Chapter 43: Legendary Quality, Encirclement and the Hunt

Looking at the silver needle in his hand, an information panel appeared in Ji Yan’s field of vision.

“Congratulations to the player for the interaction. You have obtained a Spectral Item—[Grandma’s Embroidery Needle], Quality: [Legendary].”

“Item Description: This is an embroidery needle filled with jealousy and hatred. The older sister was always the apple of her parents’ eyes, until one day a younger brother arrived in the family and took away almost everything that belonged to her. She discovered that whenever the brother cried, her parents would shower him with extra affection. One night, she picked up an embroidery needle and stitched her brother’s mouth shut. Since then, she never had to hear his crying again. How wonderful.”

“Hidden Description: This is an embroidery needle that only kills Specters, not humans. When the needle flays 10 spectral skins, it can be upgraded; its toughness will increase, and it will come with a bonus ‘Skin-Shedding’ effect.”

So, this is what [Legendary] quality equipment is like? Even the description is far more refined. For Ji Yan, who had never possessed such high-quality equipment, his eyes couldn’t help but twinkle.

Yet, he was even more puzzled. Just like that, through a simple interaction, he had obtained a [Legendary] quality needle. Where exactly was the difficulty in this main quest?

When they stepped out of the room, Liu Yitong had also obtained equipment. She was full of surprise: “The Spectral Mother actually gave me a [Treasured Item]!”

She was carrying a blood-dripping kitchen knife. This was the Spectral Mother’s chef knife. Whenever there was any discord among the neighbors, the Mother would always carry this knife out to “kindly” resolve any conflicts, showing how much she treasured it. Liu Yitong had originally thought she would need to raise her favorability to over 90% to obtain this item; she hadn’t expected to get it from a single main quest.

Ji Yan mused, “Simply put, the main quest has advanced the game’s progress. After all, if this quest isn’t completed, these spectral tenants will cease to exist. At such a critical juncture of survival, rather than hoarding, it is better to bring all these treasures out.”

Liu Yitong nodded, then recalled something: “By the way, look at the chat group quickly. A player has exposed the location of the Thief Specter!”

Hearing this, Ji Yan raised his hand and opened the chat box. Indeed, a player had revealed the whereabouts of the Thief Specter, but Ji Yan remained unmoved. He said calmly, “Now that everyone knows the Thief Specter’s fatal weakness, everyone is scrambling to hunt it down. How could someone be so selfless as to expose its location in the group?”

Liu Yitong arched her brows: “You mean the location is fake?”

“It might be real. The purpose of proactively exposing it is likely because they aren’t confident in taking it down themselves; they are looking for a sucker to go and wear the Thief Specter down.”

Ji Yan analyzed it simply. In such a survival environment, one could figure out this kind of tactic without even thinking.

“If they have a lethal weapon in hand and know where the thief’s fatal weakness is, why wouldn’t they be sure of killing it?” Liu Yitong asked, puzzled.

Ji Yan countered, “If you have an iron spear and know that stabbing a tiger in the heart is a guaranteed kill, would you be confident in killing it in a one-on-one fight?”

Liu Yitong suddenly realized. She patted her head, feeling as though her intelligence was plummeting at this critical moment.

“Then, should we go?”

“Go. Just like the guy who exposed the location in the group, we’ll just hide in the shadows,” Ji Yan said as he closed the panel.

...

In the lobby on the first floor of the apartment.

Dense swarms of spectral insects spread like a black tide. The Thief Specter paused here, as if scouting its surroundings. Then, facing a load-bearing wall, it stretched out its hands; its fingers, sharp like shovels, dug into a crack and tore the wall open bit by bit.

Blood gushed out, and the flesh squirming inside the concrete wall displayed immense vitality. The Thief Specter pondered for a moment before heartlessly tearing into the flesh, letting the wall emit silent wails as it stuffed the raw flesh of the residents into its mouth to devour.

“Warning! The main quest boss has currently caused 23% damage to the apartment instance. Players participating in the main quest, please stop the malicious specter’s destruction as soon as possible!”

“At this rate, the apartment instance will likely collapse before dawn tomorrow!”

As they headed toward the exposed location, the instance’s warning sounded once again. A clear sense of anxiety appeared on Liu Yitong’s pretty face.

Ji Yan remained calm throughout: “Being anxious is useless. Look at it from another angle: the ones who should be anxious are those specters. If the apartment is gone, we players will just be sent to the next instance, but for those specters, the sky will truly have fallen—they will be homeless.”

Liu Yitong smiled stiffly. She realized that this person could remain calm in any situation. Was this really his first time playing the game?

Soon, they arrived at the first-floor lobby. As expected, the scene was already very lively. Players had already begun to surround and attack the Thief Specter. Facing a new wave of attacking players, the Thief Specter’s back squirmed, revealing two horrifying spectral faces to intercept the approaching players. The scene was exceptionally bloody and cruel, with skin fragments and severed limbs everywhere!

Liu Yitong finally understood. For every spectral face that emerged on the Thief Specter, there was a hunting rule that would indiscriminately slaughter players. How terrifying was that? What was even more terrifying was that no one currently knew how many spectral faces the creature actually had!

She couldn’t help but take a deep breath and said to Ji Yan, “You’re right. Even if we know the Thief Specter’s weakness, it’s extremely difficult to kill!”

Ji Yan didn’t speak, his eyes narrowing as he stared ahead. In a hidden corner across from them, he saw the familiar face of Long Yuan.

The other party was also observing from the shadows. It was likely that the information exposing the Thief Specter’s location had been sent by him—letting other players wear it down while he waited for an opportunity. However, the current situation was not going as planned. The players in the lobby were dying before they could even touch the Thief Specter, let alone kill it.

But soon, Ji Yan realized he was wrong.

A shrill scream suddenly erupted in the lobby! A sound like a gunshot, yet also like a spectral wail, rang out. A strange bullet pierced through one of the faces on the Thief Specter and went straight through its body!

The spectral face fell to the ground and rapidly withered. The Thief Specter lowered its head, stroked the hole torn in its chest, and reached a finger inside to pluck out the bullet. The bullet was a piece of finger bone. The moment it pinched it, it turned into powder.

It turned its head, and the next bullet followed immediately, shattering its second spectral face! The Thief Specter staggered, and the spectral insects covering its body died and fell off in patches.

This scene shocked the players present. Ji Yan turned his head and saw the previously seen Huang Ran, still holding that same spectral gun, but now it was entwined with black energy, clearly upgraded by a grade.

“It works! That thief lost two faces and is clearly injured!”

“This creature seems to have no way to deal with damage from long-range spectral items?”

“Does that mean its hunting rule actually has a distance limitation?”

“Damn! Why didn’t you say so earlier? Long-range spectral items are the one thing I have plenty of!”

The staggering Thief Specter was clearly injured. This excited the players watching from the shadows, and they began to adopt long-range attack tactics. Strangely, even under these circumstances, the Thief Specter did not flee. It continued to tear at the wall, devouring the flesh within. More and more spectral faces sprouted all over its body, all of them wailing and resisting the players’ relentless barrage of attacks...

Liu Yitong’s pretty face changed slightly: “It would rather stand there and be besieged than stop destroying the apartment. Does this malicious specter hate the apartment’s tenants that much?”

“It would rather perish together than retreat!”

Ji Yan said nothing. He watched those shattered faces, which still retained a flicker of vitality, and knew that his opportunity had arrived...