The master's voice, grating with fury, jolted Zhao Wen Shan back to her senses. She quickly ducked behind her brother, her expression terrified. "How is he still alive?!"
Pan Lulu, standing nearby, immediately gave Zhao Wen Shan a thoughtful look when she heard that. But Zhao Wen Shan's attention was entirely consumed by the "resurrected" master, and she failed to notice. Clutching her brother's clothes, she continued guessing. "Could this NPC be immortal?"
If that were true, they were in trouble... Although Zhao Wen Shan had never actually encountered an NPC like that, she had heard other veteran players mention them. Some NPCs in instances had an immortal trait-no matter how many times you killed them, even if you completely destroyed their bodies, they would appear before you again with the same appearance and in the same state. There had even been cases of players being driven insane by the terror of an immortal NPC.
But NPCs with that trait generally only appeared in high-difficulty instances-at the very least, they shouldn't appear in an instance like theirs, with equal numbers of newcomers and veterans.
"No." Zhao Yi shook his head. "The master isn't immortal."
NPCs with the immortal trait never changed their appearance, and after being "reborn," they retained none of the wounds they had suffered before "death." But the master standing before them now had a ring of dark red scabs around his eye sockets, as though someone had neatly traced a knife around them and sliced away the skin. With the skin around his sockets cut away and his upper eyelids gone, his entire eyeballs were exposed to the air. Dark red veins crowded densely around his irises as he fixed everyone with a venomous, horrifying stare.
Zhao Wen Shan shuddered violently. She thought she now knew what Bo Yi had done to the master last night.
She pulled her head back and stole a glance at Bo Yi. His expression had remained perfectly calm ever since the master appeared. He could even meet the master's gaze without a flicker of emotion.
Pan Lulu followed Zhao Wen Shan's gaze. Then the corners of her lips curved slightly upward.
She thought she knew why the master had ended up looking like this, too.
"Huh? Why are you all blocking the way?"
Zheng Rong had just opened his door and stepped out. Seeing everyone standing motionless in the corridor, he asked curiously, "Did something happen?" He craned his head for a look, then appeared to understand. "Ah... the master's here-whoa, how did he end up looking like that?!"
Could the master be reverting to his original appearance as the instance progressed? Zheng Rong rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. He had to admit, it was pretty frightening.
"Why aren't my guests coming over?" Seeing someone peek out, the master urged them again. "There are still things I need my guests' help with for tonight's banquet..."
"The NPC needs something from us..." Zheng Rong turned back to the others. "And it's related to the clearance objective. Let's hurry over..." With that, he took the lead and walked over.
"Hey-" Zhao Wen Shan reached out, trying to pull him back, but Zhao Yi stopped her and shook his head.
They needed to know exactly what the master wanted. After all, he hadn't appeared at this time on either of the previous two days. Since Zheng Rong had gone out on his own, they might as well...
"Aaaaaah!" A piercing scream came from outside the gallery. Everyone's heart tightened, and they immediately looked out. Zheng Rong lay on the floor, clutching his arm. Blood kept spilling between his fingers and soon stained half his body red. The master stood beside him, holding a long, pointed knife high in the air. Its sharp tip was already stained red, and blood trickled down toward the hilt.
The master had been hiding the knife behind his back the whole time!
Seeing the master raise his knife for another stroke, delight written across his face, Zhao Wen Shan had no choice but to shout, "What are you waiting for? Run!"
Zheng Rong, writhing on the floor in pain, finally snapped out of it. Enduring the agony, he rolled aside to dodge the second slash, then scrambled to his feet and made to run into the gallery.
Just then, Bo Yi spoke. "Run outside."
Zheng Rong froze, but then gritted his teeth and stumbled toward the outside.
The master turned and gave Bo Yi, who stood in the corridor, a long, searching look. In the end, though, he chased after Zheng Rong with the knife.
"Phew..." Zhao Yi let out a relieved breath, then turned and patted Bo Yi's shoulder. "Good thing you reacted so quickly, Bo..."
"If Zheng Rong runs outside, the NPC will follow him! Then we won't get dragged into it!"
"No." Bo Yi brushed Zhao Yi's hand away. "That isn't why I told him to run outside."
He stepped aside, revealing the room behind him.
"What's wrong?" The Zhao siblings both craned their heads to look into Bo Yi's room.
Outside the room's window, the thick black fog that had previously appeared only at night had somehow enveloped the entire castle. Beyond the window was pitch-black, obscuring the view and cutting off the players' escape route out of the castle. Worse still, the black fog that had always been kept safely outside the castle was now seeping through gaps in the brickwork in thin wisps, beginning to spread into the room.
In the brief time they spent peering inside, a dark mass had already gathered on the wall and was still spreading toward the center of the room.
Zhao Yi reached out and lightly touched the black fog on one wall with a finger. "Hiss-" He snatched his hand back. In that single second of contact, the skin on his fingertip had been completely eaten away.
He stared at his mangled, bloody fingertip. "The instance is forcing us to leave." At the rate the black fog was spreading, it would soon creep out of the rooms and into the corridor.
If Zheng Rong hadn't just drawn the master away, they would have been forced out of their rooms only to be trapped by the master waiting at the gallery exit, like fish in a barrel.
"Just as I thought, this instance isn't that simple..."
"Let's get out of here before the master comes back!"
Everyone nodded. Bo Yi brought up the rear, but before leaving the corridor, he took one last look at the black fog inside the room.
He hadn't felt anything in particular when the fog was outside the window. But once it entered the room, it inevitably reminded him of the patch of black fog he had glimpsed the night before.
Unfortunately, the black fog before him contained none of the red eyes he wanted to see.
Bo Yi gave a small inward sigh and followed the others.
What he failed to notice, however, was that the little doll, who had been sitting quietly and obediently in his pocket, was now standing on tiptoe with nearly half his body poking out. In the pocket bobbing up and down with Bo Yi's steps, he struggled to reach behind him, scooped up a wisp of black fog, then stuffed it into his mouth and chewed away.
He looked so blissful that even his big, beautiful red eyes narrowed with delight.
Before you continue