Release the Bone Spur

At the same moment the sound vanished, the blade veered lightly and precisely to the side, piercing the Head Chef’s heart.

“You—!”

The Head Chef’s eyes bulged wide.

The Laughing-Cry Heart rapidly dissolved into blood and water, while the Head Chef, frozen in an expression of disbelief, decayed and liquefied into a pool of pus at a visible rate. Only the blade remained lodged between his ribs.

A pale pink skeletal frame stood before Zhu Yan like a model; two seconds later, as the membranes completely collapsed, the skeleton itself shattered into fragments.

Zhu Yan withdrew the blade.

The Mist receded from the puppet form, swiftly coalescing back into Zhu Yan’s original appearance.

He lowered his head, staring at his left palm for a few seconds, then quickly entered the Player Forum. As he hurried toward the main entrance, he checked Yang Zhanbai’s private messages.

Sure enough, there were already over twenty unread messages crammed into the inbox.

These messages detailed everything that had happened in the Lazy Hat Craft Shop, complete with several clearly filmed short videos from different angles.

For example, Dragonfly arguing relentlessly, refusing to come to work.

For example, Dragonfly’s absurd excuse about being “injured by the Hunter,” followed by Yang Zhanbai’s inquiries and expressions of concern below.

Zhu Yan skimmed through them quickly. The more he read, the more something felt off.

This Dragonfly was very strange.

Even from Zhu Yan’s perspective, he had indeed offended the creature, but it didn’t seem bothered by any of it.

From Yang Zhanbai’s mention that Dragonfly had closed up shop and lay motionless on the rocking chair, all the way to Dragonfly being forced to work, with large tears streaming down in the leaked videos.

What this thing seemed to care about was always only—

not working, holidays, and hiding away.

It genuinely seemed unwilling to get involved in conflict, wishing it could just lie around in the shop all the time.

If Dragonfly really wanted to tattle and seek revenge, when that surveillance-call came in, it could have blurted out all the information it knew about the Hunter.

So, the Lazy Hat Craft Shop…

Zhu Yan thought of the shop name and fell silent again.

Assuming that’s what Dragonfly cared about, it wasn’t hard to handle.

He scrolled to the very bottom of the long message box and saw the latest from Yang Zhanbai, sent just minutes ago:

“Dragonfly’s gone. We’re going to grab some weapons and head downstairs to meet you.”

“Before it left, it gave the transformation command for this floor.”

“We’ll probably need ten or fifteen minutes. There’s too much stuff here, finding weapons is a pain…”

Zhu Yan pondered for a few seconds.

These guys were coming now?

Before he had everything settled, they’d only mess things up, wouldn’t they?

This wasn’t right at all!

Zhu Yan fixed his gaze on the input box and began replying to Yang Zhanbai:

“I got some info. The Kitchen is currently sealed off. The corridor is full of high-level horror creatures. I forced one to talk—it said they’re above Level 10. Nothing can get in from outside, and nothing can get out from inside.”

Yang Zhanbai responded quickly: “Damn, for real?”

Zhu Yan was far from reassured.

Yang Zhanbai’s personality was the type to dive headfirst into danger, and Chen Zhaoxing was the same.

Those two were like kindred spirits meeting over low mountains and foul waters—once they clicked, the other two would probably just go with the flow and follow along.

At that point, they’d only be obstacles, making a mess worse than porridge.

“Don’t rush. The situation here is dangerous.”

“There’s a room with a cage full of players—at least a few dozen people. That Hunter is also there, but it seems to have made enemies with these horror creatures.”

Yang Zhanbai confirmed: “A cage full of players? I just checked my phone messages, and yeah, some people said the horror creatures smashed through windows to catch people.”

“But those people have gone dark, no updates since.”

“Besides that? What about the Hunter? Don’t get anywhere near it, you hear!”

“They were the ones grabbed through the windows,” Zhu Yan replied casually. “As for the Hunter, I didn’t dare face him, but I caught some rumors.”

Zhu Yan looked up at the corridor.

The access door was about twenty meters away from him, with a few bits of gold-and-red porcelain chips scattered on the floor from the Porcelain Doll’s dress.

Timing it, he slowed his pace and fleshed out the half-told lie.

“Those horror creatures are dealing with the Hunter. I hear he’s trying to steal some treasure, so they’re guarding it tightly.”

“The two sides will probably start fighting soon.”

Sure, wasn’t that right? At most a minute from now.

“I can still stay low for now. The Hunter and the horror creatures should tear into each other.”

“You guys wait. Once the dust settles, I’ll send you a message.”

Upstairs.

Yang Zhanbai stared grimly at the red text projected onto his retina.

Zhu Zeyu’s reasoning was sound…

High-level horror creatures, all above Level 10.

The info should be reliable. Zhu Zeyu said he “forced” it out of them, probably using that Level 8 military sabre to intimidate a creature inside.

Level 10 horror creatures—they probably couldn’t handle that. Going there would only be adding bodies to the pile.

The safe play was indeed to wait for Zhu Zeyu’s update.

But that guy had a track record of not replying for half a day at a time…

Yang Zhanbai replied: “Alright. In twenty minutes, whether it’s good or bad, give me a shout.”

“If I don’t hear back from you, we’re coming straight over.”

Twenty minutes.

Zhu Yan typed a single “got it” and exited the Player Forum.

Twenty minutes was plenty of time for him to deal with these horror creatures and then bring Dragonfly back to the Kitchen to clean up the mess the Head Chef had left behind.

Zhu Yan strode to the access door and pushed it open.

As the door cracked open, he activated Disguise, his body dissolving into Mist form and flowing out smoothly.

Just moments ago, the poor Head Chef had unwittingly served as a test for Zhu Yan.

Even if high-level horror creatures could see through Disguise, the Hang ability still worked.

In Mist form, Zhu Yan was invulnerable to blades—

unless the horror creatures tried to devour him.

Outside the door.

Corpse Stick stared at the bloody mist seeping through the door crack, utterly bewildered.

“What the hell is this thing?” Its stiff brow furrowed downward. “It has the scent of a player, but…”

But this form was way too bizarre.

It wasn’t even purely Mist—it was more like a mesh of liquefied flesh, crushed bones, and blood churned together into a slimy web.

It crawled like an insect, exuding unmistakable horror creature traits!

Yet why did it radiate the appetizing aroma of a player—?

Head Chef had said something earlier, hadn’t he?

“A high-level Demon is coming to open the door. If not, attack immediately with weapons.”

A thought flickered through Corpse Stick’s mind.

Even though this thing in front of them looked delicious, orders came first.

Besides, if it really was the Hunter in disguise, once they unleashed their weapons and killed it completely, they could still feast on it all the same!

Corpse Stick hopped backward and shouted at the widening door crack:

“Release bone spikes! Everyone, release bone spikes now! This isn’t from the Head Chef! Kill him!”