Chapter 23

Chapter 23

“You’re right.”

Chu Yue replied offhandedly, not even looking at him. With a knife in one hand, he reached out with the other to steady Shen Yubi, who was about to jump down.

Those Monsters were indeed sensitive to the scent of Outsiders. The moment the three of them emerged, the people gathered nearby began moving toward them.

Without a word, the trio took off in the opposite direction as soon as Shen Yubi hit the ground.

Wang Meng didn’t ask how they had obtained the Monsters’ weapons; he knew all too well that staying close to these two was his safest bet right now.

After running just a few paces, they saw Li Baixing leap down from the 2nd Floor on the other side.

The three of them climbing out of the window over there had provided her with a perfect opportunity to escape.

The group of three fleeing for their lives had now become four.

The streetlights had gone out at some unknown point, leaving only a sliver of moonlight to illuminate the path beneath their feet.

A gust of wind carried the roars from behind into their ears, and they could faintly discern blurred words within the noise.

“Eat… eat… Outsiders… must all die-”

That aura of madness made their scalps tingle with dread.

Li Baixing couldn’t resist glancing back. That single look gave her trembling legs a sudden burst of strength, and she surged ahead of Wang Meng in a single breath.

Though Shen Yubi was small, he wasn’t slow. “To Li Ergou’s Home.”

Li Ergou’s Home wasn’t too far away. Fortunately, aside from those behind them, they didn’t encounter any more of those crazed people along the way. In less than ten minutes, the small two-story building appeared before them.

Perhaps because Li Ergou was distracted, his front door was actually wide open. It was a godsend!

The group picked up their pace. Just as they were about to reach it, Shen Yubi suddenly tripped on something and tumbled to the ground.

Li Baixing and Wang Meng passed right by him without a second glance.

Shen Yubi rolled over to dodge something lunging at him. Before he could do anything else, he saw Chu Yue, who had already run ahead, doubling back for him.

The things behind were in hot pursuit. In that brief moment, they had already reached the pair.

Kicking away the large man in the lead, Chu Yue scooped Shen Yubi up from the ground and pulled him along by the hand.

As they neared the entrance, Chu Yue’s gaze hardened. He looked up and met Wang Meng’s sinister eyes.

In the next instant, the door was ruthlessly slammed shut from the inside.

Seeing Wang Meng’s actions, Li Baixing let out a scream and rushed forward to open the door. “Are you crazy?! Open the door, quickly! They’ll die!”

Wang Meng ignored her, shoving her aside. “Get lost! Don’t get in my way!”

He was here to grind Points, not to display some bullshit sense of camaraderie.

Chu Yue set his jaw, standing side-by-side with Shen Yubi at Li Ergou’s Doorstep. He watched the swarming mass of Monsters surging toward them, offering no comment on Wang Meng’s character.

Now that they had stopped, they could see what had tripped Shen Yubi by the moonlight.

It was a leg, discarded carelessly in the middle of the road, now being trampled into the dirt by the Monsters’ feet.

Looking further into the distance, other things were faintly visible. One thing was certain: they definitely didn’t belong to a Player.

Chu Yue pursed his lips and tightened his grip on the knife. “How long do you think we need to hold out?”

“Ten minutes at most.” Shen Yubi reached out. “Give it to me.”

“No need,” Chu Yue said. “I can manage ten minutes.”

At a time like this, he had to manage whether he could or not. He had to face it even with his eyes closed.

No matter how capable Shen Yubi was, he was still a child; he couldn’t hold an area as large as the doorstep alone.

Though Li Ergou’s Butcher Knife was large, in the hands of an adult, it was simply a meat cleaver turned into a broadsword.

Without giving him any time to prepare, the first wave of Monsters arrived.

Chu Yue swung. The blade met little resistance; the bones of the person in front of him felt like tofu as their upper and lower body were instantly severed.

Chu Yue paused for a heartbeat before moving his feet, guarding the decently sized doorway with an airtight defense.

He saw the old men and women who had been chatting at the mouth of the alley during the day, and the middle-aged woman who had been shouting in the street. Toward the end, he even saw the Woman on the 4th Floor in her red dress.

Under these circumstances, time slowed to a crawl. The stench of blood and rot fouled their senses, making them want to retch, though nothing would come up.

After an unknown amount of time, noise finally erupted from inside the house.

Wang Meng’s blood-curdling scream drowned out the roars of the Monsters outside. The sound lasted only a moment before falling silent. A moment later, the door was cracked open.
Li Baixing poked her head out and grabbed Shen Yubi’s arm, pulling him inside. “Get in, quickly!”

Shen Yubi slipped through the door, and Chu Yue followed close behind after forcing back an attacker.

At this moment, the two of them looked incredibly disheveled, but compared to those who had lost their lives, they were far better off.

Walking through the hallway behind the door, they found Li Ergou standing in the courtyard, his eyes fixed on them.

He still held a blade in his hand, though it was a massive kitchen cleaver.

Looking at the Butcher Knives in their hands, Li Ergou flashed them a bizarre smile and dropped the cleaver. “You two certainly played your cards well.”

Shen Yubi looked up, his tone neither warm nor cold. “I have to thank him for his cooperation.”

If Wang Meng hadn’t pulled that stunt, and the four of them had entered together, Shen Yubi would have had his own ways to ensure they entered without losing a single person-it just would have been more troublesome.

However, he had already anticipated this situation.

Wang Meng wasn’t stupid. They had gone to great lengths to trade for the Butcher Knives from the Monster and then insisted on going to Li Ergou’s house. Anyone with half a brain could figure out that the blades in their hands were the Butcher Knives required for the mission.

As long as the two of them died, the knives left outside the door would naturally belong to him once dawn broke.

Setting aside the random clues, the Points for clearing the Instance were the most enticing reward.

Chu Yue hadn’t forgotten that Wang Meng’s original purpose for entering this Instance was to farm Points.

That said, while this was supposedly an Instance with a 100% Mortality Rate, it was one thing for Li Ergou not to kill them because of that letter, but quite another for them to go looking for death at his house.

If Wang Meng could serve as the sacrifice for tonight’s body count, that was for the best.

Wang Meng’s downfall was that he didn’t know the Monster at night and Li Ergou were the same person.

Perhaps he had guessed it, but he wasn’t certain. Dodging death once didn’t mean he could dodge it a second time.

As for Li Baixing, they had already saved her life once before. Although they had used her a bit later on, they hadn’t included her in their actual plan; her survival was naturally of no concern to them.

Li Baixing watched Li Ergou and the other two warily, immediately putting a great distance between herself and the group.

Chu Yue and Shen Yubi, however, casually found a place to sit and even started chatting with Li Ergou.

Li Ergou’s task for the night was already complete; he likely wouldn’t move against the remaining three.

The roars outside no longer had anything to do with those inside the gate.

“What will happen to them?” Shen Yubi asked, turning to look at Li Ergou. “And after dawn?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps they will be purged by the Deity.”

“And you?”

“I don’t know. I’ll probably be punished by the Deity as well,” Li Ergou said.

He looked at the moon, his expression incredibly calm.

Tonight was strangely quiet. As they sat in the courtyard, they could even hear the rustling of the wind through the trees on the back mountain.

Time passed quickly when they were safe. When a sliver of light appeared on the eastern horizon, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

At that moment, the ground beneath their feet began to vibrate, as if something heavy was passing by.

This didn’t last long before peace returned-a complete, absolute silence.

A White Fox suddenly appeared on the roof, looking down at them from its high vantage point.

Chu Yue’s hand suddenly tightened. It was the fox they had encountered on the hill!

Was this the Deity Li Ergou spoke of?

However, it only spared them a few glances. It did nothing, disappearing in a few leaps and bounds.

A cool breeze blew, and raindrops began to fall from the sky again.

At some point, Li Ergou had returned to his normal appearance, and the knife in Chu Yue’s hand had shrunk back to its usual size.

Even though they knew about this transformation, seeing it with their own eyes was still startling.

Li Ergou’s eyes were dazed. Before he could even ask a question, Chu Yue stepped forward.

He held out the Butcher Knife. “Is this the one you were looking for?”

“Yes, it is!” Li Ergou was instantly overjoyed. He hurriedly took the knife, forgetting what he had been about to say. “This is the knife I was looking for. Thank you, truly, thank you.”

As his fingertips brushed over the character “Li” on the handle, Li Ergou’s gaze softened considerably.

“Thank you so much. I don’t even know what to say.”

As if remembering something, he tucked the knife into his waistband and hurried toward the house. When he emerged again, he held a red umbrella.

Ignoring the three of them entirely, he walked straight out of the courtyard.

Chu Yue watched the direction he went and lowered his eyes after a long moment.

Nighttime Li Ergou could not retrieve Li Yaqiu’s remains, and the daytime Li Ergou would never see his wife return.