Player Forum

An urn made of silver?

Wei Yanchi thought for a moment, then opened his phone and messaged Yue Xiamo. "Do you have any news about an Instance?"

"No."

Yue Xiamo replied quickly. Wearing glasses, she sat at her computer desk in perfectly ordinary pajamas, her hair a mess. She looked like any other ordinary girl.

She glanced at the urn she had repurposed as a flowerpot and calmly replied, "If even you haven't heard anything, how could I have? I was just shopping and stopped by to give you some business. Oh, right, do you know 39's player account? He hasn't registered on the Player Forum."

"No idea."

Every player chosen by an Instance would have an app forcibly linked to their phone after they made it out alive. Their username would be whatever name they had used for themselves inside the Instance.

On this app, players could publish posts and videos, comment and discuss, and even trade online and form parties.

Parties could have no more than eight members. Players in a party could clear the same Instance during the same time window.

Only players could see this app.

The app was usually quiet, with only a handful of veteran players active online. Scroll up or down, and all you would see were trading posts, mostly offering high prices for items. Good items were hard to come by, even with money, and lifesaving items were practically priceless. There were too many buyers and too little stock, and those who had items were reluctant to sell.

Occasionally, a few newbies who had cleared one Instance through sheer luck would show up on the app, crying for someone powerful to carry them and begging to join a party.

In theory, every player could be found on the app. Yue Xiamo had been watching since she left the Instance, and five new players had appeared so far, but none of their IDs were 39.

Four of those five new players had used their real names. One had been a little smarter and used an alias-455.

What about 39, then?

Why was he the only one missing from the players?

Thinking of 39's behavior in the Instance and his unusual, rarely seen appearance, Yue Xiamo couldn't help forming a terrifying theory. Was it possible that 39 wasn't a player at all? That he wasn't even human? Maybe he was an NPC the Instance System had planted among the players to gain their trust before wiping them all out!

She solemnly shared this theory with Wei Yanchi.

But Wei Yanchi didn't believe it at all. "Aren't you overthinking this? I was with 39 just yesterday. I added him on WeChat."

There was nothing on his WeChat, though. It was extremely bare, with even the default profile picture still in place and a string of code for a name.

Yue Xiamo said, "You can never be too careful around people. Have you ever seen anyone with silver hair in the real world?"

Wei Yanchi calmly replied, "Actually, I have. Germanic peoples in northern Europe carry genes for silver hair. People with silver hair and green eyes aren't common in that region, but they do exist. Mr. 39 probably has Germanic ancestry and is of mixed descent."

"...Forget it. His appearance isn't the important part. The point is that he doesn't have a Player Forum account. How do you explain that?" Yue Xiamo grabbed a fistful of her hair. "Don't you think that's terrifying?"

"Have you heard of the Laboratory?"

Wei Yanchi suddenly offered this seemingly unrelated question.

"What?"

"A mysterious organization that specializes in studying strange things. Mr. 39 might be one of their people."

Yue Xiamo narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "How do you know about something like that?"

Wei Yanchi chuckled. "I have my ways. Did you know there were two fatal shootings in Salt City yesterday?"

"Shootings?" Yue Xiamo was even more bewildered. "Guns? Why are you bringing that up? Two? Wait, you said you met 39 yesterday. Don't tell me he happened to be killing people? With a gun? Cases that big, and not a single word got out? Are you saying the Laboratory suppressed the news?"

"Congratulations, ma'am. You guessed right."

Yue Xiamo sent a whole string of messages after that, mostly far-fetched theories and nonsense. Wei Yanchi took one look and left their chat, then checked 39's profile picture again. Still no reply. His frustration grew a little, and he sighed and put away his phone. Perhaps 39 was busy.

He had guessed right about that. Xie De really was busy at the moment.

After taking the villain out for a meal, he returned home and braced himself before throwing open the refrigerator. As it turned out, he hadn't braced himself nearly enough.

The moment he opened it, he saw a severed head glaring at him with eyes that had never closed in death. It nearly scared him to death.

455 hurriedly said, "Stay calm, host. While you two were eating, I checked the police station's system. Someone has already reported this thief missing. We need to dispose of the body fast!"

Gritting his teeth, Xie De turned helplessly to the villain waiting obediently beside him. "Why did you cut him up and put him in the fridge?"

Wei Yunmo blinked his big, round eyes and said with innocent certainty, "Because I'd already killed him. You wouldn't let me go out, and I didn't know when you'd be back, so all I could do was put him in the fridge to keep him fresh. Human corpses smell really awful, and I didn't want to smell it. They stink. What if you came back really late? Wouldn't he have rotted?"

For a moment, Xie De was speechless.

Why did that actually sound reasonable?

He opened his mouth, but all he managed to say, feeling thoroughly aggrieved, was, "You made my house filthy."

"I'm very sorry." Wei Yunmo politely lowered his head. "I'd only watched them do it before. This was my first time, so I didn't control my strength properly. I'll be more careful next time."

There won't be a next time, kid!!

Stone-faced, Xie De told him to get some hydrogen peroxide and clean the living room himself. Once Wei Yunmo left, Xie De stared at the refrigerator full of body parts, his head aching.

He complained to 455 in his mind.

"My fridge! Can I even use it anymore?! This is where I keep my food, 455! I don't have the money to buy another one!"

455 paused, then said scornfully, "This fridge only cost a little over two thousand. Skip one pack of cigarettes and you could buy one. Your smoking is the biggest expense in this household."

"Uh... Isn't that because you can only tolerate that sickly-sweet cigarette smell?" Xie De cut himself off. "Never mind that. How do we deal with these body parts? Bag them up and throw them out?"

"( ‾⊖￣), or you could just quit smoking," 455 said. "For now, that seems to be our only option for disposing of the body."

"I remember there being a bunch of garbage bags here." As Xie De opened the kitchen door, the little house centipede clinging to the wall hurriedly bounced inside. Clearly, it very much did not want to stay with the villain.

The little house centipede looked at the pile of chopped flesh, then at what Xie De was doing, and suddenly understood.

It leaped onto the refrigerator and waved the two antennae on its head. Xie De froze, his eyes widening instantly.

He saw countless insects swarming in through the window, cracks in the floor, and gaps around the door. The sight was enough to give anyone goose bumps.

Most of them were a type of ant.

They climbed into the refrigerator and devoured everything. Within minutes, all the flesh and bones had vanished without a trace.

Then, under the little house centipede's command, they returned the way they had come, slipping out through the window, gaps around the door, and cracks in the floor. They disappeared completely, seeking neither credit nor glory.

Xie De stared blankly at the little house centipede. "455, I think we've found a treasure. This isn't a useless little thing. This is a little miracle worker!"

455 did the math. "That's fantastic! Put it on the Player Forum. This isn't just worth five million-it's worth fifty million!"

Xie De immediately picked up on one term. "What Player Forum? Where do I find it?"

455 sounded a little guilty. "Oh, it's that trading site for players I told you about. I logged into your account. Don't worry, there's nothing worth talking about in there. It's really boring."

Xie De bent down to pick up the little house centipede crawling toward him, suspicion in his voice. "If that's the case, why do you sound guilty?"

"I don't!" 455 sneered. "It's not like I'd hurt you. We're bound together! We rise and fall together!"

"Oh," Xie De said expressionlessly. Then he swiftly opened his phone and accessed the hidden files.

455 struggled. "You can't do this to me! Stop!"

Xie De's fingers moved faster and faster. Once he saw what was inside, he sucked in a breath, feeling as though the sight had given him a stye.

"455, so this is the kind of system you are."

The player interface was simple and, just as 455 had said, rather dull. There was a customer service button in the upper-right corner. When he tapped it, he discovered that 455 had been harassing the Instance System.

The lines were so cheesy and the content so outrageous that Xie De felt thoroughly scorched by the blast.

"I went to buy oil today. Guess what kind? I love you."

"I just took some medicine. Guess what kind? A dose of how much you matter to me."

"Watch where you're going. Stop walking straight into my heart."

"I've been a little addicted lately. To what? To how deeply you attract me."

Xie De felt the phone in his hand heating up.

455 whimpered. "=ﾍ( ´Д`)ﾉ Let me go~ I don't want to live anymore."