There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

After having Jinghong stand guard at the entrance, Duan Fei walked into the basement alone.

The basement was cluttered and chaotic, the air thick with a rotten smell. Rats would occasionally scurry out from the corners, letting out strange squeaks.

The dusty floor was covered in footprints. Some likely belonged to Sun Jianguo, while others were Xiao Wang’s.

As Duan Fei pieced it together, when Sun Jianguo found this place, he was being tormented by severe, incessant headaches. The constant illusions had put him under immense mental strain, eventually causing him to see everyone as a Monster.

’So, does the quest objective "Help Sun Yu" actually mean helping his father?’

Following Sun Jianguo’s directions, Duan Fei walked slowly forward, finally discovering an opened wall at the end of the hallway, and what lay within.

It was indeed a shrine, and someone had indeed been making offerings with Incense Sticks.

However, the skeleton Sun Jianguo mentioned wasn’t there. In its place was a woman.

Her hands were pressed together, piously kowtowing to the idol. She didn’t even react when Duan Fei entered.

And from the looks of her, she was none other than Sun Yu’s mother!

Duan Fei took a photo of the scene, decisively opened his messaging app to contact Bald Qiang, and asked, "Bald Qiang, take a look at this. What is it?"

A moment later, Bald Qiang replied, "Where are you? Don’t move, I’m on my way! And give me your birth date and time. I’ll help you ward off the evil aura so you don’t die in there."

"You can’t be serious. Is there a real-life risk in a game?"

"...Oh, you’re in a game. You scared the hell out of me. I thought you’d gone and done something stupid like visiting some haunted place. That’s a common type of local evil spirit. They often disguise themselves as gods to trick people into giving them incense offerings and delude mortals. They’re a kind of demon, and you should destroy them on sight."

Duan Fei vaguely understood and pressed, "Then what is that woman doing?"

"Fulfilling a vow. Look at her prayer posture. The way she holds her little finger is different from a normal prayer; it’s the gesture for fulfilling a vow. Her current posture indicates she’s willing to offer herself up. Now, where is the smoke from the Incense Stick going?"

Duan Fei glanced at the Incense Stick, then replied, "It’s rising up to the ceiling."

"That means the evil spirit isn’t accepting it. If it accepted, the smoke would be absorbed into the idol. Now look at the idol’s hand gesture. Send me a picture."

After Duan Fei sent a photo of the idol’s gesture to Bald Qiang, the reply came a short while later. "That’s a death decree. It’s holding a sharp sword and pointing it at people, which means the evil spirit demands human lives as tribute."

"So the five fingers mean it needs five lives?" Duan Fei asked, looking at the picture.

"Yes, at least five. The more, the better."

"Thanks. Last question, what do I need to do to get rid of this evil spirit?"

"Normally, any orthodox Daoist can exorcise it. If you can’t find a Daoist, a bald-headed monk might do in a pinch. If you’re really desperate, just pass the buck and run to a Cross Sect church."

"Does a Western sect handle an Eastern evil spirit?"

"I don’t know, but an evil spirit is like a piece of crap. Even if you get yourself killed, isn’t it satisfying to know you grossed out those priests before you died?"

"Bald Qiang, I love that suggestion."

"Alright, here’s some actual advice. If you have nothing on hand, find a way to get the spirit to possess someone, then beat the crap out of them. These kinds of spirits are usually afraid of pain. A few good beatings will drive it off, or even kill it directly. But watch your strength. Don’t beat the person to death, or you’ll face a lawsuit."

"Understood."

Ending the call, Duan Fei sorted through the information in his head and finally pieced together the timeline.

First was what he and Jinghong saw in the first instance: Sun Yu and his mother were both diagnosed with brain cancer.

Their illnesses pushed the already struggling family over the edge. Just when they were at their wit’s end, Sun Yu’s mother somehow learned about a wish-granting idol in the apartment building’s basement.

In her desperation, she clutched at straws, finding the hidden idol and praying for money to save her son’s life.

Afterward, she did indeed receive a "divine oracle," which instructed her son to cut the brake lines of a car. In exchange, she received the money and underwent surgery for herself and her son.

Up to this point, things seemed to have ended well enough.

But then something unexpected happened.

The mother returned, wanting to fulfill her vow, but the evil spirit’s demands were clearly excessive.

’Giving a hint was a nice gesture. Even demanding the family go bankrupt to build it a golden statue would have been understandable to Duan Fei, but asking for five lives right off the bat is just too much.’

Left with no choice, the mother could only pray ceaselessly, hoping the spirit would take her life and hers alone.

But the evil spirit clearly didn’t want to let this big fish go. It began to influence the couple’s minds, ultimately leading to Sun Jianguo’s descent into madness.

’But judging from the fact that it could only drive people mad and couldn’t directly control them, this evil spirit isn’t all that powerful.’

There was another crucial point.

How on earth did Sun Yu’s mother know there was a shrine here?

Judging by its construction, someone had secretly designed this shrine. And the person who designed it was, coincidentally, jogging upstairs right now.

’Uncle Peng, so it was you pulling the strings all along.’

Duan Fei went over his line of reasoning one more time and nodded. He felt his deductions were likely correct.

Now that he understood, he could happily go back, grab Uncle Peng, torture him, and make him solve all the problems.

But just as Duan Fei was about to leave, he realized something was terribly wrong.

The basement exit was gone.

He had clearly walked to where the exit should have been, but he found the stairs had vanished without a trace.

Reaching out, Duan Fei felt nothing but air. It seemed the entire staircase had disappeared on a physical level.

’This must be a supernatural phenomenon caused by the evil spirit.’ But Duan Fei knew it couldn’t be powerful enough to make the stairs truly disappear. This was all just an Illusion.

Sun Jianguo’s experience had already shown that the evil spirit here only had the power to control illusions.

As long as one’s Spirit was strong enough, walking out of here wouldn’t be a problem.

But was just walking out enough?

He activated his [Spiritual Armor]. Silvery-white armor materialized, causing his Spirit to transcend its limits and his Spirit Attribute to instantly soar to 74 points.

He strode toward the shrine, Crowbar gripped in his hand. His immense Spiritual Power allowed him to sense two souls near the shrine—one as faint as a candle flame, the other as bright as a torch.

And Duan Fei was like the moon in the sky, charging toward the shrine with a cold, killing light.

Sensing Duan Fei’s approach, the torch-like flame began to tremble violently, then tried to flee, to escape to the outside.

Unfortunately for it, an evil spirit was just an evil spirit.

The moment it tried to flee, the Crowbar, infused with Void Energy, struck its incorporeal body, instantly obliterating it into dust.

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