Late-Night Knocking, a Familiar Scent

Night soon fell.

Darkness seeped into Room 404 like ink.

Following Liu Yitong's advice, Ji Yan had obediently gone to bed before midnight.

Perhaps he had been too exhausted, because the moment he lay down, Ji Yan fell into a deep sleep.

But in the middle of the night, a faint knocking sound woke him.

Someone was knocking on his door?

"Ji Yan... Ji Yan, are you asleep?"

"If you can hear me, open the door already. Stop sleeping in there, those three eeries are about to assign tasks again!"

"You need to come out quickly. If you don't receive a task, something terrible will happen!"

It was Liu Yitong's voice, sounding anxious and hushed, as if she feared something.

Ji Yan listened, turned over, and went back to sleep.

He had no idea what was outside the door, but it could even imitate a player's voice.

Its attempt at temptation was just too clumsy.

Even if it really was Liu Yitong outside, he would not get up to open the door. Once the lights were out, as long as players obediently slept, no eerie could do anything to them.

"Liu Yitong" outside continued urgently calling for Ji Yan. When it received no response, it began to grow impatient, its voice becoming shrill and unpleasant.

Then came the skin-crawling sound of fingernails scraping against the door...

After an unknown amount of time, Ji Yan heard a door open.

Ji Yan opened his eyes.

The sound had come from next door, from Dong Chu's room. Why had he opened the door? He should have known how dangerous the Apartment was at night...

Though puzzled, Ji Yan heard nothing else unusual besides the door opening.

He soon drifted back into a deep sleep...

At six the next morning, the Grandfather Clock in the living room chimed.

Ji Yan got up on time. Liu Yitong and Dong Chu were already sitting in the living room, waiting for the day's tasks.

Perhaps due to hunger, Dong Chu looked to be in poor spirits, with heavy dark circles beneath his eyes and greasy, disheveled hair.

Ji Yan glanced at him, and Dong Chu snorted coldly. "What, is there writing on my face?"

Liu Yitong seemed to be in fairly good spirits. She asked Ji Yan, "How did it feel sleeping in the Dungeon for the first time?"

"Nothing happened last night, right?"

Ji Yan said, "Last night, I heard you calling for me outside my door the whole time, sounding as frantic as if the place was on fire."

Liu Yitong's expression changed slightly when she heard that. "Those are all tricks used by the eeries. To make you open the door, they can make you hear any voice."

"One night, I even heard my dead sister crying for help."

"I was half-asleep and thought I was dreaming. I almost went to open the door!"

"You weren't affected, were you?"

Ji Yan shrugged. "I treated it as a lullaby and kept sleeping."

"..."

"And I also heard the door next door open." Ji Yan added, glancing at Dong Chu.

Dong Chu gave him a hostile look. "Do I look like I'm tired of living enough to open the door?"

Ji Yan did not respond, but he faintly caught a strange scent coming from Dong Chu.

For some reason, that scent felt familiar.

Just then, the clock chimed again. The day's tasks were about to be assigned.

The three hurried into the corridor and looked toward the three eerie rooms.

The first summons came from Grandmother's room. "My good granddaughter, Grandmother knitted you a sweater today. You'll definitely like it. Come in quickly and put it on for Grandmother to see!"

Liu Yitong was called first.

When she heard it was Grandmother, she breathed a sigh of relief.

In this home, Grandmother had the highest favorability toward her. Upon hearing the key words "knitted sweater," she could roughly guess that today's task would be easy, and might even further improve their relationship.

Then a voice came from Mother's room. "Little Dong, Mother's coughing badly today. Come in quickly and help Mother see what's wrong."

Dong Chu's expression improved somewhat upon hearing that.

Mother had the fewest triggers for going berserk in this home. She was stable and did not pull anything bizarre, so tasks could generally be completed and food would not be scarce.

Watching the two enter the eerie rooms one after another, Ji Yan was left alone in the corridor and suddenly had a bad feeling.

Don't tell me it's that one again...

Sure enough, the next second brought the teasing laughter of the Gourmand Eerie.

"Good son, come in quickly. Today, Dad will keep doting on you alone!"

"...Damn it, why is it still this thing?"

Ji Yan cursed inwardly. Had this eerie thing latched onto him?

Hadn't they said the assignments were random? Was his luck really this rotten?

With no other choice, Ji Yan could only brace himself and enter that filthy room again.

Perhaps because it had tasted the sweetness of an entire bottle of Blood Lyre yesterday, the task the Gourmand Eerie assigned today was still the same as yesterday's.

If the task was the same, there was nothing difficult about it.

But as Ji Yan was leaving the room, the Gourmand Eerie tossed him a glass bottle. "Use this to fill it, and fill it to the brim!"

Ji Yan frowned as he looked at the wine bottle in his hand, which was a full size larger than yesterday's.

"This damned thing is insatiably greedy. Will it have me use a barrel next time?"

Ji Yan did not linger. He gave a brief acknowledgment and turned to leave, but as he exited, he caught a hint of amusement in the Gourmand Eerie's eyes...

It gave Ji Yan a vague sense of unease.

The moment he left the room, the task panel appeared.

"Ding! Congratulations player, you have triggered a daily task. Please proceed to Room 101 to obtain Blood Lyre personally brewed by the Bewitching Eerie, and fill the wine bottle in your hand. Task level: C-tier."

"The task looks fine. That means the Gourmand Eerie shouldn't be playing any tricks."

Ji Yan muttered, examining the wine bottle in his hand once more to make sure nothing was wrong.

A moment later, Liu Yitong and Dong Chu also emerged from their rooms.

Both of their tasks were rated D-tier. Dong Chu had to find cough medicine for Mother, while Liu Yitong's task was even simpler: she only needed to wear the festive sweater Grandmother had personally knitted for her and have the tailor neighbor downstairs alter it so that it fit.

That red sweater was even an ordinary eerie item that could withstand 20 points of eerie damage.

The other two were rendered speechless.

Was this a difficult task or a benefits task?

Sure enough, once favorability became high, not only did the difficulty decrease, but bonus equipment would occasionally drop as well.

But for some reason, that Grandmother eerie was exceptionally fond of female players, especially ones like Liu Yitong, who looked fair and delicate.

Liu Yitong happily stroked the sweater, then remembered Ji Yan's task. "Right, what is your task today?"

He was truly unlucky, being assigned to Father Eerie's room for two consecutive days.

"Same as yesterday, but the amount increased."

Ji Yan raised the wine bottle in his hand.

"Then don't you have to make another trip to Room 101?" Liu Yitong paused in surprise.

"Heh, didn't someone say yesterday that you could step in dog shit two days in a row? What's there to worry about?"

"Maybe he'll perform even better today and conquer Father Eerie, that tough bone to chew, too?"

Dong Chu mocked him a few times, then walked past Ji Yan to complete his task.

But Ji Yan's expression shifted at that moment.

As Dong Chu passed by him, the scent on him became stronger and more familiar.

Wasn't that the scent from the Gourmand Eerie's room?

The Gourmand Eerie had specifically called for him two days in a row. There was no reason for Dong Chu to have interacted with it.

Ji Yan suddenly recalled the sound of a door opening last night, as well as the strange look in the Gourmand Eerie's eyes when it closed the door. His brows slowly furrowed...

"Don't mind him. That's just how he talks."

"Good luck again today. Don't give up."

Seeing the strange look on Ji Yan's face, Liu Yitong thought his morale had been affected and offered a few words of comfort before leaving to complete her task as well.

After they left, Ji Yan looked at the utterly ordinary wine bottle in his hand. After a moment of thought, he carefully ran his hands over every part of it.

Then, his talent really did trigger, and a Hidden Information Panel appeared.

"Eerie item: Artist's Wine Bottle."

"Effect: Any liquid placed inside the wine bottle becomes a drug with a 90% anesthetic effect."

"Grade: Ordinary."

"Description: An artist fanatically devoted to exploring life always liked to use a wine bottle containing anesthetics to intoxicate the prey above him. Those prey eventually became his so-called artworks beneath his blade. Isn't life wonderful..."

Ji Yan frowned.

This wine bottle was an eerie item?

Could it be Dong Chu's eerie item? Why had it ended up in the Gourmand Eerie's hands, only to be passed on to him?

The wine bottle only revealed this much hidden information, but Ji Yan was unwilling to let it go. His sixth sense told him there was likely some unknown secret hidden within.

In a place like the Eerie World, he dared not be careless.

He wanted to enter Dong Chu's room and trigger more hidden information, but the door was tightly locked.

After pondering for a moment, Ji Yan suddenly looked at the doorknob of the Gourmand Eerie's room. If Dong Chu had entered this room last night, then...

Ji Yan reached out and grasped the doorknob. The next moment, a Hidden Information Panel really did appear...