Friend Under the Bed

These three passages were the only explanation, with no further details whatsoever.

To Lu Ban, those cold words carried a chill. Rather than some benefit system, they resembled a prompt board from a horror movie.

"Is this a system mission?"

Lu Ban roughly guessed what the three doors represented.

Each description was somewhat strange, making none of them particularly appealing choices.

But Lu Ban had finally obtained something that could change his current situation. He was curious nonetheless and wanted to give it a try.

Curiosity drove humanity toward both death and progress.

"Fellow Traveler and The Alley of No Return look like they require going outdoors. Friend Under the Bed should be indoors?"

Lu Ban pondered silently.

According to the system's assessment, his constitution, strength, and agility were all average. Only his appearance was somewhat decent. If he wanted to complete a system mission, would an indoor one be easier?

There was too little information, and Lu Ban could not extract much useful from those few words.

After considering it, he decided to start at home.

It was not for any particular reason. He simply could not be bothered to go out.

Besides, he knew his own home best. It was not like Kayako could crawl out from beneath his blankets and scare him to death, right?

His finger lightly touched the middle door. Lu Ban watched as the bizarre, twisted door slowly opened as though pushed by his finger. He could even hear its creaking hinges.

Everything vanished like smoke, leaving only neat printed words on the script. Like typewritten letters, they appeared one by one.

Friend Under the Bed

Have you ever wondered what lies beneath your bed? The scratching that sounds in the middle of the night, the occasional clatter of marbles—amid the clutter and dust, could there be something else?

Mission Difficulty: Mortal

Mission Requirement: At midnight tonight, lie on your bed in complete darkness. Close your eyes. After five hundred heartbeats, open them and look beneath the bed to complete the mission.

"After living together for so many years, say hello to your good neighbor. I mean the one beneath your bed."

Seeing those words, Lu Ban sucked in a breath.

"What the fuck kind of horror game is this?"

A description that looked so much like a supernatural game usually signaled the beginning of someone courting death in horror movies.

He pulled out his phone and searched for a game matching the description, but found nothing.

It seemed this game was not well known, or...

Everyone who had played it could no longer speak?

Shoving the ominous thought out of his mind, Lu Ban stood up.

The script returned to normal, its great masterpiece from another world lying within, unknown to anyone.

He glanced at his phone again, and a thought crossed his mind.

The text on the phone distorted and turned into the system's content.

08:40:33 until mission begins

It looked like the mission would begin tonight.

"As a beginner mission, it shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

Lu Ban had no idea whose system this was. After some thought, he did not head straight home, instead going first to a large supermarket near his residential complex.

Flashlights, emergency lamps, toy cross pendants, garlic, salt—Lu Ban bought a whole pile of this and that, all the exorcism tools from movies, rumors, and stories.

For some reason, he also bought a crowbar.

The crowbar felt quite handy in his grip.

Under the strange looks of the children nearby, Lu Ban paid and carried his bags back to his rented apartment.

Building Four, thirteenth floor, Room 1304.

Because both the floor and room number were especially unlucky, the one-bedroom apartment was very cheap.

After setting down the bags, Lu Ban first ordered takeout.

While waiting for it, he unpacked the emergency lamp and installed it beside his bed, then took out the string of garlic.

"Come to think of it, should garlic for warding off evil be crushed first?"

He hesitated for a while, but ultimately could not be bothered and simply hung it at the foot of the bed.

He had just hung the garlic and was about to get the salt when a spark of inspiration suddenly struck him.

"It says the mission only starts at midnight, so what's under the bed right now?"

Beneath the cheap IKEA-style wooden bed, the shadows were dark and deep.

Ever since moving here, Lu Ban had never seriously looked beneath the bed. He had only swept around its edges with a broom.

Artists like him were like that. Once inspiration came, it could no longer be contained.

Lu Ban was seized by a powerful curiosity and wanted to see what was under the bed right now.

"It should... be fine, right?"

He knelt on one knee and bent slightly. One hand held the bedframe while the other braced against the floor, and he lowered his head.

Clack—

The sound of a marble hitting the ground and bouncing abruptly rang out in the room.

Lu Ban paused.

The sound did not seem to come from the ceiling. It sounded more like it had come from beneath the bed.

He became even more curious.

His gaze lowered, sinking into the shadows beneath the bed.

Screeech—

A sharp sound, like nails scraping across a blackboard, pierced Lu Ban's eardrums. His teeth tingled slightly, but his eyes had already swept beneath the bed.

He saw that, deep within the shadows, a pair of eyes was staring at him!

Lu Ban's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly shone his phone's light over there, only to discover that it was a battered Lan Lan Lu plush someone had apparently thrown away.

He reached in and pulled out the dust-covered plush. Its mouth was stretched into a grin, as though mocking Lu Ban for overreacting.

Ring ring ring ring—

A noisy ringtone suddenly exploded through the room. Lu Ban shuddered, nearly dropping his phone. He instinctively threw the plush aside and looked at the screen. It was the delivery driver calling.

"Hello? Oh, I'm coming, I'm coming."

Lu Ban opened the door, thanked the delivery driver several times, and sent him off. He placed the Sha County shredded pork egg fried rice on the coffee table in the small living room, then turned to pick up the Lan Lan Lu plush.

But when he looked back toward the bed, he discovered that the plush had disappeared at some point.

Lu Ban leaned down and peered under the bed. Amid the thick dust, the Lan Lan Lu uncle plush was staring at him with its two heavily made-up eyes.

"...Is that even reasonable?"

Lu Ban's heart sank. He took out the plush, placed it on the table, and pinned it down beneath a copy of The Dauntless.

Then, without even eating first, he scattered salt beneath the bed, tossed down another string of garlic, and threw in the toy cross he had bought. Finally, he placed a hundred-yuan bill there to suppress evil.

When he turned back, the plush was sitting obediently beneath the book, like an inanimate object.

"Could this be the Friend Under the Bed?"

After thinking for a moment, Lu Ban decided to throw the thing into the garbage station downstairs.

Once the garbage collection time had passed, not even the Heavenly King himself could crawl out of a trash can!

Holding the plush, Lu Ban rushed downstairs and, with time to spare, tossed it into the dry waste bin. Only after watching the elderly garbage collector close the lid did he turn and head back upstairs.

He lay down again to check, and did not see the plush beneath the bed.

Relieved, he watched mukbang videos on a video site as he finished his Sha County shredded pork egg fried rice, then drank a can of chilled soda. He slacked off to pass the time and even watched a horror movie from this world to steel his nerves. At last, it was eleven fifty.

He placed the crowbar and flashlight on the bed, turned off the lights, and climbed onto the bed by the glow of his phone. Lying down, he quietly gripped the crowbar tightly.

Timing himself with a stopwatch, Lu Ban waited until the second hand reached exactly twelve, then set down his phone and closed his eyes.

He began counting his heartbeats.

Everything in this chapter's game was made up by the author and has no effect whatsoever!

A new author asking for bookmarks and recommendation votes!