Putting his thoughts away, Long Yuan stopped wasting words. He drew the cleaver at his waist and headed straight over.
The other players' delight was obvious when they saw this.
No one cared about that meaningless bet. They only wanted to live.
Ji Yan watched calmly from the back, an unreadable gleam flickering in his eyes.
Over there, the Plague Eerie was still endlessly gnawing at the Apartment's corner. Its body was gradually swelling into a mountain of flesh, and the hole torn through the reinforced cement was already as large as a basket.
More bizarrely, blood seeped from the cement bricks it tore free!
It seemed the enormous Crimson Apartment had been built from ground-up corpses...
Stepping over filthy water and trash, Long Yuan walked up to him and called out to the Plague Eerie. As it turned its head, the cleaver was already swinging down.
The Plague Eerie's swollen head fell to the ground, and Long Yuan crushed it beneath his foot.
Then he turned around, flicking pus from the Knife Blade as he walked back.
The entire process took less than half a minute.
The players were all stunned.
Th-That was way too simple and brutal, wasn't it? It was like chopping a watermelon.
Long Yuan stared at Ji Yan, his expression carefree yet faintly mocking. "Are you convinced you lost now?"
These Eeries unrelated to the Dungeon had no backstories, nor would they breed any resentment.
Without those buffs, they were merely animals that looked a little more horrifying. Chop off their heads, and they died for good.
Everything he had said earlier was only meant to scare these rookies.
Only by creating an even more desperate environment could people's desire to survive be infinitely magnified.
But Ji Yan pointed behind him with a smile. "Why don't you take a look behind you first?"
Long Yuan glanced behind him. The next second, his expression froze.
Black blood gushed from the Plague Eerie's severed neck, and in an instant, its head grew back.
It also became more violent, destroying the Apartment Building with increasing frenzy.
"Pain... It hurts so much!!"
As the opening widened, many Rats crawled into the Apartment Building.
"It didn't die?!"
Long Yuan's face filled with disbelief. Then he noticed that the cleaver in his hand was being corroded bit by bit by the black blood.
A warning panel immediately appeared.
"Ding! Your Eerie Weapon, Butcher's Cleaver, has been damaged. Durability decreased by 30%, enchantment damage decreased by 55%." "Warning! Your actions have caused losses to the Apartment. The residents are cursing you nonstop. A total of 12 Eerie Residents' favorability toward you has decreased by 7%."
After the two warning panels appeared, Long Yuan's expression turned ugly.
Then he understood and looked at the Plague Eerie. "Damn it, this Eerie wouldn't happen to be a resident of the Apartment, would it?"
If this Eerie could not be killed, that meant it carried resentment.
And if it carried resentment, it was definitely connected to the Crimson Apartment Dungeon's backstory.
The most troublesome thing about Grudge Eeries was that their resentment never ceased. They simply could not die!
Looking at his damaged cleaver, Long Yuan felt a sharp ache in his heart.
He turned to Bandage Eerie and asked in a deep voice, "What relationship does this Eerie have with the Apartment?"
Bandage Eerie was silent for a few seconds before slowly speaking. "He was originally a resident of the Apartment. Later, he was driven out."
"What else?"
"You need to ask the old Landlord."
That was the only piece of information he could get from interacting with Bandage Eerie.
"What rotten luck."
Long Yuan put away his cleaver and said to the manager, "Tell the Landlord I can't clear this Rat Plague."
"I'm withdrawing."
Bandage Eerie said, "Because of what you just did, the Apartment has suffered losses. The Landlord is very unhappy."
"He says you can withdraw."
"But you'll need to pay an extra month's rent as compensation."
Long Yuan said, "A month?!"
He looked at the Plague Eerie, his face exceptionally unpleasant, but in the end, he still agreed.
As an experienced player, what he hated most was dealing with Grudge Eeries like this. Clearing one usually required a tremendous amount of effort and consumed quite a bit of equipment.
Little reward, exhausting work.
Just one slash had already cost him so much favorability with the Eerie Residents. Even if he really removed it, the benefits would not be enough to make up for the losses.
What he hated most was making a losing deal.
If he had known this mission would be like this, he would never have come.
He had missed a step.
He had forgotten to interact with the Landlord and accepted the task without learning more information.
Putting away the cleaver, Long Yuan turned to leave.
When the players saw Long Yuan was leaving, they all panicked. "You promised us! You can't leave!"
"What are we supposed to do if you leave? If it really comes down to it, we can add a few more days and use our blood to nourish your cleaver."
Long Yuan snorted and said impatiently, "The cleaver's damaged, and its quality has even dropped. What the hell do I need your blood for?"
"Damn it, I stepped in a pile of dog shit the moment I left home today."
He turned to leave, but Ji Yan's voice stopped him. "What about our deal?"
"You lost, didn't you?"
Long Yuan looked at Ji Yan and smiled. "Sure. As long as you can return to the Apartment alive, you can have this worthless cleaver."
"You should first think about how you're going to get back to the Dungeon alive."
After leaving those words behind, Long Yuan disappeared into the fog.
Ji Yan did not press the matter. It would not be too late to settle that score later.
For now...
He needed to focus on the mission. After all that trouble, there were only a little over two hours left.
Ignoring the players whose faces had turned ashen, Ji Yan walked forward and reached out to grab a fragment of the head Long Yuan had chopped off.
This was his little scheme.
There were too many unknown dangers on the Plague Eerie. Touching it directly was too risky.
That was why he had agreed to Long Yuan's conditions. He wanted Long Yuan to step on the mine for him, so that afterward, he would have a chance to trigger his talent and obtain more hidden information.
From the very beginning, he had learned from the hidden information that this Eerie carried extremely heavy resentment.
If one slash could kill it and complete the mission, when would Long Yuan have had the chance to draw his blade?
Now that he had touched the Plague Eerie, Ji Yan obtained more hidden information.
"Ding! Talent Omniscient Understanding successfully triggered. The player has obtained new hidden information—"
Plague Eerie: Former resident of Crimson Apartment Room 102, originally named Huang Sheng.
Later, he was expelled from the Apartment for seriously violating its rules. He was then gnawed by wandering Eeries in the thick fog, causing deep resentment to take root in him, and he returned to the Apartment.
Hint: Resentment never fades, and restless souls never disperse. Undying and Immortal. To break the deadlock, you must discover where the resentment truly came from.
As Ji Yan processed the information, he frowned.
There was quite a bit of information now.
But it was still not enough!
He glanced at the swaying Apartment Building, then turned to Bandage Eerie and tried to continue interacting with him.
However, Bandage Eerie was like a scripted NPC. Other than, "He was once a resident of the Apartment and was later driven out," there was no second piece of interaction information.
"What a scripted NPC."
Ji Yan shook his head.
Since interacting with the other Eeries provided no information, he could only get it from the original owner himself.
Ji Yan walked over, but after the Plague Eerie had been slashed, those Mutant Rats had become exceptionally agitated and would not allow anyone to approach.
"Huang Sheng!"
Ji Yan could only call the Plague Eerie's name from a distance.
The result was that the Plague Eerie became even more agitated, smashing the wall corner with even greater ferocity.
"Warning!! Your actions have caused the Apartment's damage to worsen. The residents' favorability toward you has decreased. A total of 14 Eeries have developed hostility toward you!"
Ji Yan said, "..."
The corner of his mouth twitched. Just calling his name was enough to provoke him?
This Plague Eerie was like someone with hypersensitive skin. He could not be touched or called out to; the slightest provocation made him destroy the Apartment Building faster.
Was this mission even meant for people to play?
But then Ji Yan noticed something was off.
The Plague Eerie's words had changed...
Before you continue