The rain in the sky intensified, and as it drenched her, even her bones ached with a piercing cold.
It only rained when that woman appeared. Xing Yun realized this far too slowly. No wonder she felt as if her ankle had been touched during previous rainstorms. She had originally thought it was struck by hail, but later realized it must have been that woman, who looked exactly like her, brushing against her.
The woman had disappeared from the pure white space, so the current rain was proof that the entire instance had mistaken her for that woman.
There was 50% of the mission remaining: do not get entangled by the vengeful spirit.
However, based on the current situation, not only was she entangled, but her very existence seemed to have become a part of the instance. She might never be able to leave.
Thinking of this, Xing Yun felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, yet she grew surprisingly calm.
Since things had reached this point, there was no other way. However, she might be able to send Yu Yan out of the instance if she tried hard enough.
The Boss had claimed the woman ran away with the money, but according to the circumstances, the woman had never left at all and had been imprisoned by the Boss. Xing Yun began to feel that the woman kept appearing before her to seek liberation and help.
She stood up, bracing herself on her knees, her clothes and hair soaked by the lashing rain. Yu Yan leaned over and whispered in her ear, “The Boss’s diary is full of lies. She does not truly love her girlfriend.”
Xing Yun straightened up. “I assume it is just the Boss’s damn possessiveness acting up.”
Yu Yan: …
Actually, Yu Yan had seen the confusion in Xing Yun’s eyes and wanted to tell her that the Boss’s affection was fake, so she should not waste any emotions on her. Clearly, Xing Yun had misunderstood.
Yu Yan sighed and chose not to explain. She struck an attacking posture toward the Boss, but it was obvious that the Boss did not even look at her. The Boss had been watching Xing Yun the entire time.
Lao Xiangyun stumbled over through the rain from the direction of the housing section. “I swiped some items from Liu Cui.”
Xing Yun was stunned; she had not expected her to still be alive.
“This fan is for you. They said it relates to souls, but I have not figured out how to use it yet. Maybe you can figure it out.” After saying this, Lao Xiangyun held up a very heavy handgun. “This one is super powerful. It shoots a beam that makes people’s skin turn red, and then they die with their whole body festering.”
The Boss’s body stiffened, and cracks appeared on her originally calm and collected face.
Xing Yun dared to guess: was the Boss intimidated by Lao Xiangyun’s terror?
This instance was in an abandoned hotel; the employees were long dead, and everything was forcibly operated by the Boss. Furthermore, it only operated like a normal hotel when a scene required it, which meant the Boss was barely maintaining it. And the only reason the Boss stayed in this hotel was because of her perverse possessiveness. If that was the case, why not try to fundamentally destroy the relationship between the Boss and the woman? If the Boss gave up her perverse possessiveness, would the foundation for this instance’s existence not disappear?
As for how to destroy their relationship…
Xing Yun was currently disguised as that woman, so this should be easy, right?
First, find out the reason for the Boss’s obsession, then… nauseate her thoroughly, making her doubt her life.
“Do you love me?” Xing Yun asked.
The Boss nodded. “Yes, I love you.”
Xing Yun kept a bubble machine behind her back as a backup. Since the items in this instance were extraordinary, she suspected her bubble machine might also spit out something incredible.
Finally, Xing Yun decided to warn Yu Yan. “I plan to take a risk and make the Boss and me break things off completely. But this could lead to two outcomes: one is unlocking the instance so everyone else is saved. The other is that the Boss goes insane, and everyone dies here.”
Yu Yan forced a smile but quickly cooled her face. “The Boss and ‘you’? What does that mean… Do not tell me that because of the broken armband on your arm, you actually think you are that woman?”
Xing Yun pressed her lips together and silently defaulted to yes.
“Then how will you get out?” Yu Yan frowned.
“I do not know…” Xing Yun answered honestly.
Yu Yan pondered. “You have not discovered some treasure buried in this instance and intend to keep the reward all to yourself, have you?”
Xing Yun: …
Yu Yan continued to think. “What exactly are you plotting? You cannot possibly be as mentally unstable as I am…”
Xing Yun moved her lips; she really wanted to scold Yu Yan. “I am not mentally unstable.”
Yu Yan: “What were you doing before you entered this instance?”
“I was at an exam.”
Yu Yan interrupted her. “A killing exam? A spy exam?”
Xing Yun was speechless. After a long silence, she said, “It was just an English exam.”
“Impossible. This is impossible.”
Xing Yun was confused. “Why would I lie to you?”
After she finished, Yu Yan became even more lost and at a loss for what to do.
Xing Yun had no idea what Yu Yan was panicking about, so she simply stopped thinking about it. She looked at the Boss, her mind filled with ways to provoke her. Having the Big Boss of an instance fly into a rage because of her, just thinking about it, made for an interesting way to die.
The rain fell harder, accumulating into flowing water on the ground.
Under the washing of the rain, the makeup Xing Yun had painted on her face earlier had mostly worn off. She carelessly wiped away what remained with her hands. “You are truly disgusting. You really know how to move yourself. I have never liked you. Looking at you makes me want to vomit. Do not be obsessed with me anymore; it is repulsive.”
Yu Yan: ?
She turned her head stiffly, expecting Xing Yun to use some roundabout method. She had not expected her to be so blunt.
It was blunt to the point of being terrifying, as she could clearly feel the temperature around them rising, reaching an uncomfortable level.
Originally, the Boss was not that angry, but the moment she heard the word “disgusting” from Xing Yun, the darkness around her deepened.
“You actually said I am disgusting. You actually said I am disgusting. You really have been lying to me all this time.”
Xing Yun had a face full of question marks. What did that mean? Who had been lying all this time?
“Yes, I have been lying to you all along.”
The Boss: “Damn it. You are really damned.”
Xing Yun smiled. “That is right.”
Xing Yun did not look afraid of her at all, calm and collected.
The Boss’s expression turned cold. “Is it not you who forced me to become like this? Xing Yun…”
“?” Xing Yun felt her mind and body shaken because she heard the Boss call her name. If the Boss only treated her as that woman, she should have called her by that woman’s name.
But now was not the time to dwell on that. The instance was truly beginning to destabilize.
Yu Yan felt a beam of light from the sky enveloping her. She realized she was about to leave this instance. It was not just the beam on her; there were countless other beams shining down from the sky.
Yu Yan anxiously grabbed Xing Yun. “Why are you different from the others…”
Despite desperately wanting to know something from Xing Yun, she could not stop time. She did not receive an answer from Xing Yun. After a dizzying spin, she appeared in the game lobby. The familiar thunder and lightning outside the window actually brought her a trace of comfort.
Yu Yan looked at her palm, which still held the dampness of the rain and Xing Yun’s body temperature. For some reason, a feeling of deep reluctance surged in her heart.
Xing Yun, left behind in the instance, looked at the beams of light filling the sky; not a single one belonged to her. Although she had never actually left an instance, she knew this was the sign of a successful completion.
Those who died were not considered “entangled by a vengeful spirit,” and those who became puppets and lost consciousness were not either. Only someone like her, who possessed self-awareness but had been assimilated as a part of the instance, was truly entangled.
She was like a candle, burning herself to exchange for the survival of others.
She took a deep breath, feeling quite helpless. It was not as if she wanted to be this candle; it was mainly because she could not get out even if she did not. Why leave so many rivals in the instance?
She did not know how the instance would deal with her next. Was it going to assimilate her into a part of this place?
Actually, she could hide in the unmodeled area because she found that only she could enter it; the NPCs here would not go there. But that place would affect her mental state, so it was not a long-term solution.
Xing Yun looked at the Boss. Before the Boss could act, she pulled out the bubble machine and pressed it, hoping the bubble machine would spit out some powerful item.
Then she saw colorful bubbles gushing out of the machine.
Xing Yun: …
Damn, she knew this crappy system would not give her anything good.
Seeing that things were looking bad, she turned and started sprinting. As she ran, she bumped into some bubbles, and they shattered in an instant. When the bubbles shattered, she heard the system notification:
【Agility +1】 【Strength +1】
After a moment of shock, Xing Yun was overjoyed and excitedly fired off even more bubbles.
The bubbles she touched did not disappoint and gave her a series of attribute reminders:
【Hunger +1】 【Fatigue +1】 【Depression +1】
Her expression stiffened. Stop adding everything!
She did not give up and blew a bunch of bubbles while running away, but the result was that she did not get many useful stats; instead, she made herself hungry and thirsty.
Finally, the bubble machine had a description label: It can provide attribute points, but there is a 5% chance of adding bad attribute points.
Xing Yun twitched her mouth. Are you sure it is 5% and not 50%?
Hungry and tired, Xing Yun turned and headed to the cafeteria. Because the people who had passed the level were all teleported away, some of the instance’s restrictions no longer existed, and the employees were no longer confined to the housing section.
She discovered that the cafeteria was filled with the smell of rotting meat, and the menu had all changed to various corpses and minced meat. Xing Yun felt nauseous, but this nausea did not overcome her hunger.
Xing Yun furrowed her brows.
Ever since she was accepted as the Boss’s girlfriend by the instance, her physical fitness had improved. With one punch, she made a cafeteria employee unable to stand straight. She looked at the bloody menu, her brows twitching. The back kitchen ignored her words, so she helplessly changed into an employee’s uniform and said to the kitchen staff seriously, “Give me a serving of minced beef rocks, no spice. For the giant fetus rice, use Wuchang rice. Add a fruit mix to the lactic acid bacteria corpse group.”
Looking at the stir-fried beef, the fluffy rice, and the rich fruit salad in front of her, Xing Yun began to think, could she be a genius?
While she was filling her stomach, she saw that the unmodeled area outside the window had changed from a foggy state to a viscous one. When she looked over, it was like making eye contact with some terrifying monster, and she felt a shudder run through her whole body.
She felt the ethereal white fog turning into palpable, writhing skin.
The hotel’s map range was also becoming smaller and smaller. If she could not find a way out, the white fog would swallow her whole, not leaving even a scrap behind.
Xing Yun picked up the fan Lao Xiangyun had handed her before leaving and flipped it over to check it, but could not find any manual at all.
She realized that these items only revealed their instructions when you knew how to use them.
It was truly idiotic.
Xing Yun held her head, and at that moment, she saw the Boss.
The Boss’s movements had become very sluggish. Xing Yun had already eaten her fill by the time the Boss walked over from the cafeteria entrance, and the Boss was acting blank and stupid, not even recognizing Xing Yun in her disguise.
“Where are you… where exactly are you…”
Xing Yun wiped her mouth, looking at the robot-like Boss, and was simply speechless.
She saw the white fog outside the window behind the Boss. She was surprised to find that she seemed to have seen the eyes of the white fog. Just seeing the eyelids made her whole body ache; she seemed to have seen some incredible existence.
Almost out of a defensive instinct, she subconsciously picked up the fan at her side and fanned it once.
The Boss was blown to a standstill by the wind she fanned, and the instance space shook again.
The Boss’s expression looked even more sluggish. Was she uncomfortable?
Xing Yun instead felt a sense of joy. After all, was she not trapped in the instance because of the Boss? If she could cause the Boss trouble, would that not be better?
She shook the fan again, but the more energetic she was, the calmer the Boss became, and the shaking of the space even stopped.
Suddenly, the Boss seemed like a different person. She was more somber, and although her eyes were colder, she had more of a sense of being a complete person.
The Boss locked onto her precisely and sneered, “You are quite clever, aren’t you? Knowing to increase your stats before summoning me back. But no matter how much you increase, it is not enough in front of me.” She crooked her fingers at Xing Yun, looking completely disdainful.
Xing Yun was numb. She gripped the fan in her hand and said nothing.
She tilted her head. “I do not understand.”
“Li… ar.”
The Boss’s face sank.
But Xing Yun was indeed not lying. She had no idea what the current situation was. Why did the conversation with the Boss feel like she was talking to an old acquaintance? Was it because the fan did not have an instruction manual, and she had operated it incorrectly?
And at this moment, the fan’s manual arrived late: it can remove other people’s souls, and it can also summon souls.