What report?
That no longer mattered.
The Origami Boy’s heart pounded wildly. The most primal instinct of humans upon seeing a ghost was triggered—run!
The player listening to the MP3 ran even faster than him.
The stairwell had yet to be explored, and it was too far away to guarantee safety. Each floor had signboards next to the escalators. Comparatively speaking, since they had specifically been given an elevator card, the safest option in this instance was actually the elevator.
The two had a clear objective: first, lure the ghost away from the elevator, then run back.
Once the target moved, it instantly became the prey.
All the human-skin lanterns drifted over. The shopkeepers, wearing eerie smiles, began to revel in the thrill of jungle hunting.
Jin Ji’s Rice Shop.
With those two serving as a diversion, the rice store near the elevator was left untouched by ghosts.
Warm breath trickled past his ear.
Zhou Qi’an tilted his head and saw that, at some point, the hooded man had also crouched down beside him, temporarily using the counter as cover.
Taking advantage of the Origami Boy and the other player drawing the heat, Zhou Qi’an hunched over and sprinted into the nearest shop. Finding no coffin inside, he immediately moved on to the next.
There were plenty of ghosts in the building—and just as many dead bodies. Only two stores away from the human-skin old lady, a coffin rested inside.
Zhou Qi’an let out a breath of relief.
With his previous experience, he thoroughly inspected the coffin this time, ensuring there was no human skin wrapped around it before pushing it open to retrieve the corpse.
Now, all that remained was delivering the body to Jin Taotao’s Bone Rice Store.
The glow from the doorway reflected off his glasses, and his heavy bangs hung low, making him look particularly honest and unassuming. But on closer inspection, he was deftly binding the corpse’s arms with white silk, preventing it from strangling him again.
The hooded man, always appearing and disappearing unpredictably, slowly exhaled a few words: “Lure the enemy into the urn.”
With the right strategy, they could arrange for other players to take the fall in advance.
The Monster Passenger had only named a limited number of stores. The building had many shops, so sooner or later, the players would have to fight over the advantageous ones.
The corpse was wrapped up like a zongzi. Zhou Qi’an secured it onto his back and said calmly, “I’m not trying to harm them. The one I want to harm is someone else.”
Surprisingly, he took the initiative to explain, “Actually, the sacred artifact that’s been the talk of the entire forum is on me…”
The sudden revelation caught the hooded ’s attention.
Yet Zhou Qi’an spoke humbly, even scratching his head in embarrassment. He kept discussing the sacred artifact, much like how Tang Seng constantly told people that eating his flesh would grant immortality.
“A lot of people with ulterior motives are asking about me. My stepmom—no, a player from the last instance and I made a deal. She sells my secret only to players she deems I can handle, and I take the bigger cut of the profit. Then, she provides me with detailed information on the buyers. If any of them manage to enter the same instance, hoping to kill me for the artifact, I reap another harvest.”
Zhou Qi’an wasn’t worried about his secret being resold.
No one could resist the temptation of the sacred artifact—whoever learned about it would want to keep it for themselves.
“So my real target is that Red Cloak Girl.”
The Monster Passenger was after the five-star Fish Eye. The third floor would undoubtedly be the most dangerous tonight. If he could use the monsters to deal with Red Cloak Girl, it would save him a lot of trouble.
Yet, someone had to butt in first—how was that his fault?
The hooded man gazed at the young man who had laid everything out and asked indifferently, “So, are you planning to kill me now?”
“…”
“You want me to covet your sacred artifact, so you can set me up, then justify it from some moral high ground when you kill me?”
Vulgar!
This man’s words were too vulgar.
What “kill”? That was called justice.
Zhou Qi’an carried the corpse toward the bone rice shop, his gaze gradually turning cold. “You’ve been following me—you’re not up to anything good either.”
Ordinary people couldn’t even touch the sacred artifact. Using this fact to trap people was foolproof.
Just as Zhou Qi’an thought they were about to fall out completely, the hooded suddenly removed his mask, revealing a top-tier cool guy face—deep-set eyes, blood-red irises exuding an air of mystery.
“Partner up?” He asked. “I can round up some temporary friends as targets.”
Zhou Qi’an, who had been carefully watching his surroundings, almost tripped.
His expression froze. “Betraying friends—don’t you find that shameless?”
At that moment, he suddenly understood how the college student viewed the world.
A flicker of doubt crossed the hooded man’s face. “Evil begets evil. They’ve done plenty of bad things—this is just karma catching up to them.”
“……”
Zhou Qi’an gave up arguing with this twisted logic genius.
“Alright,” he suddenly put on a welcoming, friendly expression. “Here’s the plan—you go wait at the rice shop. It’s safer there. If we move together, we’ll attract too much attention.”
The hooded man saw right through his plan to use him as cheap labor to guard the rice shop, but he didn’t call it out.
He happened to be a little tired anyway. Before leaving, he told Zhou Qi’an his name: “I’m Mu Tianbai.”
Having temporarily shaken off this big-tailed wolf, Zhou Qi’an continued toward Jin Taotao’s Bone Rice Store.
Along the way, he vaguely heard the MP3 player-wearing guy cursing, as if he had run into something. Zhou Qi’an didn’t bother looking—he just hunched lower, further reducing his presence.
The bone rice shop was empty. Occasionally, the furnace let out a sharp crackling sound as leftover bone fragments shattered from the heat.
He set down the corpse—no one here? Even better.
That meant he could handle everything himself.
Mimicking the previous sterilization suit’s procedures, Zhou Qi’an placed the corpse into the designated rectangular container.
Just as he opened the furnace door, he suddenly sensed something. He froze mid-action and whipped around—
At some point, another figure had appeared behind him.
The furnace’s crimson glow illuminated the entire room, casting light on the sterilization suit. Through its semi-transparent fabric, faint patches of flesh could be seen underneath. Their eyes met. The sterilization suit started moving—one step at a time, approaching him.
Zhou Qi’an swallowed and said, “I’m here to collect rice.”
The sterilization suit tilted its head slightly and halted beside him.
Just as Zhou Qi’an was about to say something else, the figure mechanically began operating the furnace.
He was now trapped between the sterilization suit and the dark wall behind him—unable to move recklessly.
In the tight space, every movement of the sterilization suit was magnified infinitely.
Then, Zhou Qi’an’s gaze sharpened.
Earlier, when it was chasing him, it had been carrying an iron hook.
“Help!”
Outside, the MP3 player-wearing guy’s cursing had turned into a scream.
Hurried footsteps approached from a distance. Zhou Qi’an, with his unobstructed line of sight, caught a glimpse of the human-skin lanterns illuminating a particular area—there, another sterilization suit was raising an iron hook, aiming directly at the MP3 player-wearing guy.
Two sterilization suits?!
Zhou Qi’an’s heart dropped.
If the real sterilization suit was outside—then what was standing in front of him?
The moment he withdrew his gaze, he found himself locking eyes with a pair of lifeless, hollow pupils.
“You’ve noticed, haven’t you…” the sterilization suit inside the shop murmured. Without hesitation, it reached out and sliced off the corpse’s head.
Beneath the mask was a woman’s voice.
She skillfully dug out the corpse’s brain, splitting the left and right hemispheres.
“This—this is the most delicious part.”
All the filthiest thoughts, memories, and experiences were stored in the brain.
The extracted brain matter was canned for preservation, to be used later. The remaining half of the corpse was shoved into the furnace.
The door of the furnace remained open. The corpse, pushed inside, was already sizzling as its flesh split open from the heat. The fake sterilization suit was terrifyingly strong—it gripped Zhou Qi’an’s arm like a pair of iron tongs. Within moments, his feet were off the ground. He had no doubt that in the next second, he’d be ruthlessly thrown into the fire.
Then, a dazzling golden light flashed across the bone rice shop.
Even Zhou Qi’an himself was momentarily blinded by its brilliance—let alone the fake sterilization suit, whose already vacant pupils trembled violently.
Summoning the golden harpoon, Zhou Qi’an didn’t strike immediately.
Judging by how the woman had defiled the corpse, she was very likely the ghost that had demanded rice from the shop owner.
The instance protected its core NPCs to some extent—who knew what kind of survival tricks this female ghost had up her sleeve?
If he failed to take her down in one blow, wouldn’t that be a waste of 40 HP?
Zhou Qi’an forced himself to remain calm, putting on an innocent expression. “I don’t know what you’re talking about—I… I was tricked into coming here as a temp worker.”
He emphasized the word “tricked”, letting a hint of resentment flicker across his expression.
“I originally wanted to leave right away, but then I thought—that would be letting those scammers off too easy.” Zhou Qi’an deliberately put away his sacred weapon, displaying maximum sincerity. “They really deserve to die, don’t they?”
But unexpectedly, the fake sterilization suit shook her head, her expression chillingly eerie. “Die? That’s too easy for them.”
Even when Xun the Wealthy realized he’d been tricked, he hadn’t displayed such intense hatred.
Standing near the furnace, Zhou Qi’an felt like he was freezing from the yin energy.
Just as the female ghost seemed to be spiraling deeper into darkness, he forced himself to open his trembling lips and said:
“I just want to kill the owner of Jinxiang Tower.”
The fake sterilization suit froze.
She was slightly shorter than Zhou Qi’an, but the shadow cast from her gaze suddenly stretched, almost swallowing him whole, as if assessing the truth in his words.
A searing heat spread through his organs, yet Zhou Qi’an’s gaze didn’t waver one bit.
It was a bold assumption—
Since this woman’s death was deeply entangled with the merchants, it was impossible that the owner of Jinxiang Tower didn’t know what was going on.
The silence stretched on. The burning pain in his body triggered a series of involuntary physical reactions.
Zhou Qi’an curled into himself, clutching his knees tightly, trying to minimize the surface area being roasted by the invisible flames.
Just as he started wondering if he was about to be cooked alive, the roaring noise in his ears abruptly vanished.
Zhou Qi’an opened his eyes—
A new ceramic jar sat within reach.
He guessed right!
A system notification descended like a life-saving rain shower:
【Congratulations, you have obtained (Jin Taotao’s Bone Rice) *1】
Zhou Qi’an forced his limbs to move, checking the label on the jar: Jin Lu, four jin.
Another “Jin” surname?
【Would you like to submit all collected bone rice and complete the mission?】
This time, Zhou Qi’an didn’t hesitate. He chose “Yes.”
“Side Quest 1 – Collecting Rice is now complete. The player has collected a total of 7 jin and 8 liang, exceeding the minimum requirement by 3 jin and 8 liang.”
The fake sterilization suit hadn’t skimmed off any weight—the labels accurately matched the collected amount.
“Quest reward—Old Photograph (Important Clue) has been issued.”
“Bonus reward for exceeding collection quota—’Day by Day Savings Jar’ has been issued.”
【Day by Day Savings Jar: A special item for those who possess bloodstained ghost currency. Interest rates fluctuate with the market—the more you deposit, the higher the returns.】
As the system’s announcement played, the fake sterilization suit eerily vanished.
Just as Zhou Qi’an was glancing around, the system continued its broadcast—
“It’s recommended that you honestly fulfill your promise to the female ghost. Of course, whether you do or not—she still wants to kill you.”
“……”
Zhou Qi’an didn’t immediately examine the [Old Photograph]—the most urgent task was to leave the bone rice shop as soon as possible. The dazzling buff that came with summoning his sacred weapon had already attracted some attention.
Now that the fake sterilization suit was gone, monsters would soon find their way here.
Just as Zhou Qi’an left the bone rice shop, a plaster-faced barber appeared at the entrance. He didn’t dare to step inside. After confirming that the one who had extorted him wasn’t there, he muttered vengefully, “Where did he run off to?”
—
Zhou Qi’an moved like the wind, quickly returning to base camp, where he and Mu Tianbai huddled shoulder to shoulder against the rice jars, avoiding the ghosts outside.
The overlapping sounds of running and pursuit echoed through the air, yet Mu Tianbai—despite the chaos—tilted his head slightly, as if asleep.
Elsewhere, Origami Boy used an item to draw the ghosts’ aggro onto the MP3 player-wielding players, using the distraction to sprint toward the rice shop.
At this moment, he had only two thoughts:
- Destroy the rice shop, forcing the shopkeeper to be fired.
- Escape using the elevator.
A black stun baton appeared in his hand. Fueled by the rage of being chased earlier, he was about to swing it down hard—
But suddenly, a head popped up from the counter.
Zhou Qi’an’s sharp jawline rested against the countertop as he murmured eerily: “What are you trying to do?”
“……”
Origami Boy was startled. Before he could even react to Zhou Qi’an’s sudden appearance, a horrific scream echoed in the distance—the MP3 player-wearing guy was dead.
The shop owners who had been watching with sinister smiles began regrouping, searching for their next target.
Meanwhile, the elevator was in use, stuck on one of the upper floors.
Origami Boy cursed under his breath. Using the counter for support, he leaped over and hid under the rice shop’s counter as well.
But the skin lanterns floating outside were fast—they wouldn’t stay hidden for long.
Out of the corner of his eye, Origami Boy glanced at Zhou Qi’an, a vicious glint flashing in his eyes.
He planned to threaten Zhou Qi’an by endangering the rice shop, forcing him to go out and draw the ghosts’ attention.
But even as danger loomed overhead, Zhou Qi’an showed no fear at all.
“Do you know why I’m not scared?” Seeing through Origami Boy’s intention, he smiled. “Because there are too many ‘smart people’ like you.”
Ding!
A familiar chime rang out.
The downward elevator doors had opened.
The red cloak girl stepped out—having just completed a side quest. A spiderweb-like wound marred the back of her hand, evidence of a recent brutal battle. Faint yin energy curled around her, attempting to seep into her veins.
The red cloak girl didn’t care—she simply moved her fingers slightly, snuffing it out.
The skin lanterns instantly locked onto her, their eerie light sweeping toward her direction.
The red cloak girl froze, her expression shifting for the first time.
Having learned from their past mistake, the skin lanterns this time directly blocked her way back to the elevator.
“Trash.”
The red cloak girl quickly recovered and released a targeted toxic mist, paralyzing the grotesque faces on the lanterns. Then, a curved blade materialized in her hand—she leapt and slashed down—
The lantern split open.
“Damn, she’s good.” Zhou Qi’an whispered under the counter.
Origami Boy had clearly killed a few monsters earlier—otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived until now. And now that someone else was taking care of these annoying lanterns, the work environment was only getting better for him.
After efficiently clearing several lanterns, the area suddenly became much darker.
With the lanterns destroyed, the Skin Granny surged toward their direction.
Meanwhile, someone else was using the elevator—it had closed again and was now far from their floor.
The red cloak girl pressed the elevator button, waiting. In the meantime, she decided to destroy the rice shop.
She pulled out a hammer—but just as she was about to swing—
Three heads popped up from under the counter.
“What are you trying to do?”
“……”
The elevator still hadn’t arrived. The red cloak girl’s eyelid twitched—and she jumped into the counter space as well.
At the same time, a white porcelain bottle appeared in her hand, releasing black mist to blur their presence.
The silence was deadly. No one spoke.
Two minutes later, the black mist in the porcelain bottle was nearly depleted.
The Skin Granny, furious at not finding her prey, shrieked in rage and approached again.
Ding!
Tonight’s busiest elevator doors opened once more.
A person with the baseball cap stepped out, flipping a throwing knife between his fingers.
He tilted his cap slightly downward, concealing the smirk on his lips.
The skull ring on his finger pulsed—hungrily absorbing the stench of blood in the air.
“What kind of treasure is hiding here?” He mused. “Even the monsters are drooling over it.”
If he cut open this young man’s heart, he could find out exactly what the ghostly passengers were after.
Killing a player would result in a punishment—the next instance’s ifficulty would increase.
But then again, this wasn’t his first time.
His smirk reflected faintly in the rice jars.
Origami Boy froze—it was like looking into a mirror.
That same smile—
He had smiled the exact same way earlier.
And then—he hadn’t smiled for three seconds.
Baseball Cap Guy had just stepped out of the elevator when he sensed something was off.
One second.
Two seconds.
Origami Boy subconsciously counted in his head. “Three seconds…”
Outside—
At the third second—
Baseball Cap Guy was greeted by the Skin Granny.
Under the counter, Zhou Qi’an tilted his head toward the others. “See? A perfect loop.”
“……”
—
Author’s Note:
Zhou Qi’an: “I only threw out one bait, and three fish fought to jump in. What’s wrong with fish these days?”
