Yan Jing deliberately entered the confinement room.
Because only by doing so could he seize the opportunity to exit the Inner World.
Entering the confinement room at five in the morning meant he would be locked up until five in the afternoon.
Stage B of the dungeon started at six the next morning, leaving him with more than enough time.
After reviewing the afternoon's list of stall vacancies, he had essentially confirmed the killer's identity.
Now, all he had to do was prepare to enter the dungeon.
Without hesitation, he chose to exit.
[This journey has ended.]
As the system notification chimed, his vision gradually cleared, and Yan Jing found himself back in his room in the Surface World.
The familiar damp smell invaded his nostrils. He got up and downed several glasses of water before sitting back down at his computer to open his messaging app.The app was just as dead silent as it had been the day before yesterday. The only difference was that Xu Weizhou had accepted his friend request and sent a few messages.
"Huh..."
Yan Jing glanced at the bottom right corner of the screen and noticed another change.
Someone had sent him a friend request.
He clicked it open. The person requesting to add him used a photo of the sun for their avatar.
The ID was straightforward: Yan Yang.
Yan Jing understood; the original owner's biological older brother was named Yan Yang.
He opened the verification message:
[The Lin Family sent someone to speak with Father. Father is furious. He commands you to apologize to Lin Mian during Stage B of the dungeon.]
[Lin Mian is highly regarded by several ancestors of the Lin Family. You must do exactly as Father demands. This concerns the futures of both your sister and your younger brother.]
[Also, come home after you clear the dungeon.]
Yan Jing skimmed the text, casually closed the message, and ignored his brother's friend request.
In the original owner's memories, his relationship with his siblings was terrible. Accepting the request would likely just invite a load of trouble.
As for apologizing to Lin Mian in the next stage...
What did Lin Mian eating zombie meat have to do with him?
Showing zero concern before the dungeon started, only to force him to apologize halfway through—this "father" he had never met was certainly quite the character.
His expression remained perfectly natural as he clicked open Xu Weizhou's chat.
[Old Yan.]
[The Lin Family and the An Family are absolutely furious with both of us over what happened in the dungeon. I've already explained that I acted alone, but still... I'm sorry I let you down.]
[I heard that black hair is terrifyingly powerful. Even Lin Mian's grandmother couldn't eradicate it when she intervened personally. You know she advanced to the Incense Burning Rite last year, yet she still failed.]
[I managed to dig up some information regarding the Stage B task.]
Yan Jing deliberately entered the confinement room.
That was the only way he could seize the chance to exit the Inner World.
Entering the confinement room at five in the morning meant he would be locked up until five in the afternoon.
Stage B of the dungeon started at six the next morning, leaving him with more than enough time.
After checking the list of vacant stalls from that afternoon, he had essentially confirmed the killer's identity.
Now, all he needed to do was prepare to enter the dungeon.
Without hesitation, he chose to exit.
[This journey has ended.]
As the text prompt chimed, his vision gradually cleared, and Yan Jing returned to his room in the Surface World.
The familiar damp smell invaded his nostrils. He got up and poured himself several glasses of water before sitting back down at the computer to open his messaging app.
The app was just as dead silent as it had been the day before yesterday. The only difference was that Xu Weizhou had accepted his friend request and sent a few messages.
"Huh..."
Yan Jing glanced at the bottom right corner and noticed one other change.
Someone had sent him a friend request.
He clicked it open. The person requesting to add him used a photo of the sun for their avatar.
The ID was simple and clear: Yan Yang.
Yan Jing understood; the original owner's biological older brother was named Yan Yang.
He opened the verification message:
[The Lin Family sent someone to speak with Father. Father is furious. He commands you to apologize to Lin Mian during Stage B of the dungeon.]
[Lin Mian is highly regarded by several Lin Family ancestors. You must do exactly as Father demands. This concerns the future of both your sister and younger brother.]
[Also, come home for a trip after you clear the dungeon.]
Yan Jing swept a glance over it, casually closed the verification message, and ignored his brother's friend request.
In the original owner's memories, his relationship with his siblings was terrible. Accepting the request would likely just invite a load of trouble.
As for apologizing to Lin Mian in the next stage...
What did Lin Mian eating zombie meat have to do with him?
Not showing the slightest concern before the dungeon started, only to force him to apologize halfway through—this "father" he had never met was certainly quite the character.
Yan Jing's expression remained perfectly natural as he clicked open Xu Weizhou's chat.
[Old Yan.]
[The Lin Family and the An Family are furious with both of us over what happened in the dungeon. I've already explained that I acted alone, but still... I've let you down.]
[I heard that black hair is terrifyingly powerful. Even Lin Mian's grandmother couldn't eradicate it when she intervened personally. You know she advanced to the Incense Burning Rite last year, yet she still failed.]
[I managed to dig up some information regarding the Stage B task.]
[The Order Management Bureau is treating this task very seriously and will be offering some extremely high-quality items as rewards.]
[If anyone can directly assist them in completing the task, the rewards will be staggering.]
[The group of people we saw last time was probably aiming for those exact items.]
[I've been grounded at home, and my communication devices could be confiscated at any time.]
[I won't be reaching out to you proactively after this. Once you enter the Inner World, make sure to watch out for Lin Mian and An Ranran.]
[No need to reply to this message.]
After reading through the messages, Yan Jing's eyes locked onto the line: "If anyone can directly assist them in completing the task, the rewards will be staggering."
The cold light from the monitor washed over his face, carving out stark shadows.
He closed his eyes, mapping out his plan for tomorrow step by step until it finally took shape.
...
Meanwhile, in the Inner World.
It was 5:20 a.m., the time Mantou usually woke up to scavenge for trash.
She opened the door to her paper house, letting the faint light of dawn spill inside to serve as a ceiling lamp.
"Hmm~ mhm~"
Every morning, she would sit at the scavenged wooden desk in her paper house, humming an unknown tune as she washed up using a shattered mirror and water she'd drawn the day before in a plastic bottle.
This was a habit she had picked up after meeting Yi Ji.
It was a shame that no matter how thoroughly she scrubbed her face, the grime would always return after a round of scavenging.
So, she knew she was always covered in dirt whenever she ran into Yi Ji.
There was nothing she could do about it, since she never knew when she would encounter him.
But these past few days were different.
She had been able to spend all her time with Yi Ji lately, which made her take her morning washing routine exceptionally seriously.
Once she finished, she stepped outside and began to put on her electric vehicle helmet.
Suddenly, she looked up in a certain direction. A tall, upright figure had appeared there, a camera resting on its neck.
Instantly, her eyes lit up.
"Perfect!"
Behind a pile of discarded cardboard boxes opposite the paper house, Old Master Liu held something resembling a walkie-talkie and whispered, "Keep up that look of surprise. You're very in character right now, Nizi. Give him an opening and let him get closer."
I think you're pretty in character yourself.
Beside him, Chen Nian stared speechlessly at Old Liu, who had just transformed from a "detective" into a "director."
This old man really kept up with the times; he could try his hand at anything.
Hearing Grandfather Liu's voice in her ear, Mantou's expression nearly betrayed a flash of nervousness, as she didn't quite understand what "in character" meant.
But when she heard "let him get closer," she remembered what Yi Ji had done to her the day before. Her hands trembled, and the buckles of the electric vehicle helmet slipped past each other just as she was about to fasten them.
Sure enough, seeing this movement, "Yi Ji" quickly stepped forward.
Behind the cardboard boxes, Old Master Liu and Chen Nian perked up, instantly readying themselves for combat.
If that "imposter" took just five more steps forward, they would make absolutely sure he never made it back out.
One step, two steps, three steps, four steps...
Now.
In an instant, the weird energy inside Old Master Liu surged. Taking a massive stride forward, he moved like a fierce tiger charging through the woods and threw a vicious right hook! His military overcoat whipped up a suffocating gale as his fist aimed straight for the man's face!
At the same time, the sharp clack of metal locking into place rang out, followed by a minor localized burst. Several globs of thick, pitch-black liquid shot fiercely from Chen Nian's hands, hurtling toward the space directly behind the man!
According to the plan, with Chen Nian blocking the rear and Old Master Liu launching a frontal assault, the man should have gone down immediately.
Unexpectedly, Old Master Liu's fist hit nothing but air. The man had never taken that fifth step; instead, he retreated a step back and to the right.
"Sizzle—"
One of the globs of black slime fired by Chen Nian grazed the man's right leg, instantly sending up a plume of white smoke.
"Waaah! Waaah!!!"
The globs of black slime landed on the ground and, as if possessing lives of their own, lunged wildly toward the man's right leg.
But they were clearly too late to catch him.
The man's speed was incredible, even a fraction faster than Old Master Liu's punch. He sidestepped across the ground, his clothes snapping sharply against the air in a series of explosive cracks as he pulled away.
However, Chen Nian's attack still left its mark. The man clutched his right leg hard, his expression twisting into a hideous grimace of pain. He hadn't expected an ambush either.
In the next second, he spun right around and fled wildly back the way he came.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Old Master Liu roared. Pushing off the ground with his right foot and shattering the surrounding stone slabs, he sprinted madly after the man.
To his complete surprise, the fleeing man pulled out a dagger mid-sprint and plunged it straight into his own legs. Blood gushed like a fountain, coalescing in midair to form a pair of churning wings as weird energy rippled outward.
"I Envy... I envy your speed!"
The wings of blood rapidly slammed into Old Master Liu, binding the old man's legs dead in their tracks.
Instantly, the distance between the two widened again.
Just as the man was about to escape, Old Master Liu heard a deafening shriek of wind tear through the air right beside him.
He stared in utter shock at the thick, massive tentacle extending out from the distance.
The owner of the tentacle was that brain-damaged Nizi he had always considered a bit dim-witted.
"Bad guy... kill... kill... kill... you!!"
At this moment, Mantou's hair whipped wildly in the air, and her eyes were a sea of blood-red. A dark heart protruded past the surface of her skin, beating furiously.
Fissures cracked across her twisted body, and within every single rift, multiple eyes rolled around to scrutinize the world.
Her two arms, which had completely morphed into thick tentacles, instantly caught up with the imposter Yi Ji—whose legs were still stabbed with the dagger—and pierced straight down through him!
Blood geysered into the sky. The man's shoulder blades were completely skewered on both sides.
A hoarse, wretched scream echoed through the entire alleyway.
But in the very next second, the tentacles simply disintegrated and dissipated. Old Liu turned his head, looking alongside Chen Nian at Mantou, who had collapsed unconscious on the ground.
Freed from the tentacles' restraint, the imposter fled into an alleyway on the right at breakneck speed.
Old Liu wanted to give chase, but Chen Nian stopped him:
"You won't catch him. He's definitely shape-shifted into someone else by now."
Old Liu punched the wall beside him in frustration, leaving a fist-shaped indentation:
"We were just one step away. That punk seemed to realize something right at the very end."
"That's because this girl didn't show the emotion of regaining something lost—that joy mixed with sorrow."
Chen Nian said slowly, "You can't blame her. That guy has impersonated so many people; no one understands acting better than he does."
"So, what do we do now?"
Chen Nian looked at the unconscious Mantou on the ground. He wasn't just asking about what to do with the escaped killer, but also what to do with the fainted Mantou.
Neither of them had expected this girl to be harboring something so terrifying inside her body.
"We can't speak of this."
Old Liu made a prompt decision:
"If that brat Yi Ji finds out the two of us used this Nizi as bait and still let the guy get away, he'll definitely nag us about it for the rest of his life."
"Let's report it first."
He squatted down and hoisted Mantou onto his back, letting her rest against his military overcoat.
Chen Nian thought about it and agreed with the approach. Everything else could be put on hold for now; they needed to file a report and get Yi Ji out first.
The two walked toward the Order Management Bureau in the southeast corner. Neither spoke.
Eventually, Old Liu was the first to speak, breaking the silence:
"If I had a daughter, my granddaughter would probably be older than this Nizi by now."
Chen Nian said slowly, "It's been so long. Have you never thought about getting married?"
"How could I not have? But some things... are just hard to explain."
Old Liu walked step by step, his footfalls solid and steady.
"You showed some real skill back there, kid Chen. I thought I heard the sound of steel."
"It's called machinery."
"Oh, right, machinery. Where'd you learn that? There's nowhere to learn that kind of stuff in this domain."
"I'm self-taught. What about you, old man? Those moves of yours must have taken decades of practice. From which domain does a martial artist like you hail?"
"Heh heh, this old man refuses to tell you."
...
The Surface World.
As the second hand made its final tick, Yan Jing, who had been fully prepared for a long time, opened his eyes.
Before him, the system prompt arrived exactly on schedule.
[Stage B of the task is about to begin]
[The location for this task is Old Sin City - Rotten Vegetable Village]
[Welcome back, Lord Player]