This was the first time anyone had ever said such things to Xu Xingyuan.
Not a filthy curse, nor ugly profanity.
The Doctor compared Xu Xingyuan’s existence to the brightest flower in the Infinite Flow world.
This sentence was just like the two smoothed-out, snow-white candy wrappers in Xu Xingyuan’s pocket.
Exuding a faint sweetness and warm kindness.
Xu Xingyuan’s eyes instinctively curved into crescents, and the corners of his lips rose stiffly.
Seeing this, the Doctor jumped up. Using a super exaggerated tone, he circled Xu Xingyuan and said:
“You smiled? Xingyuan, you actually smiled!”
Knowing Xu Xingyuan for this long, this was the first time the Doctor had seen him smile.
The Doctor regretted a little that he hadn’t taken a picture of Xu Xingyuan smiling in that first instant.
“This is a good omen.” The Doctor rubbed Xu Xingyuan’s head. “Do you want to become a Ferryman yourself?”
Xu Xingyuan nodded vigorously. “Doctor, I want to try.”
“Even if being a Ferryman is very dangerous?” The Doctor deliberately lowered his voice. “The danger level is beyond your imagination.”
Xu Xingyuan nodded even harder. “Let me try.”
Confirming that Xu Xingyuan wasn’t lying and genuinely wanted to become a Ferryman, the Doctor became serious too.
“Then we need to find a formidable senior to guide you.”
After officially becoming a Ferryman, one would be assigned a serial number and recorded in the roster.
The Doctor opened a drawer and pulled out a small booklet. Flipping through it, he muttered:
“Number 1 is fully booked this month. Number 5 went missing last month. Number 11 turned into a monster and is currently whereabouts unknown. Number 44 was executed just last month…”
The further he went, the lower the Doctor’s pitch became, until it strangely vanished altogether.
He stared at the booklet, silent for three seconds, then instinctively looked up and met eyes with Xu Xingyuan.
“Wait, these are all misunderstandings.”
The Doctor rubbed his brow, flipping through the booklet even more seriously.
After reading for a long while, he went completely numb.
“The dignified Ferrymen… actually have no successors.”
Ferryman was the kind of job with high demand, low supply, and harsh conditions.
One slip-up meant being infected by a dungeon, dying a miserable death, losing oneself, and being assimilated into a monster.
The last time this booklet was updated was… last time.
The Doctor flipped for ages. From the beginning until now, there were ninety-eight Ferrymen in total.
Half had died, half had been executed. Now, only the last third remained alive.
This led to supply falling short of demand. The remaining Ferrymen lived a “996” work life, so busy their feet barely touched the ground every day.
The moment they opened their eyes, they had to roam between major dungeons. They didn’t even have time to hang themselves, let alone take a paid poop break at work.
The Doctor massaged his temples with a headache.
You only regret having too few people when you need them!
Trying to find a reliable Ferryman to mentor Xu Xingyuan now was harder than ascending to heaven. There was simply no one available.
The Doctor looked down instinctively and met Xu Xingyuan’s clear, black and white eyes.
“I don’t know why, but suddenly my conscience hurts.” The Doctor silently raised a hand to cover his heart.
Before Xu Xingyuan could speak, the Doctor gripped his shoulders.
“Don’t worry, Xingyuan!” The expression on the Doctor’s face was overly firm, like he was swearing an oath to the party.
Xu Xingyuan offered a comforting word: “Actually, it doesn’t matter if you can’t find anyone.”
“How does it not matter? Don’t worry, before you enter your first dungeon, I will definitely find someone for you!”
The Doctor was a man of action. Clutching the small booklet in his hand, he pushed open the infirmary door and marched out valiantly.
While the Doctor was working hard to find a Ferryman for Xu Xingyuan—
Besides Xu Xingyuan, the last human hiding in the apartment couldn’t hold out any longer.
This person’s name was Li Fei. Ever since witnessing Lin Zhe’s death, he had been plunged into fear.
Li Fei had taken the opportunity, while the Apartment Security Guard chased after Lin Zhe, to double back and flee into the apartment, hiding in a restroom.
He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for three whole days. His body and mind were stretched to the limit.
If this continued, he was only one step away from death.
He suddenly began to envy Xu Xingyuan, his eyes holding a trace of jealousy.
“I don’t know what’s so good about that guy Xu Xingyuan that he can gain the favor of the apartment NPCs.”
Such a gloomy, dull guy. Why him?
Li Fei forcibly suppressed the jealousy and hatred in his heart, let out a long breath, and forced himself to calm down.
“Besides the five main NPCs, there are countless ghosts and spirits in the apartment acting as their eyes. Where is their blind spot?”
Li Fei anxiously chewed his fingernails. His eyes were shot with red veins, revealing anxiety and madness.
He thought around in circles, and suddenly, he thought of a place!
“The Top Floor!” Li Fei’s eyes lit up, as if seeing the hope of survival. “Even those NPCs don’t dare to go to the Top Floor!”
It was an excellent hiding place.
Li Fei acted immediately. Hunched over, keeping an eye out for any movement outside, he took advantage of a moment when no one was around and darted out of the restroom!
He located the stairs and charged upward recklessly!
Running at full speed, his breathing grew heavier and heavier, his heart beating so fast it felt like it would jump out of his throat.
Along the way, he encountered no obstacles.
Li Fei screamed “Lucky!” internally.
At first, before getting close to the Top Floor, he could still hear whispering sounds coming from the gaps in the stairs.
The closer he got to the Top Floor, the more those secretive murmurs faded away.
Everything around him fell into an overly eerie silence.
But Li Fei was only concerned with escaping for his life; he didn’t notice the changes around him at all.
One step away from the Top Floor, he practically crawled up on all fours and instantly collapsed on the ground.
Li Fei gasped for air. Once his racing heart rate slowed and his breathing steadied, he supported himself against the wall and slowly stood up.
He had assumed the Top Floor would also have many rooms.
Looking closely, he realized that apart from a heavy black door at the deepest end of the corridor, the surrounding walls were covered in neatly arranged picture frames.
Li Fei focused his gaze and discovered they were all paintings of black cats!
Each one depicted a cat in a different pose and expression, looking incredibly lifelike.
The most critical point was that they all had scarlet cat pupils that looked just like the real thing.
Li Fei was a bit shocked and reached out to touch one instinctively.
“No wonder they look real. They actually used top-grade red agate embedded in the painting for the cat’s eyes. Good lord, this is too extravagant, isn’t it?”
Greed flashed in Li Fei’s eyes. He took out the pocket knife he carried with him and pried out the red agate bit by bit with the tip of the blade.
Because the work was too extensive, Li Fei only pried out one pair before reluctantly stopping.
“If even the paintings on the wall are this valuable, I wonder how many valuable things are inside the room at the end of the hall!”
Carrying greed and desire, Li Fei rushed nonstop toward the room at the end of the Top Floor corridor!
Meanwhile, the black cat whose eyes had been gouged out slowly wept tears of blood from its dark, empty sockets.
Li Fei was blinded by desire. He had no idea that the moment he turned his back—
The eyes of all the black cats in the wall paintings simultaneously and eerily turned to stare at his back.