Time had reset.
Shen Ru clearly felt his body stiffen as it had when he first woke up, and the time had returned to eight o'clock along with it.
The surveillance camera's red light still blinked, as though the eyes behind it were watching his every move.
When he had first moved to knock the monster unconscious, the humming hadn't sounded.
Only when the blade pierced the monster's eyeball did time rewind, returning everything to square one.
I can't kill NPCs.
"Tch."
The thought irritated Shen Ru. His brows furrowed slightly, and his stiff fingers lightly scratched the bedsheet beneath the covers.
I wanted to dissect that monster and see what was inside.
What a shame.
This time, Shen Ru lay motionless in bed, closing his eyes and quietly waiting for the monster to make its rounds.
He wanted to see what this thing with a pig's head and a human body was actually going to do. If he sensed danger, he still had a lifesaving Card; there would be time to use it.
So this time, even when the foul stench of decay invaded his nostrils, the young man gritted his teeth and endured it, his expression unchanged.
The livestream viewers clearly saw the thing stand quietly beside the bed, then abruptly bend over without warning. In mere moments, its grotesque pig face hung a hair's breadth above Shen Ru's.
Scalding, foul-smelling breath washed over the young man's delicate face, and viscous fluid dripped beside his pillow.
Just as Shen Ru was about to get up and give this disgusting thing a good clobbering, the monster let out an eerie laugh.
"Hee hee hee, it really hurt when you stabbed my eye just now..."
Shen Ru's eyes snapped open. Those bulging eyes gleamed with malice, their sockets brimming with rage and hatred in a chilling sight.
The livestream chat instantly exploded:
[Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!!!]
[Holy shit, this bastard remembers what happened!!!!]
[So only their locations reset, and both sides keep their memories!?]
[Guys... if someone stabbed you, what would you do after time reset...]
[Obviously, I'd kill the person who stabbed me... Wifey, run!!!!]
People always said that in danger, the body reacted faster than the brain.
The moment Shen Ru opened his eyes and met that horrifying gaze, his body gave its most honest response.
His right hand clenched into a fist and slammed into the monster's temple. For an instant, he almost thought the force would make its two pitch-black eyeballs burst.
As the monster staggered, Shen Ru caught a flash of white on its chest. Its badge clearly read: level 3.
The door stood half-open. With no time to think, Shen Ru drove his knee hard into the monster's abdomen, grabbed its collar, buried its pig head beneath the covers, and delivered another lethal blow with his elbow.
Then he sprang up and bolted straight out the door.
The corridor was silent, its cold lighting pale and glaring. The glare made it difficult for Shen Ru to keep his eyes open.
"Aaaah-"
A shrill, terrifying scream erupted from the ward. The monster's anguished cries echoed down the empty corridor, leaving the young man's ears numb.
A jumble of footsteps sounded inside the room, and frenzied roars drew steadily closer.
Shen Ru ran forward with all his strength. This Instance's map was somewhat larger than those of the previous two, and the surroundings differed from what he had imagined.
White light spilled onto the floor from overhead. The floors were clean and tidy, the rooms neatly numbered, and even the walls looked brand-new-a world apart from the ward.
Just as confusion arose in his mind, the system's mechanical voice sounded right on cue:
"Ding! Player Shen Ru has been detected discovering an illogical anomaly: the strange ward environment." "I escaped my room by chance. This is one of my few opportunities to move around freely, but I discovered that the decor outside is completely different from my living conditions. Are my eyes playing tricks on me?"
Shen Ru urgently needed somewhere to hide. He quickly scanned each room.
The wards were definitely out. Who knew whether the things inside were NPCs or Players?
NPCs might attack, and judging by the current situation, even a successful counterattack would max out their hostility toward him. It wasn't worth it.
Players weren't safe either. Mo Yu had made such a spectacle of the romantic tension between them in the Living Area that if Shen Ru ran into a sworn enemy of Dark Night, he would be no different from a lab rat delivered to their doorstep.
Only when he reached the end of the corridor did Shen Ru spot the storage room's door standing ajar.
With no better option for now, the young man steeled himself, pulled open the door, and slipped inside.
He had barely shut the door when he turned and met a young man's terrified eyes...
Fuck...
There was no light in the storage room. The only visibility came from the thin slivers of light falling onto the floor through the gap in the door.
Acting almost on reflex, Shen Ru swiftly approached the young man and pressed one hand over his face. A vicious glint flashed through his red eyes. Despite his recent sprint, his voice remained perfectly steady as he lowered it to a quiet murmur:
"Not a sound. Try anything and I'll kill you. Got it?"
Ruan Ping hurriedly nodded, his eyes blinking like two twinkling stars. His earlier panic had vanished completely.
This was Shen Ru!
He had watched the entire livestream of the Tea Party Instance. The young man's fierce decisiveness and brazen sex appeal had left him utterly in awe!
Even that fleeting flash of murderous intent in those dark red eyes had made Ruan Ping's heart pound wildly.
And now Shen Ru's hand was actually covering his mouth!!!
Forget fear or unease-Ruan Ping was practically ready to cry tears of joy.
What had he done to deserve this!!!
Seeing the young man nod obediently, Shen Ru neither lowered his guard nor removed his hand. Instead, he quietly listened to the sounds outside.
Shrill giggles echoed throughout the corridor, reaching their ears through the gap in the door.
Heavy footsteps slowly reached the end of the hallway and stopped outside the storage room.
The young man and the boy beside him both held their breath. Ruan Ping was so nervous that he even stopped blinking.
After a long while, the footsteps outside began moving again. They gradually grew distant, and the tremors caused by the monster's weight diminished considerably.
Only then did Shen Ru withdraw his hand, silently watching the young man opposite him.
Ruan Ping came to his senses too and hurriedly introduced himself in a whisper. "Wife... no, hello, Shen Ru. I'm Ruan Ping, a B-rank Player. I watched your livestream, and I really admire you!"
Seemingly embarrassed after saying that, he scratched his head, his ears reddening, and stammered:
"Please don't hold back. Feel free to use me however you like."
"..."
Shen Ru had intended to keep threatening him, but the other man's blunt sincerity suddenly left him at a loss for words...
In the livestream chat:
[?????]
[Were you about to call him wifey? I'm asking you, were you about to call him wifey???]
[This bastard looks perfectly respectable, so why is everything coming out of his mouth so offensive!!]
[Don't you have your own wife!! Why are you lusting after someone else's!!]
Seeing that the beautiful Shen Ru remained silent, Ruan Ping seemed eager to find a topic that would bring him closer to his idol, so he casually asked:
"Was it that pig-headed monster? It seemed pretty docile. Why was it chasing you?"
Docile???
Shen Ru studied the young man before him. He looked barely into his twenties, with a clean-cut, fresh-faced appearance that would have been popular in Shen Ru's original world too.
"How do you know about it?"
Shen Ru kept his guard up. There were far too many liars these days.
He offered no additional information, leaving Ruan Ping room to answer instead.
The other man barely hesitated. His clear eyes didn't seem to be an act, and he explained directly, "I was lying in a hospital bed when I woke up. After a while, it came to check on me, and I snuck a peek while it wasn't paying attention."
Afraid Shen Ru wouldn't believe him, Ruan Ping deliberately added, "I have an A-rank Card that can save my life. I didn't move at the time, but I had a backup plan."
The other man seemed so sincere that he was practically ready to strip off his underwear to prove it. Shen Ru tentatively believed him.
"So you didn't do anything?"
Ruan Ping nodded obediently, then casually asked in return, "Shen Ru, what did you do to make it so angry?"
Shen Ru: "..."
That was a long story.
In the livestream chat:
[Hahahahaha, an innocent question is the deadliest of all.]
[He didn't do much. All told, he only beat it up twice and killed it once along the way.]
[Right, right, just your perfectly ordinary relationship with someone who murdered you...]
[Hahahahaha, I'm dying. So all those moves my wifey pulled just maxed out the NPC's hostility!]
Before you continue