San bar empty

"Sorry, I got a little worked up just now."

The first sentence was an apology. It seemed the girl had calmed down a little.

"There's too little time, and the instance is too intense. I kind of fell apart."

"I'll tell you all the rest. Please help me. I really want to live."

Zhu Yan finished his meal.

He scanned the ordering code on the table and ordered two more steamers of soup dumplings to go, then continued reading the post.

"The Witch is level four, exactly the same as my ability level after I upgraded."

"There's no need to hide it anymore. My ability is the deception and brainwashing type. It can make those things believe me for ten minutes."

Zhu Yan silently marveled at how heaven-defying it was.

Still, abilities were based on the players' own talents.

So did that mean the girl usually tricked and swindled people?

He involuntarily recalled the magic ritual mentioned in the previous post and gave a meaningful smile.

"My coworker's ability is with me too. It's not very useful. It's the slacking-off type."

Zhu Yan thought of the group owner on his phone. His older male cousin's ability was also the slacking-off type.

"What worries me is that besides the Witch, my task also mentions an 'it.'"

"The task doesn't say its name, but it shows that it's also level four."

"What is it? Has anyone run into this before? I want to perform another ritual to connect with a different Angel, but I don't dare."

Connect, connect, connect. What was there to connect to?

Zhu Yan really did laugh when he was utterly speechless.

So this player had sent herself straight to [Merry Happy Land] in one go.

That was all there was to the post. Apart from a few comments saying "I don't know" and "I haven't encountered that," there was one offering reassurance.

"All I can say is, based on my experience, the boss level in current closed-beta instances generally won't exceed your own ability level."

"Even if it does, there'll definitely be a weakness. You won't be thrown straight into a situation where you're guaranteed to die."

"I've observed a few people, and it's been the same for all of them, no exceptions."

That was true. Zhu Yan quickly read on.

"Of course, if there's a player in your instance whose ability level is higher than yours, it might not be based on your level."

"At least your current abilities are entirely enough to handle it, and your abilities aren't bad."

"Hang in there, player."

Zhu Yan thought of some details from "Coexisting with Forbidden Things."

[Witches] could talk to [Demons] and serve as a bridge for communication between [Demons] and humans.

[Demons] could make deals with humans, but they would take the thing that person treasured most.

The "it" in the player's task was most likely a [Demon]!

That way, everything fit.

The female player had performed some kind of "magic ritual," bypassing the [Witch] and making a request directly to the [Demon].

There was no way to tell whether the [Demon] had granted that request.

But the [Demon] had used it as grounds to come knocking with the [Witch] and collect payment.

In the comments, the girl had replied to the player who gave her advice.

"Okay. Once the instance starts, I'll find time to make another post and see if I can describe what's happening. Can you help me?"

The player's reply was simple: "Yes."

Zhu Yan returned to the homepage, intending to open the third post.

Just then, the woman from the soup dumpling shop came over, tied the plastic bag containing two paper food boxes shut, and set it in front of him.

"All packed, two steamers." She smiled at Zhu Yan. "You can freeze them and steam them again when you want to eat them another day."

The post blocked part of Zhu Yan's view.

He couldn't see the woman's face clearly, but he thanked her politely anyway.

The woman turned and left, then started murmuring to the man again.

"Hey, once my mother-in-law comes to take over for me, I'm going to hurry to the supermarket and stock up."

"You have no idea how panicked my family is..."

Zhu Yan stood up from the table and walked out carrying his two portions of food.

He didn't close the Player Forum. Squinting, he surveyed the sunlit afternoon street through the gaps between the red words.

Zhu Yan needed to stock up too, and he needed more than most people.

Because he really did know things would be chaotic for a while, and food was bound to be in short supply during that time.

But Zhu Yan didn't dare buy huge piles of things like people did in novels, casually having hundreds of takeout orders delivered to his home.

For one thing, people from the police station had come to his door today, so there were bound to be plainclothes officers watching the area.

For another, even if there weren't any plainclothes officers, such a conspicuous, high-profile approach would easily attract attention.

But judging by what the woman at the soup dumpling shop had just said, quite a few people were probably stocking up now.

Under those circumstances, even if Zhu Yan bought a little extra when he stocked up, he wouldn't attract any attention at all.

Zhu Yan took out his phone and looked for a large supermarket nearby.

Time was short, and he didn't want to shop online and wait for delivery.

As he walked toward the bus stop, he browsed the female player's subsequent updates.

"The Witch just arrived, and she brought a black cat."

"She seems to be human. She looks very beautiful and has a warm personality."

"After she arrived, she introduced herself and said she'd existed since the Middle Ages, and that girls should stick together. She also said she was happy to see modern women living so well."

How could she really be so kind?

After all, in "Coexisting with Forbidden Things," [Witches] had quite an appetite for humans.

And it hadn't specified whether those humans were men or women!

At that point, Zhu Yan's heart skipped a beat.

The [Witch]'s trick was a fairly common one.

When he used alternate accounts online to maliciously sound people out, he often emphasized a particular experience too.

Then he would pretend to be the same kind of person as the other party, someone who shared their feelings, so he could quickly grow closer to them.

"I told her about it, and she reassured me that she could handle it. I just made a mistake with the connection and connected to a Demon, that's all."

Was it a mistake with the connection, or were there no Angels in the world to begin with?

The bus was nearly empty at this hour.

Zhu Yan chose a window seat near the back, making sure the sunlight could fall fully on him.

With a thought, he discreetly put the food in his hands into his ring, then leaned back leisurely in his seat and continued reading the words in his field of vision.

"She told me to calm down, so I'm sitting on the couch typing this now."

"She's rearranging my altar, explaining as she goes... Her black cat is sniffing me..."

"She asked me if I had a cat. She said she wanted a normal gray cat, and told me that where she comes from, cats all have red eyes and are ugly, and their fur is unnaturally shiny."

That was probably some small talk the [Witch] was making to lower her guard.

It supported what "Coexisting with Forbidden Things" said about [Witches'] cats being different from normal cats.

"Her black cat scares me. She herself is very approachable, though. I've uploaded photos."

Zhu Yan went back to the top of the post to look through the photos after the cover image.

The first showed the [Witch] working on the altar. She looked like a very beautiful blonde woman dressed in white, but the stiff smile on her face looked a little eerie.

The second showed the black cat by the female player's feet. The cat wasn't particularly skinny, but its glossy short fur clung tightly to its skin, and its dark red eyes were narrowed into crescents, making it look like a giant black rat.

"What should I do? On the one hand, I feel very safe, but on the other, I have a vague feeling of unease. Things can't be this simple, can they?"

"Oh, wait... She told me there's no controlling what it takes. Only it can decide."

A few small garbled characters appeared after that line.

"She said she can talk to it for me, but she wants some payment."

"Huh? Her cat bit my leg. I think my thigh fell off. I'm sure my thigh fell off. But she promised to talk to it."

The garbled characters grew more numerous after that, but the girl's tone was nowhere near as agitated as it had been in the first post.

"It... That voice appeared again. It said it wants to eat my... What? I didn't hear clearly."

"Oh... But the cat carried off my other thigh."

"So sleepy. I think my neck is broken."

Zhu Yan's gaze moved down, passing over a large stretch of garbled characters until he read the final sentence.

"I woke up. Help!... The system says I failed my task and have ten minutes left to live."