Chapter 36
Chapter 36
Hair slipped between Zhao Xiuming’s fingers. Unable to resist, he tightened his grip, slowly curling his fingers and pulling to one side, forcing the man to bend, turn his face, and lift his chin.
With his other hand, he reached to remove the mask and see what sort of face lay beneath it.
But before his fingertips touched it, he snatched them back as if startled. He let go completely and even took a step away.
Perhaps it was fear. Perhaps reluctance. Or perhaps he simply wasn’t interested.
“I can’t be sure I’ll stay interested in you once my curiosity is satisfied.”
Watching the masked man straighten before him, Zhao Xiuming deliberately put on a false smile. “Keep me entertained, Little Darling.”
“If one day you don’t feel like it anymore, that’s fine too.”
He turned to leave without waiting for an answer.
Stretching toward the sky, he looked up happily. “It’s the moon.”
Buildings in Zimu City weren’t allowed to exceed fifteen stories. Amid the crowded structures, a narrow scrap of sky held a crescent moon against a scattering of faint stars.
The masked man looked up, then lowered his head and touched his own face.
He laughed and followed happily behind Zhao Xiuming, slowly disappearing into the shadows. Zhao Xiuming never looked back.
Only then did Ah Hao and Shuai Zai realize they weren’t dead. They’d been saved. Those two had actually let them go.
Having escaped with their lives, they supported each other out of the alley. Unable to afford a large hospital outside, they could only seek an unlicensed clinic in Zimu City.
Little did they know their troubles weren’t over. What had happened that day was so shocking that all of Zimu City was buzzing with it.
The story was that two thugs had been chased after a gang fight, only to turn around and kill six of their pursuers.
The bodies were horrific, not even intact. One of them, Red Bandanna, had been a minor gang leader with a recognizable name.
When someone with a reputation and contributions to the gang died, failing to provide an answer would make it hard to command the rank and file’s loyalty.
Moreover, Red Bandanna belonged to the Longhu Society. Clever and good in a fight, he’d earned the boss’s favor and promotion. He’d also married the boss’s younger sister, making him family.
Most importantly, the deaths had been appalling. According to nearby residents, something inhuman seemed to have helped the two small-timers, Ah Hao and Shuai Zai.
If they didn’t get to the bottom of it, whatever had killed Red Bandanna might kill other gang members too.
A few low-ranking lackeys dying was one thing. But what if someone in power died?
Ah Hao and Shuai Zai belonged to the Tianding Society. The two gangs were at odds, with constant clashes both large and small.
Yesterday’s fight had been over the turf around a pool hall. Both sides had suffered many deaths and serious injuries. Shuai Zai rested after having his belly stitched up at the unlicensed clinic, while Ah Hao tried to scrape together money.
One was dragged out of the clinic, the other caught at a casino. Their captors weren’t the rival Longhu Society, but their own Tianding Society.
It was Brother Fei, the man under whose protection they’d joined the gang, who reassured them that this wasn’t bad news. The leaders of both gangs wanted the details of what had happened.
Ah Hao and Shuai Zai hid nothing. They recounted everything.
And so a strange sight appeared at midday in Zimu City’s eastern residential district. Every window and door in one building was shut tight, while hundreds of thugs crowded its corridors.
At their head were the two gangs’ Red Poles and White Paper Fans, their enforcers and strategists. A few Buddhist monks, Daoist priests, and fortune-tellers mingled among the fierce-looking hoodlums.
But when they reached the specified apartment and kicked the door open, there were no white tiles, spacious living room, green door, or private bathroom.
It was a cramped, partitioned dwelling typical of Zimu City. Just inside stood a wardrobe hung with clothes. A table divided the living room, with a kitchen beyond it and a sewing machine and fabric in front.
The sleeping area was in the farthest corner of the living room: an empty little space that could be taken in at a glance.
The person at the door wasn’t a beautiful young man, either. It was an old woman with poor sight and hearing.
Her eyes were cloudy, her expression blank. “Looking to rent? There’s a mop, a broom, and a cloth inside. A clean blanket on the bed.”
Had Zhao Xiuming been there, he would certainly have found those words familiar.
Traffic flowed endlessly along the street. When the light turned green, Zhao Xiuming crossed with the crowd, disappearing among them.
His clothes had no particular style, just the simplest basics in plain colors. His manner was cool, his hair clean and fluffy, and he carried books in one hand.
Spotting a shop by the road, he went over to buy a late-night snack.
Back at his rented apartment, he ate sandwiches and rice balls. Since visiting the new instance a few days earlier, he’d vaguely sensed something wasn’t quite right with him.
It wasn’t that he’d become arrogant, convinced he was special and superior.
Rather, perhaps he was… particularly prone to encounters with anomalies?
After the hospital, his state of mind was very steady.
He’d never considered himself all-powerful. His world was chaotic, after all, with horror instances everywhere and game players hidden among the population.
There might also be other novel protagonists like Zhang Xueya, appearing with halos capable of manipulating their surroundings, people’s wills, and the direction of the world itself.
The names of the systems and the variety of shops also suggested that he wasn’t the only person bound to a system.
Under those circumstances, running into an anomaly or two was no big deal. It hardly counted as abnormal.
Reassured, Zhao Xiuming swallowed a rice ball.
He came from an anomaly instance. Being able to enter and leave instances freely was perfectly reasonable.
Hmm…
The rice ball was a little hard to swallow. He got up to pour some water.
In fact, aside from using the System to earn points, buy items, and access player forums…
He’d long since realized that traveling between instances wasn’t entirely under the System’s control. Otherwise, the biker wouldn’t have needed to lure him into the hospital instance. He could simply have dropped him into it like a player.
Setting his glass on the table, Zhao Xiuming noticed two rice balls were missing. He pretended not to see.
The new instance’s sudden arrival last time had been unexpected. But after dealing with those thugs and wandering around it for a while…
He’d acted on a thought, pushed open a random door, and found himself back in his apartment, returned to the real world.
The network signal, the bloodstains in the room, the damaged furniture: everything had returned to its original state. The extra door in the living room had vanished too.
Perhaps the green door had realized something was wrong with him. It hadn’t appeared for quite a while lately, only playing little tricks in secret, such as stealing two of his fragrant rice balls.
As usual, Zhao Xiuming washed up, played games for a while, and went straight to bed.
But in the middle of the night, his phone woke him. He turned his face toward it. The screen on the bedside table kept lighting up and going dark.
A mechanical prompt sounded. “Facial recognition failed.”
“Facial recognition failed.”
“Facial recognition failed.”
“Facial…”
Something invisible in the darkness was trying to unlock the phone with its own face.
Zhao Xiuming’s eerie voice rose, more frightening than the mechanical one. “Are you stupid?”
“Just cut my head off and scan it.”
“Or peel off my face.”