Chapter 11: Hatchet Acquired, Blessing Event

Chapter 11: Hatchet Acquired, Blessing Event

The Owner of Room 702 glared with a mix of ferocity and frustration.

Ji Yan flicked the Hatchet embedded in the man’s forehead with his finger and grinned. “Mind lending me this blade?”

The moment the other heard Ji Yan was after the Hatchet, he gnashed his teeth and snapped, “Not a chance! This blade is only for—!”

“Only for killing my father, right? I know. That’s exactly who I’m after.”

The Owner of Room 702 froze in confusion.

“You’re not his child?”

Ji Yan didn’t bother hiding the truth and laid out the entire story.

After hearing it, the man remained skeptical. After all, the Hatchet lodged in his skull was a [Rare] Supernatural Artifact, and he’d been targeted by countless Players who tried every trick to interact with him and claim the weapon.

Ji Yan had seen through it from the start.

That Hatchet wasn’t just a [Rare] piece of equipment—its blade had three Sockets, meaning it could be enhanced with three additional attributes.

The materials for socketing varied widely, and one of them was the Eyeball from the Wraith Specter currently in Ji Yan’s possession.

Socketing an Eyeball would increase accuracy by 30%.

The better the material, the more it could upgrade the Supernatural Artifact!

In essence, the Owner of Room 702 was a [Free NPC].

Any Player could interact with him.

The Hatchet on his head was the reward equipment.

Generally, there were two ways to obtain items from a Free NPC.

The first was forced seizure—overpowering the NPC with brute strength, killing them, and taking the gear.

But fruit plucked by force never tasted as sweet.

The quality of the seized Hatchet would drop significantly.

To obtain the equipment in perfect condition, only the second method worked: interaction. Trigger the background story, accept the Mission, complete it, and convince the NPC to willingly hand over the item.

That was why Ji Yan had been so patient.

Otherwise, given his usual disdain for pointless chatter, he wouldn’t have settled for just three hammer strikes to “calm down” the Owner of Room 702. He’d have crushed the man’s skull outright, taken the Hatchet, and left.

But doing so would degrade the weapon’s quality.

Low quality wasn’t the main issue.

The real problem was that it might not be enough to kill the Nightmare Devourer Supernatural Entity!

“Mind telling me what grudge you hold against my father?”

Ji Yan continued probing for interaction. Without triggering the background story, the game Mission wouldn’t activate either.

“Hah! What a touching father-son bond. But why should I believe you?”

The Owner of Room 702 wiped the blood oozing from his head, still refusing to divulge the backstory.

Ji Yan suppressed his impatience. He knew time was short and didn’t want to waste any more of it here.

“I’ll give you my heart as collateral.”

“Lend me the Hatchet as a wager.”

“When I bring you that bastard’s head, you return my heart.”

Ji Yan proposed a simple, straightforward, yet utterly insane deal.

The Owner of Room 702 narrowed his eyes. “You’re betting your life with me?”

“At least with you, I still have a sliver of hope.”

Ji Yan shrugged, his tone calm and natural.

He knew the only way to establish trust was to let the other hold his lifeline.

The man studied Ji Yan deeply, then suddenly thrust a hand into his chest—and yanked it back out.

A bloodless, violently pulsating heart was now clutched in his grip.

Seeing Ji Yan show no resistance, the Owner of Room 702 nodded.

“Good. Now that’s what I call a fair trade.”

"As long as you bring me that bastard's head, I'll return your heart, and this knife will be yours too."

It placed the heart inside a black box.

Turning around, it sat on a chair, one hand caressing the rusted hatchet embedded in its skull.

"That piece of trash used the very same hatchet on my head to chop off my wife's head—all for a sip of liquor."

"A resident promised him a bottle of Collector's Grade grain liquor if he could procure a woman's body. That night, in the hallway, he set his sights on my wife."

"He knows I'm after him, so he's been hiding in Room 404, using the apartment's rules to protect himself..."

Ji Yan picked at his ear, unmoved. He had already learned this backstory when the other party had choked him earlier.

But unless the man said it himself, the mission wouldn’t trigger.

Ji Yan: "So, the only one who can get close to him without being restricted by the rules is me."

"He’d never expect that the child he treated like a slave would actually think of killing his master!"

The moment Ji Yan finished speaking, the Information Panel popped up.

Ding! Congratulations, Player, for successfully triggering an Open-ended Mission—A-level.

You have received a request from the Resident of Room 702: Kill the Nightmare Devourer Supernatural Entity in Room 404, with no time limit!

A-level!

Killing a Supernatural Entity was an A-level mission. He wondered what an S-level mission would be like.

Ji Yan mused to himself.

Over there, reliving his most painful memories, the Resident of Room 702 grew increasingly agitated, eventually breaking down into loud sobs.

He wanted to keep pouring out his grief to Ji Yan, but now that the mission had been triggered, Ji Yan had zero interest in the backstory.

It was like playing a game—what player would sit through a long, tedious backstory introduction? Anyone who didn’t skip it deserved a thumbs-up.

The Resident of Room 702 gripped the hilt and pulled out the rusted, rag-wrapped hatchet.

A torrent of blood gushed from the wound in his forehead, the horrific pain grinding his teeth to dust.

To ensure he never forgot his wife’s murder, he had embedded the hatchet in his skull, using the constant pain to keep his hatred from fading with time.

Handing over the hatchet, the resident tried to continue rambling about his late wife’s backstory: "My name is Liu Nianqing. The reason I’m called Nianqing is because—"

But Ji Yan snatched the hatchet and walked away without a word, leaving Liu Nianqing sitting in the chair, mouth slightly open before finally falling silent.

……

Though he now had the hatchet, since it was part of the mission, the Supernatural Artifact hadn’t been activated yet.

In short, in Ji Yan’s hands, the hatchet could only deal fatal damage to the mission target—the Nightmare Devourer. For anything else, it was just a rusted piece of junk that couldn’t even cut flesh.

He had the weapon, but killing the Nightmare Devourer wouldn’t be easy.

After all, Supernatural Entities didn’t just sit around waiting to be stabbed.

"You must strike its chest. The head won’t work—only there can you kill it in one hit!"

"If you give it a chance to react, you’ll die horribly."

"So you only get one shot!"

Those were Liu Nianqing’s exact words, and they cranked Ji Yan’s pressure to the max.

Gripping the hatchet tightly, Ji Yan knew he needed a solid plan.

Tonight, Room 404 was bound to get lively…

……

Soon, Ji Yan returned to Room 404.

Upon entering the house, Ji Yan immediately sensed something was amiss.

A pungent stench of corpses filled the air.

A sinister odor!

Then, he spotted Liu Yitong bustling around the dining table.

Just as Ji Yan was about to speak, Liu Yitong raised a finger to her lips, signaling silence, then pointed toward the kitchen.

Following her gesture, Ji Yan peered through the glass window and saw a blurry figure moving inside the kitchen.

"The Mother Supernatural Entity left her room?"

Ji Yan froze for a moment.

The resident Supernatural Entities of the cabin rarely stepped out of their rooms. If one appeared in the living area, it could only mean one of two things.

First—a [Blessing].

Simply put, it was a purely beneficial interaction.

The Supernatural Entity would initiate certain actions, and if the Player actively participated, they could randomly receive various rewards during the process.

The type and value of the rewards depended entirely on the Player’s luck.

Even if the Player messed up, the Supernatural Entity wouldn’t turn hostile—the worst outcome was simply walking away empty-handed.

This kind of event usually only triggered when a Player’s favorability with the Supernatural Entity reached a certain level, and it was exclusive to a single Player.

Second—a [Punishment].

The meaning was self-explanatory. If a Player severely violated the cabin’s rules or caused the Supernatural Entity’s favorability to plummet to the point of hostility, the entity would emerge to deliver punishment to that specific Player.

Judging by Liu Yitong’s barely contained grin, the word "joy" practically written across her face, it was clearly a [Blessing].

Who knew what this girl had done to keep raising the Mother Supernatural Entity’s favorability, even triggering a [Blessing]!

The interaction involved dining with the Mother Supernatural Entity.

As for how many rewards Liu Yitong could obtain during the 20-minute dinner, that depended entirely on her skill and luck!

This kind of beneficial event had nothing to do with other Players—they could only watch with envy.

So Ji Yan had no interest in interfering. He deliberately stepped away from the dining table, took out the leftover coarse grains from this morning, and ate at the living room coffee table instead.

Right now, his mind was completely occupied with one thought—

Killing the Nightmare Devourer!

Even the biscuit in his mouth tasted bland…