Six figures with identical faces silently drew closer.
Perhaps because of the muggy weather, livor mortis had begun to appear on their faces. Their eyeballs swelled and bulged uncontrollably, and their entire faces looked like balloons on the verge of bursting.
Shen Ru lifted his eyes slightly, taking in each face on the brink of collapse, and couldn't help scoffing:
"You haven't even started working, and you're already eyeing the employee benefits?"
As soon as he finished speaking, his fair, delicate hand clamped onto the lower edge of the mask. Mustard-yellow mud instantly covered his slender fingers, clinging tightly to them.
Shen Ru slapped the face straight onto one of the NPCs' heads.
As he withdrew his hand, the mask wrapped tightly around the corpse's stiff face as though it were alive. The foul-smelling mud instantly fused with the skin, turning into fine, densely packed muscle fibers before disappearing from sight entirely.
At the same time, the vanished mask transformed into the NPC's new skin. It was no longer Du Xiaomei's eerie, vacant face, but an unfamiliar, rosy, vibrant one.
Just as I thought.
The young man bent slightly, his dark red eyes inspecting the NPC from top to bottom again. Then he nodded in satisfaction. "So this is the face you like?"
The NPC nodded stiffly.
Something seemed to occur to Shen Ru, and his expression soured. He said coldly, "I'm selling these for 200 apiece. Even at the employee discount, I should charge at least half."
He took two steps back with a faint look of distaste, then warned viciously, "It looks passable enough. If you can't create value for me over the next few days, I'll personally peel that face off again. Understood?"
Then he waved at the other five eager NPCs, indicating that they could choose the masks they liked as well.
"The same goes for you. From now on, if you can't prove your worth, I'll treat you as garbage."
Qi Liang and the others stood utterly stunned. After the remaining five NPCs put on their chosen Human Face Masks, each took on a different appearance, and the eerie atmosphere seemed to dissipate considerably.
"Boss... boss, does this mean I don't have to die?"
Yellow Hair asked shakily, his eyeballs still trembling slightly beyond his control. He remained in a daze.
Shen Ru curled his lips and, as though doing them a kindness, explained:
"These things can read the viewer's mind and change their appearance accordingly. In other words, your mental state determines what you see and hear. That's why we each saw a different expression on the same mask."
Realization dawned on Wei Lingling as she tried to make sense of it. "So the NPCs look different now because they each wanted a different face."
Shen Ru nodded and helpfully added, "Or perhaps you could say these are what they actually looked like when they were alive."
Everyone: "..."
Suddenly, it felt a little creepy.
In the livestream:
[I get it. Yellow Hair was in a state of extreme terror just now, so the mask he saw wasn't only crying—it could even make sounds.]
[That scared me to death... who has time to figure out how this thing works? It could send me straight to the grave.]
[Then wouldn't these be easy to sell? Everyone can see the face they want, after all.]
[Not necessarily... Look at Yellow Hair's mental state. All he saw was something creepy. If tomorrow's customers are like that too, won't the store get bad reviews?]
[Holy shit, these things are such a trap!!]
The morning sun slowly rose. Its light wasn't intense, but at least it was bright.
It should have been a scene brimming with life, yet not a single birdcall broke the still air, and no crowds passed along the street. Everything around them was a sea of white, and no one dared guess what might emerge from it.
The other three were enjoying this brief moment of peace, but Shen Ru wasn't.
He had noticed something strange about this convenience store.
From the beginning, this instance seemed to have used human heads as its unit of payment.
The repairman had charged three human heads, and the monster hiding in the restroom mirror had human lives on its hands. Even this convenience store sold Human Face Masks, yet their transactions with the supplier had used money.
Were human heads not this instance's universal currency?
But that line of thought raised a serious problem.
If human heads were actually the currency circulating in this instance, would they have to trade in bloody heads once the customers arrived?
Shen Ru sat in his chair and slowly rotated his stiff neck. As his bones rubbed together with a series of cracks, the first customer arrived.
Ding-dong.
The convenience store's door was pulled open from outside, and a... person walked in.
Perhaps half a person would have been a more fitting description.
From the neck down, this customer retained a human form, but its head was unmistakably that of a Black Goldfish.
Its dark, slimy skin had become somewhat shriveled in the dry air. Most striking were its two enormous eyes, each the size of a normal human head, rolling clumsily from side to side.
Shen Ru noticed several little white growths crowded together behind its left eye, glaringly conspicuous against the black skin.
"Hello. How may I help you?"
The customer was king. They had a hundred ways to complain about you, and your attitude toward them was one of them.
No matter how nauseating this thing looked, the young man wore a perfect smile. He even summoned several NPCs to stand ready beside the shelves, prepared to offer customers attentive explanations.
Perhaps because of the growths behind its left eye, the goldfish kept its head tilted to the left. As though it hadn't seen him, it completely ignored Shen Ru's enthusiastic greeting.
After circling the store, it headed straight for a Human Face Mask and reached out to put it on.
Shen Ru hurriedly interrupted it and asked considerately, "Is this the one you like? Due to the special nature of this product, once you put it on, we can't accept returns or exchanges. Thank you for your understanding."
The creature ignored his words, evaded his attempt to stop it, and put the mask straight onto its face.
Each shelf had a large mirror beside it, its oval surface framed in gold, allowing customers to admire their new faces.
The Black Goldfish studied its new face carefully and finally uttered its first words since entering the store.
"The quality of your masks is decent, but it doesn't look particularly stunning on me. I want a different one."
Its shrill voice, picky tone, and rude behavior each trampled squarely on Shen Ru's pet peeves.
Still, the young man spared this customer any embarrassment. Bowing slightly, he said gently:
"How could it not be stunning? You look like a young woman in her early twenties now. Your skin is exquisitely delicate, fair with a rosy glow. You're beautiful."
But the goldfish remained dissatisfied and replied nastily, "Enough with the flattery. Hurry up and give me another one, or I'll leave you a bad review. Hahahahaha."
Fine, fine, fine. So this was what you were waiting to pull on me?
The young man raised an eyebrow and swiftly scanned his surroundings. Seeing that no other customers were arriving for the moment, he abruptly yanked an iron rod from beside the shelf and swung it viciously into the back of the damned goldfish's head.
Bang!
With a deafening crash, the goldfish dropped to the floor.
Perhaps because the noise was so loud, the others turned to look. They might have been better off not looking; when they saw that the boss had cracked open their very first customer's skull, they were completely dumbfounded.
Qi Liang hurried out in fright, casting furtive glances toward the entrance as he said in a panic:
"Boss Shen! What are you doing?!"
Who the hell did business like this?!!!!
The customer had come in to change faces, and he'd cracked its skull open instead!!!
Was he fucking insane!!??
His black lashes trembled slightly, and his dark red eyes shone with extraordinary brightness. His brazen smile was striking against his porcelain-white face.
The young man lightly bit his lower lip, its vivid red enough to send anyone's head spinning.
The culprit showed no sign of realizing anything was wrong. He merely tilted his head and couldn't help laughing. "I'm just teaching her a lesson."
Qi Liang quietly whispered, "What lesson?"
"I'll kill anyone who causes trouble in my store."
Fuck, this guy was sick!!!!
In the livestream:
[Aaaaaah, fuck her up! I've hated that damned goldfish for ages. That was so fucking satisfying!!!]
[From now on, I'm going to be my wife's number one dog. None of you can take that spot!!!]
[...Go ahead. I'm still planning to stay human, hahahahaha.]
[Holy shit, that was such a rush, but I'm still really worried about how he'll handle the aftermath...]
[+1, I'm worried too. Wifey has to collect enough good reviews and get out safely!]
[Stop worrying. Look at our wife. Does he look like someone who hasn't got a backup plan?]
Before you continue