Bo Yu was awakened by the sound of chewing.
She opened her eyes groggily. A dark figure was sitting on the bed beside hers, hunched over with its back to her, holding something in both hands and gnawing at it with its head lowered.
"Crunch, crunch..."
"Crunch, crunch..."
The spine-chilling sounds of chewing kept coming from the figure.
Bo Yu narrowed her eyes and studied it in the moonlight for a while before speaking uncertainly. "...Chu Youyi?"
The figure's movements stopped abruptly. After a moment, she slowly turned around. But when Bo Yu saw her face clearly, her breath caught, and she felt as though she had plunged into an ice cellar.
In the moonlight, Chu Youyi held a fish whose head was already gone. Its black tail hung limply past her palm, occasionally twitching as though coming back from the dead. Blood spattered her forehead and cheeks, some of it still sliding slowly down her skin, but she seemed completely unaware. Right in front of Bo Yu, she viciously tore another mouthful of flesh from the remaining half of the fish and chewed it fiercely. The skin around her mouth was stained entirely red, as though she had applied a ridiculous ring of red lipstick, and fish scales dangled precariously from the corners of her mouth.
Still chewing, she smiled at Bo Yu. "You're~ awake~?"
"You..." Bo Yu slowly sat up in bed, moving with extreme care, afraid that any sudden movement would set Chu Youyi off. "What are you... eating?"
Chu Youyi stopped chewing. "I'm~ eating~ fish~"
"Look..." She raised her chin toward the doorway. "There are~ so many fish~"
Bo Yu discreetly glanced up, then saw something that made her skin crawl: the inner walls of their courtyard were densely covered in black fish. The fish were crawling rapidly down the walls and heading toward their room at the other end of the courtyard.
Chu Youyi's cheeks bulged as she chewed, making her words muffled and indistinct. "I woke up in the middle of the night, and these things had already crawled onto my bed. Their mouths were open, and they were about to bite me~"
"But wouldn't you know it..." She swallowed the food in her mouth and grinned. "I happened to be hungry too..."
"So I thought I'd~ have a few~ to tide me over~ first~"
Bo Yu really, really did not want to ask what she meant by "first." She nodded slowly, then began backing away as inconspicuously as she could. Just as her feet touched the floor again, Chu Youyi's eerie voice came from behind her. "Where~ are~ you~ going~?"
Run!
Alarm bells blared in her mind. Without looking back, Bo Yu bolted out of the room. Behind her came the sound of something heavy hitting the floor, along with Chu Youyi's piercing scream. "Where are you going!?"
Only after rushing outside did Bo Yu realize that this decision might not have been the right one either. The fish in the courtyard, which had been crawling along their set paths, all changed direction the moment she appeared, surging toward her as one. Worse still, once they got close enough, they leaped off the ground. Caught off guard, Bo Yu had two fish jump up and clamp onto her arm.
The fish's mouths seemed to be packed with tiny teeth. Once they bit down, she could not shake them off. She could only endure the pain and tear them from her arm, which immediately began streaming blood.
By then, Chu Youyi had chased her out of the room and caught up, lunging at her with a scream. But that was not what filled Bo Yu with the most despair. What truly crushed her was the sight of the players from the neighboring rooms coming toward their courtyard after hearing the commotion-
Every one of them held a half-eaten fish.
Bo Yu's only consolation was that once the other players came out, the fish attacked them just as indiscriminately. That was the only reason she managed to hold out for a while under the onslaught.
Even so, her strength was nearly spent. She was keeping herself going through sheer determination alone.
Just as she thought she was going to die here, the players around her suddenly scrambled a considerable distance back for no apparent reason. Panting, Bo Yu looked up and saw Bo Yi stroll in as boldly as could be.
She was about to warn him to be careful when she saw the previously vicious players begin dodging away from him like mice that had spotted a cat.
Bo Yu: "?"
Bo Yi walked all the way into Bo Yu's courtyard without encountering any resistance. Wherever he went, every player except Bo Yu fled from him, wishing they could stay ten meters away.
The scene was so familiar that he briefly drifted into a daze, recalling things from a very, very long time ago.
It was... deeply unpleasant.
"Why did you come over?" Bo Yu limped toward him. But when she was still a meter away, she stopped of her own accord.
Bo Yi snapped out of his memories and discreetly composed himself before answering, "I heard some noise."
"Oh..." Bo Yu nodded and looked at the players who were hiding off to the side but still watching them with hungry eyes. She pressed her lips together.
"Why are they..."
Bo Yi thought she was asking why they were keeping their distance, so he lifted the hair in his hand. "Because I have something they're afraid of."
At his movement, the surrounding players immediately retreated farther. Bo Yi was about to continue when he noticed that Bo Yu had also drawn her head back. "Why are you..." He suddenly realized that the distance Bo Yu was keeping from him could hardly be considered normal for a conversation.
She was standing much too far away.
"You're afraid of this too?"
Bo Yu nodded sheepishly and rubbed her nose. "I don't know why either... but I keep feeling something terrifying coming from it." It made her not want to go anywhere near it.
"But..." She changed tack, looking thoughtful. "I feel like that presence... is a little familiar."
Hm?
Bo Yi, who had been about to explain where the hair came from, stopped short and turned to look at her. "How is it familiar?"
Where had she encountered it before?
Bo Yu frowned in frustration, searching her memories bit by bit.
She had not visited many places since entering the Instance: just the village chief's house, the Lady's Temple to the west, and the graveyard on Back Mountain... Wait, the Lady's Temple to the west!?
Bo Yu's eyes suddenly lit up.
She remembered!
"It was the Lady's Temple!"
Before you continue