chapter 13
Cheng Miao noticed that the Little Girl across from her stared fixedly after receiving a piece of bread the size of an adult’s palm. Wanting to eat her meal in peace, Cheng Miao handed over her egg.
“Who wants your egg? Who would care for something like that!”
The Little Girl lifted her chin, her expression arrogant, refusing to take Cheng Miao’s egg, but her eyes still locked onto Cheng Miao’s chicken leg.
Got it, she wants meat. Too bad, Cheng Miao wasn’t moved by this kind of moral coercion.
“So, by your logic, the Game should let you clear the Instance just because you’re young. Why are you still sitting here gnawing on bread?” Cheng Miao smiled at the Little Girl, leisurely picked up her chicken leg, and took a bite.
“You!” The Little Girl’s face suddenly darkened, her eyelids twitching nervously. She sprang to her feet and, without thinking, hurled her bread at Cheng Miao.
The moment she threw it, her face turned even uglier.
Damn! She forgot this wasn’t her family’s manor, but the Game.
Cheng Miao watched as the bread flew past her and landed on the ground. She shrugged, turned in another direction, and continued eating her chicken leg at her own pace.
“Little Girl, this is a place where a careless move could cost you your life. Most people won’t take care of you just because you’re young.” An Uncle poked his head out from the side and spoke to the girl. “Do you want some of my bread? I’ll give you half.”
Seeing that Cheng Miao didn’t intend to retaliate, the Little Girl’s tense shoulders relaxed a bit.
She didn’t even glance at the Uncle, her gaze somewhat sinister as she stared at Cheng Miao’s back, not noticing that the Uncle’s look toward her was also growing darker.
The Intermediate Dormitory was always bright and spacious. People around would be eating or sleeping one moment, and the next, they’d vanish into thin air.
At first, Cheng Miao was surprised, but then realized it was just people entering the Game when their time came.
Because of survivor bias, Cheng Miao hadn’t realized how low the Instance clearance rate was until she observed carefully and saw that the number of residents posted on the wall kept decreasing, never increasing.
For most people, only those with strong minds or incredible luck could quickly accept reality and throw themselves into the Game.
In the following days, Cheng Miao spent most of her time gathering intel from the Cockroach Brothers.
Although she didn’t want to deal with two cockroaches, their appearance actually made conversation less troublesome than with humans.
Ah Zhang was more lively; he answered everything Cheng Miao asked. Ah Lang didn’t like to talk, always using professional service phrases.
“Is Cockroach Dormitory the only Dormitory here?” Cheng Miao couldn’t tell which was the older or younger brother, so she just looked at both cockroaches-whichever replied was the older one.
“Of course not! There are plenty of Dormitories: Rat Dormitory, Mosquito Dormitory, countless others. But when it comes to service and facilities, Cockroach Dormitory is definitely the best.”
“Can you form teams in the Game?” This was what Cheng Miao cared about most. Team play and solo play each had their own strategies.
Cheng Miao had very low trust in others, especially now when life and death were at stake. Yet deep down, she hoped to have a few close friends. Struggling alone in life-and-death situations was just too hard.
Ah Zhang didn’t hold anything back and answered honestly. “You can team up in the Game, but not in low-level Inns like Dormitories. You need to reach a higher-level Inn for the team function. The Front Desk will explain it to you then.”
“But there are many Inns of the same level. How do you make sure a team enters the same Inn?” Cheng Miao noticed some commotion outside-maybe a Player had finished the Game.
“When you upgrade Inns, you can choose.” With new guests arriving, Ah Zhang didn’t have time to chat further. He and his brother wobbled out the door together.
Cheng Miao stood waiting for a while, but the door didn’t open-only a heart-wrenching scream echoed through the hall.
She lowered her eyes and slowly walked back to her bed.
“You’re not afraid of those two monsters. Maybe you’re not normal yourself.” The Little Girl across from her smiled, but her eyes were icy cold.
Although she was in the wrong that morning, once her temper flared, she couldn’t control it and switched to a sarcastic, passive-aggressive mode.
Cheng Miao was in a foul mood, and the Little Girl happened to run into her at the worst possible moment. Her expression was so dark it seemed like water could drip from it.
Cheng Miao walked up to the Little Girl, grabbed her collar, and looked down at her coldly from above. “Listen, I don’t care if you’re some rich family’s precious daughter. If your parents don’t have time to properly raise you, and you’ve grown up without even the most basic respect and manners, I don’t mind teaching you on their behalf.”
Cheng Miao bent down, staring at the Little Girl and enunciating each word: “No one here is obligated to yield to you or help you. If someone doesn’t drag you down, you should be grateful for their virtue. If you want to survive, if you want to eat meat, then clear the Instance properly.”
“As for what you just said, that already counts as a personal attack. I think I deserve an apology.”
Damn it, didn’t she seem pretty even-tempered this morning?
The Little Girl’s face flushed red from Cheng Miao’s actions. She struggled but found herself powerless, and the fear she felt quickly turned into shame and anger. She pursed her lips, refusing to comply through her actions.
Cheng Miao curled her lips into a child-devouring smile, pressing a hand down on the girl’s shoulder. “I bet your parents never even dared to raise their voices at you, huh? Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so warped.”
Cheng Miao smiled as she rolled up her sleeves. “In my last Instance, there was a little girl-tsk tsk, poor thing-about your age, her bones were almost blooming.”
The Little Girl stretched her arms, trying to scoot onto the bed, but Cheng Miao, with her long limbs, easily grabbed her by the collar.
“You… you wouldn’t dare touch me. No violence is allowed in the lobby.” She’d never suffered such humiliation before.
Cheng Miao smiled ominously, not answering. To outsiders, she looked exactly like, “Little girl, you’re too young. You actually believe that kind of nonsense?”
The Little Girl’s face was gloomy, her cat-like eyes brimming with tears, like a kitten baring its teeth and claws but trembling inside.
No one around spoke up for her, not even the Cockroach Brothers, who hovered nearby to watch the drama.
The Cockroach Brothers didn’t stop Cheng Miao, making both the Little Girl and the onlookers believe Cheng Miao really had the ability and confidence to use violence. For a moment, everyone was a bit on edge.
“S-sorry.” The Little Girl squeezed out the words in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s.
A wise person doesn’t take losses in front of them. Just you wait!
“What? Louder, I didn’t hear you.” Cheng Miao withdrew her threatening smile, her face expressionless as she looked at the Little Girl.
Under Cheng Miao’s utterly emotionless gaze, the Little Girl pursed her lips. “I said I’m sorry!”
“Very good.” Cheng Miao clapped her hands in satisfaction, sat back on the bed, and ignored the Little Girl who was fighting hard not to cry.
The Little Girl wiped away her tears with a blank expression.
Very good, you’ve successfully caught my attention.
“Hey, Little Girl, don’t cry. That lady too-such a grown-up, still picking on a kid… What’s your name?” Judging by the voice, it was the Uncle who’d spoken to her yesterday.
“None of your business. You’re not a good person either.” When it came to those weaker than herself, the Little Girl showed no mercy.
Cheng Miao lay on the bed, ignoring the commotion outside and instead carefully pondering her current situation.
The Survival Inn’s model wasn’t like typical infinite flow games, where you enter the Game directly from real life and return after clearing the Instance.
The Survival Inn had carved out a separate space; Players were completely cut off from reality, living in the world of the Survival Inn.
Why was that? If it was just bad luck being chosen, why would the Game go to such lengths-building rooms, hiring a Front Desk, and ensuring fairness, justice, and transparency outside the Instances?
Moreover, from Cheng Miao’s limited promotion experience, the Intermediate Dormitory was much better than the lower-level ones, indicating that the Game truly provided increasingly better living spaces for Players who successfully cleared Instances. In fact, as long as you had money, the Game could meet almost all your needs.
What, then, was the purpose of the Survival Inn’s existence?