Corpse Oil Candle

"You died."

"Your death had some value."

"The hidden story has revealed one corner to you. Although you didn't uncover any Erosion Points, you did advance the plot, so you have received a temporary white talent: Broken Existence."

"When you lose part of a limb, your movement speed increases by a certain amount. This effect cannot stack."

When Zhou You awoke once more in that unknown space, his expression was grim.

Although he'd just experienced what it felt like to be a test subject under a hydraulic press, he'd died too quickly to feel much pain. So rather than the terror of death, he felt more anger at having been "cheated."

"Seriously, this is supposed to be beginner difficulty? This is only a four-story area, and you throw three instant-death traps at me without any warning??? Even Dark Souls isn't this ridiculous. Nioh has more mercy than you. Come on, was this really necessary—" Zhou You looked up, about to complain, but the moment he saw the floating page, he frowned for some reason, as if he'd remembered something, and abruptly fell silent.

"—Wait, no, that's not right. Maybe they use these instant-death methods precisely because it's beginner difficulty? After all, I have unlimited Resurrection Coins right now. Maybe it wants to use this to familiarize me with something..."

Before he could think any further, the cold female voice suddenly sounded in his ear again.

"Since the player is still in the beginner period, you may spend 10 Soul Stones to replay the ten seconds before and after your death. Would you like to replay it?"

"Did you time that interruption on purpose...? Forget it. There's no point in thinking about all that now. I should focus on this Ghost Building and figure out how to escape."

But Zhou You said nothing more and chose to replay the footage.

"10 Soul Stones deducted. The player now has 10 Soul Stones."

As before, a scene like a recording unfolded before his eyes once again.

Only this time, the view wasn't from above. It was straight on.

In the footage, he had just started walking, on his way to the Fifth Floor. There was nothing unusual around him.

But the instant he stepped onto the first stair—

Behind him, a pair of hands silently emerged from a wall that had been completely bare.

They were pale and slender. At first glance, aside from being impossibly long, there seemed to be nothing wrong with them. But a closer look revealed that every joint and bone bent unnaturally, as if countless arms had been smashed to pieces and then reassembled. They gave off a deeply unsettling, spine-chilling feeling.

Then, in the next instant, the hands seemed to sense something and suddenly shot forward, stretching at incredible speed.

In the blink of an eye, they crossed several meters.

Before Zhou You could react, they grabbed him in a death grip. The wall between the couplets began to writhe. The gray plaster cracked apart, revealing a pale human face cut in half among the concrete. With a grotesque smile, the thing split its body wide open like a real door, joyfully welcoming Zhou You inside—

Then it slammed shut.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and the scene plunged into darkness.

"...You have discovered a key Erosion Point."

"You have received a reward of 30 Soul Stones. The player now has 40 Soul Stones."

Watching himself get eaten alive, Zhou You's expression remained unchanged. After replaying his death a few times, he thought it over carefully, then suddenly did something inexplicable.

He strolled to the other side of the room, loosened up and warmed up a little, then bent down, braced his hands against the floor, and—

sprinted forward.

The other side of the room was right there—

To be fair, although he was now suffering from a terminal illness, only his brain was affected, so his physical fitness was still pretty good. Even his sprinting speed surpassed that of many people.

But as he looked at this decent result, Zhou You seemed dissatisfied and gave a slight shake of his head.

"No good. Judging by how fast those hands were in the footage, there's no way I could outrun that thing, let alone reach the Fifth Floor before it caught me."

"Which brings us to the next question."

"If I can't make it, how did that deranged tenant get up there?"

Zhou You lightly tapped the wall as he went over all the clues.

"First, one thing's certain: he did reach the Fifth Floor, and he saw something there. Only after that did he completely lose his mind."

"His physical condition wasn't good either. His diary said clearly that he could barely walk, so he couldn't have outrun those hands with sheer speed."

"Which means he must have used some method—probably one of the things he made—to evade the monster's tracking. And judging from the circumstances, there's a good chance the method is in that room."

After working through the simple deduction, Zhou You looked at the page still floating in midair. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. When he opened them again, he chose without hesitation to enter once more.

The process was still the same: meet the Landlady, greet her, and rent a room.

When he returned to the room, the view was just as messy as before. On his first visit, Zhou You had only taken a cursory look around, but this time he searched much more thoroughly, checking every corner.

Yet even after half an hour, he still hadn't found a single clue.

The trash and scraps of paper on the floor offered no additional clues. There were no notes or other hints mixed in with the tattered bedding, and the desk was just as empty. Only the ever-burning candle continued to glow quietly, illuminating the small space around it...

Wait, a candle?

As if he'd suddenly remembered something, Zhou You walked over to the desk and examined the candlestick once more.

The white candle was still burning. It looked perfectly normal, but after studying it for a while, Zhou You noticed something strange.

—He didn't have anything on hand to keep track of time, but at least half an hour had passed since he entered the room. The problem was, the candle hadn't shrunk at all. It was just as long now as it had been when he came in.

So...

Zhou You reached out and lightly touched the candle.

"The player's talent, Keen Observation, has activated. The item appraisal was successful."

The next moment, several lines of text appeared in his pupils.

"Corpse Oil Candle."

"Consumable."

"Quality: White."

"Effect: Burns with an illusory flame. Although it doesn't have the properties of a normal flame, when certain things draw near, this candle will do its best to mask your 'human' scent. Each candle lasts for seven minutes."

<Hair for the wick, corpse oil for the base, two pounds of flesh and blood for one candle. Cheap and affordable, no refunds.>

"You have obtained a temporary recipe for this item. As a beginner dungeon promotion, you may receive the crafting device for free. You only need to provide the materials to make this item."

Perhaps by coincidence, the words "only need to provide the materials" fell directly across the candlelight. In the blink of an eye, they changed from translucent to bright red.

—Yes, as red as blood.