Chapter 51
Chapter 51
Warm sweat slid from Xiao Huai’s temple to his collarbone. His palms were damp, and his thick black lashes trembled faintly as he crouched in the corner.
He took a deep, forceful breath, then squatted on the floor and began drawing circles.
Once he finished a circle, he wrote a name inside it.
The gods in the Gods’ Livestream loved seeing players at their most vulnerable.
Yet there was something strangely restrained, almost ascetic, about Xiao Huai at this moment. It only excited them more, leaving them unable to tear their eyes away.
They zoomed in, watching every movement of his fingers.
His long index finger lifted in a natural curve as he wrote the same name inside the circle, over and over.
Lo.
Ki.
The gods in the livestream burst out laughing.
What was this little human doing? Drawing a circle to curse him?
How adorable.
Meanwhile, Loki, the NPC presiding over the instance on the tenth floor, sneezed twice in succession and had no idea why.
Xiao Huai rose. It was almost time. Hanako would be coming out soon.
A small pink gift box appeared in his hand. At that moment, a low, droning rumble reached his ears, and the space around him began to change.
The staircases were slowly merging.
He raised his eyes. The girl’s pale face was streaked with scarlet drops of blood, and she smiled as she walked toward him.
“Big Brother, this should be what you wanted, right?”
Xiao Huai looked at the crystal ball in Hanako’s hands. The transparent sphere glowed silver-gray, and at a glance, he could almost see figures screaming in agony inside it.
Dreamlike and illusory, as though it contained another realm.
He nodded lightly. “Mm.”
Just as Hanako handed him the crystal ball, the small pink gift box appeared before her.
Hanako froze. “What’s this?”
The corner of Xiao Huai’s mouth lifted playfully. “A gift. Aren’t we friends? You did me a huge favor, so of course I should give you something. It’s nothing particularly valuable, though.”
Hanako’s face lit up with an excitement he had never seen before. Her eyes shone as she hugged the box eagerly.
“This is the first time a human has ever said they’re Hanako’s friend! And this is the first gift Hanako has ever received from a human! Hanako is so happy!” She bounced up and down as her body slowly began to fade.
The black teddy bear doll’s effect was about to expire.
“Why don’t you open it?” Xiao Huai said.
Hanako looked at him. “Is it really a present for Hanako?”
“Mm.”
Only then did Hanako carefully open the box. When she saw what was inside, she went still.
A fluffy pink rabbit doll lay in the box, soft and irresistibly cute. In its paws rested a vial of medicine glowing with white light.
It was medicine that could reduce contamination, effective in any instance.
The vial had cost him twenty thousand Survival Coins, but ever since they last parted, Xiao Huai had wanted to give her something.
Perhaps this medicine could help her.
Her mother, too, was a pitiable soul tormented by contamination.
Hanako faded little by little. Before she vanished, she heard the person before her speak in a clear, gentle voice. A tender smile rested on his lips, like a spring breeze drifting through peach blossoms in April.
“Mr. Bear gets lonely too, so I found him a companion. Hanako, we won’t be able to see each other often from now on, but you have to live well over there.”
Xiao Huai’s figure grew increasingly blurred. Hanako’s heart gave a violent jolt. Her eyes slowly filled with tears, her pupils trembling.
System notifications chimed ceaselessly in Xiao Huai’s ears.
[Notice! Notice! Miss Hanako’s affection for you has reached 100 percent!]
[Achievement obtained: Miss Hanako’s Dearest Friend. Soul friend successfully unlocked.]
Xiao Huai repeated the term *soul friend* silently. What did that mean?
He had no time to linger. The staircases had fully merged, leaving him standing at their end with the gray crystal ball in his hand.
[Wraith Child’s Treasured Memories]
Item Description: A recording-type item containing countless memories witnessed by Wraith Children. It can read the memories within the crystal ball and store new memories.
[Note: Baby Wraith Child absolutely adores humans’ filthy desires. It hid all these treasured memories away. Shh, don’t let anyone else see them. After all, once you fall into the abyss, it is terribly hard to climb back out. Hee-hee.]
His preliminary assessment was that the crystal ball contained memories a Wraith Child had witnessed.
If his encounter with the Wraith Child in the corridor had not been an accident, but something deliberately arranged by the Diamond Factory’s general manager, then the crystal ball might reveal more clues.
For now, he placed it in his system inventory.
He could examine the Wraith Child’s memories after he returned. Every extra second he remained here brought more danger.
Especially since… Lu Yuanshi was still nowhere to be seen.
A living man could not simply vanish into thin air. If Lu Yuanshi was dead, Xiao Huai at least wanted to find whatever he had left behind.
After all, Lu Yuanshi had saved him before.
The mist gradually dispersed, and his flashlight finally illuminated what lay ahead.
Xiao Huai advanced cautiously. A corridor stretched before him. The briny odor of the sea grew stronger with every step, while the sound of dripping water echoed through the passage.
“Drip. Drip.”
The sound drew closer and closer until Xiao Huai reached a door.
Harsh white light fell across the pitch-black door, which was studded with countless black diamonds. Yet a closer look revealed something strange.
These diamonds differed from the ones on Joseph’s body. Beneath the light, their depths reflected a bloodred gleam.
They had never truly been black. They were red, so deeply and densely red that they had darkened almost to black.
Every diamond was as sharp as a blade, making the door look entwined in blood-soaked thorns.
The moment Xiao Huai pushed it open and stepped inside, a vague sense of foreboding settled over him.
From that point on, his livestream dissolved into static and mosaics.
The gods were utterly speechless. They flooded the system with complaints, but received no response for ages.
Although the Gods’ Livestream existed to serve the gods, not a single god knew the extent of the system’s authority. None of them knew how the system had come into being, either.
Oppression, madness, agitation… Countless negative emotions had taken physical form inside the room.
Four faceless stone statues stood in the room’s four corners. Though none possessed a face, each bore a beating heart.
The pounding heartbeats mingled with innumerable voices, a chaotic din of overlapping discussion.
Black and crimson light pulsed at the center of the room. An enormous, ancient magic array radiated a sinister air.
Xiao Huai lifted his gaze toward the half-severed heart at the array’s center, his expression cold and calm.
A pair of green eyes grew from the heart. They remained wide open, staring at Xiao Huai, the unwelcome intruder.
The eyes were webbed with blood, and the instant their gazes met, Xiao Huai could feel the boundless resentment and fury within them.
As he stepped into the magic array, a crushing pressure swept over him. It was as if someone had seized his throat in an instant, cutting off his breath and squeezing his lungs.
He shook his head sharply and steadied his conviction. The oppressive sensation gradually receded.
But system notifications continued ringing in his ears.
[Warning! Warning! You have entered an area containing a heavy contamination source. Sanity is falling.]
[Current Sanity: 99. Sanity continues to fall. Current Sanity: 98.]
[Friendly Reminder: If Sanity falls below the critical threshold of 10, the player will experience extensive hallucinations. If Sanity reaches zero, the player will be classified as an instance monster and remain inside the instance forever. Loss of Sanity inflicts severe and potentially irreversible harm on the human body. Player, please leave the area containing the heavy contamination source immediately!]