Chapter 10: Gouging Out the Specter's Eyeball, The Art of Conversation

Chapter 10: Gouging Out the Specter's Eyeball, The Art of Conversation

The Little Girl was stunned.

She had never encountered such an unconventional Player before. In the past, they either fell for her trap foolishly or saw through it and turned hostile immediately. But this one?

She stood frozen in place, her originally delicate face now crawling with black veins, her hair whipping wildly in the air.

Yet, there was nothing she could do. The apartment’s rules imposed restrictions even on the 7th Floor—if the Player didn’t enter the room, the Supernatural Entity couldn’t bare its fangs.

Ji Yan, who had sprinted to the corridor’s corner, suddenly halted.

Because another information panel popped up before his eyes.

[Wraith Specter: Enjoys peeling off human skin and wearing it to alter its appearance, luring more prey. Loves extracting human bones to suck out the marrow, which refines its "disguise" technique.]

[Weakness: Fears Extremely Yin Objects.]

[Hidden Hint: Their eyeballs can be used for Supernatural Artifact Compatibility Enhancement and are a delicacy among many Supernatural Entities. Aren’t you going to claim this free gift?]

This time, the hidden hint wasn’t cryptic—it was straightforward.

As for the Extremely Yin Object, even an idiot could guess what it referred to.

Nothing was more Yin than the bottle of Blood Pipa in his hand. After all, it was brewed from the blood of that Female Supernatural Entity’s lower half…

Ji Yan, who had been about to leave, paused after reading the hidden message. Then, with a cold smirk, he turned back.

Fortune favors the bold.

In a place like the Eerie World, opportunities never fell into your lap unless you fought for them!

The Little Girl, who had been preparing to retreat to her room and wait for the next prey, was baffled when she saw Ji Yan returning.

"Sorry, I just went to grab something. I was worried your dad might get violent with me too, so I brought a little hammer for self-defense."

Ji Yan’s smile was pure and innocent as he lifted the seemingly ordinary Hammer in his hand.

The Little Girl hesitated.

She couldn’t tell if Ji Yan was genuinely stupid or still playing her.

Ji Yan urged her, "Hurry up and take me there! Isn’t your mom about to be beaten to death?"

"O-Okay… Big Brother, you have to stay close this time! Don’t run away again!"

The Little Girl grabbed Ji Yan’s shoulder with surprising strength, her tiny fingers digging in painfully as she dragged him toward Room 706.

Since he’d come back on his own, she wasn’t going to give him another chance to escape.

"Once you step past that doorframe, no one can save you!"

As the door drew nearer, the Little Girl’s lips twisted into a grotesque, crimson grin.

Thud.

She crossed the threshold.

Then, another footstep followed.

Ji Yan’s foot stepped over the doorframe, and in that instant, a mysterious protective force in the corridor vanished!

The apartment’s rules, which had shielded Ji Yan as a Player, were now nullified. Once an outsider entered a resident’s room, the conflicting rules canceled each other out.

This meant the Supernatural Entity could now unleash its full savagery on the intruder in its domain!

The Little Girl’s petite body swelled grotesquely, her frail skin splitting apart as thick, viscous blood sprayed out. Like a cicada shedding its shell, her limbs twisted and elongated—the Wraith Specter had revealed its true form, ravenous for its next meal.

"Big Brother, forget about my parents for now… My stomach has a much worse problem, and only you can help me…"

The Wraith Specter began to reveal its true form, its throat bones cracking as its head twisted 360 degrees, its face now facing backward—as if it had already foreseen Ji Yan's terrified and shattered expression.

However,

It didn’t see Ji Yan’s face.

What it saw first was a bloodstained hammer smashing straight toward it!

"Hungry? Here, have a treasure!"

Ji Yan struck first.

He interrupted the transformation mid-process!

With a sickening crunch, the Wraith Specter’s jaw shattered, flesh and blood spraying from its mouth...

"ARGH—!"

The Wraith Specter let out a shrill howl, its head spinning from the impact, followed by a searing, unbearable pain in its shattered jaw.

"You little brat, I’ll suck every last drop of marrow from your bones!!"

Realizing it had been tricked again, the Wraith Specter erupted in fury, its body swelling to the height of an eight-foot monstrosity, its limbs elongating like grotesque spider legs.

But before it could lash out, Ji Yan’s second hammer strike was already descending.

Ji Yan believed trash talk was the most useless thing in the world—those wasted seconds could’ve been spent smashing a fist into the enemy’s face!

The second hammer slammed into the top of its skull, sending up plumes of white smoke and filling the air with a nauseating stench.

The Wraith Specter shrieked as the Blood Pipa’s residue on its skin burned like acid, corroding its flesh.

"What the hell is this?!"

Clutching its rotting face, the Wraith Specter let out a piercing cry of terror.

Ji Yan didn’t respond. Instead, he pressed his index and middle fingers together and drove them straight into the creature’s eye socket. With a sharp tug, he yanked out a string of thick, bloody fluid.

Holding the slippery eyeball, Ji Yan turned and walked away without another word.

"You damn rat! You think you can just take my eye and leave?!"

Finally understanding Ji Yan’s true motive for returning, the Wraith Specter—now covering its ruined face—tried to chase after him, its rage reaching its peak.

Ji Yan stepped one foot over the threshold, then glanced back at the pursuing Wraith Specter, raising the entire bottle of Blood Pipa in his hand.

The soul-piercing stench alone made Ji Yan’s head spin.

"You trick me, I trick you—isn’t that just how this world works?"

"The eagle wants to eat the chick, but ends up losing an eye to the mother hen. It’s just bad luck. You’re not dumber than an eagle, are you?"

"If you keep chasing me, I won’t mind dumping this whole bottle on you. Taking one eye is just interest—you should be thanking me for my generosity!"

The Wraith Specter froze mid-step.

Missing an eye and half its face, it glared at Ji Yan but didn’t dare take another step forward.

Ji Yan’s words weren’t particularly intimidating.

But the full bottle of Blood Pipa in his hand was very real.

It had no idea what that thing even was, only that it hurt like hell.

Helpless, the Wraith Specter could only watch as Ji Yan walked away with its eyeball...

Squeezing the slimy orb, Ji Yan noticed it could still move—as if it had a life of its own.

For now, Ji Yan decided not to use the eyeball, storing it in his inventory. His priority was still reaching Room 702.

Since the numbering on the seventh floor was scrambled, it took him some time to find it.

Just as he raised his hand to knock, the door swung open on its own.

Ji Yan blinked, then stepped inside.

But the moment he saw the room’s interior, his expression stiffened slightly.

The chaotic living room appeared long abandoned, though that wasn’t the shocking part. Outside the balcony, corpses hung one after another—wrinkled, blackened, and shriveled—their toes dripping with corpse oil collected in basins.

One black and one white cat crouched there, lapping at the corpse oil as if it were goat’s milk.

Ji Yan stared at the two cats, an inexplicable chill running down his spine.

They, in turn, fixed their golden slit-pupiled eyes on him.

"You carry his scent."

A voice rang out abruptly by his ear.

Ji Yan whipped around and came face-to-face with a swollen, purplish-black head—split open by a hatchet embedded deep in its skull.

His throat was seized in an instant.

The figure leaned in, sniffing at Ji Yan before its expression twisted into something terrifying. "You’re the dead drunkard from Room 404’s brat!"

"Heh. I don’t know why you’re in my room, but any spawn of that bastard deserves death!"

Ji Yan’s gaze flicked to the hatchet lodged in its forehead. He paused, then spoke, "Wait—"

But the entity gave him no chance. The moment it caught the scent of its sworn enemy, its mind flooded with nothing but murderous intent.

A dull pain erupted in Ji Yan’s chest. Looking down, he saw the creature’s hand had pierced through his flesh—clutching his heart.

"That beast’s bastard offspring—even their hearts are black!"

Just as the creature yanked his heart outward, Ji Yan pulled out his hammer and struck the hatchet in its skull with a resounding—

CLANG!

A sharp metallic screech tore through the air. The owner of Room 702 released Ji Yan, howling as it clutched its head. Thick, viscous blood oozed from the gaping wound.

Ji Yan pressed a hand to his chest, lips curling into a grin. The sensation of having his heart squeezed was like a sudden heart attack—he’d nearly thought it was the end.

"I know about your grudge—"

"Die! Every last one of his whelps must die!"

"I—"

"DIE!!"

"Fine. Then I’ll switch to a different way of talking."

Seeing that the creature wasn’t listening to a single word, Ji Yan opted for the language of the hammer—delivering three consecutive blows to the embedded hatchet.

Agony tore through the owner of Room 702, its skull threatening to split apart. Cracks spiderwebbed across its head, its body convulsing violently from the pain.

Soon, the ferocity in its eyes faded—or rather, it could no longer even speak. Truly, the most effective way to reason with someone was through direct action. Words were just a waste of breath.

"Do you like this way of talking?"

"No? Then I’ll keep going."

Dripping hammer in hand, Ji Yan committed the most brutal acts while speaking the gentlest words...