Shen Ru blinked in confusion. He did not care whether the man was called Squid or Konjac. As long as he could be useful, any name would do.
But the young man did not resist the force the man exerted on him. Instead, he yielded, leaning against the man's shoulder and calmly accepting the ambiguous scrutiny and stares.
His dazzling beauty and unusually colored eyes always made it easy for Shen Ru to draw attention in a crowd, becoming the focus of every gaze and spotlight.
But he did not mind.
His looks were an advantage. He disdained using them, but that did not mean he lacked the skill.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Mo. Can you let go now?"
The young man seemed to feel that a dry sentence alone could not soothe his anger at being treated like a plaything. So he slipped out his vivid red tongue and gently licked his dry lips, along with... the pad of the man's index finger.
The gesture not only made Mo Yu stiffen for a moment, but also sent the livestream chat into an uproar:
[Fuck!!!! What manner of demon are you? Let the great Monkey King subdue you!!!]
[Waaah, beautiful Shen, lick me! Not him!!! That bastard doesn't deserve it!]
[Sorry, brothers, but I have to follow him after that. Once he gets famous, I'll be an OG fan!]
[Is this... the legendary Su Daji???]
With nothing more than a flick of his tongue, Shen Ru had easily achieved his goal.
Then he made sure to embarrass the man, too.
The three people behind him had no idea what had happened. All they saw was Shen Ru looking delighted as he excitedly announced the good news:
"Mr. Mo agreed to help us with the mission!"
Watching the young man's excited face, Wei Lingling momentarily forgot that he, too, could kill monsters without batting an eye. All she felt was sympathy.
You fool!
Helping with the mission was his duty, but now it looked for all the world as though Shen Ru had begged every favor imaginable to secure his help!!
At once, the others' gazes toward Mo Yu became rather less friendly.
The man did not mind their scrutiny in the slightest. After all, he would leave this instance once he achieved his goal, and its difficulty would naturally decrease with his departure.
Mo Yu had to admit that Shen Ru was clever. At first, he had also thought the young man was nothing more than a pretty ornament.
Even after the young man displayed his agility, Mo Yu had merely tacked a perfunctory qualifier onto that assessment-
An agile pretty ornament.
He had not expected Shen Ru to figure out his identity and purpose completely in less than two hours.
There were also the young man's little maneuvers, which he had never explicitly called out.
The gorgeous young man could use his own advantages to create a misleading impression and turn the situation around completely, leaving Mo Yu no choice but to agree to work with the newcomers for now.
Interesting.
Only about two minutes had passed since Shen Ru approached Mo Yu, yet the monster stood motionless, like a clockwork machine that had not been wound.
It was as though... the blood had temporarily suppressed the violent impulses buried within it.
A glimmer of surprise flashed through his dark red eyes. So Du Xiaomei's death had served to quell the monster's rage and ensure the other newcomers' survival?
As though he had glimpsed a secret unknown to anyone else, Shen Ru's chest rose and fell in shallow, rapid breaths of excitement. A furtive pleasure made his scalp tingle involuntarily.
So even high-level players treated human lives as worthless.
Du Xiaomei had been an extremely noisy, timid woman with no mind of her own. After weighing the costs and benefits, sacrificing her alone could indeed keep the side mission stable while ensuring the newcomers' survival.
Keeping more people alive benefited the instance's progression.
So Du Xiaomei's death had been decided long ago.
Shen Ru slowly steadied his breathing and tucked away that secret excitement. Acting like a junior eager to learn, he softly asked Mo Yu for his opinion:
"Where do you think the monster's feet are?"
The young man had already considered this question. This poor, aimless monster had no pupils, and someone had sawn off its feet and sealed it inside the restroom mirror.
If he had been the one wielding the blade, he would have buried the feet and body in the same area.
Having lost its sight, the monster would never know that the thing it spent its entire life searching for was right beside it.
What a dramatic scene!
Just imagining it was enough to make him shiver with admiration.
The man curled his lips into a nasty smile. The young man certainly knew how to make full use of everything.
He had clearly already thought of the answer, yet mischievously handed the opportunity to someone else. If their answers matched, everyone would be happy. If they differed, he could let the others search first, giving himself a perfect opportunity to test his theory.
Mo Yu raised his eyelids, his expression neither pleased nor angry, and coldly delivered a single sentence:
"In the wall behind the restroom mirror."
Just as I thought!
The moment he finished speaking, an eerie, icy mechanical voice echoed in everyone's ears:
"Ding-dong!" "Side mission completed. Players have successfully helped the customer find its feet." "Please keep up the good work to ensure the Good Review Convenience Store continues operating smoothly!"
As soon as the system announcement ended, the monster's missing feet gradually revealed their true appearance.
The instant Shen Ru saw them, his pupils contracted sharply despite himself.
He had been wondering why the monster had such enormous feet when it stood only half a meter tall.
It turned out that each of the monster's feet consisted of three adults' feet joined end to end. Three differently shaped feet seemed to have been forcibly bound together with woven cloth, adhering completely after years upon years of confinement.
Following that reasoning, there should be two more unidentified dead people hidden in the Convenience Store.
The monster slowly moved its feet. Once it confirmed they belonged to it, it danced with joy. Shen Ru could even feel the entire room groaning in misery.
Smiling, the young man interrupted the monster, which still wanted to keep dancing, and said with perfect courtesy:
"It looks like you've successfully found what you lost. Would you mind leaving us a positive review before paying us?"
At heart, Shen Ru was an ordinary person, too. Since he was already in the game, he naturally wanted to complete his missions successfully and earn more points. Since the eternal life game offered this possibility, the living area after the game ended had to be wonderfully vibrant.
He could hardly wait to throw himself into a new life.
So all Shen Ru could do now was milk every last benefit out of the situation and truly make full use of everything.
One advantage of a game instance was that monsters had to honor promises they made aloud. Still immersed in the joy of having a complete body, the big-footed monster gave the store a positive review without hesitation.
Seeing another ten positive reviews added to the store, the young man felt even happier.
"Then let our store manager, Mr. Mo, collect the payment!"
Shen Ru's voice was light and cheerful. Anyone could hear the excitement and delight in it.
He had another purpose in saying this: he needed to assign Mo Yu a role.
The other man had bestowed the supervisor role on him, so naturally, he ought to return the favor with the title of store manager.
Mo Yu paused for a few seconds, seemingly waiting for the system to announce the background of his assigned character.
In the livestream chat:
[This newcomer's pretty impressive. Let your guard down for a second and he digs a pit for you...]
[But role restrictions like this don't really affect the mighty Mo, right? It's a beginner instance, after all.]
[That's true, but I'm guessing the big shot wanted to grab what he came for and leave. Doesn't this mean he'll have to burn through a few more A-rank items to evade the system's detection?!]
[Beautiful Shen is a wicked little doll through and through! This is the first time I've seen the mighty Mo follow the rules so closely in a beginner instance.]
[Wait... an item that brought a god down among mortals. Could an S-rank item show up in this beginner instance!?]
[!!!! I think the person above just figured it out!!!!]
Before you continue