I Am the Lead Actor

Testing the house directly was less risky than testing the landlord directly.

The [Man-Eating House] was almost incapable of hunting prey on its own, which was why it had a landlord who could move around freely.

Zhu Yan's ability, [Complain], was only effective against thriller creatures of level 4 and below.

If he rashly tested the landlord, and the landlord noticed his little trick—and happened to be level 5...

Zhu Yan didn't dare take that gamble.

He followed the landlord up the old stairs, carefully observing the house's reactions.

If the house was level 4, then after [Complain] was used, it shouldn't have the energy to make noise.

Clack!

The stair plank right in front of Zhu Yan suddenly jolted, like a loud protest!

Then, the wooden floorboards of the entire house began to rattle even more violently, like someone jumping up and down in fierce indignation after suffering a grave offense.

So, the [Man-Eating House]... was level 5?

"So noisy. I called you a toad, and you really act like one."

Zhu Yan casually muttered a low-voiced [Complain].

He had intended to firmly conclude his guess that the house was level 5, but as soon as those words left his mouth, the originally clamorous house gradually went silent.

The wooden planks of the stairs tried to jump up, but unfortunately, they only lifted slightly before dropping back down, as if all their strength had been drained!

Zhu Yan's heart skipped a beat.

He followed the landlord, slowly climbing up to the corner, and calmed his mind to observe.

The [Man-Eating House], which had constantly been making crackling sounds, no longer rattled violently like before.

The crackling had indeed weakened significantly, sounding feeble and exhausted.

Alright, the house was level 4.

It was just that the first [Complain] hadn't drained all its strength, and the final [Complain] was the straw that broke the camel's back!

Zhu Yan looked up. The landlord's old red bathrobe swayed back and forth in his line of sight, making him feel that things were getting a bit tricky.

The landlord was level 5.

Unlike the [Man-Eating House] which couldn't hunt on its own, the landlord could move freely, making it inherently harder to deal with.

And a level 5 entity was an existence that neither his dagger nor his offensive abilities could handle.

What should he do?

While he was thinking, the landlord suddenly clamped down on Zhu Yan's arm, dragging him upward.

"Hurry up, kid!" it said irritably.

It yanked on the second-floor lights. The rushing smell of dust and blood made Zhu Yan involuntarily wrinkle his nose.

The second floor was even more cramped than the first, with a long, narrow corridor connecting three or four doors and another staircase at the very end.

The landlord's strength was too great.

It dragged Zhu Yan to the door closest to the stairs on the second floor and fished a key out of its pocket.

"This is your room, kid."

The landlord's voice was quite chilling, echoing through the corridor where the lighting was so dim it looked gray.

Zhu Yan could even hear the sound of saliva swirling around the tips of the landlord's teeth, causing his heart to clench slightly.

This wasn't his room; this was probably—

The mouth.

The door lock clattered. Zhu Yan's free hand tightly gripped the dagger in his pants pocket.

Up until now, things had gone just as he had anticipated, with no secondary accidents occurring for the time being.

However, with one hand pinned, he had to be cautious to the extreme in order to turn the tables next!

Zhu Yan calculated rapidly.

The dilapidated wooden door let out a teeth-aching creak.

The landlord couldn't wait any longer.

It raised a foot to kick the door open and violently shoved Zhu Yan toward the center of the pitch-black room.

"You can only eat half!" it shrieked sharply at the house. "Leave half for me!"

Now was the time!

With a thought, Zhu Yan immediately activated his ability, [Impersonate]!

The next second.

He fell hard into a trap that felt disgustingly slippery and was filled with slime.

The landlord lunged forward at the same moment, and the trap also immediately realized something was wrong, forcefully pushing Zhu Yan back up.

In the darkness, the landlord's mouth opened wide.

Zhu Yan could see the cold-gleaming saliva wrapped around its rotting teeth, only a foot away from his face.

"Enough!" he shouted decisively.

His voice transformed into a slightly hoarse female voice—

Perhaps it was because of the [Impersonate] ability taking effect after leveling up, or perhaps [Impersonate] inherently had this function.

Zhu Yan didn't know.

He had never before dared to [Impersonate] a high-level thriller creature that he had only met once and hadn't even heard speak!

Under the dim light, obvious terror suddenly erupted in the landlord's murky eyes.

It abruptly twisted its body, forcing itself to miss its pounce.

Zhu Yan felt a wave of relief.

Using the upward thrust from behind, he landed steadily on the room's old, brittle carpet.

The slime inside the [Man-Eating House]'s mouth seemed corrosive; Zhu Yan felt a dense itch spreading across his back.

The itch was intense, showing signs of turning into pain.

—But he could endure it.

He had to endure it; he needed to keep this game going.

Zhu Yan turned around with an elegant posture, looking down condescendingly at the landlord groveling on the floor.

"You... You..."

The landlord trembled hoarsely. It seemed to have rolled on the ground, leaving ash stains on its red velvet pajamas.

In its eyes, the human before it had swept away all previous weakness and annoyance—no, no, this wasn't a human at all.

This was a woman wearing a gorgeous dark red dress, its Rococo-style hem occupying nearly half the room.

Her entire body was rotting and ulcerated, her skin a livid gray, and her hollow eye sockets stared at it like an abyss.

"You... Why are you...?"

The landlord looked up at Zhu Yan, its sagging facial skin wrinkling into an expression of fear mixed with a trace of confusion.

Zhu Yan didn't miss this faint trace of confusion.

This fully ulcerated woman was the noblewoman suspected of having syphilis that he had seen on the third floor of the [Hall of Mourning].

At that time, Miss Doppelganger had mocked him for staring recklessly at high-level thriller creatures and had casually mentioned the [Abyssal Eye Club].

Zhu Yan had truly run out of options.

Although they had only crossed paths once, using [Impersonate] on someone he had actually seen was much more convincing than trying to [Impersonate] an imagined high-level doppelganger.

He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, forcing himself not to tremble from the increasingly severe pain and itching on his back.

"You really think highly of yourself! What right do you have to question the tastes of the [Abyssal Eye Club]?"

Zhu Yan looked at the landlord with a cold sneer, throwing the question back and letting out a meaningful sigh.

"Can't even afford the rent for the [Man-Eating House]..."

"I see this house of yours has been starving for quite a long time, hasn't it?"

He observed the landlord; clearly, the words [Abyssal Eye] had intimidated it.

The landlord didn't grow suspicious and trembled even more violently.

"I... I'm sorry, spare my life, Madam. I didn't mean to fall into arrears!"

Just as expected.

Zhu Yan calculated inwardly.

Being able to use the word arrears meant it had been at least a month since the rent was paid.

He maintained his silence. In this kind of situation, silence often tormented the other party's state of mind, forcing them to speak more.

A few seconds later, the landlord groveled even lower.

"Madam, I... I... I didn't mean to starve it either... No, I didn't mean to use you to feed it either, I..."

It gritted its teeth. Who could have known that high-level anomalies possessed such a twisted hobby of pretending to be human!

"I... there is an instance tonight. I will use two players to fill its stomach, I swear."

Two players. That was a new piece of information.

Zhu Yan raised his eyebrows.

Besides him, who else could it be?

Was it someone else from the police department?