Chapter 59

Chapter 59

As the paper tiger at his feet crumbled into ash, Guan Doujin found himself with only one paper puppet left beside him, other than the Paper-Cut Goddess’s paper-cuts.

“What happened? Why is it so noisy?”

Just then, a man walked out from the back of the Inn. He was yawning, his face full of exhaustion, and he froze in place upon seeing the scene in the Hall.

His appearance was so abrupt that the others were momentarily stunned. In that brief lapse, the paper puppet slipped through a crack in the door and escaped the Inn.

At the same time, the shadow from before vanished as well.

With the crisis averted, Chu Yue finally noticed the person opposite him.

The handsome man who had been sitting there earlier had turned into a young child with a tense little face.

The cumbersome adult clothes draped over him looked like he was wearing a burlap sack.

Chu Yue froze for a moment. Looking at Little Shen Yubi, his expression shifted, and his fingertips couldn’t help but twitch.

The Waiter let out a scream. “You! You! What are you doing?! You’ve damaged so many tables and chairs! How am I supposed to explain this to the Innkeeper?”

He rushed over, touching this and that, his face a picture of despair.

Seeing him appear, the Paper-Cut Goddess paused. Taking advantage of the Waiter’s distraction, she turned and vanished on the spot.

Guan Doujin held his sword across the Waiter’s neck. “Stop wailing. I’ll pay you back.”

The person sobbing over the table stopped instantly. He looked up, blinking his slightly moist eyelashes. “You’ll really pay?”

“Of course. Do you think I’m short on a bit of pocket change?”

Upon hearing this, the Waiter immediately broke into a smile. “I knew you wouldn’t make things difficult for me, big brother.”

Guan Doujin rolled his eyes. No wonder he could work as a Waiter in an Inn; his ability to suck up to people was second to none.

Pulling a banknote from his sleeve, Guan Doujin stuffed it into the Waiter’s hand and sheathed his sword. “Going back?”

“Mhm,” Shen Yubi replied.

Chu Yue set the light stick down on the table and took two steps toward him. Before he could lean down, Guan Doujin dashed forward.

With a quick lift and a tug, he swept Little Shen Yubi directly into his arms.

“Let’s go. Back to sleep.”

Chu Yue looked at him, then at his own hands.

He trailed two steps behind Guan Doujin and suddenly called out, “Jinzi.”

“Hmm?” Guan Doujin paused. The unfamiliar nickname made him turn around.

In an instant, he met a pair of bottomless eyes.

Chu Yue reached out toward him. “Give him to me.”

Guan Doujin immediately lifted the person in his arms and handed him over.

In the blink of an eye, the person carrying him had changed. Shen Yubi remained expressionless.

If these clothes weren’t so cumbersome, why would he ever need someone to carry him up the stairs?

The exchange happened in a matter of seconds. The moment Chu Yue walked past Guan Doujin while holding Little Shen Yubi, Guan Doujin snapped out of it. He looked at his empty arms, still feeling a bit dazed.

As Chu Yue carried Shen Yubi, accompanied by the creaking of the floorboards beneath his feet, his calm voice reached Shen Yubi’s ears.

“The ghost that followed me out after the last Instance ended was you.”

It was a statement, yet it sounded like he was seeking confirmation.

“It was me,” Shen Yubi said coldly. “My skill, Transformed Ghost.”

At this point, there was no use hiding it.

This skill had its pros and cons.

From the moment he entered the game until now, the help Transformed Ghost provided was self-evident. It had saved his life countless times in life-or-death situations.

However, the side effect was that ever since he merged with Transformed Ghost, his body had stopped growing.

Fortunately, with Transformed Ghost inside him, he could manipulate his age at will.
Then there was Chu Yue.

He looked up into the other man’s eyes; he hadn’t missed the change in them just now.

Those already pitch-black pupils had deepened in an instant, making it feel as if one would drown in those dark depths with just a single glance.

Based on Guan Doujin’s reaction, the effect of this skill lasted only a few short seconds.

Generally speaking, it wasn’t as useful as his Transformed Ghost, nor as effective as Guan Doujin’s sword, but in certain situations, it could turn the tide of an entire battle.

As far as he knew, the number of people who possessed such a skill in the game was quite small.

“Thank you for taking care of my grandfather these past few years,” Shen Yubi said.

He could tell the old man was in good spirits and that his living conditions were much better than before.

This was all thanks to the man in front of him.

Chu Yue pursed his lips and didn’t respond, but from the moment those words were spoken, his expression grew even more tense.

By the time he had almost reached the 2nd Floor, Guan Doujin came trotting up from behind.

He stepped in front of Chu Yue and then started walking backward, sizing him up as he went.

Specifically, he was looking at those eyes.

His face was full of curiosity. He knew Chu Yue had used a skill on him just now, but he didn’t know what it was.

Was it something that made a person lose focus for a few seconds?

The moment he had met those eyes, his consciousness felt as if it had been stripped away instantly.

Back in the room, Chu Yue placed the other man onto the bed.

Chu Yue looked at the heavy, elaborate clothes he was wearing. “You can’t change back?”

Shen Yubi raised his arm, shaking his hand to slide the sleeve up. “I can, but I have to maintain this form for tonight.”

Once the Transformed Ghost is separated from the body, it cannot be reintegrated for six hours. Fortunately, it was night; he would be back to normal after a night’s sleep.

“Don’t worry,” Guan Doujin said, sitting down at the table. “This isn’t the first time he’s been in this situation.”

Although Shen Yubi usually avoided sending out the Transformed Ghost to prevent trouble, special circumstances always arose.

They didn’t know if the Players upstairs had heard their earlier fight, but in any case, not a single person had come down to check.

Who knew what would happen tomorrow.

“Alright, let’s all get some sleep. We have things to do tomorrow.” Seeing that Chu Yue was in a bad mood, Guan Doujin swallowed the questions he had wanted to ask.

The Paper-Cut Goddess had fled as soon as she saw the Waiter come out and hadn’t said anything else. They could only wait for him to come to them tomorrow.

They slept until dawn. No one had died last night.

When Chu Yue opened his eyes, Shen Yubi was already fully dressed and sitting by the table.

He had returned to his previous appearance.

Chu Yue climbed out of bed and said, “Morning.”

After finishing his morning routine, he took the glass of warm water Shen Yubi handed him and drank it in one gulp.

Chu Yue sat at the table and looked at Shen Yubi. “Last night was different from the previous Instance.”

“Naturally,” Shen Yubi said. “Since we’re already clear on each other’s identities, there’s no need to keep pretending to be an ignorant child.”

Chu Yue nodded in understanding, though he felt a bit of regret in his heart.

He actually quite liked Little Shen Yubi’s personality from the last Instance.

He had looked like a little adult putting on airs, yet he still possessed a certain innocence. Chu Yue was quite a sucker for things like acting spoiled.

But looking at the person opposite him now and trying to imagine him acting spoiled made a layer of goosebumps break out over his skin.

By the time they went downstairs, there were no longer any Players in the Hall.

A new day had begun. Those who stayed in their rooms continued to stay there, and those looking for clues continued their search.

“What a shame,” Guan Doujin sighed while gnawing on a steamed bun. “We can’t even observe anyone.”

They still hadn’t determined who the corpse they found earlier belonged to.