The lights came on abruptly.

No one was prepared.

The entire reading room instantly fell into dead silence, so silent that even a pin drop could have been heard.

Everyone froze at once. The moment they saw the figure standing in the doorway, all color drained from their faces, and the blood in their bodies seemed almost to freeze solid.

It was Yang Ruiqing.

That figure was completely illuminated by the white light. His tall body was slender and deathly still, and there was not a trace of warmth in his pitch black eyes.

He did not move.

Nor did he attack.

He simply stood there quietly in the doorway, his gaze not on anyone else, but fixed directly on Wen Ruyu’s wrist where it was being gripped.

The air seemed to freeze solid in that instant.

The player holding Wen Ruyu’s wrist jolted all over. His heart skipped a beat, as if a bone piercing chill had fallen directly onto his hand. He let go almost by instinct.

He even took a step back reflexively.

But even after pulling away, that shadow of death still clung to him, as though it had wrapped around his entire body.

This was wrong.

He had done nothing.

Other than stopping the boy from going out just now.

That player looked at his own hand, then at the boy’s slender, beautiful figure. After thinking of a certain possibility, his heart began pounding wildly.

At that moment, he finally understood the earlier sense of dissonance.

This boss did not hate him at all.

He loved him.

He loved this scammer who had stolen his photos to deceive people into online romance.

It was the biggest joke in the world.

If something like this happened to anyone else, he would absolutely laugh at them for dreaming with their eyes open. But if it happened to this boy, it only felt natural.

He looked at Yang Ruiqing, whose gaze rested on the boy, and when he saw the gloom and obsession in his eyes, he realized one thing with perfect clarity.

He had just touched the boy.

He was finished.

Wen Ruyu did not notice the terror on the player’s face. He stared stiffly at Yang Ruiqing standing in the doorway, his mind going blank in an instant.

They had been discovered.

It was over.

No.

There was still a chance.

Wen Ruyu forcefully suppressed the fear in his heart and tried to calm himself. There were so many of them here that Yang Ruiqing could not possibly kill them all in a single second.

As long as someone drew his attention away, the others would still have a chance to leave alive.

Yang Ruiqing stood there quietly, but those deathly still eyes slowly shifted, finally landing on the player behind Wen Ruyu.

The very player who had just been gripping Wen Ruyu’s wrist.

He had only moved his gaze, yet that deathly oppression nearly stopped everyone’s hearts. No one even dared breathe.

The player being stared at was even more terrified, trembling violently all over, almost unable to remain standing.

The next second.

Yang Ruiqing moved.

He took one step forward.

The sound of that footstep rang out in the deathly silent reading room like a sound from hell itself, nearly stopping the hearts of everyone present.

The same went for Wen Ruyu.

His slender body trembled faintly. Stimulated by death and terror, the tears in his eyes nearly overflowed, yet he still instinctively stepped forward and shielded the player behind him.

He forcefully endured the fear that was about to spill over and raised his eyes to look at Yang Ruiqing in front of him. His voice trembled as he spoke.

"It was me who stole your photos to scam people online. It was also me who got you killed. If you want revenge, come to me."

"Let them go."

Wen Ruyu’s face was so pale it was almost transparent, and his whole body looked as fragile as though it might shatter at any moment. Before saying those words, he had already prepared himself to die.

Just as he thought he would end up like the previous two, be forcibly controlled into falling from a height, die without even being given the chance to struggle,

the control he had imagined never came.

Nor did the scene he had pictured happen.

Instead, Yang Ruiqing stopped once more.

He looked at Wen Ruyu’s slightly trembling figure still standing in front of the others, and the temperature in the air seemed about to fall below freezing. The atmosphere solidified once again.

A long time passed before he finally spoke.

"Why are you favoring him?"

Yang Ruiqing had probably not spoken for a very long time, or perhaps his body had become stiff after death. His voice was hoarse and dry, and every word sounded stiff and unnatural.

It also made a chill rise uncontrollably from the bottom of one’s heart.

The players had been scared rigid, their faces filled with terror and fear, but the instant they heard that sentence, they all froze.

Why was he... favoring... him?

Who was favoring whom?

Why did that sound so wrong?

No matter how dull the players were, at this point they realized something was off. Things seemed completely different from what they had imagined.

Yang Ruiqing did not hate this photo stealing scammer at all.

It might even be more than not hating him. He might be in love and unable to obtain him.

It was too absurd.

Even System 099 found it a little absurd.

In Yang Ruiqing’s words, the word favoring carried such a strong sense of grievance that, if one ignored how terrifying he looked right now, it was almost overwhelming.

An illusion.

It had to be an illusion.

There was no way a dungeon boss could be this insane.

Only Wen Ruyu knew it was not an illusion. The moment Yang Ruiqing said that, he felt that something was wrong.

He looked at Yang Ruiqing’s obsessive, deathly still eyes. His long eyelashes trembled slightly, and a bold guess surfaced in his mind.

Could it be that he cared about him?

If that were the case...

Wen Ruyu silently closed his eyes. The next second, he opened them again, trembling as he lifted his foot and walked toward Yang Ruiqing step by step.

He stopped in front of Yang Ruiqing. Though he was already terrified to the extreme, he still looked straight into Yang Ruiqing’s eyes and spoke in a trembling voice, his tone unusually serious.

"I wasn’t favoring him."

After saying that, he bit his lower lip helplessly and continued in a trembling voice, "I just thought you hated me."

"You didn’t want to see me."

"You deleted me."

"And I got you killed."

Wen Ruyu spoke very slowly, every word filled with trembling and a choking sob, as if he were accusing him of something, yet also as if he felt wronged. He looked utterly helpless.

Yang Ruiqing lowered his deathly still eyes, his gaze falling onto Wen Ruyu’s reddened eye sockets. A few seconds later, he slowly raised his hand.

That hand was pale and icy cold. Its fingers were incomparably stiff, carrying a terrifying aura.

That was not the sort of stiffness a living person would have.

Wen Ruyu’s heart skipped a beat. His body reacted faster than his mind, and he instinctively turned his head away with a tremor, just in time to avoid the hand that had been about to land on his face.

It was an instinctive bodily reaction.

No one could fail to feel fear.

But the instant he avoided it, he knew things had gone badly wrong.

It was over.

Wen Ruyu lifted his eyes in panic and met Yang Ruiqing’s suddenly darkened gaze. He trembled and parted his lips, wanting to explain himself.

But Yang Ruiqing spoke first. His voice had no rise or fall to it, as though he were merely stating a fact.

"You’re afraid of me."

"I..." Wen Ruyu’s face turned even paler. His throat tightened, and he instinctively wanted to explain.

"I’m not..."

"I’ll give you a chance." Yang Ruiqing cut off his explanation. His voice was cold and hoarse, yet exceptionally clear. Looking at Wen Ruyu, he said each word distinctly.

"You can run as much as you want."

"If I haven’t found you before dawn, then I’ll let you go."

This was probably the greatest concession Yang Ruiqing was willing to make.

Or perhaps it was simply a hunter’s innate cruelty, taking pleasure in the cat and mouse game, giving someone hope and then crushing it with his own hands.

Yang Ruiqing did not ask for Wen Ruyu’s opinion. He was merely informing him.

"I’ll give you one minute."

"When the countdown ends, I’ll come find you."

Before Wen Ruyu could react, Yang Ruiqing closed his eyes and began the one minute countdown.

"60."

"59."

"58."

One cold number after another fell into the air, making everyone’s hearts pound uncontrollably, like a countdown to death.

The players had long since reacted. Seeing Yang Ruiqing close his eyes, they realized this was their only chance to escape, and immediately softened their footsteps and rushed toward the exit of the reading room as fast as they could.

Although the players had already tried to make as little noise as possible, in the deathly silent reading room, the sounds they made were still impossible to ignore.

But Yang Ruiqing did not move.

Nor did he open his eyes.

He simply allowed them to leave.

He was abiding by the rules he himself had set.

If he said one minute,

then it was one minute.

"6."

"4."

"3."

"2."

"1."

The countdown ended.

This deadly chase had officially begun.

Yang Ruiqing slowly opened his eyes.

And Wen Ruyu was still standing right in front of him.

More precisely, he had not moved a single step.

Wen Ruyu’s long eyelashes were wet with tears. Though he was trembling all over with fear, the moment Yang Ruiqing opened his eyes, he still showed him a faint smile.

"You found me."

Yang Ruiqing froze abruptly.

He had already been dead for a long time. Long ago, he had lost the heartbeat a living person should have had. Yet at that moment, it felt as if his heart had skipped a beat.

He lowered his eyes to look at the person before him and spoke hoarsely, his voice carrying a trace of obscurity.

"Why didn’t you run?"

"Aren’t you afraid of me?"

"I am." Wen Ruyu was very honest. His voice was still trembling, an involuntary physical response he could not suppress.

"I’m still afraid now."

"Look." As Wen Ruyu spoke, he extended his hand and carefully tugged at the sleeve of Yang Ruiqing’s shirt. That slender hand was still trembling uncontrollably.

Yang Ruiqing slowly lowered his eyes, looking at the delicate, beautiful hand clutching his sleeve and still trembling. His voice remained stiff and hoarse.

"Then why didn’t you run?"

Wen Ruyu raised his head. He looked into Yang Ruiqing’s eyes. Though the ends of his words still trembled with fear, his tone was extremely serious and firm.

"Because you’re Yang Ruiqing."

The instant those words fell, Yang Ruiqing went completely still.

Just because... it was him?

At that moment, it felt as though the whole world had gone quiet, as though everything had vanished, and he could no longer hear any sound at all.

"I’m trembling."

Seeing that the coldness around Yang Ruiqing had faded slightly because of his words, Wen Ruyu finally felt the taut string in his mind loosen a little.

Everything he had said was true.

And all of it was false.

This game, with rules set by Yang Ruiqing, was one he, as an ordinary person, had absolutely no chance of winning.

The library was only so big.

And there was still more than an hour before dawn.

He had no confidence at all that he could beat Yang Ruiqing.

With the outcome already decided, instead of taking the risk of provoking Yang Ruiqing, it would be better to maximize the value of that inevitable result.

Fortunately.

It seemed he had won the gamble.

099 was genuinely a little surprised. From the moment Wen Ruyu had stayed standing still, it had been very surprised.

It had thought he would gamble once.

Most humans, even when they know their chances are almost nonexistent, still cling to hope and gamble on that nearly impossible possibility.

That was human nature.

But Wen Ruyu did nothing of the sort.

Instead, he directly made use of the outcome.

099’s voice was full of admiration and delight.

"Dear customer, you really are starting to make me see you in a new light."

"But a friendly reminder, remember to take a look at your player panel."

As if it knew what Wen Ruyu was wondering about, 099 explained in his mind.

"After a dungeon has formed, if a Special Player has not successfully cleared it, the system will unlock a function for the Special Player."

Hearing that, Wen Ruyu’s brows drew together slightly, and he instinctively checked his player panel in his mind.

Everything else was the same as before, but at the very bottom of the panel, there was now an extra line of red text.

[Current number of surviving players: 11/20.]

Wen Ruyu had only just finished reading the number when 099’s laughter rang out again, light and cheerful to the point of cruelty.

"Oh right."

"Now it’s 10."

"9."

"7."

"Oh my."

"There are only 6 left now."

Chapter 37

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