[Literary Master]: True works of art are not in the books, but in the soul. When the heart blooms, the butterflies will come naturally.
[Drunken Butterfly]: Literary Master, I've understood…
Lin Ye Bai couldn't help but be distracted by the live stream comments. What were they talking about? Some parts were unclear, but he was curious to keep watching.
His gaze returned to the dark corridor, where he suddenly met a pair of red eyes. Her head was crushed, but her mobility hadn't been greatly affected. In fact, she seemed even more excited, trying to grab the shovel.
Lin Ye Bai swung too quickly. She didn't catch it, her nails scraping against metal with a shrill sound, and she fell flat on the stairs, looking at him with a gurgling, rattling noise from her throat.
From her back, bloody bone spikes erupted, tearing through her clothes. Her entire body twisted grotesquely, unable to stand upright, like a humanoid lizard, rapidly crawling toward Lin Ye Bai.
Lin Ye Bai had already noticed she wasn't normal. He hadn't expected her to turn into a full-fledged monster. She was strong, her thoughts sluggish, her nails sharp, and she didn't feel pain.
Her body wasn't very strong, though—more fragile than a normal person. But the bone spikes were unexpectedly sturdy, and the shovel nearly got stuck when he tried to pull it out.
"Brother… it hurts…"
"It hurts…"
Her voice had a crying tone, still carrying an oddly hypnotic quality, making it hard to resist the urge to help this seemingly fragile girl.
Of course, Lin Ye Bai was an exception. His expression remained calm, his gaze inquisitive. He swung the shovel again and again, smashing her head completely, only stopping when she was no longer making a sound.
She was definitely dead now. She no longer made a noise, her body twitching slightly, like some large arthropod.
The shovel broke, leaving only half of the wooden handle.
[Kill Level 1 Mutant x1]
[Points +50]
A notification from the main god space echoed in his mind.
So this was a mutant?
Lin Ye Bai felt exhausted. The intense physical exertion had caused a sharp pain in his chest again, and he couldn't help but cough.
His constitution was already weak—his lips were pale, his fingertips devoid of blood. From head to toe, he appeared frail, like a beautiful porcelain ornament placed high on a shelf, ready to shatter at the slightest push.
Even the body by his side—its head blown apart like a rotten watermelon—seemed completely disconnected from him.
The dark corridor, the deformed corpse, the dark red blood, the white bone spikes—together, they formed a horrific, bloody scene.
Lin Ye Bai sat there, indifferent and aloof, while everything around him faded into the background.
[Super Rich Orange Seat]: This face, I can get behind it!
[Super Rich Orange Seat] tips [Star Coins] x520
[Safe for Life]: He's faced with a patient tortured by disease, yet he decisively sends them to the afterlife...
[Blacksmith Thor]: Good kid! If you come work with me, I'll cure your cough!
[Flower in Full Bloom] tips [Star Coins] x100
[Flower in Full Bloom]: Streamer, save up more Star Coins so you can exchange items.
[White Umbrella]: Just entered the stream. What's going on? A dismemberment scene?
Lin Ye Bai was still uncertain about how to exchange Star Coins, and with his eyes half-closed, his long, dark lashes hung low, suppressing a cough. His face looked deathly pale, almost heart-stopping.
Meanwhile, Zhuo Yuan, who had just come out of the internet café and was heading home, heard a weak coughing sound from the corridor. He turned on his flashlight.
The entire corridor was stained with dark red blood, and a horrific, mutilated corpse was twitching faintly.
A man in a black uniform was sitting on the steps, dark blood splattered across his face, his eyes barely lifting to meet the light source. His gaze was sharp, as if measuring the distance between them with the corner of his eye.
Their eyes met. Zhuo Yuan shivered, as though he had suddenly seen a cat startled by a cucumber. He bolted, dropping his phone in the process, not even bothering to pick it up, and ran out, screaming:
"Ahhhhhh! There's a murderer!!"
Lin Ye Bai picked up the dropped phone, fiddled with it for a while, but couldn't operate it properly. He used it as a flashlight instead.
In the corner, he noticed a dark red bead—one that had rolled out from the mutant's head. He hadn't bothered to pick it up earlier, but now, he slipped it into his pocket. The bead was similar in texture to glass, dark and almost seemed to absorb the surrounding light.
Lin Ye Bai heard the young man's terrified voice again.
He recognized it easily because the voice, in its extreme terror, had become sharp, almost like a high soprano.
"Ahhh—"
"Ahhhhhhh! There's a monster—"
[Opera Phantom]: This kid might be able to sing a soprano.
[Literary Master]: The fifteen "ahs" vividly express his fear, and "murderer" and "monster" use Bai Miao's technique, showing us the picture one scene at a time.
Lin Ye Bai glanced at the barrage while adjusting his breathing, preparing for battle.
Zhuo Yuan, initially planning to leave and call the police, was still running through the complex when he suddenly bumped into a fat lady. She turned her head, and her entire face was covered in tiny eyes—eyes that blinked and sparkled, all over her face.
He was so scared that he peed himself, having no choice but to run back, his feet skidding in panic.
The fat lady was fast, running after him while calling out warmly, "Xiao Zhou, haven't you eaten yet? Come have some late-night snacks at Auntie's place..."
"I don't want to eat! I don't want to eat! Ahhhhhh!" he screamed, his voice piercing the air.
"Xiao Zhou, Xiao Zhou, slow down, don't trip, hehe," she laughed, the sound shrill and maniacal.
Zhuo Yuan felt a chill run down his spine. If she caught him, he'd definitely end up as her midnight snack.
Lin Ye Bai picked up the broken shovel, then thoughtfully snapped off a bone spike from the mutant's back. The end wasn't firmly attached to the spine, so it snapped off easily.
The bone spike was much harder than the shovel, and its sharp edges made it a far better weapon. It was like using a bone knife, and it felt much easier to handle than the shovel.
Lin Ye Bai was weak physically, and his punches lacked force. But his knife skills were extraordinary, and even at just over twenty years old, few could rival him.
"Big brother, help… help me…" Zhuo Yuan remembered the black security uniform he had briefly seen earlier and seemed to understand something.
On the surface, it looked like Lin Ye Bai was attacking, but was he actually fighting monsters?
"I thought he was on the first floor, but he's actually on the second?"
But Zhuo Yuan was also afraid that the security guard and the fat lady were working together, so he didn't dare run into the corridor.
Lin Ye Bai suppressed the urge to cough and stepped outside, stumbling slightly. As he left the dark corridor, the blood-red moonlight poured down, casting a soft, hazy glow on his long, flowing hair.
Lin Ye Bai looked toward the source of the sound. The young man he had just saved was being chased by the plump lady, who was bounding after him like a madwoman.
"Help me!" Zhuo Yuan screamed.
Just as the woman was about to catch him, Lin Ye Bai threw the broken shovel, which landed directly in the fat lady's chest.
She slowed down for a moment, then turned her gaze toward Lin Ye Bai.
With so many eyes on her, Lin Ye Bai felt slightly uncomfortable, and for a moment, he regretted using the shovel.
When encountering monsters like this, he thought, it would be best to strike quickly with a shovel to avoid being stared at and feeling nauseous.
"Comrade, I have a situation to report…" she said, her eyeballs bulging outward as she lunged toward him.
"Big brother, watch out!" Zhuo Yuan screamed in panic.
The fat lady was getting closer, but Lin Ye Bai sidestepped just in time, swiftly using the bone spike to sever her head with a single clean cut.
Dark red blood sprayed out, filling the air with a strong, metallic scent.
A bead fell from her body, which Lin Ye Bai caught and put into his pocket.
His slender fingers were stained with blood, the dark blood dripping down his palm, following the lines of his lifeline and spilling between his fingers, a strange vitality pulsing from it.
[Kill Level 1 Mutant x1]
[Points +50]
Lin Ye Bai heard the notification once again, its tone flat and emotionless.
Zhuo Yuan collapsed onto the ground, panting wildly.
As a shut-in, how could he outrun someone who regularly fights for groceries? He had almost been caught by the "Hundred-Eyed Lady," and it terrified him.
"Big brother, what's going on here?"
"Not sure." Lin Ye Bai, new to this place, only felt that things wouldn't end well if he fell into the hands of those monsters.
"Big brother, my name is Zhuo Yuan. Thank you so much. If you hadn't been there, I'd be a goner."
"Lin Ye Bai."
"Lin-ge, want to come to my place? No one's home."
[Flower in Full Bloom]: The corpse in the corridor said the same thing.
[Safe for Life]: A late-night invitation—what does it really mean? Is it moral decay or human distortion? Let's take a closer look at this episode of Multiverse Live...
[Soft Cat Ears]: Finally know the streamer's name!
[White Umbrella] tips [Star Coins] x100
Zhuo Yuan looked at Lin Ye Bai's blood-soaked uniform and the word "Security" on his chest, thinking this walking golden leg really needed to clean himself up.
Lin Ye Bai silently gripped the bone knife in his hand, not rejecting the offer.
The corpse twitching at the stairway had also invited him to visit its home just moments ago. The one-eyed, multi-eyed mutant seemed to have something it wanted to report...
Too bad it was dead now, and whatever it had to say remained a mystery.
Zhuo Yuan seemed much more normal now. He looked like a living person. If he were a mutant, one quick swipe of the knife would have taken care of him easily.
"Lin-ge, this building's old, no elevator. The corpse in the stairway is blocking the path. Let's move it out of the way."
Zhuo Yuan pulled at the body, then quickly noticed Lin Ye Bai's pale face. He decided to take the burden himself. Lin-ge looked like he might collapse any moment.
"Lin-ge, don't move. I can handle this. It's not that heavy."
Zhuo Yuan struggled with the corpse, pushing it into the triangular space beneath the stairs. He hoped it wouldn't start to smell or attract bugs.
Moving it outside didn't seem like an option. After all, he had just finished three months of gaming at the internet café, and now the world seemed to have changed so drastically.
In games, he'd rush to confront monsters. In real life, he just wished he had a couple more legs to escape faster.
Zhou Yuan's apartment was on the third floor. The lights were off, and even before entering, he could see blood splattered on the nearby walls and hallway.
In the pitch-black corner of the room, two red glows suddenly lit up, coming from the eyes of some creature.
A white, thin thread shot from that direction, wrapping around Zhou Yuan's neck.
"Ah—!"
The high-pitched scream echoed again.
Zhou Yuan's scream was so sharp that it sounded like a young girl in shock, its intensity making the window glass tremble twice before shattering to the floor.
Lin Ye Bai stepped back in time, avoiding the flying shards of glass.
The thin thread seemed to hesitate, stunned by the sound, but then continued to pull Zhou Yuan toward the corner.