Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Brother Knife’s nerves were stretched taut, like a string pulled so tight that the slightest extra pressure would make it snap.
What happened when someone suffered a mental breakdown inside a Horror Game Instance?
Yu Lingling was rather curious.
Judging by Brother B’s reaction, however, Brother Knife’s breakdown would affect him or cause him trouble as well.
Brother B had also noticed something was wrong with Brother Knife. He could tell the man was hiding something, but chose to back down and motioned for Yu Lingling to hand over the notebook. “We found a crucial clue. If everything goes smoothly, we might even clear the instance ahead of schedule.”
Brother Knife’s breath trembled. There was a reckless madness in his eyes as he stared at Yu Lingling, and he practically snatched the yellow cowhide notebook from her hands.
Brother B and Yu Lingling both took a step back, distancing themselves from him.
Brother Knife rapidly flipped through the notebook. “So that’s what happened. So that’s what happened.”
After successfully clearing his first Novice Instance and gaining a skill, someone had contacted him and offered him plenty of benefits. Their only condition was that he join their guild once he became a Full-fledged Player.
Brother Knife agreed. Afterward, those people told him a great deal about the Horror Game and even gave him several items.
With those advantages, Brother Knife could have cleared his second Novice Instance without trouble. Instead, he brutally slaughtered every anomaly and newcomer in the entire instance.
Once he got out, however, the guild warned him.
Brother Knife hadn’t taken the warning seriously. Even when anomalies cornered him on the second floor, he hadn’t truly been afraid because he knew he still had a trump card.
That changed when he encountered the Teenage Anomaly – the Wheelchair-Bound Boy. It was as if Brother Knife had returned to the second instance and become one of the anomalies he had tortured and killed.
Not only that, he had also become the boy from the diary – the one who had been eaten.
Brother Knife had lied to Brother B and the others. He hadn’t escaped on his own. When he woke up, he had already been in the empty room next door.
Now that he had read the diary, Brother Knife finally connected everything. He knew even more than what had been recorded in its pages.
While the boy was hidden in the box under the bed, his parents had gone from door to door, asking whether anyone had seen him.
The neighbors in this building had clearly seen him, yet not a single one told his parents.
He had treated that child so well, yet the child had betrayed him.
Brother Knife spoke in a hoarse voice. “The Wheelchair-Bound Boy is the instance Core responsible for this entire instance.”
The Instance Core?
No one had ever explained it to Yu Lingling, but she knew that an instance Core and an instance Boss were two different things.
In the first instance, Auspicious Village, the instance Boss had been the imprisoned woman, while the instance Core should have been the Four Dolls.
As for whether the Wheelchair-Bound Boy truly was the instance Core of this instance, that remained to be seen.
Brother B suspected the same thing, but he didn’t immediately agree. “Since you spent a night on the fourth floor, what other clues do you have that we don’t know about?”
Brother Knife said nothing.
Brother B’s expression turned grave. “Brother Knife, we’re not the ones desperate to clear the instance. You are. Can you even get off the fourth floor now?”
Brother Knife suddenly pointed at Yu Lingling. “I can tell you, but she has to stay on the fourth floor tonight.”
Brother B regarded Brother Knife with open mockery. This man clearly still hadn’t grasped his situation.
Still, it had nothing to do with him. Whatever Yu Lingling ultimately chose, Brother B wouldn’t be the one to lose out.
Cradling her Teddy Bear Doll, Yu Lingling tilted her head and looked at Brother Knife. “Do you really think you’re in any position to negotiate?”
Brother B snorted with laughter. When both Brother Knife and Yu Lingling turned to look at him, he raised a hand to cover his mouth.
Yu Lingling kept her eyes on Brother Knife. “Your own life is hanging by a thread. Why should anyone believe your lead is real?”
Brother B clearly agreed with Yu Lingling. “Should we check West Unit?”
They had come to the fourth floor for more than just Brother Knife.
Seeing that Brother B was about to leave, Brother Knife forgot all about negotiating. “No one in this building is innocent when it comes to the deaths of that boy and his family.”
That much was obvious.
Brother Knife sat on the floor, panting heavily. “His father was murdered. He’s buried in the flower bed downstairs.”
Neither Yu Lingling nor Brother B was surprised. The diary had mentioned that those people did not grow vegetables in the flower bed, that the flowers there bloomed beautifully, and that a child from upstairs had been beaten by his family for picking them.
That proved the family knew a body was buried in the flower bed.
Brother Knife licked his lips. He kept tasting something sweet and metallic in his mouth. “His mother was driven to her death because those people wanted their apartment.”
Inside the apartment in the Westernmost Unit were the Four Dolls.
The apron-clad woman who had been there earlier had already left. She had tidied the room and stitched the torn pieces of human skin back together, but she had not taken anything with her.
After the Four Dolls arrived, they followed Yu Lingling’s orders and collected everything with writing on it. They were now making trip after trip to deliver it all to Wheelchair-Bound Boy.
Wheelchair-Bound Boy was right next door. He stared at the four differently dressed little entities, each with an expression that plainly said they were extremely unhappy to be serving him. “…”
Once the four little entities had delivered everything, the one wearing overalls rummaged through its pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, then handed it to him.
It was a blue-and-pink memo sheet printed with pictures of a puppy and a cake.
There were only five Chinese characters written on it.
“Want to work together, Xiao Yi?”
At that moment, everyone watching the boy’s Livestream Room froze when they saw the message.
“How did she figure out the streamer is a player rather than an entity?”
“The streamer is using an entity’s body right now.”
“What’s Xiao Yi supposed to mean?”
Someone quickly figured it out.
“A = Sister A, B = Brother B, C = Chacha, D = Brother Knife, E = Xiao Yi.”
Unlike the viewers, who still needed time to think it through, Wheelchair-Bound Boy understood what she meant the moment he saw the name.
But how had the person calling herself Chacha discovered that he was a player?
Still, Xiao Yi was not a bad alias to use for now.
After entering this instance, he had used the Exclusive Skill he had obtained only after a near-death ordeal to randomly take over an entity’s body. He had remained hidden ever since and had only encountered Chacha once.
Xiao Yi thought the only moment he could possibly have given himself away was when he eliminated the entity from the supposedly empty apartment on the fourth floor. He simply could not bring himself to stand by and let certain things happen right before his eyes.
Xiao Yi looked at the memo sheet in his hand, then at the four visibly displeased little entities crouching in front of him. When his gaze met that of the one holding its pink diamond crown in place, it pointed at the memo sheet.
Xiao Yi felt that his luck had been fairly good this time. At the very least, the person proposing an alliance had both strength and intelligence. Judging from everything so far, she also seemed sincere.
“We can work together.”
The moment he finished speaking, the four little entities started climbing out the window.
“Wait,” Xiao Yi hurriedly called out.
The faster ones were already gone. The slowest one reluctantly turned around to look at him.
Xiao Yi used a pencil to write a few words on the memo sheet before handing it back. “Thank you.”