"Stay out of this, kid!" the landlord roared.
Even so, the landlord didn't dare let its guard down.
It slammed the door shut, locked it, and immediately went to check the room next door.
The door and window were both closed, but the lady was already gone.
It sniffed the air twice, and the suspicion in its heart slowly began to grow.
Could what that player had said be true?
If it was true, how had the person in the room managed to leave without anyone noticing?
It had thought that the other party wanted it to bring the player upstairs so they could walk out the front door in broad daylight.
But...
The monster landlord wiped its nose and shuffled downstairs in its slippers.
Leaving like that was just what a high-level horror creature would do.
The landlord strode through the living room, but even so, the doubts in its heart didn't go away.
If that player was lying to it, how had he known a high-level horror creature had just been here...?
How had he known it was in trouble?
The landlord glanced suspiciously at the front door.
Still...
If the other party was a player as weak as the one upstairs, this would be easy.
Give him a beating, and wouldn't it find out!
As the sound of the Plague Ghost's footsteps drew closer to the front door, Zhu Yan's heart lifted slightly.
The name [Plague Ghost] was not widely known... This was determined by medieval philosophy and theology.
Although the book hadn't explained it, Zhu Yan had a bold guess.
He had read a little of the Bible. In the Bible, God named all things for Adam.
In that era, knowing a name meant holding authority.
If that was what "medieval philosophy and theology" referred to, then the name "[Plague Ghost] Walter" held extraordinary significance for him.
Zhu Yan smiled and took a step back, watching the front door get yanked open with tremendous force.
The landlord's dark, taut face appeared in the doorway, its arm raised high. Its claws whistled through the air as it struck viciously at his head!
Zhu Yan jumped in fright, and an overwhelming sense of danger swept over him in an instant.
His mouth moved before his nearly blank mind could catch up. Zhu Yan spoke sternly while leaping back with considerable agility.
"Walter!"
He narrowly dodged the attack—
[Plague Ghost] Walter's nails slashed past just millimeters from his forehead, and Zhu Yan could smell the rot on it.
Two seconds later, Zhu Yan's heart began to pound wildly. The tension of having survived the ordeal made him want to tremble.
He kept his composure and looked at the [Plague Ghost], half its face bathed in the dim yellow light of a streetlamp.
The muscles around its eyes strained open, its cloudy eyes wide, while the folds of loose flesh on its cheeks trembled with fear.
Its name.
This suit-clad Pseudo-human knew its name!
In its extreme terror, the [Plague Ghost] had no attention to spare for its earlier doubts.
Zhu Yan glanced past the tall courtyard wall out of the corner of his eye, guessing that the officer was standing by the window of his room, desperately wanting to get out.
In just a few minutes, the [Plague Ghost]'s attitude toward Zhu Yan had gone from obedience to outright attack. Something must have happened in between.
Or rather, that officer must have said something.
"Walter." Zhu Yan called its name again, watching with satisfaction as the [Plague Ghost]'s pathological trembling spread to its shoulders.
"You'd better take me inside first, then explain this matter in detail."
He spoke coldly, stepping past the tall, hunched landlord and onto the lawn again.
Zhu Yan badly wanted to interrogate the [Plague Ghost] immediately and learn everything, but he couldn't.
He had to advance his plan and keep everything moving.
If he could find a way out, so could Guan En.
Zhu Yan trusted that Guan En wouldn't be stupid enough to climb out of the window and confront them on the spot as a level-one player.
But he didn't trust the [Plague Ghost], either.
If the [Plague Ghost] hadn't locked the room door...
Zhu Yan strode into the house, not daring to waste a moment.
The two legs he carried, wrapped in white cloth, gave off a strong, bloody stench that horror creatures couldn't resist.
"Originally, I was deeply sympathetic to your plight. After looking into the records of this [Cannibal House], I even brought this especially for it."
He lifted the cloth bundle in one hand and wrinkled his nose where the [Plague Ghost] couldn't see.
"Unfortunately, you won't get to enjoy it. This is for the house..."
Zhu Yan stepped over the threshold and murmured a word of praise.
"Oh, what a beautiful house."
He turned to look at the landlord, who was still trembling behind him, and lowered his voice until there was no way it could be heard upstairs. Then he began spelling things out.
"You'd better get a grip on reality, Walter. Stop shaking so much—we have business to take care of!"
He had to be quick.
Every minute wasted made things more dangerous.
"First, show me your legal documents," he ordered coldly, "including the [Rental Contract] and the [Sublease Contract]. Then tell me about the instance before it starts."
"Hurry up!"
The landlord looked down at him, hunching over even further.
The terror of having someone know its name was unprecedented. It could only lead Zhu Yan with the utmost deference up the dim, narrow stairs and through the stuffy, foul-smelling hallway.
Zhu Yan made a point of glancing at the doors.
The room containing the [Cannibal House]'s mouth was empty, while the doors to the other two rooms were tightly shut.
He couldn't tell which room Guan En was locked in or whether he had come out.
Zhu Yan followed the landlord straight toward the wooden stairs leading to the attic at the end of the hall.
"I smell players."
Once they were farther away from the two doors, Zhu Yan spoke in a voice Guan En definitely couldn't hear.
"You locked the players in, didn't you?"
"I don't want anyone hearing what they shouldn't."
The landlord removed the heavy lock on the attic door and pushed the door, which had been left ajar, open.
"Please... please rest assured." Its hoarse voice was still trembling slightly with fear.
Now, whenever it thought of what that player had said to it earlier, it felt stupid.
The lady from before had clearly known everything too.
Even this subordinate the lady had sent knew the name it treasured so dearly!
The other party had been able to sway its thoughts with nothing more than some piece of junk from who knew where.
Why couldn't it have waited?
Why had it attacked him outright?
"I... locked them in."
The [Plague Ghost] entered the stifling, foul-smelling attic and bowed deeply to Zhu Yan, lowering its voice in imitation of him.
"Please... I'll get the documents for you."
It stank. It truly stank.
The existing smell of rot mingled with the bloody odor of the two legs, and Zhu Yan felt as though the stench was about to turn his face green.
Why had he bought those two human legs?
Zhu Yan fought the urge to retch, comforting himself with the thought that he would stop noticing the smell after a while.
He watched the landlord shut the door and shakily take the familiar stack of agreements out of a drawer.
The [Plague Ghost] didn't notice anything amiss.
It handed the stack of human-skin parchment to Zhu Yan and watched the Pseudo-human, whose level wasn't particularly high, read through them carefully one by one, murmuring very softly to himself.
"Oh dear, oh dear. It's a good house..."
Zhu Yan put on a regretful expression, as though he were very interested in the [Cannibal House].
"...It's just a shame it's three months behind on rent... I doubt it's ever had its fill, either. Sigh..."
He looked at the landlord and sighed softly.
"This house really is a burden to you, Walter."
"Unlike you, I've always wanted a living house that can move wherever I please."
"That's why I couldn't wait to take this assignment and come here..."
The [Plague Ghost]'s cloudy eyes seemed to brighten.
It had already had such terrible luck today.
First, it had been noticed by the [Eye of the Abyss] and toyed with by an important figure disguised as an ordinary person, who had warned it that the house's fees were overdue.
Then it had been tricked by a player and attacked a Pseudo-human who could call it by name.
Now, this Pseudo-human seemed to have shown a liking for the [Cannibal House] ever since coming in. What a surprise.
A surprise that could save it from its plight!
Zhu Yan walked over to the shabby chair and, imitating a Pseudo-human, frowned as though in a difficult position.
His goal was not just the [Cannibal House], but also the treasures inside it.
There was still room to squeeze this [Plague Ghost].
"What a shame. Three Bone Coins..."
That was 300 yuan.
"Three Bone Coins is still money, Walter."