Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Player Forum

“Do they believe it?” Feng Ling asked.

Huang Fu Miao Miao scrolled through replies with a sick look on her face. “No one’s saying anything publicly, but they could be messaging privately.”

Feng Ling thought for a moment. “I’m going to shower. Watch the forum. Translate every reply. I want to read them when I’m done.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao nodded.

After the last time she compiled forum information for Feng Ling, she was faster at it now. She’d even learned to format titles and align text cleanly.

She skimmed replies while using voice input to build a document. As she watched players talk about hunting Feng Ling like she was a prize animal, she felt two things at once: the strange safety of standing behind a big shot, and the sharp fear of being crushed by the same attention.

Threads kept multiplying:

[Chatter | What does it mean that the hidden Boss made the System announcement twice?]

[Party | Anyone forming a hidden Boss hunting squad?]

[Intel | Mother Nest Ability Card—complete info collection thread]

[Chatter | Come discuss: what rank is the hidden Boss, really?]

“Unbelievable,” Huang Fu Miao Miao muttered. “More and more posts. It’s such a pain to organize—”

She jolted, saw her complaint had been captured by voice input, and hurriedly deleted it.

She couldn’t afford to lose focus. If Feng Ling came out and had nothing to read, she might snap.

Huang Fu Miao Miao hadn’t forgotten: Feng Ling’s Corruption value was already over twenty percent. She couldn’t take extra stimulation.

…

In the bathroom, Feng Ling stripped down, then stuffed every piece of clothing she’d worn—plus last night’s sheets, pillowcases, blanket—into the laundry basket.

After the fight with the Polluted Entity in the sinkhole, she’d been smeared with blood and slime. Yesterday she’d been too exhausted to deal with it. Now that she was awake, the smell clung to her skin like a second layer.

She stepped under the shower and let the water pound over her, foam sliding off her body and down the drain.

The clean scent of shampoo curled around her breath, easing the faint edge of irritability under her ribs.

She remembered reading somewhere that scent could soothe the mind—calm agitation, ease anxiety. Maybe it wasn’t complete nonsense.

She filled the tub with hot water and decided to soak until her bones stopped humming.

The tub was nice, too. Built-in water massage. The kind of comfort that almost felt insulting in a world like this.

Feng Ling sank into the heat, eyes closing for a moment, and found herself thinking about the apartment again.

It really was good. Renovated. Furnished. Everything already in place. The longer she stayed, the more it fit her like it had been made for her.

She could just buy it from Su Yu Qing. He didn’t live here. Letting it sit empty was a waste. She could offer market price—more than market price. He wouldn’t lose out.

She still had three million in prize money that hadn’t been paid yet. That kind of number gave you courage.

She grabbed her phone and searched Xiu Yuan Residence prices.

Same layout. Unfinished unit. Total price: 5.98 million.

Feng Ling stared at the screen.

“…Never mind.”

Maybe living under someone else’s roof wasn’t so bad after all.

Tap, tap.

A gentle knock on the bathroom door, then Huang Fu Miao Miao’s head peered in.

“I finished organizing it,” she said carefully. “Do you want to read it now?”

Feng Ling lifted a hand. “Bring it over. And get in here. Take a shower.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao hesitated. “Oh…”

She handed over the tablet, then moved to undress at the side. Her small body was underdeveloped, and a long surgical scar cut across her skin like a quiet accusation.

Feng Ling glanced at it. “You had surgery?”

“I’m not sure.” Huang Fu Miao Miao looked away. “When a player logs in, we only get the right to use the body. We don’t get its memories. I just know the body’s original owner had cancer. She was treated for years, but it didn’t improve. When I first logged in, her hair was thin—almost gone.”

Feng Ling’s mouth twisted. “You don’t get to choose your character?”

“It costs points.” Huang Fu Miao Miao frowned, serious. “After connecting to the System, the System randomly pulls a character from the roster, then randomly issues an Ability Card. All luck. If a player doesn’t like the character or the card, they can spend points to reroll—first time a hundred points, second five hundred, third two thousand…”

“Enough. I get it.” Feng Ling’s tone carried a faint bite. “Like your grid bag.”

“Yes.” Huang Fu Miao Miao turned on the shower, sounding almost satisfied despite everything. “Honestly, my luck wasn’t bad. My starting character was weak, but I drew a high-tier card. And my first quest reward was a strong healing potion—exactly what I needed to fix my body. I even happened to get a Maze clue. It was insanely lucky.”

“And then you got kidnapped and lost an arm,” Feng Ling said, not even looking up.

Huang Fu Miao Miao’s smile froze. She pouted, offended.

She almost said that being rescued by Feng Ling counted as luck, too—then the thought soured. Feng Ling’s Corruption value was already above twenty percent. One day she might lose control and kill her.

The rise and fall of her fate was exhausting.

Steam thickened the air.

Water hammered against tile.

Huang Fu Miao Miao stood under the shower, brooding over her future, while Feng Ling lounged in the tub, reading the localized player forum.

One chain of replies went like this:

“There are Boss monsters everywhere. Other than the Abyss, I’ve never seen a Boss show up in a System announcement. Is this hidden Boss on the same level as the Abyss?”

“No way. If it were that level, they’d just label it the thirteenth Abyss. Why make a separate hidden Boss?”

“The Abyss all have special names. The hidden Boss doesn’t. So it probably isn’t that strong. I’m guessing it’s around boss-tier. Also—did you notice? This is the first time the System directly exposed a Boss’s Ability Card. It’s basically spelling out the Boss’s weakness. That’s targeted as hell.”

“Exactly. Two announcements in a row—System looks like it can’t wait for us to kill it. That’s suspicious.”

“You’re overthinking it. What kind of attitude can an AI have? System probably thinks everyone’s been playing passive lately, so it threw out an announcement to stir us up.”

“We risk our lives every day for a few lousy points, and you still want us to be ‘active’? Fuck that. Push me too hard and I’ll just log out.”

Feng Ling snorted. Whoever translated this had even carried over the swearing. Respect.

She kept reading until a reply caught her eye.

“Someone in the next thread posted info about the Mother Nest Ability Card. I brought it over. Take a look—doesn’t this feel like the game bugged?”

“Mother Nest. Strong physique and outstanding recovery. Can stockpile energy in the body and heal teammates by transferring that energy. Its survival ability makes the card-bearer almost impossible to kill. The strongest backbone of any squad, bringing teammates stability and warmth.”