Chapter 25 Friends

"Alright, I agree to be your friend."

No sooner had Ji Linmo spoken than the girl pulled down her lower eyelid with her finger and stuck out her tongue at him with a cheeky grin.

"No way! It's your fault for hesitating just now—now I don't want you as my friend anymore!"

[Current Mission]
[Become friends with ‘Ghost Singer – Yang Xingxing’]
[Time remaining: 00:10:58]
[Mission reward: You get to be friends, of course! Are you stupid?]
[Mission failure: Death]

Seeing the countdown on the mission panel before him, Ji Linmo furrowed his brow.

The allotted time was ten minutes.

"I apologize for my earlier attitude. May I have another chance to be your friend?" Ji Linmo looked earnestly at the heavily made-up girl before him.

"Only now do you realize your mistake? Too late!" The girl stood with her hands on her hips, chin raised in triumph.

"But, since you seem so pitiful and eager to be friends with the great me, I suppose I can give you one more chance."

"You can go ask my sister. She’s at home, too. If you can pass her test, then I’ll be friends with you."

With that, she pointed to the door of Room 301.

The slightly rusted iron door looked no different from any other door in the corridor.

"Alright..."

Ji Linmo followed the girl as she unlocked the door with a key.

As the handle turned and the door swung open, he was momentarily blinded by the light inside.

— In the dim room, a cosmic disco ball hanging from the ceiling spun continuously, casting purple light that bathed the space in an ambiguous haze.

A massive speaker in the corner blared an intense, unfamiliar electronic beat that filled the air with wild energy.

Ji Linmo glanced around, feeling as though he had suddenly stepped into a nightclub.

"Welcome! Welcome to my home—"

"Ghost Celebrity—Yang Xingxing" shouted exuberantly, her voice ringing out.

"Thank you! Your place is great—"

Yang Xingxing beamed and motioned for Ji Linmo to follow.

Trailing after the girl through a living room littered with cups, plates, empty drink bottles and snack wrappers, Ji Linmo arrived at a cramped little door.

Unlike the exceedingly spacious living room, the door was covered in colorful graffiti and barely half the height of an adult—anyone entering would have to stoop.

[Superstar’s Bedroom! No Admittance!]

So this was Yang Xingxing’s bedroom?

Ji Linmo frowned slightly as he gazed at the small door emblazoned with crooked, childlike letters.

Wasn’t this door a little too small for a bedroom? It was practically fit for a dwarf.

[Time remaining: 00:08:31]

"Yang Xingxing, what time is it now?"

Seeing the dwindling time, Ji Linmo pointed to the watch on Yang Xingxing’s wrist and asked.

"It’s seven forty in the morning… Why, getting scared?"

Yang Xingxing gave him a hard shove in the back, tilting her chin at him.

"I don’t like quitters. My sister’s inside! Hurry up and open the door and find her!"

Ji Linmo said nothing. He reached out and gripped the icy-cold doorknob.

The tiny handle was barely thick enough for two fingers, as though it had been designed just for children.

Swoosh—

As the door swung open, Ji Linmo was met with countless pairs of eyes.

Tiny, bean-sized purple eyes stared fixedly in his direction.

They belonged to rabbit plushies.

Long ears, short tails—each rabbit plush, bathed in the purple glow of the disco ball, had its fur dyed an eerie shade.

"Come on! My sister’s waiting for you!"

Yang Xingxing shoved Ji Linmo aside, ducked down, and crawled inside first.

Ji Linmo stooped and followed her into the room.

The soundproofing was excellent—the pounding music from outside diminished to half its volume the moment he stepped in.

But just as he was about to examine the room, a pair of legs, tinged purple by the light, blocked his view.

Someone stood in his way.

"Hello, I came in with Yang Xingxing…" Ji Linmo looked up, following the line of the legs.

To his surprise, instead of a girl’s soft form, the long, slender legs ended in a coarse, oversized burlap sack.

Had someone deliberately pulled a sack over themselves?

Ji Linmo was taken aback.

But in a world of horror, there was no guarantee that what lay beneath the sack was anything fit for human eyes.

"Sis, this is the person who wants to be my friend. Hmph, you have to test him well to see if he’s worthy!"

Yang Xingxing hugged the burlap sack affectionately.

Rip—rip!

No sooner had she finished speaking than the sack shifted, bowing to Ji Linmo.

After a moment’s thought, Ji Linmo mimicked the gesture, bowing in return and emitting a rustling sound.

"Oh, you’re a funny one! You’ve made my sister laugh!"

As the sack-clad girl stepped aside, Ji Linmo’s gaze was met by a densely packed mass of plushies, piled together like the nest of cockroaches.

Though the bedroom was actually as spacious as the living room, it was so crammed with rabbit plushies of all kinds that there was hardly a place to set foot.

"Hey! Do you like rabbit plushies?"

Yang Xingxing asked, grabbing one at random and pressing its head, holding it up before Ji Linmo.

"I don’t dislike them."

In the dark purple room, Ji Linmo looked at the plush rabbit’s long ears, three-petaled mouth, and the short tail at its rear, replying in a calm tone.

"Is that so? Good, because my sister and I love rabbits best of all. Their bodies are so soft!"

As if to prove her point, the girl squeezed the rabbit plush’s head with all her might.

With her hair in a high ponytail and clad in colorful knee-high socks, she grinned wildly, stretching her mouth so wide that the garish red lipstick smeared at the corners, giving her an almost grotesque, torn-mouthed look.

"Look! Hahaha! How cute, how soft the rabbit is!"

The plush’s round head was squashed into a cone, but the girl showed no intention of stopping, squeezing harder and harder.

Squish! Squish!

Cotton burst from the seams, and the two button eyes, unable to withstand the pressure, popped out as the threads tore.

In that instant, under the glow of the lamp, the cotton seemed almost like blood.