Transformed into a heartthrob's simp, every day is a battleground.

Chapter 331 Paying Rent

After entering the bathroom, Yan Xun first looked at himself in the mirror, and then desperately called upon the main system in his mind.

A few minutes later, the main system appeared in the mirror—he was still broccoli-shaped, sitting somewhat comically on Yan Xun's shoulder in the mirror.

Yan Xun looked at the main system in the mirror, "Are you sure there's no problem with this mission?"

"No problem for now."

Yan Xun knew what would happen once their discovery was made public.

Those who are "pregnant" will undergo examinations, and then they will undergo some surgery to help them get rid of the lumps in their bellies.

"You mean, I did the right thing?" Yan Xun asked, "Tell everyone the truth about the pregnancy?"

"Do what you want to do," the main system said.

Yan Xun looked at the main system and suspected it was a trap.

"No matter what you choose," the main system said, "the plot will return to its original trajectory; it's just a matter of time."

Yan Xun understood the subtext of the main system—

Even if they hadn't found the fleshy mass in the tent or investigated the body outside the farm, the incident would still have alerted the people in the city and made them more vigilant.

Just like the person who suddenly grew wings, those who suddenly become pregnant may one day have their bellies burst open, and a ball of flesh will emerge from their stomachs in full view of everyone.

The outcome will be the same in the end.

"The dungeon keeps mentioning the Southern Church," Yan Xun pondered. "Did Liam go to the Southern Church?"

He thought about it and then rejected the guess.

“I don’t know what kind of mission I’ll encounter next,” he said, looking at the main system, “but I might need to take someone south, right?”

"And this task was carried out after the meatball became known to the public."

At this point, he couldn't help but say to the system, "Do I have to take this person south while everyone else is surrounding and attacking?"

"No comment," the main system replied.

Yan Xun already knew the answer from his reply; if his guess was incorrect, the main system would not have given this response.

"It seems the person I need to take to the south hasn't appeared yet." Yan Xun leaned against the sink, looking at the main system in the mirror.

Who is that person?

"The people Liam took away?"

"Is it still related to Liam's secret mission?"

The broccoli in the mirror remained silent, and Yan Xun didn't expect to be able to discern any expression from its green face.

He washed his hands again and brushed off the dust he had picked up in the forest before leaving the bathroom.

In the living room, Koy was again staring at his stomach in astonishment.

Levi glanced at Yan Xun as she left the bathroom. "I have some clean clothes here."

"Old clothes that can no longer be worn."

"You and Koy can use it."

Koy started yelling again, "You didn't tell me before that you had a change of clothes I could borrow."

Levi looked at Coy, puzzled. "You've never been like this before."

"Covered in dust from head to toe."

"Besides..."

“You just came into contact with the dead today, didn’t you?” Levi looked at Koy, then at Yan Xun. “Or do you have other plans?”

They certainly had no other plans.

Yan Xun accepted Levi's offer and, together with Coy, took the old clothes that Levi had taken out of the closet.

The clothes are a bit big, but still wearable.

Koy moved the things out of the guest room and put them on the floor. Yan Xun glanced at the guest room and understood why Levi said that there was no room for two people to sleep there.

The single bed in the guest room was extremely narrow, barely enough for an adult to turn over. Unless Yan Xun was willing to lie on Ke Yi, it was definitely not big enough for two people to sleep.

After settling the two of them in, Levi called Lily back to the bedroom.

Yan Xun leaned against the sofa, looking at the ceiling. All the lights in the room were off, and Koy lay quietly on the floor next to him.

"Do you think this is really the end of the world?" Koy couldn't help but ask.

Yan Xun didn't answer. He couldn't answer questions from NPCs in the instance because he didn't know either.

For him, even if the world ended, it would just be a matter of leaving the instance, but for these NPCs, it was all real.

Perhaps Koy wasn't expecting a reply from Yan Xun either. In the dim light, he put one hand behind his head and looked at the ceiling. "Then I hope I can come later."

"Tomorrow we'll first go find Liam's brother, then those men in hats, and look for the old couple's daughter."

"We also need to report on the wings," Yan Xun said.

Koy mumbled a few responses, and Yan Xun turned his head to find that he had already closed his eyes.

The house became extremely quiet at this moment, except for the occasional howl of wolves outside. Yan Xun lay on the sofa with his eyes open.

The sofa could only accommodate two people sitting side by side, so it couldn't let him lie down, but he had no intention of going to sleep tonight anyway.

He repeatedly recalled the dungeons he had experienced, along with the NPCs and players, in his mind, and then he heard the clicking sound.

Yan Xun made some noise as he turned over, and the clicking sound immediately stopped.

His head rested on the sofa armrest, his gaze fixed on the refrigerator not far away.

Although there were no lights inside, Yan Xun still easily spotted a strange... creature?

The thing grew two legs and arms, and it had only one small wing on its back—reminding Yan Xun of the chicken wings at the fast food restaurant during a promotion.

Its wings have almost no feathers.

Yan Xun watched as it slowly looked around, making sure everyone in the house was asleep before it slowly approached the refrigerator.

Yan Xun then got up. He moved quickly and immediately pressed the refrigerator door shut as the thing quietly opened it.

"Hey?" He looked down at the thing that was only up to his calf. "Does Levy know that an uninvited guest has entered his house?"

The creature tried to flee as soon as it saw Yan Xun, but Yan Xun bent down, grabbed its wings, and held it close to his chest.

The thing in Yan Xun's arms immediately let out a scream—

It sounds a lot like birdsong.

Koy was only in a light sleep, and he immediately woke up.

The creature struggled violently, so Yan Xun had to hold down its wings and hold it in his arms.

He looked at Koy and said, "Come here quickly."

"Find a rope."

Koy immediately got up, but when he got close to Yan Xun, he seemed to be bewitched and immediately pulled out the small knife he had hidden on his body and stabbed Yan Xun.

Yan Xun was already on guard when he saw him suddenly stop moving.

He cursed under his breath and kicked Koy away.

The other person was immediately kicked by Yan Xun and crashed into the dining table—the things on the table fell to the ground, and the table was pushed back a distance by Koy—all of this made a huge noise.

Lily, who was in the bedroom, suddenly cried out as well.

Yan Xun pressed down on the growing fleshy ball and ran quickly to the master bedroom, just as Levi opened the door.

The lights in the master bedroom were on, and he immediately saw what Yan Xun was holding.

"Be careful, it can control humans..." Yan Xun had just finished speaking when Levi swiftly drew his knife and stabbed the thing through its body.

After Levi finished doing all that, he seemed to only then hear Yan Xun's words, "What did you just say?"

“It’s nothing,” Yan Xun said. “I was just saying it seems to have mind control capabilities…”

Koy, who had been kicked onto the dining table by Yan Xun, let out a wail, complaining, "You were too rough."

Then he got up from the dining table.

Levi glanced at Koy on the table and immediately understood what had happened. "Koy was just subdued?"

"Yes," Yan Xun said.

He looked down at what he was holding. Levi's knife had pierced its body; its wings drooped limply, and it appeared to be dead.

"Weren't you being controlled?" Koy walked up to the two men, clutching his chest. When he saw what Yan Xun was holding, he gagged again.

Yan Xun guessed that he wasn't being controlled because he was a player.

He looked at Levy again. "You weren't controlled either?"

“It seems so,” Levy said.

Lily in the bedroom seemed to only then notice the uninvited guest and immediately started barking at it.

“It seems it hypnotized Lily the night before as well,” Levi said, turning back to indicate that Lily could lower her guard.

"It can only hypnotize one person at a time?" Levi asked curiously.

“Perhaps,” Yan Xun said, “the one in the barn can only hypnotize animals.”

He looked at the lifeless ball of flesh in his arms. "It has grown hands and feet."

“Once it grows a little bigger, it will be able to mind control even more people,” Levy said.

He looked at Koy and said, "You're not having much luck."

“I knew it all along!” Koy muttered. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have this thing in my belly.” He glanced at his temporarily calm stomach and felt utterly hopeless.

Although it was inappropriate, the words "despairing straight man" still popped into Yan Xun's head.

He put the fleshy ball aside. "Do you think they can believe it?"

"I believe that's what's in those people's stomachs."

“Perhaps some people will insist that what they are carrying is a sacred fetus,” Levy said.

He looked at the mess in the living room. "Are you going to continue resting?"

“I want to go and see the granary,” Yan Xun said. “Maybe there’s something else there.”

Levi pondered for a moment, probably finding Yan Xun's guess somewhat reasonable, and nodded, "I'll go with you."

"And you?" Levi asked, looking at Koy.

Koy looked puzzled; in his memory, Levi would never ask him such a question.

“Of course I’ll go with you,” Koy said.

He patted his chest, "This is nothing to me."

“I just wanted to make you worry about the baby in your belly,” Levy said. “Perhaps too much activity will cause them to burst prematurely.”

"Nobody knows how they grow."

Judging from the frequency of corpses appearing, this thing may be able to leave the host's body in a little over a month.

Whether he was persuaded or frightened by Levy's hypothesis, Coy ultimately chose to stay in the house with Lily.

Yan Xun then went to the granary with Levi.

"Have you been living here all this time?" Yan Xun asked.

“I’ve lived here for a long time,” Levy said.

He was extremely familiar with his farm, and he quickly led Yan Xun to the barn. They did not turn on the lights in the barn, fearing that the fleshy ball hiding there would notice them.

The animals in the barn still heard the door open and became restless, but quickly calmed down after realizing it was Levi.

Yan Xun and Levi slowly walked around the barn.

They were all holding steel forks. Yan Xun looked at the sleeping lamb and finally found two winged fleshy balls next to the pigpen and the lamb.

In that instant, looking at the moonlight outside the barn, and the steel forks in his and Levi's hands... Yan Xun suddenly remembered a text from his textbook.

"It looks like they're hunting badger," he muttered to himself.

Levi didn't understand and just looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Yan Xun had no intention of explaining; he simply stared at the two fleshy spheres on his own and Levi's steel fork, respectively.

One of them was about the same size as the one they caught in the bedroom, while the other was smaller.

Yan Xun stared at their humanoid features for a while and found that the two fleshy spheres looked very similar.

“Good news,” Yan Xun said. “At least they don’t look like their hosts.”

"The bad news is that they look very similar."

Levi moved closer to Yan Xun, and together they looked at the two fleshy spheres in the light from the window.

They discovered that people of that type do indeed share similar facial features.

"Can they only mimic this appearance?" Levy asked.

Yan Xun shrugged, indicating that he didn't know either.

But a bad feeling crept into his mind. He felt that the real mission of this instance was not to take someone to the Angel Church in the south.

The real purpose was to get him to take a living ball of flesh there.

After all, the dungeon is called "Holy Embryo".

But these things are too far away for him now, and the two of them couldn't reach a conclusion by discussing them here, so they could only leave the barn with the two little balls of flesh.

When they returned to the house, they found Koy fast asleep on the sofa, with Lily curled up at his feet.

Everything in the house is normal. Perhaps no new fleshy ball has appeared, or perhaps the new fleshy ball has been hypnotized and Koy has left.

“I will go with you tomorrow,” Levy said again.

Yan Xun didn't react to those words at all. It wasn't until they arrived in the city the next day that Yan Xun realized something was wrong.

Levi's car was temporarily parked at the factory. As soon as Coy arrived at the factory, a man wearing a hat approached him. He glanced at Yan Xun and gestured for him to leave first.

The man in the hat also saw Levi. They exchanged a glance, their expressions somewhat surprised, but neither said anything.

Yan Xun got out of the car and was about to leave when she noticed Levi following behind her, with Lily beside him.

Yan Xun took a few steps.

Levi followed beside him.

Yan Xun took a few more steps forward.

Levi continued to follow him, and Lily followed along.

“…I thought our paths would cross again.” Yan Xun said, turning back.

Levy, carrying his luggage, said, "I have nowhere to go in the city."

“There’s a hotel here,” Yan Xun said.

"It's not convenient for me to have Lily with me."

Yan Xun was about to refuse again when Levi said, "Koy said you've been behind on rent for several months?"

Yan Xun: "..."

He knew that Koy was a big mouth.

“I can help you pay the rent,” Levi said, bending down to pat Lily’s head. “I can stay here for a while.”