"How did your task go?"
Seeing Ji Yan looking preoccupied, Liu Yitong sat at the dining table and asked with mild concern.
"Not very smoothly."
Ji Yan raised the half-filled bottle of Blood Lyre in his hand.
When Liu Yitong saw it, her delicate brows furrowed as well. She comforted him, "No worries. At least you still have half a bottle."
"With the task half completed, the punishment won't be too severe."
"Besides, Father Eerie's task was the hardest to begin with. If you randomly get Mother or Grandmother tomorrow, just work hard and make up for it!"
"It's still easy to gain favorability with those two. You can't possibly randomly get Father Eerie three days in a row, right?"
After Liu Yitong said that with a smile, she suddenly covered her mouth.
Maybe he really could...
After all, the man before her had already had such terrible luck that it made her scalp tingle.
Just as she wanted to say something to remedy it, Ji Yan glanced behind her and silently mouthed, "Mother's out."
The floor-to-ceiling window in the kitchen was pushed open, and Eerie Mother's appearance surprisingly carried none of the usual horror.
She wore a pink apron, her hair tied in a ponytail. Though there were a few weary crow's feet on her still-charming face, she gave off the image of a typical virtuous wife.
But Ji Yan knew that once she turned dark, the more normal an eerie looked, the more devastating the contrast would be for a Player.
Liu Yitong hurriedly sat up straight and devoted all her attention to the dinner interaction with Eerie Mother.
Eerie Mother currently had no interaction with Ji Yan, so her favorability toward him was zero. He wisely made sure not to draw her attention.
There was no need for him to force his way into someone else's beneficial interaction event.
Before long, Dong Chu returned as well.
When he saw Eerie Mother at the dining table, his eyes widened. Then, realizing this was Liu Yitong's blessing, he muttered enviously, "Why have I never gotten this damned luck even once?"
As one of the veteran Players who had arrived at 404 first, Liu Yitong was now thriving in this household. Meanwhile, he had repeatedly lost favorability with three eerie family members, and the resentment in his heart grew ever stronger...
He knew that if this continued, he would be taken offline sooner or later.
So he took some "action" of his own...
He saw Ji Yan on the sofa.
He also saw the not-quite-full bottle of Blood Lyre, and a cold smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Looks like someone's luck has run out today?"
Ji Yan glanced at Dong Chu, shrugged, and smiled indifferently. "Isn't there still half a bottle? It's not that bad."
"Half a bottle? Father Eerie won't let you off easy."
"That Eerie has no favorability toward Players at all. Once he catches even the slightest weakness, the Player will end up beyond redemption."
"Did that woman Liu Yitong fill your head with more empty encouragement, and you actually bought it?"
"Compared to that hypocritical woman, I'm a very honest person."
Dong Chu squeezed out a smile at Ji Yan. "Believe me, that half-bottle of Blood Lyre won't keep you alive through tonight!"
Even a full bottle wouldn't save him.
How could this foolish kid possibly know that this task had been a dead end designed by one person and one eerie from the start?
Ji Yan did not get angry or argue back.
Instead, he nodded seriously, agreeing with Dong Chu. "Now that I think about it, you're right."
"Since the task has already failed, why should I submit it? I might as well hide and drag things out a little longer!"
After saying that, Ji Yan carried the Blood Lyre back to his room and locked the gate behind him.
Dong Chu folded his arms.
He snorted. "Once the task time limit expires, it'll be judged as a direct failure."
"If the task fails, the eerie will turn dark, and the outcome will be even worse."
Inside the room, Ji Yan listened to the mockery outside the door and looked at the Blood Lyre in the bottle.
Because of the liquor bottle, the Blood Lyre had completely spoiled.
The task had been doomed to fail from the start.
But there was one thing Ji Yan did not understand.
Why had Gourmand Eerie chosen to cooperate with Dong Chu and kill him?
Logically, as long as Ji Yan stayed alive, Gourmand Eerie could keep enjoying Blood Lyre. There was no reason for him to cut off his own supply of liquor!
What temptation could be stronger than an addiction to alcohol?
Without dwelling on it, Ji Yan sat on the bed.
He looked at the Eerie World outside the window, where thick fog swirled as darkness gradually fell.
Resting his chin on his hand, he simply waited.
He was waiting for nightfall, and for Gourmand Eerie to come settle the score with him after turning dark...
"You're saying he didn't submit the task?"
Liu Yitong, having finished her blessing event, walked over. When she learned of Ji Yan's choice, surprise filled her pretty face.
"Submitting it would just make him die faster."
"But what he doesn't know is that if he doesn't submit the task, Father Eerie will be enraged, and his methods will become even more brutal. He thinks hiding in his room will keep him safe? Tonight, he'll learn what despair truly is."
Dong Chu chewed the peanuts in his mouth, his expression full of gloating.
"But he got at least half a bottle of Blood Lyre. The punishment should be halved too. He definitely shouldn't lose his life."
Liu Yitong frowned. She did not think Ji Yan would do something so foolish.
She looked at Dong Chu. "Did you say something to him?"
"I didn't say anything." Liu Yitong replied coldly and returned to her room.
"As a veteran Player, it's normal for me to give him a few reminders, isn't it?" Dong Chu shrugged.
He changed the subject. "How did your blessing go? Did anything good drop?"
"No."
Liu Yitong gave him a cold, perfunctory reply and went back to her room.
She did not understand why Dong Chu was targeting a newcomer so much when they were all Players, even wishing for the other person to be taken offline.
In the Eerie World, shouldn't people of the same kind stick together? Was it just because Ji Yan had snapped at him a few times yesterday?
Liu Yitong lost the last bit of favorability she had for this kind of person.
"Even that bitch is giving me attitude now. Does she really think that just because she's gotten along with the other two eeries, she can step all over me?"
"One day, I'll get rid of you too!"
Dong Chu stared at the closed door to Liu Yitong's room, a cold gleam flashing through his eyes.
He looked toward Ji Yan's room, unable to make sense of it either.
This kid didn't seem that stupid. Was he really planning to curl up in his room and wait for death?
At nine o'clock at night, darkness fell.
The lights throughout the entire Apartment went out, and blackness swallowed every corner.
It seemed like a quiet night, but after the hands of the Grandfather Clock passed midnight, a gate deep in the corridor suddenly began corroding at a rapid pace. An intense stench of rotting corpses seeped through the crack.
Then, the door to Father Eerie's room slowly opened.
Gourmand Eerie, now turned dark, was wrapped in black mist from head to toe, his eyes scarlet.
"Where is my liquor? Why wasn't it delivered?!"
His voice, containing boundless fury, echoed through the suite.
Liu Yitong and Dong Chu, lying in their respective rooms, heard it all clearly.
With their eyes closed, they could only pretend they had heard nothing.
They knew Ji Yan was finished!
At the same time, an information panel appeared before Ji Yan.
"Ding! The time limit for the task accepted by the Player has ended. Because the task was not submitted, the system has determined it to be a failure." "Warning! Because you failed to complete the task, you violated the rules, causing Father Eerie to turn dark. You are about to face punishment!"
Looking at the red warning panel, Ji Yan remained calm and silently closed it.
Then, he took out a piece of equipment from the Tool Bar...
Before you continue