Chapter 34
Chapter 34
There were no boys this clean in Zimu City. Not clean in terms of hygiene, but in spirit, in their eyes, in the air about them.
Then Ah Hao noticed how excessively clean everything in the room was: the floor tiles, ceiling, walls, toilet, and tap.
Zimu City was a notorious gray area, a famous slum divided into eastern and western districts.
The east housed residents, giving people who couldn’t survive elsewhere a place to live.
The west belonged to gang members, who ran all sorts of businesses forbidden out in the open.
Fifty or sixty thousand people lived in an area of roughly three hectares. At that density, everyone was packed shoulder to shoulder.
Buildings and rooms pressed wall against wall, so densely clustered that the sky was completely hidden.
How could a room like this exist here, with actual sunlight shining in?
If he remembered correctly, Zimu City had only eight water pipes, far from where people lived. Anyone who wanted water had to pay the full charge and fetch it themselves every day.
There were only two toilets in the entire city. Bodies often turned up inside. Some children and adults relieved themselves in the street for convenience.
Yet this place had a private toilet, a tap, and even the faint scent of some unknown perfume.
More importantly, most people here had been worn down by life. Day after day they looked lifeless, either timid or vicious, marked by Zimu City’s particular underclass grit.
It couldn’t produce a pretty boy who spoke foreign languages and lived in a large apartment. Especially not such a trusting, indiscriminate do-gooder. He wouldn’t even know what killed him someday.
Ah Hao had no time to care about having pissed on his hand. He turned and began fumbling at the bathroom window.
Unable to work out how it opened, he grew so frantic that he started pounding the glass with his fist.
Zhao Xiuming reached up and unlatched it, letting him stick his head out to look.
Ah Hao leaned forward eagerly, then froze on the spot.
Propping his chin on his hand, Zhao Xiuming watched his expression with amusement.
Ah Hao screamed and ran into the living room. He didn’t seem to have zipped his trousers, or even finished pissing.
Zhao Xiuming closed the window unhurriedly, still in the mood to resume their conversation. [I saw Horror Game’s announcement. It says it will no longer filter game-related keywords out of what the NPCs in anomaly instances hear.]
[It’s also using the opportunity to introduce a new way to play. Both anomalies and players will be role-playing, but both sides have to follow the game rules.]
[I keep feeling that Horror Game is simply going with the flow. It doesn’t want to spend energy on filtering anymore.]
[Maybe the game will even negotiate directly with the anomalies in its instances.]
[Boring.]
[It didn’t target me.]
The System had taught himself to use “baby,” though he still had to psych himself up a little.
Then, pretending to be calm, he said, [Baby, I can only give you more access if you collect images.]
Zhao Xiuming looked thoughtful. He’d already inferred part of the situation from that sentence.
The System no longer had to warn him of danger in a roundabout way as he had before.
But he still couldn’t answer the crucial questions, such as who he was or why he’d bound himself to Zhao Xiuming.
Zhao Xiuming’s expression turned peculiar. Sometimes he wondered whether the System was deliberately dangling these mysteries before him to keep him hooked.
Before he could continue, the two men in the living room began making a racket again. Ah Hao and Shuai Zai were banging things around outside.
Standing in the bathroom doorway, Zhao Xiuming saw them frantically dragging away the furniture blocking the door, trying to escape.
They’d taken up the machete again. Catching sight of him from the corners of their eyes, they grew even more agitated, as though they’d seen a ravening beast.
Lazily, Zhao Xiuming spoke in his mind. [Here’s what I know so far: you awakened me, then used me to enter different instances, intending to break them and collect them.]
[What I get in return is “convenience,” “a chance to change my fate,” and so on. Most importantly, “fun.”]
The System sounded just as languid. Yet his voice was young, making that lazy tone resemble a high-school boy in an anime. Zhao Xiuming couldn’t imagine what sort of real face would go with it. [Baby, you’re so clever…]
After a moment’s hesitation, Zhao Xiuming admitted defeat. [Just call me Gege.]
The System laughed, a little smug at getting his way.
Zhao Xiuming went forward to help move the furniture. Ah Hao and Shuai Zai swung the blade wildly.
He’d deliberately put his mask back on as he left the bathroom. His expression was indifferent.
He sidestepped a descending blade and swept out a leg with a kick.
But he didn’t keep attacking. Instead, he snapped his fingers, signaling for the two men to look.
The sound instinctively drew Ah Hao and Shuai Zai’s attention. Once they glanced over, they couldn’t look away.
The seemingly human young doctor before them was slowly pulling down his mask.
The movement was casual, yet also deliberate.
What it revealed wasn’t the beautiful face Ah Hao had seen in the bathroom. It was a mouth split to the ears, sharp vampire-like fangs, and several protruding tendrils.
Ah Hao screamed in terror. Neither man dared attack again. They clawed frantically at the furniture and, fueled by adrenaline, shoved it aside in a few motions and fled. Zhao Xiuming’s delighted laughter followed them.
He laughed until he bent double and his stomach hurt. At the same time, he asked, [This is the new instance you picked for me, isn’t it?]
[My rented apartment is the entry point?]
The System didn’t deny it. [When you rented this place, I warned you there was something inside.]
[More precisely, the apartment isn’t the entry point. The thing inside it is.]
Zhao Xiuming remembered. He’d spent only one night here before waking the next morning to find blood all over his bed and in his arms.
There had also been mysterious footprints, which he’d followed all the way to the living-room wall.
The System had told him there was a door in the room. He hadn’t found it.
He’d been preoccupied with returning to school to deal with Zhang Xueya. Now that he thought about it, that door was probably the dark green wooden one that had reappeared here.
He felt a little regret. But what he regretted was this: [I didn’t expect those two to run off.]
[I wanted to put them up for the night. In that green room.]
Ah Hao and Shuai Zai fled in panic, their minds in turmoil. They couldn’t even tell whether what had just happened was a dream.
Now they were back in a slum corridor. The walls were so close together that they could only run in single file.
Neither dared slow down, terrified that the monster in the room would chase them out and drag them back to be eaten.
They struggled onward, kicking over plenty of things along the way.
Meanwhile, the enemies pursuing them were still prowling around. The moment they spotted the pair, they chased after them with machetes.
After another frantic scramble, the two finally found a slightly wider alley and plunged in blindly. Only then did they discover the wall sealing its far end. There was nowhere left to run.
They could only wait to die. Then Shuai Zai, clutching his stomach, grew excited. A figure had appeared at the end of the alley. It was the eerie doctor from that strange apartment!