Like Chinese Herbal Medicine to Humans

Of course, that's no problem.

Zhu Yan stared at the two puppets with vacant expressions before him, his smile deepening.

He brazenly pulled out his phone and sent a message to Qi Yinming.

"The creatures of terror on our floor aren't limited to just the Skin Tailor."

"Brother Qi, could you look something up for me in the library?"

On the other end, Qi Yinming replied instantly.

"Are you okay? Chen Zhaoxing and the others went out to find you. Where are you?"

"No, first tell me what you need me to look up."

He sounded uneasy. "Don't bother answering anything trivial."

"Fog," Zhu Yan typed back quickly. "It's a bit dangerous out here, so I won't reply for now."

Watching Zhu Yan's movements, the two puppets furrowed their brows in unison, their eye sockets casting shadows over eyes that had already dimmed to a murky gray.

"And what are you doing now?"

One of the faces managed a fairly vivid imitation of suspicion.

Four eyeballs swiveled, then fixed squarely on the phone in Zhu Yan's hand.

"How do you even know how to use something like that?"

"Why are you always holding me back?"

One of the puppets tilted its head, its neck bones letting out a dry crack.

"I came here to cooperate with you. But what exactly are you trying to do?"

Pathetic.

Zhu Yan shot the puppet a glance, utterly unfazed.

Of course, what he wanted was to wipe them all out, to kill every last one.

"You mean a human phone?" He shook the device in his hand. "A faux-human taught me how to use it."

The puppet tried to press further, but Zhu Yan let out a cold laugh, cutting off its next question mid-throat.

"Can you guarantee the Hunter isn't out there? If he cuts you into fog again, don't expect me to save you."

He waved the phone. "Keeping contact with the outside world through this thing, watching how the situation develops—what's wrong with that?"

The puppets fell silent.

Zhu Yan studied them carefully, making sure they had no intention of moving, then strained his ears to listen for sounds from outside the door.

Outside.

With the help of several strawberry chocolates, Xu Tongguang had regained some strength.

He stood up, clutching his head, still dazed and disoriented.

"What the hell, there's more than one monster in the hallway? What about Zhu Zeyu?"

"We made quite a racket just now—did he—"

"Xu Tongguang!" A new voice came through the door.

Zhu Yan's heart nearly sank.

Shit.

Yang Zhanbai had gotten out too?!

If all three of them couldn't find the real Zhu Zeyu alive and breathing, even though he'd tipped off Qi Yinming, it would still raise suspicion.

He'd have to come up with a good excuse for "Zhu Zeyu."

Zhu Yan forced himself to refocus.

Right now, his goal was simple: kill this Fog.

But he had no idea how many of these puppets it had, or where they were.

He didn't know the Fog's characteristics either.

He'd have to wait for Qi Yinming's message.

"What do we do now?"

The two puppets grew impatient, waiting for Zhu Yan to make a move.

"Just standing here like idiots?"

"On the other floors, the Skin Tailors have already devoured most of the people!"

The Fog was thoroughly dissatisfied.

It had a puppet on every floor of this game and was perfectly aware of how things were going on each one.

On the fastest-progressing floor, the Skin Tailor had already evolved to level five, capable of going on a full-on killing spree.

Compared to that, this one was a total waste!

Its puppets' murky gray eyes fixed on Zhu Yan, their mouths twisting into harsh frowns.

What a noob.

After all this effort, the Skin Tailor's level was barely higher than the puppets' own!

Zhu Yan's phone buzzed.

He glanced at the screen—a picture from Qi Yinming.

He quickly lit up the display, throwing the two puppets a half-hearted reassurance.

"Easy, easy."

"This floor does have the Hunter you're after, after all."

He raised a finger toward the door, struggling to hold back the urge to drop to his knees and cry "Father."

No, that was too easy. The audience in the Court of Many Acts would have gotten bored by now.

"This is the toughest floor. We have to be cautious."

"This skin of mine is a member of the player group chat. I think we should check the chat for updates..."

As he spoke, Zhu Yan openly opened his phone and skimmed through the picture Qi Yinming had sent.

Outside, Yang Zhanbai's voice drifted in, fragmented.

"What happened... I went around the other side of the hallway..."

"Isn't Zhu Zeyu with you guys?"

Zhu Yan's heart climbed into his throat again.

He forced himself to focus, racing through the text in the image, picking out the key points.

Read the highlights first. Then it was time to put on a show.

"Fog: an exceptionally peculiar terror creature, level zero, yet possessing a conceptual-level ability..."

"Fog has the characteristic of causing rapid loss of body temperature in humans."

"Although they may not be aware of this characteristic themselves, its applications are quite extensive."

"Statistics show that many Fogs have obtained their first low-level puppet through this method."

The puppets stared at Zhu Yan for a while, then started muttering to themselves.

"Fair point," one finally agreed grudgingly. "Freezing someone to death and taking over a new body would be way too much trouble."

"Too bad the puppet with that really useful ability didn't come down with me. I could have used it to kill without a trace."

Zhu Yan grasped the implication immediately. He couldn't help but look up.

This Fog had probably frozen someone to death in Dorm 106 before, using that method to take over a player's body.

One of those bodies likely had the ability to kill without leaving any evidence.

Under the light, the two corpses looked eerily real—aside from their pale skin and unfocused pupils, there was none of that stiff, dead quality.

"You're definitely not acting like the Hunter either," the puppet continued on its own. "You didn't call me 'Father,' and you've got the Skin Tailor's ability."

"God, you have no idea how much I've come to loathe the word 'Father'!"

Outside, Yang Zhanbai sounded like he was about to jump out of his skin. "You can't find him? That's impossible. Where else could he have gone?"

"And the Skin Tailor? I've been walking all the way here and haven't seen any sign of it."

Xu Tongguang started giving Yang Zhanbai a fragmented explanation.

Zhu Yan barely had the attention to listen. His head down, he quickly read the remaining text in the image.

"At present, no player ability can inflict irreversible damage on the Fog."

"Since players cannot directly kill the Fog, it can obtain an endless supply of skins if it so desires."

Zhu Yan's eyes slid to the final paragraph.

"The Fog fears nothing."

"Player, if you are unlucky enough to encounter it, you have two options:"

"If your level is sufficiently high, run—as far as you possibly can."

"If your level isn't high enough, you can try cooperating with horror creatures, because the [Mist] can be devoured by them."

"But where would you find a horror creature willing to listen to a player?"

"Besides, to a horror creature, the [Mist] is like Chinese medicine is to a human."

"Blech!"