The Recitative Platform

Perhaps sensing Zhu Yan's good mood, the cat let out a rather cheerful, soft "meow."

It rested comfortably in Zhu Yan's arms, its body hidden by his oversized cloak with only its head poking out.

Zhu Yan placed it on the ground, stared at the palm of his left hand for three seconds, and opened the [Thriller Map].

The cat meowed in dissatisfaction.

"We're going to the [Recitative Pavilion]," he said softly, zooming in on the map layer for [Carnival Paradise].

"Do you know the way?"

The cat tilted its head up, its bright round eyes gazing at Zhu Yan as if pondering the meaning of his words.

"Right, you don't," Zhu Yan said, scooping it back up. "So you can't get in the way of me looking at my palm."

Perhaps afraid he might get lost, [Carnival Paradise] had specifically marked the location of the [Recitative Pavilion] in bold red letters.

The icon indicating Zhu Yan's position had changed from a caged bird, representing a player, to a bow and arrow, representing a hunter.

The [Recitative Pavilion] was just two streets away from the bow and arrow icon, a building roughly the same size as the [Witch's Department Store].

On the map, the building's appearance was much more normal; it was a twisted Chinese-style pavilion.

Unfamiliar with the area, Zhu Yan didn't dare close the map.

He cautiously turned right, squeezed through a long, squirming alleyway and a bright red, pudding-like mire, passed a honeycomb-like building crawling with giant spiders, and arrived in front of the [Recitative Pavilion].

This small building maintained a restrained distance from the surrounding structures, standing alone on a charred, square clearing with empty space on both sides.

The building only had two floors, its entire exterior the blackened color of something heavily scorched.

Its eaves pillars were severely bent like unpolished pine trunks. A few bright red lanterns hung beneath the exquisitely carved eaves. The main doors were wide open, and a plaque reading "Recitative Pavilion" hung right above the entrance.

Zhu Yan could see a mahogany bar counter, low sofas and tables scattered across the hall, and sparks drifting everywhere in the air.

The [Recitative Pavilion] required his identity as a [Hunter]. Here, Zhu Yan could no longer disguise himself as a [Demon].

He took off his cloak, stored it back into his [Storage Silver Ring], and walked into the strange building.

The moment he stepped into the hall, the specks of light in the space gathered toward Zhu Yan like fireflies.

Only then did he realize that these starlike specks of light were embers carrying faint flames, left over from burned matter.

However, they were much brighter than ordinary embers, enough to illuminate the entire hall with a warm glow.

"Hey," a youthful female voice called out, and the spots of light instantly scattered.

Zhu Yan looked toward the voice and was startled.

Standing behind the counter was a thriller creature in the shape of a girl, dripping wet all over.

She—or rather, it—looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old. Its skin was a purplish-grey, and a thick braid coiled on top of its head like a snake.

Wrapped around its red linen cheongsam was a broken rattan cage. The vines had fused with the creature, becoming the skirt of the girl's dress.

"A Hunter?" the thriller creature asked, raising its meticulously painted eyebrows.

A corpse reeking of death moving a face heavily painted with greasepaint—this scene was more shocking than anything in his previous instances.

Zhu Yan nodded, watching as the other party stiffly extended an arm toward him and then stiffly beckoned with its wrist.

"Come, step closer," it said. "Is this your cat? What kind of coffee would you like?"

The cat, however, did not bristle its fur.

It broke free from Zhu Yan's embrace, jumped onto the bar counter, and paced back and forth in front of the girl's corpse with its tail held high, meowing.

Zhu Yan understood the meaning of the cat's meows: it meant this thriller creature had no appetite and was relatively friendly.

He then cautiously stepped forward and asked, "The [Recitative Pavilion] is supposed to issue me a mission. Is the coffee related to the mission?"

The girl... corpse stroked the cat, revealing a bizarre smile on its face.

"No," it said. "Coffee is just a beverage. Sometimes it comes with a little hint about your situation."

"Missions are given separately. Buying a coffee also means you agree to accept the mission."

Zhu Yan understood.

He looked down at the menu the girl pushed over and asked, "How should I address you?"

"[Vine Cage Girl]," the girl said. "I came here after I killed my whole family."

Zhu Yan looked up at the girl's dripping wet body, then observed the heavily scorched small building.

"You were drowned in a pig cage, so you burned them to death?"

He blurted it out subconsciously, and the thriller creature narrowed its eyes in a delighted smile.

"Yes," it said. "What do you think?"

In [Carnival Paradise], praising thriller creatures was probably the wise thing to do.

"Beautifully done," Zhu Yan said without hesitation.

The menu had two pages in total, and the first page only listed coffee.

The coffee here was frighteningly expensive; a single cup actually cost three bone gold coins.

"You can choose the temperature and adjust the amount of espresso shots," the [Vine Cage Girl] reminded him.

Zhu Yan wanted to flip to the next page, but a purplish-grey finger pressed down on the menu, stopping him.

"You sincerely praised me," the [Vine Cage Girl] lowered its voice. "So I'm going to secretly remind you: don't look at the second page."

"I'll have a salty cheese latte, no ice, half a shot of espresso."

Zhu Yan chose something that sounded palatable and similarly lowered his voice.

"What's on the second page?"

The [Vine Cage Girl] leaned its purplish-grey face closer, parting its wet lips.

"Things that are madly addictive. You'll want to buy them the moment you lay eyes on them."

"Don't look at it. Their only purpose is to make you leave all your earnings from every mission here at the [Recitative Pavilion], right here in [Carnival Paradise]."

It whispered, its chilling breath brushing against Zhu Yan's neck.

"I'm not lying to you. Next time you come, take a look at what happens to the others."

After making sure Zhu Yan heard clearly, it quickly took away the menu and casually began making the coffee.

"The label on the coffee will include your next mission. You are a Hunter, so you are different from thriller creatures."

"Most thriller creatures are only responsible for eating people. You, however, have specific missions!"

The [Vine Cage Girl]'s volume and tone returned to normal.

"Coffee is dine-in only. This is to prevent you from littering cups outside and exposing your identity."

A plastic cup of coffee was pushed in front of Zhu Yan, featuring a beautiful gradient between the light brown espresso on top and the pure white whipped cream at the bottom.

Zhu Yan casually found a sofa to sit down on and looked at the label affixed to the side of the cup.

"Mission: Participate in the large-scale Anwu City instance, [What Time is it, Old Wolf?]."

"Your Identity: Player, Hunter."

"Estimated Number of Players: 21,917."

...How many?

Zhu Yan's gaze paused on the player count column, reading it carefully and thoroughly several times.

Twenty-one thousand, nine hundred and seventeen.

How could there be so many?

What kind of instance was this exactly?

As Zhu Yan processed this, he couldn't help but feel a surge of trepidation.

Without time to overthink, he quickly finished reading the mission prompt below that line of text.

"Mission Prompt: You are a freshman at Xishan University. Please carefully read the school's 'Letter of Admission' and 'A Letter to the Students'..."

"And you must join the freshmen group chat before 8:30 PM tonight. Missing this deadline will be deemed a failure of the [Hunter] quest."

Xishan University, a freshmen group chat, an admission letter.

Zhu Yan's heart skipped an ominous beat.

Subconsciously, he just couldn't associate these mundane things with [Carnival Paradise].

What exactly was the point of this dungeon?