Chapter 8 Who Am I 7

That thing paused for a moment, then suddenly began to scream like crazy—

Though, could it even be called a scream?

Lin Xiangjun pondered with abnormal calmness.

The sound was very dull, not sounding like it came from the throat of a human or any other animal.

If she had to describe it, perhaps cutting open a trachea with a knife and then pasting something over the hole would achieve such an effect?

A thought suddenly occurred to her.

Maybe it couldn't make a sharp scream because its throat had been cut?

A horizontal cut might not produce this effect; it should be a vertical split down the entire trachea, after which it tried to piece itself back together. Because it wasn't sealed tightly and had gaps, it produced this kind of air-leaking, muffled, broken-sounding roar.

Suddenly, her vision brightened, and the muffled, broken roar vanished. Although her eyes were closed, she could still see the bright light, which turned her eyelids a bright red.

Did it leave?

Lin Xiangjun poked forward again, but this time she hit nothing.

Did it really leave?

She waited a while longer, but there was still nothing unusual in the surroundings.

The stairwell was quiet.

Lin Xiangjun breathed a sigh of relief. Just as she was about to step onto the last stair, a thought flickered, and she suddenly caught that hint of abnormality.

Was the stairwell light really this bright?

She recalled the light from when she was slowly walking up the stairs earlier.

That light was dim; at most, it was enough for a person to see the steps and not trip. How could it possibly turn her eyelids bright red?

Lin Xiangjun kept her eyes closed; she couldn't see.

That shapeless thing filling the stairwell had been stabbed by her, and like a suction pipe plunged into a pool, more than half of the resentment and malice on its body had been forcibly dispersed by that sharp knife.

It was also because Lin Xiangjun was inexperienced. Even though she had been given such a treasure, her lack of skill in using it combined with her own lack of strength meant she hadn't completely dealt with this anomaly even at such close range.

But she couldn't be blamed for this.

Her current situation was like giving a baby a precious sword. A weapon that could easily sever a dragon's head in the hands of a warrior could not even pierce an ordinary person's chest in hers.

But if you insisted on blaming the baby for being too weak to kill the monster, it would be truly unreasonable.

The thing had seized upon this very point to barely save its own life.

If Lin Xiangjun opened her eyes, she would see—

The stairwell light was still extinguished, but the thing had shrunk its remaining body into a ball and was crouching above her head. It extended a bright, blood-red portion of its body, hanging it in front of Lin Xiangjun's eyes like the lure of an anglerfish.

Open your eyes! Open your eyes!

The thing's malice surged.

Open your eyes! Walk forward!

Hurry up and violate the rules!

It desperately wanted to use Lin Xiangjun's flesh and blood to replenish its lost parts.

At the thought of that fresh, hot flesh and blood, and the underworld currency that would be enough to upgrade the instance to five stars, it trembled all over with excitement, wishing it could give Lin Xiangjun a hard shove from behind to make her foot step directly onto the last stair!

However, it could not interfere with the choices of the instance players. No matter how anxious it was, it was helpless and could only try its best to make the bright part even brighter, attempting to interfere with Lin Xiangjun's judgment.

Lin Xiangjun pondered for a moment where she stood.

She didn't know why this thing insisted on clinging to her instead of choosing another target. She admitted she had no strength, but the item in her hand was no pushover, so the injury the thing sustained was definitely not light.

Willing to suffer heavy injuries just to ambush her—you're really persistent, you little ghost.

Lin Xiangjun sighed silently in her heart.

The cold gemstone embedded in the hilt brushed against her soft palm.

This knife was actually not of a practical design. Even though Lin Xiangjun was a layman who knew nothing about swords and the like, she could figure out with her toes that a hilt should at least not be uncomfortable to hold, let alone smooth.

When she first got the knife, she wanted to complain. Not only did the hilt have a massive ruby, but it also had silver carvings. It was entirely for aesthetics and felt awkward to grip no matter how she held it.

But with that strike just now, the power displayed by the sharp knife caused her attitude to do a complete 180-degree turn.

Uncomfortable? That was definitely her own problem! If she had more calluses on her hands, it wouldn't hurt to hold.

A good knife, this is definitely a good knife.

Good knife, now it's time for you to lend me a hand. I hope you don't let me down.

Lin Xiangjun composed herself, took a deep breath, and this time her strike was even faster!

She hesitated not at all and stabbed the knife toward her own eye!

Before the knife could hit her eyeball, it first pierced something like a water balloon. As the tip of the blade went deeper, that thing suddenly burst, and the bright light before her eyes vanished instantly.

There was another miserable scream.

This time, Lin Xiangjun clearly felt something leave, and the temperature in the stairwell rose slightly.

Her foot clearly met empty air. She looked down and saw that the thirteen stairs she had been standing on had disappeared. One of her feet was already on the landing.

The crisis was temporarily averted.

She said temporarily because she could feel that the thing had only left, rather than truly dying.

She had used so much force just now and felt like she had pierced through it—was it still not dead?

Lin Xiangjun frowned, feeling that something wasn't quite right, but this thought only lasted for a brief moment before biological instinct took over her body.

Lin Xiangjun lunged out of the stairwell in one large stride.

Mom! A ghost just tried to take her life! It was so terrifying, wahhh!

With her front foot out, her body suddenly rotated 180 degrees, and she took another large stride back inside.

Lunging out was due to biological instinct; lunging back was because her brain had triumphed over her instinct.

It was like playing a game—every time you defeat a mini-boss or an elite monster, the system gives a certain reward. She had passed that level just now, and was the first to do so. No matter how she looked at it, she felt that some clues or similar items would drop nearby, right?

She turned on her flashlight and carefully inspected the place where she had been standing—the twelfth stair and the landing near the stairs.

As expected.

On the edge of the twelfth stair, a yellow sticky note was attached. It was the cheap kind she used to buy in middle and high school for two yuan a pack, the kind where the glue on the back wasn't even strong. One corner was clearly peeling up at the edge.

Lin Xiangjun had just peeled it off and gripped it in her hand when she suddenly heard someone ask her, "Where did you get a flashlight?"

She whipped her head around toward the sound.

It was the other three: Aunt Wang, Wang Zixuan, and Zhuo Xing.

The one who asked was Zhuo Xing.

Even though Lin Xiangjun had intended to speed up to avoid walking with them, being delayed by the anomaly had cost her time, and now that she had doubled back to look for clues, it wasn't strange to run into them.

It could only be said to be bad luck.

They were one floor below her, in her blind spot, and since she had been looking down for clues, she hadn't noticed them immediately.

One couldn't shout in the stairwell, but Lin Xiangjun herself couldn't define the standard for shouting. After all, to a sleeping person, a normal speaking voice counts as loud, while to someone singing in a KTV booth, even screaming at the top of their lungs wouldn't be heard clearly.

So to be safe, she hadn't made a single sound in the hallway.

Zhuo Xing and the others probably hadn't seen that rule, which is why they shouted so loudly.

Lin Xiangjun's expression was a bit subtle.