In the corridor, the two headless corpses on the floor were still twitching slightly.
The people present were like participants in a deadly game of 123 Red Light, Green Light.
Anyone who moved would have their head blown apart instantly.
The female player who had originally planned to run froze under Huang Ran's rebuke, too afraid to move.
Ji Yan was equally stunned.
There was no need for interaction.
It ignored the Apartment's rules and directly killed players.
They could not even see how it was killing them.
Where had this Eerie come from? Was it really an Apartment resident?
Perhaps because no player had fled, that elderly Eerie face did not continue slaughtering players.
At that moment, a warning panel appeared before Ji Yan.
"Warning, player! You are coming into contact with an S-rank mission Eerie. This Eerie is the core NPC of the Main Quest and poses an extremely high level of danger."
"For your own safety, quickly determine what behavior triggers its hunt!"
Seeing the prompt on the panel, a thin layer of cold sweat seeped across Ji Yan's forehead.
Sure enough, it was the Mysterious Thief!
Just as Miss Xu had said, the Mysterious Thief did not care how many players were trying to catch it. Tonight, it had come out openly again to keep digging into the walls.
At that moment, Huang Ran, Liu Yitong, and the others received the game's prompt as well. Once they learned that the Eerie before them was the thief all resident players had to catch, their expressions became rather ridiculous.
They had found the thief.
But how the hell were they supposed to catch it?
At that moment, the elderly Eerie face began letting out shriller cries.
Under the interference of that sound, every player present felt dizzy and disoriented.
"You all got the game's notification too, right?"
Huang Ran closed his Game Panel and reminded his teammates, "In other words, this Eerie has its own rules for hunting. As long as we follow them, it won't hunt us."
"As long as we don't run, that Eerie won't—"
Bang!!
Before he could finish, the female player standing before him, too terrified to move, suddenly had her head explode.
A bloody piece of scalp landed on his shoulder, still radiating warmth.
Huang Ran's eyes widened.
What was going on?
That woman had not turned around to flee. She had not even moved recklessly, so why had she been hunted too?
Huang Ran, who had thought he had figured out the rules and was temporarily safe, turned even paler.
Another player looked horrified as well.
He looked at Huang Ran in panic. "Brother Ran, didn't you say we'd be fine as long as we didn't run? Why did her head explode?"
Huang Ran said nothing, staring grimly at the elderly Eerie face.
Behind him, Ji Yan narrowed his eyes as well.
Liu Yitong's handsome face had gone pale. He instinctively spoke up, "Ji Yan, why..."
Ji Yan spoke quietly. "Wrong."
"That Eerie's hunting rule isn't running away at all."
"Then what is it?" Liu Yitong asked shakily.
Ji Yan pondered.
He stared at the elderly Eerie face, then said, "I have a suspected answer, but I can't be sure yet."
"Then how do we confirm it?"
"Once a few more people die, we'll know."
"..."
There were seven players left, including Ji Yan and Liu Yitong.
Only a minute passed before another player's head exploded, brain matter spraying everywhere.
Two more minutes passed, and another player suffered Sudden Death.
One player broke down and scrambled away on hands and knees, only to suffer Sudden Death as expected.
The thick stench of blood in the corridor was suffocating and nauseating.
Move, and you died. Stay still, and you died too.
Make a sound, and you died. Stay silent, and you died too.
This was fucking indiscriminate slaughter. What safe behavior was there to avoid being killed?
As time passed, more players wandered into the corridor. Seeing the bloody scene, they did not understand what was happening. By the time they realized something was wrong and tried to run, their heads had already exploded.
"Damn it, if I'd known, I wouldn't have gotten involved in this mess."
"I finally managed to win over a family member in this dungeon. Now all my effort has gone to waste."
"Which bastard said that with enough people, this thief would have no choice but to run?"
The players gradually broke down.
Ignoring the other players' wails, Ji Yan turned to Huang Ran. "I know the rule for killing people."
Huang Ran's mouth twitched. "If you know it, then know it. Why tell me?"
"Because you have a gun."
Ji Yan pointed at the elderly Eerie face. "Although I don't know the exact hunting rule, if we can make that face shut its mouth, we should be able to resolve the crisis for now."
"Should?" Huang Ran shot him a cold look.
Ji Yan asked in return, "Why don't you suggest a guaranteed method?"
"How would we know without trying?"
"You're the one in a hurry right now, because judging by our positions, you'll definitely die before I do."
Huang Ran said, "How do you know I'll die first?"
Ji Yan smiled faintly. "I just know."
Huang Ran's expression darkened. Though he could not stand the man's attitude, his words were not without reason.
That Eerie face's howling was indeed giving him a splitting headache.
Tightening his grip on the Eerie gun, he raised it and fired at the Eerie face.
The eerie bullet tore through the elderly face. It let out a pained howl, and the Thief Eerie's enormous body shuddered.
The next second, another elderly face grew from its back, emitting an even more nerve-shredding howl.
The blond man clutched his head and looked at Ji Yan in pain. "This is your fucking solution?!"
Ji Yan spread his hands. "I said from the beginning that it was only a guess."
Worse still, perhaps provoked by that bullet, the black worms on the Thief Eerie's body suddenly swarmed across the floor toward them.
Seeing this, the last few players completely collapsed.
The instant the Eerie Worms crawled onto one player's toes, he jumped as if electrocuted. Before he could land, his head exploded, spraying a mist of blood.
Then it was the female player behind him. She broke down in tears, her psychological defenses crushed by overwhelming terror. She screamed, "I don't want these disgusting bugs to bite me, I—"
After blood and brain matter sprayed and the female player suffered Sudden Death, only Ji Yan, Huang Ran, and Liu Yitong remained in the blood-red corridor.
The Eerie Worms crawled over the corpses and continued spreading toward them.
Liu Yitong trembled as he clutched the sweater Grandmother had knitted for him in despair.
Run, and his head would explode.
Stay, and the Eerie Worms would gnaw him until nothing remained.
There was no way to survive!
Ji Yan suddenly pressed a hand onto Liu Yitong's shoulder and spoke quietly. "Let those worms crawl onto you. No matter what happens, don't react."
"Huh?" Liu Yitong froze, but Ji Yan did not explain.
The Eerie Worms reached Ji Yan first, since he stood farther forward. They quickly covered his lower body, and when they burrowed into his clothes, they even seemed to gnaw at his flesh. Blood soon began to flow.
Liu Yitong and Huang Ran beside him widened their eyes.
Yet even with his lower body drenched in blood, Ji Yan remained unmoved. He merely looked calmly at the mangled flesh.
"Ji Yan!"
Liu Yitong covered his mouth and could not help crying out.
Soon, both of them noticed something strange. Even with his flesh mangled, Ji Yan remained calm, as if he felt no pain.
Ji Yan glanced at them. "Open your personal status, and you'll know the answer."
"My mental value is almost depleted right now, but my health is still full."
"That means everything we're seeing is just an illusion!"
Before you continue