chapter 121

“‘Missing Leg’ is our neighbor. Pingping and I both know him. He used to be a stray cat. One of his legs was so badly rotted it was about to spread through his whole body. He was almost dead when his owner picked him up and brought him home, and only an amputation surgery saved his life. He’s so young-I didn’t expect him to end up here too. What was his name again…?”

Anan furrowed her brow, trying to remember. “Pingping, do you remember?”

“Anan, stay healthy!” Pingping clambered all over Anan’s head, unable to answer and only parroting human phrases. “Wishing you wealth! Red envelope!”

“Idiot! Not the stuff Mom taught you.” Anan flicked her ears and shook it off her head.

Pingping landed with an aggrieved little hop and took two steps. “Wishing you wealth.”

Luo Jia Bai noticed the way it walked, limping, the right leg jerking up the instant it touched the ground. “You’re hurt?”

He scooped Pingping up from the floor and sure enough saw several split-open wounds on its right leg, blood welling up whenever it moved.

Just as he reached out his hand, Luo Jia Bai heard footsteps heading their way.

He hesitated and drew his hand back.

Pingping lay in his arms, one of its little black-bean eyes staring at him in confusion.

Lu Li suddenly stepped forward, placing himself between Luo Jia Bai and the approaching Sun Hai trio, blocking their line of sight. He said quietly, “Heal it. Pingping’s tiny. Even if you use your Ability, they won’t notice. They won’t know you have a healing Ability.”

Luo Jia Bai nodded and laid his hand over Pingping’s bleeding wounds.

When the white glow of healing faded, he set Pingping down on the ground.

“Red envelope?” Pingping lifted its right foot and pressed it to its own face, curiously looking left and right.

The wounds were gone!

“Hello!” Pingping suddenly flapped its wings, flying up onto Luo Jia Bai’s shoulder. It rubbed its beak affectionately against his cheek, then chirped twice in the air in Lu Li’s direction as if blowing kisses. “Bobo! Hello, handsome!”

“And I even healed you…!” Luo Jia Bai was furious. “So I’m not handsome? You’re such a face-obsessed bird!”

“How long are you planning to stand around chatting? When are you leaving?” Sun Hai strode over, already sounding impatient. He gave a contemptuous glance at the old dog lying on the ground. “I came to remind you out of kindness! You’ve all cleared a few Instances by now-don’t you know the NPCs inside can only give fixed, scripted responses? Don’t waste time trying to talk to them!”

Sun Hai looked them over. “You’re in a team, right?”

Gu Yu Chu immediately stepped a couple of paces to the side, distancing himself.

Sun Hai got the message. “So you three are on a team?”

“In the last stage you got lucky and picked the right room. You also cleared on time, which is the only reason all of us are still alive.” Sun Hai raised his Wristband. “Who’s your captain? I’ll transfer 3,000 Points over. More practical than a simple ‘thank you,’ right? You can split it among yourselves.”

He then extended an olive branch. “There aren’t many people left. Why don’t we merge into one team?”

“We’re not merging.” Lu Li rejected him outright, not wanting to get tangled up with them at all. “And the Points-we don’t need them either.”

Sun Hai put his Wristband away and actually let out a quiet breath of relief.

A huge sum like 3,000 Points-better if they didn’t want it. He needed to keep it for himself.

Xia Le asked gently, “Oh right, where’s Jiang Changqing? He’s not with you?”

“Got eliminated by the game,” Lu Li said.

“You must have killed him!” The Female Player, who’d been silent until now, suddenly lost control of her emotions. “All of you cleared the stage-so why is he the only one who died?”

“Yan Xuan!” Xia Le stopped her. “You don’t know what happened. Don’t start a fight with other people.”

“Jiang Changqing is dead?” Sun Hai sounded a little regretful. “He should’ve still had about two hundred thousand Points. If I’d known, I would’ve just kept using his in the earlier stages.”

“You’re only thinking about his Points!” Yan Xuan jabbed a finger at Sun Hai’s face. “How can you be this cold-blooded? How many Instances have we gone through together?”
“You’re calling other people cold-blooded in the Necromancer Game?” Sun Hai sneered. “I haven’t even started on you yet! You blow two hands and immediately exchange for a Life-Saving Item. Couldn’t you have just endured it a bit, waited till you were more injured and then exchanged a Life-Saving Item all at once? You’re wasting Points and dragging the team down.”

“Those are my Points. I can spend them however I want!”

“They’re the team’s Points.”

Gu Yu Chu covered his ears in boredom. “This is exactly why I don’t join any team.”

All the ugliness came out.

People who lived side by side every day, when death loomed, would gladly suck everyone else dry just to survive.

The closer they were to you,

the easier it was for them to bleed you.

“Are you hard of hearing?” Sun Hai turned his head back and snapped at Anan. “We need to go up! Aren’t you supposed to guide us?”

“You can climb up along the Pillar,” Anan said, his voice triggered into giving the guidance.

He shuffled and pushed himself upright, moving aside to reveal the Pillar behind him.

As he rose, the Black Mist around his body dispersed by half.

Unlike the Pillar they’d climbed before,

this section of the Pillar was wrapped in layers of Hemp Rope. Besides bloodstains, there were scuff marks all over it.

Anan’s paws itched. He couldn’t help scratching at the Hemp Ropes a few times, and after that simple motion, his body felt drained again and he flopped back down.

“If I were a bit younger, I’d really like grabbing this kind of texture. I might even be able to grab onto it and climb up to the next level…”

Before Anan could finish, Sun Hai was already impatiently pulling out his Climbing Item and scrambling upward.

“Let’s go, hurry up and clear this level.”

“Nothing worth exploring here.”

The Players left one after another.

Until a figure that had already gone up climbed back down along the Pillar.

He stopped in front of Anan.

“Plip.”

A drop of blood hit the ground.

Anan raised his head and saw the male Rabbit who had healed Pingping’s leg wound half-kneeling in front of him.

The other’s warm hand pried open his mouth and poured the blood flowing from his palm into it.

“I don’t know if this will work, but we’re about to leave this layer. We might never see each other again, so I wanted to try. Since it healed the Parrot… maybe it can cure your illness too.”

The warm blood slid down his throat into his stomach.

Anan licked at the bloody streaks on his hand, utterly baffled. “Why? That’s a big wound.”

Why was he bleeding?

Luo Jia Bai asked, “Still coughing?”

His answer was Anan’s coughing fit.

The next second, Anan’s eyes were covered.

He felt the Rabbit do something, and then out of nowhere, a piece of meat was shoved into his mouth.

“Swallow.”

Pingping paced anxiously beside them. “No! Don’t get hurt!”

After feeding him the meat, Luo Jia Bai said, “I hope it helps.”

Lying flat on the ground, watching the Rabbit gradually walk away, Anan felt that piece of swallowed meat turn into a ball of fire in his belly, burning right where the pain had been for so long.

When the fire faded,

the pain was gone.

Anan braced his paws on the ground and pushed himself up, suddenly realizing he had a lot more energy.

“That’s so strange, I’m not coughing anymore!”

–

The new level was also shrouded in Black Mist.

Once everyone had climbed up, the Black Mist dispersed, twisting itself into an unfamiliar scene.

The scene abruptly flipped upside down. All the Players were seized by a hand gripping their ankles, dangled upside down in midair, and shaken violently.

A shrill voice exploded by their ears, impossible to tell if it was male or female.

“So filthy! Don’t run onto my bed! You still can’t even learn how to use the toilet? I’ve already taught you so many times! How can you be this stupid?”

Their Wristbands vibrated, delivering a message:

[Nightmare Awakening Countdown begins]

[Within 5 hours, please collect 3 Items strongly associated with the Nightmare Holder. If you fail to complete this before the timer ends, the Player will die together with the Nightmare Holder.]

[Search range: inside the house]