chapter 19
“It’s hungry.” Mr. Crow grinned maliciously. “Friendly reminder to the Player: if you don’t feed it in time, it might just eat its owner.”
Mr. Crow cackled, but his laughter abruptly stopped when he saw what Tu Nan took out.
“Will this work?” Tu Nan tossed the “Prince’s Tongue” into the foul-smelling, gaping maw of the “Fairy Tale Compendium.”
“Why did you bring someone’s tongue out?!” Mr. Crow’s beady green eyes widened in disbelief.
Honestly, it was a bit perverse.
Tu Nan was still a little worried. The “Fairy Tale Compendium” loved eating the private items of fairy tale characters, but a tongue… did that count as a private item?
As it turned out, the “Fairy Tale Compendium” was very happy to eat it.
It smacked its lips, savoring the taste, foul saliva flying everywhere, and finally let out a satisfied burp.
A gut-wrenching sound of regurgitation followed, and the “Fairy Tale Compendium” opened its mouth wide, vomiting out a Skill Card onto the floor.
Yes, it vomited out a Skill Card.
It was sticky, covered in strange-smelling, viscous saliva.
Tu Nan was silent.
Mr. Crow flapped his wings in midair, cackling at her.
“Stinks! Stinks!”
The freshly vomited “Fairy Tale Compendium,” upon hearing this, floated in midair, opened its mouth, and bit down on Mr. Crow’s wing.
“Filthy thing, get off!” Mr. Crow shrieked, flapping frantically, but he was no match for the “Fairy Tale Compendium.” Half the feathers on one wing were bitten off, leaving it bald, yet somehow it still hovered in the air.
Two black feathers drifted down, landing right on the pile of stuff the “Fairy Tale Compendium” had just vomited.
But it didn’t stop there-the “Fairy Tale Compendium” very considerately spat out the rest of the feathers, looking thoroughly disgusted.
Tu Nan, who witnessed everything: “…”
She suddenly found herself liking this book a little.
She squatted down, pinched the Skill Card lying in the saliva between two fingertips.
[Gourmet’s Tongue: As a gourmet, the Prince possesses a tongue capable of discerning fine cuisine.
Use this Skill Card to gain the ability to appreciate gourmet food.
Note: Single-use item.]
Tu Nan fell silent again. She wanted to take back her previous thought.
She couldn’t imagine a more useless Skill.
What use did she have for the ability to appreciate gourmet food?
The “Fairy Tale Compendium” was full, shut its mouth, closed its pages, and began to snore.
Tu Nan helplessly tucked it away.
Mr. Crow was furious. He had always cherished his glossy black feathers, and now half his wing was bald-how could he swallow this humiliation?
But he was powerless.
“The next game session is in seven days,” he said gloomily. “I hope you die early in the next round.”
“Thank you,” Tu Nan nodded, smiling insincerely. “Your wish is sure to go unfulfilled.”
Mr. Crow snorted heavily, flapped his wings, and vanished from her sight. The next moment, everything around her began to distort. Tu Nan couldn’t help but close her eyes, and after a bout of weightlessness, she felt the long-lost warmth of sunlight.
There was sunlight in the Instance too, but it always felt distorted; when the sunlight fell on her, it carried not a trace of real warmth.
She opened her eyes and found herself back at the entrance of the market where she had been when she first entered the Instance.
The scorching summer wind blew past. Tu Nan looked around at her surroundings. Everything seemed as if it had all been a dream. But… the “Fairy Tale Compendium” pressed against her chest told her clearly that it was all real.
She really had been pulled into this Death Game.
Tu Nan lowered her head and walked straight towards home.
*
After an Instance ends, the Player gets seven days of rest.
During these seven days, the Player can move freely, but once the seven days are up, no matter where the Player is, they will be pulled into the game again.
Before being drawn into the Instance, Tu Nan was a struggling mystery novelist. Her life was simple and clean, with no close friends and no particular hobbies.
The Instance was like a stone cast into her calm, rippleless life, stirring only faint waves. But only Tu Nan herself knew that beneath the surface calm, there was an undercurrent ready to erupt at any moment.
After the first Instance ended, a new app suddenly appeared on her phone, called “Earth Exchange Forum.” The app icon was pure black, radiating an ominous vibe.
She tried tapping into the app, and the first thing that popped up was a registration page.
Following the steps, Tu Nan registered an account for herself. She hesitated for a moment when choosing a username, glanced at the “Fairy Tale Compendium” snoring beside her, and expressionlessly typed in her nickname: Drooling Fairy Tale Book.
[Congratulations, Player, registration successful!
Welcome to the Earth Exchange Forum. Here you can get first-hand Instance information, share game experiences, trade items… In short, if you have any issues, please contact our online customer service~ ^ _ ^]
It all felt rather amateurish.
The app was made just like a large-scale game Player forum, and in a sense, that’s exactly what it was.
Upon entering the app, you first had to select your Instance category. There were more than a dozen pages of categories; she scrolled for a long time before finally finding the Fairy Tale Category.
After entering the category, she saw the Player discussion threads.
Tu Nan browsed through them. Most were about item trading, seeking help, or looking for teammates.
In the app, only the Instances a Player has personally experienced will display relevant information. Having cleared only one Instance, “The Little Mermaid,” she could only see information related to “The Little Mermaid.”
One post caught her attention.
[!! Has anyone discovered this hidden solution in “The Little Mermaid”??]
Tu Nan admitted she was a bit curious and couldn’t help but click in. The post was made by a Player named I Am Super Lucky Star.
[As the title says.
“The Little Mermaid” Instance is widely recognized as the most twisted Novice Dungeon, a double torment for both the Player’s mind and body.
The number of newcomers who can clear this Instance is extremely small; almost every one who does becomes a big name in the Instances.
Of course, I’m not bragging. The fact that I cleared this Instance was pure dumb luck.]