EM CH40

Chapter 40: Hell Money Flowers

An intern from the emergency medical team stood on standby nearby. Seeing the situation, he immediately rushed over to Zhao Ran, shining a penlight into his pupils, checking his heart rate, and holding up fingers for Zhao Ran to identify.

“That was close—good thing the link duration was short.” Sitting amidst a pile of spare parts, Ji Nian chewed on some smuggled beef jerky. “Within the first ten minutes after linking in, your brain can still distinguish whether it’s in a virtual space or reality—essentially a rookie protection window. Once past ten minutes, your brain automatically begins adapting to the new environment; if you get injured or killed after that, it inflicts severe mental backlash.”

“Entering the scenario comes with way too many restrictions,” Zhao Ran said, massaging his throbbing temples. “My movements were confined inside that cottage, and I couldn’t perform any actions outside the preset moveset.”

“Exactly. That’s why tonight we’re heading over to find that empty Illusion Chamber to attempt a second link. If all goes smoothly, your movements won’t be restricted at all.”

“Coal Blackie is insane! He just speedran the Screaming Jailer and knocked you right out of the link. So cool—total deadpan face while pulling off a speedrun, I’m officially his fan now.” Yong Zheng looked up from his laptop. “Is he one of ours? Why wasn’t he notified before we initiated the link?”

“Of course he was notified.” Chewing his beef jerky, Ji Nian used discarded spare parts on the floor to assemble a tiny screw-and-bolt elephant that scuttled wildly across the floor driven by crude gears.

“That brat… did it on purpose.” Finally recovering from the dizziness, Zhao Ran tapped his forehead and glanced at the replay of Coal Blackie’s stream. Showing only the lower half of his face and his desk setup, while his hands flew in seamless coordination, the corner of his lips had been curled in a triumphant smirk the entire time. Timing it right inside the ten-minute rookie protection window just to cause trouble—little menace.

Calibrating the equipment was a lengthy process, keeping Zhao Ran tied up at the company for testing. Left home alone, Yu An had wrapped up his streaming quota early today and felt rather bored.

He had long grown accustomed to ordering around the swarm of little hands in the house: one moment sending Kaopu to draw bathwater, the next having Lipu massage his shoulders and back, dispatching Frenzy to the kitchen to cook dinner, telling Drunkard to fetch cola from the fridge, and having Shy and Innocent duo-queue mobile games with him in sweet harmony.

The little hands kept him company willingly, creating a warm, lively atmosphere. Meanwhile, the other nameless little hands huddled in a tight circle around the edge of the bed, gazing up in envy and occasionally sneaking onto the mattress to touch Yu An—only to be met with a thorough thrashing whenever Kaopu and the others caught them, though they never tired of trying anyway.

Just past midnight, someone finally knocked on the front door.

Halfway through a match, Yu An tossed his phone aside, hopped off the bed barefoot, and padded over to open the door. Bending over to fiddle with the deadbolt, he muttered lazily, “You didn’t have to come back; I’m getting along just fine with them.”

A faint chime of windbells drifted past his temples. Pulling open the door, Yu An came face-to-face with a stiff, chalk-white corpse visage. Two round circles of bright rouge were painted onto the old man’s cheeks, his hollow eyes completely devoid of ripples.

“The Midnight Merchant?” Yu An paused in surprise. Every Thursday at midnight, the Midnight Merchant visited human Vessels’ homes to hawk his wares, yet he had somehow tracked him down to Zhao Ran’s villa—there was no telling how he triangulated buyers’ locations.

Pulling open his cloak, the hunched old man brought out three items as usual.

The first item was a black sticker resembling a fourth-dimensional pocket, labeled “Core Case Expansion.”

Item Name: Core Case Expansion

Effect: Adds 4 core storage slots to a core container without increasing its physical volume.

Price: 4,500 yuan

“Capacity expansion without changing size? Good stuff.” Without a word, Yu An pulled out his wallet to pay. The Core Storage Analyzer only held eight core slots in total; buying the Core Case Expansion allowed him to carry four extra Aberrant Cores on him, easily worth every cent.

Aside from the 150,000-yuan patent fee he earned for modifying the Core Storage Analyzer, he had also pocketed a 100,000-yuan bonus from the company for clearing the beauty salon Illusion Chamber. Today’s Yu An was no longer that university student scraping by on two thousand yuan a month—dropping several thousand on an item didn’t even make him blink.

The second item was a Tier 3 Purple Aberrant Core, its surface etched with patterns resembling an open book.

Item Name: Functional Core: Reversed Fairy Tale

Price: 6,000 yuan

The Midnight Merchant never listed exact effects on the Aberrant Cores he sold, introducing an element of gambling into every purchase; buyers could only roughly guess the capability from its category and name.

However, Yu An’s stock of cores had depleted considerably, and frequently swapping high-tier cores placed excessive strain on his body—meaning mid-to-low-tier cores were actually far more practical for him right now.

Better to just buy it. Once the Grey Crow Game Company commission was wrapped up, the company would surely hand out a generous bonus, and his livestreams over the past few days had brought in plenty of viewer gift money too.

The third item was another outfit—a neatly folded black suit adorned with additional crimson decorative patterns, sporting a pair of miniature bat wings stitched onto the back.

Item Name: Little Devil Suit

Demon hide shed by the guardian of the Leaning Tower Illusion Chamber. Soaked for years within a swamp of sin and blood, it has long been steeped in an aura of malevolence.

Primary Effect: Freely command evil entities within the Leaning Tower

Secondary Effect: Nocturnal Flight

Price: 100,000 yuan, 10 Hell Coins

Yu An counted the zeros carefully, confirming it was one hundred thousand yuan and not ten thousand.

Just a single outfit, for a hundred grand? Was this haute couture?

“I don’t have any Hell Coins right now. I’ll order some online tomorrow—does the Bank of Heaven and Earth circulate over on your end? Hold the item for me and come back next week.”

Staring with hollow eyes devoid of whites, the old man parted his cloak to display a payment QR code.

The Midnight Merchant only ever presented goods best suited to each customer, and all garments he sold were one-of-a-kind limited editions. If bought by a customer, that outfit would never appear before another buyer again; if left unbought, he would continue peddling it elsewhere until someone purchased it, at which point it vanished permanently from his inventory.

The old man didn’t care whether Yu An wanted it or not—if he couldn’t pay up, he was leaving.

“Don’t go. Did you hear me? Hold the item for me.” Grabbing the old man’s cloak, Yu An repeated himself right beside his ear. With the front door standing wide open, the little hands peeking out to watch the commotion naturally sided with Yu An, leaping onto the Midnight Merchant one by one and latching on to keep him from leaving, nearly tearing the elderly man’s robes into beggar’s rags.

Making a snap decision, Yu An bent over to slip on his shoes: “Pin him down! I’m heading to the public cemetery right now to steal some.”

The old man’s rigid corpse face couldn’t form expressions, yet his soul was surely sweating bullets as he struggled in vain to break free—this customer could have easily robbed him outright, yet insisted on going out in the middle of the night to scrounge up money for him.

The villa district at midnight was exceptionally quiet. Beneath the streetlamps along the tree-lined lane, a shadow stretched long by the dim amber glow drew slowly nearer.

The instant Zhao Ran’s footsteps sounded, the little hands clinging to the Midnight Merchant scattered like startled birds, retreating off the old man like a receding tide and scurrying back inside to resume their respective chores—washing clothes where clothes needed washing, mopping floors where floors needed mopping.

Seeing the master of the house return, the Midnight Merchant hurriedly pointed at Yu An, silently tattling to Zhao Ran. Far too short, the old man looked utterly comical hopping up and down in front of Zhao Ran.

“If he likes it, just hold it for him.” Zhao Ran smiled. A nameless little hand scurried hastily out of the house, pinching a coin between its fingers and placing it into the Midnight Merchant’s palm.

“Consider this Hell Coin a deposit.”

Stiffly opening his mouth, the Midnight Merchant bit down on the coin, chipping off one of the few teeth he had left. Tucked safely into his cloak, he shook the corpse bell in his hand and slowly dissolved into the darkness of the night.

Closing the front door, Zhao Ran hung his trench coat on the shoe cabinet and slipped into slippers: “That old man only knows how to swindle money out of kids like you. Every single time he shows up, you buy out his entire shelf. What is this, Crazy Thursday?”

“Too much money. Waste paper. Spend it all.” Cradling his newly purchased items in his arms, Yu An padded barefoot beside Zhao Ran.

The entryway corridor was somewhat long. After taking off his outer coat, Zhao Ran loosened his tie as he walked toward the living room. Trailing beside him, Yu An stole sideways glances at him now and then, his gaze landing on Zhao Ran’s hands swinging gently with his stride.

“What’s wrong? Why are you spacing out?” Walking ahead, Zhao Ran explained, “The Hell Coins he wants aren’t ordinary spirit money—they’re funerary offerings from an ancient leaning tower. That leaning tower has already become an Illusion Chamber; if you want Hell Coins, you have to go inside to get them.”

“Then why do you have them?”

“I have some past acquaintance with the master of the Leaning Tower Illusion Chamber. They gifted me two as souvenirs; I’ll give you the remaining one.”

“Oh.” Zoning out for a brief moment, Yu An suddenly extended two fingers, tentatively taking hold of Zhao Ran’s right hand.

Through the coarse deerskin glove, warmth radiated directly from his palm.

Zhao Ran shuddered all over, his right hand—and indeed his entire right arm—freezing completely stiff. Instinct urged him to shake it off, yet Yu An was looking right at him, that expectant gaze looking as though even a single glance of rejection would pierce straight through him.

Silently tightening his fingers, he enclosed Yu An’s hand within his palm.

A mere distance of several meters suddenly stretched impossibly long. Irritably yanking off his tie and tossing it onto the sofa, Zhao Ran suppressed the urge to devour whole the little bug that had thrown itself straight into a Venus flytrap.

As he sank into the sofa, Yu An naturally straddled his lap, draping himself across his chest.

This kid knew exactly how to press his most vulnerable spots. Zhao Ran had originally come back intending to give him a stern lecture for deliberately causing trouble during equipment calibration, yet here the boy was, drooping limply against him as though he were the one who had suffered some great grievance.

“Are you trying to lock me up?” Tilting his head to look at him, Yu An asked, “The second I step out the door, they drag me right back.” He pointed at the little hands on the floor.

“Why do you insist on going out?”

“It’s boring.”

“Why didn’t you say it was boring when I was home? I can take you out to have fun.”

“When you’re home, it’s not boring.” Draped over Zhao Ran’s chest, Yu An looped both arms around the back of his neck, idly fiddling with the blade tip of the Armor-Piercing Awl.

Perhaps he was merely playing with it absentmindedly, or perhaps the next second the Armor-Piercing Awl would pierce straight through his cranium—spending time with this little menace always gave Zhao Ran the thrilling sensation of opening a blind box, keeping him perpetually primed for forceful suppression.

Yu An’s cheek brushed occasionally against his ear. The sound of running water from the little hands preparing late-night supper in the kitchen and the humid air from the laundry room drifted between them as Yu An pressed his cool cheek close, his breath grazing faintly against Zhao Ran’s neck.

Closing his eyes briefly, Zhao Ran pulled the little brat upright off his chest, gripping the back of his neck to kiss the corner of his lips. Unprepared for such a response, Yu An cupped Zhao Ran’s face and kissed him deeply, his tongue parting the sharp, pointed fangs first—apparently nicked in the process, swallowing a faint hint of coppery blood along with the kiss.

Yu An took hold of his hand.

“Take off the glove.” Pushing his luck, he murmured relentlessly, fumbling to tug at the clasp of Zhao Ran’s glove. Perhaps due to sweat, it refused to budge easily; leaning down, Yu An used his teeth, trying to bite a corner to pull it off, only to accidentally nip Zhao Ran’s fingertip in his haste.

Zhao Ran’s pupils constricted slightly, then visibly shifted toward crimson.

“…Only taking off one.” Otherwise he would lose control.

Resting his other wrist lightly against the small of Yu An’s back, Zhao Ran simultaneously remembered his older brother mocking his hands as filthy since childhood, while hoping Yu An remained oblivious—so that he would remain willing to touch such a tainted place.

“Turn off the lights. Don’t keep staring.”