Chapter 71: Instant Kill

After a hearty meal, Yan Jing took out a few photographs he had brought in from the Surface World and switched to the Cameraman.

Instantly, his perspective shifted. He was lying on a bed, staring up at the ceiling.

With a slight curve of his lips, he sat up.

He examined the photographs he had brought one by one, committing them to memory.

The pictures had been taken with a camera Shen Youran bought; they showed the guest list and profiles she had provided earlier.

Once that was done, Yan Jing headed out.

This morning, he needed to finish the bar's daily performance quota and conduct a small experiment on the side.

He took the elevator to the third floor, where he found Rose and One-Eye squatting by the entrance to the bar.

The two were staring blankly at the floor, lost in thought.

From a distance, they looked like a pair of puppies left home alone, their silhouettes distinctly lonely.

Only when they saw Yan Jing approaching did they stand up, joy flashing in their eyes.

"Good morning, Boss!"

"Sorry I'm late, Xiao Mei, Xiao Yan."

Yan Jing smiled.

"We have quite a few new guests in the Tower today. Let's work hard and try to clock out early this afternoon."

"If you do a good job, lunch is on me."

"Yes!!!"

...

Throughout the morning, Yan Jing tuned everything else out and focused entirely on the business. It took him only two and a half hours to meet the daily performance quota.

When lunchtime arrived, he used his Walkie-talkie to tell Old Liu and the others he was busy. Then he returned to his room and switched back to his original body.

He rubbed his stomach. He didn't feel hungry at all.

"Just as I thought..."

Yan Jing's eyes flickered.

He had previously noticed that if he spent a long time in the Inner World without logging out, his original body wouldn't feel hungry upon returning to the Surface World.

However, if his body was already hungry before entering the Inner World, he would still be hungry after exiting.

This was the exact opposite of how sleep worked.

If he had gone a long time without sleep before entering the Inner World, taking a nap inside would cure his mental exhaustion upon returning to the Surface World.

It was as if his mental state—linked to sleep—was shared across both worlds, while his physical body operated on an independent track.

Now, this had been proven once again.

Since the deluxe meal contained weird energy, Yan Jing directly placed a portion into his Inventory.

At present, his seven Inventory slots held:

[Mysterious Skull, Mental Immunity Potion (Bound Item), Sleep Powder, High-Nutrition Bread, Deluxe Meal, Homemade Voice Recorder, Order Promissory Note]

In addition, he was wearing the combat suit Shen Youran had bought, along with the Ghost Veil.

Rather than rushing out, Yan Jing walked to the foot of the bed, lifted the pillow, and reached under the sheets.

He pulled out the small white cube he had obtained from the Amusement Park.

"I hope this doesn't disappoint me..."

He smiled, then mobilized the weird energy within his body and injected it into the white cube, beginning a Tidal Circulation just as he remembered.

Once, twice... The number of circulations steadily climbed.

Very quickly, it broke past fifty cycles.

Then fifty-one, fifty-two... one hundred!

And it still didn't stop.

Yan Jing had his eyes closed, but an ocean constructed of dark weird energy seemingly appeared before him, its waves swaying beneath a high, bright moon.

With every breath he took, the ocean ebbed and flowed, washing over the beach again and again with an ethereal sound.

Gradually, Yan Jing forgot to count the cycles of the Tidal Circulation. He felt as though he was standing before that dark sea.

His heart was incredibly peaceful.

Eventually, a pang of hunger from his stomach roused him.

He checked the clock on the wall. Without him noticing, another hour had passed.

The white cube he had been holding in his hand had vanished, turning into a mark shaped like a Dice on the back of his hand.

Stunned for a moment, Yan Jing tried channeling weird energy into the mark.

With a burst of eerie light, streaks of "white" energy surged from the mark into the air, floating and circling him like ribbons of white silk.

At the same time, the phantom image of the Fear Sapling uncontrollably materialized behind him.

The moment the phantom appeared, the "white" energy condensed and transformed back into the shape of the white cube.

"Whoosh—"

As if attracted by the cube, the phantom image of the Fear Sapling was pulled inside it.

Out of its six originally blank faces, one now bore a black mark.

The mark started from a single point and branched out like twigs. Beneath each withered branch hung a tiny black dot.

It was unmistakably a stick-figure sketch of the Fear Sapling.

Immediately after, with a single thought from Yan Jing, the cube transformed once more.

Violent weird energy surged, ultimately manifesting as a bracer wrapped in Thorns that attached to his right arm.

Yan Jing looked at the bracer.

Dark Thorns and white branches intertwined, covering everything from his forearm down to his palm. In the gaps between them, tiny, starry flowers could be seen blooming.

The flowers were split into two colors: black and white.

The black flowers looked exactly like the decadent blooms resting on sharp Thorns, while the white ones were the exact opposite—their petals lush and brimming with life.

"Swish—"

Yan Jing gave his right arm a gentle wave, but a fierce aura instantly erupted, and the table in front of him shattered with a loud crash.

Amplification.

Yan Jing could feel the function of this bracer.

Although the boost to his strength and destructive power wasn't exceptionally high, that was only because the white cube was of white-tier quality.

If he were to choose it as The Vessel...

Its quality would upgrade as he advanced...

A hint of joy surfaced in Yan Jing's eyes.

It hadn't been a waste to go out of his way to ride that roller coaster.

Afterward, Yan Jing dismantled the bracer, and the white energy returned to the mark.

He could sense that unless the bracer was broken, this white energy wouldn't deplete; it was much more durable than weird energy.

"I'm finally just about ready."

Yan Jing took a deep breath and walked out the door.

He had made extensive preparations for this Dungeon, all to guarantee nothing would go wrong.

From here on out, no matter who tried to stand in his way, he had absolutely no intention of backing down.

The residents on the second floor were all Inner World residents, so Yan Jing opted not to take the elevator, using the emergency stairwell instead.

But he had only gone down a few steps when he felt a fluctuation of weird energy in his surroundings.

He looked up alertly, only to find that the area had transformed into an enclosed space.

The railings and the space behind him had turned into black walls. All that remained was a short flight of descending stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs stood a man dressed in a staff uniform.

The man had his hair tied into a small, artist-like braid, giving him a dashing air. He looked up at Yan Jing and smiled faintly.

"Those guys are running around like headless flies trying to find you, but it's actually quite simple. All I had to do was pick between the elevator and the stairs and wait."

"It seems my gamble paid off."

He extended his hands, conjuring two sharp blades in his palms. Holding them in a reverse grip, he walked toward Yan Jing.

"You're smart enough to wear a mask, but unfortunately, your disguise is still lacking."

As the man drew closer step by step, Yan Jing didn't make a move. He simply asked in a soft voice, "Fear, but no Ritual. Inner World Pathway?"

The man smiled and nodded.

"Someone put a bounty on your head on the Inner World network. Blame it on your own bad luck. I happen to have a Dungeon coming up soon, and I had just enough money on hand to buy a Dungeon Selection Voucher."

Yan Jing nodded.

"So 'those guys' refers to people from the Inner World Pathway? Like the Wild Dogs or something."

Hearing the Wild Dogs, the man chuckled.

"You know quite a bit. As expected of someone from a major Clan."

"Alright, if you have anything else you want to say, then—"

"Bang!!"

With a loud crash, the man's voice was abruptly cut off.

Yan Jing pulled back his fist and deactivated the bracer.

The enclosed space around him vanished, reverting to its normal appearance.

He quickly made his way down the stairs.

It was getting late; he needed to hurry.

Behind him, the man's head was deeply embedded into the adjacent wall, leaving his entire body dangling in the air.

Blood splattered across the wall in a radial pattern, pooling at the corner before trickling down the steps.

Drip, drop.