Chapter 73 The Singer, Oh, Singer 6

Lin Xiangjun's gaze flickered.

The young woman the Old Lady mentioned was clearly an important character in the instance.

She had to find some clues about this young woman.

As they spoke, the Old Lady and Lin Xiangjun had already walked to the last row of buildings in the alley.

There were 20 rows of these buildings in total, with each row divided into two buildings on the left and right; the last row consisted of buildings No. 39 and No. 40.

The Old Lady led Lin Xiangjun to building No. 40, Unit 2.

"I live in room 303 on the 3rd floor, and the vacant room is 312. Our residential complex has an elevator; once you confirm you want to rent the place, I'll give you the elevator card. For now, just use mine."

The complex's elevator was also dilapidated, with dim lighting and many small advertisements plastered on the walls. The elevator buttons were loose and malfunctioning, requiring several presses to get a response.

"If you think the elevator is too slow, you can take the stairs. I'm old and my legs aren't good, so I have to take the stairs."

Lin Xiangjun waved her hands repeatedly: "It's fine, Grandma. I have a suitcase with me, and it wouldn't be easy to drag it up the stairs."

In reality, there was nothing inside the suitcase; it was just a lightweight, empty box. Let alone carrying it upstairs, after her physical attributes had been enhanced, running a marathon while carrying this suitcase would be a trivial matter.

Just as Lin Xiangjun and the Old Lady were waiting for the elevator, the unit door was suddenly opened. Lin Xiangjun instinctively turned to look and immediately frowned.

The person who arrived was none other than Tiger Wang.

A group of people was following behind him.

Lin Xiangjun counted them; counting both men and women, there were nine in total.

Lin Xiangjun almost laughed in anger.

She had been busy trying to get close to the Old Lady earlier, and since the alley wasn't that long and there was nowhere to hide, she knew that the sound of her talking to the Old Lady would definitely be noticed. Because of that, she hadn't paid much attention when she realized someone was following them.

If they wanted to follow, let them follow. In such a large residential complex, how could she control where others went?

But now that she turned around, a whole string of nine people was standing at the entrance.

"Are you really not planning to rely on yourselves at all?"

Including Cheng Shengtian and Han Jingxue, who had wanted to cooperate with her at the time, were now standing on the outermost edge with sheepish expressions.

Facing Lin Xiangjun's amused expression, a few thin-skinned ones had already averted their gazes, looking at the sky or the ground, just refusing to look at her.

The leader, Tiger Wang, was thick-skinned, however.

"Little girl, we're all on the same team, all players. If you get any clues, you should share them more. We'll let it slide this time, but don't hog the clues to yourself next time."

? Are you even human?

Wow, there are actually imposters in this instance.

Doesn't the instance moderation care? They let all sorts of monsters and demons in? Are they even human, joining the game?

Seeing that Lin Xiangjun's expression hadn't changed, and was even growing more disdainful, as if they were just freeloading players who sat back and enjoyed the fruits of others' labor, Tiger Wang finally felt his face losing some composure.

He coughed twice: "I am 'Buddha Demon Freedom of the Heart', ranked 8097 in the instance. Little girl, only if you share all the information can we safely clear the instance."

He specifically emphasized his ranking.

And he was all set to welcome an expression of admiration from Lin Xiangjun.

However, he miscalculated this time.

Lin Xiangjun's expression remained unchanged.

Just then, the elevator door opened. She dragged her luggage and followed the Old Lady into the elevator. Before Tiger Wang could step into the elevator car, she looked at him and said:

"Then, esteemed big shot ranked 8097, can you rely on your own powerful skills to earn your own way and obtain the method to clear the level without plagiarizing others' hard work?"

Tiger Wang was choked until his face turned red.

"You!"

Where Tiger Wang couldn't see, Lin Xiangjun pressed several floor buttons in succession, then frantically hit the close-door button.

"Yeah, right. I believe that an esteemed big shot like you will definitely find the rules and clues with ease."

The elevator door slowly closed.

The Old Lady, who had been silent all along, leisurely swiped the elevator card, then looked at Lin Xiangjun and asked: "Who were those people just now?"

"...They entered the residential complex with me."

"Do you know them?"

Lin Xiangjun thought about it. There was no need to lie about this kind of thing. After all, the players' range of activity was limited, and running into them while looking for clues in this alley was unavoidable. There might also be times in the future when they needed to exchange clues or travel together.

If she lied and said she didn't know them now, and the Old Lady discovered otherwise later during private interactions...

Since the Old Lady knew about the clues regarding the important character in the instance, she herself must also be an important NPC. Provoking her would bring no benefits.

"I know them, but we aren't close, and our relationship isn't good."

The elevator reached the third floor. She dragged her suitcase, head lowered.

"I heard them say earlier that they don't seem to have much money either, and they also want to rent a place in this complex."

"There are only a few safe and cheap apartments in our complex. If they want information, they should go find it themselves. It's not right for them to sit back and freeload on the fruits of my labor after I went through so much trouble to find this place, right?"

"Other things aside, if this room is gone, where else can I live? I don't have much money on me."

The Old Lady nodded, seemingly accepting this explanation.

"That's true. Those grown men—I see they have all their limbs and are in good health, and they're at an age where they should be starting families. If they just went out to work, they wouldn't need to come here to find a place to live. Yet here they are, trying to snatch an apartment from a young girl who just graduated."

The Old Lady huffed.

She tremblingly opened the door to her own home, 303, walked inside, took a large set of keys from the shoe cabinet, and then turned back to lead Lin Xiangjun to 312.

It was indeed an old residential complex; the entire house seemed to be covered in a grayish-yellow filter.

The Old Lady opened the door to 312. Lin Xiangjun dragged her suitcase, cautiously entered, and sized up the entirety of 312.

Just as the Old Lady had said, the whole apartment wasn't large, and the ceilings were low. Walking inside felt exceptionally stifling, as if one were inside a pigeon coop.

But it was evident that the previous owner cherished their home; the room was decorated in a cozy way, possessing that old-fashioned, warm feeling of a grandmother's house.

Lin Xiangjun touched the fabric sofa cover, then touched the floral refrigerator "headscarf"—she didn't know what this thing was called or what purpose it served, but it was draped over the top of the refrigerator, coffee table, and cabinets like a bridal veil.

Although the items were old and the styles a bit dated, they felt quite clean, as if they had been cleaned not long ago.

The Old Lady's words also confirmed Lin Xiangjun's guess.

"Old Gao entrusted me to rent this place out a week ago. His child is three years old and needs someone to look after them, so he and his wife went to live at his son's place, and this house became vacant."

"If you think it's okay, we can sign the contract, and I'll give you the utility and elevator cards."

"Thank you, Grandma. I'm quite satisfied with this place."

Lin Xiangjun pulled a few bills of underworld currency from her pocket.

She had secretly taken these from her life purse just now, specifically to pay the rent.

The life purse produced two hundred underworld currency per month; with the two hundred from last month and the two hundred from this month, the life purse had produced a total of four hundred for Lin Xiangjun.

It was quite useful and enough to pay the rent.