Bits of moonlight were cast through the window, drawing a vague outline within the apartment. In the darkness, dark figures shuttled through the room at a high speed, leaving specks of dust in their wake.
“I’m so hungry,” the girl whispered in a deep, guttural voice.
In the next moment, the temperature in the apartment rose rapidly. The cold and damp atmosphere was dispelled in an instant.
In the darkness, the petite girl was like a beacon as she opened her eyes. Misty, fiery orbs illuminated the room, and her scarlet hair moved without wind, like boneless limbs that danced lightly behind her.
She panted heavily, and white smoke lingered in the air. Smoke emitted from her body rapidly, accompanied by the violent heaving of her chest, like a demon god that crawled out of the gates of hell.
Intense energy fluctuations flooded the apartment and, like a pair of invisible hands, ripped apart all the figures in it.
In the next moment, she stretched her slender arm out, grasping the wig that crashed into her hand firmly.
“You seem… delicious.”
“Please don’t eat me!” the wig yelled. “I am hair! I have no meat! I’m not delicious at all!”
The other apparitions hid close by, and they could see her lips slightly parting as she crept closer to the wig.
“She’s going to eat me! I’m going to die!”
Lu Yibei snapped out of her daze as she held the wig in her hand.
Although her instincts yelled at her to eat the wig in her hand, her reason told her that she couldn’t do that.
These silly little apparitions are her neighbours. She couldn’t possibly kill them.
“Hey! Over here!”
From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the eyeballs flying towards her at high speeds. She turned her body and intercepted them in mid-air.
“Down here!”
She looked down, seeing the pair of false teeth “kneeling” before her.
“O Great Witch, eat me instead! Please let them go! I tried to escape this world by dying, but I am bound to it! Please, free me!”
“Is everyone listening? I’m not going to hurt any of you; I’m sorry,” she whispered.
The apparitions didn’t believe her.
“At least for now.”
Yibei let the wig and eyeballs go, and she watched as they ran into the shadows.
As she watched them run, her predatory instincts yelled at her to pounce at them.
‘No… they are stinky and damp. I can’t eat them. Inedible. Absolutely not.’
“Tell me,” she gulped. “You have been urban legends for quite a while now…”
She figured that she could find a solution to her problem if she just asked them.
Meanwhile, in the darkness, a human figure crept from the shadows—all of the apparitions formed a human shape using the wig, the eyeballs, the false teeth, and so on.
Wearing the nightgown and coat too…
“This is my seventh year,” the wig said.
“Three for me!”
“Just one,” the nightgown said meekly.
“Too long. I can’t remember what it’s like to be human.”
The coat didn’t, or couldn’t, speak. Perhaps it was a newborn urban legend.
“Very good,” Yibei nodded. “Then, I assume you know what’s going on with me: I’m hungry, and I want to eat you.”
“We do! We know!” the “human” yelled as it took a step back. “It’s the night… Something about psychic sh*t.”
“Okay…” she didn’t really understand. “Just tell me how to solve my problem.”
The “human” said in unison, “Absorb psychic energy!”
“How?”
“We are simply urban legends, so simply existing and devouring ambient psychic energy is enough for us. Do you see the occasional flashes of light that appear in your vision without explanation? That is ambient psychic energy. You need to eat… something bigger.”
“You could kill!” the eyeball spoke up. “The fat woman downstairs has a primordial spirit much greater than normal humans. I recommend targeting her since she’s vulnerable-“
Before the eyeball could finish speaking, Yibei crushed it with psychic energy, and it was flattened, fluttering onto the floor.
“Are there any methods that don’t involve hurting people?”
“It’s fine. Many high-ranking urban legends do this.”
“Is that so?” she frowned but suddenly smiled. “How about I hunt urban legends?”
“Sure, you just need to…”
Nine fifty-seven in the evening.
Huacheng, Linjiang Avenue.
The ink-black sky was permeated with a dense fog that filled the streets by the uninhabited river. Two or three lights would peek out through the gaps in the thick fog.
A girl with long, chestnut hair and a red scarf sat by the river bank, eating a matcha-flavoured Pocky. Her slender legs were wrapped in white knee-high socks and short deerskin boots.
12:00 a.m., Linjiang Avenue.
It’s strange and has a funny walk, yet it carries an ominous aura.
You can’t ever meet it.
If it sees you, it is difficult to escape.
Perhaps you should dwell in the murky water.
Task: At midnight, kill the river ape ghost near Linjiang Avenue.
Reward: 200 points, a copy of its essence.]
After reading her mission, Gu Qianqian pouted, “System, what the hell is this? Can’t I exchange the essence for something else? It sucks!”
The system didn’t reply.
“System? Are you there? Hellloooo? If you aren’t here, I’m going home.’
“Yes,” the system said with a monotone voice, but she swore she could hear it gritting its teeth. “Just accept the essence. You need it to become stronger.”
“But it tastes so bad!”
“You must eat it even if it tastes bad. This is the only way you can become stronger and save the world.”
“System?”
“Yes?”
“I’m curious—you can see the near future and ways to become stronger. Why not use it on yourself? You don’t need me to save the world.”
The system was cursed inwardly. It needed to come up with something to fool her.
“Everyone has a role to play during the end of the world. My destiny is to assist you, and you are the one destined to save the world!”
“Fine.”
The system couldn’t believe she had bought that lie.
