[The corpse is passing into oblivion beneath the Moonlight Orchid's roots. Welcome back.]
The Nursery's and fireplace's messages appeared at the same time. In the blink of an eye, Zhou Kai was back [Home].
Almost immediately, he looked toward his inventory...
Good. The three potted plants were sitting quietly in their slots.
"I brought them in."
"Not just the plants, but clean, uncontaminated soil, too."
After confirming that the fire in the fireplace would last a while longer, Zhou Kai wasted no time heading over to the Nursery.
He carefully removed all three plants from their pots, keeping them intact, then transplanted them into the Nursery.
He poured every last grain of soil left in the pots into the Nursery's black earth.
Both the plants and the soil mattered.
In Soraka Town, almost every inch of land had been contaminated by the rain. Only the Nursery remained untainted.
But in the real world, "clean" soil was everywhere...
That meant Zhou Kai could carry it over bit by bit, like an ant moving its nest, endlessly digging up soil in reality and bringing it into the Nightmare World to expand the Nursery.
"Upgrading these special structures is, in a sense, another way of making myself stronger."
"I can't think of any other options for the fireplace right now."
"But the Nursery is different."
As long as he had clean soil and bricks to build with... he could keep expanding it!
Once he was done, Zhou Kai brushed the dirt off his hands and stood quietly beside the Nursery, waiting for the message he wanted to see.
A few breaths later, the light faded from his eyes.
A cold line of text flickered above the Nursery.
[Not quite right. Keep looking.]
The same response again, exactly like when he had been looking for fireplace fuel...
Apparently, the Nursery could not cultivate just any plant.
"Can I use experience points to make them mature directly?"
As Zhou Kai muttered to himself, his fingers were already reaching for the palm-sized sansevieria.
[The sansevieria has gained the ability to grow without light, but giving you something special in return will require more experience points.] [You have consumed 2 Universal Experience Points.] [Experience points: 17 → 15]
The notification showing the two-point deduction appeared, and Zhou Kai immediately pulled his hand back. He had no intention of investing any more for now.
"As long as I can use experience to grow special plants... but for now, I should try my luck in town and see if there's anything else growing wild like the Moonlight Orchid."
Without question, the best use of his remaining experience points was to boost his combat abilities at a critical moment.
As for support work like upgrading the Sanctuary and creating special plants... those would have to take a back seat.
Zhou Kai took a deep breath and returned to the fireplace on the first floor.
From inside his clothes, he took out the other piece of loot he had gained besides experience points when he was surrounded last time.
["A Memory Fragment," from The Wanderer]
"Use."
A few seconds later, Zhou Kai withdrew from the jumble of memory fragments, looking rather intrigued.
"This Wanderer was a paperboy before he became a monster?"
What the fuck could turn a twelve- or thirteen-year-old kid and that mailman into the same kind of monster?
Zhou Kai had no answer for now. He could only uncover the truth gradually as he continued exploring.
"Nice. So I can get experience points from memories, too..."
The corner of Zhou Kai's mouth twitched as he looked at the text before him.
[You have studied Soraka Swordsmanship. Soraka Swordsmanship experience +1.] [Soraka Swordsmanship Lv. 2 (5/25) → (6/25)]
The unfortunate paperboy's greatest dream in life had been to join the Soraka Family's guard.
He had often peered into the training grounds from outside, watching the guards practice and secretly picking up a few moves.
And Zhou Kai happened to have witnessed those memories.
One experience point. Every little bit counted. He would gladly take it.
The blood tide reset every twelve hours, and there was still quite a while before the next one.
The streets outside remained dangerous, with God knew what monsters lurking in the corners. But compared with the overwhelming terror of the blood tide, this was already a relatively safe window for exploration.
With the Moonlight Orchid Amulet tucked close against his body, Zhou Kai tightened his grip on his sharp axe and slipped silently out of Soraka No. 777.
This time, he was heading for the higher ground in town.
"If those bastards who surrounded me last time are still prowling the lowlands, there should be fewer monsters to the north."
Whenever lightning split the sky, Zhou Kai used that brief flash to check his bearings before plunging into the darkness and racing onward.
As long as he did not run into a tough opponent like the Chain-Hammer Armored Soldier, Zhou Kai had no fear of the weaker monsters now. He was practically hoping they would come to him.
His only fear was being mobbed.
That made areas with fewer monsters ideal for him to explore at his current level.
The house numbers in town seemed to follow no logic. Near No. 777, some started with six hundred, while others started with four hundred.
Outside a house marked No. 454, Zhou Kai levered his axe handle against the door, then gave a hard wrench, ripping the rotten wooden door free along with its bolt.
His eyes swept the interior with a hunter's piercing gaze.
Inside, the house was empty and deathly silent.
Zhou Kai propped the door back at an angle, then took out his amulet and began searching the house by its faint blue glow.
Besides hunting monsters, acquiring equipment, items, and information was just as important.
Zhou Kai would not overlook a single detail within his grasp.
The living room and study offered little of value. Their dated furnishings were much like those in No. 777, and the rotting wood gave off a musty smell.
Zhou Kai was getting a little tired of the sight.
He made a point of checking the fireplace here. Unlike the one in No. 777, it was cold and lifeless, with nothing supernatural about it.
"It probably needs something like a residence permit to activate," Zhou Kai muttered.
He wasted no more time and hurried upstairs.
In one of the bedrooms, he finally found something new.
The Nightmare World always had its share of anomalies... like finding an almost brand-new axe, still bearing fresh bloodstains, in a thoroughly rotten kitchen.
What Zhou Kai saw now was much the same.
In what appeared to be a girl's bedroom, an inexplicably spotless notebook lay on a desk covered in black and yellow mold.
Zhou Kai narrowed his eyes. Only after checking the surroundings for signs of traps did he step forward and leaf through it.
The handwriting was childish and crooked, with a few crude sketches alongside it.
Maybe a little boy?
[I thought the new neighbors would be hard to get along with, but ███ is actually really sweet. I like her. We're going to be good friends.] [Mom said their last name is Soraka, too. Just like Mr. Winchester...] [Elizabeth is a weird woman. Father says she's a slut, and who knows how many people she's...] [But at least she really loves (apparently a person's name, forcefully erased), right?] [Doesn't she?]
"Those three... or maybe four residents of No. 777?"
Zhou Kai narrowed his eyes. At last, he knew who the woman scratched out of those three photographs was.
"The woman scratched out of the photographs was Elizabeth..."
But that only deepened his confusion.
Judging by the notebook owner's diary, one of No. 777's residents had been someone he could befriend.
Someone who could befriend a little boy was most likely a little girl, right?
"This... little girl whose name couldn't be written..."
"Was she Elizabeth's daughter? Or Lan Ze's? Or that balding guy with the full beard?"
The instant that thought crossed his mind, a fierce pain shot through Zhou Kai's head.
He felt as though countless venomous gazes were fixed on him, sending chills through his entire body.
His vision kept darkening, and everything before him began to wobble and warp like jelly.
The hanging curtains and the scraps of cloth scattered around the room all came alive, extending slick tentacles.
The floorboards beneath his feet were no longer solid. They felt like sludge, like a swamp.
An icy sensation crept up from his ankles, threatening to drag him into the Abyss...
Just then, the amulet against his chest suddenly burned hot!
Hiss!
A deep blue light bloomed, its ocean-depth stillness instantly drowning the maddening visions.
It felt as though someone had taken a hammer to a terrifying mirror that had been shrieking in his ears.
Zhou Kai gasped for breath. Aside from some lingering dizziness, he was unharmed.
[You have touched upon certain secrets. Occultism experience +5.] [Knowledge is a double-edged sword... gain more, lose more; see more, suffer more contamination.] [Tip: Leveling up Occultism may allow you to gain greater rewards during exploration/combat.]
Before you continue