First Meeting with Grandmother, Sachet Quest

Morning.

The grandfather clock chimed, white mist swirling.

With a creak, Liu Yitong's room door slowly opened.

Seeing the bloodstains left in the hallway, she muttered to herself, "Last night was really lively. I wonder which eerie was so hyped up, kept knocking on my door nonstop. So annoying!"

She was angry.

Not because of morning crankiness.

But because players who don't get enough rest at night see their stats drop the next day.

Even mental fatigue and confusion can easily mess up the mission.

She headed to the living room to wash up.

But soon, she noticed something was off.

The hallway had gotten shorter.

Surviving 22 days in the dungeon, she'd walked it countless times, every inch of this house etched into muscle memory.

No mistake—how did the dorm hallway get shorter?

She turned her head, glanced left and right, and suddenly her pretty face changed.

Two doors that were there were gone!

The six-room, one-living-room suite had become four rooms and a living room.

Her first thought was Ji Yan, but after carefully checking the two missing rooms, she found they belonged to Dong Chu and Father Eerie!

She tilted her head, dumbfounded.

Just then, Ji Yan opened his door and walked out.

"Morning. Another day full of energy."

Ji Yan gave a simple greeting.

"Ji Yan, Dong Chu..."

Ji Yan turned back with a hint of a smile: "You heard it too? Last night, that guy kept banging on my door. I thought it was an eerie mimicking voices."

"Now it looks like it really was him. Tell me, how does an old player make such a rookie mistake?"

Liu Yitong fell silent.

She also knew Dong Chu wouldn't make that kind of mistake, unless...

Her eyes flickered for a moment, and Liu Yitong didn't press further.

Sure enough, no matter the environment, the fight between human hearts is terrifying.

She didn't feel much sympathy for Dong Chu. Someone so selfish, who thinks everything should revolve around him—his death just removed a ticking time bomb. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"But how did Father Eerie die? You... how did you pull it off?"

Liu Yitong couldn't help asking that.

Father Eerie had the most triggers and the most dangerous missions. Overnight, the biggest threat to the players was just gone!

At the dining table, Ji Yan swallowed a mouthful of wheat bread: "Whether I killed him or not doesn't really matter."

"All I know is, without that toxic eerie Father Eerie in Room 404, it'll be much warmer and safer."

"Don't you think?"

That was practically an admission, and it carried an unspoken message—when someone does something good for the group, there's no need to ask questions. Just quietly enjoy the benefits.

Liu Yitong understood.

She nodded: "Couldn't have said it better."

Sure enough, not shunning this newcomer like Dong Chu did was the right call.

That Dong guy was just an idiot!

After a simple breakfast, a call soon came from the hallway.

Time to start the new day's missions.

Liu Yitong was assigned Mother's task again.

She could say she had no pressure now.

Mother's favorability toward her had already stacked to 70%!

Over 65% triggers a blessing reward.

Even if she failed a mission or two, it would just lower the favorability a bit, with no penalty.

And when favorability maxes out at 100%, she'd achieve a perfect completion achievement, no longer needing to do nerve-wracking daily tasks.

The eerie she'd befriended wouldn't risk going dark, and if she provoked other eerie residents, they'd even step in to shield her from trouble.

At that point, the cabin would truly be a safe haven.

This is why Liu Yitong and Dong Chu put all their effort into completing tasks every day, doing their best to satisfy their eerie family members.

Without courting favor, it's hard to survive in the dungeon.

It's just like a dating sim game.

"Don't worry, Grandma is much kinder than Father. Though she doesn't have much fondness for male players, she won't deliberately target you."

Liu Yitong warned Ji Yan.

She was terrified that Ji Yan might get upset and act rashly, killing the Eerie Grandmother too.

All the effort she'd put into the Eerie Grandmother would be wasted.

"Relax."

"I want to court favor too. If I killed off all the eerie family members in Room 404, then our Room 404 would be no different from a broken home."

Ji Yan knew what she was thinking—did she take him for some brute who killed anyone who displeased him?

Without another word, the two of them entered their respective eerie family members' rooms.

Grandma's room retained the style of the older generation. Many items bore the marks of time, and the air was thick with the sour, cottony smell of knitted clothes.

On the bed, Grandma sat there, knitting a sweater in her hands, while a pile of finished ones had already formed a small mountain beside her.

To her, it seemed like there would never be an end to the sweaters she had to knit.

"Child, though this is our first meeting, you're much more pleasant to look at than that loudmouth boy."

Grandma lowered her eyelids and gave Ji Yan a comment.

Ji Yan knew she was talking about Dong Chu. That poor guy—even after going offline, he still got dragged into things.

He couldn't get along with people or with eeriest. Surviving over twenty days was nothing short of a miracle.

"I couldn't agree more, Grandma."

So far, the Eerie Grandmother did seem much easier to interact with, far better than that hyper-aggressive eerie father.

"Here, thread this needle for Grandma. My eyes aren't what they used to be."

The Eerie Grandmother handed over the thread and needle.

Ji Yan took them. His eyesight was decent enough, and he threaded the needle on the first try.

"I won't ask how you killed your father. If I could leave this room, I'd have crushed that ungrateful wretch's head long ago."

"Back then, several of my good granddaughters were taken by that beast to pay for drinks for that fox in Apartment 101."

"You've done Grandma a great favor."

Grandma said hoarsely.

From this, it was clear that even among the eeriest in Room 404, there were no small grudges. Like the players, they were just playing their roles.

No wonder, after killing the Gourmand Eerie, he'd gotten a free 20% favorability boost from both Grandma and Mother.

"Do you want Grandma to dote on you even more? Grandma has two knots in her heart. Untie one, and from now on, in this apartment, aside from the Landlord, no one who steps into 404 can touch a single hair on your head."

Knots in the heart!

Hearing that key phrase, Ji Yan's brows lifted.

A small number of eeriest had such knots. Once you helped them untie one, you'd get at least 50% favorability!

"I wonder what knots Grandma has?" Ji Yan asked tentatively.

The Eerie Grandmother asked, "Have you met your mother yet?"

"Just once."

"Kill her. As long as she disappears from Room 404, Grandma will only dote on you from now on."

Grandma put down her sweater, squinted her eyes, and smiled kindly.

Ji Yan: "..."

He knew it wouldn't be that easy.

"Alright, I won't make things hard for you."

Grandma casually tossed over a sachet and went back to knitting her sweater. "Take this sachet to Room 605."

"Whether they accept it or not doesn't matter. Just deliver it."

"When you come back, Grandma will knit a sweater for you herself."

"You're the first boy I've ever knitted a sweater for."

Grandma lifted her kind, gentle face. "This favor isn't something Grandma gives just anyone. It's because of that good deed you did last night."

Ji Yan was slightly taken aback.

He looked at the sachet handed to him.

Embroidered on it were the words: Peace Year After Year.

Was it really that simple?

Ji Yan could barely suppress the grin at the corner of his mouth. Wasn't this practically a freebie mission?

Liu Yitong also had one of those sweaters the grandmother knitted.

Ji Yan had gathered information—at minimum, it was Rare quality.

Wearing it granted 30% immunity to eerie damage. It was basically a bulletproof vest.

"Don't worry, Grandma. I'll deliver it for sure."

Ji Yan took it. A simple errand like this—only a fool would refuse.

The grandmother chuckled softly and went back to her knitting.

Ji Yan stepped out of the room.

Only then did the sachet in his hand trigger his talent, popping up a hidden info panel: "The sachet is one of the foundational materials for 'Building Foundation.' To mend it properly, the grandmother spent half a month's effort, even wearing out three sets of needles and thread. Guess why this dilapidated apartment building can stand firm in the Eerie World without collapsing?"

Ji Yan glanced at the panel's content and couldn't help feeling puzzled.

Building Foundation.

So the material used to construct the Apartment Building was this sachet?

This hidden info left him utterly confused.

Ji Yan shook his head and didn't dwell on it.

In short, just deliver it. What the sachet was for, where it came from—none of that was his concern.

As soon as he closed the info panel, Liu Yitong came out of the room across the hall, holding an empty Soy Sauce Bottle.

"Seriously? Another fetch-the-soy-sauce mission? Does that Mother Eerie even eat soy sauce?"

The moment he saw the bottle, Ji Yan couldn't help but complain.

This was the benefit of high favorability!

Same mission rewards—others had to walk through the gates of hell, barely escaping with their lives to complete it. Liu Yitong just went downstairs to buy soy sauce, and it was done.

Who wouldn't be green with envy seeing that?

Liu Yitong scratched his head, looking a bit embarrassed.

His mother's favoritism really was too obvious.

He deflected the topic by asking back, "What's your mission today?"

"The mission panel hadn't even popped up yet when Grandma handed me a sachet."

Ji Yan held up the "Peace Year After Year" sachet.

But the moment she saw it, Liu Yitong's pretty face turned pale...