Zhu Yan grabbed the boss's golden key, trotted all the way across the hall, stuck his head into the empty "elevator shaft," and shouted.
"Lower the golden cage!"
This really felt like the old witch from Rapunzel.
If only "golden cage" were replaced with "your hair"...
Zhu Yan thought messily as the metallic scraping sound of the golden cage slowly descending once again filled his ears.
Yang Zhanbai had already gotten out of the cage—
Zhu Yan stepped in, maintaining the appearance of the "boss," and took advantage of the short time the cage was rising to think rapidly.
His human identity was "Zhu Zeyu," but he had abandoned his teammates and ran away earlier.
It would be inconvenient to complete the [Hunter] mission as "Zhu Zeyu," but if he were to complete the harvest as the "boss," and casually check on those two unlucky souls he had left behind, it should be quite reasonable, right?
Bright, warm light gradually filled the entire space.
The golden cage slowly rose to the middle of the split counter. The Doppelganger stood outside the cage door, bowing its head submissively to open the door for Zhu Yan.
"That [Hunter] hasn't recovered yet." The Doppelganger's neck was buried deep in its collar. "Where is the captain? Didn't you come up with the captain?"
Hasn't recovered?
Zhu Yan looked past the Doppelganger in surprise, and sure enough, Yang Zhanbai was still leaning against the flower stand.
His consciousness seemed very clear, and his right hand was still tightly gripping that knife.
However, his face and lips were frighteningly pale; it seemed that crawling out of the golden cage had exhausted all his strength.
The moment their eyes met, Yang Zhanbai's fingers tightened around the dagger, bringing out a slight, spasmodic tremble.
"The captain is dead," Zhu Yan explained coldly. "Keep an eye on the [Hunter]. He still has a mission to complete."
Yang Zhanbai couldn't die just yet.
As the only player who knew the "truth about the [Hunter]," he still had a role to play.
Besides, Zhu Yan wasn't sure if he would need this teammate in the future.
"Dead, dead..." The Doppelganger didn't expect the boss to be so ruthless, and its body stiffened completely.
It hurriedly lowered its head, adopting a fawning tone.
"Rest assured. I will definitely not follow in the captain's footsteps..."
Zhu Yan had no time for it; he turned and pushed open the flower shop's door.
Instantly, darkness mixed with terrified screams rushed at him.
A thick stench of blood suddenly overwhelmed Zhu Yan's nasal cavity, and he couldn't help but gag slightly.
A head rolled to his feet with a rumble, and immediately a damp, thick fog flowed over silently, enveloping the head.
"Hello." A respectful and faint voice came from the fog. "Welcome. There is food everywhere here—"
The level-five table knife pierced through it without mercy.
The black fog rolled and contracted, bursting silently into the air.
Zhu Yan fought down the urge to vomit and strode away, not looking at the remains with lingering flesh and muscle on the ground.
The streets were indeed full of "food"—
In the dim blue light on both sides, some students wandered, crying and howling.
A chubby boy walked towards Zhu Yan, his face a shiny mess of snot and tears, yet his hands still tightly clutched half a small bag of biscuits.
"Save me..." he cried, biscuit crumbs flying from his mouth. "Where am I? ... I shouldn't be here!"
The boy pinched the last bit of biscuit crumbs and stuffed them into his mouth, his cheeks working frantically.
His brows relaxed with the action, but soon he started sobbing again.
"Not enough!" he shouted frantically. "Give me more! This little bit isn't enough for me to go back there...!"
Zhu Yan didn't respond.
Who was he asking for help? Him?
His current appearance was that of a thoroughgoing horror creature!
Zhu Yan silently looked at the person's abdomen.
Under the night sky, his torn light-colored clothes were soaked with a large patch of dark liquid.
Beneath the clothes was a completely ulcerated abdomen, with internal organs exposed, but they seemed glued in place, not falling out.
Zhu Yan's gaze swept over those viscous organs.
They were actually still wriggling slightly, like soft worms coated in syrup.
He was beyond saving.
Zhu Yan showed no more mercy.
The sharp knife in his hand easily pierced the person's heart; the sensation was an elastic hardness, and the blood, mixed with a strong, sugary stench, made him nauseous.
The boy fell, and a patch of flowing mist quickly enveloped the rotting flesh.
"Congratulations!" A female voice appeared in his ear. "You have harvested one..."
Zhu Yan felt a buzzing in his ears.
He stepped on the scattered broken glass and walked forward, finding that most of those crying and wandering outside were such students.
The sharp knife in his hand decisively and accurately pierced four hearts, and he continuously dispersed several wisps of thin mist.
The female voice rang in his ears successively, then hummed a simple, cheerful tune.
"Congratulations!"
"Dear rookie [Hunter], congratulations on completing today's harvest mission!"
"Please keep up the good work tomorrow!"
Zhu Yan put away the table knife, feeling a wave of dizziness.
These people were going to die eventually; killing them was much better than killing those innocent people who could survive on their own, right?
Zhu Yan bit the tip of his tongue, forcing himself to suppress the surging nausea.
No, now was not the time to sort out his emotions.
He should go check the general situation of the candy store, then go back to find Yang Zhanbai!
Zhu Yan put away the level-five table knife in his hand.
He avoided the crying students, quickly transformed into the appearance of "Zhu Zeyu," and ran all the way into the broken door of the candy store.
Under the dim blue light, the originally neat shelves were overturned on the ground.
Some people lay on the ground in various postures, scattered with colorful candies.
The sweet smell rushed into Zhu Yan's nasal cavity, accompanied by a squelching sound of chewing on mucous tissues.
Zhu Yan looked towards the sound and soon saw it in the darkness—
The "Officer" of the candy store had torn the skin off its face and was crouching over a body, feasting.
Perhaps catching the scent of a living person, it suddenly raised its head, staring straight at Zhu Yan.
"Aha."
The "Officer" stood up unsteadily, holding a huge fist.
Zhu Yan recognized this as the hand of the level-three boy from earlier, because it still maintained its metallic state; it seemed the boy's strike had missed.
"It's you, the guy who bought things. Your group of companions is really smart."
The "Officer" laughed weirdly and hoarsely.
"What do you mean?" Zhu Yan asked, warily scanning the surroundings. "What happened to them?"
He quickly noticed something was wrong.
Two rows of heavy shelves had been moved to the innermost corner of the store.
In the shadows unreached by the blue light, they were arranged at a right angle, leaning against the walls on both sides, like a small fortress.
Sure enough, the "Officer" pointed to that "fortress" as it approached him.
"They thought that by doing this, I wouldn't eat people."
It said eccentrically.
"Oh my, I really didn't eat them, because there's too much food outside."
"But, I still have over ten hours to get through."
The "Officer" lifted that metallic fist to show him.
"Damn players."
"He is dead, which makes your ability the most powerful. I won't fight you during the day. Hehe."
Zhu Yan saw its ghastly white teeth and the crisscrossing muscles on its face.
"Now that you are back, I will—"
"Watch out!!" someone screamed from the shadows, their voice tearing through the air.
The "Officer" moved at that exact moment, its twisted, distorted voice violently piercing Zhu Yan's eardrums.
It was incredibly fast; Zhu Yan could only make out a blur.
"I'll kill you!!"
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
