Chapter 9: Clearing the Stage

The candle flame swayed.

Perhaps because it was not a true flame, no warmth whatsoever could be felt from the candle.

As the orange-red glow drifted about, it instead gave people the illusion of a chilling coldness.

Holding the candleholder, Zhou You walked toward the exit at the top floor of the haunted building.

When he passed the fourth floor, the candle immediately began burning violently just as before.

But instead of quickening his pace, he continued forward with steady steps.

Brushing past the human face and hand, he arrived at the fifth floor, unlocked the padlock, then grabbed it and casually tossed it downstairs.

Clang!!!!

A tremendous crash rang out.

The entire building seemed to tremble with it!

With such a huge commotion, even if the Landlady were deaf, she would have been alerted by now.

Not to mention that after several encounters, Zhou You had already learned that while the monster’s eyesight was poor, its hearing was exceptionally sharp.

Entering the room and pushing aside several corpses, Zhou You casually found a place to sit atop a pile of junk.

As he tapped his arm, he counted time using his own breathing.

Without a clock, the human body itself could serve as a substitute timekeeping device.

Normally, using one’s pulse would be the most convenient method.

Unfortunately, because of his illness, Zhou You’s heart rate had always been unstable.

Methane still lingered throughout the surroundings.

The oxygen-poor environment made each breath increasingly difficult.

Yet Zhou You showed no discomfort whatsoever.

Instead, the smile on his face grew even brighter.

Two minutes later, accompanied by a tremendous crash, the wooden door was smashed open.

The Landlady’s face appeared before him.

A face covered in wrinkles, with half its nose rotted away, looking like decayed tree bark.

However, seeing Zhou You still sitting there, the Landlady, who had rushed over in great haste, froze for a moment.

She clearly had not expected this situation either.

But soon afterward, she smiled.

Unlike Zhou You’s smile, however, hers was filled with cruelty and malice.

Like a cat that had finally caught a mouse and could not wait to toy with its prey.

“I truly didn’t expect this. You’ve been here less than half a day, yet you managed to fool the pet I raised and reach the fifth floor. But how did you...”

The Landlady’s gaze fell upon the candle in Zhou You’s hand.

After squinting at it for a while, she suddenly sneered.

“Heh. So that’s it. That brat actually left one of those things he refined behind. Back then, I thought it was too filthy and didn’t search the room carefully. Looks like that was indeed a mistake. But you’ve made the same mistake he did. What? Realized that a single candle isn’t enough and that there’s no way for you to escape? What a pity. This old lady, I...”

The response she received was merely a sigh.

“Um, sorry to interrupt.”

“...What?”

“Allow me to cut in for a moment, because I really don’t have much time left.”

Zhou You raised the candle, which had already burned halfway down, and gently shook it.

“So may I ask you a few questions first?”

“...What are you getting at?”

The Landlady had imagined all kinds of reactions from Zhou You.

Despair.

Pain.

Panic.

Falling to his knees while crying and begging.

But this response was something she had genuinely not expected.

It left her somewhat bewildered.

Meanwhile, Zhou You simply smiled and continued.

“First question, and it’s something I’ve been curious about for a long time.”

“You’re already in this state. Why are you still so obsessed with money?”

The question seemed to touch some sensitive nerve.

The Landlady immediately shrieked like a rooster being strangled.

“Because money is the most important thing in the world, of course! This old lady spent years swindling, extorting, and doing whatever it took to build up this fortune. How could I possibly hand it over to outsiders after death? And besides, it was money that pulled me out of my grave. Without money, how would this old lady continue living!”

It sounded like simple greed.

Yet there seemed to be additional information hidden in those words.

For example, how exactly had she been resurrected through money?

Studying her shrivelled face, Zhou You felt she would never reveal the answer.

So he continued.

“Then my second question. What happened to the tenant before me?”

“...Why are you asking that?”

“Nothing special. I only managed to get here because of him.”

He shook the nearly exhausted candle beside him.

“So if he’s still alive, I was thinking that maybe I could start over and help him out. I’m a very grateful person, after all.”

The Landlady suddenly split her mouth wide and revealed a cruel smile.

“That’s unnecessary. He’s dead. Hanging right over there. But this old lady didn’t kill him on purpose. He wanted to die. After discovering that he intended to escape, I chopped off his remaining two legs and harvested a few parts from him every day. In less than a week he was crying and begging me to kill him. This old lady was kind-hearted enough to agree. But don’t worry, you won’t get off so easily. I’ll torment you for much longer. I’ll make sure you only breathe your last at the very...”

“Alright. Third question.”

Before she could finish her threat, Zhou You interrupted her once again.

Looking at the monster that had nearly choked on her own words, he smiled.

“This is also the final question.”

“I’ll make it a simple one.”

“Can you smell the strange odour in here?”

“What strange odour?”

Zhou You’s smile became even brighter.

“Looks like that half-rotted nose of yours really doesn’t work anymore. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have allowed something like this to accumulate for so long.”

He shook his head, picked up the candleholder, and slowly walked toward the other side of the room.

The old woman did not stop him.

Instead, she frowned.

A vague sense of unease had begun forming within her.

Taking advantage of that hesitation, Zhou You easily reached the wall.

Leaning casually against it, he continued speaking.

“But that’s perfectly normal.”

“There are only three kinds of people who ever come here.”

“You.”

“The corpses.”

“And my unfortunate predecessor.”

“You and the corpses don’t need to breathe, so this stuff naturally doesn’t affect you.”

“My predecessor was obsessed with escaping. The candles he used also lacked the properties of real fire, so they couldn’t trigger this either.”

“After you tortured him into madness, there was even less chance he would mention something like this.”

“So in the end, I was the one who benefited from it.”

The strange feeling of unease continued growing.

The Landlady could no longer care about anything else.

She shouted sharply.

“What exactly are you talking about?!”

Yet Zhou You ignored her completely.

Instead, he looked toward the skylight and spoke to some unknown existence.

“Come to think of it, I just remembered that I drew a talent at the beginning.”

“Unfortunately, everything I’ve encountered so far has been instant-death traps, so I never had a chance to use it.”

“But I think now is a good time.”

His tone suddenly shifted.

“Oh, right.”

“The game only requires me to escape Building Four.”

“It never specified how I have to escape, did it?”

At last, the Landlady realized the danger.

She suddenly opened her mouth, intending to use the immobilizing ability she had displayed at the beginning.

But Zhou You had already acted first.

He pulled the box of matches from his jacket pocket.

With a light strike, he lit one.

“You have activated the skill Selfless Meditation.”

“You have entered the Numb State. While in this state, you will ignore all fear and sanity-loss effects, and you will not die from damage.”

“The skill will last for 10...”

Before the female voice could finish its announcement, fire erupted before his eyes!

In almost an instant, the methane accumulated throughout the room ignited.

A violent explosion swept through everything.

The junk.

The corpses.

Even the old woman herself.

All were swallowed by raging flames.

At the same time, a shockwave spread outward at tremendous speed.

The old attic could not possibly withstand such force.

In the blink of an eye, it split apart from the inside out.

Naturally, Zhou You was unable to escape the blast.

It felt as though he had been struck head-on by a truck.

Together with the collapsing walls, his entire body was hurled through the air.

Under the overwhelming agony, it felt as though all of his internal organs had ruptured.

Even his brain seemed to have been crushed alive.

This was damage far beyond what any human could endure.

Once the skill’s countdown expired, Zhou You knew he would die an unimaginably miserable death.

Yet he was still smiling.

In fact, it was the happiest smile he had worn since entering this instance.

Because within his increasingly blurred vision, he could already make out a trace of azure.

The azure of the sky.

“Congratulations. You have completed the beginner instance: Escape from Building Four.”

“Landlady confirmed dead. Corpse Door confirmed dead.”

“You have exceeded the mission requirements.”

“You will receive additional rewards...”