Chapter 46 Underground Dweller, Monopolizing the Cake

Looking at the blood plasma spreading across the floor, Ji Yan could not help holding his breath. He had not expected the way to open the basement to be so bloody.

He looked at the wall of blood and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"

The wall of blood did not respond.

After a long while, it gathered into a distorted word: "Pain..."

Ji Yan's eyes flickered. Grasping the moment, he pulled out his mother's flashlight and shone the beam as he stepped into the basement.

At that moment, his hair began to itch.

The three paper figurines leaped out from the parting of his hair. Like three frantically bouncing Bian Que figures, they looked around to assess the surrounding environment.

Ji Yan did not know why the three paper figurines had jumped out, but in any case, they brought him a little more sense of security.

At this moment, a new panel prompt popped up in his field of vision.

"Ding! Congratulations to the player for discovering a hidden new map sector of the instance—The Forbidden Basement."

"Map Sector Introduction: This is a prison holding residents who have severely violated the apartment rules. It contains numerous unknown dangers. Players are advised not to venture in blindly without sufficient equipment."

"Tip: Hidden map sectors involve multiple core tasks and conceal a large amount of high-quality equipment."

"So it's a hidden map sector."

"No wonder there were no hints at all."

Ji Yan was murmuring to himself when the flashlight in his hand suddenly flickered with static.

He paused in surprise. Even his mother's flashlight didn't work properly down here?

On second thought, coming down here so rashly was indeed quite bold. However, driven by the urgency of the situation, his means of self-preservation were extremely limited—or rather, practically nonexistent.

"I can only place my hopes on how valuable Miss Xu's three paper figurines turn out to be."

Despite saying that, no matter how Ji Yan looked at those three paper figurines, which were smaller than the palm of a hand, they hardly seemed reliable.

A moment later, he finished descending the steps leading into the depths of the earth.

When the soles of his shoes stepped onto the thick dust, Ji Yan knew he was already deep within the new map sector.

Through the flickering beam of light, Ji Yan managed to make out his surroundings. Despite being called a forbidden land and a prison for sinful residents, it was actually a wine cellar that had been sealed away for an unknown period.

Clay wine jars were everywhere.

Ji Yan took a few steps forward, and suddenly the flashlight went out, the beam of light vanishing completely.

He thought the flashlight had a loose connection, but the next second he realized a hand was covering the lens.

Pulling the flashlight back, Ji Yan saw who was standing before him.

It was a wretched-looking old ghost with messy hair and a deformed, hunched physique, resembling a real-life goblin.

The old ghost cracked a grin and chuckled, "I knew it! There's always the occasional clear-headed one who figures out the source of the problem is in the basement!"

As soon as he finished speaking, dark figures crawled out from the hidden corners all around. They were all uniformly deformed and eccentric ghostly residents. Their figures were exaggeratedly emaciated, devoid of any plump flesh, making them look just like refugees fleeing a famine.

Seeing Ji Yan, the ghosts burst into smiles one after another.

"We're saved! We can finally put our minds at ease."

"Our apartment building is saved! It won't collapse!"

To these ghostly residents imprisoned in the basement, catching sight of Ji Yan felt like seeing hope itself, bringing them indescribable joy.

This was rather different from the scene Ji Yan had imagined.

Weren't they told the basement was extremely dangerous?

Weren't they told that the imprisoned ghostly residents were all brimming with malice?

Seeming to read Ji Yan's thoughts, the imprisoned ghostly residents explained, "Although we committed some mistakes in the past and were imprisoned here, we certainly don't want to watch the apartment building collapse and be destroyed. After all, our families still live upstairs."

"That's why we've all been waiting for a resident to come down and save this apartment building!"

Ji Yan looked at the faces of these ghostly residents and noticed that the three paper figurines on his body showed no signs of attacking.

He asked, "Then, exactly who is destroying the foundations of the apartment?"

The imprisoned ghostly residents were just about to speak when footsteps suddenly echoed from the stairs behind them.

Ji Yan's expression turned gloomy.

He knew that another player had caught up to his progress!

This was even faster than he had anticipated.

What made his expression even worse was that the player coming down was an old acquaintance.

Holding an old-fashioned oil lamp, Long Yuan caught sight of Ji Yan's face in the orange glow of the flame, his eyes narrowing.

When enemies meet, their eyes turn red with hatred.

"We meet again." Ji Yan forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"If I remember correctly, you still owe me a bet."

"The wager was a kitchen knife, am I right?"

Long Yuan likewise sneered, "I have something much better to give you."

With that, he tossed a ghost artifact over.

Looking closely, it was actually his own chopper.

??

Wasn't it snatched away by some unlucky bastard? How did it end up in this guy's hands?

"Quite a clever scheme. That chopper of yours gave me a hard time."

"I haven't forgotten how you set me up."

Long Yuan's smile was filled with chill.

Ji Yan picked up the chopper. It was even more damaged than before, with a piece of the blade actually broken off.

No wonder Long Yuan tossed it back to him; in his eyes, it was probably just scrap metal. But in Ji Yan's eyes, as long as his talent [Omniscience and Omnipresence] remained, this chopper was still a treasure of [Collector's] quality or higher.

Back then, in order to shake off the ghost father of Room 804, he had reluctantly abandoned the chopper, which had been acting as a tracking device.

He hadn't expected that, after coming full circle, it would end up back in his hands.

"You say I set you up, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I only know that some scammer snatched my chopper, and somehow it ended up with you?"

Ji Yan shook his head while putting the chopper away.

Long Yuan narrowed his eyes, seemingly trying to discern whether Ji Yan's words were true or false, before ultimately choosing to skip the topic.

"How did you know about this basement?"

Ji Yan countered, "And how did you discover it?"

The atmosphere fell somewhat silent.

Then Ji Yan smiled and said, "Since everyone knows what's going on, there's no need to waste words."

"If I'm not mistaken, you knew from the very beginning that the real culprit destroying the apartment was in the basement."

"But you kept quiet. To reduce the competition, you deliberately posted the location of that multi-faced ghost in the chat group, luring all the players over to annihilate it and deepening their misconception."

"Am I right?"

While in the lobby on the first floor, Ji Yan had spotted Long Yuan hiding in the shadows and had suspected him then. Now, seeing him appear in the basement as well, he could be completely certain his guess was correct.

Long Yuan smiled as well. "This game naturally rewards the clever ones who get to eat the cake first."

"You should actually thank me. If it weren't for me, there wouldn't be just the two of us down in this basement right now."

Ji Yan did not deny it. "I really do have to thank you."

"Since that's the case, instead of fighting to the death, why don't we join forces to clear this main quest?"

"After all, we don't have much time left."

"Those fools have already wiped out that multi-faced ghost and will figure things out very soon."

"Right now, the two of us can hog this entire cake all to ourselves!"

Long Yuan took the initiative to express his stance, showing goodwill.

He truly did not want to waste any more time and miss the opportunity.

Ji Yan did not object either; this was the most critical juncture.

Immediately, he looked toward the imprisoned ghostly residents. "Do you know where the culprit destroying the apartment's foundation is?"

"We know, of course, but that thing is extremely vicious. Are you two confident?"

Before Ji Yan could speak, Long Yuan cut in dismissively, "Just lead the way, leave the rest to us!"