***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to JustSomeOne for the donation! ^^
***
The once bustling cruise ship had fallen into an eerie silence. The surviving passengers cowered in their cabins, terrified of encountering those grotesque, eye-covered monsters again. An oppressive stillness hung over the entire vessel.
All except the sixteenth floor.
Outside a stateroom on the sixteenth floor, several uniformed staff members stood waiting - the very same individuals who had participated in that bizarre ritual on the lower decks. The moment their ceremony succeeded, they had rushed straight here.
Their eyes burned with manic excitement as they pounded violently on the door, their impatience so palpable it seemed they might kick it down at any second.
BANG! BANG! BANG!!!
The hammering intensified until the reinforced door trembled under the assault. Any ordinary door would have long since given way.
When no response came from within, their grins widened, excitement bubbling over. Had their god realized his power was gone? Was that why he didn't answer?
Unable to wait any longer, one produced a keycard and kicked the door open with shocking irreverence.
But the room stood empty.
Their smiles vanished instantly. A staff member rushed to the bed, yanking back the covers - nothing. Not only was the room visibly empty, but their enhanced senses detected no presence whatsoever.
Their assumptions had been wrong. The lack of response wasn't defiance - their quarry simply wasn't here.
Where had the Evil God gone?
Their expressions darkened as they combed every corner of the suite. Finding nothing, they finally stormed out, their aura radiating violent frustration.
Beneath the bed, Ruan Qing clenched his jaw until the intruders left, only then allowing himself to cough up the blood he'd been holding back. The staff's blind spot had been their own arrogance - never considering their god might deign to hide beneath furniture.
Weak and trembling, Ruan Qing collapsed fully onto the cold floor, the Demon's Eye still clutched in his pale fingers. This cursed artifact had masked his presence completely.
Unlike other mystical objects that drained their users or had limited charges, the Demon's Eye required almost no activation energy or special rituals. Yet its convenience came at another price entirely...
However, obtaining the Demon's Eye didn't necessarily mean gaining power.
While the Demon's Eye could indeed be activated at will, its true horror lay in the black mist that would emanate from its pupil upon activation. The more one drew upon its power, the thicker the mist would become.
This mist would seep into the bodies of nearby creatures—and the user, being closest, was almost inevitably the first to be contaminated.
Aside from the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, Ruan Qing's face was drained of all color. With great difficulty, he turned his head slightly, watching helplessly as the black mist from the Demon's Eye seeped into his body.
The livestream audience saw it too—the black mist practically lunged for Ruan Qing's fingertips, as if eager to claim him.
[Ahhhh! Baby, throw that cursed thing away! Throw it away now!!!]
[It's over, it's over! Almost no players who came into contact with that black mist ended up fine. Even if they didn't feel anything wrong, the system would eventually judge them as non-human, stripping them of their qualification to clear the instance.]
[Yeah, I remember the only ones who managed to leave the instance after being touched by the mist were those top-tier players like Su Zhen and Lu Rufeng. Everyone else... they just stayed behind in the instances, never to be seen again.]
[Shit! Is the black mist really that dangerous?! Honey, please throw it away! Hurry!!!]
Though Ruan Qing couldn't see the panicked comments flooding the stream, he knew all too well the consequences of letting the mist invade his body—after surviving so many instances, he understood exactly what would happen.
He would become a permanent part of the instance, transformed into a genuine NPC.
But unlike the NPC he would become upon death, this was different. If he died and became an NPC, he would still be himself, albeit without memories.
Yet if the black mist fully corrupted him, he would cease to exist altogether.
The mist would gradually erode everything that made him him, replacing it with the will of the mist's true master.
In other words, complete corruption meant annihilation—not even his soul would remain.
Nothing would be left behind except fabricated memories and a hollow shell that merely resembled him.
But Ruan Qing no longer had even a shred of strength left to resist the mist's encroachment. He couldn't even muster the energy to fling the Demon's Eye away.
Besides, he couldn't afford to let go of it now. Even knowing the inevitable outcome, he had no choice but to cling to the cursed artifact with desperate determination.
This was his only chance to clear the instance.
If he won the gamble, he would escape alive.
If he lost... then death would claim him.
Ruan Qing's lips curled into a faint smile as he gazed at the Demon's Eye, his slender fingers tightening ever so slightly around it.
Though even this slight movement seemed to strain his weakened body, in this moment, he exuded an aura of terrifying madness.
A madness tempered with noble elegance—powerful, arrogant, as if divinity itself had stripped away all his fear, leaving only the innate haughtiness in his bones.
This was still the same lofty demeanor, yet now Ruan Qing shone even more brilliantly than when he'd pretended to be the Evil God.
That look of controlled insanity and effortless mastery made it seem as though even a true deity would pale in comparison.
Though the space beneath the bed lay in shadow, the streaming camera's lighting still captured his smile clearly—the curve of bloodstained lips sending the live chat into absolute frenzy.
[AHHHHH! Wife's smile is killing me! My legs won't stay closed! Step on me, please! Anywhere is fine!]
[How dare you smile like that, wife!? Didn't anyone teach you!? Smiling like this makes you liable to get xxxx!!!!]
[First of all I'm not gay, secondly I'm not gay, thirdly I'm not gay—BUT HOLY SHIT WIFE'S SMILE IS TOO DAMN HOT! PLEASE TAKE ME RIGHT NOW! FROM ANY ANGLE!]
Just as the chat flooded with hysterical messages, two bold, crimson words abruptly materialized on screen:
[Throw it away.]
Unlike normal comments that scrolled past, these words didn't fade. They hung suspended in the stream with eerie permanence.
The chat froze. Viewers stared in confusion. While VIP donors could indeed send highlighted messages, none had ever seen text this large—nor one that lingered so unnaturally.
What was happening?
When the young man still didn't move, his grip on the Demon's Eye unrelenting, two more lines erupted across the entire broadcast:
[I know you can see this.]
[Don't make me repeat myself.]
The three ominous lines dominated the screen, their weight almost physically oppressive—enough to steal one's breath away.
Ruan Qing did see them. That much was certain.
And the fact they hadn't been censored could only mean one thing:
Whoever had typed those words wasn't a viewer at all.
...It was the Main System.
Ruan Qing's lashes fluttered slightly before his eyes lowered in quiet resignation.
The next instant—all live-stream comments were disabled.
From this moment onward, whether related to the dungeon or not, the streamer would see nothing at all.
