chapter 145

Lu Li held his breath.

He did his best not to think about what he’d just eaten. He quickly swallowed the sugary liquid melting in his mouth, then stayed perfectly still, forcing himself to wait it out and brute-force the nausea down until the urge to vomit passed.

Thankfully, Luo Jia Bai never looked back.

Lu Li felt this was a problem he had to face.

Not just because he was afraid of seeing disappointment and hurt in his friend’s eyes, but also because he wanted to become better-to truly become human.

No human goes without eating.

He’d started trying to fix it from the very first Instance.

He’d exchanged for the smallest chocolate drops available and trained himself during Game Night, eating a little on and off for several nights in a row-only to end in failure.

But this issue had once been solved under special circumstances.

Before going to attend Sean and the Sea Demon’s wedding, he’d eaten a Starfish.

Now that he thought back carefully and compared the two situations…

The only differing condition-the only other factor-was Bosi.

The Starfish he’d managed to swallow last time had been fed to him by Bosi.

Did it have to be Bosi feeding him for him to be able to eat?

That was way too harsh a requirement.

Lu Li mulled it over. How was he supposed to say something that ridiculous to Bosi?

Luo Jia Bai’s sudden shout cut off Lu Li’s thoughts. “No! Don’t exchange that many-bad for your teeth, my god! Mirella, you just grab onto whatever you like and keep buying it nonstop. This is like some kind of compensatory splurge. Didn’t you have candy when you were a kid?”

Mirella halved the quantity and replied, “I didn’t.”

Realizing Mirella was simply stating a fact, Luo Jia Bai’s voice dropped. “Sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Let me use my Points to exchange it for you. This candy isn’t expensive anyway.” Luo Jia Bai felt inexplicably guilty. But the hand he extended toward Mirella’s screen was suddenly pecked by a sharp beak.

It didn’t hurt, but it startled him badly.

Luo Jia Bai’s eyes went wide as he pointed at Mirella’s shoulder. “Why is there another Crow?! In the last Instance, I clearly rested one hour longer than you-how are you still somehow sneaking off behind our backs to tame beasts?”

“And what about that cat?”

The Crow took a few steps back and forth on Mirella’s shoulder, then spread its dense black wings, presenting its most elegant profile to Luo Jia Bai.

Mirella used a finger to smooth the feathers on the Crow’s head. “The cat won’t appear anymore. From now on, it should be Crows.”

–

In the Game Instance Hall, Players withdrew one after another. In the end, the number of people left on site settled at around seventy.

With a deafening boom-

The hall’s light-screen split apart.

From the thick smoke in the gap, a gigantic Monster slowly emerged. From afar, it looked like two breathing lumps of flesh on its shoulders. Only when it drew closer did it become clear they were two heads stuck together.

There was no hair on either head. Wherever there was skin, blood-red eyes grew in horizontal and vertical lines.

The two heads shared a single thick, massive body. Each step it took splattered damp, sticky fluid across the floor.

Those eyes kept swiveling, changing angles to savor the Players’ fear-until they caught sight of that conspicuous silver hair and abruptly stopped.

The head on the left asked, “Is it him?”

The head on the right said, “He looks the same.”

The two heads came to an agreement.

The Two-Headed Monster panted a few times, never slowing as it strode straight toward Lu Li.

The Players all hurried to get out of the way. When they looked at Lu Li, there was a hint of schadenfreude in their eyes. They assumed Lu Li had been targeted by the Guide and was about to become the first unlucky bastard to be eliminated.

“What’s it trying to do? Be careful.” Luo Jia Bai took two steps toward Lu Li-

But the ground suddenly shook and split open with countless cracks. From those fissures, vertical walls of flesh surged upward, rising explosively.

Caught off guard, Luo Jia Bai slammed headfirst into a flesh wall. The impact knocked him back hard. He stepped on someone sitting behind him, then got tripped and fell.

“Gu Yu Chu?” Luo Jia Bai recognized the face and lit up with surprise. “You got pulled into this Instance too?! Other than the 24-hour rest time you exchanged for, did you take two more days off?”

Gu Yu Chu had been leaning against the wall of the Game Instance Hall with his eyes half closed, dozing for a moment. The commotion jolted him awake, and then Luo Jia Bai stepped on his foot-he was completely wide awake now.

Seeing a familiar face, the tension he’d been holding eased slightly. He sounded tired when he spoke. “After I split up with you guys, I went into a normal C Grade Instance. I cleared it fast in two days. No break in between-I matched straight into the next Instance.”

“You finished in two days and didn’t even rest?” Luo Jia Bai was stunned by his efficiency. He muttered, “That’s brutal. How badly do you want out?”

–

The writhing flesh walls separated the Players into small groups.

Lu Li and the Two-Headed Monster ended up in the same cramped space.

Lu Li tilted his head up, waiting for whatever it was going to do next.

The Two-Headed Monster shoved both hands into its clothes, fumbling around for a long time before finally pulling out a sheet of paper and handing it to him.

Printed on it was a half-body portrait of Lu Li in a suit. The background was the lavish banquet hall from the second Instance.

Lu Li: ?

“What is this?”

Every single one of the Two-Headed Monster’s eyes stared at him with deadly seriousness. “M-My little sister likes watching your livestream. This is a poster she printed herself. Can you… sign it for her?”