Plague Eerie, Gnawing the Apartment

They clung like maggots in the bone—tenacious and deadly. To drive them away, you had to solve the root cause. Once the source left, the rat plague would disperse on its own.

"The source?"

Ji Yan was taken aback.

So blindly wiping them out wouldn't work after all.

But what was the source? And where was it?

As Ji Yan pondered, he gripped the cleaver in a backhand and kept killing.

Whatever.

Any questions, his talent would answer them for him!

The other players saw Ji Yan stubbornly clearing the rat plague and shook their heads.

There were thousands of them—how could he possibly clear them all?

And it had to be done before dark. At most, four hours remained!

"Simple-minded."

Long Yuan sneered, but his eyes locked onto the cleaver in Ji Yan's hand.

"The Wife's Cleaver from that Grudge Eerie in 702?"

"How did this guy get his hands on it?"

Long Yuan raised an eyebrow.

He had cleared 70% of the Crimson Apartment's mission stages; the remaining 30% were tough nuts to crack.

That included the mission stage in 702.

Back then, he'd spent two days scheming and still couldn't get it, so he'd given up.

He never expected another player to snag this Eerie Weapon.

Long Yuan tapped open Ji Yan's main profile panel.

It was so bare it could be described as a house with nothing but four walls.

"Survived in the game for five days?"

Long Yuan was stunned, then shrugged it off: "Looks like this newbie got lucky."

"That cleaver is mine now."

Long Yuan smirked.

Taking equipment from a fresh-faced rookie like that was routine for him—he had plenty of methods.

Over there, Ji Yan had no idea his cleaver was being eyed. He kept hunting those Mutant Rats, killing one after another.

Almost every fifth one popped a Hidden Information Panel.

"Kid, don't waste your strength. It's impossible."

"Why not join us and draw 1000 milliliters of blood... After we get the mission food, maybe a few days' rest and you'll recover."

The players said that, but even they didn't believe it themselves.

Ji Yan seemed deaf to their words, focused solely on killing rats and gathering hidden information.

Plague Eerie: A type of Disaster Eerie, carrying the Rat Plague disaster. It wanders the Eerie World without a fixed home, preferring to inhabit buildings heavy with resentment. By devouring vengeful souls, it nourishes and expands the plague, strengthening itself.

"Got it!"

"This must be the source eerie."

Ji Yan's eyes lit up. At that moment, he noticed the Mutant Rats suddenly surging backward, as if drawn by something.

In his line of sight, he saw a figure caked in filthy sewage and trash slowly crawl out from under the dirty Drain Ditch.

It looked human, but it was an eerie.

Once it crawled out, the surrounding Mutant Rats parted to make way. Dragging a trail of filthy water, it moved to the corner of the apartment building's wall.

It crouched down, dug at something with its hands, and began eating ravenously.

Under this bizarre feeding, the entire Crimson Apartment started shaking violently!

The massive building was shrouded in black resentment, as if countless wronged souls were wailing.

In just a few minutes, the Plague Eerie had gnawed a bowl-sized hole in the wall!

As soon as the hole appeared, the Mutant Rats scrambled to squeeze inside.

"Delicious, so delicious!!"

"So good! Can't finish it all, too delicious!"

The apartment building teetered.

The rats that had burrowed inside gnawed on anything they found.

Like termites, they seemed determined not to stop until the apartment was hollowed out.

He stomped the Mutant Rat into a meat paste, and the Bewitching Eerie living in Apartment 101 on the first floor was the first to suffer, her eyes filled with disgust.

"Damn it! The rent in this apartment building is already ridiculously expensive, and they can't even handle basic hygiene issues!"

"What a mess!"

Outside, Cheng Fang was also howling miserably.

"Holy crap! That's one huge rat, damn, how are there so many?"

The Bewitching Eerie coldly ordered Cheng Fang: "Don't let any rats into my room."

"If one gets in, you don't need to stay here anymore."

Cheng Fang felt utterly wronged, grumbling inwardly: "I have to do all the dirty work, must've been a real sinner in my past life!"

As time passed, more and more residents in the apartment voiced complaints.

The Landlord was cleaning the corridor, listening to the grievances, and snorted, sending a message outside the apartment: "Tell them to hurry up and eliminate the Rat Plague."

"If they can't clear it, they don't need to come back."

"This apartment never lacks tenants, especially not those pathetic outsiders who can't even pay rent?"

The Bandage Eerie received the Landlord's words and passed them on to the Cleanup Squad.

The Cleanup Squad was already under pressure, and upon hearing this, they finally gave in to Long Yuan.

"Brother Long, I'm willing to help feed that blade, just please act quickly."

"Me too. A thousand milliliters at least leaves me alive; if I can't get back to the apartment, I'm definitely dead."

"I'd rather bleed to death from being drained than be eaten bite by bite by the eerie in the fog."

Long Yuan showed little reaction to their surrender, his gaze landing on Ji Yan not far away.

"There's still one more."

The other players quickly started persuading Ji Yan as well.

Ji Yan shook the blood off his hands and glanced coldly at Long Yuan.

"Why rely on him?"

"This Rat Plague was brought by that Plague Eerie. Take out that eerie, and the plague will naturally disperse."

Over there, the Plague Eerie, gnawing at the apartment building, had its originally frail body slowly swelling as it fed.

Long Yuan let out an unexpected laugh: "You actually know about the Plague Eerie?"

"True, once the Plague Eerie dies, the plague dissipates."

"But that's like having the question right in front of you—everyone knows the answer's in the book, but how many can actually solve it?"

Long Yuan rested his hands behind his head.

"The Plague Eerie requires at least a Treasured Grade Eerie Weapon to kill, and that's only if you know its weakness."

"Among all of you here, who has that equipment, and who's confident they can pull it off?"

The players fell silent.

A Female Player quietly said to Ji Yan: "Brother, for everyone's sake, just give in."

"Yeah, look how good your condition is. A little blood won't kill you—we've been starving for days and haven't complained!"

"Hurry up and agree! If he leaves, we're all done for. Don't be the one rotten apple that spoils the whole bunch!"

Driven by survival instinct, the players took turns lecturing Ji Yan, some coaxing, some pressuring.

Just as Ji Yan was about to speak, Long Yuan suddenly changed his mind: "I've changed my mind."

He pointed at Ji Yan: "You. On top of the original terms, add one more condition—that Chopper belongs to me."

"Reason?" Ji Yan countered.

"No reason. I just don't like you."

"If you agree, I'll save you all."

"If not, I'm leaving now."

Long Yuan directed all the conflict at Ji Yan, pushing him into the spotlight.

In this situation, the other players panicked the most, frantically piling pressure on Ji Yan.

If Long Yuan left, Ji Yan would be the sole culprit.

So no matter how outrageous his demands got, Ji Yan had no choice but to agree.

Long Yuan had plenty of ways to manipulate people.

Ji Yan saw through it too.

This guy was targeting him purely because he had his eyes on the Chopper.

He glanced at the hidden information he'd obtained, then suddenly thought of something.

"What if you can't kill that Plague Eerie?" Ji Yan asked.

"This kind of disaster eerie, I've killed no fewer than ten of them in this Dungeon."

"What do you think?"

Ji Yan: "There's always an exception."

Long Yuan laughed in fury: "If I can't kill it, this Kitchen Knife is yours!"

"Deal."

Seeing Ji Yan agree so readily, Long Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering where this guy got his confidence—could it be that he'd noticed something special about that Plague Eerie?