Safe House

Safe House

"You actually dare try to destroy the Town of the Eye's Pillar, Fallen!"

The instant the "Pillar" appeared, the Feather-Eyed Apostle, who had just arrived, finally understood that this whole farce had been for the sake of summoning the town pillar.

Even Yao Wangping, who had been sent to the Town of the Eye, knew the intelligence about the "Pillar." As Big Eye's devotee, the Feather-Eyed Apostle naturally knew about the "Pillar" as well.

Not only did he know it perfectly well, he also had a mission to eliminate the Fallen and guard the Pillar in moments of crisis.

The Feather-Eyed Apostle's wings snapped fully open with a whoosh, and countless eyes opened across his feathers.

Not only that, countless blood-red eyes appeared behind him, and all those gazes locked onto Mu Sichen.

At this moment, Mu Sichen had already lost the protection of the rules.

Seeing the Feather-Eyed Apostle spread his wings, Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo remembered the terrifying sight of the four players being killed. Their bodies went weak, and all they could do was clutch their heads, hide under the hospital bed, and tremble nonstop.

Shen Jiyue wiped his hand across the mirror, then threw it hard between Mu Sichen and the Feather-Eyed Apostle.

The Feather-Eyed Apostle's eyes were dazzled by the blood-red light reflected in the mirror, but he had too many eyes. The ones struck by the glare made up no more than one-tenth of them.

About a tenth of his feathers closed their eyes. The mirror inflicted a little damage on the Feather-Eyed Apostle, but that damage was far too slight.

"If the mirror were a little larger, it might have held me back for a moment," the Feather-Eyed Apostle said with a contemptuous smile.

With one sweep of his right wing, the mirror was knocked aside and shattered in the corner.

"Run!" Shen Jiyue shouted at Mu Sichen.

But Mu Sichen's eyes were unfocused, as if he had lost consciousness.

He stood at the center of the Pillar and had no idea what was happening outside.

Seeing that no one else was interfering, the Feather-Eyed Apostle opened his remaining eyes wide and spoke as if chanting, "All that my eyes behold shall..."

His chant had only just begun when someone holding a short sword sprinted over from the hospital beds.

It was Yao Wangping.

Yao Wangping was agile. He reached the Pillar as if flying and drove the short sword hard into the ground beneath Mu Sichen's feet.

It struck the eye of Big Eye's Totem squarely.

The instant Yao Wangping let go of the short sword, he kicked off the wall, leapt, and appeared almost instantly in front of the Feather-Eyed Apostle. His left hand swung out with force, his palm slicing across the Feather-Eyed Apostle's eyes like a blade. Not only did he interrupt the Feather-Eyed Apostle's chant, he also severely injured his eyes.

The Feather-Eyed Apostle clutched his eyes and cried out in pain. His wings drooped, and for a moment he was actually unable to move.

Qin Zhou's Totem was housed in Yao Wangping's left shoulder. In that strike just now, he had poured Qin Zhou's power into the Feather-Eyed Apostle's eyes, so naturally the Feather-Eyed Apostle could not withstand it.

"Although you hesitate too much when you act, that was nicely done," Yao Wangping said to Mu Sichen. "I have already driven the Guardian Sword into the center of the Pillar. The Pillar will be destroyed soon. Your mission is complete."

They had caused such a huge commotion. The Feather-Eyed Apostle had smashed a hole in the ceiling, and the broadcast was blaring through the whole hospital nonstop. How could Yao Wangping not know that the "Pillar" had appeared?

Yao Wangping had a weapon bestowed by General Qin. This Guardian Sword carried General Qin's power, enough to destroy the "Pillar."

As long as the Pillar was destroyed and a crack appeared in the town domain, Yao Wangping's mission would be complete.

He did not care whether Mu Sichen died because of it, nor did he care whether he himself would face the wrath of the Eye of the Sky afterward. He only needed to complete his mission.

Yao Wangping quietly waited for the totem beneath Mu Sichen's feet to shatter.

However, the scene he imagined did not happen.

The Guardian Sword had merely pierced the ceramic tile beneath Mu Sichen's feet. It had not damaged the Pillar at all.

It turned out this sword could only make physical attacks.

"How could this happen?" Yao Wangping pulled out the Guardian Sword in shock and discovered that Qin Zhou's Totem on the hilt had already blurred beyond recognition.

The Feather-Eyed Apostle stood up while clutching his eyes, drops of blood dripping through his fingers.

Although he was covering his eyes, it did not affect the Feather-Eyed Apostle's vision. An eye suddenly grew on the back of his hand. It swept over Yao Wangping's name badge, and the Feather-Eyed Apostle suddenly threw back his head and laughed.

"Hahaha! I thought you were some powerful Fallen, but it turns out you are nothing more than a Tainted One. What? After coming to the Town of the Eye, have you been moved by the great call of the Eye of the Sky and decided to convert?" the Feather-Eyed Apostle mocked.

"A Tainted One? Someone with two faiths? How could I be that kind of person? I am utterly loyal to General Qin and to Xiangping Town!" Yao Wangping's composure broke. He retreated two steps and spoke in complete disbelief.

Shen Jiyue shook his head and sighed. "From the moment you became a doctor, you were already contaminated. The totem on the Guardian Sword was erased by your own hands."

After all, they were inside the Pillar. With a constant stream of energy supporting him, the Feather-Eyed Apostle's injuries gradually recovered.

He slowly lowered his hand and said to them, "Whether or not you have received the Eye of the Sky's call, sinners who attempted to destroy the Pillar - Judgment!"

The Feather-Eyed Apostle's feathers fell one by one and wrapped around Yao Wangping. One feather pierced Yao Wangping's right eye, and countless wriggling worms immediately grew from it.

The feathers carved wound after wound across Yao Wangping's body. Not one of those wounds bled. Instead, each became an open eye.

In almost an instant, Yao Wangping became someone whose right side was covered in eyes while the left side of his body remained normal.

Just as the Feather-Eyed Apostle had said: a "Tainted One," with two powers constantly clashing inside his body.

Yao Wangping opened his mouth, but two different voices came out.

The right side was saying, "Great Eye of the Sky, I shall bathe beneath Your gaze. Please..."

The left side shouted, "Mu Sichen, what are you doing? You have General Qin's Totem on you! Hurry and use the totem's power to destroy the "Pillar"!"

"Don't even think about it!" The Feather-Eyed Apostle controlled his feathers and sent them flying toward Mu Sichen.

Yao Wangping's left half displayed astonishing combat power. He swung the Guardian Sword and, in a single instant, struck hundreds of feathers one after another. The feathers dropped powerlessly to the ground.

The moment he swung the sword, countless tentacles seemed to grow from his left shoulder, striking those feathers at the same time.

"Looks like I need to deal with you first!" The muscles in the Feather-Eyed Apostle's face twitched.

There was no need for him to make a move. Yao Wangping lunged at him, drove his left shoulder into the Feather-Eyed Apostle's chest, and shoved him out of the ward with force.

Yao Wangping's right hand clawed uncontrollably at his left shoulder, trying to tear away the totem there. He was not only fighting the Feather-Eyed Apostle, but also fighting himself.

Even with the situation so difficult, Yao Wangping still forced the Feather-Eyed Apostle out of the ward. He kicked the ward door shut. With the wall and door as barriers, the Feather-Eyed Apostle's line-of-sight attacks would not come immediately.

"Mu Sichen!" Yao Wangping shouted from outside the door.

Mu Sichen's eyes were unfocused, his gaze fixed on some unknown distance. No one knew what he was thinking.

"Mu Sichen?" Shen Jiyue walked toward Mu Sichen.

Just then, a thin little figure wove beneath the hospital beds and quickly crawled to Mu Sichen's feet.

It was Chi Lian!

Chi Lian was very afraid of the Feather-Eyed Apostle. She had been hiding under the bed and trembling, but after hearing Yao Wangping call Mu Sichen's name again and again, the terrified Chi Lian suddenly came to her senses.

She took the silver Self Sticker from her clothes, remembered her mission, forced down her fear, used the hospital beds to avoid the Feather-Eyed Apostle's gaze, and shakily crawled to Mu Sichen's feet.

Chi Lian's legs were so weak she could not stand, making it difficult to stick the Self Sticker to the back of Mu Sichen's neck.

Chi Lian gritted her teeth, propped herself up against a hospital bed, quickly lifted Mu Sichen's shirt, and pressed the Self Sticker hard onto his lower back.

A coolness shot from his lower back all the way to his brain. The chill stimulated the spot between his brows, and Mu Sichen's gaze gradually cleared.

In these few short minutes, Mu Sichen's brain had nearly exploded.

The instant the Pillar appeared, Mu Sichen heard the System prompt.

[Congratulations, player. You have successfully found the "Pillar." Please establish a Safe House as soon as possible and complete the novice mission.]

At the same time, a sharp pain tore through his chest, and an extremely powerful force erupted from Qin Zhou's Totem.

Mu Sichen "saw" countless tentacles grow from his chest, one of them touching the spot between his brows.

"Transfer the power of my totem into the "Pillar," and you will be free." The tentacle conveyed Qin Zhou's stiff voice.

Apart from that, there was hymn-singing so loud it nearly deafened him, and Big Eye, standing before him with arms spread wide.

Mu Sichen's SAN had already dropped to 1 point. His gaze was dazed as he looked at Big Eye before him, who seemed extremely warm. Big Eye held a powerful attraction for him. He very much wanted to throw himself into that blood-red eye filled with black worms, as if doing so would let him return home.

If Qin Zhou's formless tentacles had not pinned themselves firmly to the ground, preventing Mu Sichen from moving, Mu Sichen would definitely have left the focus of the "Pillar" and thrown himself into Big Eye's arms in the hallucination.

If he had taken even one step, Mu Sichen's SAN would have fallen completely to zero, and he would have lost his humanity.

The three powers constantly pulled at him. Mu Sichen's original Self Sticker had long since been annihilated amid those powers.

He was living in his own world, and nothing outside could wake him.

Until Chi Lian crawled over and stuck this Self Sticker on Mu Sichen.

With his Rationality returning, Mu Sichen finally heard the three voices clearly.

There were three paths before him.

The first path was relatively easy: run to Big Eye and become a happy madman. This path was the simplest, but also the one he absolutely could not choose.

The second was to borrow Qin Zhou's power and destroy the "Pillar." Mu Sichen had a feeling that once he guided the totem's power into the Pillar, Qin Zhou would be able to seize this Pillar.

But what then, after he helped Qin Zhou? Once Qin Zhou seized the Pillar, could he protect them? Even if Mu Sichen could survive, what about Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo?

Mu Sichen was not certain Qin Zhou could protect two players who were not his Followers.

The third path was to complete the mission assigned by the System and establish a Safe House.

From the very beginning, Mu Sichen had never planned to listen to Qin Zhou. Just as Qin Zhou was using him to obtain Followers and the power of the "Pillar," he was also using Qin Zhou.

He wanted Qin Zhou to send him to the "Pillar," after which he would complete the System's mission.

At the moment, among these several powers, the only one that might possibly protect the players was this scam of a game system!

But how was he supposed to establish a Safe House?

Pillar, domain, totem, skills...

Countless images flashed through Mu Sichen's mind, and he made his decision at once.

Mu Sichen casually pulled out a handful of Self Stickers. He did not care how many there were, nor whether they had come from undermining Qin Zhou or undermining Big Eye. He simply stuck them all onto himself at once.

[Player used 1 Cornerstone-tier Self Sticker and gained 100 experience points. Use one more to level up.]

[Player used 1 Cornerstone-tier Self Sticker and gained 100 experience points. Congratulations, player. You have advanced to level 3.]

[Player used 1 Cornerstone-tier Self...]

One System prompt after another rang in his ears. Silver and blood-red light enveloped Mu Sichen's body. He did not count whether he had stuck on twenty or thirty of them. He only stopped when he no longer had any Self Stickers in his hand.

[Player used 1 Cornerstone-tier Self Sticker and gained 100 experience points. Congratulations, player. You have advanced to level 10.]

[Congratulations, player. You have broken through the level cap and advanced to Pillar-tier.]

[Congratulations, player. You have obtained a large amount of energy. Use all energy?]

"Yes." Without the slightest hesitation, Mu Sichen swung the pickaxe and smashed it heavily onto Big Eye's Totem.

With that one strike, he had no idea how much energy was consumed. Mu Sichen's MP bar was emptied in an instant.

At the same time, starting from the point where the pickaxe struck, cracks spread all across the Pillar pattern. Big Eye's Totem was reduced to ash in an instant.

The entire sanatorium seemed to have had its pause button pressed.

Outside the door, the Feather-Eyed Apostle, who was locked in battle with Yao Wangping, stopped. Bloody tears streamed uncontrollably from his eyes, and his expression went hollow, as if he had lost something important.

Then another System prompt sounded in Mu Sichen's ear.

[Player used the "Undermine" skill and obtained 1 Pillar-tier Self Sticker. Use the Self Sticker to establish a Safe House?]

"Yes," Mu Sichen whispered.

This time, the Self Sticker did not appear in the form of paper.

Mu Sichen opened his hand, and a golden light released from his palm.

The light spread through the air, transforming into the pattern of a Self Sticker.

Wing-like hands embraced the sky, the earth, and the ocean.

Above and below, none can taint my heart.

The Self Sticker transformed into a totem and enveloped the entire sanatorium.

[Congratulations, player. You have successfully captured 1 "Pillar" and successfully established a Safe House.]

Mu Sichen had a feeling that within the space shrouded by the Self Totem, he was safe.

After Chi Lian saw the Self Totem, strength seemed to fill her body. She froze for a moment, then quickly tapped several times in the air with her fingers.

A System panel that only she could see appeared, floating in the air.

Looking at the words on the panel, Chi Lian's tears would not stop falling.

In the lower right corner of the System panel, a glowing button appeared - Exit Game.

Chi Lian tried touching that button. The next second, she vanished from the sanatorium.