.
A row of glaring, oversized words appeared.
『No query results available』
“Huh? Huh?? Huh??!!”
As if it could not believe that its proud query ability had actually failed, 191 frantically slapped its tentacles against Lu Chuan’s forehead.
『No query results available』
『No results available』
『No results』
…
“How is this possible! Why can’t I find anything about this person…?”
Lu Chuan endured 191’s repeated slapping while looking at Qin Guan, who was standing to the side with furrowed brows. His eyes looked like those of a soaked large dog, carrying a faint hint of accusation.
“It hurts a little…”
On the other side, 191 was still having a meltdown: “How could this happen? What exactly went wrong? I have to report this to headquarters, meow…”
Just as it opened the mailbox interface, a fair hand suddenly reached over and gently covered it, squid and all.
“Mmph-mmph…?!”
“Nope.” Qin Guan said.
His expression was gentle, and a rare smile appeared on his face. It was clearly as warm and tender as blossoming branches, yet it sent a sudden chill racing down 191’s spine.
This expression… it had seen it before, meow!
Whenever Boss decides to kill someone to shut them up, it’s this expression!!