The Post

After the [Devouring Villa] instance ended, two of his abilities had leveled up.

Zhu Yan opened his ability page to check the details.

[Roleplay] had not leveled up this time, so Zhu Yan scrolled straight down to look at [Complaining] and [Humiliation].

"[Complaining] Lv. 5: You can subject a specific target to personal attacks, such as verbal abuse and shifting blame, and point out that they caused your misfortune, thereby weakening their spirit and drawing on their power."

"The extent to which a specific target is affected is determined by their player level. Currently, players who have reached level 5 are completely unaffected."

"This ability has no effect on you."

Well, unlike [Roleplay] back then, [Complaining] seemed to level up mechanically.

Zhu Yan continued reading.

"[Humiliation] Lv. 3: Physical violence against a specific target will leave them feeling weak all over. This ability has no effect on horror creatures and players of level 4 or above."

"This ability has no effect on you."

Zhu Yan thought it was decent enough.

Knowing [Merry Happy Land], the horror creatures he encountered in future instances absolutely couldn't all be level 3.

But against players with ill intentions, this ability would make an excellent means of self-defense!

He picked up a soup dumpling and slowly slurped up the savory-sweet broth inside.

The man began complaining to the woman about leaving the city, and bits of accented hearsay reached Zhu Yan's ears.

"...Personally, I suspect they're trying to catch a terrorist organization. Counterterrorism, you know, so nobody's allowed out of the city."

"Hard to say... A relative of mine said a few days ago that the outbreak over in Bailu had spread."

"No way." The man sounded certain. "How far are we from Bailu? If it spreads, it'll go to the surrounding cities first. Man, everyone's on edge now..."

As he listened, Zhu Yan entered the online store to see if any new merchandise had appeared.

The [Plague Exemption Period] was only ten days, and he still had to find Witch.

"And that message from the police station—what was that about an envelope?"

Zhu Yan quickly flipped through the pages and found that the store had added an item available to players at level 3 and above.

It was the [Savings Silver Ring], and the product description was as simple as ever.

"Lovingly crafted by [Lazybones Craft Shop]! Contains five cubic meters of storage space, with heat retention and freshness preservation."

"Cover the ring with your player mark for three seconds to bind it."

"Friendly reminder: Do not wear it on your left hand."

Zhu Yan remembered [Lazybones Craft Shop]—they had made the player badges too.

The warning not to wear it on the left hand was probably because left hands were easily chopped off.

"Who knows? I didn't get one, anyway," the man's voice reached Zhu Yan's ears. "Could've been a threatening letter from a terrorist organization."

The [Savings Silver Ring] was priced at 200 Bone Coins.

Zhu Yan absentmindedly swallowed a mouthful of wonton and gave it a cursory thought.

A space of one square meter, five meters high. Aside from food, it could hold quite a lot of supplies and items.

And it could keep food warm and fresh.

That really wasn't expensive for portable storage, especially since it was so convenient.

Zhu Yan bought it without hesitation and casually slipped the silver ring that abruptly appeared in his palm onto his right hand.

The ring automatically adjusted to the right size. Following the instructions, Zhu Yan placed the player mark on his left hand over his right ring finger.

Three seconds later, he felt a thin stream of warmth travel up his finger and seep bit by bit into his heart.

"Tell me, where would you even find a terrorist organization these days..."

Zhu Yan picked up a soup dumpling, keeping his eyes busy too as he entered the [Player Forum] and searched for the keyword "Witch."

He hadn't forgotten what he needed to do.

The [Plague Exemption Period] was only ten days. If he couldn't get into a useful instance, he really would die.

Compared to his last search for "Cannibal House," this one actually returned more results.

There was information!

Zhu Yan was so excited that his hand trembled, tearing the soup dumpling's skin.

He hurriedly leaned in and slurped up the broth while browsing the conspicuous red text in his field of vision.

The posts about "Witch" all came from the same player.

Unfortunately, this player not only had the same avatar as him, but the same name too: "User Has Been Deregistered."

Zhu Yan skimmed through them. The posts seemed to describe the same incident.

"Hello, everyone. I'm an occult enthusiast, and I studied Western occultism before the instances descended..."

"In my circle, someone like me is called a Solitary Witch."

"Today I cleared the Beginner Instance, but my coworker died."

None of that mattered.

Zhu Yan read on and found that the girl was a little mystical.

"Something completely unbelievable happened to me, so I wanted to ask for help and see if there are any brothers or sisters out there like me."

"After my coworker died, I went home and performed a magical ritual to connect with Great Angel Gabriel. I asked him to give my coworker a good resting place and asked what all of this was about."

Zhu Yan tried very hard to make sense of the words.

That ill-timed sense of humor came over him again.

Of course, he wasn't part of the occult crowd, but how was a European-region angel supposed to handle the dead in the Asian region?

What if she sent her coworker straight to [Merry Happy Land] in one go?

"I've never made a mistake with this ritual, but this time was a little different..."

"I'm lying in bed now, and I can hear a voice talking to me. It isn't the broadcast; it's a different kind of voice."

Zhu Yan stared at that sentence several times.

It was ordinary enough, but for some reason, the fine hairs all over his back stood on end.

The old air conditioner hissed, blowing a stream of icy air at Zhu Yan.

The man and woman's chatter had stopped. Zhu Yan looked up at the brilliant sun shining outside and calmed himself down.

"The voice told me its name, but I couldn't hear what it was called."

"It said I had overstepped by daring to bypass Witch and make a request directly to it."

The girl had left two extra blank lines here, and the text was interspersed with a few jumbled symbols.

It was clear she could no longer stay calm.

"Then I got a broadcast notification telling me to enter an instance."

"But... but..."

Another long string of jumbled symbols or numbers followed. Zhu Yan skipped past it and read on with a growing sense of dread.

"My instance mission is so different in style from the last one."

"The original text was, [Witch has arrived with a cat. Have her help communicate with it and provide the appropriate payment]."

"I don't understand. When they gave me my reward before, they clearly said I could choose whether or not to enter an instance..."

Zhu Yan read so fast that he had no time to breathe.

"...It just told me Witch would come to my door in 30 minutes!!!"

"No choice!! I had no choice!! They didn't let me choose!! Help me, somebody help me!!"

Zhu Yan had already been through three instances, but the madness, confusion, and despair coming through in the text still frightened him.

He edged to the side, farther away from the air conditioner's vent, and gulped down two mouthfuls of wonton soup, trying to drive away the chill that had suddenly clung to him.

"I used the 'Lesser Key of Solomon' there can't have been a mistake I followed the steps exactly..."

He couldn't read anything beyond that, because it was all garbled text.

Zhu Yan caught his breath.

He had seen a similar name to "Lesser Key of Solomon" in Coexisting with Forbidden Things. The name in the book was "The Key of Solomon."

Was there a connection between the two?

His gaze moved down to the comment section. The handful of comments all told her to calm down, and someone had asked if there were any more clues.

So Zhu Yan clicked on the player's profile to read her second post.