Chapter 92: Hair-Raising Dread

You’re a madman.

Ji Linmo looked at the boy’s face, twisted into a frenzy, and lifted the antidote in his hand, his voice glacial.

Glug.

The instant the potion reached his lips and he swallowed, the bottle suddenly exploded in his hand.

A flash of shock crossed Ji Linmo’s eyes.

Qin Feng had actually lunged over and crushed the bottle bare-handed.

“Spit it out.”

Red light flared in the boy’s eyes. The next second, Qin Feng drove his knee into Ji Linmo’s abdomen.

But Ji Linmo showed no emotional reaction at all. As if he felt no pain, he raised the whip in his hand and, in one smooth motion, looped it around Qin Feng’s neck.

“I knew you’d come, Qin Feng.”

The lightning-bright whip coiled around the boy’s throat like a venomous snake, tightening its grip.

“But don’t worry, Qin Feng. Just as you said, my life will be yours.”

The man bent down from above, lowering his monstrous head toward the boy.

From the slit of his fanged cheeks, hot, damp breath kept spilling out.

“Because I’m going to eat you.”

The bound boy finally reacted, but to Ji Linmo’s surprise, there was no fear in that reaction—only excitement.

“Mr. Ji~”

Qin Feng smiled brightly at Ji Linmo, tenderly brushing his hand over the man’s monstrous face as he whispered like a murmur at his ear.

“Mr. Ji, you’re not planning to leave me?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Feng turned and threw his arms around Ji Linmo, his eyes gleaming with a strange crimson light.

“I’m really happy, Mr. Ji.”

“Let’s become one~”

That utterly unexpected response left Ji Linmo stunned.

An indescribable chill surged up from his heart.

“You lunatic! What the hell is going on?!”

Ji Linmo shoved Qin Feng away, but the boy in front of him clamped around his waist and clung to him like sludge from hell, mumbling wildly without end.

“Don’t leave me... don’t cancel our teammate bond... I’m the one who matters most to you...”

The boy raised Ji Linmo’s hands and guided the man’s fingers toward his own throat, laughing like a madman.

“Ji Linmo, eat me! Let me be with you again, once more!”

“Remember this: you’re mine, you’re mine, you can only be mine!”

Ji Linmo’s eyes flew wide open. His mind went blank, then erupted with a deafening roar as if a line had been severed.

In a daze, he thought he heard a door opening.

A tall red wooden door stood there, motionless.

Ji Linmo lifted his hand and opened it. Crimson blood water surged in like a tidal wave, flooding over his feet.

What?

Damn it! What are you even saying?

A pair of pale, delicate feet lightly stepped onto the man’s boots. Instinctively, he tried to lift his leg, but as the blood rippled outward, the girl’s snow-white feet were still stained red.

Ji Linmo looked up and saw a girl in a white dress gazing at him gently.

Her beautiful almond eyes smiled into crescent moons.

Eat me. Live on.

“Get away from me!”

Sweat poured down Ji Linmo’s body. He trembled as if in a seizure, cold and shaking, trying to cover his mouth, only to find the monstrous, wet, warm cheek beneath his hand, packed with teeth.

In an instant, he froze.

How have I become a monster?

Am I... dead?

What made me turn into a monster?

Just as his reason was on the verge of collapse, Ji Linmo suddenly saw Lin Bufei’s body lying in the corner by the wall.

The scar-faced man slumped there like a broken puppet, ruined and collapsed.

At once, the blood-sea stench at the tip of his nose vanished.

Ji Linmo seemed to wake from a dream. His unfocused gaze sharpened again.

Looking at Qin Feng, he tightened the whip once more, then shouted into the air.

System! I, Ji Linmo, am severing my teammate bond with Qin Feng—

Today’s day count: Day 2.

Players remaining in this instance: 7.

Congratulations, player Ji Linmo. You have successfully cleared this game: Peaceful Shopping Mall.

A massive bell rang out with a thunderous boom.

The entire mall caved in at once, finally turning into ruins. The great tolling of the bell seemed like the final death knell echoing through the world.

Ji Linmo looked up. Everything before his eyes froze, as if time itself had stopped.

A-level instance: Peaceful Shopping Mall.

Settling...

Evaluating behavior...

The instance had ended.

As the world before his eyes gradually darkened, Ji Linmo first stood in shock, then, like a madman, stared at the empty space before him and kept pounding the ground.

Qin Feng, the whip, Lin Bufei’s corpse—there was nothing left!

“Damn it! Are you kidding me? It ends right now?!”

Ji Linmo suddenly thought of something. He covered his face, his body shaking uncontrollably. Just now, it seemed he had seen another bizarre hallucination.

Calm down. Don’t think about it anymore.

The doctor said so himself. It was all hallucination...

Ji Linmo took a deep breath and opened his attribute panel.

In the teammate section, he could clearly see that it now displayed: none.

“Ha... it’s gone...”

He murmured softly, then let out a low curse as if he could no longer control his emotions.

“What a pity... if I can’t see him, then I can’t avenge Lin Bufei...”

Within the darkness, which felt like a cage, only the protruding notification bar gave off a faint light.

The game settlement area was the only time players in this world of terror could rest.

As long as they did not confirm settlement and draw rewards, they could remain in this narrow, pitch-black, silent prison for a full thirty-six hours.

Of course, rest only came to those who could endure such darkness and stillness.

Ji Linmo struggled to force his body back into human form. In the end, exhausted, he curled up on the floor and fell asleep.

The only light in the darkness was the notification in front of him, flickering faintly as it pulsed.

Remaining settlement time: 47:57:00

Suddenly, the screen flashed with chaotic colors.

A new line appeared in Ji Linmo’s teammate section.

Teammate reconnected: player Qin Feng

Ji Linmo

Teammate: Qin Feng

At that very moment, in that ruined world, a man with a scar running across his face slowly opened his eyes.

“What the hell is this place? I was clearly pretending to be dead—how did I pass out?!”

Looking up at the ash-gray sky and the ruins all around him, packed with twisted steel, Lin Bufei sat up from the rubble and rubbed his head.

When Qin Feng had suddenly stabbed him, he had truly panicked.

But in order to avoid getting stabbed again, Lin Bufei had immediately shut his eyes, stuck out his tongue, and, with acting worthy of an Oscar, held his breath, slowed his heartbeat, and flopped to the ground pretending to be dead.