Chapter 9

The Dark of Night

"Nothing!"

Toxic Male's death had left Chubby badly shaken. He didn't dare let Chao Musheng notice a single thing off about him. "I just thought you looked tired, mate — didn't you get any rest?"

Chao Musheng touched his own face. Pulling an all-nighter was like being broke — there was simply no hiding it.

"It's not that I didn't sleep well. I didn't sleep at all." He was so exhausted he just wanted to lie down on the spot. "You two enjoy yourselves — I'm going home to sleep."

"Right, right — staying up all night is terrible for you." Chubby nodded vigorously. "Go get some rest."

Chao Musheng had already taken two steps when it occurred to him that, as a local, he really ought to show a bit more warmth and patience toward tourists. He stopped and turned back. "Have you found any inspiration yet?"

Inspiration. What inspiration?

Chubby felt the top of his skull go cold. It took him several seconds to remember that in Chao Musheng's eyes, he was a student from an art academy. "There's so much good food and so much to do in the village — we've been having too much fun to even pick up a paintbrush."

When in doubt, flattery never goes wrong.

"Fair enough — who wants to do actual work when they're out enjoying themselves." Chao Musheng nodded in wholehearted agreement. He waved a hand in farewell. "If our guests are having a good time, that's the greatest honor for Chaojia Bay."

Chubby smiled and agreed readily. Only once Chao Musheng had disappeared down the lane did the tension slowly drain out of him.

"For the love of — that pretty boy pulls an all-nighter and still looks like that." His companion muttered under his breath. "Is he the instance's golden child or something?"

Chubby ignored the idiot, exchanged a greeting with a village NPC whose affinity rating toward him stood at 45, then turned to go find Xiao You, who had moved to new accommodations.

"Woof woof woof!"

The moment they approached the courtyard, a yellow village dog came charging at them, barking furiously. Above the dog's head floated a bright red affinity value: 0.

An affinity of zero meant the NPC felt no goodwill toward them whatsoever. Once it dropped below zero, the NPC would attack them unprompted.

Even the village dogs had affinity ratings. So what did it say about Chao Musheng that he had none at all?

"Don't go closer." Chubby eyed the yellow dog warily and blocked his companion from advancing. The number above the dog's head was flickering — he was afraid one more step would tip it into the negatives.

This cursed instance — the dogs are more vicious than the people.

"So what do we do now?"

"Head back."

Chubby had a gnawing bad feeling. The dog was barking its head off, yet Xiao You hadn't come out. He suspected she was trying to slip out of their control.

"Fatty-bro, we're down to 20 health points. If we can't find a way out of this instance before dawn tomorrow, we're done." His companion's expression hardened with cold intent. "If that woman dares betray us, I'll finish her tonight."

If they were going to die, Xiao You wouldn't be walking away either.

*

Chao Musheng woke from his nap to find the "Chaojia Bay Family" group chat had spent the entire time singing his praises to the heavens and back. He read through it and felt his face go red.

His dormitory group chat was still sharing travel photos. He couldn't be bothered with them, and started working his way through his other messages instead.

The holiday had brought a flood of messages from all directions. Chao Musheng replied to every one carefully.

By the time he'd finished, he'd carried the dishes from the kitchen to the table, and his phone had new messages again.

[Xu: Good afternoon. Hope you're having a pleasant holiday.]

Chao Musheng typed a reply one-handed.

[ChaoChaoMuMu: Thanks, same to you.]

[Xu: Thank you.]

Chao Musheng sent back an emoji. Conversation over.

Since starting university, he'd thrown himself into all sorts of competitions and activities, occasionally even picked up part-time work with his roommates, and the friends list on his messaging apps had grown so long he sometimes couldn't place half the names.

Out of the standard politeness between adults, he could hardly ask outright who someone was — so he'd maintained a comfortable, unspoken arrangement with these contacts: they liked each other's posts and left it at that.

Among his many chat contacts, the one who went by "Xu" had left a slightly stronger impression than most.

They never chatted in the ordinary way, but every major holiday without fail, Xu would send a single brief greeting. Two years running, not one occasion missed.

Sometimes Xu would like his posts in his social feed too, but never left a comment.

Polite, but not talkative.

After lunch, Chao Musheng stretched out on the sofa and played a few rounds of games, winning without any particular effort.

He scrolled through every app in turn. Nothing held his interest.

Noticing that the Chaojia Bay group chat was discussing something about packing orders, he grabbed the village Party secretary's jacket and headed to the village committee to help box things up.

The whole village was busy picking loquats and packing shipments. By the time he arrived at the village committee, the floor was so densely covered in courier boxes there was nowhere to put his feet. He passed the jacket over a heap of clutter to the village Party secretary, who was sporting a magnificent pair of dark circles. "Uncle, you haven't slept all day?"

"With this much fruit to get out today, I couldn't sleep even if I tried." The village Party secretary looked more alert than Chao Musheng, who had actually slept for several hours. "There's not much you can do over here anyway. The postman brought new newspapers and magazines this morning — why don't you go sort those out."

"Sure." Not knowing the village's specific packing procedures, Chao Musheng obediently headed to the activity center to keep out of everyone's way.

The large table in the activity center was piled high with magazines and newspapers. The postman came through the village once a week, so some of the papers were already a few days old.

With the internet's rise, print publications had lost most of their readership. Newspapers with their faint smell of ink had become like elderly people in their final years — slowly fading from the era's memory. But some of the village's older residents still kept the habit of reading them.

Chao Musheng set the agricultural journals aside and started sorting through the jumbled newspapers.

Two Village Women Outwit Three Spies Using Nothing But a Song.

Sixty-Year-Old Man Rises at Midnight, Apprehends Five Thieves Stealing Ancestral Tablets from Village Shrine.

Both headlines were bizarre enough that Chao Musheng found himself reading on despite himself.

According to the first article, the three spies had been perfectly friendly — they'd even helped villagers harvest rapeseed. Everyone who met them said what fine people they were.

So how had they been caught? It turned out that when two village women were humming the national anthem, one of the spies complimented them on how beautifully they sang — and then asked what the song was called.

Seriously. Were there really spies out there still making errors this elementary? And why were they in some rural village instead of infiltrating high-tech industries?

As for the thieves caught stealing ancestral tablets — that was even more baffling. Apparently they hadn't noticed the surveillance cameras installed outside the shrine, and were caught red-handed. Given the deep reverence for ancestral culture in the area, all five of them had been severely beaten.

Chao Musheng folded the papers and filed them away by category.

If he kept reading, he was afraid his brain — being too thoroughly normal — might start failing to make sense of the world around him.

*

"So what do we do now — just sit here and wait to die?"

With no NPCs present, the couple dropped any pretense of closeness and sat on opposite sides of the room, both looking grim.

The male partner, seeing that Chubby and his companion weren't volunteering anything, came straight to the point: "We've got one day left. If any of you have found something useful, don't sit on it — otherwise we all go down together."

"We've been in this instance from the start and haven't found a single lead. What could we possibly have?" Chubby shot back. "You two have been getting along well with the villagers these past few days — surely you've picked up something?"

"I know one thing." The female partner knew Chubby didn't trust them. "Today all the villagers are out picking loquats — apparently they're rushing to get an order out."

"Meaning?" Chubby looked at her.

"They've been busy and exhausted all day. Tonight they'll sleep deeply." She produced a hand-drawn map showing the layout of the village's buildings, each one annotated with the names of its residents.

"This is our only window. Use whatever valuable items you've got." She pointed to several marked locations. "These households have the highest standing in the village. We each take two."

Chubby looked at the highlighted targets. Chao Musheng's household was prominently among them. "You suspect Chao Musheng?"

"His grandparents hold a high position in the village." She made no mention of her Peering Glass being downgraded. "I saw you talking to him this morning — why don't we leave his household to your group?"

Chubby studied her expression carefully. She seemed to be dividing targets up casually, without ulterior motive. He nodded. "Little Jia, you take Chao Musheng's place."

"Sure." His companion agreed immediately.

That household has one pretty boy and two elderly people — obviously no real threat. Fatty-bro is so good to me.

"What about your companion?" The female partner smiled, her meaning opaque. "Not inviting her along?"

Chubby's face kept its easy, guileless expression. "She's timid. No point bringing her for something like this."

The female partner gave a quiet, contemptuous laugh. She understood — Chubby's group had written Xiao You off.

What friendships or partnerships ever survived the Infinite World?

Those who had witnessed countless deaths in instances, who had killed untold numbers of monsters and bosses and emerged alive, had long since shed whatever humanity they once had.

*

He'd slept during the day and now couldn't sleep at night.

Chao Musheng watched two episodes of a weepy melodrama with his grandparents, then waited until they'd gone to bed. He still felt not the slightest bit drowsy.

The wind had blown the clouds apart, revealing a crescent moon hanging at the edge of the sky.

He opened his parents' social feed. The couple were posting photos of a candlelit dinner aboard a cruise ship.

He quietly liked the post without commenting. Adding a comment would only make him look surplus to the occasion.

He opened a game app and went on an absolute tear — sparks and lightning, victory after victory, MVP every single match.

"I really am an outstanding university student." He captured a screenshot of his stats and posted it to his feed. Two seconds later, a like appeared.

The like was from Xu, who had also — for the first time ever — left a comment.

Xu: Impressive.

Still awake too, apparently.

ChaoChaoMuMu replied to Xu: Thanks for the compliment [toothy grin].

Within moments the post had collected a string of comments and likes. Chao Musheng didn't bother checking whether Xu had replied again — his second-eldest roommate was already begging him to come play ranked matches.

"Sheng-bro, from this day forward you are my long-lost brother from another mother!" Having coasted to victory after victory on Chao Musheng's coattails, the roommate squeaked out an elaborate stream of compliments in his highest-pitched voice, infuriating their opponents enough that they called him a tryhard.

He couldn't care less. When advancement was on the line, he would resort to anything.

"Stop that." Chao Musheng switched off voice chat before his ears could suffer any further. "It's almost one in the morning. I'm out."

Ignoring his roommate's protests, Chao Musheng quit the game and pulled back the curtain to peer outside.

The village was profoundly quiet. In the distance, nightingales called intermittently, their voices tangled with the sound of cats.

In the moonlight, the dark shapes of cypress trees shivered.

Chao Musheng turned and looked at the curtain.

It wasn't moving. There was no wind right now.

Something wasn't right.

He took out his phone, opened the camera, switched to night mode, and dialed up the zoom.

Let's see what we're dealing with.