A simple announcement caused the forum to practically explode.
Even many old players who rarely posted started spamming question marks. The speed was so fast that the first few dozen pages were almost filled with the same thing. Even when the Whaler’s Association made their post, it didn’t initially have this much momentum.
[??? Hidden item, what hidden item!]
[Person above, you should be asking whose hidden item.]
[Am I seeing things?! Are the holder of the Holy Artifact and the hidden item the same person? Look who it is again?]
[Investigate the person above. Our server all says ‘how old are you’. @X House.]
[Have you guys heard the recent rumors about Mr. Ying? It seems the laboratory is looking for him.]
[Don’t go off-topic, I only care about what the hidden item is! What kind of person can obtain both a Holy Artifact and a hidden item at the same time? Did his ancestral graves start smoking? I’m blindly guessing his skill is super luck.]
[+1]
[+1]
[+1, I equally hate every King of Luck!]
After a series of posts spammed the screen, Zhou Qi’an informally gained a new nickname: King of Luck.
Some were shocked, others were worried.
The associations that were still蠢蠢欲動 to seize the Holy Artifact also saw the post, and their mood soured.
They had just barely gotten some news about the Holy Artifact, but for one person to obtain two high-quality items at the same time, even with the boost from the Holy Artifact, his own strength must be anything but simple.
Unless they made a move in the real world, once they entered the game, even in a team, they might not have the upper hand.
While the forum news intensified their inner greed, it also created a strong sense of deterrence.
The fame of the King of Luck spread far and wide, not just on the forums.
Even the game’s item mall posted an announcement, with a line of small text below it:
[To celebrate the first player obtaining a special hidden item, everything in the store is 0.000001% off today.]
“47814?”
Isn’t this the instance she’s in!
Inside the instance, Mu Ge, who had just triggered a side quest and was about to buy a pair of running shoes, opened the game’s item mall, and her expression immediately became extremely colorful.
Because the news was so explosive, even though she knew who the Holy Artifact holder was, she still took a second to react.
Mu Ge had bought the player ID of the Holy Artifact holder from Red Cloak and was certain he was the same person as ‘Map Cannon’. But beyond that, Red Cloak’s information was vague, only saying that the Holy Artifact holder looked very honest on the outside.
But from entering the instance until now, she hadn’t seen anyone who looked honest!
She couldn’t match the description to anyone at all.
“Red Cloak…” Mu Ge decided that when she got out, she would dig up that woman’s ancestral graves.
On the surface, it seemed like she had gotten a bargain, paying for one piece of information and potentially getting two treasures.
But on second thought, Red Cloak had deliberately kept the other characteristics of the Holy Artifact holder vague, selling one piece of information multiple times, precisely to prevent her from having time to gather more information, worried that someone else would get there first and enter the instance before her.
“First, you let your guard down and enter the instance, then you get counter-killed, making it convenient for the other party to continue this line of business.”
Mu Ge furiously ruffled her hair, cursing a million times in her heart.
Just as she was about to curse sparks out of her mouth, ding, the elevator doors in front of her suddenly opened.
Mu Ge immediately hid carefully behind the duty desk.
Inside the elevator car was a woman with blood constantly flowing from her abdomen.
The person was clearly still alive, struggling to prop up her upper body. However, just as she managed to complete the movement, a medical staff member immediately appeared, their voice muffled and hoarse from under the mask, “Quick! A patient needs emergency treatment.”
From the dark depths of the corridor where the light couldn’t reach, more medical staff appeared, swarming forward like they were snatching goods, and lifted the woman onto an emergency gurney.
It was then that Mu Ge finally got a clear look at the person being lifted onto the gurney.
“A’Ling?”
Mu Ge cautiously moved a little closer, her expression gradually turning serious. The wound didn’t look like it was made by a ghost; it was more like it was man-made.
What happened upstairs?
…
Twelfth floor, Special Inpatient Department.
Some bloodstains still remained on the floor tiles.
A’Ling’s train of thought hadn’t been wrong. The fog’s return meant the game was about to forcibly eject the players from the dream. Gritting her teeth, she had decided to die once, and by the time she revived with the death-substitute item, it would be about time to leave the dream.
The moment she returned to reality, she just needed to activate a psychic-type item to ensure she opened her eyes first and gained control of her body.
As for the people outside, their intention was to use her and Zhao Sanxun as pathfinders in the dream. They wouldn’t easily make a move before they saw Zhou Qi’an wake up.
Man proposes, but Heaven disposes.
In the mere instant her consciousness returned to her body, A’Ling didn’t even have time to feign anything before excruciating pain followed.
She had stabbed many people and had a deep understanding of human anatomy.
A few cuts had cleverly avoided vital points, but there was a significant amount of bleeding.
“Healing item…” Reason told A’Ling she had to stop the bleeding as soon as possible, but a strange drowsiness kept clinging to her.
“You’re sleepy.”
A cold voice entered her soul.
In the endless drowsiness, A’Ling seemed to hear the sound of the elevator, and not long after, the urging of a nurse—
“Quick, send her to intensive care.”
With one less player, the twelfth floor remained completely unchanged. Even the lingering smell of blood was being diluted by the floral scent in the air.
In the same spot, Shen Zhiyi casually returned the borrowed knife to Han Li.
Han Li muttered, “I thought you were going to kill her directly.”
Although the result was no different, going through the loop of an NPC would make her suffer even more.
Shen Zhiyi’s blood-red eyes held a strange glint. “Qi’an is kind-hearted by nature. He doesn’t like to kill.”
He also controlled himself occasionally.
Qi’an?
Han Li was stunned for a moment.
She quickly realized that Zhou Qi’an had used this name in his first instance as well, so he must have told Mu Tianbai.
But we’re all just strangers who met by chance, where did you see this kindness?
Beside them, Ying Yu didn’t join the discussion. He leaned against the wall with his eyes closed to rest, having expended too much mental energy during his time in the greenhouse.
Not long after Shen Zhiyi finished speaking, Zhao Sanxun’s body, which was lying to the side, suddenly began to break apart into chunks of flesh, with blood spurting out like a fountain.
Han Li jumped in fright.
In that instant of spraying blood, Zhou Qi’an slowly woke up.
His clothes weren’t wet but carried a faint dampness. Before his eyes even opened, his faint voice came out first: “Is he dead?”
Startled, Han Li couldn’t help but step to the side.
Zhou Qi’an’s current demeanor and aura made it impossible to tell if he was a person or a ghost.
As she stepped back, she accidentally glanced at Shen Zhiyi walking over. The words ‘you are so kind’ were practically written all over his face.
“?”
The sound of blood spurting nearby accelerated the return of Zhou Qi’an’s rationality. He became fully awake. Seeing the crimson scene not far away, he emotionlessly came to a conclusion, “He’s dead.”
Good that he’s dead.
“…”
The youth, Zhang Zhuzi, who woke up next, decisively moved away from Zhou Qi’an. The scene from a few minutes ago would be unforgettable for the rest of his life.
Normally, when a player obtains a treasure, their first reaction would definitely be excitement, followed by worry about it being stolen.
But the moment the red light enveloped the world, while everyone was still wondering about the source of the red light and marveling at the treasure… the person involved’s first reaction was to turn around, use his hair as a sharp weapon to entangle Zhao Sanxun, and charge straight at him.
The change was too sudden. Zhao Sanxun subconsciously dodged, but in doing so, he ignored the elephant seal not far away.
Just as the red light dimmed a little, the elephant seal became agitated again. It opened its massive mouth and bit down on Zhao Sanxun, who had suddenly turned his back to it.
The whole process shocked the youth’s entire family!
“Trying to reap the rewards and kill me at the same time? Dream on…” After lying down for a long time, Zhou Qi’an got up and stretched his limbs, muttering to the air, “Go to sleep. You can have anything in your dreams.”
Shen Zhiyi pulled him aside a little to prevent his clothes from getting stained by the spurting blood, thinking to himself that Qi’an was still too kind.
Planting a listening device, the assassination attempt on the first night, and after entering the dream, Zhao Sanxun must have orchestrated a joint killing effort… He should have used crueler methods.
A pity.
He had thought A’Ling had found a way to leave the dream and had come out early, which was why he didn’t act immediately.
This directly resulted in Zhao Sanxun getting off easy with just being torn to pieces before he died.
Shen Zhiyi found Zhao Sanxun’s head and sneered, “You got a great deal.”
A direct death wouldn’t attract medical staff. Zhou Qi’an was just a little surprised that Zhao Sanxun didn’t have a death-substitute item. He didn’t know if it was used in another instance or if he never had one in the first place.
After all, obtaining items also required some luck.
He had been so focused on fighting for survival before, but now Zhou Qi’an finally had time to carefully browse his panel.
[Name: Death Curse Bone
Quality: ??
Item Description: Death is both an abstract and a direct matter.
Instructions: Write the name of someone you want to curse on the bone. If the target is a human, the target will encounter a crisis event with an 80% mortality rate in the instance.
If the curse target is a ghost or monster, the mortality rate is 100% (if you happen to curse a legendary-level monster, then that’s just your bad luck).
Note: Limited uses 0/2
Note: Have you ever thought, with both the Holy Artifact and the Death Curse Bone in your possession, are you a wicked dragon or a dragon-slaying youth?]
Zhou Qi’an directly ignored the last sentence.
What is there to think about?
He now had two rare items. Game, you’ve done a great service!
Zhou Qi’an pondered it carefully.
Unlike the Holy Artifact which killed whatever it poked, the Death Curse Bone was a consumable, usable only twice. However, the item’s quality was terrifying because it had no usage cost.
The only drawback was that the conditions for use were very strict. First, you had to know the target’s real name.
The youth saw his thoughtful expression and knew he was looking at the item panel. He kindly reminded him, “Getting a powerful item means you won’t be able to enter instances below four stars in the future.”
It was all part of the game’s routine.
Zhou Qi’an: “Oh.”
As if he had said nothing at all.
The College Student suddenly realized something and said, “I don’t have any powerful items, but I’ve only ever done one three-and-a-half-star instance. After that, it’s been all four-star minimum.”
The youth was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing, “Hahahaha! You’re really funny.”
College Student: “…”
Ying Yu showed a kind of detachment from these obviously strange matters. He spoke slowly, easily changing the subject, “Is the mission complete?”
Zhou Qi’an nodded, then said with a serious expression, “For the final main quest, everyone’s sense of participation must be strong.”
This instance was very special; some quests had to be leeched off of.
For example, the College Student hadn’t triggered the quest to find Zhang Xiuxiu, but he had participated heavily in the search process and ended up near the elephant seal, just like himself. Thus, he was also considered to have found Zhang Xiuxiu and heard the quest completion sound.
If you didn’t update your quest log in time, you had to actively follow the players who had already triggered the quest.
Otherwise, it was very likely that others would complete the main quest and leave, while you were still stuck in the instance.
Right now, only Zhou Qi’an and the College Student had two lines on their panels:
[Current Main Quest–Find Zhang Xiuxiu: Completed]
[Final Main Quest–Kill Dr. Z: Activated]
The game had no sense of innovation; it was consistent with the request he had heard from the female patient on the first day.
To unify their progress as quickly as possible, Zhou Qi’an first described everything that happened in the dream as clearly as he could.
When he heard that Zhao Sanxun and A’Ling had tried to attack Zhou Qi’an more than once, Shen Zhiyi once again thought that they must have saved the world in their past lives, otherwise how could they have died so peacefully?
The shadow also seemed to be regretful. Its thirty thousand methods had not been used. It sighed faintly, blowing the cobwebs from the ceiling.
Zhou Qi’an ignored the small spiders crawling around looking for a home and casually drew a picture of the suspicious woman from the dream.
Everyone subconsciously looked at a door.
The photo on the door was of a woman’s face, round and somewhat like an apple. This face shape, coupled with her fair and delicate skin, made her look very young.
The youth was surprisingly bold. He actually walked directly to the door of Zhang Xiuxiu’s ward.
After standing by the door and observing for a few minutes, his expression suddenly changed, “Quick, look!”
Everyone walked over.
The face in the photo on the door was gradually turning blank. From the facial features to the contours, the lines faded bit by bit until they disappeared completely.
The woman’s place was replaced by an elephant seal.
The content in the description box below did not change, still reading: [Order Carnivora; Patient is large-bodied, extremely aggressive, with long sleep duration].
However, above it, the words ‘single room’ were added, followed by a bloody character .
After a brief moment of surprise, the initial shock of most people turned into regret.
It seemed that killing Dr. Z by simply pushing open the door was impossible.
This ward now only contained the elephant seal.
Even more concise than the ‘Find Zhang Xiuxiu’ quest, the final quest was just a simple ‘Kill Dr. Z’. With three buildings in the entire hospital, let alone killing her, just finding Dr. Z would be difficult enough.
Not having a fixed direction was the most terrifying part.
Everyone fell into their own thoughts.
Zhou Qi’an suddenly spoke, “Actually, we can work backward.”
His pale face was bowed in thought, gathering a few more shadows. “First, Dr. Z is a human. The way to deal with her has nothing to do with traditional monster fighting.”
This first sentence stunned most of the players.
How could the final boss be a human?
But Zhou Qi’an was very sure of this point.
He had just obtained the Death Curse Bone, and the next moment, the final quest to kill Dr. Z was activated.
Finding Dr. Z’s name wouldn’t be difficult; they could just start with the medical staff. If they really found it and wrote it on the Death Curse Bone, with a 100% mortality rate, the instance would end right there.
Then this quest would have no reason to exist.
The game would not set up such a quest that gives players an easy win in an instance that has a hidden item.
Unless the Death Curse Bone had little impact on the data balance.
When the curse target was not human, the mortality rate was 100%, but if the target was changed to a human… there was only a certain probability of success.
As for the bug where the monster’s strength being too high could lead to failure, Zhou Qi’an didn’t consider it. The elephant seal was already strong enough. If there was another being strong enough to break free from an item, the instance difficulty would be unbalanced.
If it really came to that, he would just have to accept it and use the death-substitute item first.
“According to the newspaper, the ultimate goal of the Cyclamen Plan is to increase human lifespan,” Zhou Qi’an gave a reasonable explanation. “It’s highly likely that Dr. Z has lived to this day as a human.”
As he spoke, Shen Zhiyi listened quietly. When Zhou Qi’an finished, he added at the right time, “Dr. Z herself, or the method to deal with Dr. Z, is in the pharmacy.”
The air fell silent again.
One directly determined the species, the other gave the solution. Did these two secretly upgrade their brains?
Shen Zhiyi only responded to Zhou Qi’an’s gaze, his blood-red eyes sharp yet gentle. “That stupid rabbit is guarding the door of the pharmacy. Important items are often found where it’s looking.”
“Dr. Z is also a patient. As a patient, she needs to take medicine. The medicine she takes must be different from that of all other patients.”
Shen Zhiyi showed a strange enthusiasm for clearing the instance.
In the past, the time they could spend together in the game was far greater than in the real world, so he had never been very invested.
But now that he had the coordinates of the Whaler’s Association and needed to rush off to kill and set fires, and Zhou Qi’an was also concerned about the replacement for the life-preserving bag, he was showing a rare sense of participation.
Zhou Qi’an became thoughtful after hearing this.
They had been to the pharmacy once and found nothing unusual. It could only be due to a lack of clues.
He suddenly looked up at the youth. “Go find Mu Ge and Wang Cai.”
Those two wouldn’t just sit and wait. They must have been actively doing side quests downstairs during this time. In order to leech off the main quest, they would be more than willing to share clues.
And for an errand like this, one person was enough.
He needed to rest.
Zhou Qi’an’s face was written all over with ‘I choose you’. The corner of the youth’s mouth twitched fiercely.
After he left, Zhou Qi’an briefly explained what happened in the pharmacy. Han Li was still lost in the news about Mr. Si and hadn’t recovered. Zhou Qi’an and Ying Yu stood against the wall and had already started resting with their eyes closed.
The College Student kept staring at Zhou Qi’an until the temperature suddenly dropped.
He turned his head and found Shen Zhiyi staring at him coldly.
Zhou Qi’an also seemed to sense something and opened his eyes.
Seeing the College Student trembling under Shen Zhiyi’s gaze while still peeking at him from the corner of his eye, he crossed his arms and asked with a half-smile, “Am I good-looking?”
Under Shen Zhiyi’s glare, the College Student’s brain was about to crash. He stammered, “In the… in the water, you’re better looking.”
He was just purely curious. After coming out of the dream, how did the other’s hairstyle return to normal?
Last time at Liangye Villa, he had kept that look until the end.
What the College Student understood even less was why one person could have two completely opposite temperaments.
The Zhou Qi’an in the lake water felt very different from the one now. It was clearly the same face, but in the water, he seemed like a higher-dimensional being, with an indescribable cruel beauty.
Now, he was more humane. The playful expression on his face gathered a bit more of a worldly air around him.
He truthfully conveyed these direct feelings. Zhou Qi’an’s first reaction was: you’ve written too many college entrance exam essays.
Letting out a soft yawn, Zhou Qi’an replied nonchalantly, “The makeup and styling in the dream probably aren’t long-lasting.”
As he was speaking, he suddenly heard a strange sound.
His gaze inadvertently swept over Shen Zhiyi. The latter’s eyes held a twisted and suppressed look, and his shadow was a shade darker than usual.
Shen Zhiyi gently tapped the wall with his fingernail, and several cracks instantly appeared on the solid wall.
…He missed it again.
Looking at the darkening shadow, a trace of confusion appeared on Zhou Qi’an’s face.
How does someone just ‘darken’ while standing there?
