The Chopper is Obtained, Grace Event

Room 702 Owner's gaze was vicious yet tinged with frustration.

Ji Yan flicked the Chopper on his forehead with a fingertip and said with a smile, "Borrow this blade for a bit."

Hearing that the Chopper was the target, the other man gritted his teeth and snapped, "Don't even think about it. This blade only—"

"Only kills my father, I know. That's exactly who I'm going after."

Room 702 Owner was a bit stunned.

"Aren't you his child?"

Ji Yan didn't hide anything and laid out the whole story from start to finish.

After hearing it, the other man was skeptical.

After all, the Chopper stuck in his head was a Rare Eerie Item, and plenty of Players had set their sights on it, trying every trick to interact and scheme their way into obtaining this piece of gear.

Ji Yan had seen through it from the start.

That Chopper wasn't just a rare piece of equipment—it was also in a damaged state, which meant it could be repaired, and its quality was far beyond what it currently showed.

This Room 702 Owner was, in plain terms, a free NPC.

Any Player could interact with him.

The Chopper on his head was the reward equipment.

There were generally two ways to obtain gear from a free NPC.

The first was forced seizure—using raw strength to kill the NPC and take the equipment.

But a forced melon isn't sweet.

A Chopper obtained that way would be heavily damaged, its quality severely reduced.

To get the equipment in perfect condition, there was only the second method: interaction, triggering the backstory, accepting a quest, completing it, and making the NPC willingly hand over the gear.

That was why Ji Yan was being so patient.

Otherwise, with his usual no-nonsense attitude, he wouldn't have bothered with just three hammer blows to calm Room 702 Owner down—he'd have smashed his head in and taken the Chopper on the spot.

A drop in quality wasn't the main issue.

The main issue was that he might not be able to kill that Gourmand Eerie!

"Can you tell me what grudge you have with my father?"

Ji Yan kept trying to interact, since without triggering the backstory, the game quest wouldn't activate either.

"Ha, what a loving father and filial son. But how do I trust you?"

Room 702 Owner wiped the blood from his forehead, still refusing to reveal the backstory.

Ji Yan suppressed his irritable nature. He knew time was limited and didn't want to waste too much here.

"I'll give you my heart as collateral."

"Give me the Chopper as a stake."

"When I bring that bastard's head to you, you give my heart back."

Ji Yan proposed a simple, straightforward, yet utterly insane deal.

Room 702 Owner narrowed his eyes. "You're betting your life with me?"

"At least betting with you, I still have a sliver of hope."

Ji Yan shrugged, his tone calm and natural.

He knew that only by letting the other man hold his lifeline could there be any credibility.

The man gave Ji Yan a long look, then suddenly reached out a hand, thrust it into Ji Yan's chest, and yanked it back out.

A heart, pulsing violently without a single drop of blood spilling, was pulled free.

Room 702 Owner gripped Ji Yan's heart. Seeing that the latter showed no resistance, he nodded. "Not bad. This kind of deal is fair."

"Bring that scumbag's head to me, and I'll return your heart. This blade will be yours too."

He placed the heart inside a black box.

Turning around, he sat down in a chair, one hand stroking the rust-covered Chopper on his head.

"That scumbag used this very blade on my head to chop off my wife's head—all for a single drink of wine."

"A resident promised him that if he could find a woman's body, he'd give him a bottle of aged liquor. That night in the hallway, he set his sights on my wife."

"He knew I was looking for him, so he's been hiding in Room 404, protected by the Apartment's rules..."

Ji Yan picked at his ear, not particularly moved. He'd already known this backstory from the moment the man grabbed his throat.

But unless he said it out loud himself, the quest wouldn't trigger.

Ji Yan: "So, the only one not bound by the rules who can get close to him is me."

"He'd never expect that his own slave-like child would want to kill his father!"

The moment Ji Yan said

This sentence

, the info panel immediately popped up.

"Ding! Congratulations player on successfully triggering an open-ended quest, Grade A."

"You have received a commission from Resident 702. No time limit. Kill Resident 404, the Gourmand Eerie!"

Grade A!

Killing an eerie was Grade A. He wondered what a Grade S quest would be like.

Ji Yan thought to himself.

Over there, as he recalled his most painful memories, Resident 702 grew more and more emotional, until finally he broke down into loud sobs.

He still wanted to continue pouring out his suffering to Ji Yan, but Ji Yan, having triggered the quest, had no interest in the backstory.

It was like playing a game—what player would actually sit through a long, tedious backstory introduction? Anyone who didn't skip it deserved a thumbs-up.

Resident 702 grabbed the knife hilt with one hand and pulled out the rusted chopper, wrapped in filthy rags.

A torrent of blood gushed from the wound on his forehead. The excruciating pain made him grind his teeth until they cracked.

To keep the vengeance for his murdered wife fresh in his mind, he had embedded the chopper in his forehead, using the recurring pain to ensure hatred wouldn't fade with time.

Resident 702 handed over the chopper, still trying to ramble on about his late wife's backstory. "My name is Liu Nianqing. The reason I'm called Nianqing is because..."

But Ji Yan took the chopper and turned to leave, leaving Liu Nianqing sitting in his chair, mouth opening and closing, before finally falling silent.

Though he had obtained the chopper, since it was part of a quest, the eerie object wasn't activated.

In short, in Ji Yan's hands, this chopper could only deal lethal damage to the quest target, the Gourmand Eerie. Used anywhere else, it was just a rusted blade that couldn't even cut through skin...

The blade was in hand, but killing the Gourmand Eerie would take some effort.

After all, an eerie wouldn't just sit there waiting for you to stab it.

"You have to stab it in the chest. Not the head. Only there will it be a one-hit kill."

"If you give it a chance to react, you'll die horribly."

"So you only have one shot!"

Those were Liu Nianqing's exact words, and they had piled the pressure onto Ji Yan.

Ji Yan gripped the chopper tightly. He needed to formulate a plan.

Tonight, Room 404 was bound to be lively...

Soon, Ji Yan returned to Room 404.

The moment he stepped inside, he sensed something was off.

A strong stench of rotting flesh.

The smell of an eerie!

Then he saw Liu Yitong busy at the dining table.

Just as Ji Yan was about to speak, Liu Yitong made a shushing gesture and pointed toward the kitchen.

Ji Yan followed his gaze. Through the glass sliding door, he saw a blurry figure moving around in the kitchen.

"The Eerie Mother came out of her room?"

Ji Yan was taken aback.

The resident eerie of the cabin rarely left her room. If she did come out and move around the living room, there were only two possibilities.

One was a Blessing.

Simply put, a pure welfare interaction.

The eerie would actively perform certain actions, and if the player actively participated in the interaction, various rewards could randomly drop during the process.

As for what kind of rewards and how high they were, it all depended on the player's luck.

Even if you messed up, the eerie wouldn't turn hostile. The worst outcome was just getting nothing.

This kind of event was usually only triggered when favorability reached a certain level, and only a single player could enjoy it.

The other was a Punishment.

As the name suggested, it was the opposite. When a player severely violated the cabin's rules or drove the eerie's favorability to rock bottom, causing it to turn hostile, it would come out of its room to punish specific players.

Judging by Liu Yitong's barely restrained corner of his mouth, with the word "joy" practically written on his face, it was clearly a Blessing.

Who knew what that girl had done to keep raising the Eerie Mother's favorability, even triggering a Blessing!

The interaction involved having dinner with the Eerie Mother.

As for how many rewards Liu Yitong could get during the twenty-minute dinner, that depended on her own skill and luck!

This kind of welfare event had nothing to do with other players. All they could do was watch with envy.

So Ji Yan didn't bother with it. He left the table, grabbed the leftover coarse grain bread from this morning, and went to the coffee table in the living room to eat.

Right now, his mind was completely focused on killing the Eerie Father!

Even the biscuit in his mouth tasted bland...