Chapter 20
Chapter 20
As the Gaunt Old Man began mutating, the mound of fat discovered a new source of food. Its monkey-like hands frantically tore at every piece of flesh within reach. When it couldn’t bring the flesh to its mouth, its body – a veritable Flesh Mountain – split open, forming new mouths.
At first, the mound of fat only ate the flesh its hands tore off. But more and more mouths appeared across its body, and its hands were too small to keep up with their appetite. The mouths soon began biting directly into the flesh piled across its body.
Hearing the chewing, the Gaunt Old Man turned toward his precious grandson and hurried over to stop him. “My precious grandson, don’t eat that! Don’t eat it! I’ll get you something to eat right away. Don’t eat yourself! Don’t eat yourself…”
The mound of fat paid him no attention whatsoever. Its face was filled with bliss and impatience.
Unable to stop his grandson, the Gaunt Old Man lunged at Yu Lingling.
Yu Lingling seemed frozen with fear. She stood there without even trying to dodge.
Just as the Gaunt Old Man was about to injure Yu Lingling, something seemed to stop him. Yu Lingling clearly hadn’t moved, yet his attack failed to land on Yu Lingling and struck the ground beside Yu Lingling instead.
The solid concrete floor was like tofu beneath his hand, crumbling effortlessly in his grasp.
The Gaunt Old Man glared viciously at Yu Lingling.
Yu Lingling’s voice was slightly hoarse. “Your rule was to provide food for your grandson. I’ve done that.”
Yu Lingling had already completed the good child rule. The rules differed from room to room, and there were only two ways to deal with them: either fulfill the rule or eliminate the room owner who had set it.
After knocking on the door and seeing the Gaunt Old Man and the mound of fat that could no longer be called human, Yu Lingling had formed a theory. Hearing the old man soothe his grandson had only confirmed it.
[She figured it out so fast.]
[I thought that Back Scratcher was a completely useless item.]
[A player chose this room before. The room’s rule was to feed this monster. On the first day, it had to be fed once every three hours, but the intervals kept getting shorter. Eventually, it had to be fed nonstop. If the player failed, they’d become the monster’s food.]
[Once the feeding started, it could never stop.]
[The most insidious part was that, at first, it would eat anything.]
[But the players would gradually discover that feeding it flesh and blood extended the interval between feedings.]
[By the final hour, mouths would split open all over the monster’s body. It had to be fed continuously, and it would only eat flesh and blood. Some players thought they were about to escape, so when they ran out of food, they’d feed the monster part of their own body.]
[After all, no matter how badly you’re injured, you’ll recover completely as long as you clear the instance. But the trap is that anything this monster has eaten can never leave again.]
That was where true despair lay.
The grandfather and grandson monsters on the first floor were the weakest, yet their room also had the fewest successful clears.
[I remember a player who chose this room and still cleared it. He killed his other four teammates, fed them to the monster, and cleared the instance alone.]
[This instance used to have five players. Why are there only four this time?]
The Gaunt Old Man kept attacking Yu Lingling. Even though he knew it was futile, he refused to stop.
Yu Lingling neither dodged nor flinched. The mound of fat was so enormous that the room had been stripped of all furniture just to accommodate it. There wasn’t even anywhere for her to sit. For the first time, she truly understood what it meant for a home to contain nothing but four bare walls. She never should have mocked the residents on the fourth floor for being poor.
“After completing the rule, if I attack the room owner, the room owner is allowed to fight back.”
The Gaunt Old Man’s face twisted with fury and resentment, but he stopped. Since Yu Lingling had already figured it out, there was no point in continuing.
“How did you know?”
Yu Lingling thought he was asking a pointless question, but she also needed to obtain more information from these so-called native inhabitants.
“You allowed me inside, which makes me your guest. A guest who attacks their host becomes a hostile guest, so naturally, the host has the right to defend themselves.”
[It works like that too?]
“A Horror Game cares about things like that?”
“She uses her brain when she plays.”
The Gaunt Old Man watched in agony as his grandson continued devouring his own flesh. “My precious boy… My precious boy…”
The room reeked. Greasy filth covered the walls and floor.
Yu Lingling crouched down, propped her chin on her hand, and carefully studied the Gaunt Old Man’s expression. Though he now looked hideous and inhuman, the pain and despair on his face were unmistakably real. “Will he grow more flesh if he eats himself?”
The Gaunt Old Man’s eyes bulged with fury.
Yu Lingling’s face had gotten a little grimy on her way downstairs. Her eyes shone with pure curiosity, tinged with an almost childlike cruelty. “You raised him so well. He must have eaten a lot of people.”
The Gaunt Old Man glared at Yu Lingling.
Yu Lingling tilted her head. “Were you locked inside this building because you ate people?”
Mockery flashed through the Gaunt Old Man’s eyes.
Yu Lingling noticed, but she continued questioning him. “Is this your prison?”
The Gaunt Old Man had once loved listening to the sound of chewing. Nothing had pleased him more than watching his grandson eat with gusto. But now, that same sound brought him nothing but anguish.
The Gaunt Old Man said nothing. Yu Lingling didn’t mind. She had already found her answer in the subtle changes in his expression.
This wasn’t a prison, but it was still something that restricted their freedom.
“Oh?” Yu Lingling murmured. “I actually know a way that might keep your grandson alive.”
Joy flared in the Gaunt Old Man’s eyes.
Dressed in fluffy pajamas, Yu Lingling looked like a little ball of fuzz as she crouched there. There was nothing threatening about her at all. “You can try feeding him something else.”
But the only ones in the room were the Gaunt Old Man and Yu Lingling.
And Yu Lingling clearly had no intention of feeding herself to the Flesh Mountain.
The Gaunt Old Man’s voice was hoarse. “I’ll make a deal with you. Provide the food, and I guarantee you’ll leave safely.”
“No need.” Yu Lingling took out the key to the Westernmost Unit on the fourth floor. “I own property here too. It’s three floors above yours.”
The Gaunt Old Man looked at the key, then at Yu Lingling’s face. Overcome with hatred and rage, he shouted, “Why did you come here to hurt my grandson? Why did you come here to hurt my grandson?!”
Yu Lingling put the key away. “Because it’s fun.”
Cracks began appearing all over the Gaunt Old Man’s body.
Yu Lingling sensed his aura turning unstable, like a glass bottle that had shattered and then been glued back together. “Don’t you think so?”
Gashes split open across the Gaunt Old Man’s face. There was no blood or flesh inside them, only twisted things writhing like worms. “Aaaah!”
“Actually…” Yu Lingling deliberately paused. “You could feed yourself to your grandson. Maybe once he eats you, he’ll be able to stop. If he can hold out until the three-day instance ends, he’ll be fine.”
The sounds coming from the Gaunt Old Man resembled a beast’s snarls more than a human voice. “You deserve to die! You deserve to die! I’ll kill you!”
Yu Lingling put on a hat with two little bear ears sticking up from it. “You love your grandson so much. Surely you wouldn’t be reluctant, would you?”
The Gaunt Old Man’s eyes had already turned red. “My grandson… my only grandson.”
“You love your grandson, don’t you?” Yu Lingling lowered her voice slightly. “He’s your only grandson. It couldn’t have been easy raising him to this size. You must have put in so much effort, right?”
Without realizing it, the Gaunt Old Man followed her lead and answered, “Love him. One. My grandson.”
Yu Lingling spoke softly. “Look how well you’ve raised him. Can you really bear to let him starve?”
The Gaunt Old Man looked at his grandson.
Yu Lingling’s words were like a demon’s whisper. “You can feed yourself to him. In three days, you’ll be reunited with your grandson again. You love him so much. Of course you’d be willing to sacrifice yourself for him, right?”
“After all, you’re the happiest family in the world.”