When going upstairs, it was calm and quiet. The main purpose was to create a terrifying atmosphere and to make it difficult to advance by creating a dark environment that posed obstacles for both humans and non-humans alike, but not even a hint of harm could be inflicted on anyone present. Only when Xu Zhongping floated upstairs without touching the ground did he sigh and express his thoughts, saying that when he first entered the game, he used to be frequently startled by sudden lights-out situations in the secret room.
“Later on, encountering them more often, I became desensitized.”
Xu Zhongping shrugged his shoulders and deftly manipulated his fingertips a few times, then unlocked the door to the data room. Besides, which door could possibly stop a ghost?
If we talk about obstacles, the real challenge lies in finding a construction record among the countless folders stacked in the data room.
Just the amount of data to search through was already daunting, not to mention considering which time period the data room belonged to. If it was the data room shortly after Yu Kongyou’s death, recent records would need to be checked. But if it was the data room from several decades later, during the time of Xu Yintang and Shi Yuebai, then old documents from over a decade ago would need to be found.
Even if the documents could be found, if they had unfortunately been destroyed, then all the effort spent searching would be in vain.
Xu Yintang reached for a folder nearby and opened it. Before he could see the contents clearly, he was first overwhelmed by the dust and musty smell, plastering his face.
“…”
Xu Yintang put the folder back, his facial tendrils wriggling for a moment, before putting on a clean, new face.
“This one.” Shi Yuebai handed over a bottle of Lucky Potion, suppressing the urge to smile. When Xu Yintang was in his teens, he looked like a displeased cat. You couldn’t say he was cute, but you really wanted to risk being scratched and lean over to kiss his cheek.
The semi-transparent solution in the potion bottle precipitated with tiny star fragments. Xu Yintang shook it to evenly disperse the starlight, then gulped down the not-so-delightful liquid in one go.
Jokes aside, no medicine tasted good.
The icy liquid flowed down his throat, and a strange warmth instantly surged in his consciousness. Xu Yintang pinched his brow, adjusting to this intoxicated feeling akin to being tipsy, trying to clear his mind of distractions and focusing only on the idea of finding the construction records, allowing the potion’s effect to work precisely on his target.
In the past, in order to be in the same instance as Xiao Qing, Xu Yintang would use this kind of Lucky Potion, which belonged to the high-quality goods brought out by players from instances. It could temporarily boost luck and affect the surrounding environment, starting from 300,000 points per bottle. If it weren’t for the original instance being only D-grade, the price would be even higher.
And now he was drinking this kind of player-made replica, is most likely produced by Shi Yuebai’s good teammate Noah, who is a well-known legal system boss and pharmacy master on the forum. He was one of the earliest players in the instance, trying to learn magic and potions from the system in instances, with an average instance time of no more than half a month.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Noah could still exist smoothly now and had brought a wave of life players by publishing formulas. The quality of the potions he produced was naturally guaranteed. However, lacking the special blessings of the instance’s native gods and not being gilded in the temple for hundreds of years, the replica was inferior to the original. According to Xu Yintang’s own experience and feedback from other players on the forum, it was more like a mixture of enhanced intuition and amplified senses, allowing him to grasp the most needed “flash of insight” as close to 100% as possible under sufficient concentration.
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Just relax, relax.
His tendrils extended softly, flowing freely and stretching into every corner of the room, sometimes diving into one folder and sometimes into another data booklet, like seaweed swaying in the sea, as Xu Yintang let his thoughts roam freely.
It’s like there’s a surge of currents guiding his thoughts, a kind of flow commonly referred to as “intuition,” dredging up “stop searching” as an answer before all rational thinking, much like finding something before giving up.
Yet, there’s a hesitation, not searching saves a hundred percent.
Xu Yintang didn’t immediately dismiss it, quietly sensing under highly activated senses, feeling the delicate perceptions transmitted through the tentacles.
Viscous darkness, dim silence, a scentless bloodiness, all sensations merging together, turning into something more vague yet more concrete, closer to the essence of touch.
Unconsciously, his thoughts turned to another question, as if questioning his own active intuition on a neural disco, or as if intuition was grabbing his tentacles, distorting himself into a question mark.
Question—
Is there any clue here related to the death of Yu Kongyou?
The tentacles surged again, propelled by intuition, undulating and flowing like a whirlpool at times, like waves at others, emitting a rustling friction sound.
Snap.
A dossier was pushed out from the bottom of the cabinet by the “waves.”
The cabinet in the data room was floor-standing, with the bottom layer close to the ground, and the labels on the side were blurry. To see what was written above, one had to crouch or kneel down, which was very inconvenient, because even if you were specifically looking for documents here, this layer could easily become a blind spot in the search.
Similarly, if you wanted to hide something, this would be the best choice.
A breeze blew in.
The tentacles were the first to detect the change in airflow.
Click, click.
Creak, creak.
There was a muffled sound from the depths of the data room. Following the sound, a narrow gap opened along the edge of the bookshelf against the wall, which could barely allow an adult to squeeze through—specifically referring to an average slim adult.
Before venturing into the gap, the tentacles measured left and right, realizing that the adult version of Xu Yintang would probably never be able to squeeze in.
The adult version of Shi Yuebai could easily slip in, with flexible muscles and agile bones giving his body more adaptability, even being able to dislocate bones and stretch muscles if necessary, embodying the saying “liquid cat.”
Of course, for the current teenage version of Shi Yuebai, and the fully transformed tentacle ball Xu Yintang, they all effortlessly slipped into that gap, not to mention Xu Zhongping, whose soul came and went without even caring how big the door was.
The gap space wasn’t spacious at all, only allowing a slim adult to pass sideways—again, specifically referring to a usually slim adult.
The tentacles moved freely through the passage, capturing information about the surrounding environment by leveraging the lingering effects of the drugs. There were traces left by people who had passed through here, scraping off skin flakes, a bit of old dried blood, hair and clothing fibers brought down by the rough walls, all intertwined. These sensations were faint, almost imperceptible, yet vividly present in perception, like a strand of hair on white paper—lust, fear, decay, aggression…
Second Treasure tugged on his mother’s tentacles, wagging his tail, urging Third Flora to purify the air quickly.
It’s not that the little ones didn’t like the smell of things like rules and order; it’s the “food”—when it went bad, rotten, and stinking to the core, it made Second Treasure’s little round face scrunch up like a bun. He buried himself deeply in his mother’s warm and fragrant tentacles, imagining himself cuddling against his mother’s soft and warm chest.
Slurp.
Although the space where the young mother could let the little ones nestle in had drastically shrunk, making it uncomfortable and prickly all over, it was still more tolerant and gentle. So when Second Treasure wanted to slurp, he was given a few tentacles to suck and nibble on, providing a soft, delicate, slightly warmer than body temperature sensation, much like being in his mother’s embrace.
Second Treasure couldn’t help but purr with satisfaction, not even complaining about the stinky environment.
A few butterflies fluttered among the tentacles, emitting a faint glow without making much of a presence in this exploratory environment. They modestly diffused a subtle fragrance, not enough to annoy mother with the smell.
For example, Xu Zhongping, who was following behind, and Shi Yuebai, who was responsible for cutting off the rear, were completely outside the scope of its care.
The tentacles took care of the butterflies properly, and those shimmering little fairies danced among the tentacles, like fish playing among coral and seaweed. The narrow passage was filled with darkness, oppressive and suffocating, like twenty thousand leagues under the sea.
Fortunately, there was no one present with claustrophobia. Xu Zhongping had a bit of it before entering the game, but after playing dozens of prison-type dungeons, he became desensitized to both darkness and fear.
Now floating in the passage that he would have been stuck in if he had a physical body, he effectively removed the principal from the list of suspects entering and exiting this passage, “It can’t be Principal, he is so fat, he wouldn’t be able to squeeze in.”
With his build, he couldn’t even squeeze through the door crack.
“Then… the headmaster?” Shi Yuebai proposed another suspect.
As thin as a stalk of hemp, the headmaster might be a candidate for entering the passage.
Some of the thinner male teachers and the not-so-curvy female teachers were also options.
Xu Yintang, using a few tentacles to form a vocal system, sluggishly added the most likely possibility: “Or it could be a student.”
There were many traces of people left in the passage, and his tentacles couldn’t accurately analyze each person’s situation; he could only sense that there was often more than one person.
A hairpin was pulled out from the corner by the tentacles, with glitter and a cute bow, a style only worn by thirteen-year-old girls.
Author’s Note –
If it were the adult version of Mother Xu Yingtang, without activating his tentacles, he probably wouldn’t be able to squeeze through the door at all. It’s not that he doesn’t want to go in, he really can’t fit. Mother Xu Yingtang might even start considering whether he should lose weight because of this [distant gaze].
🧡🧡