chapter 119

Lu Li’s throat felt like it was packed full of sand.

Maybe… in the future, I’ll turn into a Monster.

Will you be afraid of me?

Back when his body had been torn up, it hadn’t even hurt that much.

But now, just forcing out a single word was agonizing.

It was as if those sharp grains were slicing countless cuts into his throat.

He lowered his gaze.

He saw the Monster chewing on Jiang Changqing’s body with a loud, grating crunch-crunch.

A piece of bone dangled at the corner of its mouth, swinging back and forth.

It quickly flicked out its tongue-slurp-and licked the bone into its mouth.

From the Guide to the things inside an Instance, their appearances always filled Players with fear and disgust.

“Monster” was not a complimentary word.

So how was he supposed to say it out loud?

Cold wind brushed his ear.

Lu Li thought that he must have been sweating a lot when he spoke.

Now the wind was blowing over him, and that was why he felt so cold.

“‘In the future’?”

Warmth suddenly wrapped around his shoulders.

Someone pulled him into an embrace, clumsy but careful, and patted his back as if afraid he might break.

“Nothing about the future has happened yet!

If you can’t say it right now, then don’t.

Wait until you’re ready, and tell us when you want to.”

Luo Jia Bai’s voice gradually dragged him back from the ringing in his ears.

“So it’s your own ability!

You should’ve told me earlier-this is a good thing!

I’ve been on edge for two whole Instances.

I thought it was something you had to bargain for with the Evil God every single night, like you were trading for it and it might stop working any time.

Turns out you were born with it!

Then next time you run straight at a Monster’s face, I won’t be nearly as worried!”

After Luo Jia Bai let go of him, Mirella bent at the waist, her gaze fixed on the center of Lu Li’s brow.

She reached out toward him.

Halfway there, she hesitated and stopped.

“Your Wristband’s presence is… far too strong,” Mirella said, making a small request.

“Please help me cover its eyes.”

Lu Li obediently did as she asked.

He pressed his palm over the snake head on the Wristband.

Mirella immediately felt the resistance lessen as her fingers approached.

“So much fear,” she murmured.

“It’s all lingering on your face.”

Her cool fingers brushed over Lu Li’s brow, wiping something away.

“All right now.

You don’t need to be afraid.”

When she finished, Mirella’s face looked a shade paler.

But when she looked at Lu Li again, she smiled with quiet calm.

“I’ve finally given you my blessing.

My friend, the gods will protect you.”

Under Lu Li’s hand, the Wristband flashed with red light again and again.

[Tipped Spirit Money *10000. So it wasn’t the Evil God’s ability-Streamer is completely insane. He tricked people and tricked ghosts too, wuwuwu. He played me like a fiddle. Which lord is he even bound to? There’s no way to guess!]

[Tipped Spirit Money *5000. Hey! You’re blocking the camera! It’s so dark, I can’t see anything!]

[Fine. I’ve been lurking in his Live Stream Room forever, and I finally caught a flaw! He’s this strong because he’s not human! This breaks game balance! Even if he’s not cheating, it’s basically the same. I’m going to file a complaint with the Necromancer Game.]

[Tipped Spirit Money *15000. Go ahead and try, buddy. Seems like every complaint about this Live Stream Room has failed. If you succeed, help us push them to open up Game Night. I seriously suspect the Streamer has ghosts in high places.]

Gu Yu Chu watched them and felt a sharp, unfamiliar sting.

He reached into his collar and took out the necklace that had been hanging against his chest the whole time.

Gently, he opened the oval locket and stared blankly at the photo inside.

Luo Jia Bai walked up to him and held out his Wristband.

“Jiang Changqing brought it on himself.

Lu Li was only protecting himself. He didn’t harm him.

If we run into Sun Hai and the others later, you know what to say, right?”

Gu Yu Chu closed the locket and smiled.

“Are you offering me hush money?”

Luo Jia Bai started bargaining. “Is 2,000 Points enough?”

“Two thousand per person?” Gu Yu Chu asked.

“There are three of you.”

“That’s a little expensive,” Luo Jia Bai said, wincing.

“…Fine. I’ll pay.”

Gu Yu Chu pushed his hand away.

“I’m not taking it.

Points I didn’t earn with my own ability-I don’t want them.”

He looked at Lu Li.

“Otherwise, I would’ve taken Lu Li’s head a long time ago and traded it for 200,000 Points.”

Gu Yu Chu admitted, “The one who killed Jiang Changqing was Jiang Changqing himself.”

From the top of the space came a woman’s startled cry.

Something dropped from above.

“My glasses!”

A pair of glasses landed on the narrow path, wobbling as they slid toward the edge.

Lu Li picked them up.

“There’s no time to look for my glasses…” the woman muttered under her breath.

Then she began calling out names.

“Fufu! Your family’s here to pick you up!”

The same phrasing rang out again and again after that.
Every time she spoke a name, a Monster Dog jerked awake from its sleep, tail whipping excitedly as it sprang to its feet and leaped, trying to rush up onto the narrow path where they were standing.

Luo Jia Bai suddenly understood. “All it takes is calling the name to wake them up.”

“And with the glasses, we can finally read the words on the Test Report.” Luo Jia Bai held the sheet up. “Hurry, see if there’s a name on it!”

Lu Li swept the Test Report from top to bottom with the glasses. “Nothing.”

The ground of the narrow path shuddered with a violent impact, almost throwing everyone off balance.

The Monsters couldn’t jump up, so they kept ramming their heads into the already precarious path. Every time they leaped, black water splashed up; drops that landed on the path began to dissolve it. There were already fractures and gaps; now the entire path was collapsing forward in a chain reaction.

Lu Li put the Test Report away. “We find him first, then look for the name.”

They quickened their pace along the path, checking each little bed for any dog that was still asleep and eliminating options one by one based on the clues.

Just as the path was about to end, they finally saw a very old dog.

This dog coughed in its sleep. Its body seemed to be in pain; its hand rested on its belly, brows tightly furrowed.

“It should be him. Brownish-yellow ears and tail-the only elderly dog here.”

“But how are we supposed to know his name?”

“If we wait for that woman to call it, won’t he turn into a Monster too?”

Lu Li glanced at the nightmare countdown.

There were twenty minutes left.

At the woman’s current pace of reading names, twenty minutes was more than enough time to awaken every Monster in this place.

Lu Li crouched down and saw that on the bed to the left, a Monster was lying on its back, arms spread with palms facing up, exposing the Wristband on its wrist.

There were words on one side of the Wristband.

“There’s a name on the Wristband. I’m going down to check.” Lu Li jumped off the path without hesitation.

He shone the glasses over the Wristband. Two lines of text appeared on it:

Anan

13 years old

“Anan?” Lu Li called the name on the Wristband. There was no reaction.

The countdown ticked into the final three minutes.

Lu Li heard the woman above awaken another Monster. He opened his mouth and imitated her tone, calling out, “Anan, your family is here to pick you up.”

The voice that had been echoing through the entire dream cut off abruptly.

The elderly dog slowly opened his eyes. The entire space shattered like broken glass and fell away. The nightmare vanished, revealing the layer beneath.

Empty.

A single dog slumped against a Pillar, eyes bleary with sleep.

Not far away were a Female Player with one arm broken, Sun Hai fully armed and clutching an extremely expensive Points Item, and Xia Le hiding behind the two of them, even yanking the Female Player forward to use her as a human shield.

They didn’t yet know the nightmare had been dispelled, nor that their disgraceful behavior had been laid bare, plain as day.

“No more treatment, I’m done! Just take me home!” Anan jolted awake from the nightmare and tried to stand. After two weak attempts, he was wracked by a fit of violent coughing, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. “Was it you who woke me up? I fell asleep again… I’ve been so sleepy lately… maybe it means I’m close to the end.”

“But my wish still isn’t finished.”

Anan lay flat on the ground and reached under his belly where he’d been pressing down, feeling around for something.

The first thing he pulled out was a Parrot about the size of a human palm.

The Parrot hadn’t turned into a half-human half-beast; it was just a fluffy little ball.

The tiny Parrot flapped its wings to bump against Anan’s shoulder, repeating:

“Go home!”

“Go home!”

“Pingping, quiet. You shouldn’t have come in here to begin with.” Anan set the noisy Parrot to the side and continued rummaging, pulling out several sheets of paper.

His hand trembled with pain, and the papers slipped from his grasp, fluttering across the floor.

Lu Li crouched and picked them up one by one.

One was a worn, creased flyer. The rest were entries from a Diary:

[?? Diary]

[I’m very old now. I can feel that I’m nearing the end of my life. At most, I might be able to stay with you for another two years.]

[I’m sick, and I feel so sorry, Mom. You’re exhausted from working all day, and at night you still can’t rest because you have to take me to the hospital. This new pet hospital looks pretty good. I hope I can get better soon.]

[Why are the forms for tests and payment so long? Did you spend a lot of money? The doctor gives me Medicine and injections every day. I pray they’ll work, but the more I take them, the more it hurts. Maybe if I can endure all this pain, I’ll recover. You’re so busy with work and can only come see me at night. The last time, you were crying as you carried me out, arguing and even fighting with the doctors and nurses. What happened? Did I behave badly at the hospital during the day? But every time it hurt, I never cried out.]
[You kept taking me from one hospital to another. I took so many kinds of Medicine. Every time we went, the stack of receipts you clipped together got thicker.]

[Mom, I think the first hospital gave me the wrong Medicine. I hurt more every day. I’m not getting better.]

[Earning money is hard. Don’t spend any more. I don’t want any more treatment. Those few sets of clothes you have on you haven’t been replaced in so long. Every night you always hold me and cry. I lick your hand and whistle to cheer you up, but it only makes you cry harder.]

[You hold up the electric cord I like to chew on to trick me into eating more, but I’m so tired. I can’t open my mouth.]

[I can’t stay with you for two years. I have a feeling I’m going to die soon. If I die in front of you, how many tears will you shed?]

[That day, guests came to the house. They were careless and didn’t shut the door. I walked out, and Pingping, that bird that only knows how to mimic human speech, followed me. I told him to go back, but he wouldn’t.]

[I’d planned to find somewhere far away from you to quietly walk toward death, but then I received a flyer for the world of happiness. If you pass the physical exam and obtain the Crown of Happiness, you can make one wish come true. I endured Pingping’s noisy squawking, walking and resting in turns, and finally made it here.]

[I held back my coughs and tried to jump like the other young pets, but they still noticed I was sick. I failed the health check.]

[I was sent into the Exile Land. Pingping hid in my fur and came in with me. He flew up and told me you really can see the world of happiness from above. Maybe there’s a way back.]

[Mom, to make my wish come true, I have to climb up.]

Lu Li pulled the flyer out. On the back, Anan’s wish was written:

[Don’t get sick again. I want to live another 2 years (crossed out), 5 years (crossed out), 10 years. Greedy as I am, I want to live another 10 years.]

“You climbed up here from below,” Anan said between gasps. “Are you going to keep going up?”

“Night’s fallen now. The fog in the Exile Land gets very thick at night. Set out again tomorrow during the day. I’ll guide you.”

–

Bosi happened to be watching the stream today, and for once, he heard Lu Li say so many words in one go.

He thought, if an Evil God reported work to him this haltingly, he’d definitely demote them.

But Lu Li had his difficulties. That was understandable.

Bosi leaned in, studying Lu Li’s face on the screen closely.

What was that expression?

Why did it look like he was about to cry?

During Game Night, Lu Li’s mood was low as well. He wrapped himself in a blanket and lay on the ground early, but his eyes stayed open.

Bosi guessed Lu Li had something to say, so he turned around unhurriedly-and sure enough, he met a pair of flickering eyes and drooping ears.

“What do you want to say?”

Lu Li had just been spacing out, running simulations in his head of how, next time, he could pick the right moment to tell them that there was a real chance he might turn into a disgusting, terrifying Monster someday.

His friends, who already knew half of his past, hadn’t chosen to leave. They’d only come closer.

They knew he wasn’t human. Why wasn’t anyone afraid of him?

His daze was broken. He looked at the man. “Bosi, are you… afraid of Monsters?”

“Monsters are afraid of me,” Bosi said.

Lu Li’s lips twitched. He used Bosi as a backdrop and practiced saying it smoothly, “I might turn into a Monster in the future.”

Letting the words out once was like lifting half a boulder off his chest.

Bosi walked over and sat down beside him. “Are you afraid of me?”

“No.”

“Then you’re not a Monster.”

Lu Li got tangled up in his logic. “I’m not?”

“At least not right now.”

Lu Li found that very reasonable. The Researchers had told him before that his body would need to be destroyed thousands, tens of thousands of times more before it could be reconstructed into that so-called “perfect” form.

His head suddenly dipped as something pressed down on it. His ears shivered several times when a cold, gloved hand brushed them by accident. “Why are you touching my head?”

“Books say cats get very happy when you pet their heads,” Bosi said.

Lu Li corrected him. “I’m not a cat. This is just an Appearance.”

“Oh. Then let’s test it out.”

Drowsiness crept up on Lu Li. He murmured, “Thank you. I really do feel a bit happier now.”