CH 115

"What the f—!"

Su Long turned to glare at the one who had rudely interrupted his fun as he roughly shoved the hand away.

"Pick it up yourself, and leave me the fuck alone!" he yelled, waving his hand in a shooing motion.

He knew who it was. They may have been classmates, but Su Long harbored no goodwill toward that antisocial creep who skipped class, more often than not, to spend all his time playing video games. The fact that he was more handsome was irritating, to be sure, but more importantly, this douche had become the enemy of every boy on campus.

The scoundrel who burned through seven girlfriends in the three months since he started school... Actually, eight now, including the fallen campus belle. Seeing one man bag so many chicks left the perennially-single male students feeling deeply triggered. Did he think he was better than them just because he had that stupid face with those attractive features?

Nobody had expected the campus bell to fall for this schmuck, but there had been clear photographic evidence of them coming to school together.

In a depressing world where pretty people could get away with murder, the people bayed for the blood of those like Bai Zhi, who were universally despised. Su Long's reaction was perfectly understandable.

But before he could face Bai Zhi, the hand returned with a force many times greater than before, squeezing so hard that it threatened to snap his bones.

"I said, would you mind picking that pen up for me, friend?"

The voice was the same, but coupled with what felt like the weight of a mountain on his shoulder, Su Long clearly felt the tables turning.

Su Long was 185 centimeters tall and weighed 90 kilograms, and no stranger to a basketball court, but he was sure that he'd never met anyone this strong.

He looks so scrawny, too... Where the heck does this bastard's power come from?

As he glanced out the corner of his eye at an amiably-smiling Bai Zhi, Su Long had no choice but to bow before the sheer strength of his grip.

———

Bai Zhi was actually feeling quite annoyed.

He'd bought the Warding Talismans as a safety measure, to be used in a crisis, but had just learned that they worked a little differently than he thought they would...

He had expected that the talismans would automatically activate when he, Bai Zhi, was personally threatened by some supernatural entity, but he was just minding his own business in his seat when the talisman in his hands started burning, thanks to the actions of the numbnut sitting in front of him.

The talismans were single-use, so this was one talisman Bai Zhi was not getting back. A pack of ten talismans had cost him 200 Coins, so one used talisman was 20 Coins down the drain, or 20,000 yuan in real-world currency.

And how much was 20,000 yuan? Well, a bowl of wonton cost 5 yuan, so with 20,000 yuan, someone could buy 4,000 bowls. Even if they downed 10 bowls a day, that was a whole year's worth of food...

Clearly, Bai Zhi's loss was no small thing.

That asshole's dumb actions might have cost him his life, but it cost me a whole year of food, goddammit!

As Su Long bent to get the pen, the true culprit behind the talisman's activation was revealed. Bai Zhi was stunned for a moment as he realized his left and right eye saw different images playing out on Su Long's phone screen.

Through his left eye, he saw a hand that would make Kira Yoshikage stand to attention drawing something on a piece of plain white paper. Meanwhile, his right eye saw the same hand floating in midair, except that its flesh was rotting—Bai Zhi could even spot sections of exposed bone along the attached arm… This was all thanks to the Disillusion effect granted by Pluto (Enervated).

Despite its state of advanced decay, the arm moved smoothly and swiftly across the screen, and in the few seconds that it had taken Su Long to pick up the pen, the basic outlines of a portrait had appeared on the canvas.

As Bai Zhi watched the drawing take shape, the talisman he'd stashed underneath his desk began to blaze brighter and faster. What had started as a smolder flared up as if someone had poured oil onto the talisman.

Realizing what he needed to do, Bai Zhi set his jaw and grabbed Su Long's phone, his finger quickly locating the buttons needed to turn off the application.

His apparently random actions left Su Long, who had just retrieved the pen, standing in stunned bewilderment. At the front of the hall, the teacher called out in a flat voice, "No smoking in the lecture hall, do it outside, please."

Bai Zhi did not respond to that. Turning to Su Long, he said, "Stop watching such programs, they're bad for you."

He promptly deleted the app and grabbed the pen in Su Long's hand. With his heart still aching for his lost twenty thousand yuan, Bai Zhi clenched a fist around the pen and ground it to dust.

"You got a problem with that, come at me bro."

Su Long blinked but said nothing.

There's something wrong with this guy, something very wrong...

———

Thanks to the internet, communication between people had been made hugely convenient, but it also enabled supernatural entities to spread more effectively. However, supernatural entities like that arm, which claimed their victims online, were beyond Bai Zhi's ability to deal with. It wasn't like shooting bullets at the screen would do anything to it.

Such entities were better left to the Official National Forces.

During his visit to the trading post outside the auction house, Bai Zhi had received a newbie orientation brochure listing the website and even a hotline. The Concerning Department's website was kept hidden from normies, but any Players interested in joining the Department could quickly get in touch with a representative from the organization by logging on to the website or calling the hotline.

Bai Zhi decided to check out the Concerning Department's website, making sure to hide his identity. Once there, he faithfully reported the news about the supernatural entity known as "Draw the Dead Studio", and left the matter at that. It was in the hands of the professionals now.

To his pleasant surprise, the Concerning Department acted much faster than expected, disabling all versions of the app, including the PC and mobile versions.

It took all of an hour for the matter of this supernatural entity to be done and dusted.