Chapter 101.1 Crimson Sunset Expedition (End)
As the angle got steeper, climbing became tougher for Wen Shi.
The round moon hung outside. The black cat tilted its head as if running towards the moon. Compared to its graceful alternating steps, it looked surprisingly… dignified.
In the final short distance, the black cat leaped skillfully and landed steadily.
Just a moment ago in midair, the mimetic octopus held onto its tail tightly to avoid falling. Now, it crawled onto the clean back of the black cat, almost burying its little head in the soft sensation.
The happiness of successfully leaving the hospital made Wen Shi not worry too much about the wet and slippery feeling on his back. After experiencing this cursed trip, he had a sense that he wouldn’t think about traveling again for a long while.
The old lady brought the dirty mirror. Wen Shi turned to see the state of his transformed body for the first time.
It did seem very squishy. Even for someone like him who didn’t have any special love for small animals, he wanted to touch the smooth fur all over.
The chilly wind hit from outside.
The bus ride had taken quite a while. Knowing he couldn’t rely on walking to get back to the inn, Wen Shi hopped onto a bench nearby and took a short break.
The old lady sat beside him. From her perspective, moonlight poured over its body, as if something profound was flowing out from within the black cat, following the course of the moonlight.
Finally, the black cat opened its mouth and asked a question that humans could never avoid, “What’s your take on life and death?”
The old lady didn’t pause much. “Just go with the flow.”
Her naturally soft tone held a power to comfort.
Wen Shi: “What if I were to die young someday?”
“I’d figure out a way to bring you back,” the old lady responded more confidently than before.
“……” What happened to going with the flow?
Essentially, the old lady wasn’t human anymore. Her thinking was more like that of monster. Her “go with the flow” meant the law of survival.
Wen Shi, however, had a more traditional mindset. In his view, “going with the flow” meant natural cause and effect.
When it came to understanding life and death, Wen Shi was bound to encounter difficulties in aligning his views with his family. In the end, he was shaped by his foster father’s influence, which carried on in his way of seeing things.
Thud.
Following the noise, Wen Shi looked in the direction where it seemed like a sound came from the suspension bridge.
On the lower level, by the suspension bridge.
Li Nan and others who had just come out of the mirror world jumped down one after the other.
They had a side quest inside the mirror space, getting clearer clues. Knowing not to touch the iron chains, they leaped straight into the abyss upon coming out.
“Trying to be mysterious,” the teenager commented with a hint of disdain about the Naihe Bridge sign. He used a steel pipe to disperse the faceless beings around, getting a bit of fresh air.
Yu Xingzhou looked around but didn’t spot Wen Shi.
The teenager wasn’t concerned about Wen Shi’s well-being. “He must’ve left already.”
When they were all summoning spirits in the Mirror House, his original self hadn’t been able to call anything. This showed that Wen Shi was naturally resistant to mirror-type ghosts and monsters, an ability he hadn’t acquired. It must be a new function developed by the other side in this instance.
“Frustrating.”
The teenager furrowed his brows, realizing they were all playing the same game. This essentially meant that his original self had again outsmarted him.
The phone became useful again here. Li Nan squeezed through a crowd of faceless people, typing rapidly on the screen.
Yu Xingzhou: “The rules here don’t involve phones, right?”
Li Nan, without raising his head, said, “Once ashore, I’ll just head straight out. I’ll contact my shadow, tell him the right way to go, and ask him to bring me a bottle of Divine Evolution Potion.”
Both sides had used contract item beforehand. If one side found the Evolution Potion’s stash, they had to help the other side carry some as well.
Suddenly, Yu Xingzhou became curious about where his shadow’s rebellion might manifest.
Li Nan understood the confusion well and calmly answered, “Control.”
In many things, he had always held back. His shadow, however, indulged recklessly, wanting chaos. But any indulgence was only allowed if it ensured survival.
Staying alive came first.
Both the shadow and the original self shared this understanding.
As the two conversed, Yu Xingzhou keenly sensed something odd. He glanced up and spotted a black cat on the suspension bridge’s edge, appearing out of nowhere.
This was the first time he’d seen such a deep black breed, giving off a deep sense of darkness and a feeling of a pitch-black night. Meeting the cat’s eyes, Yu Xingzhou squinted, a thought emerging. “Pei Wenwei?”
Pei Wenwei could transform into a half-human, half-cat appearance. When discussing his experiences on the first underground floor, he mentioned the quest upgrade.
“You’ll have to wait for another twenty minutes.” The black cat haughtily nodded its head. “When the brain monster’s nerves radiate randomly, just climb along the veins.”
As it spoke, the cat’s tail curled around a bottle of Evolution Potion and flicked it towards the teenager. The latter accurately caught it.
Black cat: “No need to be polite.”
Previously, Wen Shi had heard what Li Nan said. Knowing the other had a way out, he didn’t share any with him.
The teenager once again realized he was depending on others.
The brain monster’s feeding time was quite regular. About twenty minutes later, the familiar tremors occurred.
The black cat stepped back a few steps. This time, from its perspective, it could clearly observe everything. Nerves emerged like needles, threading even through the tiniest gaps. This unique creature, the brain monster, likely wouldn’t have a second instance anwyhere. It used a part of the true spirit as its heart, without a specific monster form.
Both Li Nan and Yu Xingzhou were quite physically fit. The former utilized silk-like tools, moving a bit faster. Compared to them, the teenager was having a slightly harder time. With his partially transformed body, he barely managed to ensure he wasn’t flung away by the angry nerves.
Struggling tirelessly to climb upwards, apart from the crimson nerves everywhere, when he raised his head, he saw the black cat looking down at him.
“You’re so slow.”
Wen Shi’s strike was precise.
“Damn.” The steel pipe in his hand had become a burden at this moment.
Wen Shi kindly stepped on a nerve vein, coming down and helping him transport the steel pipe by rolling it up. The whole process was steady, almost like he was a born acrobat. Calling him a natural circus performer wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Once again, the teenager experienced the disparity between the original and the shadow.
The three of them successively made it up. After taking a few breaths of fresh air, the weariness in their eyes lessened a bit.
Suddenly, a feeling of realization struck the teenager, “It’s over.”
Wen Shi’s transformation body would take a bit more time to fade. Not fond of talking with his head tilted back, he hopped onto the teenager’s shoulder, returning to his initial seated position. “Did the game mention you can enter the virtual world?”
Relax.
For the sake of the Divine Evolution Potion, the teenager endured the urge to throw off the weight on his shoulder.
“No,” he said with a cold expression. “But I can move to different instances, have a free human identity. The game doesn’t guarantee safety unless I work for it.”
Having the official employee NPC status would further provide protection from the game.
Instances differed from reality. They were multi-dimensional.
It was possible to walk from one station to the next and find oneself in a completely different world. Along the way, dangers varied, and so did the species. Nonetheless, the teenager had no intention of working for the game. He possessed Wen Shi’s memories and always felt that this “You Fushang” was constantly teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
“I see.” The black cat curled its tail, pondering the possibility of Song Yan entering the virtual world.
The true spirit probably hoped Song Yan’s player identity could continue, as it would make it easier for the true spirit to gain more information from the real world through his incarnation.
To some extent, Wen Shi could sense that the true spirit had different emotions concerning the last world his father had lived in.
While the black cat was lost in thought, the teenager finally reached his breaking point, “Could you not sit on my shoulder?”
This seated posture made the black cat appear slightly taller than the teenager. That condescending gaze nearly solidified its role as a master, the teenager its subordinate.
With it by his side, the teenager constantly felt a sense of being dominated.
The black cat leapt down.
Just as it landed, Li Nan suddenly bent over and looked over, “Where are your clothes?”
“……” Wen Shi wasn’t sure whether to say his thinking was the same as that of an ordinary person or not. When others saw him, even including the mini octopus, they would instinctively overlook this question.
“The game is intelligent.”
It could conjure up missiles effortlessly, let alone a few pieces of clothing.
“Oh.” Li Nan had just this one question. He didn’t even ask where Song Yan had gone.
After leaving through the back door, they didn’t head to the benches, as the old lady wasn’t fond of crowds. They gathered near the iron gate instead, occasionally catching a glimpse of a running shadow on the hospital walkway ahead.
Following them was Li Nan’s shadow, and astonishingly, he appeared alongside Xiao Hua.
Though Xiao Hua had half an ear sliced off, she acted as if nothing happened. She didn’t even bother to bandage herself. “My shadow is really useless, not even close to being as ruthless as me.”
Her quest, just like Yu Xingzhou’s, involved dealing with her shadow. When Shadow Li Nan passed by, he witnessed her assaulting someone. Now, his eyes seemed strange as he gazed towards Yu Xingzhou. As a shadow, he couldn’t understand how anyone would be willing to work with such a subordinate.
Yu Xingzhou remained remarkably composed, asking about the reason Xiao Hua and Shadow Li Nan walked together.
Xiao Hua’s fingernails were stained crimson with blood. “When I killed my shadow, he happened to be there, trying to use the corpse to distract the security guard. The main entrance was locked, so I had to take the elevator down with him.”
The main entrance was locked?
The black cat hummed discontentedly. These night shift security guards were not only waiting for a chance but also playing a waiting game.
Xiao Hua intended to thoroughly examine the enigmatic black cat but ended up encountering a sudden transformation first.
After being cramped up for too long, Wen Shi stretched lazily upon reverting to his original form. Despite the blood streaming from Xiao Hua’s ear and her state of disarray, she didn’t forget to applaud, “Impressive.”
Unaware of Wen Shi’s upgraded quest, she presumed it was a successful burglar quest, a bonus offered by the game atop his existing transformation abilities.
Over by the bench, the old lady beckoned Wen Shi with a wave. As he walked over, Xiao Hua gazed at his retreating figure and sighed, “The game’s favorite, huh?”
Since learning that a group of monsters wanted to revive another person within Wen Shi, Yu Xingzhou thought Ji Yuanzhi wasn’t entirely wrong. He corrected slightly, “Pei Wenwei, has been through some tough times.”
“……”
Xiao Hua blinked, wondering if the guild leader’s screws had finally gone loose.
She grinned with excitement. Does that mean the day of fulfilling my fantasies is even closer?
Over there, the old lady called Wen Shi over to draw blood.
Initially perplexed, Wen Shi rolled up his sleeve as per her request. The old lady lightly pressed her fingertip, and accompanied by a needle-like sting, blood was extracted and sealed within black energy.
“What’s this…”
The old lady said, “My dear grandson, this way, even if something happens to you, I’ll still have a chance to summon your spirit.”
As she spoke, her finger gently brushed against Wen Shi’s head, collecting a small tuft of hair.
The old lady entertained this thought due to Wen Shi’s earlier discussion about life and death.
Wen Shi couldn’t muster a smile. Not only the old lady, but Jian Qingrong and A’Sang had also explicitly expressed the desire to extend his life.
The mini octopus watched this scene intently, wondering if it should start preparing as well. Wen Shi shivered slightly. He handed over the turtle Evolution Potion Song Yan had given him, hoping to divert its attention.
“Why not research the secret of the turtlekin’s longevity?”
The mini octopus was much easier to deceive than Jian Qingrong, so it accepted the suggestion.
Suddenly, Wen Shi remembered another wormplayer who hadn’t came out yet. Confirming with the mini octopus that there was remaining Divine Evolution Potion, he messaged him that if he couldn’t find it, he should come out directly.
“You shouldn’t coddle them like you’re protecting chicks.” The mini octopus’s tone was serious. “We’ve cleared out most of the dangers on the second underground floor. Anyone with a bit of brain can bring things out.”
It emphasized the word “brain.”
People without brains didn’t deserve to stand beside Wen Shi.
The newbie hadn’t replied yet. A worm’s body made everything inconvenient, including answering calls.
“Feeling a bit tired.” Wen Shi put away his phone, his muscles sore all over.
The huggable teddy bear Ji Yuanzhi gave him was quite practical. Adjusting his posture, he leaned against the plush toy for a short nap. Around five in the morning, the surrounding silence was shattered, replaced by faint noises. Wen Shi opened his eyes halfway and noticed several figures not far away. The wormplayer was wriggling toward him. Before Wen Shi could ask, he proudly showed off the looted Evolution Potion.
As another incarnation of the true spirit, the wormplayer hadn’t been pulled into the mirror space by the little green figures. However, he hadn’t discerned the conspiracy of the suspension bridge either, relying solely on his advantage as a crawling insect to squirm over.
After hearing this story, Wen Shi felt this newbie was a high-luck value existence.
He got up and glanced around. Players generally had a higher survival rate. Shadows might be sinister, but when it came to strategy and exploiting human nature, players were even more ruthless. The most important thing was that they understood cooperation better than the self-centered shadows.
The wormplayer sought advice, “Should we leave?”
The town would brighten early with the sunrise, and soon, the employees would start coming to work. Gathering here wasn’t a good idea.
Wen Shi checked the time. “Wait for another twenty minutes.”
He wasn’t waiting for those who hadn’t come out yet. He was waiting for the tour guide. Abandoning the tourists at the hospital would be the tour guide’s negligence.
Time passed by second by second. Not just him, but everyone was waiting and observing. Players and shadows maintained their usual defensive stance, fearing a last-minute ambush.
The moon’s outline faded from the night sky, and the Morning Star became even brighter. Qian Laiye’s sudden shout brought everyone to attention, “Tour guide!”
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