Chapter 46

Chapter 46

The blood-soaked violence in Qi Jiajia’s stare stunned Lin Zhu. Before his mind recovered, the introduction he had prepared escaped his mouth on instinct. “Hello. I’m Lin Zhu. It’s nice to meet you.”

Qi Jiajia paused, then raised a somewhat neurotic smile.

Lin Zhu regretted speaking the moment the words left him. Her fractured expression frightened him even more.

Unable to watch any longer, Cheng Miao smacked Qi Jiajia on the head. “He’s our new teammate. Be nice.”

Qi Jiajia had just fought her way out of an instance, and violence still saturated her. She refused to behave.

How had Cheng Miao found a new teammate after only a few instances apart?

She looked up at Cheng Miao and ground her teeth. “Why do we need a new teammate?”

Cheng Miao had no intention of indulging her. She hated coaxing people, especially children. “You make a good point. Lin Zhu and I have already formed a team. Since we don’t need a new member, we’ll leave. Take care of yourself.”

Cheng Miao turned away. Lin Zhu failed to react and twisted after her without lifting his feet, leaving him in an awkward pose.

Someone caught Cheng Miao’s hem. Unsurprised, she silently counted. At fifteen, Qi Jiajia deliberately sweetened her voice. “Hello, Brother Lin Zhu. I’m Qi Jiajia.”

Lin Zhu’s pupils trembled. The girl’s doll-like face remained icy, yet her voice was exceptionally obedient.

She was incomprehensible. Lin Zhu’s mind went blank. “Hello. Hello.”

Cheng Miao’s sharp eyes spotted a plump, fluffy bird flying into the Guesthouse. She started walking. Qi Jiajia obediently followed, though she never released Cheng Miao’s clothes.

Fortunately, clothing from the Grocery Store was sturdy. Otherwise, being dragged all that way would have stretched it out of shape.

“A guest!” Brother Parrot fluttered its wings. Seeing that the newcomer was with Cheng Miao put it in an even better mood. “My business has improved so much since you arrived. I used to see one player every ten days or two weeks.”

Qi Jiajia was already furious over the interruption. Without considering who stood before her, she spoke sarcastically. “That’s this Guesthouse’s Front Desk attendant? What a chatterbox!”

“Chatterbox?” Brother Parrot froze as if caught in a binding spell. Within moments, its feathers exploded outward like a cat’s raised hackles. “Who are you calling a chatterbox? Huh? Do you still want a room?”

Qi Jiajia took a bloodstained check-in voucher from her pocket and slapped it onto the counter. Standing on tiptoe, she began arguing with the bird. “What kind of business drives customers away? Is that how you treat a guest?”

Cheng Miao folded her arms and watched the entertainment. Lin Zhu hid behind her. He no longer feared Brother Parrot as much, but trading insults with a talking bird remained beyond him.

“Sister Miaomiao, should we stop them?”

“No. Can’t you see they’re both relieving stress?”

Relieving stress? That was certainly a novel method.

Once it had argued to its heart’s content, Brother Parrot hurled a key onto the counter. “Register, then get out of my sight. Don’t loiter in front of me.”

Qi Jiajia rolled her eyes and filled in her information. She had only 500 Travel Coins, exactly enough for one night.

Cheng Miao took her to the cafeteria. Pooling the little money she and Lin Zhu had left, the three ate a reasonably good lunch. They spent 20 Travel Coins on a phone that could only take photographs and used everything else to buy instant noodles.

Cheng Miao looked at her remaining balance of 10 Travel Coins and sighed mournfully.

Hugging three cups of instant noodles, Qi Jiajia glanced at Cheng Miao’s troubled face. Her own small face stiffened. “I can enter an instance right now. There’s no need to spend more money.”
Cheng Miao glanced at Qi Jiajia’s still-trembling legs and mercifully left the weakness unmentioned. “We need rest too. There’s plenty of time. We’ll enter an instance tomorrow at noon.”

Cheng Miao had expected Qi Jiajia to throw a tantrum about sharing her room, but the girl’s recent instances had clearly forced her to grow.

She was still unstable and obsessively possessive, but she was no longer a spoiled menace.

That evening, the two younger teammates crowded into Cheng Miao’s room to slurp instant noodles. Lin Zhu was kind, or, less charitably, a little dense.

He did not sense Qi Jiajia’s hostility. He assumed she was merely wary of outsiders. Since she had called him Brother Lin Zhu, she was now his little sister, and he intended to treat her well.

No matter how openly unfriendly Qi Jiajia became, Lin Zhu kept smiling as he peeled the lid from her noodles and poured in hot water. Eventually, she could only glare at him coldly, too defeated to waste more words.

While eating her noodles, Cheng Miao took out her Items from the ring.

“These are mine. This one can restrain a ghost and has three uses left. This is my offensive Item…”

The two across from her wore indescribable expressions. Qi Jiajia had an antisocial personality. People had doted on her, but no one had ever trusted her. Lin Zhu’s brilliance had isolated him in real life, leaving him with few friends. Inside the Game, no one had trust to spare when death stood so close.

This was the first time either had received such unconditional faith. Cheng Miao believed that once she chose someone, she should trust them. She was also confident in her own judgment.

She skipped the minor Items and introduced only the dagger and Liu Xue’s Jump Rope. In her view, those were the Items with genuine value inside an instance. A team needed mutual trust, knowledge of one another’s abilities, and coordinated resources.

Qi Jiajia set down her braised-beef noodles, pulled a pink hair clip from her freshly washed, still-damp hair, and tossed it onto the table. Then she picked up her cup and resumed eating.

Cheng Miao examined the Item description and raised a brow. “A defensive Item. Very useful. Keep it safe.”

Qi Jiajia continued shoveling noodles into her mouth. She also had a Dead Person’s Noose, the Item she had used in The Three Little Bears’ Home. It had saved her when Zhao Liang tried to shove her out.

The noose was guaranteed to loop around any target she chose, but its restrictions were severe. In many situations, it was completely useless.

Lin Zhu adjusted his glasses self-consciously and placed an enormous book on the table. Qi Jiajia sucked the dangling noodles into her mouth and looked over with curiosity.

“After I cleared Secrets of the Chang Residence last time, it upgraded. Inside an instance, it lets me quickly memorize and learn any one body of knowledge or skill. The effect lasts two days.”

Lin Zhu seemed embarrassed. He always thought his only Item was too situational. Cheng Miao, however, considered it perfectly tailored to him.

His mind was quick and his analytical ability strong. Used correctly, the Item could play a decisive role in clearing an instance.

That night, Cheng Miao lay in bed remembering the black cat basking in the sun and Brother Parrot’s explanation.

“The black cat? Oh, you saw it. It’s the owner of Black Cat Hotel. My sunshine is good and the air is fresh, so it visits often.”

“…I don’t know when it usually comes. It arrives and leaves without a word.”

“Cat food? I have some, but I don’t know whether it eats that. You know what creatures like us usually eat…”

Cheng Miao pressed her lips together. Did that cat, like the cockroach brothers, treat players who failed the Game as snacks?

Would she ever see it again?