Chapter 13: The Cursed Mask, Completing Patricide
Boom!
A door was violently thrown open, the doorknob shattered, parts scattering across the floor.
The Nightmare Devourer, consumed by raging fury, grew unnaturally tall, its grotesque muscles twitching and swelling.
“Tell me, where’s my wine?”
Its crimson gaze swept the room, fixing on the wooden bed.
But when the blanket was pulled back, the bed was empty.
A sinister smile twisted the Nightmare Devourer’s lips. “Think you can run?”
In truth, Ji Yan’s actions played right into its hands. From the very start, he never intended to let the other complete the task smoothly.
Though through Ji Yan, it could occasionally get its blood pipa fix from the Charm Phantom in Room 101 to appease its thirst for alcohol, daily indulgence was impossible. However, if Ji Yan failed his mission, the Nightmare Devourer could seize him firmly, then negotiate with the Charm Phantom of 101, persisting until the blood pipa could be squeezed out for its unrestrained drinking…
This plan might not succeed.
The Charm Phantom woman was terrifying when enraged, even the Nightmare Devourer feared her.
But obsessed with the blood pipa to the point of helplessness, the Nightmare Devourer was too lazy to overthink.
Forcing Ji Yan to fail wasn’t easy.
Hence, it struck a deal with Dong Chu.
Players could only interfere with Ji Yan’s mission by setting traps through Dong Chu.
Dong Chu’s demands were simple: food, and all of Ji Yan’s equipment.
Blind in one eye and starving, he had to find his own way to survive.
Dong Chu’s talent, “Survival Against All Odds,” only triggered when his favorability dropped to zero and his survival environment became perilous.
This talent granted Dong Chu certain privileges, allowing him to seize chances for survival.
This time, the triggered privilege was the ability to initiate a hidden trade with any one of the family’s oddities.
At first glance, the talent seemed useless.
It only gave a sliver of life when death was near, testing whether the bearer could grasp it.
Yet, if applied wisely, it could be quite powerful.
“Tonight, some will sleep peacefully, while others will flee desperately. Tsk tsk.”
With his hands behind his head, Dong Chu sensed he would sleep soundly tonight.
By tomorrow morning, he could slowly reap the fruits of his labor.
…
Inside Room 404’s small cabin, the Nightmare Devourer detected no trace of Ji Yan’s scent.
Frowning, it looked toward the doorway. “Could he have hidden in that woman’s room?”
Its first thought was the Charm Phantom from 101; after all, she often opposed it. It wasn’t impossible she had lured Ji Yan away.
Late at night, the apartment refreshed many ferocious oddities, none being current residents, but rather the original inhabitants who had been driven out.
These oddities were fraught with danger, prone to blackening.
If Ji Yan were wiped out by another oddity, all of the Nightmare Devourer’s efforts would be in vain.
In the living room, ghostly shadows flickered.
They were the former occupants of 404, now conquered by players.
Their identities altered, they had become NPCs in night mode.
Though no longer masters of 404, they were far from polite—watching TV, sipping tea, stealing snacks in the kitchen.
“A bunch of cast-off trash, yet they treat this place like their home!”
The Nightmare Devourer wanted to leave and catch Ji Yan, but suddenly remembered its archrival on the seventh floor above. If it left 404, that enemy would surely go mad and chase after it.
Its eyes darkened.
The craving surged; it felt like ten thousand ants gnawing at its body, twitching in agony.
It turned, intending to retreat to its room for a few sips to calm down.
But as it turned, it saw a disheveled oddity sitting in the corridor, gripping a bottle of vivid red wine, drunk to stupor.
The cork popped, and the Nightmare Devourer immediately recognized the wine.
Blood Pipa!
“Where did you get that wine?” it demanded.
The bottle was familiar—Dong Chu’s odd artifact.
“Snatched it off a little rat,” the drunken oddity slurred.
“And where’s that rat?”
“Ran off after I took his wine.”
The drunken oddity swayed, half the bottle of blood pipa in hand.
“What do you think this wine’s made of? Such a kick… heh heh heh…”
“…”
The Nightmare Devourer’s face twisted hideously as it glared at the drunkard.
“Damn it! Don’t you know that’s my prey?”
The drunk oddity didn’t respond, mumbling incoherently.
The Nightmare Devourer snatched the wine and gulped it down greedily, its craving out of control.
The entire bottle was drained without a drop left, and it howled in ecstasy.
But the anesthetic effect made its head dizzy and heavy.
Throwing the empty bottle aside, it staggered toward its room.
After a few steps, the dizziness worsened.
Its room blurred into multiple afterimages.
Lowering its head in a daze, it saw a rusted, battered blade piercing through its chest…
Why did this blade look so familiar?
In the next instant, its pupils contracted, veins bulging.
The dark drunken haze and numbness vanished instantaneously!
It whipped its head around, fixing a murderous glare on the drunken oddity behind it, a guttural sound forced through cracked teeth:
“This blade… where did you get it?!”
The drunk’s horrified face lost its drunkenness, wearing a faint, sinister grin.
“An old friend of yours gave it to me.”
“He told me to send his regards.”
“His wife misses you dearly!”
Blood squirted from the grotesque tumor as the machete pierced deeper, cracks spreading around.
At those words, the Nightmare Devourer’s brutish face trembled violently, terror etched deep.
Its hands grasped the machete, but the blade seemed welded to its chest, sinking ever deeper.
“No, no…”
“Who are you really? Why are you helping that guy in Room 702?!”
The drunken oddity showed no mercy until the blade was fully embedded, piercing the Nightmare Devourer’s heart.
He raised his head, a cruel smile playing on his lips as the Nightmare Devourer stared in horror.
“Guess who I am?”
“I’m your worthless slave son!”
With that, the machete was yanked free.
The Nightmare Devourer stumbled in the corridor, the wound in its chest widening rapidly.
In the living room and kitchen, the oddities refreshed at midnight gathered around the corridor entrance, watching the scene with bustling excitement.
Finally, the Nightmare Devourer collapsed to the ground; its grotesque flesh visibly shriveled and dried.
Its two bulging eyes stared unblinkingly at Ji Yan.
Ji Yan’s face was expressionless, gripping the machete tightly, though his hand trembled slightly.
Until he saw the corpse on the ground, completely reduced to a withered, bloodied husk.
“You killed him… heh heh… killed him…”
“You… why do you smell so delicious?”
The oddities gathered closer, surrounding the corpse.
Some sniffed the drunken oddity’s body, their noses wandering.
A sharp sting on the cheek.
A touch revealed the drunken oddity’s entire face was slowly tearing apart!
Ji Yan cursed silently.
“The ‘Killer Maniac Mask’ effect is about to wear off!”
He weaved through the crowd of oddities, hurriedly returning to his room.
Closing the door and double-locking it.
Outside, the sounds of tearing and chewing continued—the midnight oddities feasting on the Nightmare Devourer.
“So, even the dungeon boss is doomed now, huh?”
Ji Yan sat before the mirror.
As the artifact’s effect waned, his entire face looked terrifying.
Features ripped and splitting, pale bone exposed to the air.
At a glance, it seemed his head might shatter into pieces.
The agony in his cheeks came from the bone spurs at the mask’s edges pulling free from flesh, blood staining his neck…
This was his plan.
Lure his father oddity from the room, then use the Killer Maniac Mask to convert his player identity into an oddity, exploiting his father’s alcohol-fueled numbness and carelessness to strike a fatal blow.
Now, the killer’s odd aura was fading, his human player scent returning.
He carefully reached up and removed the mask.
Thick pools of viscous black blood dripped onto the desk, the human skin mask falling into a corner.
Ji Yan touched his unharmed face, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
“I actually killed the Nightmare Devourer.”
This desperate gambit, even as the perpetrator, felt surreal.
Until the game panel popped up, confirming his breakthrough.
“Ding! Player unlocked a new achievement for killing the family oddity of Room 404!”