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It angrily flicked the sheet of paper aside, stood up, and rummaged through the drawers behind it with a series of loud bangs.

“I never want to see this disgusting stuff again!”

“I’ll accept any punishment, as long as I never have to see lines like that again!”

…

Two minutes later.

A silver card flew out from the paper and smacked Zhu Yan in the face.

Zhu Yan’s heart leaped with delight.

He hurriedly caught the silver card and lowered his head to read the dense lines of text that had newly appeared on the paper.

The first section was written in neat print.

“Blank Upgrade Card: A silver card with no functions installed. Cards of this type are generally processed into [Temporary Player-Level Upgrade Cards]. This item is extremely rare.”

“Blank Upgrade Cards have no function and are visually indistinguishable from [Temporary Player-Level Upgrade Cards]. Players and the craftsmen responsible for processing them are advised to distinguish between them carefully.”

What a treasure!

Zhu Yan immediately clenched the card in his hand and skimmed through the text that followed.

This section had clearly been handwritten by Feining, and it was filled with overwhelming despair and malice.

“Get lost!! Get lost!! If you say something like that to me again, I’ll cancel your membership and blacklist you! Take your stuff and get out!”

“I don’t know whether your life is difficult, but I do know that you’ve made my life extremely difficult!”

The complaint was over.

Zhu Yan cheerfully tossed over a pile of bone coins, put away the membership purchase slip, activated [Invisibility], and quickly walked out.

…

Feining stared at the coins that had fallen onto it, its furious expression frozen on its face.

After a long while, it finally let out two coy sighs.

“Sigh… sigh. That bastard has come to me so many times, and I still regarded him as a friend…”

…

Zhu Yan slipped through the crack in the door.

With the matter settled, the weight on Qiu Lingfeng’s heart seemed to have finally lifted.

He lay on the sofa, taking a short rest with his eyes half-closed, seemingly lost in thought.

Zhu Yan activated [Telekinesis] and stuffed the fake silver card into Qiu Lingfeng’s ring.

His face still looked like Zhu Zeyu’s, and the flush on both cheeks had yet to fade.

There was no reason to stay here any longer. Everything they needed was ready; all that remained was to wait for the instance to begin.

Zhu Yan quietly withdrew, leaving behind only a tiny bit of [Mist] to keep watch, just in case.

…

After all that running around, it was already seven or eight in the evening.

Zhu Yan returned to Zhu Zeyu’s body and lazily accepted the milk tea Yang Zhanbai handed him.

“Those older guys sent it over,” Yang Zhanbai said, leaning against the edge of Zhu Zeyu’s bed. “When it comes to shamelessness, you really are something. The moment they saw General Qiu agree, they immediately had someone deliver it to us.”

All afternoon, Zhu Yan had been controlling Zhu Zeyu to pretend to be asleep.

At most, he could manage to split his attention between two things. He simply did not have the spare energy to deal with Yang Zhanbai.

Now that the important groundwork had been laid, Zhu Yan felt a little sleepy as well.

“I bought some things as a return gift.” Yang Zhanbai sighed. “But I have some bad news for you.”

Zhu Zeyu asked, “What is it?”

Perhaps because this place had originally been a research facility, the dormitory accommodations were much better than those at the Western Suburbs Shelter.

Their dorm room was small but had everything they needed, and it contained only two beds.

“Chen Zhaoxing,” Yang Zhanbai said gravely, “and my mother hit it off immediately.”

What the hell?

Zhu Yan failed to understand. “What exactly did the two of them hit off about?”

Yang Zhanbai let out a frustrated howl and covered his head.

“Help, I don’t even know how they managed to get together!”

“They took Xu Tongguang, Qi Yinming, and Qi Yinming’s mother into an instance! My God, I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen!”

Zhu Yan was not worried in the slightest.

“With Xu Tongguang there, what are you afraid of?” he said perfunctorily, patting Yang Zhanbai on the shoulder. “Relax. Even if something happens, Chen Zhaoxing will be the first to push Xu Tongguang out.”

“The only ones who’ll die will be Xu Tongguang and the horror creatures. And there’s a chance Xu Tongguang might even come back to life…”

Yang Zhanbai was nearly driven mad. He grabbed at his red hair, desperately trying to explain.

“That’s not what I mean… Damn it! You don’t understand… My mother will scare everyone to death equally!”

Zhu Zeyu truly did not understand.

All he could do was pat Yang Zhanbai and offer some strategic comfort.

“There’s nothing you can do by panicking now. Why don’t you go to sleep? Besides, as long as a person is alive, that’s better than anything else.”

“When will your mother arrive here?”

Yang Zhanbai let out a miserable wail.

“The day after tomorrow, probably. It sounds like it’s a long-term instance.”

He looked at Zhu Zeyu expectantly.

“Do you have any way to clear the instance quickly the day after tomorrow? I’m wondering whether I can finish things on my side and then break into my mother’s instance. It doesn’t look like that one has a player limit…”

Zhu Yan might not appear at all, he thought silently.

He patted Yang Zhanbai on the shoulder and gave him an ambiguous reply.

“Get a full day of sleep tomorrow. We’ll deal with the day after tomorrow when it comes. In any case, we just respond to whatever comes our way. We’re used to it by now.”

…

Zhu Yan happily slept for ten hours straight.

He was awakened by a pleasant female voice broadcasting through the room.

“Long time no see, dear player!”

Zhu Yan sat bolt upright in bed.

“Friendly reminder: Twenty-four hours have passed, and your abilities have been updated.”

Zhu Yan was nearly scared to death.

He let out a long breath and slid back beneath the covers, sinking into his soft pillow.

“Congratulations! You have obtained the abilities [Supernatural Exosuit], [Mind Reading], and [Blood-Bar Chains]!”

“We won’t go into the details. Players may log into the [Player Personal Center] to view the specific ability levels.”

“In addition, your [Walking Corpse] will retain these abilities as well.”

The female voice stopped.

Pretty good. Pretty good.

As for the levels, there was no need to check them yet. He could wait until the instance was over.

Zhu Yan lay there for a while, gradually waking up.

Then, still lying beneath the covers, he controlled the wisp of [Mist] that had remained beside Qiu Lingfeng, lowering it slightly before activating the ability [Mind Reading].

Qiu Lingfeng’s face had already returned to its original appearance, and Qiu Lingkai was also in the office today.

The two of them did not speak. They merely stared at the empty space before them.

The instant [Mind Reading] was activated, two voices poured into Zhu Yan’s ears at the same time, making him jolt.

“What exactly are you so nervous about?” That was Qiu Lingkai’s voice. “Nothing’s wrong. We’ve already found clues about [Tanyu Temple]…”

“Who knows what other tricks Hunter No. 1 has?” Qiu Lingfeng asked anxiously.

As they drew closer to entering the instance, he seemed, from the perspective of the [Mist] on the ceiling, to be growing somewhat uneasy instead.

A faint smile played across Qiu Lingkai’s slightly feminine face.

Whenever he looked toward the air, he had to enter the words through his thoughts, so his inner voice appeared clearly, one word at a time.

“Don’t be nervous. Listen to me. [Tanyu Temple] is a special instance. Just follow the plan. Hide behind the Guanyin statue, fulfill their wishes, and make offerings to the Buddha in the small room. Everything will go smoothly!”