Toddler Weird

Qin Rang refused to let him brush it off and stopped him outright. "Who exactly are you? We'd all feel better if you explained more clearly. It's for our safety too, wouldn't you agree?"

His tone was gentle, and he wasn't being aggressive, but the moment he said it, it was as if Bai Yang would be a thoroughly evil person if he refused to answer.

Bai Yang met Qin Rang's smiling eyes. The smile in those foxlike eyes was faint, like a disguise he hadn't put much effort into.

He seriously suspected that if the livestream weren't following them, and if he hadn't saved them earlier, Qin Rang and the others wouldn't be nearly so patient with him now. They probably would have already restrained him by force.

Bai Yang stopped pretending to be weak. His smile faded as he said, "We won't be enemies."

With that, he calmly walked out of the circle surrounding him, the ears of the doll he held in his right hand swaying in the air.

Sheng Qingqiao was just about to step forward when the stuffed rabbit suddenly turned its head 180 degrees, twisting its plush neck into wrinkles. Its hollow eye sockets blinked, looking just like its owner when he feigned innocence.

Sheng Qingqiao stared at the stuffed rabbit, which seemed almost alive, and made no further move.

With no one stopping him, Bai Yang pushed open the door ahead of them first.

Light shone in, scattering the darkness. The floor was silent, with nothing inside.

Bai Yang looked back, his expression somewhat hard to make out with the light behind him. "Is it important to dwell on who I am? The Weirds are what we should be dealing with now, right?"

Bai Yang had given him a way out, and Qin Rang took it. His expression relaxed, and a warm smile appeared on his lips, as though he had truly let his guard down around Bai Yang. "You're right. Let's go. This isn't the time to discuss it."

Bai Yang turned and stepped forward. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his wrist and stumbled as Tao Yuan hurried over and grabbed him.

Before he could say anything, a sheet of leather paper suddenly flew out from Tao Yuan's arms, brushed past the tip of his nose, and blocked the doorway.

At the sight of the sheet, a trace of gravity appeared on their faces as they stared fixedly at it. Bai Yang also stopped and looked curiously at the paper blocking their way.

The leather paper trembled in the air, and a line of words gradually appeared on its blank surface.

[Number of Weirds here: 4. Danger level: high. Recommendation: Still running forward? Are you trying to get yourself killed?]

"Four Weirds? Did they get together to play mahjong or something? There are so many of them. How could we possibly beat them?" Sheng Qingqiao complained, his eyes wide.

Tao Yuan grabbed the page and stepped forward to close the open door. Darkness covered the long staircase once more.

"The human-skin book page can't be wrong. Its warning activates automatically. This floor is very dangerous. We need to change direction."

Tao Yuan had just finished speaking when the human-skin paper in her hand suddenly trembled. She unfolded it and saw that the number of Weirds had dropped by one.

"Someone on this floor killed a Weird?"

They looked at one another and changed their minds at once. Since someone was killing Weirds here, perhaps they could help and deal with the Weirds together.

"Shall we go in and take a look?" Qin Rang asked, looking at Bai Yang.

Bai Yang nodded, his expression somewhat hesitant. Sheng Qingqiao asked what was wrong, but he only shook his head. "I keep feeling there's a familiar aura on this floor. It's nothing. Maybe it's just my imagination."

The moment everyone entered the corridor, ghostly black figures suddenly appeared throughout it, giving them a fright.

Some of the figures stood, some crouched, and others had only half a body stuck to the wall, as if the wall had split them in two and left one half hanging there. Under the lights, the figures flickered in and out of view, their energy highly unstable.

Their gazes fell on the enormous pair of feet each figure had, and everyone stopped in unspoken agreement at that instant, not taking another step forward.

"They're Toddler Weirds." Tao Yuan spoke rapidly but clearly. "They follow each step we take. Once they catch up to us, their certain-death rule is triggered."

"This is my first time encountering so many Toddler Weirds," Bai Yang complained. "I didn't believe it when I heard people say your team's luck was in the negatives, but I do now."

None of them could argue with that.

Once again, luck had left them utterly defeated.

Toddler Weirds were rather unique among Weirds. Many Weirds were one of a kind, but Toddler Weirds existed in great numbers, and whenever they appeared, they came in groups.

What was worse, because their rules made them appear in groups, Weird objects that warned of danger often registered them as a single Weird.

The killing rule of the Toddler Weirds had long since been figured out, but even so, it was still hard to avoid falling afoul of it.

"There are too many. Normally, no more than a dozen or so Toddler Weirds appear, but from the looks of it, there are more than thirty here."

"If there are more than thirty Toddler Weirds, the energy fluctuations around us aren't right either. They shouldn't be this weak." An Ying opened his bamboo umbrella, revealing the gun barrel at its tip. "Nobody move. From now on, every time you move your feet counts as one step for the Toddler Weirds."

Sheng Qingqiao, who carried a broadsword over his shoulder, exchanged a glance with Tao Yuan, who carried a chainsaw, and they shrugged helplessly. The two close-combat fighters had been forced to a halt.

Qin Rang slowly took a black evil-ghost mask out of his pocket. Watching the motionless Weirds, he rubbed the evil ghost's fangs on the mask.

Bai Yang's gaze involuntarily lingered on the mask. It was one of Qin Rang's signature Weird objects, and it was very famous. It was an extremely powerful Weird object that could turn a person into a Weird. He had seen a dedicated description of it in the information System 007 had given him.

It had the ability to ignore some rules and had helped Qin Rang escape danger many times. It could be considered one of the protagonist's golden fingers.

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out. A bullet wrapped in energy laced with electric current shot toward a Toddler Weird embedded in the wall. The instant it hit, the bullet, the current, and the Weird vanished together before everyone's eyes.

But soon, like a shadow, the Weird emerged once more from a mass of blackness, becoming a Weird identical to the one from just now.

An Ying switched targets, but after several attempts in a row, every Weird he dispersed gathered back together again.

"Could they be fake Toddler Weirds?" Sheng Qingqiao said. "That kind of recovery is way too abnormal. Boss Qin, how about letting me try?"

Qin Rang nodded. "Be careful."

With permission granted, Sheng Qingqiao grinned happily, and scorching red flames suddenly burst from the broadsword in his hand!

The flames flared up right beside Bai Yang, their light enveloping half his body. Startled, he hurriedly reached out to pat them away, but when he touched them, he found that they were cold and hadn't hurt him at all.

"His flames only target Weirds. They don't hurt normal people, so there's no need to be afraid," An Ying explained calmly.

Bai Yang put on an expression of understanding, but he knew perfectly well that this was clearly a test of him.