PFRG: Chapter 17 Part 2

Yue Ren slowly lowered his eyes.

Above the bath towel tied around his waist, the messy and hideous scars on the lean muscles could be seen. They were completely scabbed and seemed like marks of vigilance scattered around the mermaid line.

They were all left by Ma Zizhou, in other words, the player called Ma Zizhou.

As his new neighbor, Yue Ren had to admit that Ma Zizhou had always disguised himself well.

His enthusiasm and frankness made it easy for people to let go of their guard. It was so much so that he didn’t expect to really relax his guard and gave this man the opportunity to attack him.

Yue Ren could clearly feel that Ma Zizhou really wanted to kill him.

But along with the pain that was almost enough to tear apart his soul, in addition to anger, there was also a trace of gratitude.

It was at the moment of dying that he suddenly realized something was wrong with the world he lived in.

All the ‘neighbors’ repeated the same thing every day. He lived in a seemingly wide city but only moved in a limited area. There was a voice in his mind reminding him of the ‘new neighbors that appeared in his life to stay. All the memories seemed to stay in the last few days forever…

All of this was finally answered at this time.

Just after killing Ma Zizhou, Yue Ren slaughtered all the discordant existences in this apartment due to his strong dissatisfaction with this world.

Then—he ushered in the first reboot where he retained his memory.

In the days that followed, the neighboring NPCs and floors were changed again and again. The only thing that remained unchanged were the ‘new neighbor’ players who came to his world one after another.

In the population that called themselves players, they were just ‘NPCs’, and this world was an ‘instance.’

Every contact was just a strategy process for their own purpose.

It was ridiculous.

But it was enough for the strange feeling produced inside Yue Ren to be reasonably explained.

So watching the pull between players and NPCs unknowingly became the only fun in his boring world.

The players who came in every time were different. Some of them were interesting, and some were boring. It was just that in Yue Ren’s eyes, they were self-righteous toys that existed in another form.

He watched the batches of arrivals like this and watched batches of them die…

All the NPCs would never remember what happened in the last instance. In this repeatedly closed and restarted space, it seemed that he was always alone, no matter the liveliness.

From the time he could remember, this was already the eighth reboot he had experienced in the instance.

If it was changed to someone else, they probably would’ve already gone completely crazy.

Yue Ren thought of this and laughed in a self-deprecating manner.

In a way, it seemed to be a very boring life…

He slowly stretched out his hand. The moonlight of the sky fell into Yue Ren’s eyes through the open fingers.

Little by little, the corners of his mouth floated up in a cool arc…

Still, it didn’t matter. Someday, he would leave here.

At that time, he would definitely find the person who created this world. He would calmly ask in person why he was trapped in such an endless, desperate time and space.

Since you like such a place so much, shouldn’t you have it to yourself for your own enjoyment?

—

Early the next morning, everyone went out in good spirits.

After one night, Li Hou seemed a lot more familiar with everyone. He took the initiative to open up the conversation. “Speaking of which, I didn’t have time to understand all of you after getting acquainted. If it is convenient, can you talk about the personal skills you have? This way, we can easily take care of each other in special situations.”

Li Tao still didn’t like Li Hou very much. He always felt that this guy had no good intentions when looking at them. Now that Li Hou inquired about a private matter like personal skills, he immediately became vigilant. “You just asked us. Shouldn’t you say it yourself first?”

“Yes,” Li Hou replied. “It is just that mine is relatively mediocre. My personal skill ‘Mood Sensing’ can see the favorability of NPCs. This happens to overlap with the game attributes of this instance. It basically can’t play a role.”

Li Tao was also happy to see him open his mouth. “Your skill is quite good. It is basically equivalent to not saying anything.”

“Look. I said you wouldn’t believe me.” Li Hou also looked helpless. He turned his head to look at Chi Ting as he spoke, not planning to give up this opportunity to inquire about information. “What about you? Do you mind saying it?”

In fact, Li Hou wouldn’t have acted so anxiously at first. However, there was no other way, even if it would arouse suspicion. After all, there wasn’t much time left for humans. He must find out the details of these people as soon as possible so he could act better.

Personal skills were things that were indeed kept private. Sometimes, they could have an unexpected effect, just like Li Tao’s ‘Friendliness Assessment.’ This allowed him to be vigilant against people with ulterior motives. It was indeed a good life-saving skill in the unpredictable unlimited flow world.

However, if they had to talk about privacy, it wasn’t absolutely private. The skills possessed by the gods on the ranking list and the popular streamers in the live stream room had long been known to the world. Even a slightly famous player would have their records in the forum. For those with strength, they would play the same no matter what.

Li Tao knew about Li Hou’s malice, but it wasn’t convenient for him to disclose it. Then Li Tao saw Li Hou turn to look at Chi Ting, and alarm bells rang. He was about to stop it when he heard Chi Ting give an answer after thinking about it for a moment, “I don’t know much about personal skills. If I really have to say it, does ‘performing a ceremony to help the soul find peace’ count?”

Just based on his tone of voice, he was quite sincere.

Li Hou was confused. “Huh?”

Li Tao was no less dazed than Li Hou. “Performing a ceremony… what?”

Chi Ting tried to describe it. “It is to keep people from falling into hell after they die?”

There was an eerie silence all around him.

Before this, everyone had speculated about whether Chi Ting was a policeman previously. However, now he suddenly mentioned helping the soul find peace. It made people wonder if he was a high-level monk who cultivated somewhere.”

Of course, such thoughts disappeared after Li Tao recalled the image of Gloria being hung up and beaten.

Everything was full of an outrageous sense of reasonableness, but Li Tao quickly found another answer subjectively. He could only say that Brother Chi really deserved to be Brother Chi. He knew that Li Hou randomly made up a skill to reply in a perfunctory manner to them, so Brother Chi made up an even more outrageous one. It was completely crushing. It was beautiful!

Chi Ting saw the expressions of the group and knew that no one believed it. He was silent for a while without explaining.

In any case, this wasn’t the world he was from. Li Hou asked about personal skills. Strictly speaking, this shouldn’t be the same thing as their abilities.

Li Hou couldn’t get any answers, and he didn’t continue this topic.

Seeing that they had reached the 11th floor, he stopped before continuing to go downstairs. You should go and increase the favorability of the 10th floor yourself. It isn’t very convenient for me to go with you. It is better for me to stay at home and wait for you.”

“Why is it inconvenient to be together?” Li Tao felt that the more he looked at this person, the more unpleasant Li Hou was. Was this person planning to participate only when things were good?

Instead, Chi Ting suddenly let out a low ah sound. “You also made the favorability of the NPCs reach the red level?”

Li Tao was puzzled. “No, he did as well?”

“……” Li Hou inexplicably felt that the words ‘as well’ were used very subtly. He finally nodded and admitted it. “I didn’t have a good time with that NPC in Room 1001 before. If you show up with me then I’m afraid you won’t be able to increase favorability normally.”

Chi Ting thought for a moment and asked, “Then how will you go downstairs?”

Li Hou replied, “It’s okay. I successfully increased it to the green value before provoking him. I saw it when I went to find Cheng Chao. The zone permission should take effect permanently after it has been approved. I can still go down even if it is the red value later.”

“As long as you are certain.” Chi Ting didn’t force it and immediately set off.

Li Hou stood at the door of Room 1102 and watched them for a while. Then he turned around and closed the door.

“Honestly, Brother Chi, I always feel that the kid doesn’t have any good intentions,” Li Tao muttered as they walked down. “You have to believe me. My personal skill is really useful. You have to be careful not to let him make any small moves.”

Chi Ting nodded casually. “It’s okay. It hasn’t happened yet. If he does something, I will punish him.”

Li Tao was slightly stunned when he heard this.

For some reason, he inexplicably felt that there seemed to be a lot of knowledge hidden in this ‘punishment.’

Just as he was feeling stunned, Chi Ting had already reached the 10th floor and pressed on the doorbell of Room 1001.

Once again, Li Tao couldn’t keep up with the rhythm to stop him. Still, he was a bit numb because he was getting used to it.

After the door was opened, Chi Ting found that there was still an acquaintance inside.

The man with the scalpel he met when he came downstairs that day was standing in the doorway watching him. In the hallway behind him, there were several cats standing there sporadically. Their eyes were staring directly at the four people standing in the doorway.

Those standing behind Chi Ting burst into a cold sweat.

Chi Ting had the leisure to remind the man, “It was hard to get Xiao Hui back. Treat it well. It is better to sew up the belly. It is easy to get dust in it, and then it won’t be convenient to wash Xiao Hui, right?”

The gray cat from that night was crouching down not far away. It seemed to realize that someone had mentioned it and looked up.

From this angle, its neck had been re-stitched back. It was still a bit dangling, but it was fixed by a red thread.

In fact, the other cats in the house also had their own weirdness. Xiang Xianwan couldn’t stand the impact of such a scene. Her chest surged violently a few times, and she was about to vomit. Then she swallowed it back abruptly under the cold gaze of the NPC.

In the end, she forcibly controlled her mind and walked in calmly after Chi Ting.

Compared with the weird scene in front of her, the process of increasing favorability was quite smooth.

As long as they didn’t look strangely at these animals, the NPC in the house was actually quite easy to talk to. Soon, they collectively reached the green value.

White Lily

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