CH 20.2

It seems that he sucked him of so much blood, and after tossing him around, the usually vigilant young man surprisingly did not want to wake up. Not only did he not wake up, but the other party found a more comfortable position and leaned his whole body weight on him.

Although it was said to be the weight of his whole body, it was still pitifully light. The other man was about 180 cm, only ten centimeters shorter than him, but he was unbelievably thin.

His blood-red pupils gazed at the youth in his arms, though he did not notice how intense the blaze and deep emotion in his eyes were at the moment.

He thought for a moment and scratched at his wrist with a sharp nail. A line of blood immediately spilled out.

He pried Bai Lixin’s mouth and fed him his blood.

Struck by the smell of blood, Bai Lixin opened his eyes with difficulty, his brow furrowed slightly, and rejection was written all over his face.

Dijia’s voice was gentle, as if he was soothing his most beloved lover, “Swallow it, it will restore your strength.”

The voice was low and hoarse, like a compulsion from hell. Bai Lixin was slightly lost in thought, and he swallowed it obediently.

Seeing Bai Lixin swallow, Dijia gave him several more swallows, and only stopped moving when the latter’s face regained its rosy color.

……

When Bai Lixin woke up again, it was already the next morning. The collar had been rewrapped around his nibbled neck.

He was alone in the room, and Dijia had long since disappeared.

Bai Lixin sat up in bed and stretched, feeling refreshed.

Suddenly, his body stiffened and he lowered his head in some surprise.

A tiny white figure wiggled its way out of Bai Lixin’s pocket. The little bat rubbed its eyes with its paws and said lazily, “Good morning.”

Bai Lixin froze for a couple of seconds: “Why are you back on this form? Didn’t you recover your strength by sucking my blood?”

The bat, “I haven’t eaten in a thousand years, and those two bites aren’t enough to fill my teeth. Besides, it’s daytime and I’m sleepy.”

[Ding! It’s time to eat. All players are invited to go to the dining hall to eat.]

As one man and one bat walked alone down the corridor, Bai Lixin asked Dijia, “Why was Mr. Mo so shocked when you appeared yesterday? It wasn’t like the awe in others, it was more like he was judging something.”

Dijia, “High-ranked Bloods all have their own sense of territory, and Bloods who have not been invited cannot enter another’s territory. I got in without an invitation and he was probably shocked by that.”

“Heh,” Dijia let out a laugh, “He’s totally overthinking it. Didn’t you summon me?”

Bai Lixin: “.…”

Bai Lixin walked for a few minutes to the dining hall, just in time to bump into Wen Ziqing and the others who were coming from the opposite end. For a moment, Wen Ziqing was surprised when he saw Bai Lixin, then he put his fake smile back on.

Bai Lixin had been taken away in full view yesterday, but he was standing here today as if nothing had happened.

Not only Wen Ziqing, but also the other players had curiosity in their eyes.

As it was a dining session, everyone refrained from saying a word, even though they were curious, and they entered the dining hall quietly.

The long table was still the same, but with six fewer people. The gap between each chair was much larger, and there was no longer a chance of someone accidentally pushing someone else.

Having already gained a day’s experience, the players were no longer taking any chances this time.

Everyone pulled back their chairs as gently as they would a glass doll and carefully cut the steak in front of them.

It was still a medium-rare steak with mashed potatoes and milk.

No matter how disgusted and unwilling they were, no one showed any rejection this time.

There was only one meal a day. They would be starving by the end of the day. There were three more days to go, and if they didn’t eat their fill, they would probably pass out from hunger.

Everyone ate in peace and quiet, and no one made any noise this time.

After the meal, it was time for exercise. They were taken to the same garden and made to loosen the soil and plant roses again.

The roses, nourished by rotting corpses and blood, were delicate and beautiful.

The players had just eaten the bloody steak, and that rich taste of blood was still in their mouths. Then they came to this garden filled with corpses.

The smell of decay mixed with the fragrance of roses converged into a smell that words cannot describe.

It was as disgusting as seeing a beautiful maiden, but a foul-smelling corpse odour comes out of her mouth when she smiles.

Several players were assaulted by the unpleasant smell and almost couldn’t hold back their vomit.

Bai Lixin looked at the three Bloods napping under the promenade. It was the same three Bloods from yesterday.

Bai Lixin pocketed the seeds and slowly walked up to the three Bloods.

One of them opened his eyes at the sound of movements. He saw Bai Lixin and immediately said, “It’s you, that waste who planted only eight!”

Bai Lixin, “Uh, it’s me…”

The Blood glanced at Bai Lixin in disgust and waved his hand impatiently, “What is it?”

Bai Lixin, “Yesterday you said that humans can be transformed into Bloods, I would like to ask how exactly?”

In fact, he could actually ask Dijia this kind of thing.

But he came over to ask the Bloods to see whether he could get the appropriate clues through dialogue with the Bloods or not.

From the Trial copy, conversations with NPCs could trigger clues, although the clues weren’t necessarily true either.

Xia Chi said that the Bloods’ power was halved during the day and their spirits were not as good as at night.

This should be the reason why these guards did not catch them immediately after they made noises from eating, but waited until night.

Sure enough, the Bloods did not attack him, but chatted with him with great interest.

“Oh, that.” The other two Bloods were still dozing when this one came up to Bai Lixin and whispered, “Actually, we used to be human like you. Thanks to Mr. Mo’s first embrace, we were turned into Bloods. But not everyone can become a Blood. Only those who pass the test can become Bloods.”

Bai Lixin, “How do you pass the test?”

That Blood suddenly laughed, “If you can donate fresh blood to Mr. Mo, you can transform into a Blood.”

“I coaxed a sister from my village to sacrifice herself to Mr. Mo in order to transform into a Blood at that time. She was the most beautiful woman in our village, only 14 years old and still a virgin.”

“Mr. Mo was so pleased with her blood that he granted me my first embrace on the spot.”

“I have since been freed from my filthy, fragile human body and turned into a powerful, long-lived Blood, completing the evolution of the species.”

“One more thing: Mr. Mo only likes good-looking people. If ugly people offer him gifts, they can’t get the first embrace no matter how delicious. This is a privilege only we good-looking people have.”

“You’re good looking, Mr. Mo will like you. It’s really quite simple for you to transform into a Blood if you want to.” The Blood paused, “The next time Mr. Mo feeds, just tell Mr. Mo that you want to convert into a Blood. He will let you go outside and bring someone back.”

Bai Lixin, “Mr. Mo is not afraid that I will run away?”

The Blood sneered, “What a joke. Have you forgotten how you got here? If Mr. Mo can catch you once, he can catch you a second time. It’s better if you run away. Mr. Mo likes to play this game of ‘You running away and me chasing you.'”

Bai Lixin took a deep breath, “Is that how all the Bloods in this castle have been converted?”

“Of course, Mr. Mo is the absolute authority in this castle, everyone else is his dependent. Otherwise, do you think this land is under that rose?”

The Blood pointed distantly to a corner where the roses were in full bloom. When the breeze blew, the delicate rose petals swayed in the wind, as if greeting them.

Surprisingly, the Blood actually greeted that rose: “Look, she’s still saying hello to me. I was the one who buried her there at the time. The little girl was always afraid of getting sunburned, so I deliberately found a shady spot where the sun wouldn’t shine. I was her big brother after all, and I still cared for her, didn’t I?”

As he spoke, a gentle and intoxicated expression appeared on his face.

Bai Lixin tried to suppress the disgust in his heart. He had already felt the malice of this game from the trial copy, but he did not expect the official game to be even more atrocious.

Underneath the seemingly glamorous exterior, there was already a rotten and stinking soul.

Bai Lixin lowered his eyes, his long thick lashes hiding the chill in his eyes, and he asked again, “One more question, I saw a small staircase there in the hall, do you know what that place is?”

“That is a restricted area of this castle,” said the Blood, his face frozen and his eyes filled with fear. “No one is allowed in there except Mr. Mo. Not even his son can go there.”

His eyes suddenly went cold, “Why are you asking this?!”

Bai Lixin, “I’m just asking casually, in preparation for joining the Bloods.”

The vigilance slowly dropped and the Blood continued, “You’re good looking. That’s why I told you so much. It’d be a waste of this face if you died. Hopefully, the next time I see you, you’ll be my companion. Get back to work.”

Seeing that nothing more could be asked, Bai Lixin went back to the rose garden to continue digging.

A silhouette crept up to him, and Bai Lixin looked up. He saw that it was Wen Ziqing.

Wen Ziqing’s eyes were as gentle as water, and he looked at Bai Lixin with a smile on his face, “Bai Lixin, you just had a long chat with the NPCs.”

Bai Lixin’s expression was distant, “Just chatting.”

Wen Ziqing, “What did you ask them?”

Bai Lixin, “Nothing much. I asked them how to join the Blood Clan.”

Wen Ziqing’s eyes became even more gentle, “You want to pass the level by joining the Blood Clan?”

“Who knows?” Bai Lixin’s eyes fell on Wen Ziqing’s fingertips, “I just wanted to see if I could trigger NPC conversations, I didn’t think much else.”

Wen Ziqing arched his eyebrows, “Bai Lixin, I know you. Our chairman appreciates you, so I hope to see you in the guild next time.”

Bai Lixin, “Sorry, I haven’t thought about joining the guild yet.”

“Why not?” Wen Ziqing was stunned, “The guild provides us with a lot of convenience. There are many people who want to join it, but you refuse when you are invited. What are you thinking?”

“How can there be such a good thing in the world? Giving you convenience certainly requires paying equal or more value.” Bai Lixin lowered his head and slowly ploughed the earth, “The conditions for joining the guild are harsh. The conditions for staying in the guild should be even harsher, right? I’m used to being *Buddhist and don’t like to be controlled by others.”

Wen Ziqing was about to say something else, but was called back by the other players. Disgust surfaced in his eyes before it quickly disappeared.

Wen Ziqing looked back, again with that gentle Maitreya Buddha look, “I’m coming.”

Bai Lixin smiled and lowered his head to continue digging.

He was halfway through when his shovel hit a hard object.

With a gentle flip, a broken pair of glasses came out.

It belonged to one of the players who had died last night, and a fresh finger was exposed behind the glasses.

Bai Lixin suddenly felt a little emotional.

Just half a day ago, the other player had been a living, breathing creature. But in the blink of an eye, he was already buried here. Dead in the game, and completely gone in the present world. The only ones who could still remember that these lives had ever existed would be the other players.

But up to the point of death, he did not even know the other party’s name. The only thing that still reminds anyone of him is these glasses.

The system said that the people it summoned were all players with obsessions, but after experiencing so many copies where you walk on the edge of the knife, could players still remember exactly what their obsessions were when they first entered the game?

Thinking of this, Bai Lixin opened the private chat window.

Bai Lixin: [Xia Chi, are you asleep?]

Xia Chi replied almost in seconds.

Xia Chi: [QvQ, can’t sleep at all, brother, I’m too hungry.]

Bai Lixin: [I want to ask you something.]

Xia Chi: [Brother, just ask! *To know everything, is to say everything!]

Xia Chi: [The system once said that only people with enough obsession would be drawn into this game. Li Cancan was pulled into the game because of her grandmother’s illness, what was your reason?]

This time, Xia Chi’s side did not answer Bai Lixin immediately.

After a long time, the other party replied back to him: [Actually, I’m not sure.]

[In my memory, there was a friend who was inseparable. But one day, he disappeared. He did not disappear but vanished into thin air, completely out of existence. It was just after the entrance exams and everyone was packing their bags. We were both rather wild, running all around the campus and the school building. I thought he had gone back to the classroom on his own, but when I went back to the classroom and asked, my classmates all said that this person did not exist.]

[I called him later and it wasn’t him on the other end of the line. I went back to his house to look for him, and his parents didn’t even know he existed. All traces of him in the world had disappeared, and all memories of him seemed to have been conjured up by me out of thin air. My family even thought that I was suffering from a delusional disorder due to the stress of the entrance exams, until one day I stumbled upon a yellowed photo in a dictionary.]

[If he was really a figment of my imagination, then who was in the picture? He must have existed! But for some reason, he suddenly disappeared.]

[After that, finding him became my obsession. When I came to this world and heard the system rules, I suddenly realized that he might have entered this world.]

Bai Lixin’s eyes were a bit complicated, [According to the system, this game is supposed to exist in the time gap between the real world and the virtual world. The time in the game is stationary compared to the real world. If you can detect that he has disappeared in reality, it means…]

Xia Chi: [I know, that’s why I have to get through! I’m going to resurrect him and bring him back to the real world! I want to ask him what obsession he had to have entered this game world for in the first place!]

The two paused in their private chat for a few seconds before Xia Chi sent another message to Bai Lixin: [What about you, brother?]

Bai Lixin replied seriously: [I came to find an old attacker.]

The True Ancestor that had been shrunk in Bai Lixin’s pocket suddenly opened its eyes, and its blood-red eyes were clear.

It grabbed the edge of Bai Lixin’s pocket and poked its head out, looking up at the clear-eyed young man above.

Bai Lixin was puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

Dijia’s voice was a little muffled, he said, “Nothing,” before retreating back into the pocket.

Bai Lixin looked down and spilled all the rose seeds out of the bag and put the glasses in with his back hand.

……

Two hours later, the Bloods followed their customary check on the success of their labor.

The other Blood walked up to Bai Lixin without hope, “How many have you planted today?”

Under the Blood’s gaze, Bai Lixin asked in return, “How many are in a bag in total?”

The Blood, “200.”

Bai Lixin, “Oh, then I planted 200.”

Blood: “????”

Other players: “…”

Weren’t you the one who said one shouldn’t compete yesterday?!

After looking around Bai Lixin, the Bloods finally saw a huge little dirt pit, and their eyes opened like copper bells, “That’s the 200 you planted?! Everyone else planted them one by one!”

Bai Lixin thought seriously, “A family should be reunited.”

The Bloods: “????”

—

It was lunch break again, and the guards weren’t going to be watching them. Bai Lixin saw that no one was outside and snuck out.

The corridor was empty and the sun was pouring down with abandon. It was funny how these creatures of the night did not appreciate this splendid sight.

Once again, he came to the dimly lit stairway leading to the basement.

The chilling coldness continued to emanate from the bottom of the stairs. It was like a fierce beast rushing towards Bai Lixin with its mouth wide open.