Headquarters Base (3)

Following a passerby's directions, Ji Xun arrived at an old residential building.

The woman who opened the door looked haggard and aged.

She froze at the sight of Ji Xun and asked, "Who are you?"

"Someone asked me to pass a message on to you. He said he was sorry he hadn't lived up to your expectations. He hoped that, in the days ahead, you could let go of his departure and live a life of your own."

Ji Xun left the apartment building and heard heart-wrenching sobs coming from upstairs.

He sighed and boarded the bus back.

Yuan Ci and the others had already left, so Ji Xun was the only one on the bus.

Just as in the Uninhabited Village, when Ji Xun boarded, the passengers got off one after another and headed toward Experimental Middle School, bristling with murderous intent.

The bus drove toward the Headquarters Base, picking up a few players who had just come out of an instance along the way.

Their bodies were covered in wounds, their faces filled with relief at having survived.

But none of them spoke.

When he returned to his little house in C District, Tang Cha was already gone.

Ji Xun sent him a message to let him know he had come out of the instance.

The rewards for Experimental Middle School had arrived in his inbox. Ji Xun had braced himself for another "zero," but then he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Points available to claim: one thousand seven hundred ninety-nine (to three decimal places)

That many!

Besides the points, he had also brought Hei Hei and some unknown poor student's skull out of the instance.

Hei Hei was a Barrier-Breaking Mouse, capable of breaking through illusions and similar obstructions.

As for the skull-

Ji Xun turned it over and over, but all he could really tell was that the bone was very hard.

"You're made of bones too. Can you tell what this is good for?" Ji Xun asked Doctor Zhai, who was hanging human-skin clothes in the wardrobe.

"How is that even comparable?" Doctor Zhai curled his lip in displeasure. He took the skull from Ji Xun, looking utterly disgusted. "It's filthy. Did he have no sense of hygiene?"

Ji Xun couldn't count on him either, so he put the skull back in his inventory.

Meanwhile, Tang Cha replied.

"Ji Xun! You're out? I'm at Lu Jiancheng's place. We're getting things ready for the next instance. Want to join us?"

Ji Xun thought it over. His new boss wasn't going to let him keep taking it easy anyway. For all he knew, he might be thrown into another instance tomorrow.

Rather than wait to be forced into one, he might as well take the initiative.

Besides, Lu Jiancheng and Fang Rui were far more reliable than the average player. Tang Cha might be a little timid, but at least he followed instructions.

Without reliable teammates, his last instance had been genuinely exhausting.

"Sure."

Tang Cha sent him the time and place for entering the instance.

It was in three days, so he still had time to rest.

That night, Ji Xun sensed someone beside him. His eyes snapped open, and he drew his blade and slashed at the intruder.

Yuan Ci smiled wickedly, catching Ji Xun's long blade between his fingers and pushing it aside. "So vicious. And here I was, worried something had happened to you because you'd been in there so long."

Ji Xun narrowed his eyes and stretched lazily. "You show up uninvited in the middle of the night, and you think you're in the right?"

Yuan Ci turned the accusation back on him. "Who told you to block me? Add me back."

Ji Xun rolled his eyes and removed him from his blocklist.

[Ding-]

Ji Xun opened his inbox and saw that Yuan Ci had transferred five thousand points to him.

"What are you doing?"

"A betrothal-" Seeing Ji Xun's hostile gaze, Yuan Ci hastily corrected himself. "A thank-you gift."

Ji Xun snorted. He had saved Su Rang's life in the Small Auditorium, after all, so he accepted the points without a shred of guilt.

Yuan Ci chuckled and asked, "Want to join Dawn?"

"No." Ji Xun's answer was firm.

Yuan Ci raised an eyebrow and continued tempting him. "If you join the Guild, you can take part in large-scale, hundred-player instances."

Ji Xun remained unmoved.

"Hundred-player instances give double points-"

"I'll think about it." The moment Ji Xun heard "double points," his attitude softened. "All right, you can leave now."

"So heartless." Yuan Ci stood up, then suddenly grew serious. "Ji Xun, I hope you'll give my suggestion some real thought. Going it alone in this world might not be a good thing."

With that, he smiled at Ji Xun and left C District.

"He scared me to death."

Little Skeleton crawled out of the wardrobe. He wasn't wearing Doctor Zhai's skin at the moment.

Ji Xun glanced up at him. "Why are you such a coward? If you're afraid of being seen, put some clothes on."

Little Skeleton sat by Ji Xun's window and said earnestly, "You're not really going to join Dawn, are you? I'd advise you to think carefully. We B-"

His voice cut off abruptly.

Ji Xun sneered. "What? Finally couldn't hold it in?"

Little Skeleton hurriedly covered his mouth with his bony hands and shook his head. "A slip of the tongue. Just a slip."

From the moment he first saw Ji Xun, he had known this man had the same identity as him.

But he knew even better that the two of them were nowhere near the same level.

Ji Xun couldn't help grumbling inwardly.

How could someone's personality change so much depending on whether he was wearing human skin?

Seeing that Ji Xun wasn't angry, Little Skeleton plucked up his courage and continued, "Although the ghosts and monsters in Experimental Middle School have their memories wiped at regular intervals, I've always remembered."

He pointed a bony finger in the direction Yuan Ci had left. "That man came to Experimental Middle School ten times. Every single time, it ended with the school turning into a Sea of Corpses."

"No wonder you didn't even dare show yourself in front of him," Ji Xun mocked.

"No matter how well he disguises it, he's a complete and utter lunatic. He never shows us bosses any mercy. Don't let him fool you." Little Skeleton did his utmost to drum that into Ji Xun's head.

Ji Xun said, "I'm not you."

Ungrateful! Little Skeleton retreated into the wardrobe in indignation, though he still remembered to close the door gently.

Early the next morning, Tang Cha came running over and pounded desperately on the door.

Once inside, he anxiously grabbed Ji Xun and looked him over, then sighed in relief. "Ji Xun, you nearly scared me to death."

They had been chatting face-to-face perfectly normally, and then, in the blink of an eye, a living person had simply vanished. Tang Cha had almost thought it was another supernatural incident.

Only after Fang Rui guessed that Ji Xun might have entered an instance had he felt a little reassured.

Ji Xun offered him a few words of comfort and briefly recounted what had happened in the last instance.

Tang Cha rubbed his chin. "Come to think of it, when I was coming over just now, I did hear a lot of people in the square talking about the Experimental Middle School instance."

Ji Xun asked, "What were they saying?"

Tang Cha thought back. "They said Abyss and Dawn teamed up to clear it and got the true ending, so that instance has now been permanently closed. Some die-hard fans of the guilds are singing their favorites' praises."

Then he lowered his voice conspiratorially. "But word on the street is that the president of Abyss is offering a huge bounty to find someone. Apparently, that person was wearing a black trench coat. So some people suspect the man in the black trench coat was the one who actually unlocked the true ending. Ji Xun, could they be talking about you?"

Ji Xun considered it. "Probably me."

Tang Cha smacked his lips, slapped his thigh, and exclaimed, "Just look at my luck! What a powerful backer I've found myself!"