Chapter 14
Chapter 14
After seeing Yu Lingling’s actions and hearing what she had said, Sister A and Brother Knife’s first reaction was to curse her for being an idiot. But a moment later, a faint sense of unease crept into their hearts.
Could the two of them have misjudged the situation?
Impossible.
Compared to Yu Lingling, they trusted their own deductions far more. Even if they had made a mistake, they still had enough trump cards to turn things around.
The apron-clad woman remained standing in the doorway. The injured corner of her mouth twitched slightly, as though she wanted to say something. But when she heard a chair scraping against the floor behind her, her body trembled instinctively. In the end, she did not make a sound.
The sound of slippers shuffling across the concrete floor came from inside. The woman hunched her shoulders, and when the man stopped behind her, Yu Lingling noticed her entire body go rigid.
The man wore shorts and a white tank top. On his feet was a pair of filthy slippers whose original color was impossible to make out.
Yu Lingling glanced at the scars covering the back of his left hand and his arm before finally looking up at his face.
Unexpectedly, the man who terrified the woman with the slightest movement had a simple, honest-looking face. When he looked at Yu Lingling, he broke into a broad grin. His teeth were yellow and badly worn, and his murky eyes swept over her from head to toe.
“Come in, kid.”
After speaking, the man saw that the apron-clad woman was still standing in the doorway and urged her impatiently, “Hurry up and make dinner. Don’t let the girl go hungry.”
The woman shuddered, hurriedly lowered her head, and went back inside. Soon, the sound of objects clattering against one another came from the house.
Hugging the Teddy Bear Doll, Yu Lingling gave him a sweet, well-behaved smile. “Thank you, Uncle.”
The man appeared warm and hospitable as he urged Yu Lingling inside.
Yu Lingling did not refuse. However, just as she stepped across the threshold, she glanced toward the spot in the hallway where Sister A and Brother Knife were hiding.
She hoped those two would not disappoint her. She was curious to learn just how much power stood behind these “rookie” players with patrons – and where exactly the gap between her and them lay.
The instant the door closed, a panel appeared simultaneously before Yu Lingling, Sister A, Brother B, and Brother Knife.
[A happy family starts with preparing gifts for your family every day. Remember to keep your family satisfied and be a good child.]
Yu Lingling remembered that when she first entered this game instance, the game’s reminder had also told her to be a good child.
This time, despite all the added conditions, the message still ended with the same line.
Yu Lingling remembered something her brother had once said: people often emphasized most what they lacked.
A good child?
What were the criteria for being a good child?
Was it judged by the so-called family, or was the assessment triggered by something else?
Was preparing gifts and being a good child a requirement the System had issued specifically for her, or did it apply to every outsider?
As Yu Lingling pondered these questions, the words on the panel vanished, replaced by a new line.
[Personal Survival Condition: Provide the family members with a sufficient quantity of meat.]
A sufficient quantity of meat?
Before entering this building, Yu Lingling had already tested the boundaries. This instance restricted the area in which they could move. Other than the players and the building’s residents, there were no other living creatures within the designated area.
So where was she supposed to get the meat?
After issuing the Personal Survival Condition, the panel disappeared.
The moment the viewers in Yu Lingling’s Livestream Room saw the Personal Survival Condition appear on her panel, the chat exploded. Even the number of viewers multiplied.
However, the newcomers were instantly disappointed when they saw Yu Lingling standing inside the house, hugging a Teddy Bear Doll.
“I’m out. There’s nothing worth watching here.”
“They actually gave the Special Mission to a weakling like this? I bet she won’t even survive the first day.”
“Holy crap, she actually chose this household! If I remember correctly, the man of this house loves eating human-flesh sashimi.”
“And he only eats it while it’s still alive.”
The viewers who had watched one of Yu Lingling’s previous streams, however, were brimming with anticipation.
“Who do you think the streamer will go after first?”
“My bet’s on Sister A. She’s obviously the weakest, and she’s hostile toward the streamer.”
“I’m betting on Sister A too.”
Once Yu Lingling was certain no more information would appear, she hugged the brown Teddy Bear Doll in both arms and tilted her head back to look at the murky-eyed man.
“Uncle, do you think I’m a good child?”
At her question, the man could no longer suppress the greed in his eyes. He gulped and said, “If your gift satisfies me, I’ll tell you.”
Yu Lingling did not answer right away. Instead, she surveyed the small room.
It had a wood-framed glass window. The glass was far from clean, but the bloody handprints Yu Lingling had seen before were gone. It was clearly daytime outside, yet no light entered through the window. Like the corridor, the room was illuminated only by a dim lightbulb.
The floor was rough concrete and looked as though it had just been cleaned. Patches of water in the corners had yet to dry.
The walls had been covered layer upon layer with old newspapers, calendar pages featuring women in swimsuits, and yellowed book pages, as though someone were trying to hide something. Through the torn sections, the blackened wall beneath was faintly visible.
A wooden bed stood against one wall. Its sheet seemed to have been stitched together from scraps of different fabrics, while an old, blackened cotton quilt lay in a heap on top.
The man noticed where Yu Lingling was looking. He could no longer suppress the greed, malice, and hunger in his eyes. His voice rang with the excitement of someone about to dig into a delicious meal as he roughly lifted the bed sheet.
“Would you like to see my collection?”
His voice trembled with excitement.
The apron-clad woman crouched in the corner with her hands over her head, not daring to make a sound. Her movements were so practiced that she seemed to have repeated them thousands of times.
Beneath the bed sheet, Yu Lingling saw sheet after sheet of carefully prepared human skin.
The man stroked them lovingly. “Bad children don’t need to exist.”
[That bed sheet was sewn from scraps of clothing taken from players who died at his hands.]
[Did this dungeon always progress this fast?]
[I don’t remember that. This entity wasn’t supposed to reveal any of this until the third day.]
[Did something set him off?]
Realization dawned on Yu Lingling. “So that’s why your teeth are so badly worn down. You’ve gnawed on too many bones.”
The man’s surging appetite was abruptly cut short by her words, and his expression froze.
Yu Lingling took a towel from her pocket and wrapped up her beloved Teddy Bear Doll. Then she walked over to the woman and placed it in her arms.
“Ma’am, could you please hold this for me?” she asked politely.
The woman’s body remained rigid, and she did not move.
Yu Lingling turned to the man. “Would you like to see my collection?”
When the man said those words, they sounded eerie and revolting. But coming from Yu Lingling, dressed in fluffy pajamas and fluffy slippers, it sounded as if she simply wanted to share her favorite toys with another child.
And that impression was not entirely wrong.
Princess Dollhouse was Yu Lingling’s favorite toy.
Before the man could answer, four children heavy with vengeful energy appeared in the room. They were none other than the dolls Yu Lingling had brought out of Auspicious Village.
At first, the Four Dolls wanted to glare viciously at Yu Lingling. She shouldn’t think she could control them just because she provided them with food, clothes, shelter, and transportation. But the moment they saw the battered dagger in her hand, they became perfectly obedient.
One took up position beside the woman, both protecting and restraining her. The other three joined Yu Lingling in surrounding the man.
The viewers who had been speculating about why the scenario had advanced ahead of schedule were left dumbfounded. No one had expected that while the entity had accelerated the plot, Yu Lingling had fast-forwarded even farther – to a point they could no longer comprehend.
This could no longer be called fast-forwarding. She had flipped the whole table over.
And what was the deal with those four little entities?
[Could this newbie player’s ability be some kind of summoning or puppet-control skill?]
No one could provide an answer. Even the viewers who had watched Yu Lingling clear the Auspicious Village dungeon had no idea when she had obtained such an ability.
After becoming Yu Lingling’s dolls, the appearances of the four mini-bosses from Auspicious Village had also changed. They no longer looked as though they had endured endless torment. Instead, they had become more delicate and doll-like, perfectly fitting the Princess Dollhouse theme.
Even viewers who had seen the mini-bosses from Auspicious Village before could not connect them to these dolls.
If Yu Lingling had been on her own, she would never have chosen such a simple, brute-force approach. But she had already estimated the man’s energy fluctuations.
Under normal circumstances, his strength was equivalent to two dolls. When emotionally agitated, he was equivalent to three and a half dolls.
Yu Lingling had the Four Dolls plus herself. When her side’s combat power vastly surpassed her opponent’s, bothering to use her brain would be disrespectful to herself.