I Want to Clear My Name

The 98th one, pink.

99, pink.

Zhu Yan kept count out of sheer boredom, his lower back already aching slightly.

The endless storefronts swayed before his eyes. The green and yellow shop signs connected end to end like a long, colorful snake.

Muffled conversations and laughter continued to pour into Zhu Yan's ears without pause, making him gag involuntarily.

The same scenery kept repeating. Now, even one more glance made him feel sick!

Zhu Yan hurriedly shifted his gaze from the monotonous sights to Yang Zhanbai to rest his eyes.

Yang Zhanbai was about 20 meters ahead of him.

An hour ago, he had come over to discuss things with Zhu Yan. They decided to split up to search—one from the front to the back, and the other from the back to the front—so they could shorten the time it took to leave.

With a twisted sense of humor, Zhu Yan pretended to be a manipulated puppet, nodding numbly in agreement.

Yang Zhanbai wasn't following closely, so his movements were relatively free.

He could even sneak a glance at his phone from time to time when Yang Zhanbai was looking down to inspect things.

There was no cell signal here, but the phone could still display the time.

He wasn't afraid of Yang Zhanbai acting suspiciously.

Anyway, he was currently cooperating with the Solace Mother.

If anything went wrong, there would always be puppets to tell him!

It was already almost four in the afternoon—

Zhu Yan sighed, walking quickly past those children with blurred details, heading toward the 101st line.

The fifth child in the line was fiddling with a hairclip on her head.

Just as Zhu Yan was about to inspect it, Yang Zhanbai's voice overpowered the layers of laughter, forcefully piercing his ears.

Zhu Zeyu!! Come here, I found it!!

Oh, damn, like music to his ears!

Zhu Yan straightened his back, bumped past those swaying, giggling lines, and strode toward Yang Zhanbai.

Here.

Yang Zhanbai raised his hand. As soon as Zhu Yan arrived, he pointed to the hair of the child next to him.

Look. A red hairclip.

The sweat on his face stood out clearly against the blurry, greasy, warm yellow patches of color.

Zhu Yan carefully looked down to examine the child and felt a surge of joy.

Sure enough—

It was no longer a small pink hairclip, but a large red one of the same style.

Amidst the black hair, this splash of red was exceptionally vivid and striking!

This is it. Zhu Yan straightened up and pretended to look at Yang Zhanbai blankly.

In Yang Zhanbai's eyes, he was still just a poor, manipulated victim.

He still had to keep up the act!

Let's go.

Yang Zhanbai stared at his face, carefully confirming his condition.

Hmm... sluggish, stiff, mindless.

Just like when he suggested splitting up, he seemed to react to spoken words, but completely lacked his usual sharpness and vitality!

Damn it.

Yang Zhanbai lowered his eyes. In his peripheral vision, the children and the unextinguished lights blurred into a hazy patch of color.

These damn thriller creatures. He only hated that his abilities weren't strong enough.

Once he got Zhu Zeyu out, he would definitely try to see if he could slaughter his way straight through these things!

Yang Zhanbai swallowed nervously. Hey, what are you zoning out for?

Zhu Yan wanted to punch him.

Zoning out, his ass. He was waiting for Yang Zhanbai to go first.

The Solace Mother was still watching.

Its goal was to eat Yang Zhanbai, the Hunter. And the story told to Yang Zhanbai was that the location of the giant mouth is the exit.

No matter how you looked at it, Yang Zhanbai should be the one walking in front.

Act, bro, act!

Feigning dullness, Zhu Yan explicitly stated, You go first, or I won't move. Go into the shop. The exit is inside.

Fuck.

Yang Zhanbai cursed inwardly.

He was the Hunter; the thriller creatures couldn't hurt him anyway.

Even if he forced Zhu Zeyu to walk in front, these thriller creatures couldn't do anything to him.

Because of this fearlessness, Yang Zhanbai had absolutely no sense of acting.

Who knew that the thoroughly manipulated Zhu Zeyu wouldn't be willing!

Fine.

Yang Zhanbai decisively changed his strategy. Turning his head to stare at Zhu Yan, he strode toward the glass doors of the store.

Then you follow behind me.

As long as he was willing to follow, it would just take a hard shove at the final moment.

To his delight, Zhu Zeyu silently followed behind him like a wooden puppet.

It worked!

As Yang Zhanbai walked forward, Zhu Yan keenly noticed a momentary change in the surrounding noise.

For a single second, all those children let out the exact same laugh in unison—

Like a celebration, a heartfelt joy coming from deep within!

But everything quickly returned to normal, making that brief moment seem like an illusion.

Zhu Yan's heartbeat involuntarily sped up.

The moment he followed Yang Zhanbai and stepped onto the floor of David's Kitchen, with a thought, he activated his ability, Humiliation!

Behind the wall was directly the inside of the giant mouth.

In this situation, life and death could be decided in a single breath.

Complaint was a level-five ability, but it took a bit longer to take effect; it wouldn't save his life in such a short window.

Although Humiliation was only level four, it was fast. It could instantly drain the strength from that mouth!

By using Humiliation, there was a high probability he would have time to shout the words, I am the real Hunter!

Having made up his mind, Zhu Yan followed Yang Zhanbai, slowly walking through the dining area.

The children here were no longer eating their yogurt bowls—

Over a dozen pairs of hollow, greasy eyes stared fixedly at the two of them. The corners of all the children's mouths maintained a standard smiling curve, like a room full of lifelike dolls.

Zhu Yan noticed Yang Zhanbai tightening his grip on the knife in his hand, the veins on the back of his hand bulging clearly.

At this time, the mark on his hand shouldn't have disappeared yet.

Zhu Yan drafted a script in his mind, figuring out the lines he was going to say to Yang Zhanbai.

Ahead, Yang Zhanbai had already pushed open the door to the back kitchen.

There was no woman here, or rather, there was nothing here at all.

Behind the door was only a blank two-square-meter empty space and a pure white wall.

This was it!

His heart throbbed strangely for a moment, soon swept up by a surging wave of joy.

But this time, Zhu Yan didn't stop it—

Inside the giant mouth, he didn't need to be calm.

He watched Yang Zhanbai, who had stopped ahead with his body tense with nerves, and decisively took a step forward.

That level-five dining knife pressed against Yang Zhanbai's back in a threatening posture for the first time!

Yang Zhanbai froze.

Before he could react, Zhu Yan quickly leaned in and whispered to him in a voice only the two of them could hear.

Yang Zhanbai, listen carefully.

The Hunter cannot safely reach the end of the instance. This identity seems useful on the surface, but in reality, it's just meant to be expendable.

Yang Zhanbai was stunned.

What did that mean?

What did Zhu Zeyu mean?

No, rather, what did the Solace Mother controlling Zhu Zeyu mean?

Did it want to use Zhu Zeyu's hands to kill him?

For a moment, Yang Zhanbai wanted to turn around and immediately shove Zhu Zeyu against the wall—

However, the continuous whispering kept pouring into his mind, bringing even more explosive news.

I volunteered to become the next Hunter in exchange for this information.

The Hunter mark in your hand will disappear very soon.

"The exit is a death trap. They lied to you."

"Listen to me. The moment the scene changes, run!"

As he spoke, Zhu Yan grabbed Yang Zhanbai and yanked him forcefully backward.

Then, moving with blinding speed, he took two quick strides and charged straight into the solid wall!