1,2,3,4...
He watched the elevator numbers climb.
At last, it stopped on the thirteenth floor.
Li Ran frowned slightly. After a moment's hesitation, he pressed the button to call the elevator up.
"Ding!"
Another elevator arrived on the first floor.
Li Ran quickly stepped inside and pressed 13.
"It's Zhou Miaomiao."
Before entering the Weird World, he'd quickly memorized information about all twenty-five people. He'd paid especially close attention to the pretty girls, so they'd left a strong impression.
Li Ran might have been a top-tier slacker, but he still knew a little about what was going on around Yulan Academy. Quite a few boys at school had crushes on Zhou Miaomiao.
"Ding!"
The elevator reached the thirteenth floor.
He had just stepped out and was about to quietly hide in the dim hallway to observe the situation.
"Ahhh... Aah!!"
Suddenly, an agonized scream came from Room 1304.
The scream stopped abruptly. Then the door flew open, and a burly man stood in the doorway, his face covered in blood.
"You, kid. Were you following me?" The burly man glared viciously at Li Ran.
Li Ran froze in place as if struck by lightning. How the hell had he figured that out?
A string of prompts appeared above the burly man's head.
(Name: Wang Gan) (A-rank Mental Infector) (Mysterious Power: 500) (Details: A fugitive wanted by the authorities, a vicious criminal with five lives on his hands. He could crush your chest with one hand.) (Warning: This man is extremely paranoid and suffers from delusions of persecution. Anyone who enters his field of vision becomes a suspect. You are about to cross his line.) (Reminder: Twice a week, he goes to Back Street to pick out a woman, and only takes her home after confirming she's the one he wants.) (Reminder: If he targets you, go somewhere with surveillance cameras or find a security guard at the neighborhood entrance.) (Tip: Walk around the neighborhood and take on other missions. You must get stronger as soon as possible.)
Li Ran was stunned.
A wanted criminal? A murderer?
The burly man had only glanced at him in the elevator on the first floor.
And now this terrifying guy was suspicious of him?
Wang Gan had 500 Mysterious Power. He was an A-rank monster!
That meant that even if Li Ran reached 500 Mysterious Power, he'd need a full set of top-tier gear just to stand a chance against this monster.
Zhou Miaomiao had even less chance of beating him!
She must have been assigned the role of a woman for hire, which was why Wang Gan, the killer, had targeted her.
Li Ran only glanced inside the room, but what he saw made his heart pound with fear.
Behind the living room sofa, half of Zhou Miaomiao's head was visible. Bright red blood streamed out from beneath the sofa like a little creek and flowed into the living room, a gruesome sight.
With that much blood, she was probably done for.
Li Ran quickly looked away and stared up at the burly man before him, horrified.
Danger!!!
This guy was incredibly dangerous!
A powerful alarm blared in Li Ran's mind.
He saw the blood on Wang Gan's face and the look in his eyes, as if he wanted to eat someone alive.
(Tip: Back away toward the elevator. He's wary of the camera inside.)
After seeing the tip, Li Ran took a few steps back.
He pointed at the floor and pretended to be angry. "What's wrong with you? Following you? I live downstairs. Sorry to bother you, but could you check whether your bathroom's leaking? It's been dripping all over my place. This has been going on for ages, and I've had enough."
Wang Gan glared at Li Ran furiously.
He was furious and wanted to kill someone!
The woman inside had been such a disappointment. She couldn't do anything, yet she'd dared to sell herself. Even worse, she'd threatened to call the police, so he'd killed her in a fit of rage.
And this guy in front of him had followed him from the first floor to the thirteenth. He was extremely suspicious!
If the guy couldn't give him a reason good enough to calm him down...
He would rip out the man's heart, eat it one bite at a time right in front of him, then tell him how it tasted.
"I'm telling you, a leaking apartment is a serious matter. If it goes on for too long, it could cause problems..."
Li Ran kept accusing Wang Gan, the deranged murderer, as he backed away.
"I know a guy who does waterproofing. He guarantees your place won't leak for twenty or thirty years."
Li Ran backed up to the elevator. The doors were slowly closing.
A murderous aura poured off Wang Gan, as if he were a terrifying, bloodthirsty beast!
"Oh, right. That guy installed the camera in this elevator, too. It uses the latest technology. The moment you're caught on camera, it can identify your face—even if you're a wanted fugitive." Li Ran pointed at the camera inside the elevator.
Those words made Wang Gan freeze.
The moment he heard "camera" and "wanted fugitive," his expression changed. He stared at the man before him in disbelief.
Did he know who I was?
But this man didn't look like a cop at all.
No, he's definitely lying. I've been in and out so many times without a problem. How could the elevator camera possibly have facial recognition?
While Wang Gan hesitated for those few seconds, Li Ran slipped into the elevator just before the doors closed and quickly pressed the button for the first floor.
He frantically mashed the close-door button!
Shit, nobody lives downstairs!
Wang Gan suddenly realized he'd been tricked and ran toward the elevator.
But he was too late. The doors had closed.
"Bang!"
A deafening crash rang out. A fist-sized bulge appeared in the elevator door right in front of Li Ran, and the entire panel caved inward.
"Kid, I'll tear you limb from limb!"
"You won't get away!"
Wang Gan's terrifying voice came from outside the elevator.
The elevator descended.
Once the oppressive sense of danger faded, Li Ran's back was soaked with cold sweat.
The elevator reached the first floor.
Li Ran sprinted out of the neighborhood as fast as he could.
He headed straight for places with surveillance cameras.
He looked back up at the thirteenth floor.
What he saw nearly scared him out of his wits.
A tall figure stood by the middle window of Room 1304.
A huge blade made of flesh and tendrils grew from his head. From the gaping maw on his face, a massive, bloody tongue licked the glass, leaving streaks of blood that sent a shiver down Li Ran's spine!
The streaks joined together to form a single word: "Death"!
Li Ran sucked in a sharp breath at the sight.
It's over. He's targeted me!
[Mission triggered: Eliminate the murderer (14-day time limit)]
[Mission reward: Mysterious Power +100, points +1000, special item *1, special equipment *1]
Li Ran hadn't expected this to trigger a new mission.
Seeing the reward, he understood how difficult the mission would be.
Wang Gan the murderer was undoubtedly a major boss.
With his current abilities, he didn't stand a chance.
To take him down, he needed not only enough strength but also a trump card and some hidden aces.
Li Ran had nothing. How was he supposed to take him out?
He walked through the neighborhood park.
After a while, he spotted a big, ripped-open bag of chips on the lawn ahead.
The neighborhood had an eerie atmosphere, but it was otherwise very clean. The snack bag looked completely out of place.
(A 700-gram bag of Lay's Potato Chips with 3,000 calories. Eating it is like downing ten bowls of rice.)
The Golden Finger's prompt appeared above the chip bag.
Li Ran was stunned. No wonder they called chips the slacker's downfall.
As he walked on, he spotted several more snack bags on the ground.
Spicy gluten strips, shrimp chips, potato chips, rice crackers, instant noodles, sandwiches, hamburgers. He found more than ten bags in a row, all a slacker's favorite snacks.
(A box from a sixteen-inch durian pizza. There's no real durian in it.) (Fried chicken bones. The texture is rough, and they came from an eight-legged chicken pumped full of growth hormones.) (There's no milk in the milk tea. Even your pee smells like milk tea.)
"..."
Whenever Li Ran had a question, a prompt would pop up naturally.
"This is all chemical junk."
Li Ran kept walking, then couldn't help frowning as he looked at something in the distance.
Beneath the pavilion, he saw a... ball-shaped person.
"A player?" Li Ran wondered. If this were a native of the Weird World, the Golden Finger should have given him an appropriate danger warning.
Something like "A-rank Mental Infector." But there was no warning for this fat man.
That meant he was most likely a player, just like Li Ran!
Only now, he'd become an extremely obese man.
His limbs were swollen, his belly huge and round, and his massive lower abdomen almost dragged along the ground. He looked like a spherical wax mountain about to melt.
The man sat on a stone stool. Snacks and drinks were piled on the stone table in a heap as high as a small mountain. The entire lawn was covered in empty snack wrappers, packed together in layer upon layer until there was nowhere to step.
He shoveled food into his mouth by the handful.
Li Ran couldn't believe the fat man had eaten all that.
The fat man didn't chew. The food slid straight down from his round neck into his belly, which visibly churned.
The man's belly could no longer be called a paunch. It looked more like a sphere stretched out of shape and ready to burst.
"Good heavens, how much has he eaten?"
The fat man kept shoving food into his mouth. His belly swelled another size, as if someone had pumped it full of air.
Li Ran sensed that something was very wrong.
I'm a new author with a new book. Please recommend it, bookmark it, comment, follow along, and help in any way you can.
Before you continue