Chapter 2: Death Acrobatic Troupe 02 Part 1

Under the sympathetic gazes of the crowd, Jian Bumian pushed open the door reeking of corpses.

Someone noticed that Jian Bumian hadn’t taken off his clothes, let alone checked himself for any belongings. He couldn’t help but mutter:

“That new player seems to have forgotten the rule the fat man mentioned. He didn’t remove all his items and clothing.”

When a person is terrified to a certain degree, they can indeed forget something they were previously clinging to.

This is a very common fear instinct.

Yet it appeared at a moment where it shouldn’t, and it would cost someone their life.

Someone sighed: “Sigh, I bet he’s dead for sure. Such a pity for such a beautiful face. If he survived, he’d definitely be very popular—”

~

Jian Bumian walked through the door.

Inside was a very small room with a black floor. The only light source was a flickering, broken bulb, providing dim illumination.

There were no medical examination devices in the room, only a table set in the corner. Clearly, what this Acrobatic Troupe called a “trainee check-up” was probably not in the traditional sense.

Sitting at the table was a Doctor wearing a white coat.

The light was too dim; Jian Bumian couldn’t see what the Doctor looked like clearly.

The Doctor didn’t look up, lowering its head as if writing something.

Its strange, cold voice sounded.

“This new Trainee, why didn’t you take off your clothes? Didn’t the Acrobat Instructor just give instructions? How can we do the check-up without taking off your clothes?!”

Jian Bumian: “…”

He really hadn’t noticed that rule.

His attention had been focused on his hungry, flat stomach.

“Why aren’t you undressing?” The Doctor urged again.

Jian Bumian didn’t move. He stood quietly in place.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

The Doctor abruptly stood up. Its tall, thin frame cast a thick black shadow.

Its tone became sharper, laced with inexplicable hysteria.

“Why aren’t you undressing?! Hurry up! Take them off—!”

Jian Bumian remained unmoved. His eyelashes hung low, filtering faint light. His soft lips were tightly pressed together, his expression mild.

His whole being looked as if he was spacing out. Within the small, death-filled room, he seemed particularly weak and easy to bully, showing no threat whatsoever.

Like a startled kitten cub.

The only viewer in the livestream room seemed similarly shocked by Jian Bumian’s unusual behavior.

【Viewer 033: What new breed of Dumb Beauty is this? Doesn’t he know that not following an NPC’s rules means death?】

Seeing Jian Bumian motionless, the Doctor stepped closer towards him, screaming hysterically as it did.

“So disobedient! Then I’ll directly rule that you fail the check-up! Eliminated! Disobedient Trainees are unworthy of learning acrobatics in this Troupe!”

The stench of decay grew thicker in the air, as if another corpse had appeared indoors.

Just as the Doctor was less than half a meter from Jian Bumian.

Jian Bumian abruptly raised his head. Because the distance was so close, he could see the Doctor’s appearance clearly.

—It was a ghastly white skeleton.

Well, good thing…

It’s not some rotting corpse or an unidentified blob or something.

Otherwise, he really wouldn’t be able to bring himself to eat it.

Even though he was hungry and wanted to eat a Ghost, he wasn’t indiscriminate.

As for a skeleton-type NPC… he could just treat it like eating low-quality white chocolate.

Jian Bumian chuckled softly. The laugh matched his harmless, beautiful appearance perfectly, very gentle.

The skeleton was somewhat baffled by Jian Bumian’s sudden laughter and momentarily paused its movements.

It was precisely during that split second when the skeleton hesitated that Jian Bumian suddenly stood on his tiptoes, raised his arm, and tightly wrapped it around the Skeleton Doctor’s neck!

The ice-cold skeleton bones pressed against Jian Bumian’s warm arm.

The skeleton let out a hoarse screech. The stench of death inside the room intensified.

It had never seen a living being dare to provoke it!!

This person must die! Must die the most painful death!

The skeleton wanted to snap Jian Bumian’s arm in half while he was still alive, pull out his bones, and watch him writhe in agony on the ground.

After all, this Acrobat looked so weak.

But as it tried to attack Jian Bumian, —it realized it couldn’t budge the youth’s arm at all.

Logically, the power of these living Acrobat Trainees, no matter how strong, could never kill an Acrobatic Troupe Staff member who was superior to them.

A Trainee who made a mistake could only be tormented to death like a piece of meat.

It looked up.

The expression on the youth before it still hadn’t changed much, only the corners of his mouth slightly curved, revealing a pair of distinctive small tiger teeth.

Still that harmless-looking demeanor.

Jian Bumian smiled brightly.

“I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, how dare a weak, pitiful living person like me provoke you?”

NPCs in the Infinite World weren’t all mindless puppets; some still possessed self-awareness.

Too bad they were just a bit stupid.

Jian Bumian blinked innocently, his beautiful caramel-colored eyes shimmering with an eerie, dazzling blue light.

“—But, I’m not a living person.”

The soft young voice was incredibly innocent, tinged with a hint of pitiful grievance, as if merely complaining about some trivial, boring matter like “I didn’t steal any milk candy.”

He had died long ago. Even draped in warm human skin, the part of his Soul that belonged to the Malicious Ghost had not faded.

In fact, it was screaming hunger, hunger, hunger, wanting to devour more of its kind, wanting to become stronger.

Cold, blue light belonging to the Malicious Ghost extended from his eyes, spreading across his whole body. The light transformed into tentacle-like shapes, tightly binding the Skeleton Doctor.

The Skeleton Doctor’s pair of dark, hollow eye sockets overflowed with terror as it stared at Jian Bumian.

This… was its own kind.

A kindred much, much stronger than itself.

This was the Skeleton Doctor’s final thought.

In the next moment, the blue light flickered intensely, completely devouring the pitiful skeleton.

The white coat, now without an owner, drifted lightly to the ground, then was stepped on by Jian Bumian, crumpled into a wrinkled ball, and kicked into a corner.

He rubbed his stomach and frowned.

He had devoured the Skeleton Doctor NPC just now.

His stomach was indeed not as hungry; there was a slight feeling of fullness.

But…

This ghost was truly awful-tasting!

If it had tasted like cheap white chocolate, that would have been okay, at least a sweet treat, with some sweetness.

But actually eating it, it was like spoiled white rice left out too long—hard, sour, and foul.

Jian Bumian smacked his lips. Suddenly, he felt his stomach churning. Immediately after, an unfamiliar, urgent sensation surged up from his stomach, straight through his esophagus…

Jian Bumian’s eyes flew wide open. He stumbled backward a few steps, turned, braced one hand against the wall, half-bent over, and started retching distressingly!

Although nothing came out.

But his stomach and throat burned as if on fire, his mouth full of the stench of that spoiled rice flavor from the Skeleton Doctor.

Spoiled rice…

“Ugh—!”

Jian Bumian almost threw up the last meal he’d had when he was still alive.

Finally, he retched until he could vividly feel his stomach convulsing, and the awful urge to vomit barely subsided.

Having been dead for so many years, serving as an NPC for so long, he’d nearly forgotten what it felt like to be a living person.

In his distant Memory, he remembered living people could feel pain, soreness, cold…

He hadn’t expected that shortly after becoming a living person again, this body from before his death would give him a grand welcome gift of stomach spasms and dry heaving.

The kind where you can clearly feel your very life being impacted.

So uncomfortable.

All because he got peckish and randomly ate a low-level NPC.

As everyone knows, the weaker the NPC, the more harmful substances they contain, the worse they taste.

Coupled with his body’s poor stomach, dry heaving was actually getting off lightly.

It took Jian Bumian a long time to somewhat recover.

From now on, even if he were starving, he would never casually eat those low-tier NPCs encountered on the roadside.

Bad-tasting, unsanitary, non-nutritious.

What was the difference between this and scavenging for garbage on the side of the road when he was alive?!

Meanwhile, the sole viewer in Jian Bumian’s livestream room was already shocked speechless by his series of actions just now.

The screen was filled with Bullet Comments from this single viewer.

【Viewer 033: What’s going on? How come this player’s eyes can glow blue? Did I see wrong?!】

【Viewer 033: Aaahh, where did the Skeleton Doctor go?! It just vanished all of a sudden!!】

【Viewer 033: Aren’t the hosts bound by Strategy System 001 all supposed to be Dumb Beauties?!】

【Viewer 033: Wuwu, what’s happening to the little beauty? Why is he suddenly throwing up? Did he eat some junk food before entering the game? Poor thing】

Jian Bumian: ?

An audience hype squad?

Suddenly.

A ding-dong sounded from within the livestream room.

【Viewer count +5】

Five viewers had entered.

That lone viewer who witnessed Jian Bumian eating the Ghost frantically started complaining to the newcomers.

【Viewer 033: Newcomers, prepare yourselves mentally. This new player is not simple.】

The new viewers glanced at Jian Bumian’s appearance.

Because of the dry heaving caused by accidentally eating the wrong kind of food, Jian Bumian was feeling thoroughly uncomfortable.

The corners of his eyes were red, his lips glistened with moisture, his long, thick eyelashes were wet with reflexive tears, and strands of his black hair clung limply to his forehead.

…Like he had been severely bullied.

Jian Bumian’s shirt buttons had accidentally come undone, faintly revealing his fair skin.

He registered this, lowered his head, and slowly began buttoning them up with his fingertips.

…Then he buttoned two buttons in the wrong order.

The new viewers all chimed in with their critiques.

【Ah? But he doesn’t look very bright.】