Chapter 34

Chapter 34

After being lectured with such sarcasm, the group waited until the Inn owner left.

The girl huffed loudly, her fingers picking at the edge of the paper-cut on the table before she gave it a forceful rip.

The paper-cut, which had been neatly pasted, was torn halfway off, leaving only a stark white residue on the tabletop that looked even more jarring.

“It’s just a piece of paper. Why can’t I tear it?”

As she spoke, she crumpled the torn piece into a ball and tossed it carelessly by her feet.

The other five people at the table watched her actions, but no one spoke up to stop her.

Chu Yue also remained silent, lowering his head to shove a mouthful of rice into his mouth.

Truth be told, it tasted rather awful.

This wasn’t high-quality polished rice; the white grains still bore traces of unremoved husks, which scratched at his throat as he chewed and swallowed.

The side dishes weren’t much better, their only redeeming quality being that they were filling.

There wasn’t a lot of food, and by the time everyone had finished eating and drinking, the plates were basically licked clean.

The Waiter, who had been standing behind the counter, had disappeared somewhere to slack off, leaving only the twelve of them in the Hall.

A man and a woman who had already been there when Chu Yue arrived stepped forward to take the lead.

“Let’s talk about the mission first. It doesn’t sound like there’s a specific task to complete, so the condition for leaving should be surviving until the town’s festival ends.”

The woman introduced herself as Zhang Duo. She mentioned she was already Level 2 and had some experience, proceeding to brief everyone on precautions and survival strategies.

“As for the rooms, I recommend choosing double or triple rooms. If you run into danger, you’ll at least have someone to look out for you.”

Chu Yue scoffed at this.

Look out for each other? When the shadow of death loomed, it was hard to say whether the hands behind you would be pulling you back or pushing you forward.

Despite his thoughts, Chu Yue didn’t plan on taking a room alone. He had already set his sights on a target.

The chatterbox scurried to his side, eyes full of eagerness. “Big brother, how about you and I share a-”

Before he could finish, Chu Yue had already stood up and walked over to someone else.

It was a young man with a tall, straight posture. He had a cold expression and handsome features. From the moment they entered until now, Chu Yue hadn’t heard him utter a single word.

The ink-black brocade robes he wore made him stand out like a crane among a flock of chickens.

Chu Yue didn’t stand on ceremony. He walked up to the man and asked bluntly, “Want to share a room?”

Shen Yubi glanced at him. He didn’t speak, only nodding.

Seeing the indifferent look on his face, Chu Yue pursed his lips and didn’t say anything more.

Without a self-introduction, he couldn’t be certain that the man before him was Shen Yubi.

But he looked too much like him.

He bore a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to the twenty-something-year-old Shen Yubi Chu Yue had reconstructed in his drawings!

It was just that the originally somewhat gentle features were now sharper, and his gaze was much colder.

“Take me with you, big brother! I’ll come too. Let’s the three of us take a triple room.”

The boy wasn’t discouraged and squeezed his way back in front of Chu Yue.

Shen Yubi glanced at him and frowned almost imperceptibly, but he didn’t say anything.

Chu Yue looked between the two of them and gave his silent consent as well.

“Then it’s settled! Big brother, I still don’t know your name. And this big brother too-since we’re about to stay in the same room, shouldn’t we exchange names?”

As he spoke, he reached out a hand toward Chu Yue. “Big brother, my name is Guan Doujin. You can just call me Jinzi.”

Looking down at the extended hand, Chu Yue raised an eyebrow. “Guan Doujin?”
“Yes.”

“That name sounds like it brings good fortune.”

As a businessman, he liked the sound of it.

Not knowing what kind of trick the man was playing, Shen Yubi didn’t even bother looking at him, let alone introducing himself.

Ignoring the hand extended toward him, Shen Yubi whispered, “She’s recruiting the newbies.”

Chu Yue followed his gaze and saw Zhang Duo.

He had noticed it earlier-this woman seemed exceptionally friendly toward all the new Players. Every time a newbie had a question, she was always the first to rush over and solve it, even taking the initiative to explain the rules of the game world.

In just this short amount of time, quite a few newbies had already sided with her, calling her “Sister Zhang” left and right.

She accepted it all with a smile, and before long, the group was getting along famously.

“Let’s go. We’ll check the rooms first,” Shen Yubi said.

Zhang Duo’s intentions weren’t hard to guess.

In this Instance, the ratio of newbies to Veterans was roughly half and half.

With a Mortality Rate of only thirty percent, it meant about four people would likely die.

She had conveniently gathered four newbies; Veterans were hard to fool, but these newbies were quite easy to talk into things.

Without knowing what the Death Condition of the Instance was, it was a bargain to find a few people to test the waters for them just by using a bit of sweet talk, wasn’t it?

The Inn was clearly quite old. As the three of them stepped onto the stairs, the wooden floorboards creaked and groaned with every step they took.

Once they reached the 2nd Floor corridor, the sound became even more pronounced, as if a single careless step could plunge a foot right through the wood.

Every room in the corridor had a small wooden plaque hanging on the door, indicating the maximum occupancy.

Selecting the room furthest from the stairs, the three of them pushed the door open and entered.

A room decorated in an antique style met their eyes, though the furnishings could only be described as meager.

Aside from a large bed, a round table, and three small round stools, there was nothing else in the room.

The only purpose of this room was likely for resting and sleeping.

Since it was a triple room, the bed took up more than half the space. Forget three people; it was more than enough for four to sleep comfortably.

As soon as Guan Doujin entered, he threw himself onto the bed and rolled around.

Chu Yue, meanwhile, walked to the window and pushed open the wooden shutters.

Looking down from the 2nd Floor of the Inn, the scenery below was laid bare. Due to their position, he could even see the entirety of the small street.

The goods displayed by the street vendors were almost entirely paper-cuttings; at a glance, the view was a sea of vibrant red.

He turned his head slightly.

This place truly lived up to the name Paper-Cutting Town; traces of paper-cutting were everywhere.

Even this room was no exception.

The window he had just opened had two paper-cuttings pasted on the left and right-the character for “Fortune.”

Though common, the patterns were unlike anything Chu Yue had ever seen.

Paper-cutting was no longer popular in the 21st century. Even if people wanted window decorations for the Lunar New Year, they usually bought mass-produced, printed ones.

When it came to patterns, the most effort went into the font and decorative borders.

While he was observing the style of the paper-cuttings, Guan Doujin, who had been rolling around on the bed, suddenly let out a low curse.

“What the hell is this!”

Chu Yue turned around. “What’s wrong?”

“You guys, come look at this. My god, this is terrifying. Who could sleep with this at night?”

Chu Yue and Shen Yubi walked over.

Guan Doujin scooted toward the inside of the bed. “Don’t just stand there, you won’t see it clearly. Come lie down and look up. I guarantee it’ll make your scalp crawl.”