After a chaotic scramble, Ren Yi finally managed to rescue Wang Zhixin under Dr. Lin's direction, resetting his state.
Wang Zhixin remained silent for a long time.
"Uh... sorry. I didn't think it would directly affect your consciousness..."
Ren Yi's voice was weak, sounding a bit guilty.
"Ah, it's fine." Wang Zhixin's voice from within the crystal seemed to snap back to reality as he hurried to say, "I was just recalling the effect of that ability you just used."
"So, how was it?"
Ren Yi immediately followed up with curiosity.
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure," Wang Zhixin said slowly while pondering.
"Even now, I still don't feel like anything was wrong with me back then."
"If I had to describe it... it was like my mood inexplicably got a little better, and my attitude toward thinking about problems became unconsciously more positive."
He paused, then added, "However, I'm naturally optimistic to begin with, so I'm not sure if that was the ability's influence or just how I usually am."
Ren Yi frowned, feeling that the description was still too vague.
However, from Dr. Lin's introduction earlier, it was clear that Contamination was a relatively uncontrollable ability.
Just like the "confusion" status effect in games, you couldn't be certain how a target would act after being hit.
Furthermore, he wasn't dealing with true Contamination yet; true Contamination could completely warp cognition. His current ability was merely a weakened version of cognitive bias interference.
It was impossible to make the target think things like "it's safe to walk out the window" or "my own flesh tastes delicious."
Ultimately, it still had to be used in conjunction with Rules and illusions. On its own, it wasn't particularly strong.
Ren Yi turned his head. "Dr. Lin, I—"
He froze mid-sentence. The sofa was empty; Dr. Lin was nowhere to be seen.
He turned his head again to see the bedroom door slowly swinging shut, clearly having just been closed, still carrying a bit of momentum.
Where did he go? Why did he suddenly run off?
Ren Yi looked out the window. At some point, the rain had stopped, and the sky had brightened slightly.
Right then, a soft click came from the front door.
A key turned, and the door was pushed open.
Ren Man stood at the doorway holding his black umbrella, his gaze calmly sweeping across the room.
Ren Yi immediately jumped up. "Brother, you're back."
Ren Man nodded, his gaze lingering for a few seconds on the floating crystal in front of Ren Yi.
"Uh, let me introduce you. This is Wang Zhixin," Ren Yi quickly tried to smooth things over. "Wang Zhixin, this is my brother, Ren Man."
Ren Man didn't look surprised at all. He gave a slight nod as a greeting before asking with some confusion.
"Dr. Lin was here?"
"Yeah, he was. He just left a moment ago."
Ren Yi nodded in response, his eyes instinctively glancing at the bedroom door as he mentally calculated.
Should I move the sleep pod to a prominent spot in the living room in the future? Otherwise, the thought of Dr. Lin always "pod-crashing" like this was quite unsettling.
"Then." Ren Man's gaze fell on the empty dining table as he posed a fatal question in a flat tone.
"Where's the food?"
Ren Yi fell silent.
So, was Dr. Lin really called over just to cook for him?
Isn't that a bit too mundane?
"Uh... he..."
Well, now he couldn't even put in a good word for Dr. Lin if he wanted to.
Thus, Ren Yi decisively remained silent.
Ren Man turned and walked into the kitchen. He pulled open the fridge and took a look; it was clean and completely empty.
He thought for a moment. "How about we go out to eat?"
"Oh, sure." Ren Yi had a sudden thought. "Brother, can you take me to the black market while we're at it?"
Ren Man poked his head out from the kitchen, looking very confused.
Ren Yi had to start explaining. "Auntie Lu Qing mentioned that there's a trading market specifically for Instance bosses. You can use energy crystals to trade there."
Having returned from the Three Cities World, he was quite "wealthy."
But money was meant to be spent; holding onto it forever wasn't a solution. If Ren Man hadn't been away these past two days, he would have wanted to go long ago.
"Black... market?" Ren Man seemed to carefully chew on those words.
"Is it not a black market?" Ren Yi was stunned.
But they couldn't exactly call it a 'Boss Trading Market' out in the open. According to the Public Conduct Guidelines, "Please properly safeguard 'working tools,' 'food,' 'gateways,' etc. It is strictly forbidden to leave the above items in public areas."
Energy crystals and items certainly didn't meet the requirements for being directly exposed in public.
Ren Man shook his head, seemingly unable to keep up with Ren Yi's train of thought again. "I... don't know. Never been."
He thought for a moment, then seemed to remember something. "Wait."
He then walked straight into Ren Yi's room and pulled the door shut behind him.
Once again, Ren Yi and Wang Zhixin's crystal face were left staring at each other.
Not long after, a series of intermittent, slightly noisy sounds came from the room.
"No, Boss... what are you doing..."
"I was wrong... ow..."
"Black market? What black market...?"
"Fine, fine, fine, I get it, I get it."
The door slammed open, and Dr. Lin walked out looking thoroughly displeased.
So he really could crawl through the network cables?
Ren Yi glanced at the sleep pod in the room, strengthening his resolve to move it out tonight.
"What's a kid like you doing learning bad habits? Why go to such a messy place?" Dr. Lin gritted his teeth, looking like a disappointed teacher.
"Uh... what's wrong with it?" Ren Yi was a bit confused by Dr. Lin's accusation.
Ren Man followed him out and asked curiously.
"Where is it?"
It seemed his brother truly had never been there.
Dr. Lin sighed, answering as if resigned to his fate.
"A casino."
Rate on N.U.
