Chapter 52 Part 1

The fog had dispersed, but Zhong Nian did not relax his vigilance, unsure if that elusive Devil would appear again.

He eyed the pile of candies outside the window without rashly opening it to take them.

He pondered the octopus tentacle that had flashed by moments ago, feeling somewhat puzzled.

It had deliberately delivered these—what did it mean?

“Zhong Nian?” A familiar voice came from outside the door then.

It was the Masked Man.

Zhong Nian quickly responded and went to open the door.

The Masked Man looked him up and down, then swept his room with a cold, stern gaze.

Zhong Nian understood his intent and smiled. “I’m fine, just…”

He turned and walked to the windowsill. The thin, light-colored pure cotton pajamas were somewhat translucent, revealing his graceful figure. His small face, turned sideways into half the light, appeared luminously pale.

He beckoned to the Masked Man, who was still standing in the doorway without entering. His voice was soft. “Come take a look quickly.”

The Masked Man blanked out for a moment. When he came back to himself, his body had already moved on its own toward the window at Zhong Nian’s command.

“Look.” Zhong Nian pointed at the candies outside. “The Octopus Demon sent them. What do you think it’s after?”

The Masked Man frowned. “Best not to bother with it.”

Zhong Nian nodded.

The Octopus Demon had sent him candies once before, but those had been the ones he’d dropped on the road midway. The ones outside the window matched those from the town Children—same wrapping paper and packaging.

No matter where they came from or what the intent was, they surely harbored no good intentions.

Zhong Nian simply stopped thinking about it, drew the curtains closed, and let it be out of sight, out of mind.

Then the Masked Man suddenly said, “Sleep with me tonight.”

【? What the hell, I don’t allow it!】

【Nooo! Don’t sleep with my wife!】

【Heh, manly.】

【Just casually inviting him like that when he’s so juicy-looking?】

Zhong Nian jumped in surprise too, his lips parting in a short “Ah!”

He wasn’t led astray by the barrage into misunderstanding the Masked Man’s meaning; he was simply caught off guard.

After all, the Masked Man had always kept to himself, disliking group unity or teaming up. He had extremely strong boundaries and a sense of distance.

“You…” For some reason, the Masked Man suddenly averted his gaze. “You might have been targeted by it. It’ll probably come for you again tonight. This way is safer.”

Zhong Nian was a bit surprised. The Masked Man always rushed to save him at the first sound of trouble, and he was already very grateful for that.

“Thanks for being willing to help, but no need.”

Not to mention how uncomfortable it would be for someone of the Masked Man’s temperament to share a room with others—and if he really had been targeted by that persistent Devil, he shouldn’t drag his severely injured teammate into it.

Zhong Nian didn’t say something half-hearted like “It’d be too much trouble for you.” He directly refused the kind offer.

The Masked Man’s gaze stayed fixed to the side, as if his straightforward rejection hadn’t affected him at all. His dark eyes showed no fluctuation.

He simply stayed silent for a rather long time—long enough to make Zhong Nian feel uneasy.

“My words might have come off blunt. Rejecting you doesn’t mean I dislike you, really.” Zhong Nian fidgeted with his palm and added.

“Mm.” The Masked Man responded simply, nodded, and left.

Zhong Nian watched the man’s departing back and said weakly, “Call me if you need help…”

He felt a bit apologetic, but he figured someone as steady and powerful as the Masked Man at his core wouldn’t take something this minor to heart.

So he quickly put it behind him.

–

“Bang!!!”

The Cabin’s door was shoved open violently, making the whole house tremble.

Aside from Jie Jialiang, the other Players stumbled in one after another, unsteady on their feet and utterly bedraggled, as if a dog were chasing them from behind.

Zhong Nian, who was making porridge in the Kitchen, merely turned his head for a glance. His gaze lingered one second longer on the Skinny Man, who looked the most pitiable with blood covering half his body, before disinterestedly looking away. He silently turned up the fire a bit and stirred the ladle faster.

When he’d woken from his nap and seen the fog, he’d known these folks who’d happened to go out had run into bad luck.

“Are you trying to get me killed!!!”

A sudden roar erupted—from the Skinny Man.

Zhong Nian turned his head again.

Unexpectedly, the usually timid and submissive man had shed his spineless demeanor. He clutched the Bald Man’s collar with both hands, his face full of fury.

The Bald Man dismissed his outburst with a disdainful laugh. “You’re not dead, are you?”

“Almost! That Monster nearly gutted me! And you used me as a shield…” Whether from rage aggravating his wounds or something else, the Skinny Man started coughing mid-sentence and vomited a large mouthful of blood. The momentum fueled by his brush with death deflated instantly like a punctured balloon, and he couldn’t even stand.

The Bald Man gave him a light shove, sending the fragile-as-paper man sprawling to the ground.

He tugged disgustedly at his blood-soaked clothes with a “Tch.” “Using you as a shield was me doing you a favor—giving trash like you a chance to shine. Otherwise, what value do you have besides your worthless life?”

“We were fine at first… It was you! You suddenly lost it and went to grab the Priest’s goat. That’s why he chased us into the fog outside the Church… It was all your fault! You dragged us all down!”

“You had a problem with it, why didn’t you say so then? It’s your own clumsy fault—you couldn’t even catch a goat without letting it escape, so of course we got found out.” The Bald Man shrugged lazily with a roguish grin, then turned to the pale-faced young couple nearby. “What do you think?”