The Eerie That Tries to Extort, Killing to Silence

One moment Liu Nianqing was praising Ji Yan for his honesty, the next Ji Yan was unceremoniously kicked out of the apartment.

"That woman's husband is unreasonable. The cleaver is yours, so when I stabbed him, it counts against you."

"If you want to live, run back to 404. Maybe your two family members can save you, but it's probably a long shot..."

"Before dawn, the Landlord won't get involved in this. Good luck to you."

The door slammed shut, leaving only Liu Nianqing's few words scattered in the wind.

Ji Yan patted the flashlight in his hand, its beam flickering erratically.

The cleaver that had stabbed the Eerie Mother, the few drops of blood on its tip, were like stuck-on glue, impossible to shake off.

And they emitted a strong, fishy odor...

Because he was holding the cleaver, the talent information panel triggered, and a few lines of blood-red text appeared.

[The indelible scent of blood will attract the Eerie Mother's husband in 10 minutes. He is a "Dead-eye eerie," blind but exceptionally ferocious, with a keen sense of smell.]

[The path home is not a path to self-salvation. Only by going up another floor can you find a way to live.]

[So, how will you save yourself?]

Perhaps it was because he had completed a talent fragment.

[Omniscient Understanding] was now much simpler to trigger.

And the hidden information it provided guided Ji Yan on how to survive.

"The talent is telling me that running back to the 404 eerie family members won't save me."

"Setting aside whether my Grandmother and Mother, with their current affection levels, would risk their lives for me, it's already tough for an eerie from the 4th floor to deal with an eerie from the 8th floor."

Ji Yan looked at the cleaver in his hand and muttered to himself.

Only by going up another floor could he find a way to live.

Was the talent hinting that the resident of 801 could save him?

With only ten minutes, Ji Yan didn't have time to ponder further. He turned and walked towards the stairwell.

He had to try everything. He had helped that Plague Eerie resolve its obsession, so it shouldn't harm him, right?

Returning to the stairwell, Ji Yan stopped in his tracks because the talent panel popped up again.

[A pair of eyes in the dark covet your cleaver. A trap has been set in the stairwell, and many passing players have fallen into it.]

[You haven't noticed an extra step on the stairs. This appears to be a trap, but it's also a rare opportunity to get rid of the hot potato in your hand.]

Eyes in the dark?

A sneaky player in the game?

Looking at the second, incredibly obvious hint, and then at the cleaver in his hand, Ji Yan's eyes suddenly lit up.

He continued upwards, stepping onto the extra step "unwarily."

The next second, with a crack, that step collapsed and broke. Ji Yan's right foot was sucked into something unseen.

Then, a pair of eyes opened beneath the step, and a pair of hands covered in corpse spots reached up along Ji Yan's legs.

A hoarse voice sounded, "Kid, you're really careless when you walk. You broke my leg, didn't you see?"

"Tell me, how will you compensate me?"

Ji Yan's lips twitched.

How could there be this kind of scamming tactic in the Eerie World?

"Old woman, why are you sticking your leg out in the stairwell?"

The scamming eerie didn't listen: "What business is it of yours? Compensate me."

"What treasures do you have on you? Hand them over, and I'll let you go!"

Ji Yan felt a headache coming on.

The hands became more audacious, reaching towards his crotch the next second: "If you don't make a choice, I'll make it for you. I'll take this treasure of yours!"

As a reflex, Ji Yan swung the cleaver in his hand, stabbing it into the scamming eerie beneath his feet.

As soon as the cleaver was plunged in, it felt like it was being sucked, and immediately slipped out of his grasp.

The next second, the scamming eerie, like an eel, snatched the cleaver and quickly slipped away.

Ji Yan froze for a moment, then shouted, "Damn it, my knife!"

Confirming that the other party had stolen his knife, Ji Yan stopped shouting, let out a sigh of relief, patted his palms, and turned to continue upstairs.

Meanwhile.

The scamming eerie emerged from the stairwell, peeled off a layer of dark, corpse-like skin, and revealed a male player with yellow hair.

He held the cleaver, his eyes filled with surprise: "This knife is a treasure!"

"Another rewarding night."

He then walked into a room.

"Brother Long, I just snagged a treasure. What do you think of the quality?"

Long Yuan, who was still on his night mission, turned his head upon hearing this. "What is it?"

Then he saw the cleaver, and his expression changed slightly. "This knife looks familiar. Who did you rob it from?"

"Just some idiot. I scared him a little, and he dropped the knife right away."

"Someone with that kind of nerve dares to go out on missions at night."

Huang Mao grinned and handed the knife over, full of pride.

Long Yuan took it into his palm and immediately recognized it as the eerie weapon Ji Yan carried. His brow furrowed.

"Brother Long, do you know him?" Huang Mao asked, observing his expression.

Long Yuan shook his head and carefully examined the cleaver.

Glancing at the food on the table, Huang Mao's mouth began to water. He had survived in this dungeon for 44 days by using his B-rank talent, [Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell], to impersonate night-time Eeries and rob other players for equipment.

He would then trade some of the better equipment with Long Yuan for food.

At that moment, Huang Mao's eyes were full of anticipation. He hadn't eaten in two days and was counting on this to get a proper meal.

"It's worth three loaves of bread."

"Deal!" Huang Mao agreed without hesitation.

But then, Long Yuan noticed the bloodstains on the tip of the blade.

His finger couldn't wipe it off, and the fishy smell was extremely strong!

Long Yuan's brow furrowed deeply. "Where did this blood come from?"

The next moment, he realized something, his expression changed, and he threw the cleaver back to Huang Mao. "Take the knife and get out!"

Huang Mao, who was about to pick out bread, stood there stunned, holding the knife. "What's wrong?"

"You're trying to use a murder weapon to harm me too."

"Ten seconds. Disappear from my apartment!"

Long Yuan's face darkened, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

Huang Mao's hair stood on end from fear. He could only hold the cleaver and turn to leave dejectedly.

But as he turned, he saw the door at the entrance begin to rot little by little, and a severely decayed hand twisted off the doorknob.

"I can smell the knife that stabbed my wife. It's useless for you to hide!"

Outside the door, the Dead-eye Eerie, husband of 804, had already blocked the entrance.

Long Yuan cursed under his breath, "Damn it, this is really an unwarranted disaster."

He grabbed Huang Mao by the hair and yelled, "You idiot! You were tricked by that kid and now you're implicating me. You're taking the blame for this!"

The terrified and bewildered Huang Mao, however, had no idea what had happened.

Meanwhile.

Ji Yan knew that discarding the cleaver was just a temporary measure.

The reason the Eerie Mother harbored such strong killing intent towards him was that she had smelled the Eerie from the rooftop on him.

Based on the information he had gathered, he could roughly guess.

Back then, the parents of this family were playing a game with their daughter, asking her to hide in the rooftop cistern. It was highly likely that the parents covered her with that cement slab.

They never intended for their daughter to come out alive!

As for why they wanted to kill their own daughter, that was unknown for now.

Trying to get the family to retrieve their daughter from the cistern themselves was a dead end.

He would even be hunted down to be silenced!

The Eerie Mother's determination to kill him, while seemingly due to being injured by his coffin nails, was actually a cover for her cruel crimes against her daughter...

At this moment, the only one who could help him was one person – the resident of 801!

"Let's see if Huang Sheng's favor is enough."

Ji Yan gripped the key the Plague Eerie had given him and muttered, inserting the key into the lock of the door to 801