Echoes of Lin Qing’s unremarkable face swirled in her mind, leaving her unsettled.
Come to think of it, that overly familiar youth seemed to know her from somewhere.
And that self-proclaimed transmigrator, Lin Yaoyao... she was odd too.
Above, the sky’s mechanical voice rang from the system, scattering Ye Shu’s thoughts.
“Ninth game round complete. Congratulations to surviving players—rewards have been distributed. The tenth game opens in two days!”
“Players who failed the clearance will now be executed.”
“Execution complete.”
On Blue Star, residents who heard the system’s message didn’t pause for a second. Each returned to their routines, indifferent—as though it wasn’t their kin turned to bloody mist before their eyes, only some irrelevant scraps of meat.
“Player Ye Shu: Cleared at SS-rank. Strength +3, Constitution +3, Agility +3. 1,000 points for round completion. 68,900 points collected in-instance. Leaderboard position: Rank 2. 5 extra attribute points to assign at will.”
As usual, Ye Shu opened her light screen and invested all her reward points into constitution.
[Contract Beasts: SS+ Black Tiger, S-Rank Merman, D-Rank Clownfish]
[Item Inventory: ...]
"Master, welcome home!"
Chou Bagai spotted Ye Shu’s figure and cheered, then quickly busied herself with her food.
In the bathtub, the little merman, Xiao Bai, swished his tail, hair full of gleaming barrettes like underwater plants, a flattering smile spreading across his aquamarine features. “Master, you’re back… Next time, can I go to the game? Just this once—I promise, I won’t cause you any trouble.”
The human world was so dreadfully dull. And since Ye Shu wouldn’t let him wander off, day in and day out, he was stuck in his palm-sized fish tank, practically growing mold.
Even as he spoke, he stole a furtive glance at Da Piaoliang, the big pretty cat.
Among all the beasts, this oddball was closest to their master; in every game, it was always the one to go… Xiao Bai was more than a little disgruntled, though he didn’t dare voice it.
Da Piaoliang shot the merman a sidelong glance, its emerald beast eyes full of disdain. Its tone was languid and mocking: “Awoo… You? With that huge body? There’s no way you’d fit in master’s tiny, grain-sized inventory space. You’d take up the whole place.”
Ye Shu: “…”
Wait—that sounded off somehow.
Was this dumb cat shading her for her small inventory?!
But the merman only caught the key detail, brightening at once: “You mean… As long as I don’t take up much space, I can go?”
Da Piaoliang nodded haughtily.
“Actually, I can shrink.”
In the blink of an eye, the merman shrank down to the size of a palm, arching an eyebrow. “Like this, works?”
“Works.”
Da Piaoliang couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge the merman’s sycophancy, but acquiesced nonetheless. In earlier days, the two beasts would have started bickering at once.
The merman shot Da Piaoliang a strange look.
Was this still that same dumb cat?
It actually agreed?!
The Cave Survival instance had been a humiliating blow for Da Piaoliang, who’d always prided itself on its arrogance—it sat silent at the foot of the bed, drooping its head.
Cave ghosts weren’t even from the same dimension as it was.
Failure was only to be expected!
But why could a mere human like Ye Shu even make contact with them?
And that wooden sword… it was a mystery too.
That sword’s ability to slay oddities was one thing. To kill ghosts… now, that was truly strange.
It had seen Ye Shu at the train station too… Back then, she had been so weak, and yet in just a few days, she’d transformed entirely.
And Ye Shu’s very scent was a profound lure to all oddities.
That, too, was why she’d become Da Piaoliang’s sole focus.
At that moment, Ye Shu was browsing the Survival Game’s player forums.
Player 10096’s feat of slaying the cave ghost had shot to the top of the trending posts.
[BenchNotAsLongAsShoulderPole: As expected from a top player! While we were cowering from low-level ghosts and watching our sanity drop by the second, she was out there massacring them left and right. Jealous! With those tens of thousands of points, I bet she can buy out several exit tickets, enough for her whole family.]
[YuhuaDental: If I’d known that thing could be killed, I wouldn’t have just hidden.]
[ICrazyLoveMyJob: Tch, hindsight’s twenty-twenty! Everyone knew cave ghosts were unkillable—neither hot nor cold weapons worked. Even with items, my sanity plummeted. I nearly didn’t make it out of the instance alive.]
[JiutianThunder: I blew through a whole revive card. Ghosts scare the hell out of me!!]
[SpringAtMyDeskFacingTheSun: I think I saw that top player—wasn’t she running from a swarm of ghosts? Turns out she was using herself as bait.