The surroundings were deathly silent.
Everyone stared at the child's head, unable to utter a sound.
At that moment, they were absolutely certain that the woman from Room 612 was a Desire Monster.
No normal human could remain alive after being decapitated, and no normal human could grow a new head after losing one.
They also realized that this Desire Monster could not be killed by conventional means.
Fei Xueying, unwilling to give up, dropped the severed head and swung her whip again, coiling it around the woman's arm.
A layer of ice seemed to crystallize on the aqua-blue whip. The woman's pale, bare shoulder shattered like ice, and her long arm was instantly torn off by the whip.
In that instant, Ning Su sensed an overwhelming surge of energy.
This female player, who was unranked in the top ten of the leaderboard, possessed energy comparable to what Ning Su had felt from the Human Pupa Master and her pupae.
Players from this world, born with innate supernatural abilities and aided by technology, were overall much stronger in the game than those from his own world.
Yet, even so, the arm of the woman from Room 612 remained intact.
In the blink of an eye, the moment Fei Xueying tore off her arm, a new one appeared in its place.
After the Human Pupa Master's pupa bit off Shi Tianzhu's ankle, Shi Tianzhu was left with lasting aftereffects. But this woman's arm, torn off, was immediately restored to perfection. She didn't even make a sound or move a muscle.
A chill shot straight to their hearts.
Several players suddenly understood why the two female players earlier had looked so grim.
The decapitation must have been just like this.
In the dim room, the sight of the long-haired woman's head regrowing after being torn off was even more shocking than her arm regenerating.
The arm on the whip twitched twice and also transformed into a child's arm.
The whip flung the arm aside and lashed toward the long-haired woman once more.
Head, arm, other arm, leg, other leg.
Lash after lash, repeated several times.
The disordered room took on an added layer of dense horror. Scattered across the floor, over discarded dresses, lingerie, and some unknown man's shirt, were the dismembered limbs of children.
Ning Su kept staring at one spot. Several players followed his gaze.
It was the head that Fei Xueying's whip had first torn off.
By the time they rushed over, Fei Xueying had already taken off her head. At that moment, it was face down, with her long, thick hair sprawling across the floor. No one could see her face clearly.
Then, the head bounced twice on the ground and transformed into a child’s head. It was also face down, showing only the soft fuzz on the back of the head.
Fei Xueying flung her head aside as she tore at her shoulders. The head landed on a chest of drawers, rolled behind it, hit the wall, and then reappeared from behind the drawers—just enough to reveal up to the chin.
It looked like a child peeking out from behind the chest of drawers.
However, the roughly twenty-centimeter width of the chest of drawers made the scene appear distorted and terrifying.
Even more terrifying was the child’s face.
It looked strikingly similar to the recently deceased player, Li Ming.
From the head to the arms, the horror of the scattered limbs piled up in the room peaked at that moment.
The players stared at the child’s head, their hair standing on end.
The woman in Room 612 still sat on the bed with her back to them. Her room was even messier now, yet she remained motionless and silent. Her bare, pale shoulders and thick, dark hair were both alluring and eerie.
"Even Fei Xueying’s Frost Corpse Whip couldn’t do it. She’s simply unkillable!"
The nine players stood under the old elm tree in the courtyard, recalling the scene they had just witnessed. Their faces were grim, and their hearts were filled with unease.
"And also, her head—how did it turn into a child that looked so much like Li Ming?!"
"What kind of monstrous desire monster is this?!"
They all realized that aside from Ling Xiao and Qin Wu, it would be incredibly difficult to kill ten desire creatures alone in the remaining twenty-some days.
Jia Yahua said, "Don’t panic. We probably haven’t found the right method yet."
He recounted what they had discussed in Room 511 to the others. "The system said desire creatures are formed from desires and stories, and it tasked us with judging and eliminating the monsters. This ‘judgment’ should at least require us to understand the desire and story of the creature."
Tang Xin suddenly understood: "Right! There’s also the term ‘unlock.’ Unlocking should also be a hint that we need to know the desire creature’s story and desire before we can eliminate them."
The other players also came to this realization.
Fei Xueying asked, "We already know her desire is sexual desire. As for her story, should we go ask the people in the apartment building?"
After saying this, she turned her gaze toward Ling Xiao.
Ning Su noticed that whenever players here were unsure or wanted to know what to do, they instinctively looked at Ling Xiao.
The nineteen-year-old Ling Xiao appeared more outwardly aggressive than the future Ling Xiao, yet unlike the future him whose indifference concealed an apathetic detachment from others, the nineteen-year-old would still respond to people.
“The story should be related to desires. Based on her desires, we should inquire about her experiences in a targeted way.”
The players breathed a sigh of relief. At least they had a direction now, knowing that the Desire Monsters had a method of elimination.
If the Desire Monsters were truly that difficult to destroy, some players would undoubtedly be crying tonight.
It was already too late tonight. Every room in the tube-shaped apartment building had turned off their lights, making further inquiries impossible. The nine players dispersed and returned to their respective rooms.
When the two of them returned, the two children were already asleep.
Ning Su quickly washed up and climbed into bed, staring at the grimy light bulb on the ceiling with a look of intense concentration, as if pondering some serious matter.
Just as Ling Xiao finished washing and came out, he heard Ning Su ask, “Why didn’t you let me watch?”
Ling Xiao: “...”
Ling Xiao: “You’re underage. What’s there to watch?”
Ning Su: “Minors can have children but can’t watch?”
Ling Xiao: “...”
Ning Su: “You can watch, but I can’t?”
Ling Xiao added another sentence: “I was checking if the Desire Monster had revealed its true form. All the other players were watching at the time.”
Ning Su: “So why can’t I, someone older than you, watch?”
Ling Xiao paused for a moment, turning his head to look at him: “Older than me? You look like an underage high school student.”
Finally able to claim he was older than Ling Xiao, Ning Su sat up proudly. “I’m 23.”
Ling Xiao: “...”
Ling Xiao silently lay down on his bed.
Ning Su stretched out his foot to poke Ling Xiao’s leg. In this cramped room, the two beds were very close, and Ning Su’s long legs could easily reach Ling Xiao.
Ling Xiao: “A 23-year-old acting so childish?”
Ning Su: “You think I’m underage and don’t understand anything, so you won’t let me watch?”
“Do I even need to watch that sort of thing?” Ning Su said. “I understand it better than you do.”
After all, he was a master’s student in biology.
"I could even give you a biology lesson."
At school, he had indeed helped the teacher by covering some basic general knowledge classes.
Ling Xiao didn't say anything.
Ning Su stretched his foot taut and poked him again. "Do you think the desire of the woman in Room 612 is... carnal desire?"
After saying that, he paused.
The long leg under his foot felt a bit stiff.
He could sense that the thin layer of muscle there was tensed.
Under the gaze Ling Xiao cast down upon him, Ning Su slowly retracted his leg, obediently turned over to face Guisheng, and pretended to sleep.
Rarely for him, someone who usually fell asleep in seconds, he lay with his eyes closed for a long time without actually sleeping.
