Chapter 103
Chapter 103
“Want to talk?”
Wei Sen blocked Zhong Lingkun right at the inn entrance.
The snowflakes in his hair had yet to fully melt, and the blue hardshell jacket he wore made his figure look even more tall and straight.
“If you came to thank me, there’s no need.” Zhong Lingkun’s expression was calm. With that, he strode inside.
Wei Sen leaned sideways against the doorframe and watched his retreating back. Her voice held no fluctuation, as if she were simply stating a fact. “You didn’t send that message to save me, did you?”
Zhong Lingkun stopped at that. Thoughtfully, he turned back to look at Wei Sen.
Wei Sen remained perfectly composed as she walked toward him at an unhurried pace.
At its core, all interaction between people was an exchange of benefits.
Those benefits could be money, emotional value, or even an information gap.
The people in this Instance were not necessarily kind. That was especially true for a Lone Wolf like Zhong Lingkun, someone who had survived until now.
“You sent that message to warn me because you didn’t want me dying on the fourth floor. First, you needed me, your roommate, to make it through the night safely. Second, you wanted to get clues about the fourth floor from me.”
Wei Sen stopped beside Zhong Lingkun. Although she was a full head shorter than him, her presence at this moment did not lose to his in the slightest.
“Am I wrong?” she asked in return.
Looking into Wei Sen’s all-seeing eyes, Zhong Lingkun grew even warier of this woman.
She had actually inferred his purpose with perfect accuracy from a single action of his…
“You’re right,” Zhong Lingkun admitted without denying it.
Wei Sen turned and headed in Lin Xiaoxue’s direction. “If you want to know, come sit down first.”
Zhong Lingkun frowned. He disliked dealing with people. He had originally planned to wait until they returned to the room that night before proposing an exchange of clues with Wei Sen, but he had not expected her to seize the initiative first…
After weighing it for a moment, Zhong Lingkun still chose to come to the table and casually picked a seat.
“Tell me. What did you find on the fourth floor?” Zhong Lingkun asked directly.
Lin Xiaoxue blinked and leaned closer to Wei Sen. “Sister Sen, why did you bring him over?”
Wei Sen answered openly, “He has clues to share with us.”
Zhong Lingkun hesitated, wanting to speak. Since when had this become him sharing clues!?
“But let’s wait until everyone’s here before we start.” Wei Sen leaned back against the sofa with perfect composure, even asking Meiya for a cup of hot tea in the meantime.
If Zhong Lingkun wanted to get clues about the fourth floor from her, he naturally had to put up a corresponding bargaining chip. That single warning was not nearly enough.
Wei Sen held the hot tea to warm her hands, her gaze drifting toward the glass window as she pondered how they should respond tonight if Lili activated Random Killing mode.
To deal with an Eerie Entity, they could only use Anomalous Artifacts, and only defensive ones, not offensive ones. Otherwise, rookies like them simply did not have enough Merit Points to be deducted.
But not every one of them had a Defense-Type Anomalous Artifact. At the very least, each room needed to have one…
Zhong Lingkun looked at Wei Sen across from him.
Hot tea, white snow, forest…
This scene felt strangely familiar…
Once, a girl had sat across from him just like this. But she had abandoned him and left.
So he began searching, hoping that one day he would reunite with her.
He had traveled almost everywhere he could go, but there had been no trace of her anywhere.
He had waited for this reunion for far, far too long. So long that even her appearance had gradually blurred in his memory…
“Ahem!”
Lin Xiaoxue, who was also sitting across from Zhong Lingkun, noticed that he had been staring at Wei Sen the entire time and immediately shot him a warning look.
Sister Sen was beautiful and cool. This guy couldn’t have fallen for Sister Sen, could he?
She absolutely would not allow him to harbor any improper thoughts about Sister Sen!
Men would only affect the speed at which Sister Sen swung her axe! Especially ugly men full of schemes!
Besides, they were roommates right now. If he tried anything against Sister Sen, the thought alone was unbearable!
Zhong Lingkun was so focused that he did not notice Lin Xiaoxue’s warning at all. He continued staring straight at Wei Sen.
Her movements, her expression, her eyes…
They were all so similar…
But…
At that moment, Wei Sen also noticed something off about Zhong Lingkun and turned her head, looking at him warily.
The instant Zhong Lingkun saw the look in Wei Sen’s eyes, he snapped back to clarity.
She was not her… and could not possibly be her.
She would never look at him with such unfamiliar, guarded eyes.
Besides, he had always known that she could never come back.
This so-called reunion was nothing more than a distant, empty joy he had imagined for himself…
“Sorry.” Zhong Lingkun realized he had been rude, and his gaze shifted unnaturally elsewhere.
Wei Sen and Lin Xiaoxue exchanged a look, both finding him rather inexplicable.
Soon, Huang Xinze limped back in from outside. Guo Lan and He Xu returned with him as well.
“Brother Ze!” Lin Xiaoxue shot to her feet and looked at Huang Xinze with deep concern. “Waaah, you’re still alive!”
In that same instant, Wei Sen noticed Zhong Lingkun instinctively lift his eyes toward Xiaoxue.
Wei Sen quietly withdrew her gaze and took a small sip of tea, a hint of amusement coloring her eyes.
Zhong Lingkun had a secret. And not a small one.
Huang Xinze, Guo Lan, and He Xu found seats and sat down.
“You have no idea how fast that thing came at me! I figured if I ran down the corridor, I could escape through the window at the end. But before I even reached it, damn it, it grabbed my leg!” The moment Huang Xinze sat down, he launched into his story.
Listening to him, the others could all imagine how terrifying things must have been on the fourth floor just now.
“And then?” Lin Xiaoxue pressed. “How did you get away?”
“Heh!” Huang Xinze flexed his powerful biceps. “Not a single muscle on this body was trained for nothing! I turned around, grabbed that female ghost by both hands, swung the damn thing up, and threw her ten meters away!”
“Huh?!” Everyone stared, dumbfounded.
He swung the female ghost up and threw her?
What a niche combination of words!
“She… she didn’t freeze you in place???” Lin Xiaoxue asked in disbelief.
“Freeze me? She’s not Sun Wukong. What gives her the right to freeze me?” Huang Xinze looked completely relaxed. “I thought she was supposed to be impressive, but in the end she just looked ugly. Once we actually started fighting, she was no match for me at all!”
Wei Sen asked, “Then what happened to your foot?”
“Oh, this? I climbed down the wall from the fourth floor, slipped, and fell. Good thing the snow on the ground was deep enough…”
Everyone fell silent again.
Guo Lan and He Xu had experienced many Instances, but this was the first time they had ever seen someone fight an Eerie Entity bare-handed.
“Did you really encounter the female ghost transformed from the hotel manager on the fourth floor?” He Xu even began to wonder whether they had actually gone up to the fourth floor at all.
“Of course we did!”
While everyone was still confused, Zhong Lingkun, who had remained silent all this time, spoke calmly. “It’s an Anomalous Artifact.”
He Xu suddenly realized it too. “Right! You must have an Anomalous Artifact on you that suppresses an Eerie Entity’s power!”
Otherwise, with human strength alone, it would be impossible to fight an Eerie Entity bare-handed!
“No way! What could I possibly have on me…” Huang Xinze laughed as he denied it, then abruptly seemed to remember something. After rummaging around, he pulled a ring from his pocket. “Could it be this?!”
Lin Xiaoxue leaned closer to look. “It’s a Diamond Ring. But the diamond is so tiny.”
“No, little sister, this Diamond Ring is already huge! It’s at least one carat!” Huang Xinze said seriously.
Guo Lan tapped open the Watch’s Scan Function. Soon, information about the ring appeared on the Watch.
[Anomalous Artifact: Diamond Ring
Rank: B-Rank
Instructions: Protects against mental erosion. Remaining triggers: 2/3.]
Wei Sen, Huang Xinze, and Lin Xiaoxue all looked at Guo Lan in shock.
“Wait, the Watch has a function like that? How come I never saw it???” Huang Xinze was full of question marks.
Guo Lan raised a brow slightly. “Oh? You don’t have it…”
Lin Xiaoxue scratched her head. “Can we have it?”
He Xu smiled. “I’ll share it with you.”
Soon, a blue smiling-face icon appeared in the group chat. After the others tapped the icon, they discovered that the Watch’s function page now had the same icon, much like installing a new app on a phone. Tapping the icon allowed them to scan things.
Huang Xinze asked in confusion, “Aren’t the Watches of every Order Keeper the same? Why do yours have an extra function?”
He Xu said, “We got it through someone sharing it with us too. I heard the first person to discover this function was Legend Lin, and he generously shared it.”
“But how did he get it?” Lin Xiaoxue asked.
“I heard Legend Lin was rewarded by God for getting the first clear of an SSS-Rank Instance.
Right now, only three people on the Hero Ranking have ever cleared an SSS-Rank Instance alive. Unfortunately, true big shots don’t bother sharing their experience with people like us.
So as for how it was obtained, only those three big shots who have cleared SSS-Rank Instances would know.”
Wei Sen quietly observed Zhong Lingkun across from her. He did not seem curious about this new function, nor did he appear interested in how Legend Lin had obtained it.
How interesting…
With that thought, Wei Sen checked the new function that had appeared on her Watch.
This thing was not very useful to her, since her System could identify Anomalous Artifacts as well.
What she truly cared about was… clearing an SSS-Rank Instance for the first time could actually earn a reward granted by God!
Perhaps at that time, she would be able to see the so-called “God” once again!