Chapter 100: You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me

He... triggered the first soul thread?

The first main quest had already entered its settlement countdown. According to the system briefing when he first entered the instance, if any of the six targets Wen Nan had been assigned failed to reach eighty percent affection, the soul puppet he carried with him would trigger a soul thread and bind itself to one of his limbs.

In the earlier explanation of soul puppets and soul threads, it had been said that when players rested, they must make sure the soul puppet was kept close by, so that any triggered soul thread could attach to the player’s body.

It must have been just now, when Wen Nan had unknowingly slipped into sleep. In that nightmare, the soul thread had wrapped around his wrist, inch by inch.

Why had he suddenly fallen into a nightmare?

He had indeed been running himself ragged for a long time without rest, but Wen Nan had taken a sleeping capsule. By rights, he should not have blacked out so abruptly, nor slept so deeply.

Thinking back over the details of that dream...

Most of them had been things deeply familiar to Wen Nan from memory. Only one thing had been abruptly thrust into his mind recently: that pungent scent of sandalwood.

The candle Sun Yi had placed by the bedside was not some prop for peculiar amusements at all. Hidden inside it was a heavy dose of sleeping medication!

At that thought, Wen Nan lowered his gaze toward the coffee table in front of him. Raising the hand free of the soul thread, he swept aside the admission letter on top. Sure enough, beneath it he found a slip of paper.

Dear Uncle,

Don’t work so hard. Look at those dark circles—you’ve practically worked yourself into them. You bust your ass overtime every day until so late, and in the end all the money you earn goes to medical bills anyway. What’s the point?

I put a little sleep-and-brain-rest tonic in there for you. Sleep soundly and have a good rest, okay?

No need to thank me. Love you lots~

ξ

Xiaoyi.

Wen Nan could hardly stop himself from laughing in disbelief at the note.

This kid was really trying to screw over her uncle, huh?

Still, come to think of it, this little punk—she looked worldly enough, but in truth she was genuinely naive. Given the chance to drug Wen Nan, she had actually chosen sleeping pills and not an aphrodisiac?

Now that he had found the culprit who had nearly ruined everything, another, more important question still plagued Wen Nan.

The soul thread tightening more and more around his wrist meant that one of the targets had not yet reached eighty percent.

But how could that be possible? He had clearly cleared all six characters. With his skills, there should not have been a single fish left slipping through the net...

Lost in thought, he felt a soft mass crawl onto the back of his hand.

Wen Nan lowered his head and looked over, meeting a pair of hollow eyes.

At some point, a beautifully made little doll had wrapped itself around his wrist. It strained to lift its not-very-flexible neck and stared fixedly at Wen Nan’s face.

It was clearly just a doll, incapable of expression, yet Wen Nan somehow felt as if he could plainly see a trace of a smile in those empty eyes.

It was the target he had personally chosen himself—the cold-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside CEO.

Wen Nan immediately queried the system in his mind. The answer made his heart sink.

9527: [Target "the very, very, very icy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside female CEO," current affection: 30%.]

Wen Nan:?!

He had spent his own money and taken Gu Anlin to the movies for an entire evening, and her affection was still stuck at thirty percent, not moving at all?!

9527: [The player’s date with the target at Crown Cinema is considered a personal action. It does not count toward the main quest or any side quest. Any affection increase gained through this behavior cannot be locked in by the system. Once the action ends, affection returns to the value it had before the behavior began. Please note.]

Wen Nan:??

You decide to tell me this only at the settlement stage?

What a load of crap!

But now was not the time to quarrel with the system, because the settlement countdown hovering before his eyes was down to less than ten minutes.

He had to get back to the respawn point in the company dormitory as fast as possible, or he would lose his eligibility for settlement.

At that thought, Wen Nan braced himself on his arm and tried to stand, only to discover that the hand wrapped in the soul thread was being tugged hard, pressed flat against the floor, utterly unable to lift away from the ground. He tried yanking it twice more, but his arm did not move an inch.

That soul puppet, which looked no bigger than a palm, seemed to have taken root the moment the soul thread was triggered. No matter what, it could not be budged.

The silver thread wrapped around Wen Nan’s wrist tightened further and further, already digging into his flesh, almost carving its way to the bone.

His left hand was no longer under his control. Even the simple motion of raising it was beyond him.

The soul thread continued burrowing deeper into his wrist. If this went on, that hand would likely end up being manipulated by the doll into doing things completely beyond his will.

But that was not the most urgent problem right now.

The most pressing issue was this: if he allowed that doll rooted to the floor to finish the ritual of binding the soul thread, he would be too late to make it back to the respawn point...

Taking a deep breath, Wen Nan clenched the rune of control in his palm.

A flash of golden light cut through the air.

Should he call him Yu Shujun, or Jun Wuming?

He could not worry about that now...

"Xiao Jun!"

Whoosh—

Before Wen Nan had finished speaking, a pillar of golden light shot in from outside the door, smashing through it and striking directly at the wrist trapped in place.

With a sharp clang, like a bowstring snapping, a sound rang out beside his ear. Then, suddenly, the left hand pinned flat to the floor felt light.

Wen Nan narrowed his eyes. When the golden radiance illuminating the entire room faded, he saw the familiar golden-haired figure in a tracksuit standing in front of him.

The point of the sword in the figure’s hand was aimed at the little doll lying on its back on the floor.

One of the doll’s hands still held a severed silver thread. Its head mechanically twisted ninety degrees, and once again those hollow eyes fixed unblinkingly on Wen Nan.

Wen Nan got to his feet and rushed for the door at top speed. "No time. I have to get to the respawn point immediately."

At that, Yu Shujun said nothing. He simply stepped forward, drove the sword tip hard into the soul puppet with a wet thrust, piercing straight through its soft chest and abdomen, then skewered the palm-sized doll on the blade and carried it away with him.

The two of them entered the elevator lobby side by side.

After pressing the button and feeling the elevator descend smoothly, Wen Nan turned to glance at the soul puppet skewered on Yu Shujun’s sword like a roasted chicken wing.

"Something wrong, Master?"

Yu Shujun turned his face toward Wen Nan without expression.

At first, Wen Nan intended to shake his head and say no. But then he noticed the redness at the corners of Yu Shujun’s eyes and froze for a moment before asking, "You... what happened?"

Unlike last time, the redness around Yu Shujun’s eyes was now very faint, and the tears had already dried. Unless one looked closely, it was hard to see anything unusual.

Had he been crying a while ago?

Wen Nan was still staring when Yu Shujun suddenly lifted a hand, tugged up his hood, and pulled it down, covering his entire face completely before tossing out a chilly line:

"If you’ve got time to worry about others, mind yourself, Master."