Digging Out the Eerie Eyeball, Manner of Speech

The little girl was stunned.

This was the first time she'd seen a player who broke the script like this. In the past, they either fell for the trap like fools or immediately showed their true colors—who acted like this?

She stood there, her originally childish face now crawling with black veins, hair whipping in the air.

But she had no choice. The apartment's rules also restricted the seventh floor. If the player didn't enter the room, the eerie couldn't bare its fangs.

Ji Yan, who had run to the corner of the hallway, suddenly stopped.

Because another information panel had popped up before him.

Nether Eerie: Loves to peel off human skin, wear it on its own body, and change its appearance to lure more prey. It delights in digging out human bones to suck the marrow, which refines its "disguise" technique.

Weakness: Fears extreme yin objects.

Hidden hint: Their eyeballs can be used to enhance compatibility between multiple eerie items and are also a favorite food for many eerier. Don't you want this freebie delivered to your door?

This hidden hint wasn't cryptic—simple and clear.

As for extreme yin objects, even an idiot could guess what that meant.

Nothing could be more yin than the bottle of Blood Lyre in his hand, since it was brewed from that female eerie's blood down below...

Ji Yan, who had been about to leave, paused after seeing this hidden info, then turned around and walked back.

Fortune favors the bold.

In a place like the Eerie World, if you didn't take risks, opportunity would never land on your head!

The little girl, who had been about to retreat into her room and wait for the next prey, saw Ji Yan return and was completely baffled.

"Sorry, I just went to grab a tool. I was afraid your dad would use violence on me too, so I picked up a little hammer for self-defense."

Ji Yan's smile was innocent as he held up a Spike Hammer that looked utterly ordinary.

The little girl paused.

For a moment, she couldn't tell if Ji Yan was genuinely stupid or just messing with her again.

Ji Yan urged, "Hurry up and take me there! Isn't your mother about to be beaten to death?"

"Okay... Brother, don't run this time! Stay close to me!"

The little girl grabbed Ji Yan's shoulder. Her small hand had surprising strength, gripping painfully as she dragged him toward room 706.

Since you came back on your own, I won't give you another chance to escape.

"As long as you cross that doorstep, no one can save you!!"

Watching the door draw nearer, the corner of the little girl's mouth couldn't stop twisting, turning blood-red and horrifying.

Step.

She crossed the threshold.

Then came another step.

Ji Yan's foot followed over the threshold. In that instant, some mysterious force in the hallway lifted!

The apartment's rules that had been protecting Ji Yan as a player were nullified. Once an outsider entered a resident's room, the rules clashed and canceled out.

That meant the eerie resident could now do whatever it wanted to the prey that had trespassed into its territory!

Her petite body swelled and bulged. The thin skin tore and split. Sticky blood sprayed as if a golden cicada was shedding its shell. Limbs grew twisted and long. The Nether Eerie revealed its true form on the spot, already eager to feast.

"Brother, forget about my parents for now. My stomach has a much worse problem right now, and only you can help me..."

As the Nether Eerie revealed its form, it twisted its throat bones with a 360-degree crack, its face turning toward its back, already anticipating the terrified, broken expression on Ji Yan's face.

However, It didn't see Ji Yan's face.

What it saw first was a bloody hammer swinging straight at its face!

"Your stomach's hungry? Then here, eat a treasure!"

Ji Yan struck first.

Right in the middle of its transformation, he interrupted the process!

With a wet smack, the Nether Eerie's lower jaw shattered, and bloody flesh sprayed from the corner of its mouth...

"Oww—!"

The Nether Eerie let out a strange shriek, its head spinning, followed by a terrifying burning sensation in its shattered jaw.

"You little bastard, I'm going to suck every single bone in your body dry!!"

Realizing it had been played again, the Nether Eerie flew into a rage, its body expanding to the height of a Hachishakusama, its limbs growing as long and twisted as spider legs.

But before it could lash out, Ji Yan's second hammer had already come down.

Ji Yan figured that trash talk was the most useless thing. In the few seconds wasted on running your mouth, a fist could already be smashing into your face!

The second hammer landed on its head, sending up thick white smoke and a pungent, rancid stench spreading through the air.

The Nether Eerie screamed in agony. The Blood Lyre that had soaked its skin was like sulfuric acid, corroding its flesh.

"What is this?!"

Nether Eerie clutched its festering face, letting out a sharp, terrified shriek.

Ji Yan didn't respond. He pressed his index and middle fingers together and drove them precisely into the creature's eye socket. With a yank of his arm, a string of viscous gore came out.

Holding the round eyeball, Ji Yan turned and walked away.

"You dead rat, you gouge out my eye and think you can just leave?!"

Realizing Ji Yan's purpose for coming back, Nether Eerie covered its rotting face and tried to give chase, its defense value maxing out.

One foot already out the door, Ji Yan looked back at the pursuing Nether Eerie and shook the full bottle of Blood Lyre in his hand.

That soul-piercing smell made Ji Yan's head spin.

"You trick me, I trick you—that's just how this world works."

"If an eagle tries to eat a chick and gets its eye pecked out by the hen instead, it's got no one to blame but itself. You're not dumber than an eagle, are you?"

"If you chase after me, I don't mind dousing you with this whole bottle of treasure. Gouging out one eye is just collecting a little interest—you should be thanking me for my generosity!"

Nether Eerie stopped in its tracks.

Missing an eye and half its face ruined, it stared fixedly at Ji Yan, not daring to come any closer.

Ji Yan's words weren't much of a threat.

But the full bottle of Blood Lyre in his hand was real!

It had no idea what that thing was, only that it hurt it badly.

All Nether Eerie could do was watch helplessly as Ji Yan took one of its eyes and walked off...

Holding the sticky eyeball, Ji Yan noticed it could still move, like a living thing on its own.

Ji Yan didn't use the eye for now. He stored it in the Tool Bar. His priority was still getting to Room 702.

Since the room numbers on the 7th Floor were scrambled, it took him some effort to find it.

Just as he was about to knock, the door swung open.

Ji Yan blinked and walked inside.

When he saw the room's interior, his expression stiffened slightly.

The messy living room looked like it had been abandoned for ages—nothing surprising there. But hanging outside the balcony were corpses, wrinkled, blackened, and shriveled, dripping grease from their toes into basins below.

A black cat and a white cat crouched there, lapping up the corpse grease like goat's milk.

Ji Yan stared at the two cats, feeling an inexplicable chill.

They stared back at him, their golden slit pupils contracting.

"You smell like him."

A voice sounded right by his ear, without warning.

Ji Yan whipped around and saw a head, purple-black and bloodshot, with a woodcutter's axe buried in its forehead.

His throat was suddenly seized.

The figure leaned in, sniffed Ji Yan carefully, and its eyes turned terrifying: "You're that Dead Drunkard's kid from 404!"

"Heh, I don't know what you came to my room for, but anyone from that Dead Drunkard's bloodline has to die!"

Ji Yan saw the axe in its forehead, paused, then spoke: "Hold on..."

The figure didn't give Ji Yan a chance to talk. The moment it caught the scent of its mortal enemy, its mind was filled with nothing but killing intent.

A dull ache spread through Ji Yan's chest. Looking down, he saw the figure's hand had pierced through his flesh and grabbed his heart.

"That bastard's bastard has a black heart!"

The moment it ripped out his heart, Ji Yan pulled out the Spike Hammer and swung it at the axe embedded in the figure's forehead.

Ding!!

A sharp, metallic clang. The Owner of Room 702 released Ji Yan, clutching its head and screaming.

From the penetrating wound, thick blood oozed out.

Ji Yan held his chest, the corner of his mouth twitching. That feeling of having his heart squeezed by someone else was like sudden cardiac arrest—he almost thought he wouldn't make it.

"I know about your grudge..."

"Die! That bastard's little mongrel deserves to die!"

"I—"

"Die!!"

"Fine, let me put it another way."

Seeing that the figure wouldn't listen to a single word, Ji Yan chose to let the Spike Hammer do the talking. He swung it at the axe in its head three times in a row.

The excruciating pain nearly made the Owner of Room 702's head explode.

Cracks spread across its skull, and the agony made its body tremble violently.

Soon, the ferocity in its eyes faded—or rather, it couldn't even speak anymore. Ji Yan had to admit, the most effective way to reason with someone was still to just fight it out. Talking was a waste of breath.

"Like this way of talking?"

"If not, I'll keep going."

Ji Yan held up the dripping hammer, doing the most brutal things while saying the gentlest words...