What Hell Container

Zhu Yan asked, "Dad, where is the [Key Fragment]?"

Shamelessly, he made a promise to the corpse that he could never keep.

"Tell me where the key fragment is, and I'll help you find more bodies."

The corpse twisted its neck and suddenly let out a cackling laugh.

Since it had been dead for several hours and its internal organs hadn't been removed in time, the corpse was decomposing rapidly, and its vocal cords seemed somewhat damaged.

The laugh was hoarse and unpleasant, like a beginner playing a broken violin.

"Good son, the [Key Fragment] is on you."

There was even a hint of eager amusement in its voice.

It really did "like" this player in front of it.

It had no way to determine what kind of emotion this was, or whether it was even right.

But that didn't stop it from gloating over its own clever actions earlier!

The corpse leaned its neck forward expectantly, a stiff, eerie grin stretching across its face, waiting for Zhu Yan's praise and reward.

Zhu Yan was startled.

That was some niche Chinese.

What did it mean, the [Key Fragment] was on him?

He was Tu Shan now.

The real Tu Shan was already dead.

Was the [Key Fragment]... on Tu Shan's body?

Zhu Yan immediately asked, "Dad, what does that mean? Are you sure?"

The corpse laughed hoarsely again.

Zhu Yan stood still, not daring to move, gripping his knife tightly.

This time, it took a long while for the laughter to subside.

The corpse strained to move its joints, raising a hand to pat its own chest.

"This puppet has an interesting ability."

Its tone was now completely distorted, taking on a non-human quality.

"It can dissolve objects in water and then transfer them."

A rather useless ability, niche and unhelpful in the "Carnival Paradise" instance.

Zhu Yan stared at the corpse, absentmindedly wondering how that guy had even survived his first instance.

The corpse took a step forward, staggering closer to Zhu Yan.

It opened its mouth, and a stench of rotting organs mixed with the smell of dried protein wafted over, making Zhu Yan instinctively recoil.

"Aha, my little useless son."

The voice was still affectionate, but Zhu Yan detected a hint of cruel smugness.

"Do you remember? When you caught your first victim, he threw something into your mouth."

Zhu Yan remembered.

Chen Zhaoxing had indeed thrown a super-spicy cockroach into Tu Shan's mouth.

And then that thing...

Zhu Yan swallowed.

He remembered.

This corpse had given Tu Shan a bottle of water to drink.

If the ability was "dissolve objects in water and then transfer"...

"Dad, are you saying the [Key Fragment] was in that bottle of water?"

Zhu Yan asked softly, staring into those glazed, lifeless eyes, suddenly overcome with a strong urge to vomit.

But the corpse opposite seemed completely unaware.

It suddenly raised its arms, grabbed Zhu Yan's shoulders tightly with both hands, and frantically forced him to look at its ruined face.

"Hahahahaha! Aha—Son, praise me!"

Its tone shot up sharply, cracking, but its expression was manic.

"The [Key Fragment] was always in this room, but I thought about it over and over, and I just didn't feel it was safe enough!"

"It wasn't safe enough! You're as greedy as I am—I saw you become a [Hunter], and another [Hunter] already took out two Keepers!"

The corpse swayed back and forth, its head nodding like a puppet with no joints.

"Sooner or later, you'd find out about the [Key Fragment]! Sooner or later, you'd come looking for it!"

"Dad!" Zhu Yan hurriedly added.

That last sentence made him uneasy; he didn't know if this crazed thing had sensed something.

Even though reason told him the corpse in front of him was nothing to fear, it was still better to play it safe.

It was just Zhu Yan's meaningless action to enhance his sense of security.

The corpse paused, then its mouth stretched wider in ecstatic joy.

Now this was its good son!

A true appreciation of its cruelty, caution, and cunning...

"I knew you understood me."

The corpse said urgently, its fingers almost digging through the uniform and into Zhu Yan's shoulders.

"Hahaha! Good son, I understand you too. You did ask, didn't you!"

The clouds of mist in the room were still trembling.

An inexplicable elation ran through every tiny droplet that made up the mist, causing the manipulated corpse to quiver slightly.

"Originally, according to the rules, you had to get the first two fragments before you could get the third."

"I was worried too—if I stuffed the third fragment into your stomach, would 'Carnival Paradise' judge that you'd obtained it?"

The corpse widened its eyes in excitement.

"But no—hahahahaha! Instead, 'Carnival Paradise' told me I'd found the perfect container!"

"A greedy man like you, if you want the [Key Fragment], you'll have to cut open your belly—the container."

"I don't think you'd want that, would you?"

Those glazed eyes blazed with fervor, bluish-purple veins creeping from the whites toward the pupils like tiny worms.

Zhu Yan curled one corner of his mouth.

Of course he didn't want to cut open his own belly.

But he had no problem cutting open Tu Shan's!

The corpse continued to rave.

"And no one would ever think the [Key Fragment] was inside you."

"Even if they did figure it out, they probably wouldn't find you, and their level wouldn't be high enough to withstand the attack of your army knife!"

Oh, oh, okay.

Zhu Yan tilted his head, imitating the corpse.

Let's just say...

His level really wasn't high enough to withstand the attack of that army knife.

But that army knife belonged entirely to him now.

"You see, this way, father and son can be together forever."

"You're the container, so I can follow you floor by floor up the tower."

"You find me bodies, find stronger puppets, and I can grow stronger."

"When I'm strong enough, I can cooperate with you and find myself a better body."

Zhu Yan nodded. "Excellent plan. Utterly self-serving."

"I knew you'd understand!" The corpse was even more excited. "Come on, son. Quick, kill this player on the ground!"

It let go of Zhu Yan and pointed at Xu Tongguang, who was passed out on the side.

"This body won't last much longer. I need a newer one!"

"Ah, just a moment, Dad." Zhu Yan said coldly.

He'd had enough excitement, and the stench from the corpse was making him want to throw up.

He stared quietly at the nearly insane corpse, his mind stirring slightly.

There was a saying, wasn't there—everything has two sides, advantages and disadvantages go hand in hand.

What had this mist told him earlier?

A puppet could only be a dead corpse; it couldn't inhabit a living person or a living eerie creature.

Without a puppet, it couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't communicate.

Roughly speaking, without the puppets, it couldn’t break down the door of Dorm 303, nor could it chant the floor-change command.

That made things a whole lot easier.

Zhu Yan had stolen all the corpses from here to complete his 【Hunter】 feeding mission, then grabbed Xu Tongguang and made a run for it. What could it do about it, anyway?

After all, he had already obtained the information he needed.

【Key Fragment 3】 was inside Tu Shan’s body—probably in his stomach.

And Tu Shan’s corpse was right there in his ring!