Hoarding and Hesitation

Zhu Yan exited the player profile, feeling a little dizzy.

Fortunately, the sunlight soon dispelled the discomfort.

He searched for the keyword [Demon] again, and after confirming that nothing came up, he promptly closed the Player Forum.

He knew that a magic ritual could summon a [Demon], thereby attracting a [Witch].

That was indeed a way to avoid going to great lengths to find a [Witch], but no matter how he looked at it, the risk was incredibly high.

The [Demon] would come to collect its payment, and the [Witch] would take advantage of the situation to rob him.

The [Demon] fed on human spirit and vitality, while the [Witch] ate flesh and blood directly.

One careless move, and he could die in a daze like the female player in the post, not even knowing how he had lost.

Zhu Yan rubbed his ears, letting himself relax a little first.

The bus announcement sounded at just the right moment.

Zhu Yan got off the bus. The people coming and going and the ground warmed by the sun made him feel safe, and a genuine sense of reassurance filled him once more.

He headed decisively toward the bustling, imposing supermarket, deciding to buy some fresh food while he considered his options.

Meanwhile.

In the city center hospital.

Screams mixed with the sounds of things being knocked over pierced the tightly shut door of an examination room. Then thick, purplish-black liquid flowed through the gap beneath the door and spread into the corridor.

"Ah!"

Someone in the corridor began to scream, and a panicked clamor rose from the crowd.

An emergency call bell and a doctor's loud cries for help rang out amid the noise. A young nurse hurried out of the examination room and ran down the corridor.

"Crash cart!" she shouted. "Examination room twelve, crash cart!"

The examination room door was left open, and the horrific scene inside was plain to see.

A blurred human figure lay on a simple hospital bed, his open police uniform stained purplish black with blood.

Large chunks of black, rotting flesh were sloughing off his body. From a distance, he looked like a piece of chocolate melting rapidly down to its skeleton.

Even louder screams erupted in the corridor.

"Someone's dead!" someone shouted. "It looks like an infectious disease. Run! Everybody, get out of here!"

The crowd began surging toward the emergency exit.

"I think there's another one downstairs!" another voice called out from the crowd. "I saw him when I came up just now. A lot of police officers came with him, and I think the patient was an officer too."

"What disease is it? The same symptoms?"

"The same symptoms," the voice said. "You'd better wear a mask. That blood was all over the floor, and the lobby was in chaos earlier too..."

Zhu Yan knew nothing about any of this.

He was busy stuffing his shopping cart with chocolate, compressed biscuits, and convenience foods.

He put some in the cart, then reached deep into the shelves to shoplift some more.

He had already stored plenty of rice, flour, grain, cooking oil, seasonings, and a small amount of fresh food in his ring.

He could have shopped online too, but considering how quickly [Merry Happy Land] was encroaching, it was safer to come to the supermarket and buy some supplies first.

As Zhu Yan picked things up, he thought about the plague.

Another way to find the [Witch] was to descend directly into [Merry Happy Land] from the [Hall of Mourning] in Myriad Forms Plaza.

But could his pitiful level-five ability, [Roleplay], really withstand the scrutiny of every monster in [Merry Happy Land]?

Zhu Yan absentmindedly took a bag of tomato-flavored potato chips.

They took up space, but they were tasty. He could poke a hole in the bag, let the air out, and toss it into his ring.

He was buying them!

Hmm...

What if he knowingly headed toward danger, looked up the information and set up an altar himself, or spent some money to rent one, and attracted a [Demon]...

Zhu Yan reached deep into the shelf and absentmindedly stole a few more bags.

Should he buy some generators and small appliances too?

All right, he should be thinking about something important.

If he chose to head toward danger, there would be another fairly major problem.

The [Witch] and the [Demon] would be level five, and based on what Zhu Yan had coaxed out of the [Plague Ghost] in the previous instance, [Devouring Villa]...

As the bosses of this instance, the [Witch] and the [Demon] would definitely know the exact number of players.

Judging by the female player's post, the [Witch] was no fool.

On the contrary, the [Witch] was highly vigilant.

Zhu Yan strongly suspected that the conversation it had opened with, acting friendly and pretending to be harmless, had been intended to prevent players from using their abilities on it.

Assuming that was true...

Zhu Yan picked up a jug of mineral water and stole several more.

Assuming that was true, if both the [Witch] and the [Demon] knew there was only one player, and the [Demon] had pinpointed his location before the [Witch] and rushed over to berate him for overstepping...

Could he really fool them, even with a disguise?

Zhu Yan didn't dare take that gamble.

Besides, the [Demon] fed directly on human vitality and spirit.

[Roleplay] had no defensive function.

If the [Demon] ignored his disguise and continued to brazenly drain his vitality...

He would be exposed at once!

Just thinking about it made Zhu Yan feel screwed.

He pursed his lips and pushed his overflowing cart toward the household goods section.

He really did need to stock up on towels, toothpaste, cups, and bedding.

The supermarket's warm white lights and orderly shelves were reassuring.

If [Merry Happy Land] hadn't suddenly descended, he definitely wouldn't be here stocking up right now.

For a moment, Zhu Yan was filled with mixed feelings.

In less than ten days, his life had been turned upside down, yet he seemed to have accepted it quite directly and calmly. Apart from the panic caused by not having adjusted at first, he hadn't been too worried.

Was that a good thing?

Zhu Yan picked up two towels and discreetly stashed away two pillows.

All right, the [Witch] and the [Demon].

If he could have a player of a lower level as an assistant, things would be much easier.

That player could follow the procedure and perform the ritual to attract the [Demon], while Zhu Yan pretended to know nothing and wandered around outside.

That way, the instance wouldn't involve Zhu Yan himself.

The [Demon] and [Witch] drawn in might even be low enough in level for his level-four [Complaining] and level-three [Humiliation] to handle!

Then, three minutes before the instance began, he could transform into some kind of terrifying creature and enter just in time.

At that point, he might be pulled into the instance and become a player required to participate, or he might not.

The only difference between the two was that instance players got rewards, while non-instance players didn't. That was all.

Zhu Yan stared blankly at the instructions on the back of a tube of toothpaste for a while.

Hmm...

Non-instance players didn't get any extra rewards, but with life and death at stake, this was no time to worry about that.

As long as the other player named Zhu Yan and asked the [Demon] to give him a healthy body, or some kind of item that could eliminate the plague, that would be enough.

This plan sounded a little more reliable than the first.

The biggest problem was that he lacked a player with aligned interests to serve as his teammate.

Zhu Yan stuffed several tubes of toothpaste and a pile of toothbrushes into the cart, then picked up two rinse cups as well.

What else did he need to buy?

The only poor bastard who had the same need as him was Guan En, right?

But Guan En seemed very righteous, and...

Zhu Yan sighed heavily.

And, most importantly, Anwu City was so big that he couldn't find him.