[Lu Family Courtyard] The Study
Ren Yi's expression suddenly changed, just the right amount of panic and hesitation flashing in his eyes, but inwardly, everything was already clear to him.
Lu Zihan was deliberately giving him an opening, helping him fulfill the mandatory requirement to "kill a participant with his own hands."
He suppressed his understanding, respectfully answered, "Yes," and then dawdled his way over to the participant.
"No... you can't kill me!" The participant on the floor was covered in blood, and the wound on his temple was still bleeding. He stared at Ren Yi and roared hoarsely.
Ren Yi glanced toward the livestream camera.
Out of respect for his current human disguise, he crouched down and spoke in an even tone.
"You can't be saved. I'm putting you out of your misery."
The participant tried to struggle and protest, but the scene before his eyes suddenly warped.
The walls, the floor, even Ren Yi's face began to sway and blur. An intense dizziness seized him in an instant, leaving his whole body rigid.
Ren Yi's fingertips moved slightly. Taking advantage of the moment he stiffened, Ren Yi clamped his right hand around the back of his neck and gave it a slight twist.
"Crack."
After the faint sound of bone breaking, the participant's body went limp. His eyes were wide open, but all life quickly faded from them.
Meanwhile, Ren Yi had used the moment he released his ability to quietly absorb the positive emotions lingering around him, filling his magazine once again.
He rose to his feet without betraying a thing and patted his hands, checking that no blood had gotten on them.
OK, requirement fulfilled. Progress +1 again.
In the livestream chat.
"Wait, didn't he just kill one of his own?"
"Stop with the moral blackmail. The expert said it himself: he was putting him out of his misery."
"Guess why no one from the other cities has come to curse him out yet? The person he killed this time was from Holy City too. Nothing to say now, huh?"
"By the way, is no one paying attention to what the expert did? Did he get some unique job?"
"Heh, what good is that? He'll die even faster hanging around a strange entity. Didn't you see how horribly the people who disobeyed the young master's orders died before?"
Inside the Instance, Ren Yi walked up to the second floor and stood beside Lu Zihan, watched by the other participants with looks of either admiration or pity.
He looked perfectly well behaved, but he was actually busy using up ammunition on the remaining participants nearby so he could absorb energy.
Of course, all he did with his ability was slightly distort the light and shadows before the participants' eyes.
For one thing, his ability was an Illusion that only affected some of the senses and had no power to kill directly.
For another, he was ultimately just one of the Instance's minor bosses, and a connected beneficiary who had been placed there thanks to those connections. He had to leave more prey for the important figures who had come to help.
Even Ren Yi himself hadn't expected to have essentially achieved his main objective on the first morning of a three-day Instance.
Over the next few days, he only had to find chances to use up more "ammunition" on the participants before the other strange entities killed too many of them.
Then he could put on a show for the livestream and harvest positive emotions with standout performances.
Aside from that, Ren Yi was also a little curious about the auxiliary rule.
[Auxiliary rule: Do not feel pain together with others]
So far, the vague rule didn't seem to have been triggered even once.
Ren Yi felt that the strange entities in the Instance seemed to be deliberately avoiding triggering it.
Whether it was the initial job assignments or the solo work in the melon field afterward, they all seemed intended to separate the participants and prevent them from meeting the condition of being "together."
After all, causing pain was unavoidable for most strange entities.
It was understandable, really. Ren Yi didn't think anyone who triggered the rule would come away unscathed. Once it was triggered, that Calamity would probably be "kill stealing."
No one wanted to make a losing deal and have all their hard work go to waste.
Lu Zihan led Ren Yi into the study. Today, he wore a moon-white long robe that somewhat concealed his burly build and gave him a more scholarly appearance.
The study was large. Master Fu led the remaining participants inside.
Rows of bookshelves filled the middle of the study, with books scattered across the floor. There were even one or two yellowed bundles of bamboo slips that looked like antiques and were clearly quite old.
Master Fu had a narrow desk in the innermost corner of the study, piled with account books. It was probably where he worked.
In principle, the study should have been Master Fu's territory, though Ren Yi didn't know why Lu Zihan had also been assigned here.
It was clear that Lu Zihan had probably made quite a scene and disrupted the work of the participants here.
Yawning, Lu Zihan went over to his desk.
As the young master, his desk was set in front of the window that got the best sunlight in the study.
The trees outside the window were lush, though, and birds hopped among their branches from time to time. Watching them could easily distract a person.
Ren Yi came over and glanced at his desk, immediately spotting a copy of "Ghostly Words" on it.
What's this, a classic of the strange entity world?
Lu Zihan flopped into his chair.
He had also fulfilled the requirement to "kill a participant" and didn't seem very motivated now.
He eyed Ren Yi with ill intent, seemingly wondering how to make use of the rule [Servants must not disobey any of their "master's" orders].
A few participants who had resumed sorting books nearby couldn't help looking over out of the corners of their eyes. Having witnessed Lu Zihan's brutality, they all independently concluded that Ren Yi was doomed.
"Reading is too tiring," Lu Zihan drawled, finally speaking. "You, come over here and give this young master a shoulder massage."
Ren Yi almost couldn't hold back a laugh. After all that, was this the best request he could come up with?
Out of the livestream's view, Ren Yi's lips quickly curled upward. He couldn't even be bothered to argue with him on the Ghost Net.
"Yes, young master," Ren Yi said, his voice dripping with gentleness.
Before Lu Zihan could react, Ren Yi was already behind him, gripping the muscles on either side of his neck. Before he could speak, Ren Yi gave him a vigorous shake from side to side.
"Hiss... easy, easy! My head, my head!"
On the Ghost Net.
[Lu Zihan: Bench! Stop! I was wrong! I really was wrong! You're going to shake my head off!]
While the two young masters, one in the open and one in secret, were messing around.
Nearby, participant number eighty-seven hadn't seen a scene of blood flowing like a river, and for some reason, he was a little disappointed.
He stood there holding a stack of books for a while before finally looking away with regret.
Just then, he looked down and discovered that the book on top of the stack he was holding was "Liaozhai Strange Tales."
Could this be some kind of knowledge from the strange entity world?
Participant number eighty-seven was intrigued, a powerful curiosity welling up inside him.
He quietly opened "Liaozhai Strange Tales."
The contents, however, weren't quite what he had imagined. It seemed to be a storybook recounting strange tales and anecdotes about humans and strange entities. The plot was full of twists and so entertaining that he couldn't help wanting to read on.
The more he read, the more absorbed he became. He simply put down the stack of books in his arms and leaned against a bookshelf, reading with relish.
Gradually, his gaze grew more and more vacant, his pupils lost focus, and he looked as though his soul had been drained away.
"Creak—"
A faint sound of a bookshelf sliding rang out.
"Liaozhai Strange Tales" fell gently to the floor, its pages still quivering, while participant number eighty-seven had vanished without a trace.
[Servants must be diligent and do their utmost to complete their work]