Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Although that young man cleared the rest of the way and successfully left the instance,

I still had my wages docked.

They docked them all the way to eight hundred years from now.

The reason was that, thanks to my little string of operations, the novice instance’s survival rate successfully hit a new record low, and the Instance Master was thoroughly punished by the Lord God.

Twisting a lock of hair around my finger, I said weakly, “How about I go beat up the Lord God and make him take back the punishment?”

The Instance Master nearly knelt down before me. “Don’t. Little Ancestor, please don’t make trouble.”

Fine. Then I could only work for eight hundred years to pay off my debt.

Poor me. I still did not even know what wages were.

When the other ghosts were showing off their pay, I went over curiously and asked, “What’s this?”

A ghost explained that this was ghost energy. Absorbing it could increase one’s cultivation, raise one’s level, and help one strive for a transfer to a higher-level instance.

Then forget it.

I instantly lost interest.

If my cultivation increased any more, I suspected I could lightly slap myself out of existence.

The Instance Master set me as the Ultimate Boss, and Big Skeleton became my loyal underling.

But the two of us barely had any chance to appear. Even when we did appear, we could only stand there and scare people. We were not allowed to attack.

So boring.

Forget eight hundred years. I was sick of it after eight days.

I decided to abandon my underling and run away from home.

I would go to the instance that young man had gone through.

He was the only person who had ever tried to crash into me and scam me, after all. Very good. This man had caught my attention.

When the Instance Master heard that I was running away from home, they happily packed my luggage for me. “Go on. Your position will be kept for you. Come back to work whenever you want.”

Me: “…”

My underling bashfully took off his skull and tried to give it to me, but I refused. Ever since I learned that wages were ghost energy, I had lost all desire to eat.

The ghosts waved little handkerchiefs as they said goodbye to me.

I was only running away from home, but anyone who did not know better would think I was heading off to war.

NPCs were not allowed to run around between instances. Even low-level ghosts who leveled up and wanted to transfer had to go through a strict review process.

However, I was not an ordinary NPC. I was a wild NPC.

I was rather exceptionally gifted. After some basic literacy training, I understood the general situation between instances, then taught myself how to run around where I pleased.

I returned to the Wasteland.

I more or less understood it now. The Wasteland was the barren land between instances, connecting each instance with the Main City where players lived. It was a chaotic zone of time, space, dimensions, and all sorts of indescribable other dimensions.

I carefully recalled the young man’s appearance, then opened my eyes and arrived in another instance.

All around me were old-fashioned corridors.

Then, before I could accomplish anything, I got lost.

After wandering around for ages, I finally found a room with an NPC in it. I floated inside. A faceless female demon was painting.

I was so curious that I forgot to ask for directions. “What are you painting?”

The demon jumped in fright.

Her hand slipped, and the face skin she had finished painting tore apart.

Only then did I see that the vanity in front of her was covered with all kinds of painted faces, each in a different style, all equally ugly.

I gave her the same disgusted look as an old man on the subway squinting at a phone.

The demon threw away the torn face skin. “This is all your fault. You scared me out of nowhere. Pay me back for my face.”

As she spoke, she paused and looked me up and down, somewhat puzzled. “Where did you come from?”

I told her honestly, “From the novice instance.”

She assumed I was a low-level ghost from the novice instance who had leveled up and transferred over. Her faceless face somehow produced a voice. “Those careless people. They did not even know to change your work uniform.”

Workers got new clothes too?

I looked at my own white dress. In the previous instance, none of the ghosts had ever paid attention to it. Higher-level instances really were more particular.

After the demon finished speaking, she started clamoring for me to pay her back for her face again.

That was easy. I picked up a blank face skin and, using the brush beside me, finished drawing one in a few quick strokes, then pasted it onto her face.

After that, I admired my own creation. So pretty. Looking at it, even I felt a little moved. The more I looked, the more I liked it.

The Painted Skin Demon hesitantly walked over to the bronze mirror.

“Aaaah!”

“Why did you draw an awkward square face on me?”