Apocalyptic Plague

Entering the tavern, a stale, musty smell hit her, and the tips of her boots made a creaking sound on the worn-out floor.

Xu Xiaoyou looked around; the tavern was in a complete mess, with tables and chairs overturned and a portrait of the king smashed on the ground.

The wooden bar counter had collapsed, and the walls were covered in insults and foul language, though only a few malicious curses could still be vaguely discerned as time had passed.

"General Belisa is a sinner, get out of the kingdom."

"Execute General Belisa, decapitate her and display her head to the public!"

...

"We are all going to die; we are all going to die because of this madwoman."

"Damn you, I will cut you into a thousand pieces!"

Through these words, Xu Xiaoyou could clearly feel the resentment and anger harbored by those who had carved them.

"Clue 'The People's Courageous Statements' has been added to the notebook and can be viewed at any time."

"Instance information acquired. The completion rate of the current instance 'terminal illness patient' has increased, currently at 0.01%."

"Your exploration of the instance world-building is deepening."

"Main quest 'Sinner Who Watches the Kingdom' has been unlocked."

"You feel confused by the curses on the wall; surely something must have happened before this kingdom was destroyed by the plague. Could it be related to this 'General Belisa' whom everyone is cursing?"

"Completion condition for the main quest 'Sinner Who Watches the Kingdom': Figure out the reason why the people curse General Belisa and uncover the truth behind the plague that ravaged the kingdom."

"Completion of the quest will grant a large amount of guild honor points and league point rewards, as well as the item 'Heart of Frenzied Loyalty' and the title 'Kingdom Watcher'."

"Yuzu, what's wrong? Why did you suddenly rush in?" Akabane followed her inside.

Xu Xiaoyou fell into deep thought.

Had she seen it wrong?

Just a moment ago, she had clearly seen a familiar blue silhouette run into this small tavern, only for them to vanish in the blink of an eye.

Xu Xiaoyou couldn't help but think of the letter from the 'Unknown Visitor' she had received before setting out.

Once or twice could be attributed to hallucinations, but for it to happen repeatedly like this was beyond mere coincidence.

"Hmm..."

Sensing something, Xu Xiaoyou crouched down, lightly pinched an object from the ground with her fingertips, and held it up to the moonlight. Squinting, she discovered it was a strand of deep blue hair.

Bringing it to her nose, she caught a heart-stirring fragrance, like the faint scent of... Blue Iris.

It was Tang Xin; she wouldn't mistake it.

Had she entered Oasis?

Could it be that the email she received at the very beginning was actually sent by Tang Xin?

But if that were the case, why did the email eventually disappear, and why was the other party deliberately avoiding her as if she hadn't seen her?

No, all of this was simply too unrealistic. How could she be active in Oasis at a time like this?

Heaps of doubt surfaced on the sea of Xu Xiaoyou's heart, her thoughts inevitably drowning in chaos.

Just as she turned around, Xu Xiaoyou saw Akabane silently take a step back, staring at her with a strange expression—specifically at the weird action of her holding that blue hair to her nose.

"Yuzu, you?"

Seeing Xu Xiaoyou silently seal the hair in a small bottle and put it away, Akabane's expression grew even more horrified.

The former merely raised her eyelids and spoke calmly, "Don't think too much; I'm just preserving a clue."

After saying that, Xu Xiaoyou turned and walked toward the depths of the tavern.

"Hey, you haven't answered my question yet!" Akabane waved her fist in protest.

"Look around and see if there are any hidden items or useful information in this tavern."

Akabane's face slumped.

The two of them searched through the tavern, and in the end, Akabane actually did notice something off.

"Yuzu, come over and look at this!"

Xu Xiaoyou quickly stepped into the corridor.

It was very dark around them; most of the candles on the candelabras had been extinguished, and the wall plaster was peeling off in patches, revealing gray layers of putty. Such candelabras were distributed every dozen meters. A gust of wind blew, extinguishing the candle at the end of the corridor, its light melting into the darkness.

Coming to the second-to-last room in the corridor, Xu Xiaoyou saw the girl crouching in the center of the room by the faint light. The floor in front of her was flipped open, revealing a cellar door, and she was intently trying to pick the chains on it with two wires.

Akabane was confident she could pick the lock; professions with a specialty in stealth often possessed life skills like 'lockpicking.' Her 'lockpicking' had even reached the grade 4 expert level!

As a little family head, her favorite thing to do in Oasis was to sneak into the homes of noble NPCs, pick their safes, and then scatter the valuables in the streets to watch people scramble for them.

Xu Xiaoyou was also confident she could open the cellar door; she stepped forward with a calm expression and raised her foot, kicking the cellar door with force.

With a bang, the cellar door collapsed inward.

The massive noise startled Akabane so much she jumped up, giving her a rather reproachful glare.

Xu Xiaoyou shrugged and led Akabane into the cellar, walking down the stairs and through a cramped passage built of brick and stone until they reached a hidden underground room.

Before their eyes could adapt to the darkness, a thick stench of rot mixed with the smell of rust rushed into their nostrils. Akabane frowned slightly but wasn't too repelled; she had already grown familiar with this smell while fighting those monsters earlier.

Iron bars stood across a small window; from the outside, one would have thought it was a roadside drain if they hadn't looked closely. Moonlight slanted in, and dust swirled in the air, allowing the two to see the layout of the room.

It looked like a prison cell. There were no other furnishings in the room, and aside from a wooden bucket filled with flesh and blood, there was only a triangular iron bed placed right in the center. Dense swarms of flies buzzed over the wooden bucket; the flesh inside had clearly rotted.

As for who the flesh in the bucket was meant to feed...

Xu Xiaoyou's gaze landed on the triangular iron bed in the center. The blurry outline gradually became clear; a figure was locked to the bed with chains, its bloated abdomen very conspicuous.

It was a rat-man.

Seemingly catching the scent of fresh air, the rat-man tried to sit upright, making the iron bed creak and sway.

But the rat-man was far too weak. No matter how it tried, it couldn't prop up its abnormally swollen body. Finally, it could only let out a low, hoarse roar, its head hitting the iron bed in frustration.

"This is..." Akabane's eyes wavered.

"It's pregnant," Xu Xiaoyou stated the truth.

Her gaze lingered on the monster's bloated, surging, and high-protruding abdomen.

Yes.

This woman on the bed had already been pregnant before turning into a monster; perhaps that was the reason she had been locked in this basement.

And until the outside was overrun by the plague and became a paradise for monsters, no one had stepped foot in this basement again.

If Xu Xiaoyou and Akabane hadn't discovered this basement, the woman would have died in endless hunger and loneliness.

No...

This woman was already dead.

All of this was merely a simulation.

Xu Xiaoyou neatly ended the monster's life with her whip, put on sterile gloves, and flipped over the filth-encrusted, yellowed blanket covered in excrement and blood. Beneath the woman lay a pile of small white bones—leg bones, metatarsals, and skull fragments were all present.

The woman's pointed face was covered in sparse, dirty, stiff hair, appearing as if coated in a thick layer of grime. Turbid tears flowed from those small black eyes.

Noticing that the shriveled, regressed, and sharp claws were clenched tight, Xu Xiaoyou pried them open and found an old note. On the paper, written in crooked handwriting, were the words: "Mom will always love you."