Simply Adorable

Inside the castle, when that voice rang out, Bai Zhi's expression immediately became quite strange while he was still in mid-air.

In his vision, as the sound rang out, countless knives, forks, bowls, and chopsticks appeared out of thin air from the ripples in the Void, rushing towards the guards below with a clattering sound.

Taking advantage of the chaos, a figure leaped out from the side, grabbed his arm, and ran towards the least crowded area of the castle, towards the book.

At the same time, several small, round red balls were also thrown out by the opponent and hit the wall. In an instant, a large amount of pink gas filled the castle.

"Didn't you say you weren't coming in? Why are you here now?"

After a brief attempt, Bai Shang had to admit the unfortunate fact that his opponent's Strength attribute was significantly higher than his own.

Watching the Fireworks of Romance and romance running in front of him, Bai Zhi was involuntarily pulled along by the other person, and asked them a question with a bit of helplessness.

"I must have lost my mind, okay!?"

In the midst of her busy schedule, she turned her head and glared at him fiercely, her words filled with a hint of gritted Fireworks of Romance.

"This place is far more dangerous than I imagined. If I die here, I'll haunt you even as a ghost!!"

"So what if you've lost your mind? It has nothing to do with me... Turn left into the third room, there's no one there."

Feeling the astonishing force emanating from his wrist, Bai Zhi sighed helplessly.

At the same time, several black shadows shot out from beneath his feet like lightning, each running off in a different direction.

Half a minute later, in what appeared to be a storage room filled with various odds and ends, listening to the sounds fading away from outside the door, Fireworks of Romance couldn't help but breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Then, she turned around and glared fiercely at the person who had already found a place to sit down in the room.

"... So why are you looking at me like that?"

Looking at Yan Huofengyue, who was disheveled beyond belief and even had a few Fireworks of Romance in his hair, Bai Zhi couldn't help but roll his eyes in slight exasperation.

"It's not like I dragged you in here. Didn't you say you wouldn't come in here? Besides, I didn't ask you to save me..."

"You're overthinking it. I was just Kill Steal. Do you even know what stealing a kill means?"

With a cold snort, she pulled another Lollipop from her pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth. Fireworks of Romance directly returned the exact words that someone had once said to her.

"Save you? Don't flatter yourself. I'm perfectly well hidden on my own. Why would I risk being exposed to save you? If it weren't for the points from the system evaluation..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the sound of chains dragging on the ground came from outside the door. Upon hearing this sound, Fireworks of Romance instinctively held her breath.

A moment later, the sound of chains faded away, and the outside world returned to its initial tranquility.

When did you arrive here?

Bai Zhi turned his gaze away from the doorway and looked at the Fireworks of Romance before him.

"Tch... an hour earlier than you."

Clearly having lost the will to continue the argument, Fireworks of Romance gave a soft hum and found a place to sit down in the room.

"Then, as soon as I got here, I almost got killed by a guard, one of those utterly disgusting Monster..."

As she spoke, a look of disgust crossed her face, clearly indicating that the guards she had encountered earlier had left a deep and indelible impression on her.

"Then later, I hid in the castle for hours, until you made such a commotion and I saw you coming down from upstairs... You went to see Anna?"

"Yes, I've seen it. In short, it's very cute."

Bai Zhi nodded very seriously.

Fireworks of Romance: "???"

"The Castle Core lies with Anna, but inside this strange castle, the core doesn't lie with Anna at all."

Seeing the other person's "Are you kidding me?" expression, Bai Zhi shrugged and casually recounted the information he had obtained from Anna's room earlier.

"Judging from that situation, the other party might still be alive, but we don't know where he is in this Rose Manor. If we can find him, we can obtain a considerable amount of information. Your previous one..."

"That's it. We're almost out of supplies. Looking for more people? We're lucky if we can avoid being found."

Upon hearing Bai Zhi's words, Fireworks of Romance's face immediately darkened.

"Do you really think those kitchen utensils are free? There's no way to recycle them under those circumstances. I've really lost out this time, okay?"

"... I mean those little red balls."

"They're all gone. They're consumable items, and those were the last few!! High-end items for survival!!"

"Is that so...?"

After a brief moment of contemplation, Bai Zhi turned to look out the window and suddenly asked the other person a strange question.

"Compared to the castle, which is teeming with Monster, the outside is clearly a more suitable hiding place. Why didn't you hide outside the castle? Is it because there's something outside?"

"Outside the castle? Go and see for yourself."

Seemingly quite displeased, he turned away, leaving the other person with only his Fireworks of Romance turned.

"Remember, it's best not to watch for too long, or don't blame me for not warning you."

"... Can't read too long?"

Bai Zhi glanced at the other person thoughtfully, then got up and walked to the window. Although the window in this storage room was a bit high, there were plenty of things in the room that could be used as a stepping stone.

Looking out over the castle, the sun shines brightly.

Blue sky and white clouds, a gentle breeze, birdsong and fragrant flowers.

The warm, but not scorching, sunlight shone on the earth, making people feel warm.

"I don't see anything strange about it... What does 'can't watch for too long' mean?"

Just as Bai Zhi was pondering the meaning of what the other person had said, in a daze, he suddenly saw the Tian Kong above Rose Manor sway like a reflection in water, revealing its true form before him.

--Those were countless blood-red tentacles hanging downwards.

The tentacles were connected to a large Dark Clouds that covered almost the entire Rose Manor. The blood-red tentacles extended downwards from the black cloud, with the longest one even reaching the window.

"... Was that a hallucination I saw in the Real World before?"

Looking up in a daze at the blood-red tentacles hanging down from the Tian Kong, Bai Zhi quickly realized that these tentacles showed no intention of moving at all, as if they were just a sticker.

Even though these millions of Blood-Red Tentacles hanging down from the Tian Kong showed no sign of moving, the oppressive feeling they gave off was undeniable.

After he stared upwards for a moment, the tentacles quickly disappeared, and the sky above Rose Manor returned to its usual blue sky and white clouds.

"Hmm... I still really want to eat takoyaki..."

Bai Zhi reached out and touched his chin, a look of regret on his face. But before he could think too much about it, a force suddenly came from the side and pulled him down from above.

"I told you not to look at it too much, didn't you understand what I said? You still looked at it for so long in one go..."

Having arrived at his side without him noticing, Fireworks of Romance looked furious.

"You're supposed to be a pro player, don't you even notice the changes in yourself?!"

"Uh... what change?"

Looking down at himself, Bai Zhi was completely bewildered.

"If you stare at that thing for too long, be careful—tentacles might grow out of your face, body, and hands!!"

Fireworks of Romance spoke fiercely.

"Open your Attribute Panel and look at the Sanity' section. Take a look at how much Sanity Value you've lost in such a short time! Haven't you ever encountered Mandatory Quest that drains your Sanity Value before!?"

"Hmm... Is this Sanity?"

Following the other party's instructions, Bai Zhi opened his attributes and then focused his attention on the "Sanity" section.

[Sanity:???]

"Yes, that's right, my Sanity Value has definitely been depleted a lot..."

After closing the Attribute Panel, which is only visible to himself, Bai Zhi nodded solemnly as he looked at the Fireworks of Romance before him.

"This is truly terrifying."