chapter 84

Chapter 84

In the center of the Sea Salt Thick Soup floated a withered yellow leaf.

When Luo Jia Bai touched the leaf with his spoon, he seemed to glimpse his own face reflected in the soup bowl.

A savory aroma lingered at the tip of his nose.

He instinctively wanted to get closer.

Closer.

To see more clearly.

Suddenly, someone yanked his hair, snapping Luo Jia Bai back to reality with a sharp pain.

Lu Li lifted him up and asked, “Sleepy?”

Luo Jia Bai shook his head to clear his mind. “Actually, a little.”

He pushed aside the leaf, picked out the contents of the soup onto his plate, and checked with a mirror.

“Looks like… a spleen?”

“Yours is a liver, mine is a spleen.” Luo Jia Bai glanced at the five bowls of soup in front of the Players, and a bold idea struck him. “The appetizer was Sea Demon meat. If the main course is Sea Demon organs-five viscera, five organs-and we have five Players, could it be that the Heart is in one of our bowls?”

“The way to clear the Instance is to crush the Sea Demon’s Heart. If we can find the Heart, we can clear it?” Luo Jia Bai could hardly believe it as he spoke. “We’ve reached the final step!?”

“Just found out this is a Bug Instance, and we’re about to clear it… So many people survived… No, we still need to find the Heart quickly.” Luo Jia Bai turned to hand the mirror to Mirella, only to find that Mirella already had a piece of meat picked out on her plate.

Mirella removed her blindfold, opened her eyes, and looked only at the red meat.

Without any help from the mirror, she identified the organ.

“Kidney.”

She added, “Should be the left kidney.”

Mirella kept her gaze fixed only on the meat. After checking, she quickly put the blindfold back on and said to Lu Li and Luo Jia Bai, “No Heart here.”

–

Song Changrong sat beside Feng Shan.

Feng Shan was questioning him, “Did you throw away the Gold Brick I told you to get rid of?”

Song Changrong said yes.

“Too much desire in this Instance is just greed! Yu Ying died because she was too greedy.” Feng Shan snorted. “Saw you carrying that huge Gold Brick, planning to trade it for Points?”

“Don’t forget. Your Points are mine! Yours belong to the Feng Family! Your father owes the Feng Family money and favors-it’ll take two generations to pay back. From the moment you were born, you’ll keep paying until you die and still won’t finish.”

Song Changrong said, “The Feng Family helped us pay off tens of millions in loans. Of course, you’re my benefactor. The Gold Brick was for the young master. Even if it was exchanged for Points, I wouldn’t take a single one.”

Feng Shan smiled with satisfaction, pulled the heavy Sapphire from his sagging suit pocket, and tossed it to Song Changrong. “Hold this for me a bit. This damn thing is heavy!”

Song Changrong hugged the Sapphire, his fingers pressing into the folds of his skirt, gripping it in humiliation.

He stared at the Sea Salt Thick Soup on his plate and suddenly noticed the withered leaf in the center gently spinning.

The noisy sounds around him also spun, growing more and more distant.

The surface of the soup reflected his face.

But it wasn’t his face.

Because he clearly hadn’t opened his mouth, yet the face in the soup was speaking.

Song Changrong leaned in close and heard that “self” say:

“Money.”

“I want endless money.”

“I want all this money to be mine.”

His body felt paralyzed, his eyes unable to move, locked in a deep gaze with “himself.”

His throat felt stuffed with cotton, and “his” voice thundered through his mind:

“I cut the Gold Brick into countless pieces, gave one to the Evil Spirit, hid the rest under the bed. Afraid the Evil Spirit would steal it, I spent most of my remaining Points to exchange for a lock and locked up the Gold Brick!”

The Gold Brick’s hiding place was revealed so clearly that Song Changrong’s body trembled. His throat couldn’t form words, only producing hoarse, gasping breaths.
The voice in his mind continued.

“Feng Shan didn’t throw away the Sapphire, so why should I throw away the Gold Brick? If I don’t exchange it for Points, but instead cash it in for money after leaving here, how much would it be worth?”

“My Gold Brick, plus the Sapphire Feng Shan just handed to me himself… Twenty million? Fifty million? A hundred million? These are things from the Necromancer Game… They should be doubled! Doubled again! Isn’t the Feng Family just constantly throwing lives into the Necromancer Game, reselling some Items from the game, and making a fortune? Why can’t I do the same!”

“I’ll have a lot of money.”

“Enough to pay off all the debts owed to the Feng Family.”

Song Changrong gripped the soup bowl with trembling hands. All the thoughts that had been circling in his mind these days were spoken aloud by the “self” in the soup. He wanted to look away, but his face couldn’t help but lean closer to the soup.

A gentle, seductive whisper sounded in his ear:

“So thirsty.”

“Just take a sip of the soup.”

Song Changrong stared with wide eyes, watching the leaf in the soup spinning endlessly.

The voice said:

“Oh. So what you truly desire isn’t just money.”

“I see a stronger desire in you. You don’t want to be beneath others, you refuse to spend your life being inferior.”

Song Changrong’s body began to heat up. Listening to these words in his mind, he panted heavily, as if he saw the “self” in the soup ruthlessly stomping Feng Shan underfoot, finally free from having to obey this young upstart.

“Gulp, gulp!”

He touched his throat with one hand, finally understanding why the leaf was spinning.

Because he was drinking the soup.

Seduced by the inexplicable voice in his mind, he took a huge gulp of soup.

–

Suddenly, Feng Shan started arguing with the others beside him.

“You’re saying all the meat on the table is Sea Demon meat? Why should I believe you!”

“Where did you get this mirror?”

“Item?”

“Can you trade it with me? I’ll buy it with Points! Name your price, just say how many Points you want.”

Lu Li interrupted Feng Shan’s increasingly aggressive words, “The Item is bound, it can’t be traded. You should fish out the things in your bowls and take a look. We’ve already found the Sea Demon’s liver, spleen, and kidney. There should be two more in your bowls.”

Feng Shan’s eyes lit up, “So there must be a Heart?!”

“Song Changrong, bring your bowl over!”

Feng Shan had just patted the shoulder of the person next to him.

With a crash, Song Changrong slammed his bowl onto the table, spilling half the soup.

Feng Shan frowned, “What’s going on?”

Fortunately, the surrounding Nobles were all busy eating.

“What’s wrong with you?” Noticing Song Changrong’s odd mood, Feng Shan checked again and again, “You didn’t drink the soup just now, did you?”

“You remember the simple rule that you can’t eat or drink anything in the Instance, right?”

“Of course.” Song Changrong’s back was drenched in sweat. He didn’t dare meet Feng Shan’s eyes, hurriedly fishing out the contents of his soup bowl. “Of course I remember.”

Lu Li held up the mirror to check.

A lung.

Song Changrong forced a smile at Feng Shan, “Looks like the Heart in this Instance is in your bowl.”

Feng Shan couldn’t believe it as he held his bowl.

Heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney.

Five organs in total.

Four had already been found.

Only one organ remained.

Every Player at the table looked up, pausing what they were doing, staring at him.

Only at him.

That feeling of being the center of the team seemed to return again. Feng Shan excitedly said the answer in his heart:

The Heart is left!

Is the Sea Demon’s Heart in his bowl?