Nikalos was alone in the kitchen, his figure swallowed by the darkness around him.
Although he was deeply unhappy that the head chef had ordered him to work overtime that night, he could only swallow his complaints and do as Xie Qi had said, waiting in the kitchen for him to show up in the middle of the night.
Gradually, he heard the sound of something being dragged.
The noise drew closer to the kitchen, and when it stopped, that slave driver's figure appeared before him.
"Yo~ Nikalos, you're right on time."
Nikalos responded with silence, hoping to make his displeasure clear through his attitude.
But Xie Qi acted as though he couldn't see it. Or perhaps he really couldn't, since the kitchen was so dark that he could only make out a figure inside.
"I've brought the decorations, along with the ingredients we'll need tomorrow. They're all here."
With that, Xie Qi tossed the bag in his hand, and it landed at Nikalos's feet.
"Hurry up. If we waste any more time, we won't make it. You don't want to stay up until dawn, do you?"
Nikalos took several deep breaths. Not wanting to look at that capitalist's face any longer, he crouched down and opened the bag.
Seeing him get to work, Xie Qi grew interested as well.
He crouched beside Nikalos and began pointing things out. "This finger—yes, hang it on the sign outside with the bones..."
"And these intestines, wash them first and let them air-dry tomorrow, then hang them in the kitchen as wind chimes..."
"Oh, and make sure you take good care of this head. First boil some water, and once it's cooked through, paint it and hang it on the wall. Won't that look lovely..."
As Nikalos listened to Xie Qi's instructions, he fought the urge to throw the large intestine in his hand into his face.
Talk, talk, talk! All he ever does is flap his mouth!
If you're so capable, deal with it yourself!
But his survival instinct kept him staring with dead fish eyes, automatically tuning out the buzzing in his ears.
"All right, do as I said with those things, and make sure the rest of the ingredients are stored properly. We still need to prepare them for the guests tomorrow."
Xie Qi stood up, stretched, and picked up the knife he had set aside.
Seeing that he was about to leave, Nikalos breathed a sigh of relief.
Get lost, get lost! All talk and no action!
Once he was gone, Nikalos's ears could at least have some peace and quiet.
Most of the day's tasks were complete, and Xie Qi had just heard a system notification saying that his points had increased by ten.
Added to the ten points he had earned earlier, that was just enough to buy the item he needed for tomorrow's game.
Xie Qi clicked his tongue when he realized how quickly the points ran out.
Fortunately, viewers in the livestream had also sent him gifts. Although the exchange rate from coins to points was very low, he had earned more than ten points that way so far.
Xie Qi had never been this short of money since he turned twenty, and he kept thinking about how to earn more points.
Earning points through tasks alone was clearly a dead end. The system was stingy as hell, giving out only 500 points for completing an instance game. If there were no other methods available, the fastest way to make money would be through viewer gifts.
Xie Qi wouldn't underestimate how much the livestream's viewers were willing to give.
When they didn't approve of you, they would naturally be extremely stingy.
But if you became someone they worshipped, or even something akin to an object of faith, there would be plenty of people willing to give you everything they had.
Thinking about how he should trick the viewers into sending him gifts later, Xie Qi walked out of the kitchen.
As soon as he stepped out, he saw a petite figure lying on the floor, repeatedly wiping away the bloodstains he had left when dragging the corpse earlier.
To save effort, he had dragged the body bag all the way from the farm back to the kitchen, leaving the villa floor covered in a mess of dirt and blood.
He hadn't expected a maid to be helping wipe the floor so late at night. Feeling a rare twinge of guilt toward her, Xie Qi walked over to the maid and asked:
"Is there anything you need help with?"
The freckled maid, Lina, had been diligently scrubbing the floor when she suddenly heard the head chef's voice above her.
Her whole body jerked, and she shook so violently that Xie Qi wondered if she had Parkinson's disease.
Lina didn't dare look up at the head chef, so she said in a tiny voice, "N-no, thank you. I can do it myself."
"Is that so? Then sorry for the trouble."
Xie Qi had no intention of frightening the timid-looking maid any further, so he turned, went upstairs, and returned to his room.
Early the next morning, Xie Qi was awakened by a commotion downstairs.
He had stayed up until three or four in the morning preparing for the day's game, and having to get up after only a few hours of sleep left him radiating a gloomy aura.
He sat on the bed with his head lowered and one hand on his head, listening to the clamor downstairs grow louder and louder.
"Tsk, how unruly. Little lambs ought to stay where they're put."
Xie Qi murmured under his breath, his words heard only by the viewers who had tuned in early that morning.
[It's over. They woke the great demon king, and now those people are dead.]
[I'd say they're all cannon fodder. What normal person would dare make such a racket in a creepy villa like this?]
[You never know how varied humans can be.]
[What did the head chef do last night? Look at those dark circles. Don't tell me he... hehehe!]
[The person above, get your mind out of the gutter. Maybe he just couldn't sleep?]
To give today's viewers a surprise, Xie Qi had turned off the livestream while he prepared things the night before. Fortunately, the stream didn't show footage all the time anyway; it occasionally cut to ads placed by major companies, and paying money wouldn't let viewers get rid of them.
Of course, ads that ran too long also caused complaints, so when that happened, the stream would switch to footage of other NPCs as a transition.
Viewers also understood that some things were difficult to broadcast, such as washing up and indescribable activities. Sometimes the stream wouldn't show NPCs sleeping, either.
It was fair to say the livestream was quite smart.
After Xie Qi got ready and left his room, he stood at a corner on the second floor and heard the fat wealthy businessman who had complained about the small dinner portions the night before shouting:
"Why hasn't anyone come yet? Where are all the servants? I'm hungry! Why isn't breakfast ready?"
Several people were trying to calm him down, while Phil, a second-generation rich kid, and Annie, a novelist, sat to one side. Phil was watching the show, while Annie looked afraid that a conflict would break out.
"Keep your voice down. This is someone else's house, not a place for you to run wild."
Song Nan, the female captain with short brown hair, stood to one side with her arms crossed as she spoke.
As soon as she spoke, the fat businessman, whose anger had eased somewhat under the persuasion of the Black police officer and Bailey, the man with glasses, seemed to explode:
"Who the hell do you think you are? A yellow-skinned monkey dares lecture me?"
"Oh? A yellow-skinned monkey?"
The businessman had barely finished speaking when, before Song Nan could retort, a voice sounded from the stairs with a hint of amusement.
The villa's head chef, who had appeared the night before, came into view. In daylight, it was even clearer that his Western-looking face also carried a distinctive Eastern charm.
"Sir, racial discrimination is bad behavior. I think you should apologize to this lady."