S-Rank Talent, Scapegoat

Blood dripped onto the floor, the dust clumping the blood into crystal-like beads.

Ji Yan covered his nose and mouth, but it was no use. Blood continued to drip through his fingers.

He looked at the black blood on his hands…

"Doesn't black blood isolate curses?"

"Why…"

Ji Yan suddenly turned to look at the eerie residents imprisoned there.

They were also looking at Ji Yan in shock, seemingly not understanding what had happened.

Ji Yan's eyes and ears began to bleed, and his body grew weak, causing him to stagger.

Then, as if suddenly realizing something, he turned his head to look at Long Yuan, who was also sealing the coffin.

He saw that Long Yuan's hands, at some point, had wiped off the smeared black blood, allowing the curse to fully invade his hands.

Long Yuan looked at his blackened hands, then at Ji Yan's constricting pupils, and forced a smile, "It seems I overestimated you."

"You're not as troublesome as I thought. I'm even curious, how did you find this basement?"

Ji Yan coughed up thick blood, his eyes filled with malice as he stared at Long Yuan's mocking smile, "Your talent isn't 'Nirvana Rebirth' at all…"

"I just made that up on the spot. You actually believed it?"

Long Yuan's eyes were indifferent, "I, Long Yuan, have never been one to share things like cake."

"Consider this my final warning as I send you offline in this dungeon. The most terrifying thing in the eerie game is never the eerie, but the human heart."

As Long Yuan's words fell, Ji Yan spat out a large amount of blood and collapsed onto the floor. Blood continuously flowed from his seven orifices until his life force was completely extinguished…

"A brat who couldn't even survive ten days, and he thought he could play me?"

Looking at the dead Ji Yan, Long Yuan snatched the two coffin sealing nails from his hand. Holding the four coffin nails, a cold smile spread across his face.

The eerie residents behind them couldn't help but speak, "At a time like this, you two are still fighting each other?"

"Human greed is just like that; it can never withstand temptation. No matter how noble their words may sound, if given the chance, they will kill each other without mercy!"

Long Yuan ignored their words and returned to the black coffin.

"I fell into a ditch on the last main quest. I won't make the same mistake this time."

He held the four coffin nails in his hand and began to nail them one by one onto the coffin lid.

Three nails were hammered in, sealing it shut. It was time for the last one.

As Long Yuan aimed the coffin sealing nail at the last hole, a chill suddenly struck him from behind.

He turned sharply, and what greeted his eyes was Ji Yan's terrifying face, blood flowing from all seven orifices.

Long Yuan's face changed drastically; he was clearly startled. In that split second, a paper figure shot out from Ji Yan and stuck to the back of his neck.

As the paper cutout adhered, the character "curse" appeared.

"Warning! You have been afflicted by the curse of the eerie item [Three-Character Paper Cutout] – 'Sin'."

"Curse Effect: For 20 minutes, you will be afflicted with [Absolute Silence], losing all game actions. You cannot walk or move, cannot open your tool bar, and cannot use any equipment or talents."

A curse?!

Long Yuan's face changed drastically.

Wait, why wasn't he dead?

His body felt as if it was filled with lead. Long Yuan collapsed to the ground, his body losing all ability to act. Just as the warning panel stated, he couldn't open his tool bar or use equipment to save himself.

He could only speak and move his eyes!

"You… you clearly fell victim to the black coffin's curse…"

Long Yuan stared wide-eyed at Ji Yan, who was now alive and well.

Ji Yan wiped the blood from his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. A second paper figure jumped out from his shoulder.

The paper figure had the character "avert" written on it.

The paper figure burned, turning into a few wisps of ash.

[Disaster Aversion Paper Cutout] Effect – When the host suffers a fatal injury, the calamity can be transferred, warding off one deathly disaster.

Seeing these two paper figures, Long Yuan's eyes twitched, "Three-Character Paper Cutout!"

"That's the Legendary eerie item from Room 801. Why is it with you?"

Ji Yan brushed the dust off the back of his hand, raising his eyebrows, "I didn't expect you to recognize it?"

Long Yuan's face turned as ugly as if he had swallowed a fly.

How could he not recognize it?

Miss Xu Xin from Room 801 had always been his target to pursue. He had his sights set on the Three-Character Paper Cutout in her possession.

However, no matter how he interacted with her or completed her daily tasks, he had never managed to obtain this eerie item.

Now, seeing this [Legendary] quality eerie item in Ji Yan's hands, he felt the humiliation of having patiently courted a slow-to-warm goddess for a long time, only to have her snatched away by someone else in a matter of days!

Humiliation, confusion, and anger surged within him.

"I never put this paper figure into my tool bar. I was waiting for you to stab me in the back so the paper figure would automatically trigger," Ji Yan said.

Long Yuan's eyes were as cold and dead as stagnant water. "You knew from the start what I was going to do?"

Ji Yan's gaze was indifferent, but a smile played on his lips. "Let me tell you a secret that will be even harder for you to accept."

"Not only do I know what you were going to do, but I also know your true talent."

"[Scapegoat], an S-class talent. The trigger condition is to touch another player, turning them into a 'scapegoat.' Within 10 minutes, any damage taken can be transferred to the scapegoat, with a maximum of two targets. After the talent ends, there's a 60-minute cooldown."

"Am I right?"

When Ji Yan recited his talent word-for-word, Long Yuan's mind went blank.

What followed was sheer terror and dread!

Why could he state his talent?

His S-class talent had always been Long Yuan's deepest secret, a secret he had never spoken of.

"You... what's your talent?!" Long Yuan suddenly thought of something.

Ji Yan smiled. "Guess?"

The reason he could analyze Long Yuan's talent was that Long Yuan had given him the opportunity.

When Long Yuan handed him the coffin sealing nail, he made a gesture of holding Ji Yan's hand.

Although Long Yuan's actions seemed very natural and reasonable, to Ji Yan, that gesture was still too deliberate!

Then, his [Omniscient Understanding] had triggered so smoothly, analyzing Long Yuan's talent without missing a single detail.

Long Yuan's deliberate hand gesture was also to trigger his own talent, making Ji Yan his second [Scapegoat].

But he never would have imagined that, the situation he had set up, which was guaranteed to kill Ji Yan, would instead become a trap for himself.

He also never would have imagined that, the talent Ji Yan possessed was a Bug-level F-class talent, even more incredible than his S-class talent!

"Miss Xu's Three-Character Paper Cutout can be considered [Legendary] quality."

Ji Yan brushed the dust off his clothes.

He was very satisfied with his feigned death performance, especially since he had managed to fool even an old fox like Long Yuan.

Behind him, the eerie residents, who had just witnessed a plot twist after plot twist, could no longer sit still and kept urging them on.

"Time is really running out!"

"How long are you two going to keep scheming against each other?"

"If you don't seal the coffin soon, this entire apartment will collapse!"

Facing the eerie residents' urging, Ji Yan nodded and replied, "Indeed, time is running out."

As he spoke, he took out the nail hammer, picked up the last coffin sealing nail on the ground, and walked towards the black coffin.

Long Yuan could only watch, roaring with unwillingness and rage, "Ji Yan!!"

Then, under everyone's gaze, Ji Yan raised the nail hammer in his hand.

But in the next moment, both humans and eerie beings were stunned.

Ji Yan wasn't sealing the coffin; he was prying out the coffin sealing nail...

He was opening the coffin!