Chapter 160
Chapter 160
“Xiao Huai, there’s one more thing I want to tell you.” Ling Chen slowly approached him.
No one else remained.
The insect race was also gradually departing.
“This is for you.” A vial of black liquid appeared in Ling Chen’s hand.
Xiao Huai studied the vial. The instant he took hold of it, a System notification appeared.
[Faction Conversion Serum]
Item Description: Single-use item. May only be used in the current instance. A human player who injects it will become a vampire. A vampire who uses it will become human again.
[Note: No absolute boundary exists in this world.]
Xiao Huai tightened his grip on the serum and raised his eyes to Ling Chen. “Why give this to me?”
They would never hand Xiao Huai an item like this lightly.
Ling Chen drew a faint breath. “No particular reason. Looking at you now, for one instant, I thought I was seeing myself from a very long time ago.”
“This is our secret. Don’t tell anyone. I told you, didn’t I? I’m very friendly.” He smiled faintly and looked away.
His gaze crossed time, seemingly traveling more than a century to settle on the man he had once been, kneeling in a rainstorm and begging the allied forces to send troops for the sake of the people.
He had begged them for fairness and begged heaven to grant humanity one chance.
He had bowed until his forehead bled and his heart went cold,
But never obtained the ending he wanted.
Back then, only one thought had filled his mind: someone had to risk everything for fairness.
Even if the attempt ended with blood streaming from a shattered skull.
The world had changed. He was no longer mortal, and almost none of his humanity remained.
Yet seeing Xiao Huai now awakened memories he had nearly forgotten.
Xiao Huai gradually broke into fragments and disappeared. Before he left, light glittered in his red eyes.
“We have plenty of time ahead of us, Commander Ling.”
*Commander Ling.*
Ling Chen abruptly raised his head and tried to catch the last glimmer before Xiao Huai vanished. He failed, but Xiao Huai’s voice carved itself into his heart.
How many years had it been? How long since anyone had called him that?
He laughed, his fingers curling faintly. “How are you so good at this?”
So good at making gods lose their minds over you.
* * *
The main hall was unexpectedly deserted.
They had assumed they would emerge on the afternoon or evening of the third day.
Instead, it was already the fourth day.
Seven o’clock in the evening on the fourth day, no less.
[Human victory condition: Collect four gold coins to earn an opportunity to leave.]
[Vampire victory condition: Seize gold coins from human players and remain in the instance for five full days to earn an opportunity to leave.]
Human players could obtain one gold coin from a game each day. Under ordinary circumstances, a lucky player who participated normally could leave on the fourth day.
But the chaos had begun on the third day after the new information was announced.
At midnight, the fifth day would begin. Any vampire who had stolen a human player’s gold coin would then be able to leave.
The fourth day was destined to be bloody.
According to the System’s public real-time player count, only a little over twenty survivors remained in the human faction, while twelve vampires survived.
The count would likely fall farther before the night ended.
Especially among the human players.
This large, hundred-player instance had eliminated more than half its participants in only four days.
The boundary between human player and vampire had already begun to blur.
Members of both groups now competed among themselves.
They neither trusted one another nor dared to do so.
Xiao Huai yawned after leaving the main hall. He looked around but did not see Xiao Qian.
He paid it little attention and headed to the dining room alone.
Several players who had just completed Ling Chen’s game emerged around the same time.
By now, most players avoided the dining room and hid whenever possible.
The entire castle was probably unsafe, especially its public areas.
The dining room? How many people could still leisurely enjoy the buffet there?
And reaching it required passing through the corridor where the players’ bedrooms stood.
Xiao Qian’s number tag read fifty-two.
Xiao Huai reached his door and knocked three times. When no one answered, he turned the handle and entered.
The table was neat. The room was empty.
The blankets were carefully folded without a wrinkle, as if no one had ever stayed there.
Xiao Huai raised a brow. Xiao Qian had clearly gestured that they would meet outside. Why had he vanished instead?
He did not dwell on it. He had just finished a game and exhausted both body and mind. He needed food and sleep.
The dining room looked much as he expected, with even fewer people than before.
Including him, only three players occupied it.
The other two did not even bother pretending. They openly exposed their vampire traits.
Sharp canine teeth tore savagely into raw meat, while every drink on their table was filled with scarlet blood.
When Xiao Huai entered, their noses twitched as if they had smelled a magnificent feast.
They started to attack, but remembered he was no ordinary human player. Gripping their thighs, they suppressed their instinctive craving for blood.
They had not forgotten the crushing pressure You Lin’s three-legged crow had inflicted on the players.
Bullying the weak and fearing the strong remained a universal truth.
Xiao Huai ignored them, chose a seat at random, and began to eat.
After entering a game, not only did meals and sleep become wildly irregular, but the drain on a person’s physical and mental energy was unimaginable.
Xiao Huai looked at the plain bread on his plate without much appetite. Everything he did was merely for survival.
He now possessed two gold coins. Under the human faction’s victory condition, he needed two more to leave.
As a vampire, he would need to steal only one gold coin from a human player before he could leave.
It was already the fourth day. Most of the remaining human players possessed gold coins.
Anyone trying to steal a coin would almost certainly find one.
Xiao Huai had almost finished eating and was preparing to leave when something small suddenly leaped onto the chair beside him.
He turned his head. It was Little Magician.
“Where’s your master?”
Little Magician might have been tiny, but he was extraordinarily nimble. In a few quick movements, he jumped onto Xiao Huai’s thigh.
Xiao Huai lifted him onto the table and stared directly at him.
Little Magician said nothing. He took a cookie from his pocket.
“What is it?” Xiao Huai studied the cookie suspiciously.
Little Magician finally spoke. “Something tasty. Master told me to give it to you.”
“Oh.” Xiao Huai moved to put it away, but Little Magician caught his hand. “Tasty. Eat it now.”
Xiao Huai raised a brow and deliberately pinched Little Magician’s cheek. “Eat it now? Is it poisoned?”
It had only been a joke, but Little Magician’s face suddenly reddened, and he shook his head frantically. “No!”
Xiao Huai had not intended to eat the cookie at first. But Little Magician’s reaction sparked his curiosity.
What exactly was inside this cookie? Why did he have to eat it now?