Volunteer

Zhuyan took a bottle of water out of his ring, drank a few mouthfuls, and changed into a clean jacket to cover up the bloody smell all over his body.

[Smash and Grab].

There were very few clues about this instance. The only hint was a simple sentence on the mission paper when he first checked the quest at the [Nightmare Bookstore]: "Go rob your neighbor's house; you are the neighbor."

At that time, the number of participants in the instance was six, which was exactly the total of Zhuyan and Feng Yaozu's family of five.

Would the participants be their family of five?

Zhuyan sighed.

It was going to be difficult.

Leaving everything else aside, Feng Qiang's ability, [Telekinesis], allowed him to snatch the [Silver Storage Ring] right off Zhuyan's neck through walls and cabinets without any problem at all.

The best approach was to disguise himself as "Feng Yaozu" to participate in the instance.

After all, he didn't know what the setting would be. If it started as a high-risk scenario, confronting Feng Qiang head-on as "Feng Yaozu" would give him the highest chance of survival.

Moreover, he now had a sneaky little trick up his sleeve.

As long as he could call that Feng Qiang "Dad," everything would be secured.

The five-minute mark was approaching.

Zhuyan stood up, and with a mere thought, transformed into "Feng Yaozu."

The next second, his wrist was gently tugged.

Accompanied by a familiar pulling sensation, Zhuyan was dragged into a completely unfamiliar environment.

His feet were stepping on an asphalt road, and the female voice appeared once again, delivering a simple prompt.

"Please proceed to the main road ahead and find a way to follow the military truck to the mega-supermarket to collect supplies."

Zhuyan breathed a sigh of relief.

The robbery would definitely take place after the supplies were collected.

Since the supplies hadn't been collected yet, it meant the opening scene was still relatively friendly to him.

It was currently noon, and the road surface was softened by the August sun.

There were neat, square houses on both sides, and a few simply dressed residents carrying backpacks were hurrying toward the main road ahead.

"Hey, have you heard about what happened in the neighboring residential compound these past few days?"

"My goodness, I heard people are dying there every single day. So far, no less than ten households have had deaths."

The other person seemed less informed: "Oh? There are instances everywhere nowadays. Isn't it normal for people to die?"

Both of them were young, able-bodied men.

Could their conversation be considered a clue?

With a stir of his mind, Zhuyan shifted back into the appearance of "Zhu Zeyu" and quietly followed them.

Feng Yaozu was a bully. In the neighborhood, his usual behavior was probably eccentric and domineering.

Wearing that face wouldn't be very convenient for gathering information.

"It's all over our messaging groups," one of the men, who had a buzz cut, said with relish. "Someone's relative is a forensic doctor who specializes in receiving these sudden-death corpses."

"Do you know what the weirdest part is?"

"What is it?" the other asked curiously. "They all died suddenly, how can you tell any difference?"

"Ah, you just don't know," the buzz-cut man said mysteriously. "Out of those dozen or so people, a few of the bodies were much lighter than the others, and the middle of their stomachs was completely sunken in."

"Their internal organs were completely hollowed out!"

Zhuyan's heart skipped a beat as he thought of Feng Qiang's ability.

"[Telekinesis] Lv.5: You can take anything within a 50-meter radius. Even partitions like cabinets or walls are useless against this. Of course, you cannot use this move on players or thriller creatures above level 5, nor can you take item props above level 5."

Theoretically speaking, extracting human organs was something Feng Qiang could do.

But this was just too...

Zhuyan felt that he was still lacking in the creativity department.

"The police department sent people to investigate, but they didn't find anything. Later, I heard that to be cautious, this person went from taking all the organs to just taking the heart..."

The other person gasped.

"They didn't find anything at all?"

"Right," the buzz-cut man said with certainty. "Those people's houses were also completely ransacked. You know that level 4 player in apartment 607, building 15 next door, right? Even his spatial ring disappeared."

"I reckon the person doing these things must be of a pretty high level."

"Who knows how much stuff he's robbed!"

The other person fell silent.

A few seconds later, when they saw the military truck parked on the street and the uniformed officer holding a megaphone outside, they started talking again.

"This time, the survivors from the two neighborhoods are going in two batches to collect supplies," the buzz-cut man warned. "Whatever you do, don't show off that you're rich or strong."

Perhaps due to the physical enhancement of a level 5 player, Zhuyan heard the buzz-cut man's whispers very clearly.

Hearing this, he looked up at the truck ahead, but the scene he saw surprised him a bit.

The megaphone held by the young soldier was broadcasting the slogan "One person per household," yet there were only a sparse few people standing on the massive truck.

Zhuyan turned his head and glanced back at the residential area behind him.

The buildings were a bit old, with clothes still hanging out to dry on many balconies.

One person per household was supposed to come out and collect supplies.

With so many households, how could there be only this handful of people?

The officer holding the megaphone saw Zhuyan and waved at him in mild surprise.

"Oh, a new face!" he asked enthusiastically. "Which building and apartment are you from? How come I haven't seen you before?"

As Zhuyan got closer, he calmly cast a glance into the truck.

The two men who had just been talking were already on board. Counting them, there were exactly five people in the truck.

Counting Zhuyan, that made six, which was enough to make up the number of participants for the instance.

However, these other five people didn't seem to have received the instance notification; they all looked completely normal.

Two young people, and three middle-aged to elderly people with somewhat graying hair.

Among them, one person wore a red "Volunteer" armband on his sleeve, looking very amiable and approachable.

Hearing the young soldier ask this, he quickly stood up from the truck and chimed in.

"Young man, you look unfamiliar. What's your name? Have you participated in an instance before? Are you from our area?"

Oh, wow.

Zhuyan sneered inwardly.

If he hadn't spent money to investigate Feng Qiang's background, he definitely would have been deceived by this amiable appearance right now.

Wasn't this "volunteer" questioning him the very same Feng Qiang who knew [Telekinesis]?

Smooth.

Asking if he had participated in an instance and if he was from this area—wasn't that just screening for his next target?

"I..."

Zhuyan pretended to hesitate for a moment.

He had to answer this question, or he probably wouldn't be able to get on the truck.

He thought of the gossip the buzz-cut man had shared earlier.

What was it again?

The player in apartment 607, building 15, whose spatial ring had disappeared?

"Ah, I'm new here. Apartment 607, Building 15."

Zhuyan said it incredibly naturally, his eyes instantly turning red as his voice took on a slight choke.

"I survived two instances and just opened an account. My best friend died in there, and I have the key to his place. It just so happened that my landlord wanted my old place back, so I thought I'd come over here."

These words were pure bait.

Hilarious.

Judging from the earlier conversation between the buzz-cut guy and his companion, that old bastard Feng Qiang was nothing but a greedy piece of trash who murdered people for their loot.

In other words, as long as Zhu Yan offered something that caught his eye, Feng Qiang would help put in a good word, thereby increasing Zhu Yan's chances of getting on the vehicle.

Perhaps Zhu Yan could even use the guise of being "prey" to create more opportunities to interact with him.

Zhu Yan's gaze lightly swept over Feng Qiang's red armband as he sneered inwardly.

This man was very good at maintaining his public image.

Therefore, in a place like the supermarket, where making a move would be too obvious and easily draw suspicion, Feng Qiang wouldn't dare do anything to him.

This window of time inside the supermarket was the absolute perfect opportunity for Zhu Yan to pull off some wild maneuvers!