If [Cannibal House] ceased to exist, how could there still be a landlord?
Zhu Yan couldn't destroy the house right in front of [Plague Ghost], because he was weak.
If [Plague Ghost] noticed anything, he wouldn't stand a chance against it!
So Zhu Yan could only drive Walter downstairs and lock it up this way.
If [Cannibal House]'s death meant the house would collapse, it could crush Walter in the process.
Zhu Yan kicked Walter again, urging it on.
"Walter! What are you dawdling for?"
Walter lifted its head from the thigh.
It had gnawed a sizable chunk off the leg, and strands of meat and bloody foam clung to its teeth, making Zhu Yan's stomach churn.
Damn it, his body already felt awful enough. He couldn't take the sight of this.
For some reason, the force trying to invade him hadn't disappeared. It had actually grown stronger!
"Hurry up!"
Under Zhu Yan's stern urging, Walter got to its feet.
Zhu Yan picked up the other leg and tossed it to Walter, then reached for the door.
With his back to Walter, he quickly pulled out his phone and checked the time.
"You'd better stay quietly inside and not make a sound, Walter."
According to his phone, the instance would start in six minutes.
According to the rules, there was no time limit on the instance.
As long as he could stall for six minutes...
He could end the instance immediately!
Zhu Yan looked the naked [Plague Ghost] up and down again, confirming that all it had left on were its slippers.
...What if the treasure is the slippers?
"Take off the slippers. Those are mine too!"
Meanwhile.
Guan En crouched beneath the stairs, straining his ears for sounds from above.
Getting down to the yard from the window had been easy, but getting back into the house from the yard had taken some effort.
Almost all the windows here were locked. He had circled the house before finding a glass window he could open.
Muffled footsteps with a dragging sound reached his ears, accompanied by a strong smell of raw meat.
It's the landlord!
Guan En's heart tightened, and his body went rigid.
There was only one set of footsteps. Was the other player still on the third floor?
How had the landlord gotten out so quickly?
What if it noticed he was no longer in the house?
Guan En's mind raced as he worked out an explanation.
The shuffling of feet against the stiff carpet drew closer and closer. Nervously, Guan En gripped the pistol at his waist.
The next second, the footsteps abruptly stopped.
Then came the creak of a door being shoved open and the sound of it slamming shut.
Guan En quickly assessed the situation and climbed the stairs without hesitation.
He remembered that the door to the room he'd been in had been secured with two locks.
If the landlord had opened the room he'd been in, he would have heard the locks click.
But he hadn't—
So the landlord had gone into another room!
It had even closed the door.
Guan En climbed to the second floor fairly quickly, keeping his footsteps very light.
Sure enough, the narrow, elongated corridor was empty. Only wet, slurping chewing and swallowing sounds came from behind one of the doors.
Guan En gripped his pistol nervously and hurried lightly toward the stairs at the end of the corridor!
Zhu Yan closed the door and opened the carved attic window.
The smell really was unpleasant.
With the added force that seemed determined to merge into his body, Zhu Yan thought it was a miracle he hadn't thrown up.
He had opened the locked wardrobe. Its construction was extremely simple, with only a single rusty shelf inside. Five or six small glass bottles and some unfinished little paintings were neatly arranged on it.
The bottles contained small chunks of blue ore, which looked like raw material for making pigment.
Apart from those, there was a small metal machine about the size of his palm.
The machine looked like a miniature typewriter, seemingly a product of the nineteenth or twentieth century, but its metal was still gleaming, with no trace of rust.
Zhu Yan turned it over and found a handwritten note stuck to the bottom. The ink had taken on a rusty color.
He immediately read it carefully.
"My carefully crafted handiwork can print or modify anything you need, except money."
"This is a treasure! So, can I enroll now?"
This is it!
Zhu Yan was ecstatic.
He stuffed it into the pocket of [Plague Ghost]'s nightgown, then swept the rest of the things from the wardrobe into it as well.
They didn't look particularly useful, but any of them might be another item!
Zhu Yan quickly searched the wardrobe inside and out, even laboriously shifting it a few centimeters. Only after confirming there were no secret compartments or mechanisms did he stop.
All right, I've taken everything here.
Zhu Yan checked the time. There were four minutes left until the instance started.
The force was squeezing him more and more painfully, like two huge boulders pressing against his ribs, heart, and lungs from front and back.
He gritted his teeth and walked over to the old desk. He had just opened a drawer when he heard a soft creak.
The closed attic door had opened—
Who?!
Zhu Yan froze. He had just turned his head when he saw a familiar face.
It was Guan En.
This guy must have climbed out through a window like he had, because there were two patches of dust on the knees of his trousers.
No, that wasn't the point.
Zhu Yan slowly raised his gaze past the dark muzzle pointed straight at his heart and the taut lower half of Guan En's face.
The muscles around Guan En's mouth were tight. He looked quite nervous.
"Oh, Officer Guan."
Zhu Yan slowly raised both hands in surrender, rapidly reviewing the information he had.
Judging by the landlord's sudden change in attitude after coming into contact with Guan En, Guan En was on the opposing side.
And Guan En's actions showed that he was well aware of this opposition.
Zhu Yan focused and watched Guan En's expression.
The other man was unusually wary, staring fixedly at his face, seemingly trying to remember something.
The good news was that the officer hadn't used his player ability on him.
Having gone through an instance, his ability should be at least level three or four by now.
If he used it, it would definitely have a considerable effect on Zhu Yan.
So if they were on opposing sides, why wasn't he using his ability?
Was he softhearted?
"...We meet again."
Zhu Yan spoke softly, trying to figure out the officer's purpose.
Guan En gave a cold laugh, feeling Zhu Yan's face awaken a secret, indistinct memory deep inside him.
It really was him—
He stared at Zhu Yan's face, desperately trying to memorize some of his features.
A small mole on his left cheek, a rather narrow nose bridge with a bump. And there was something else...
But none of that was the most important thing right now.
"Come back with me."
Guan En's voice trembled slightly from the strain of his intense nerves.
This player was young, even immature in his eyes. His expression and demeanor were worlds apart from those of some juvenile offenders Guan En had previously helped interrogate.
The other man had an ability but hadn't used it, which meant there was room for persuasion and negotiation.
Things shouldn't have turned out like this!
The instance would start in four minutes.
As long as everything was resolved within four minutes...
"Listen, I mean you no harm."
As soon as the other man made a move, he would act.
"The instance starts in four minutes."
He looked into Zhu Yan's eyes and saw that the young man before him seemed to be retreating out of fear.
Judging by his expression, the player was simply afraid.
"Listen, our missions are opposed."
Guan En continued.
"But as long as you come back with me within four minutes, I can complete my mission early."
Zhu Yan raised an eyebrow.
But he merely kept listening with a faint smile.
"Once the instance loses its purpose, it will end."
"Neither of us will die!"
Zhu Yan didn't answer immediately, slowly backing toward the shabby armchair.
In his view, Officer Guan was too naive.
Guan En looked at him sincerely.
"I'm only taking you back to get to the bottom of some things."
"I don't believe you're guilty, and I won't arrest you."
Because his colleagues were the ones responsible for making the arrest.
"If your life is in danger, there's no way we can send you back to your aunt's house."
He looked into Zhu Yan's eyes. They were bright in the dim room, and now curved with a smile.
"The whole statement-taking process won't take too long. We'll just ask a few questions."
The instance would start in three minutes.
Zhu Yan gripped the armrest of the shabby chair and watched Guan En without betraying anything.
"What's your mission?"
"To stop me, or to kill me?"
Guan En hadn't lowered his pistol, still holding it in a threatening position.
"Just to stop you."
He lied, concealing the fact that he needed to kill someone so as not to provoke Zhu Yan.
"The landlord and I are on the same side."
Zhu Yan nodded, maintaining his demeanor.
He was highly focused, so he noticed.
When Guan En said the first sentence, he unconsciously blinked a few extra times.
Zhu Yan's circumstances required him to lie, so he had studied microexpressions.
A sharp increase in blinking was a sign of stress. "Just to stop you" might not be the truth.
But Zhu Yan believed the second statement, because everything Officer Guan had done before supported it.
...That's hilarious. He really failed to recognize Mount Tai.
The esteemed landlord is right in front of him—
Though the landlord's lungs and ribs are nearly being crushed by that disgusting force.