Chapter 69: Reality (1)
—What exactly did he think of Cui Yu in his heart?
After the little assistant asked that question, the room fell silent for a long time. Not a single sound could be heard.
There was only a faint sigh, so soft it was almost imperceptible.
The little assistant carefully studied Jian Yuntai. This young man, about the same age as himself, had experienced far more in life. So much so that the assistant could not read his thoughts at all. On his pale face, there was nothing but numbness and lifeless stillness.
Why wasn’t he speaking?
Was this question really that difficult to answer?
“The discharge paperwork is done. I’ll take you next door to see him.” Liang Yan had a bad habit—she never knocked before entering. As always, she rushed in briskly and snapped at the little assistant, “Why are you still here? Have you finished the housing transfer procedures?”
The little assistant shrank back. “N-no…”
Liang Yan asked, “Did you buy everything on the food list I gave you this morning?”
The little assistant lowered his head even further. “Also… no…”
Liang Yan fell silent for a moment, then said, “Useless.”
The little assistant: “… qaq.”
Jian Yuntai lifted the blanket, bent down to put on his shoes, and casually said, “He’s still a kid, not even an adult. Stop calling him useless all the time. When I was his age, I…”
The little assistant looked over with tearful eyes. Sob, sob, Sister Liang was such a villain! Brother Jian was the good one!
Under that grateful gaze, Jian Yuntai stood up and finished calmly, “I wasn’t quite this useless.”
“…” Double kill.
Watching the two of them walk out of the ward side by side, the little assistant felt his vision go dark.
It was over. Auntie was about to triple kill him.
He had come here today to probe Jian Yuntai’s thoughts, but he had learned absolutely nothing.
It was fine, it was fine.
After buying the food, he would see Jian Yuntai again. Next time, he would definitely seize the opportunity!
……
……
Jian Yuntai had barely stepped out when he heard constant “mmph, mmph” noises coming from the ward next door. It wasn’t crying—just muffled sounds, as if someone’s mouth had been stuffed shut.
The cold metallic door handle turned slightly. A Sinister Spirit Type in a work uniform stepped out and shook his head at another person nearby. “His injury is a curse, not a physical wound.”
The other person appeared to be the streamer’s manager. Hearing that, he asked anxiously, “Can it still be treated?”
“It can’t be cured. Skills don’t work.”
“Ah… then what should we do? He still has to participate in an instance next month! He can’t possibly enter it like this, can he?”
“It’s not impossible. His legs aren’t injured.”
“Mmfff! Mmfff!” Louder protests immediately came from inside the room, the sound heavy and muffled in the throat. Jian Yuntai found it faintly familiar.
The moment he entered and saw the person, he understood.
Miserable. Truly miserable.
So miserable that Jian Yuntai not only failed to recognize the voice—he almost failed to recognize the person.
“Didn’t you say you were taking a break? Yet you secretly kept grinding. See what happened?” Jian Yuntai dragged over a chair and sat by the bedside, his words sharp as ever. “After the Six Suns instance ended, didn’t you say you were taking a month off? Was your ‘vacation’ clearing a C-level instance where you were the only survivor, and then conveniently clearing another C-level instance that turned you into a mummy?”
“…” The person on the bed stared at him in suffocating disbelief.
His condition was terrible. His entire head was wrapped in bandages, like an upside-down bowling ball. Both arms were in casts and crossed over his chest. Gauze covered his cheeks, and red blood seeped through the fabric.
He couldn’t speak at all.
He could only shoot Jian Yuntai a look of pure accusation.
—Young Master Xue.
The two had met in the Six Suns instance. Among Sinister Human Types, he was an extremely rare spatial evolver. More than once, it had been thanks to the small crystals Young Master Xue formed to create spatial teleportation that Jian Yuntai had survived.
They had gotten along fairly well.
Jian Yuntai picked up a pear from the table, peeled it, and ate it himself. While eating, he asked, “How did you end up like this?” Young Master Xue excitedly replied, “Mmfff!”
Jian Yuntai asked, “Can you still talk?”
Young Master Xue answered sorrowfully, “Mm…”
“…” Jian Yuntai gave up trying to communicate with him and turned to Liang Yan, his eyes silently questioning.
“You misunderstood him.” Liang Yan also sat down and said, “The fixed C-level instance opens once a month. He entered the Artificial Intelligence instance before the Six Suns instance. For the past half month, Young Master Xue really was on vacation. But he took on a private job from the Mercenary Tower and ended up like this.”
“Mercenary Tower?” Jian Yuntai asked, puzzled.
Liang Yan handed him his phone. “Do you remember the Streamer Home app on your phone? There are three sections. You’ve already looked at the Central Marketplace. Medical Ridge is a module only Sinister Spirit Types can use to take on patients and earn money. The last module is the Mercenary Tower, which only ordinary citizens can use.”
“Your ID has already been upgraded. When you get back to the dormitory, you can check out the Mercenary Tower. It should help you. In short, it’s where streamers post targeted project tasks. They can use national points to hire ordinary people to accompany them into instances. Streamers like Young Master Xue who get hired are rare.”
After speaking, Liang Yan glanced at the nearly tearful Young Master Xue. The reproach in her eyes was obvious—you were so desperate for money that you dared to recklessly accept a C-level instance from the Mercenary Tower?
Young Master Xue felt utterly devastated.
His fans called him landlord’s idiot son for a reason. His family was rich beyond measure; he had no need to risk himself for money. He had taken the job for one simple reason—to help a friend.
In the end, he failed to help his friend and turned himself into a mummy instead.
Jian Yuntai finished the pear and, under Young Master Xue’s sorrowful gaze, started on an apple. “Can he recover?” he asked.
Liang Yan shook her head. “You heard it just now, didn’t you? This injury was a curse, not a flesh wound. His arms would heal in about a week, but as for the curse on his face—no one could say when it would disappear. At the very least, until it did, he wouldn’t be able to speak.”
Jian Yuntai stood up and started walking out. “Then why did I even come here? I can’t get any information out of him.”
“Mmfff! Mmfff!” Young Master Xue struggled on the hospital bed like a carp flipping out of water, thrashing so hard that the gauze on his face fell loose.
Jian Yuntai turned back and looked, startled.
Two deep gashes had been sliced across Young Master Xue’s cheeks. Black threadlike lines, like centipedes, crisscrossed and stitched around the wounds. His once mixed-blood male-model face had been ruined to the point that he resembled Voldemort.
“Don’t rush off yet.”
Liang Yan rubbed her forehead and said, “I was planning to apply to the organization to assign you the same C-level instance he entered. There’s an item inside it. If you get it, you can remove the curse from his face. Then he’ll be able to speak. The C-level Artificial Intelligence instance isn’t something to underestimate. It’s best if we understand what’s going on inside.”
“You could also watch Young Master Xue’s livestream replay. But… I don’t know if it was because of the Artificial Intelligence instance, but the signal kept getting interfered with. The footage kept turning into empty shots. By the end of the stream, the audience couldn’t understand what he was doing at all, nor could they hear the instance mission clearly.”
Jian Yuntai quickly sat back down.
Liang Yan’s arrangement was convenient enough. He needed performance results anyway, and the instances he would enter next all had to be C-level or above. If he could complete his targets while also retrieving an item to remove Young Master Xue’s curse, that would be ideal.
Besides, he needed basic information about the Artificial Intelligence instance.
Thinking this through, Jian Yuntai said to Young Master Xue, “Helping you isn’t a problem. But you have to guarantee that once you can talk, you’ll provide solid information about Artificial Intelligence. If you start spouting nonsense, I’ll carve two more gashes into your face.”
Young Master Xue’s eyes filled with tears. “Mmfff…”
From the sound of it, he seemed to be cursing him—‘you’re so mean.’ Jian Yuntai curled his lips into a faint smile. “I was joking.”
Young Master Xue: “….” Even worse!
Medical Ridge bustled with people coming and going. A nurse entered to replace the gauze on Young Master Xue’s face. During that time, Liang Yan unlocked the tablet and handed it to Jian Yuntai. “You can watch the replay of the C-level instance he entered now and weigh your options. If you think it’s not suitable, I’ll switch you to another C-level instance.”
Jian Yuntai was surprised. “Now?” Even D-level instances usually lasted four or five days. The C-level King of Hell’s Wedding instance he had entered had lasted more than ten days.
Even at triple speed, there was no way to finish watching it now.
Though he didn’t say it aloud, Liang Yan seemed to read his thoughts. She shook her head helplessly. “You only need to watch ten minutes.”
Jian Yuntai asked, “Why?”
Liang Yan tapped the tablet and opened the livestream replay, fast-forwarding about half an hour. “Just watch. You’ll understand.”
Jian Yuntai lowered his head and watched.
…..
…..
A small rural road lay silent and dark.
Faint candlelight flickered inside the low houses on either side, but their doors were tightly shut. From the exterior, the buildings looked like relics from the last century; every brick and tile carried a heavy sense of age.
For some reason, Young Master Xue had ended up alone.
Tap. Tap. Tap…
He ran frantically through the pitch-black night, like a headless fly. His eyes were filled with extreme terror.
As he ran, he kept glancing back in panic.
The road behind him was empty, yet it was as if some invisible monster were chasing him, forcing him to pick up speed again and again.
Suddenly—
He froze in place, his face turning deathly pale.
About a dozen meters ahead, beneath a streetlamp, a dim yellow light shone faintly on pale stone pavement. A woman with long black hair stood under the lamp, her back to the camera, utterly motionless.
Run!
Run now!
Young Master Xue’s heart nearly leapt out of his throat. He immediately turned and fled in the opposite direction. But he had barely run for two minutes before rounding a corner—only to see the same woman again.
The streetlamp. The long black hair. Everything exactly the same.
A ghost wall.
What terrified him even more was that this time, the woman was closer. Before, she had been over ten meters away. Now, she stood only three meters from him. He could even see every single strand of her black hair. Before he could turn and run again, he saw the woman slowly begin to turn her head, her gaze cold as it fixed on him.
Goosebumps erupted all over his skin.
She wasn’t the typical white-dress, long-haired female ghost. She wore a long red coat, a brown scarf around her neck, and held a large pair of scissors in her hand.
Tap.
Tap, tap.
Tap, tap.
She walked toward him slowly.
Young Master Xue had already run out of his small spatial teleportation crystals. An invisible force seemed to pin him in place, rendering him unable to move. He could only watch helplessly as the woman approached step by step, until she stopped right in front of him.
Expressionless, she asked, “Am I beautiful?”
“…” Young Master Xue felt like the instance was driving him insane. His gaze flickered briefly to the mask covering her face, and with an overwhelming will to survive, he shouted, “Beautiful! You’re very beautiful!”
The woman seemed pleased. She raised a hand and removed the mask from her face. Two large bloody gashes split open at the corners of her lips, like red blood-soaked centipedes writhing and twitching across her face.
“Then… am I beautiful like this?”
Young Master Xue’s vision went black for a moment. His heart pounded faster and faster. In that instant, his scalp went numb with terror.
Stammering, he said, “Be-beautiful.”
The woman grew even happier. An eerie smile appeared on her pallid face. “What an honest child. Since you think I look beautiful like this… then I will reward you.”
Young Master Xue felt a flash of joy in his heart—was she going to let him go?
However, the woman had no such intention. He still couldn’t move and could only watch helplessly as she slowly raised the scissors in her hand, a clacking, giggling sound coming from her mouth.
“I’ll reward you by making you just as beautiful as me!”
“Ahhh! Ahhh!” Immediately after came Young Master Xue’s utterly miserable screams.
Amid splattering blood, the woman used the scissors to forcibly cut open his face.
…
…
“Slit-Mouthed Woman.” Liang Yan put away the tablet and explained, “A type of female demon from urban legends. She asks whether she’s beautiful. If you say yes, she cuts your face open. If you say no, she cuts your entire body open. Wounds like this are similar to curses—Sinister Spirit Types can’t heal them. But that pair of scissors can remove the curse. As for the rest of the replay, there’s no need to watch. After his face was cut open, Young Master Xue hid in a small house the entire time. From beginning to end, he never even touched the main quest.”
“….” Jian Yuntai shot Young Master Xue a speechless look.
Young Master Xue seemed to know just how cowardly and embarrassing he had been. If he had been able to speak, he would already have started sobbing out loud—he had always been afraid of ghosts.
“Are you afraid of ghosts?” Liang Yan suddenly asked.
“Not really.” Jian Yuntai shook his head. “Most of the time, the living are far scarier than the dead.”
Hearing that, Liang Yan felt much more at ease. “Then I’ll apply to the organization for this instance?” After a pause, she added, “I suggest you hire a Sinister Monster Type from the Mercenary Tower. They can escort and protect you.”
Jian Yuntai tapped into the Mercenary Tower to take a look.
The interface was extremely simple. Scrolling down revealed targeted project postings. You could either publish your own project or switch to viewing mode to browse others.
At the front was the project initiator’s name; behind it were the requirements.
For example: [Li xx, D-level instance seeking Sinister Spirit Type.]
He casually opened one C-level project. Like him, it was also recruiting a Sinister Monster Type.
The price… was outrageously expensive!
Jian Yuntai immediately exited the page. Before he even had a chance to speak, Young Master Xue reacted as if pricked by a needle and let out a series of indignant “mmfff” sounds.
After listening for a while, Jian Yuntai barely made out a few words: “…Sinister Monster Type… useless!”
Young Master Xue’s friend had been a Sinister Monster Type. But once inside the instance, he had been even less capable than Young Master Xue, a Sinister Human Type. At least Young Master Xue could run. The Sinister Monster Type couldn’t even hit the monsters in the instance, and couldn’t escape either—basically a walking target.
Although Jian Yuntai didn’t fully understand what he was trying to say, he somehow caught the gist. Turning to Liang Yan, he said, “Reserve me a slot for this instance. I do need help—but not a Sinister Monster Type.”
Liang Yan asked in confusion, “Then what do you need?”
Jian Yuntai smiled. “Let’s go.” Before leaving, he peeled one more apple and placed it beside Young Master Xue, patting him lightly on the head. “Rest well. I’ll go get you those scissors.”
“!!!” Young Master Xue looked at Jian Yuntai with deep emotion, almost bursting into tears on the spot.
In this lifetime, even if he had to serve Jian Yuntai like an ox or a horse, he would repay this kindness, sob sob sob!
“….” After Jian Yuntai left and some time passed, the ward fell quiet. The nurse and the Sinister Spirit Type had both stepped out.
On the hospital bed, Young Master Xue suddenly jolted upright again, urgently making muffled noises. But no one came in.
—It was over! He had just forgotten to tell Jian Yuntai that in this instance, you absolutely, absolutely must not end up alone!
※※※
A private car took him back to the dormitory.
The moment he walked in, he saw Fatty and Yu Xingcao sitting opposite each other on the living room sofa, silently turning their gazes toward him.
“You’re back,” Yu Xingcao asked cautiously. “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
The question was phrased very tactfully.
Jian Yuntai understood what he meant. “Don’t worry. I won’t be like I was in the instance.”
Yu Xingcao let out a breath of relief. “That’s good.”
While the two were talking, Fatty remained silent the entire time, sitting on the sofa with a pout, clearly upset.
“Meow~ meow~” Jinjin trotted over sweetly, rubbing its little head against Jian Yuntai’s pant leg and hooking its claws into him, trying to climb up.
Jian Yuntai poured it some cat food.
Jinjin happily raised its tail straight into the air.
“Only remembers the food, not the beating!” Fatty scolded the cat, still sitting there with his arms crossed and a sulky expression.
Jian Yuntai stepped closer with small strides and laughed. “Oh? Is Fatty this angry?”
Fatty snorted and kicked Yu Xingcao’s chair. “Hey, bookworm—tell someone for me that Fatty almost got strangled to death in the instance and his throat hurt so much he couldn’t speak!”
Jian Yuntai tugged at Fatty’s sleeve and said with a smile, “Can you forgive me?”
“Acting cute won’t work.” Fatty kicked Yu Xingcao’s chair again. “Tell him for me.”
One kick was bad enough—now he had kicked it twice. Yu Xingcao glared at him. “Don’t you have a mouth of your own?!”
Fatty choked back his words. “Hmph.”
“I’ve deeply realized my mistake.” Jian Yuntai tugged at Fatty’s sleeve again, clasped his hands together, and leaned closer with a bright smile. “Please? Forgive me?”
A beauty offensive plus acting cute.
Fatty was clearly pleased. He couldn’t help but smile before quickly suppressing it and puffing his cheeks again. Crossing his arms at his waist, he said, “Eh… why does it feel a bit cold in here?”
Jian Yuntai immediately stood up, ran to the balcony, and closed the window.
Then he sat back down.
Fatty smacked his lips again and said, “My mouth felt bland. I kept wanting to snack on something.”
Jian Yuntai immediately reached under the coffee table and pulled out Fatty’s hidden stash of sunflower seeds, grabbed a handful, and dropped them into his hand.
Fatty stared at him in shock. “How did you know I hid the seeds down there?”
Jian Yuntai kept smiling. “Feeling better now?”
Fatty had not actually been that angry to begin with. Hearing that, he was about to nod—then his eyes suddenly darted around.
Since when had Jian Dadan ever treated him this well?
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Of course he had to make the most of it!
He cracked a few seeds and, after barely eating any, started complaining, “Hey, hey—where am I supposed to spit the shells?”
“…” Jian Yuntai just smiled at him without saying a word. After they locked eyes for a few seconds, he hooked the trash can over with his foot.
“Spit here.”
“Ptoo—” Fatty spat out the shells. By now, Yu Xingcao had silently moved himself—and his chair—a little farther away. Fatty, however, was completely oblivious to the mood and kept calling out, “I’m thirsty!”
“Thirsty?” Jian Yuntai glanced at him, picked up the small kettle on the coffee table, and poured water into a cup.
He filled it with a ratio of one part cold water to three parts boiling water.
He smiled the entire time, then personally brought the cup to Fatty’s lips. “Here, drink.”
Fatty took one sip and immediately sprayed it out. “Hot—”
“Don’t be shy. If you’re thirsty, I’ll feed you myself.” Jian Yuntai smiled as he kept tipping the cup toward him. “Come on, drink! Weren’t you thirsty? You should drink more hot water. There’s still more than half left—finish it all.”
Fatty sputtered and sprayed water everywhere, using all his strength to push the cup away. “Jian Dadan, are you trying to murder me?!”
Other people pressured you to drink alcohol.
Jian Yuntai pressured him to drink hot water.
Yu Xingcao turned his head aside and could not help laughing out loud.
Only then did Jian Yuntai leisurely sit back down and say with an amused tone, “Alright, enough messing around. Let’s talk seriously.”
Fatty shot back, “So you knew you weren’t being serious just now?!”
“…” Jian Yuntai did not let himself be thrown off track. His expression turned earnest. “I need your help with something.”
Fatty’s face also grew serious, though he looked pained. “Don’t tell me—you want me to write your diary again?”
“If you wanted to write it for me, I wouldn’t object.” Jian Yuntai would have loved a ghostwriter. But that was not what he had meant. “My next instance has already been decided. I’m entering it in three days. It’s a folklore-themed instance, and I want you to go in with me.”
Fatty froze. “Why me?”
“I’ve seen you flipping through those folklore books every day when you’ve got nothing to do. Three days isn’t enough for me to cram all that knowledge. I need a ready-made, walking encyclopedia.”
“What level is the instance?”
“C-level.”
“…”
Fatty frowned and thought for several minutes. Jian Yuntai did not interrupt him, waiting patiently.
About five minutes later, Fatty thought about how the last two times he had teamed up with Jian Yuntai had actually been pretty enjoyable. In his heart, he surrendered at lightning speed.
But out loud, he still said, “It’s not impossible for me to go with you. But you have to answer one question first.”
“What question?”
“What Sinister Type are you?”
“……???”
Even Yu Xingcao turned to stare without blinking. He had been sitting there today precisely to wait for this answer.
Seeing Jian Yuntai’s confused look, Fatty chuckled and explained, “There’s a betting pool online about this. A friend of mine’s running it—he’s the bookie. Have you seen the bets? A lot of people put their money on you being a Sinister Ghost Type. My friend asked me to check with you—are you a Sinister Ghost Type?”
Jian Yuntai narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “That’s the only reason?”
Fatty grinned again, wiggling his brows as he pinched his thumb and index finger together. “Well, of course I put in a tiny bit of money too. Just waiting to cash out.”
“…”
Jian Yuntai knew a little about the online betting pool. He was not any of the four Sinister Types. No matter which type people bet on, they would all lose everything.
Only the bookie would make a fortune.
Thinking of that, Jian Yuntai gave Fatty a complicated look.
There was sympathy in his gaze. And regret.
Fatty felt baffled under that stare. Before he could ask, Jian Yuntai shifted his eyes to Yu Xingcao.
“You bet money too?”
Yu Xingcao still had two enormous dark circles under his eyes. At the question, he smiled reservedly, so expectant that even his dark circles seemed lighter.
“I did. I put all the Coins I earned from the last instance’s livestream into it. Converted into cash, I bet two million. Fatty bet five million.” Leaning forward excitedly, he asked, “So you’re a Sinister Ghost Type, right?”
Two million. Five million.
And they were smiling so brightly.
Under their intensely eager and excited gazes, Jian Yuntai stayed silent for a long while before finally saying,
“You’re about to lose everything.”
“……..” The joy on Fatty and Yu Xingcao’s faces froze. Still unwilling to give up, they struggled and said, “Then what Sinister Type are you? There’s still time to place new bets. It’s fine, it’s fine—betting on other types has higher odds. We’ll win even more!”
They looked at him expectantly once again.
Jian Yuntai pondered for a moment. When he looked up, his face was utterly sincere.
“Stop betting. Just invest directly in the bookie instead.”
“????”
Fatty and Yu Xingcao leaned back in perfect sync, suddenly feeling like they could not breathe.
If you like this novel and would like to show your appreciation, please head to my Kofi by (click here -> Kofi)—and if the cliffhanger demons are haunting you, join the membership tier to access advanced chapter access (up to 10!).
