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After the Devouring Villa instance ended, two of his abilities had leveled up.

Zhu Yan opened his abilities page to check the detailed descriptions.

Acting hadn't leveled up this time, so Zhu Yan scrolled straight down to look at Complaining and Bullying.

"Complaining Lv.5: You can verbally abuse, shift blame onto, or otherwise personally attack a specific target, pointing out that they are the cause of your misfortune. This weakens their spirit and extracts their power."

"The degree to which the specific target is affected is determined by their player level. Currently, players at level 5 or above are completely immune."

"This ability has no effect on you."

Alright, unlike Acting back then, it seemed the Complaining ability could only be upgraded mechanically.

Zhu Yan continued reading.

"Bullying Lv.3: Your physical violence against a specific target will cause them to feel full-body lethargy. This ability is ineffective against thriller creatures and players of level 4 or above."

"This ability has no effect on you."

Zhu Yan thought this was decent enough.

Knowing the nature of the Carnival Paradise, the thriller creatures he would encounter in future instances absolutely wouldn't be just level three.

However, using this ability against players with malicious intent made it an excellent self-defense technique!

He picked up a soup dumpling with his chopsticks and slowly slurped the sweet, savory meat broth inside.

A man started complaining to a woman about leaving the city, and gossip mixed with a local accent drifted into Zhu Yan's ears.

"...I personally suspect they're trying to catch a terrorist organization, anti-terrorism stuff, so no one is allowed to leave the city."

"Hard to say... My relatives said a few days ago that the epidemic over in Bailu has spread."

"Absolutely impossible," the man said with certainty. "Look how far we are from Bailu. If it were spreading, it would spread to the surrounding cities first. Sigh, everyone is panicking right now..."

As Zhu Yan listened, he entered the online mall to see if any new items had refreshed.

The Plague Exemption Time was only ten days, and he still needed to find a witch.

"And that message sent by the police department, what's up with the envelope?"

Zhu Yan quickly flipped through the pages and found that the mall had updated with an item available for players level 3 and above.

It was the Storage Silver Ring. The product details were as simple as always.

"Lovingly crafted by the Slacker Craft Store! Contains 5 cubic meters of storage space, with thermal insulation and preservation functions."

"Cover the ring with your player mark for three seconds to complete the binding."

"Friendly reminder: Do not wear it on your left hand."

Zhu Yan remembered this Slacker Craft Store—their player badges were also made by this shop.

Not wearing it on the left hand was probably because the left hand was easily chopped off.

"Who knows, I didn't receive it anyway." The man's voice reached Zhu Yan's ears. "Could be a threat letter from a terrorist organization for all we know."

The price of this Storage Silver Ring was 200 bone coins.

Zhu Yan absentmindedly swallowed a mouthful of wonton and roughly visualized it.

A space of 1 square meter, five meters high. Besides food, it could hold quite a lot of various supplies and props.

Moreover, food could be kept warm and fresh.

For a portable space, this price really wasn't expensive, mainly because it was just too convenient.

Zhu Yan bought it decisively and casually slipped the silver ring that abruptly appeared in his palm onto his right hand.

The ring automatically adjusted to the right size. Following the instructions, Zhu Yan covered his right ring finger with the player mark on his left hand.

Three seconds later, he felt a thin stream of heat travel up his finger, gradually seeping into his heart.

"Tell me, in this day and age, where are there still terrorist organizations..."

Zhu Yan picked up a soup dumpling, his eyes not idle either, as he entered the Player Forum and searched for the keyword "witch."

He hadn't forgotten what he needed to do.

With the Plague Exemption Time at only ten days, if he couldn't enter a useful instance, he would really lose his life.

Compared to his previous search for "cannibal house," there were actually more results this time.

There was information!

Zhu Yan was so excited that his hand trembled, breaking the skin of the soup dumpling.

He hurriedly leaned in to slurp the meat broth while browsing the striking red text in his field of vision.

These few posts about "witch" were all from the same player.

It was just unfortunate that this player not only had the same avatar as him but also the same name, becoming an Account Deleted.

Zhu Yan scrolled through them; these posts seemed to be describing the same event.

"Hello everyone, I am an occult enthusiast. Before the instances descended, I was studying Western occultism..."

"In my circle, people like me are called solitary witches."

"Today I passed the novice instance, but my colleague sacrificed themselves."

None of this was important.

Zhu Yan continued reading and found the girl to be somewhat superstitious and erratic.

"I encountered something extremely bizarre, so I wanted to come and ask for help, to see if there are any brothers or sisters like me."

"After my colleague died, I went home and performed a magic ritual to connect with the Archangel Gabriel. I asked him to give my colleague a good resting place and asked him what all of this was really about."

Zhu Yan tried very hard to understand these words.

That inappropriate sense of humor returned.

Of course, he wasn't involved in occult circles, but how was a European region angel supposed to manage an Asian region dead person?

He hoped the angel didn't just blast her colleague straight into the Carnival Paradise.

"I have never made a mistake doing this ritual, but this time was a bit different..."

"I am lying in bed right now, and I can hear a voice speaking to me. It's not the broadcast; it's another kind of voice."

Zhu Yan stared at this sentence and read it several times.

It was very ordinary, but for some reason, the fine hairs on his back stood up on end.

The old air conditioner hummed and sputtered, blowing a burst of bone-chilling cold air toward Zhu Yan.

The murmuring of the man and woman stopped. Zhu Yan looked up at the bright sun shining outside to calm himself down.

"That voice told me its name, but I couldn't hear what it was called clearly."

"It said that I overstepped my bounds, daring to bypass the witch and make a request directly to it."

The girl left two extra blank lines here, and the text was interspersed with some chaotic symbols.

It was clear that she was no longer able to stay calm at this moment.

"Then I received a broadcast notification telling me to enter an instance."

"But... but..."

Here was another long string of messy symbols or numbers. Zhu Yan skipped over them, reading on with shared trepidation.

"My instance task is so different in style from the last one."

"The exact wording is, 'The witch has arrived with her cat. Have her help converse with it, and make up the corresponding remuneration.'"

"I don't understand. When I was given my reward before, it clearly stated that I could choose for myself whether to enter an instance or not..."

Zhu Yan's reading speed was very fast, so fast that he barely had time to breathe.

"...It directly told me that the witch would be at my door in 30 minutes!!!"

"No choice!! I have no choice!! They didn't let me choose!! Save me, someone save me!!"

Zhu Yan had already survived three instances, but he was still frightened by the madness, confusion, and despair seeping through these words.

He scooted over a bit to distance himself from the air conditioning vent, then took two heavy gulps of wonton soup, trying to dispel the sudden chill that seemed to cling to his body.

"I used the Lesser Key of Solomon, there is no way I made a mistake, I followed the steps strictly..."

He couldn't read anything past that, as the rest of the content had completely turned into garbled text.

Zhu Yan let out a breath.

The Lesser Key of Solomon. He had seen a similar name in that book, Coexisting with Forbidden Objects, though the exact term used in the book was the Key of Solomon.

Was there a connection between the two?

His gaze scrolled down to the comment section. The sparse few comments were all telling her to calm down, while someone else asked if there were any more clues.

Promptly, Zhu Yan clicked into the player's profile to read her second log.