Watching the blood slurry spread across the floor.
Ji Yan could not help holding his breath. He had not expected opening the Basement to be so bloody.
He looked at the Blood Wall and asked worriedly, "Are you alright?"
The Blood Wall did not respond.
Only after a long while did it gather into a twisted word: "Hurts..."
Ji Yan's gaze shifted. He could only hurry and pull out his mother's flashlight, using its beam to enter the Basement.
At that moment, his scalp suddenly itched.
The three paper figures jumped out from between his hair. Like three Bian Ques hopping wildly around his body, they surveyed the surroundings.
Ji Yan did not know why the three paper figures had jumped out, but they gave him a little more sense of security.
At that moment, a new system panel appeared in his vision.
"Ding! Congratulations, player, for discovering the Dungeon's hidden new map area—the Forbidden Basement." "Map area introduction: This is a prison holding tenants who have seriously violated Apartment rules. It contains many unknown dangers. Players are advised not to enter rashly without sufficient equipment." "Tip: This hidden map area is tied to several core quests and conceals a large quantity of high-quality equipment."
"So it's a hidden map area."
"No wonder there hadn't been any hints at all."
As Ji Yan muttered, the flashlight in his hand suddenly crackled and flickered.
He froze. Even his mother's flashlight was useless here?
Thinking carefully, he had indeed come down here far too recklessly. But the situation had been urgent, and he had few means of saving his life—practically none.
"I can only see how capable Miss Xu's three paper figures are."
Although Ji Yan said that, no matter how he looked at the three paper figures, each smaller than his palm, they did not seem reliable.
A moment later, he reached the end of the stairs leading underground.
When the soles of his shoes stepped onto the thick dust, Ji Yan knew he had entered the new map area.
Through the flickering beam, Ji Yan saw his surroundings clearly. It was said to be a forbidden place, a prison for sinful tenants.
In reality, it was a wine cellar that had been sealed away for who knew how long.
Clay jars for storing wine were everywhere.
Ji Yan took a few steps when the flashlight suddenly went out, its beam vanishing.
He thought the flashlight had lost contact, but the next second, he realized a hand was covering it.
Pulling the flashlight away, Ji Yan saw who it was.
It was an Eerie Old Man with messy hair, a twisted, hunched body, looking exactly like a real-life goblin.
He bared his teeth and chuckled. "I told you, sooner or later, one of the clear-headed ones would discover that the source of the problem was in the Basement!"
After he spoke, dark shadows crawled out from concealed corners all around. They were all bizarrely deformed eerie tenants, grotesquely thin, without a trace of full flesh on their bodies, like refugees fleeing a famine.
The moment they saw Ji Yan, they all smiled.
"We're saved. We can finally stop worrying."
"Our Apartment is saved. It won't collapse!"
These eerie tenants imprisoned in the Basement looked at Ji Yan as if they had seen hope itself, their joy beyond words.
This was not quite what Ji Yan had imagined.
Wasn't the Basement supposed to be extremely dangerous?
Weren't the imprisoned eerie tenants supposed to be full of hostility?
The imprisoned eerie tenants seemed able to read Ji Yan's thoughts. They explained, "Though we made some mistakes in the past and were imprisoned here..."
"We still do not want to see the Apartment collapse and be destroyed. After all, our families still live upstairs."
"So we have all been waiting for a tenant to come down and save this Apartment!"
Ji Yan looked at the eerie tenants' faces and noted that the three paper figures on him showed no signs of attacking.
He asked, "So who exactly is destroying the Apartment's foundation?"
The imprisoned eerie tenants were just about to speak when footsteps suddenly came from the stairs behind them.
Ji Yan's expression darkened.
He knew another player had caught up to his progress!
That had happened even faster than he expected.
What made his expression even worse was that the player coming down was an old acquaintance.
Holding an old-fashioned oil lamp, Long Yuan saw Ji Yan's face in the orange glow of the flame and narrowed his eyes.
When enemies met, their eyes burned with hatred.
"Meeting again," Ji Yan said with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
"If I remember correctly, you still owe me a bet."
"The stake was a kitchen knife, right?"
Long Yuan sneered as well. "I have something better to give you."
As he spoke, he tossed over an Eerie Weapon.
Ji Yan looked closely and found that it was his own Chopper.
??
Hadn't some unlucky fool snatched it away? How had it ended up in this guy's hands?
"Quite the scheme. Your Chopper gave me a lot of trouble."
"I've remembered how you set me up."
Long Yuan's smile was filled with coldness.
Ji Yan picked up the Chopper. It was even more damaged now, with a section even broken off.
No wonder Long Yuan had thrown it back to him. In Long Yuan's eyes, it was probably already trash. But in Ji Yan's eyes, as long as his Omniscient Understanding talent remained, this Chopper was a treasure above Treasured Grade.
Back then, he had painfully abandoned the Chopper, which served as a tracker, in order to escape Father Eerie in Room 804.
Who would have thought that after all those twists and turns, it would return to his hands in the end?
"You say I set you up, but I have no idea what you mean."
"I only know that some old freeloader snatched my Chopper. I have no idea how it ended up with you."
Ji Yan shook his head as he put away the Chopper.
Long Yuan narrowed his eyes, seemingly trying to determine whether Ji Yan was telling the truth. In the end, he chose to skip the subject.
"How did you know about this Basement?"
Ji Yan countered, "Then how did you discover it?"
The atmosphere fell silent.
Then Ji Yan smiled. "We both know the truth, so there's no need to waste our breath."
"If I'm not mistaken, you knew from the beginning that the true culprit destroying the Apartment was in the Basement."
"But you did not say anything. You even deliberately posted the Multi-faced Eerie's location in the group to reduce the number of competitors, drawing all the players over to besiege it and deepening their misunderstanding."
"Am I right?"
Back in the first-floor lobby, Ji Yan had discovered Long Yuan hiding in the shadows. He had formed a suspicion then, and now that Long Yuan had appeared in the Basement too, he could fully confirm that he had been right.
Long Yuan smiled too. "This game is about the clever getting the cake first."
"You should thank me. If it weren't for me, there would be more than just the two of us in this Basement right now."
Ji Yan did not deny it. "I really should thank you."
"Since that's the case, rather than fight to the death, why don't we join forces and take down this Main Quest?"
"After all, we do not have much time left."
"Those idiots have already surrounded and killed the Multi-faced Eerie. They'll realize the truth soon enough."
"We can take this cake for ourselves, just the two of us!"
Long Yuan stated his position first, taking the initiative to show goodwill.
He truly did not want to keep wasting time and miss the opportunity.
Ji Yan did not object either. This was the most critical moment.
He then looked at the imprisoned eerie tenants. "Do you know where the culprit destroying the Apartment's foundation is?"
"We do, but that thing is fierce. Are you sure you can handle it?"
Before Ji Yan could speak, Long Yuan cut in disdainfully, "Just lead the way. Leave the rest to us!"
Before you continue