Lynn said evenly, "This is a small business. We don't accept payment in flesh. Don't worry, I only want your right eye. Once you've earned some money, you can come back and redeem it."
The girl said, o(╥﹏╥)o, "O... okay... boohoo!"
A few minutes later.
[Ding! You obtained a rare item: Blood Doll's Right Eye x1] [Blood Doll's Right Eye: Hunger +10 while carried. Available skill: Invincible Stomach.] [Ding! You completed the quest. Quest rewards obtained: Skeleton Coins x50, surgery experience +50. Special rewards: Blood Doll's fear +30, Blood Doll's Doll's fear +50]
Lynn calmly washed the blood off his hands.
Then he placed the eyeball in a bottle of special reagent and labeled it.
He turned around, looked at the girl covering one eye, o( x﹏╥)o, and said politely:
"Please come again. Bloodsaw Apothecary is sincerely at your service."
Lynn bowed.
The girl walked out clutching her doll, o( x﹏╥)o. Her voice could still be heard from a distance.
"I'd better hurry and find Mommy. I'm never coming back here again. Boohoo... what a rip-off..."
[Ding! You triggered a hidden quest: Blood Doll Finds Mommy. Help Blood Doll find her mother. Quest completion rewards: Blood Doll's affection +200, Blood Doll's Doll's affection +100, special reward x1] [Current quest progress: 2%]
Lynn froze.
When he looked outside again, the girl had already disappeared into the darkness.
Two percent complete?
Lynn's gaze immediately fell on the plate on the counter, which held the organs he had dug out of the girl's stomach.
[Unknown woman's hair x50] [Unknown woman's ears x2] [Unknown woman's comb x1]
Lynn: "..."
There was no denying it.
A horrifying suspicion had indeed occurred to him.
Lynn stood up, washed those body parts clean, and sealed them in bottles, planning to tell the girl about it the next time she came.
He opened his panel.
With the earlier rewards, he had gained a total of 50 points of surgery experience, along with an extra 50 Skeleton Coins of his own.
The customers' money belonged to the shop. He couldn't touch it.
That meant he now had a total of 150 Skeleton Coins to his name.
Skeleton Coins were a basic currency in the world he currently inhabited and could be used as a general medium of exchange, but Lynn had never actually ventured out of the shop in the past two years.
So he had never had a chance to use them.
Still, having more money never hurt.
Time flew by.
Lynn sat with his eyes closed and a boning knife in his hand, like a statue.
The Soul Lamp at the entrance represented a rule. It told the wandering souls in the darkness that this place had an owner, and that those harboring ill intent would pay the corresponding price.
Most wandering souls and monsters generally wouldn't invade while the Soul Lamp was lit.
Within the grounds protected by the Soul Lamp, the owner could use it to suppress invading evil spirits and monsters at any time, if he wished.
But there were exceptions: utterly evil spirits and monsters that feared nothing.
For them.
There were no rules in this world worth obeying.
Knock, knock, knock-
Just then.
Another knock came from outside.
"Welcome."
Lynn opened his eyes.
He immediately saw a hulking monster with a pig's head and a human body standing in the doorway. One of his eyes was a bloody socket with no eyeball. He wore a scarlet apron and carried a butcher's knife that looked as though it had just cut something up.
A panel instantly appeared before Lynn.
[Pighead Demon] [Level]: 21 [Race: Malformed Freak] [Alignment]: Lawful evil [Combat ability]: As long as you're willing to be eaten... [Description: The owner of the pork shop in Wandering Soul Alley. He is your "friendly" neighbor and is happy to share his freshly slaughtered prey with you, or share you with others...] [Lynn's Sanity Value -5]
"Just my rotten luck." The Pighead Demon covered his eye socket and cursed:
"Just because I didn't have any useless junk to give that old hag, she plucked out one of my eyes. Next time I see her, I'll... I'll... pah!"
He spat out a glob of foul-smelling phlegm and kept cursing.
A system notification immediately sounded in Lynn's mind.
[Ding! Pighead Demon quest: Find a suitable eyeball for him. Quest rewards: 50 Skeleton Coins, surgery experience +50, Pighead Demon's affection +20. Special reward +1]
"Please come in."
Lynn sat behind the counter without betraying any emotion, discreetly tightening his grip on the boning knife.
The Pighead Demon strode inside, and the Soul Lamp flickered wildly.
A foul, bloody stench hit Lynn full in the face, making him want to gag.
The Pighead Demon planted himself on the stool in front of the counter. His single remaining pig eye fixed a sharp gaze on Lynn before he glanced around and said:
"Where's Blood Saw? Get him out here to replace my eyeball. I've got prime prey to trade him!"
Lynn remained composed and said quietly:
"My teacher went out on business. Whatever you need, you can tell me."
The Pighead Demon paused, then turned his head and narrowed his eye. His gaze settled on Lynn as though he were inspecting a slab of meat.
"Oh?"
[Ding! Danger increased to 89%]
Turmoil surged inside Lynn, but his face remained calm.
His decision had been the right one.
If he had tried to lie and tell the Pighead Demon that his teacher was in the backyard, the demon would undoubtedly attack as soon as he noticed something was wrong.
Being open and honest, on the other hand, would give him pause.
"What kind of eyeball do you need?" Lynn turned and calmly pointed at the eyeballs soaking in reagent on the cabinet.
"We have human eyes, pig eyes, undead eyes, bat eyes, and Blood Doll eyes. Pick whichever you like. Prices vary depending on the eye."
A vicious gleam flashed in the Pighead Demon's eye. He bared a mouthful of fangs, and a thick blast of foul breath hit Lynn's face.
"I think your eyeballs look pretty good."
He stuck out his tongue and licked the cracked corner of his mouth.
[Lynn's Sanity Value -10] [Ding! Danger increased to 91%]
Lynn knew that if he showed the slightest fear now, the Pighead Demon would attack him without hesitation.
"Mine?"
Lynn turned his head and looked at him calmly.
Then, under the Pighead Demon's vicious stare, Lynn slowly extended three fingers, pushed them into his own eye socket right in front of him, and dug out his right eye bit by bit.
Squelch-squelch-
[Ding! Host's health decreased!] [Ding! Host is missing an organ!]
A few seconds later, Lynn held his eyeball in his open palm and offered it to him.
[Pighead Demon's Sanity Value -20!]
Yet his expression remained unchanged.
"Two hundred Skeleton Coins each. No returns if it doesn't fit."
The Pighead Demon went blank.
He had never expected this seemingly frail human to be ruthless enough to gouge out his own eyeball right in front of him.
When that scavenger had plucked out his eye, he had howled in agony for quite a while.
Yet this human could still remain composed.
[Ding! Danger decreased to 50%]
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