Harvest and Re-entry

Half a day later, at a city hospital.

The doctor in front of him was pulling out his hair, one clump at a time.

He was pulling quite hard.

To prevent his already receding hairline from retreating any further, Zhou You kindly offered a reminder: "Um, Doctor, how is my... condition?"

"Condition? Ah, right, the condition!" The doctor hurriedly set aside the CT scan in his hand and said, "Mr. Zhou, your condition... it's simply a miracle! Based on our most optimistic estimates, you only had about two months left to live, but now the lesions have actually stabilized! Although the impact on your brain hasn't disappeared, you can at least hold on for a while longer..."

Zhou You didn't listen to the rest; he simply leaned back into his chair, his entire body suddenly relaxing.

So, it wasn't a dream.

After bidding farewell to the overly enthusiastic doctor who wanted him to stay for another round of observation, Zhou You returned to his home.

Calling it a home was a stretch; it was actually just a cramped, dilapidated rental unit. Aside from being cleaner, the overall environment was no better than that haunted building—in fact, some of the infrastructure was even worse.

This was normal, after all; he had no money.

His grandfather, the old man who had passed away not long ago, hadn't been wealthy. It had already been a struggle to put Zhou You through college. He had planned to earn money to help with household expenses after graduation, but who could have foreseen the old man dying in an accident? The funeral and related matters had already drained most of his savings, and the terminal illness diagnosed shortly after became the final straw that broke him.

To put it more simply, before entering this game, Zhou You had been at the end of his rope.

"--But fortunately, there is finally a turning point now."

Zhou You wiped the black-and-white portrait on the altar clean, then looked at the aged, yet stern and imposing face, and suddenly smiled as he spoke.

"Old man, I don't know if you left this book for me on purpose, but thanks to this thing, your poor grandson can finally stumble his way through life—I can't go visit you for now, but knowing your personality, you probably wouldn't want to see me that soon anyway..."

Zhou You shook his head and carefully straightened the portrait again before sitting back down at the wooden table. He rummaged around for a moment and pulled a book from the corner of the drawer.

It was the same old book with the black cover that had brought him into that "Weird Game."

Now, there were no traces left on it, and the pages were completely blank. It looked like an ordinary, old object, but the moment Zhou You pressed his hand onto it, several lines of text abruptly appeared before his eyes.

"You have completed the novice instance: Escape from Building 4."

"You killed the 'Reason' of this instance: the Landlady, and used a chain reaction to destroy the entity that constituted the urban legend: the Shimen. You will receive additional rewards."

"You have obtained 100+100 (additional reward) Soul Stones."

"Your current Soul Stone balance is 240."

"You have obtained a special blue-tier item (reward upgraded for killing the Landlady): Bronze Bell."

"Effect: Must be worn on the wrist when used. When 'certain things' harbor malice toward you, this bell has a certain probability of shaking rapidly to provide a warning."

"This item carries a curse: When the bell rings, it will occasionally startle enemies and expose your location."

<This is a common car ornament, usually meant to pray for blessings, but after a horrific car accident where the entire family perished, this bell has been stained with blood that cannot be washed away.>

"You have obtained a special quest item of unknown grade (additional reward for killing the 'Shimen'): Corpse Inside the Door."

"Effect: This is an extremely special set of remains, once contaminated by a wisp of Yin energy from an Evil God, later used by the Landlady to form the foundation of the entire building. When this item is obtained, your next game script can be replaced with a special script, and your resurrection count +5."

Zhou You was stunned.

A special instance? What is that?

But after thinking for a while, he chose to ignore it for now—he figured he would only get the answer once he entered that space, so he continued reading.

"You currently possess two temporary talents: Keen Observation (White), Broken Existence (White). Do you wish to spend Soul Stones to fix them? Please note that unfixed temporary talents will disappear the next time you enter the game."

He hesitated for a moment regarding this, then directly chose to fix Keen Observation.

Although it was only a white-tier talent, judging by its ability to identify the effects of the Soul-Binding Candle, it was still quite valuable. At the very least, it was worth a fixed talent slot for now.

As for the other one, Broken Existence...

The restriction was simply too great. You had to have a missing limb to gain movement speed—what kind of person could actually make use of this talent?

Yang Guo?

"You have consumed 50 Soul Stones to fix this talent."

"This instance has been fully settled. Please note that you must enter the next script within thirty-five days, or you will face the penalty of death. At the same time, you cannot inform anyone of the existence of this game by any means, otherwise..."

Zhou You didn't even listen to the rest of the text; he chose to enter early.

After all, this had only extended his life by a month. Now that he had finally found a glimmer of hope for survival, he didn't want to waste any time.

Besides...

Zhou You suddenly had a thought.

If a novice instance could reach this level, who knew what might happen after completing higher-difficulty games... could there really be a chance to cure him completely?

A few seconds later, Zhou You's figure gradually disappeared from the room. But the moment he completely vanished, an old-fashioned television in the corner of the room suddenly turned on.

Generally speaking, this was a common trope in horror movies, but there were no demons or ghosts inside, nor were there any dry wells or long-haired Sadako-like figures. Instead, it was broadcasting a live news report.

"The fire at Building 4 of the Garden Residential District in XXX City has been extinguished. The preliminary cause of the fire is determined to be a natural gas explosion. Due to the remote location and the fact that it was during working hours, there was only one fatality. According to police identification, the deceased was the landlady of the residential building. Let's interview some of the neighbors..."

"--You mean that old lady? I know her. She was wicked to the core, always trying to find ways to cause trouble for others. The neighbors were often kept in constant distress by her..."

"...Her? The one who withheld tenants' deposits a few years ago and drove a tenant to jump to their death? That's the one. This person was greedy to a fault. Even though she made a living renting out rooms, she wouldn't even maintain basic facilities. It's perfectly normal for something like this to happen."

"...Back then, I was just reversing into the residential complex, and I didn't even touch her, yet she insisted I'd run over her foot and flat-out extorted 8,000 from me! That was two months' worth of wages!"

"...Sigh, I won't say anything else, it's just a pity for that young girl. It's already hard enough for someone to come to the city to work alone, only to be bullied by a person like that. In the end, she couldn't take it and jumped, yet this guy hasn't even faced any punishment. It's just..."

"..."

"..."

"What? You're asking me? Then I only have one thing to say about this whole affair."

"Pah! Evil gets its due, good riddance!"