Testing the house directly was less risky than testing the landlord directly.
[The Cannibal House] was hardly capable of catching prey on its own, which was why it had a landlord who could move around freely.
Zhu Yan's ability [Complaining] only worked on horror creatures of level 4 and below.
If he rashly tested the landlord and it noticed his little trick, and the landlord happened to be level 5...
Zhu Yan didn't dare take that gamble.
He followed the landlord up the old stairs, watching carefully for the house's reaction.
If the house was level 4, then after [Complaining], it shouldn't have had the strength to make noise.
Clack!
The stairboard in front of Zhu Yan suddenly jumped, like a loud protest!
Then the wooden floors throughout the house began making even louder noises, like someone jumping up and down in fury after being deeply offended.
So, was [the Cannibal House]... level 5?
"You're so noisy. I said you were like a toad, and you really are."
Zhu Yan casually [Complained] in a quiet voice.
He had been ready to settle on the conclusion that the Cannibal House was level 5, but as soon as he said that, the noisy house gradually fell silent.
A stairboard tried to jump, but it only lifted a little before falling back down, as if its strength had been drained away!
Zhu Yan's heart skipped a beat.
He followed the landlord slowly up to the turn in the stairs, calming himself to observe.
[The Cannibal House], which had always been creaking and cracking, no longer made the same violent noises as before.
The creaking and cracking had indeed grown much fainter, sounding weak and feeble.
All right, the house was level 4.
The first [Complaint] simply hadn't drained all its strength, while the last [Complaint] had been the straw that broke the camel's back!
Zhu Yan looked up. The landlord's old red bathrobe swayed back and forth in his view, and he couldn't help feeling that this was a little tricky.
The landlord was level 5.
Unlike [the Cannibal House], which couldn't hunt on its own, the landlord could move freely and was already harder to deal with.
And at level 5, it was beyond the reach of both his dagger and his offensive abilities.
What should he do?
As he pondered, the landlord clamped a hand around Zhu Yan's arm and dragged him up the stairs.
"Hurry up, kid!" it said irritably.
It pulled the cord to turn on the light on the second floor. A musty smell and the stench of blood rushed at Zhu Yan, making him wrinkle his nose.
The second floor was even more cramped than the first. A long, narrow hallway connected three to five doors and another staircase at the far end.
The landlord's grip was too strong.
It dragged Zhu Yan to the door closest to the stairs on the second floor and fished a key out of its pocket.
"This is your room, kid."
The landlord's voice was chilling as it echoed through the hallway, where the light was dim and gray.
Zhu Yan could even hear saliva swirling around the tips of the landlord's teeth, and his heart tightened slightly.
This wasn't his room. It should have been—
A mouth.
The door lock rattled. Zhu Yan clenched the dagger in his pants pocket with his free hand.
So far, things had gone as he expected. No second accident had happened yet.
But with one arm pinned, he had to be as cautious as possible if he wanted to turn the tables next!
Zhu Yan quickly weighed his options.
The battered wooden door let out a teeth-grating creak.
The landlord couldn't wait any longer.
It kicked the door open and shoved Zhu Yan toward the center of the pitch-black room.
"You can only eat half!" it shrieked at the house. "Leave half for me!"
Now!
With a thought, Zhu Yan immediately activated [Roleplay]!
The next second.
He fell hard into a disgustingly slippery trap full of mucus.
At the same moment, the landlord lunged at him, while the trap immediately realized something was wrong and pushed Zhu Yan back with force.
In the darkness, the landlord opened its mouth.
Zhu Yan could see the saliva wrapped around its rotten teeth, gleaming coldly just a foot from his face.
"Enough!" he shouted without hesitation.
His voice became a slightly husky woman's voice—
Perhaps because [Roleplay] had taken effect after its upgrade, or perhaps because [Roleplay] had always had this function.
Zhu Yan didn't know.
He had never before dared to [Roleplay] a high-level horror creature he had only met once and whose voice he had never even heard!
In the dim light, the landlord's murky eyes suddenly filled with unmistakable fear.
It abruptly twisted its body, causing its lunge to miss.
Zhu Yan felt relieved.
Using the force pushing against his back, he landed steadily on the room's old, brittle carpet.
The mucus in [the Cannibal House's] mouth seemed to be corrosive. Zhu Yan felt a fine, prickling itch on his back.
The itch was intense, and it was starting to turn into pain.
—But he could endure it.
He had to endure it. He had to keep this game going.
Zhu Yan turned around gracefully and looked down at the landlord sprawled on the floor.
"You... you..."
The landlord trembled, its voice hoarse. It seemed to have rolled around on the floor, leaving dusty marks on its red velvet nightclothes.
In its eyes, the human before it was no longer weak and annoying—no, no, this wasn't a human at all.
This was a woman wearing a magnificent deep crimson dress, its Rococo skirt taking up nearly half the room.
Her entire body was rotting and ulcerated, her skin was bluish gray, and her empty eye sockets stared at it like an abyss.
"Why... why would you...?"
The landlord looked up at Zhu Yan, its sagging face folding into an expression of fear tinged with doubt.
Zhu Yan didn't miss that faint trace of doubt.
The woman whose whole body was ulcerated was the noblewoman he had seen on the third floor of [the Hall of Mourning], the one he suspected had syphilis.
At the time, the Pseudo-human young lady had mocked him for staring at a high-level horror creature and had also mentioned [the Eye of the Abyss Club].
Zhu Yan really had run out of options.
Even though he had only met her once, [Roleplaying] someone he had seen was more convincing than [Roleplaying] an Advanced Imposter he had imagined.
He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, forcing himself not to tremble from the increasingly severe pain and itching on his back.
"You really think you're somebody! What gives you the right to question [the Eye of the Abyss Club's] taste?"
Zhu Yan looked at the landlord with a sneer, throwing the question back at it before making a pointed remark.
"You can't even pay [the Cannibal House's] rent..."
"From the look of your house, it's been hungry for a long time too, hasn't it?"
He watched the landlord. Clearly, the words [Eye of the Abyss] had intimidated it.
The landlord grew even more frightened, without becoming suspicious.
"I... I'm sorry, spare me, madam. I didn't mean to fall behind on the payments!"
Just as I thought.
Zhu Yan pondered inwardly.
The fact that it had used the word "behind" meant it hadn't paid for at least a month.
He remained silent. In a situation like this, silence could often torment the other party and make them say more.
A few seconds later, the landlord prostrated itself even lower.
"Madam, I-I... I didn't mean to starve it either... no, I didn't mean to feed you to it either, I..."
It gritted its teeth. Who would have known that a high-level horror had the perverse hobby of roleplaying as a human?!
"I have a dungeon tonight. I'll fill its belly with two players, I swear."
Two players. That was a new piece of information.
Zhu Yan raised his eyebrows.
Who else would there be besides him?
Someone from the police station too?