Liar's Tavern

"There's no need to play another round, is there..."

At the same time, in Game Room No. 4, Liar's Tavern:

Tao Yuan stared blankly at the young man sitting at the table, clutching a cup and gulping down water. She pointed toward the door. "We have all the cards. Is there any point in playing another round?"

Bai Yang widened his eyes and looked at her in confusion, the picture of innocence. "Huh? We do? But there are still lots of Weirds we haven't killed."

Tao Yuan pointed behind her at her fellow players, who were trapped in one hand of the plush rabbit and experiencing a "roller coaster" high in the air. She forced out a reasonably polite smile. "It'll take a while if you kill them all yourself. How about letting them down?"

Bai Yang shook his head and continued pouring water. "I can't do that. What if my doll accidentally steps on them and kills them? And I can't let them sit around doing nothing, or they'll attract the rule Weird. This works out just right."

As he spoke, the Rabbit Plush Toy flattened the nail-hammer Weird with a slap, then swatted the floating spirit away like a fly. As it waved its paw, a person accidentally slipped through its plush fingers.

"Aaaaaah—"

The man's face went pale with fright, and he screamed at the top of his lungs. Fortunately, the Rabbit Plush Toy reached out and caught him in time.

The others clinging desperately to the plush rabbit's fur looked at the man's vacant eyes with pity. "Are you okay?" they asked sympathetically.

The man said, "Hurk!"

"Don't puke on my doll!" Bai Yang shouted.

"Gulp." The man swallowed reflexively.

Tao Yuan, who had witnessed everything, said, "Hurk... Do you really think this is okay? Hurk..."

"It couldn't be better." An Ying pulled his umbrella out of the Weird's body and gritted his teeth as he looked at Moonlit Night, who was standing idly beside him. "Is this how you plan to help me? By standing there cheering me on?"

Moonlit Night idly fiddled with the bell at his waist and smiled at him gently. "I believe in your strength. You can do it."

Nice way to put it. If you want to slack off, just say so!

An Ying had finally seen through him. Moonlit Night looked gentle and good-tempered, like a refined, decent person. In truth, he was cold at heart. If not for that task he kept talking about, he would never waste his time with An Ying. He would probably prefer to see An Ying dead.

An Ying swapped the playing card he held for the one that had dropped, then rested for three minutes. He got up the moment the time was up and looked down at the people fighting below.

It had been an hour since the first round of the game began, and the sounds of slaughter had never stopped.

An Ying wondered how things were going at the other venues and worried about his other teammates.

After he had rested on and off for a while longer, the battle downstairs came to a pause. The people below noticed An Ying as well and invited him to join forces with them.

An Ying considered it. After fighting continuously, he was running low on both energy and stamina, so joining forces would be a good thing. He just didn't know whether the ticking time bomb beside him would...

He turned to look behind him, only to find no one there. Even his impassive expression cracked slightly.

Where did that man go this time?!

Moonlit Night had already appeared outside the game room.

The Weirds' game rooms had rules: players could only leave after completing the game. But the rules of this Weird scenario were A-rank at most. They could trap Bai Yang and his new companion Flower Language, but they couldn't hold Moonlit Night, who was S-rank.

Outside the instance, everything was deserted. There were no other players or Weirds, only a blood moon hanging high in the sky.

"Playing the game as intended is fun, but Master needs points..." Moonlit Night sighed softly and stared at the moon with some resignation. "So I can't keep dragging this out. Time is short, and I have no choice but to do this."

"The points I get from killing those lesser Weirds are too few, and they don't have any usable Weird Objects. If I kill you, I should get enough points to make up for it."

"Although I don't much like doing this, the original's wishes come first."

The green-eyed young man drew his long saber, its cold light flashing with a piercing, burning sting.

[Instance time 5:30, second round of the death chase has ended]

The glaring red text faded, and the frenzied Weirds stopped attacking at that moment. A woman who had been pulled up by a hanging spirit and was nearly strangled fell from the air. Her companion caught her with quick reflexes and moved away from the Weird.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough—"

The Weirds withdrew, leaving only the sound of the woman's racking coughs. Her raspy breathing sounded like a broken bellows, making it somewhat funny.

An Ying and his temporary teammates relaxed as well. They exchanged glances, unable to keep from smiling.

They had survived.

Every team had suffered heavy casualties in this death chase. There had originally been more than forty people in Game Room No. 2, but now only the dozen or so people here remained.

More than half had died, and An Ying didn't recognize any of the survivors.

"Is it time for the second round?" The woman carrying a dark red long saber braced her hands on her thighs, panting, her voice a little hoarse. "I've killed so many Weirds I'm going to be sick if I have to kill any more."

"I used to avoid Weirds whenever I ran into them. I never thought I'd come here and end up chasing them down to kill them," said the tall woman beside her.

"If I can get out of here, I won't be afraid when I see ordinary Weirds again."

"Let's get out first," said the woman carrying the red long saber.

"Speaking of that, didn't you run into that Hearts Weird just now? How come nothing happened to you?"

Her companion's question displeased the woman a little, but seeing that even An Ying was looking at her curiously, she took out a transparent candy wrapper.

"It was probably because of this candy," the woman said. "I wanted to replenish my strength during the break, so I ate it. Afterward, I felt clearer-headed than ever, and that Hearts Weird's ability had no effect on me."

"A food-type Weird Object?" someone exclaimed. "That must cost a fortune!"

There were different kinds of Weird Objects, and naturally, food-type Weird Objects existed too. But finding an edible Weird Object with a beneficial effect was extremely difficult.

Aside from relying on luck, only the major families in the safe zone were willing to spend the time and money needed to obtain such things to protect the lives of their younger generation.

The woman smiled without answering. She hadn't expected the candy the shopkeeper had kindly given her to be so useful either. Revealing where it came from might be a burden to him, so she would wait until she got back and asked him first.

She hadn't expected that shopkeeper to be someone who concealed his abilities. No wonder he could open a shop near an official organization. He definitely had backing. She wondered if she could buy a few Weird Objects like this from him in the future.

But before she could find any of that out, she had to make it back safely.

An Ying saw the scene differently. The wrapper and the effect readily brought Bai Yang to mind.

After getting out of here, he would have to find a way to ask her where she had gotten the candy and see if he could find more clues about the organization behind Bai Yang.

He didn't believe an organization like that could really appear without a sound, leaving no trace at all.

There was also the mysterious Moonlit Night. He didn't seem like a bad person for now, but his power was too unfathomable, and it made An Ying deeply uneasy.