Does It Hurt?

As soon as the full meaning behind Jin Jiuchi's words sank in his mind, Nian's face immediately turned pale, making his already fair complexion become ghastly. It was fortunate that Jin Jiuchi's towering height stood as a shield and covered him from the others' sight. "He… is not Zhi?"

"I… think so?" Jin Jiuchi scratched his head in confusion. "He still looks and acts like Brother Zhi, but his smell has become completely different. It's like…" he wrinkled his nose in thought. "That's right, it's like the smell of kitchen and paper dolls last night combined into one! What is going on here, Nian'er? How can someone's scent change in a blink of an eye? It shouldn't be possible, right…"

Amidst Jin Jiuchi's babble, Nian took a few deep inhales before he managed to regain his composure. His complexion quickly reverted to normal, only the lack of color on his lips betrayed the turmoil he was feeling inside. He knew better than to doubt Jin Jiuchi's keen nose, so the only possibility left was—

"He has been replaced by a nightmare creature…" Nian whispered, aghast. "It must be a creature with the ability to camouflage. But how…? Nightmare creatures are supposed to appear only at night, so how could this one attack a player in the daylight? And to imitate him so skilfully in such a short span of time…"

What Tang Ye said earlier was right. The difficulty of this Cycle was too high for a low level one. In hindsight, aside from advancing players who ought to complete tasks from the Nightmare itself, the rest of the players could just stay as a salted fish in their room each night and pass through the Cycle safely. That's how low-level Cycles ought to be.

The fact that this small Cycle held more than one nightmare creature was already an anomaly in itself. Furthermore, the nightmare creatures just had to reside inside the room of the timid Old Guan, Sister Hong who had her own hidden agenda, and also… himself, who entered this Cycle for a specific purpose. Compared to Xinxin, Tang Ye, and Zhi, the possibility of them letting the nightmare creature free was almost guaranteed.

Was it only a coincidence or… was it due to the presence of the Nightmare, after all?

"So you mean… Brother Zhi is dead?" Jin Jiuchi became more and more confused. Analyzing the situation or anything that required him to use his brain was not really his forte. "But Nian'er, you saw it last night. His skill card is so powerful. He can literally burn everything like… boom! So how could he die just like that?"

"Unless…" Nian's face was grim. "The nightmare creature is strong enough to catch him off guard. I think we should find some time to check the kitchen."

For some reason, Jin Jiuchi liked it very much when Nian'er said 'we'. He couldn't keep the grin off his face. "Oh, oh, are we going to find his body? Count me in!"

Nian cast him a skeptical side eye. Why was he so happy to search for a corpse? Crazy pervert.

"For now, we shouldn't alert him yet," he advised Jin Jiuchi seriously. He did not like to engage in a battle where he knew almost nothing about the other party. "I will find a chance to inform Xinxin and Tang Ye, so you should watch over your words and actions around him too."

Jin Jiuchi was quick to reassure the jade doll, "Don't worry, Nian'er. You can count on my acting skills! He definitely will not discover anything amiss!"

A deep frown marred Nian's little forehead as he walked back to the crowd with Jin Jiuchi humming a random tune behind him. Why did he have a hunch that things would go haywire?

"Brother Yang! Little Brother!" Tang Ye called out to them warmly and gestured at the food that had been divided equally into five. "Have a look! What do you think about this?"

Jin Jiuchi's eyes landed on the portion in front of Zhi, and his eyes almost turned green when he saw the nightmare creature obtain the biscuits he had been eyeing since the start. He grumbled under his breath, "It's not like he can eat it—oww!" He let out a pained yelp when his foot was stomped ruthlessly by Nian.

Nian shot him a glare that was sharp enough to kill, but when the others turned to him, he plastered on an apologetic look and said in a timid tone, "Sorry, Brother Yang. I didn't do it on purpose. Does it hurt?"

Jin Jiuchi sputtered out an incredulous laugh because how the hell could it not hurt? It hurt so much that his foot would surely swell tonight! Alas, as he looked into Nian's purple eyes that radiated killing intent, he suddenly recalled the two arduous hours of being paralyzed under the magical needles. Aggrieved, he could only lie with tears in his eyes, "No, it doesn't hurt at all…"

Nian curbed his killing intent to show a satisfied look. He then nodded and told Tang Ye, "I think this distribution is good. I don't have anything to say, nor does he." He grabbed his own portion and shoved Jin Jiuchi's into the man's arms.

For the rest of the day, they continued to decorate the wedding venue on the sixth floor. With the absence of Madam Liu to oversee their work, they could only grab whatever crimson silk and banners they could find in the storage to add finishing touches to the venue.

True to Nian's suspicion, whatever nightmare creature that had replaced Zhi seemed to possess extraordinary camouflaging skill. Or perhaps it was also due to Zhi's solitary and cold demeanor that forbade anyone from coming close, nobody realized that someone among them was actually not a human. Nian tried to observe the man during their working hours, yet much to his dismay, he could not discover any unusual behavior.

If not for Jin Jiuchi's acute sense of smell, he would not have noticed anything either. Chills ran down his spine whenever he thought about it. This nightmare creature could not be underestimated at all!

With the effort of four players – and one nightmare creature – stemming from desperation and fear of hunger, they finally finished 80% of the decoration before they decided to call it a day. By then, it was already a little past seven pm, with only the dim lights illuminating the darkness in the apartment.

Tang Ye joined them in the shower again, while the nightmare creature disguised as Zhi had returned to the fourth floor.

As the four of them were walking together toward the communal shower, Tang Ye looked down through the corridor railing and gulped when he saw Madam Liu's corpse on the first floor, whereas Sister Hong's body had vanished without a trace. "Is it okay for us to leave her just like that? Should we… I don't know, covered her with a white cloth or something?

Jin Jiuchi looked at him strangely. "Why should we?" Wouldn't it be futile for them to do so? After all, Madam Liu would revive as a nightmare creature when the clock struck ten…

Tang Ye, who still had no idea about the spider Madam Liu, was stumped by Jin Jiuchi's question. Why, he asked… how was he supposed to explain that it was common sense? For the lack of words to say, he could only keep mum until they finally arrived at the communal shower.

Just like last night, Xinxin offered them a tentative nod before heading toward the women's room.

"Ah," Jin Jiuchi finally recalled what he had wanted to ask last night before he was distracted by Nian and Tang Ye's washing basin, the finger in his throat and Madam Liu's corpse. He pointed at the female sign on the wall and asked out loud, "This is only for women, right?"

Xinxin abruptly froze in her tracks.

"Um… yes?" Tang Ye answered hesitantly, not understanding why Jin Jiuchi had to ask something so obvious. Nian also stopped to give him a look that said 'what kind of trouble are you up to again?' "Brother Yang, you can see that the female sign is wearing a skirt while the male is not…"

Jin Jiuchi tilted his head to catch Xinxin's stunned eyes. "Then why are you using this room?" he asked in genuine confusion.

Tang Ye and Nian: "...Huh?"

Two seconds later, the implication behind Jin Jiuchi's sentence finally dawned on the two.

Tang Ye snapped his gaze to Xinxin, so shocked that he could barely form a coherent sentence. "Y–Y–You… you are a male?!!"