Chapter 4#
Chapter 4#
Reward
Even though it was stated that he had three minutes, he wasn’t granted that grace. Almost instantly, the world spun, and another hologram barged into his sight.
< Detected that player outfit does not suit current dungeon level. >
< Applying automatic adjustments… Done. >
< Party matching… 5/5 members. >
< Entering dungeon. Loading… >
Everything went dark.
The next thing Yu Qing knew, he was standing in front of a dilapidated building, with a huge sign erected on its roof:Blue Bay Hotel.
Surprisingly, he had some impression of the hotel. It was situated in the Lower District. He happened to pass by the back of it on the way to the tenement to return the skin. Uncle Yuan had pointed at the hotel and said, “Someone gets murdered here every other day.The Daily Rosecovered a few cases in graphic detail. I can see why. The place gives me the creeps.”
However, the hotel looked different now than it did that day. It loomed like a phantom in the dead of the night, beside a few small shadowy shops. Beyond them, the coast was pitch-dark, shrouded in misty rain that stretched into the distance.
Was this the so-called Beginner Dungeon? A hotel?
While Yu Qing was puzzling it out, his pocket abruptly grew heavy. He reached in and pulled out a phone. Its base colour was a matte black, yet its edges were neon pink.
Yu Qing: “…”
He curled his lip, but unlocked it anyway. The home screen displayed only an ID containing a basic profile and a messaging app with four tabs: World Chat, Party Chat, Private Chat, and System Notifications. He tapped the first one.
It was mayhem, a stream of messages scrolling upwards at warp speed. Finding it an eyesore, he promptly moved on to the party chat. Five avatars lay quietly inside, with no messages clamouring for his attention.
Lastly, he checked the private chat. Only one contact was on the list, showing a blank avatar and an alias that rubbed him the wrong way: ^^
“Always haunting me…” Annoyed by the very name, he pressed and held down the avatar and tried to delete the contact. A notification popped up:You cannot delete yourself.
Trash. Yu Qing turned off the screen. Out of the blue, something rubbed up against his ankle. He looked down and found a fluffy white kitten.
Before he could shoo it off, it went, “Meep.” The high-pitched mewl was familiar, sounding exactly like his pet skeleton.
“…” He haughtily glanced at that thing. “Did you grow mould?”
The skeletal Xiaomi who’d grown fur: “?”
Yu Qing recalled the hologram that popped up during the transfer, spouting nonsense about adjusting the outfit to the dungeon level. Some automatic outfit must have been applied on the skeleton to make it look normal.
Speak of the devil. The hologram reappeared, this time with another flashing exclamation mark.
< Tutorial Quest 1: Check in at the hotel’s front desk. >
The infuriating thing couldn’t be closed. Worse still, it kept flashing. Scowling, Yu Qing set off towards the dilapidated hotel.
Someone was already checking in at the front desk. He looked like a student, with blazing red short hair and a black hoodie covered in studs. To avoid getting poked by that ‘rambutan’, Yu Qing kept his distance.
But Rambutan was—god forbid—an extrovert. After giving him a once-over, he made conversation. “Are you cosplaying the Painted Skin from the promo vid?”
The Painted Skin in the flesh: “?”
“Your outfit is bang-on,” Rambutan explained, “but you missed the appearance by a mile.”
What the hell? Yu Qing looked around, then spotted his reflection on the glass behind the front desk. He was still in a classic black suit and his proportions hadn’t changed, but his face had been altered beyond recognition, bearing no resemblance to before.
Unfazed by the complete lack of response, Rambutan wondered next, “What’s your name?”
Mr. Painted Skin refused to reveal himself in this new appearance. He decided to pass the buck to a certain annoying bastard. Thinking of that maddening ^^, he made something up. “PocketRockets.”(two aces/tips/pricks)
“What are the odds!” Rambutan exclaimed.
“What odds?” Yu Qing asked frigidly.
“I’m ThreeKings!”
“…”
“No wonder we got matched into the same party.” ThreeKings chortled. “Speaking of which, the rest of our party got here even earlier. They’ve already done check-in and gone to their rooms. I just did mine, so it’s your turn.”
The receptionist was a puffy-faced, middle-aged man. He glanced at Yu Qing, then pulled out a newspaper and slapped it on the counter. Splashed in bold across the front page wasThe Daily Rose.
Yu Qing couldn’t be more familiar with the publication. Everyone on the island read it. Uncle Yuan was often glued to his, obsessed with the no-name serialisations and the gossip columns.
However, the headliner of this one wasn’t gossip but a news story:Dismembered Bodies Found in Blue Bay! Family of Five Brutally Murdered!
The receptionist rapped his knuckles on it and droned in a raspy tone, “The murderer is still at large. Whichever room you get for the night, make sure to keep the doors and windows shut. If anything happens, it’s not on us. We’ve already warned you.” Having covered that, he gestured at the machine next to him. “Scan your ID. We allocate rooms based on your balance here.”
Yu Qing went still. “Based on what?”
“Your balance,” the receptionist repeated.
ThreeKings chimed in helpfully, “The credits listed on your profile.”
Yu Qing impassively tapped on his ID and double-checked the numbers on the screen. The receptionist impassively waited.
The richling had clearly never suffered such an affront before. With Uncle Yuan around, he never had to lift a finger.
“How much for a standard room?” Yu Qing stoically asked.
“Five hundred.”
“What’s the cheapest?”
“One-eighty.”
“Where can I stay with negative 470,000?”
The receptionist went quiet for five long seconds, then dug his ears. “How much???”
Yu Qing’s face was stony. He had no intention of repeating that insulting sum.
The receptionist waved at the door. “Out on the streets.”
Yu Qing: “…”
Floored, ThreeKings blurted out, “Negative 470,000? You mean you haveminus470,000 credits?”
Yu Qing mentally killed ^^ multiple times before retorting, “Yes. Problem?”
His tone was so frosty that ThreeKings back-pedalled, waving his hands frantically. “No, no, it’s just a little tragic if you ask me. So you’re in the red, but you still got an outfit and a pet?”
“What pet?”
ThreeKings pointed towards his feet. “The white kitten.”
Yu Qing looked where he pointed—the skeleton who’d grown fur.
“But I gotta say, it’s so round. How much did it cost? Doesn’t look like it comes with any special effects, so it was probably pretty cheap, but whatever. As newbies, that’s all we can afford. At least it’s cute.”
And it was way cute! Unable to resist, ThreeKings crouched down and made “pspsps” noises at the kitten.
The kitten sniffed his finger and, summoned by the call, gave it a little nip.
Suddenly, ThreeKings dropped to the floor with a thud and played a voice line that called out, “Save me, save me, save me” while crawling towards the front desk.
The receptionist was so startled that he almost started crawling too. “What the heck?” It was his first time seeing anyone behave like that right after coming in. He frantically hit the emergency bell. “Why did you collapse all of a sudden?”
Seeing stars, ThreeKings muttered unintelligibly, “Dunno. HP suddenly went poof.”
“HP? What mumbo jumbo is that? Take him to the clinic next door for a check-up now.” The receptionist called over the pale-faced, button-eyed security guard on duty, then hurriedly dragged ThreeKings down the corridor.
Before leaving, he tossed Yu Qing a room key with a peeling laminate. “Room 1811 on the eighteenth floor is empty. Since nobody’s staying there anyway, you can use it for the night. It’s better than sleeping on the streets. Don’t forget to keep the doors and windows shut.” Scared that Yu Qing wouldn’t follow his instructions, he reiterated, “Murder and dismemberment!”
With that, he and the guard vanished into the darkness.
Yu Qing flipped the card. One side bore a photograph of the hotel, though the faded colours made the windows look like black holes, while the reverse side displayed the room number 1811. Strangely, the two 1s were spaced a little far apart. Most people wouldn’t notice the gap at first glance, but Yu Qing’s eyes were drawn to it at once.
The hotel was dimly lit. He held the card up to the light, and only then could he make out faint traces of printed strokes that someone had gone to great lengths to erase. From the makings, the room key should have been 1814…
But none of that mattered right now. Let alone 1814(yi ba yi si), even if it read ‘instant death’(li ma jiu si), Yu Qing wouldn’t be scared off. Right now his number one priority was to dragsomeoneout of his body.
He took the card and headed straight for the eighteenth floor, swiping it to open the door to room 1811. As soon as he stepped in, a peculiar floral fragrance wafted towards him. Unused to such overpowering scents, he covered his nose and walked up to the bed. It was surprisingly clean considering the hotel’s ramshackle facade; he could grudgingly bring himself to lie on it if he stayed fully clothed.
If only Uncle Yuan were here. Then someone could disinfect every inch of the place for him, so thought Mr. Painted Skin.
Just as he was about to smooth out the creases on the sheets, the phone, which had been silent for ages, suddenly buzzed.
What was the racket about?
Yu Qing checked it. On the messaging app, a red dot had appeared on the ‘System Notifications’ tab. He tapped in.
Your pet has knocked down a party member, bringing them to the brink of death. Achievement < First Blood > complete.
+500 Battle Exp, +1 Level.
Claim Battle Rewards.
Yu Qing: “?”
He glanced down at the little skeleton. It was looking up at him, seeking praise, its tail held high. He tapped ‘Claim’, and got a pop-up on his screen that read: +1,000 Credits
Total Credits: -469,000
Yu Qing: “…”
The phone buzzed again. Another system notification had come in. He thought there might be more rewards, but when he opened it, the message read:
As your pet knocked down a party member, bringing them to the brink of death, dungeon achievements < No Damage Taken >, < Perfect Teamwork >, and < Basic Human Decency > failed.
Claim Rewards.
Yu Qing knew nothing good would come of it, but irked by the flashing red dot, he tapped ‘Claim’ anyway and got another pop-up: -30,000 Credits
Total Credits: -499,000
Yu Qing snorted and looked back down. The little skeleton, all fluffed up in white, was going “meep-meep, meow-meow” as it pretended to be busy chasing its tail. God knows who it’d picked that up from.
For some reason, he thought of that infernal ^^ again.
After all, Xiaomi had been forced to associate with him for what was essentially a whole day…
On that note, Yu Qing was done waiting. He went through a table drawer and pulled out some stationery. Tearing off one sticky note, he pressed the pen down with such force that the ink bled through the paper as he wrote:
What is up with this incomprehensible Beginner Dungeon? Get out here and sort out your own mess.
t/n.c4 came out a little later than the earlier few, so readers were camping on c3 and commenting: ‘did Xiaomi eat chapter four?’
This chapter marks the beginning of an arc called Ferryman of River Styx, though ‘Styx’ could just refer to a generic underworld river as we’re dealing with Chinese folklore. Might change this as the arc goes along.