The beautiful young man slept deeply, completely unaware, wrapped in the embrace of an indescribable creature. His cloak had been loosened, his clothes rubbed askew, barely covering his snow-white skin.
Though the pitch-black being had no facial features and possessed no human way of thinking, for now...its emotions were obvious.
It wanted to eat more.
Pressed tightly against Yu Deng, it stirred restlessly, yearning to continue the wonderfully pleasurable thing it had been doing earlier.
But Yu Deng did not cooperate.
He was practically being annoyed to death. The moment he entered the instance, he had already engaged in a round of mind games with other players, then spent over two hours trekking through mountains. He was exhausted beyond measure. He never expected to have such a strange dream on top of that.
Yu Deng felt as though he were submerged in seawater, drowned in something cold, flowing, and unfamiliar. His limbs were tightly bound, and somewhere felt swollen…
He let out a small, muffled whimper, the corners of his eyes growing even wetter. The crushing restraint made his breathing turn hurried, forcing him to part his lips slightly.
That only benefited the shameless unknown creature that took advantage of him while he slept. Black tentacles slipped inside, greedily and tirelessly drawing out the moisture from his mouth.
Only after a tentacle was bitten by Yu Deng, followed by several garbled curses, did it slowly withdraw.
It coiled around Yu Deng's abdomen, rubbing against his waist for a long time, leaving behind a small black mark.
Such a beautiful, sweet human—even the most evil of creatures could not help but linger, wanting to carefully encircle him and hide him away in its arms.
He was its.
More and more tentacles split off, wrapping around Yu Deng, while the remaining limbs swayed excitedly in the air.
Several hours passed in the blink of an eye. The lantern swayed gently, the light within gradually dimming. Only after the unknown creature had consumed all of Yu Deng's fluids and tears did it reluctantly vanish into the hollow of the tree.
Before leaving, it hesitated for a moment, clumsily straightened Yu Deng's clothes, then wrapped his cloak back around him. That enormous, terrifying black body carried an unexpected hint of careful tenderness.
Outside the tree hollow, the trembling creatures waited until that horrifying presence completely disappeared before returning to normal. The miasma spread once more. Yet whether beasts or fog, all instinctively avoided the tree hollow where Yu Deng slept, allowing him to rest very peacefully.
The system's electronic voice crackled as if disturbed by interference, buzzing several times before the signal finally stabilized. System 01 scanned Yu Deng's condition and sighed.
[…]
Its host really was a magnet for perverts.
...
At dawn, Yu Deng opened his eyes.
He stared blankly at the dry bark inside the tree hollow and complained to his system, "System, why do I feel kind of… strange?"
The moment he spoke, he startled himself.
Why was his voice so hoarse? As if he had cried last night. And his body hurt—a kind of soreness that felt like he'd been touched for far too long…
Yu Deng frowned and lifted his clothes to take a look.
"Huh?? Were there mosquitoes last night? Why is my skin kind of red?"
The shell surrounding the tree hollow showed no signs of damage. Yu Deng mistakenly assumed nothing could get inside—which made things even stranger.
Puzzled, he waved over the paper figurines on guard duty. "Xiao Hong, Xiao Lü, nothing happened last night, right?"
(T/N: Xiao Hong (小红) → "Little Red"
Xiao Lü (小绿) → "Little Green")
The two paper figurines had already returned to normal. Hearing their master's question, they immediately began trembling and frantically gesturing, trying to explain the crimes committed by that unknown creature the night before.
Halfway through, Xiao Hong covered its face with its tiny arms, soon crying until its paper face was smeared with tears, nearly tearing a hole. Xiao Lü drooped as well, watery stains spreading where its eyes should be.
Yu Deng froze. "Eh—wait, why are you suddenly crying…?" He gently pressed down on the two sobbing paper figurines, trying to stop them from breaking apart.
The paper figures felt even more guilty looking at their gentle, beautiful master.
Damn it—every time they stood guard, they failed.
This time, Yu Deng still didn't understand what they were trying to say. Seeing how heartbroken they were, and worried they might tear if they kept crying, he quickly stored them back in the system space.
Forget it… I'll just assume I got bitten by mosquitoes.
With that thought, Yu Deng failed to notice that he wasn't hungry at all. He carefully crawled out of the tree hollow and looked around.
The trees here were towering and misshapen; each one required four or five people to encircle with their arms.
Yu Deng didn't know exactly where he was on the mountain—only that he had followed the route planned on the mini-map the night before. He should be at a relatively high elevation now.
He turned back to look.
The collapse zone was massive. From the mountain, he could clearly see the sunken ruins below.
The collapse warning had been issued three hours in advance. Even at his slow pace, he had managed to escape. Those players who failed to get out were likely blocked by others—just like when his younger brother dragged him into shooter survival games, where someone always camped the shrinking circle's edge.
With that thought, Yu Deng opened the player info panel.
He was shocked to discover that after just one night, only 130 players remained!
Nearly one-third eliminated in less than a day… Yu Deng pressed his lips together, realizing his assumption from last night was wrong. Not everyone was resting—some players had taken advantage of the darkness to hunt others.
The two extreme players assigned to this instance had already claimed first and second place, with 300,000 and 250,000 points respectively. No one knew how many players they had slaughtered.
After thinking for a moment, Yu Deng decided to further solidify his "mysterious merchant" persona.
What would a mysterious figure have…? A cloak to hide the face—check. A mask—check. Right, they usually also had a chest full of strange goods, and some peculiar little pets.
He did have a box-shaped ordinary item, but no animal-type skills… well, not exactly none.
Yu Deng thought of his Contract Codex. At the end of the castle instance, a few small animals with strong attachment had been recorded into it.
With that, he opened the codex and poked it twice.
A few seconds later, a crow appeared before him. Its fluffy feathers were glossy black, a fruit held in its beak.
The crow cawed in confusion twice, then quickly noticed Yu Deng and flew over excitedly, puffing out its chest.
The young master summoned it! The young master really liked it more than that bat ball! Look—he even wore a crow mask!
Yu Deng hugged the crow, confused. "Weren't you the little crow from two instances ago? How can you appear here? But the duke and the others can't…"
[Your quest targets are key characters tied to specific instances and cannot appear elsewhere without disrupting balance.]System 01 explained. [Small animals like crows have minimal impact on the instance, so they can be summoned.]
Yu Deng understood.
He set the crow on his shoulder, finished disguising himself as a mysterious figure, and continued onward.
Starting locations in this instance were random, but Yu Deng guessed most players were near the edges. That meant he might encounter others heading toward the town.
[Ding. The temple's location will soon refresh. Clue provided.]
[Where moonlight and radiant breath nourish the soil—land that never sinks.]
Huh, there was even a hint? But what did that mean?
After pondering without results, Yu Deng glanced at the nearby town and decided to memorize the riddle and think about it later in a safer place.
Suddenly, he heard the sounds of combat.
He tensed up, quietly hiding behind a tree and peeking toward the noise.
In a forest clearing, a man and a woman were exchanging blows at high speed. The female player was clearly at a disadvantage.
Yu Deng tried to identify them.
The woman looked familiar—possibly someone he had encountered in the castle instance.
As for the one-eyed man, Yu Deng recalled forum discussions. He wasn't an extreme player and didn't enjoy torture, but his methods were brutal. Anyone who interfered with his objectives got stabbed three times. In competitive instances, he was infamous—nicknamed "One-Eyed Three Blades."
Knowing his own limits, Yu Deng didn't want to run into them. He hid nervously, planning to detour.
Swish—
A faint rush of wind came from behind. Yu Deng suddenly felt a chill down his back. He turned stiffly—
A massive creature had appeared silently behind him. It made no roar, only stared at him with enormous crimson eyes.
It stood about two meters tall. Its fur was yellow-brown, its head vaguely tiger-like, but its fangs were chaotic. A curved horn jutted from its head, and behind it trailed three leopard-like tails, each nearly two meters long.
Yu Deng: "??"
His mind went blank. He stumbled back a step, unsure how to react.
The beast opened its mouth.
Yu Deng's eyes reddened as he scrambled for a weapon. So weird… please don't eat me.
[Holy shit, first-person view scared me—what ugly thing just popped out?]
[Baby, be careful! Wait… it's wagging its tail at him? Huh??]
[Looking closer, it's not that ugly… just abstract. Hard to describe.]
[Yeah, probably instance flavor. Everything here feels like a SAN check. That grandma yesterday was weird too.]
Yu Deng pulled out the small lantern he'd gotten from Grandma Mara and instinctively swung it.
Sensing the terrifying residual aura, the beast retreated several steps—but soon sniffed Yu Deng's scent and crept closer again.
The crow couldn't take it anymore and flapped at the creature, but the size difference was absurd. The beast didn't even spare it a glance.
It slapped the lantern aside. Yu Deng couldn't reach his scalpel in time and swung the lantern again.
The beast seemed to think Yu Deng was playing with it and followed the movement eagerly. Yu Deng hesitated, then waved twice more. The creature played happily.
Yu Deng: "…?"
He looked up at it, silent for a few seconds.
This felt familiar—he had played with the three-headed dog like this before.
The creature was so abstract that Yu Deng silently named it "Tiger-Leopard Beast."
Too excited, the Tiger-Leopard Beast nudged Yu Deng with its massive head. The lantern slipped from his grip and crashed into the tree.
The two players fighting dozens of meters away froze.
"Who's there?!"
Yu Deng shuddered, remembering the bigger problem.
Right… there were players nearby.
He wanted to pretend he wasn't there, but they had already noticed the noise. They stopped fighting, backed off slightly, and cautiously approached—neither wanting to let the other escape nor leave an unseen threat lurking.
Yu Deng knew he'd been spotted.
"System, I can't beat them…"
[Host, don't worry. Maintain your disguise.]
Still hesitating between revealing himself or sneaking away, Yu Deng was suddenly shoved forward by the beast. With a forceful headbutt, it pushed him straight out of hiding.
Yu Deng staggered several steps. "???"
The two players saw his attire and froze, quickly recalling the message from public chat yesterday.
"A mysterious merchant?"
Yu Deng had no idea how to greet players, so he simply nodded solemnly.
The crow on his shoulder cooperated, letting out several hoarse caws that echoed eerily through the dark forest.
One-Eyed Three Blades gripped his weapon, grinning as he sized up Yu Deng beneath the cloak.
"So you say you're a merchant and that's it? How do I know you're not a player?" He chuckled, tossing a binding item toward the female player to keep her from fleeing. "But if you're an NPC merchant… killing you should drop quite a lot of loot, right?"
Yu Deng: "!?" Terrifying.
He had already put the lantern away. Under the cloak, his hand clenched the scalpel, ready to use other skills at any moment.
Just as One-Eyed Three Blades moved to attack, the bizarre creature burst from behind the tree like a lightning bolt, slamming him to the ground and snapping toward his throat.
His heart lurched. Forced to activate an item, he barely escaped the Tiger-Leopard Beast's claws, staring at Yu Deng and the creature in shock.
Yu Deng was still nervous—but seeing the beast easily overpower the man, then trot back and sprawl in front of him, panting and sticking out its tongue like it wanted praise, calmed him somewhat.
After a few seconds, inspiration struck. He understood how to act like a mysterious powerhouse.
Lowering his voice, he gently patted the creature, feigning nonchalance.
"Ah, this is my little pet. It's quite mischievous."
The beast cooperated, baring its teeth. Two of its three tails joined together to form a huge heart toward Yu Deng, while the remaining tail sneakily lashed out at the crow who'd insulted it.
Yu Deng hurriedly tried to stop the fight, maintaining an air of composed control as he awkwardly issued a threat.
"So… it would be best if you treated me with a little more respect."
T/N: It's been a while😅