Chapter 19: A Pedestal, Not A Prison

When he woke up, Xiao Zhang was already gone.

Yu Ziyu wasn’t surprised by this.

Although Xiao Zhang was always easily startled, he had a good temperament and decent professional ability.

He also clearly understood Yu Ziyu’s dislike of being disturbed, so he quietly left before he woke up.

Otherwise, Yu Ziyu wouldn’t have tolerated him for this long.

He slowly washed up, buttoned his shirt, and then unhurriedly opened the wardrobe.

The open wardrobe neatly displayed various styles of windbreakers.

Although their designs were somewhat different, even so, they couldn’t conceal the fact that they were all windbreakers.

Yu Ziyu thought for a moment, then picked one out and put it on.

He walked out the door, and [X] was already waiting for him at the entrance.

The moment he stepped out, it immediately clingingly slithered up his leg, nimbly slid into the hood of his windbreaker, rubbing its cold scales against Yu Ziyu’s cheek.

“Good child,” Yu Ziyu said perfunctorily, touching the snake’s head briefly before quickly withdrawing his hand.

He stood on the stairs, overlooking the entire hall.

The remnants and pools of blood from last night had all disappeared.

It was as clean here as if the incident had never happened.

Because they had all been eaten by the corrupted villa as a delicious midnight snack.

Just as he reached the living room, the phone rang.

It wasn’t a call to his mobile phone, but the landline at home.

This was why Xiao Zhang always had trouble reaching Yu Ziyu—this guy simply didn’t like carrying a phone.

The number he gave people was always his home landline, but he wasn’t often at home, so the result was a state of being unreachable.

Yu Ziyu slowly walked over, picked up the receiver, and answered the call.

“Hello,” he said listlessly.

Even when forcing himself to try to greet someone amiably, Yu Ziyu’s voice was intentionally drawn out, sounding very perfunctory, even carrying a hint of mockery.

Fortunately, the person on the other end was used to his behavior and didn’t feel offended.

“Hello, this is Doctor Li.”

Surprisingly, the caller was his psychologist, the woman with glasses.

She sounded a bit flustered, deliberately lowering her voice.

“Although doctors and patients shouldn’t communicate privately, I have to tell you something.

Someone wants your treatment records.”

Yu Ziyu frowned, but not because of this matter.

It was because Doctor Li subconsciously used the word “treatment.”

He didn’t consider himself a patient; he just needed a candid person to talk to.

“Oh,” he said.

“Did you give it to them?”

Doctor Li raised her voice: “Of course not——!

I am a psychologist with professional ethics.

I would never casually disclose any patient information.

But the files are stored in the hospital’s main database.

I don’t know if the director will compromise with them.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Yu Ziyu said.

“If they want to see it, let them look.”

Doctor Li was stunned: “What?”

“Literal meaning.”

He prepared to hang up.

“No, wait, you’re just inviting trouble.

You’re different from them.”

She snapped back to reality, speaking incoherently.

“I heard, they’re from the Supernatural Management Bureau…

Although I’ve never heard of such a department, I know!

You’re just caught up in fantasies, not something that needs to be locked up like they think, let alone being connected to things that don’t exist.”

Yu Ziyu was amused by his psychologist’s associational ability.

“They would lock me up?”

“Exactly, that department sounds like nowhere normal.

I can’t sit by and watch my patient be wronged over a minor issue!”

Doctor Li said excitedly.

“And this definitely violates my professional ethics.

I don’t know how they found out about you…”

“Relax, they won’t lock me up.”

Yu Ziyu interrupted her, speaking slowly.

“They need me.”

“What naive thoughts are you talking about?

I’m not joking with you!”

“They’ll only put me on a pedestal.”

“…”

Doctor Li was silent for a few seconds on the other end, seemingly caught off guard by his assured words.

“Go about your own business.”

Yu Ziyu’s voice was flat, without fluctuation.

“Rest assured, I don’t need your help, enthusiastic miss.

I’ll come for my regular appointment next Tuesday.

You’ll see a legitimate patient who isn’t locked up in handcuffs.”

Without waiting for Doctor Li to respond again, he hung up the phone.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again.

But Yu Ziyu didn’t touch the receiver.

It continued ringing for half a minute, as if realizing Yu Ziyu wouldn’t answer, the caller finally helplessly gave up, and it fell silent completely.

Having dealt with this minor interruption, Yu Ziyu prepared to have breakfast.

Afterwards, he planned to take a walk in the forest behind the villa.

A while ago, he had raised a new pet in the lake deep in the forest.

It hadn’t eaten for a while.

Yu Ziyu hoped it hadn’t starved to death; otherwise, he would be quite disappointed.

He took a bright, plump red apple from the cabinet.

Suddenly, a gurgling eyeball staring at him popped out from the cabinet door.

He mercilessly slapped it back with a “smack“: “Behave, you’re ruining my appetite.”

The bloodshot eyeball wronged closed.

Then Yu Ziyu withdrew his hand and placed the apple in the center of a plate to admire it.

Monsters from the Land of Desire Amusement Park didn’t need to eat and couldn’t taste human food.

But apples seemed to be an exception for him; this was the only food he could consume.

Just as he was about to eat, the doorbell rang again.

He didn’t know what was wrong this morning, but people kept trying to disturb him.

Yu Ziyu looked up at his battered door.

He tried hard to ignore the fact that the door was letting in drafts, but he couldn’t, and his eyes couldn’t help but show anger—he didn’t like strangers entering his territory, but he couldn’t just ignore it either.

This villa had already been corrupted, but even so, it was only good at killing intruders, not at being a repairman.

Maybe I should just change villas, but the effort involved in the meantime is too much, and it’s hard to find a satisfactory place.

“If you dare come straight in, you’re dead,” he said irritably, even as he thought this.

“Did you forget something again, Xiao Zhang?

Next time, I’ll throw you down the mountain directly.”

A voice came from outside the door; the other person seemed to chuckle softly: “It’s me, great photographer.”

Yu Ziyu was startled.

It was Lou Chen’s voice.

He had thought this guy would finally stay away from his life for a while.

His expression became even more annoyed.

“Then you can roll away even more.”

“I can fix doors.”

“…Roll in.”

Lou Chen curled his lips and pushed the door open.

His tall, slender figure appeared before Yu Ziyu.

He was indeed holding a repair kit in his hand, meeting Yu Ziyu’s suspicious gaze without any guilt.

His demeanor was annoyingly calm: “You can think of me as a repairman.”

“So the Supernatural Management Bureau’s salary is that low, requiring the captain to do side jobs to supplement his income?”

Lou Chen pretended not to hear the sarcasm.

Instead, he turned around and began examining the terrifying scratch marks damaged on the door lock, silently contemplating the level of the monster that had broken into the villa last night…

Then, his gaze fell on the interior of the villa.

Compared to last night’s chaos, it had been tidied up very neatly.

Rather, it was clean to an eerie degree, compelling one to investigate further.

“Did you hire a cleaner?” he asked.

“Repairmen aren’t this talkative.”

“Then I’m sorry, because they aren’t me.”

But Lou Chen’s voice didn’t sound sorry at all.

He pretended not to notice Yu Ziyu’s annoyance, saying shamelessly, “You can think of me as a talkative repairman.”

Yu Ziyu said coldly, “I won’t answer…

Ask another question, and I’ll pack you up and throw you out.”

“Fine.”

Lou Chen took out his tools and started fixing the lock.

A rare silence fell between them, only the sound of screws turning could be heard.

After a long moment, he suddenly asked, “Did you see the updated patch last night?”

“I said, no questions.

No, why would I pay attention to that?”

“Jealousy infected reality and re-set up the first-floor instance,” Lou Chen said.

Hearing this, Yu Ziyu frowned.

He was a bit surprised.

He hadn’t expected Jealousy to be the first among all the bosses to do this.

That was clearly a cowardly child.

Was it for him?

How incredibly foolish.

“He turned the western part of the city into a new instance.”

Lou Chen said while fixing the door lock. “That’s a place with many horrifying memories.

Many jumping incidents happened in the west of the city.

A group of students committed collective suicide in a certain month.

The seven great unsolved mysteries of the campus circulated among the students.

Jealousy really picked a good place.”

As everyone knew, an existence at Jealousy’s level could alter supernatural magnetic fields.

Wherever he descended, all the dead would resurrect, and ambiguous horrifying legends would become real.

Then the abandoned school district in the west would become a living hell.

He just hoped other players wouldn’t be foolish enough to challenge Jealousy, coveting the points.

“I’m preparing to go there,” Lou Chen said in a deep voice, applying force with his hands as the door panel groaned under his touch.

“And then—drive Jealousy back.”

No matter what, he couldn’t let him succeed.

“…”

Yu Ziyu took a bite of the apple.

He pondered for a moment; a plan was taking shape in his mind.

But even so, he only spoke unhurriedly after chewing slowly and swallowing.

“But in my opinion, the current focus isn’t on him, because something even more terrifying is about to happen.”

Hearing this, Lou Chen’s movements paused.

He turned back to look at Yu Ziyu: “…What do you know?”

He tried to search for information but found nothing on the other’s face.

A sense of ominous premonition surfaced in his heart.

“Because his master, Pride, is about to appear,” Yu Ziyu said.

He was already laughing inwardly.

“Thanks to my empathy ability, I ‘sensed’ his thoughts last night.

I know what he plans to do next.”

“What?”

Lou Chen hoped his voice didn’t sound too strange in front of Yu Ziyu.

“Three days from now, he’s going to hold a grotesque show to announce his descent to the world.”

As his words fell, he was very satisfied to see Lou Chen’s body suddenly become rigid.

He looked completely stunned, his face slowly darkening.

And this reaction made Yu Ziyu leisurely reveal a smile.