"She's dead! Dead!"
"Great! We killed her!"
"That bitch is finally dead!"
A burst of loud cheers erupted from the crowd.
Their faces broke into excited, relieved smiles.
A few men showed a flicker of regret in their eyes, but it quickly turned into the same sense of righteous satisfaction as everyone else's.
There was also relief—like a stain that had disappeared before anyone noticed it, and now no one would ever know.
All the players could see it: the first Desire Monster had been eliminated by Fei Xueying.
The fatal blow had been that last whip she'd thrown with all her remaining strength.
Whether from sheer exhaustion or not, she stumbled, braced her hands on her knees, and bent over gasping for a long while.
Several players watched her intently.
After a long moment, she lifted her pale face and smiled. "I got the system notification—congratulating me on eliminating the first Desire Monster. Quest progress: 1/10."
"Excellent!"
"So all we have to do is kill the Desire Monsters!"
"We've finally figured out the way!"
The tattooed man, Nie Yuwei, glanced at Ning Su and said smugly, "See? Just find out the Desire Monster's desire—that's its weak point—and kill it quickly. It's already day six; if we keep dragging our feet, when will we ever finish the mission?"
They were overjoyed, and the residents of the tenement building came forward to thank the three of them.
"Thank you!"
"We never thought you'd be this powerful—able to destroy a Desire Monster!"
"Our shabby little building is lucky to have you!"
The three, surrounded like stars around the moon, were beaming. All the anxiety and frustration from the past two days had vanished, replaced by pride and delight.
Ling Xiao pushed through the crowd and walked into the shattered room, now littered with fluids and debris.
Ning Su followed him inside.
Under the fatal strike of the Frost Corpse Whip, the Desire Monster's enormous body had shattered into chunks like ice.
Now those chunks were melting into puddles of water, pooling over the broken bones and flesh of the Desire Monster, Xue Fei.
Ning Su looked up and saw that the rain outside the window had stopped.
He turned his gaze back and noticed Ling Xiao tucking a sketchbook into a drawer.
"What's that?" Ning Su asked, walking over. "Let me see."
Ling Xiao stood where the Desire Monster Xue Fei used to sit most often.
She would often sit there with her back to the door, a corner-missing bedside table at her side.
The sketchbook in Ling Xiao's hand was taken from that very spot.
Ling Xiao paused.
Ning Su heard a faint, almost imperceptible sigh, and then Ling Xiao handed him the sketchbook.
Inside were many chaotic, messy lines, but only one drawing was complete.
It was a sketch of Ning Su sitting in the cafeteria, eating a steamed bun.
Though it was just a sketch, you could tell how the sunlight filtered through the green leaves outside the window and fell on his soft hair—that bright, gentle feeling.
Ning Su gripped the sketchbook tightly and turned his head to look at the faces of the men on the heads slowly disappearing on the ground.
Ling Xiao pulled him over to the window, leaned down, and said to him, "To the people in this world, Desire Monsters are monsters. To us, they're just mission targets the system wants us to eliminate."
Ning Su made a soft "mm" sound, resting his head against Ling Xiao's shoulder and rubbing it lightly, his bangs getting all messed up.
Ling Xiao held his hand and gently stroked it. "I'll find you ten vile, evil Desire Monsters for you to kill."
In the end, Ling Xiao took the sketchbook back.
Late into the night, the crowd dispersed from Room 612.
This place—once the liveliest spot in the tenement building, the most watched and whispered about—would now be deserted.
Qin Wu and the others went to Ning Su again to learn more about what Uncle Li had told him.
Ling Xiao went downstairs to get a late-night snack, bringing the sketchbook with him.
Uncle Li usually went to bed early—by this hour he'd have been asleep long ago—but with what had happened tonight, he was definitely still awake.
Ling Xiao knocked on his door and handed him the sketchbook.
Uncle Li stared at the drawings in silence for a while, then spoke in a low voice. "She never got to see what her own child looked like. She didn't know what face she wanted her child to have—until she saw Ning Su."
Ling Xiao didn't respond. He took the bowl of beef noodles handed over by the vendor outside and left.
He wasn't the charitable type. Bringing the sketchbook to Uncle Li was simply a way to strengthen the bond between Uncle Li and Ning Su, making it easier for Ning Su to pry information from him later.
He was always like this—calculating everything, every move made with self-interest in mind.
That didn't include hiding the sketchbook to keep Ning Su from seeing it.
Ling Xiao stepped through the puddles of red-tinged rainwater, rubbing the plastic bag that held the beef noodles. The steam from the broth wafted against his fingertips. He looked up at the faint glow spilling from the narrow window of Room 511.
When Ling Xiao came back up with the noodles, Ning Su had just finished telling Qin Wu and the others everything Uncle Li had shared.
Ling Xiao set the noodles in front of him. "That will be 12 yuan."
Ning Su: "..."
He muttered under his breath, "Would it kill you to treat me just once? A guy with 1.2 billion points won't even buy me a 12-yuan late-night snack. So stingy."
Ling Xiao: "What did you say?"
Ning Su: "Man, these beef noodles smell amazing."
"..."
After Ning Su finished eating, Ling Xiao said, "I just saw Uncle Li heading to room 612 to clean. Want to go up and help?"
Before Ning Su could respond, Qin Wu immediately said, "Yes! We have to go! This is a chance to farm NPC favorability!"
Ning Su: "Now you want me to go? Last time when I offered to help Uncle Li carry the body, why did you stop me?"
Qin Wu: "Oh—let me think. Last time he said the corpse was bad luck. But this time it's not just a corpse—there are also chunks of the Desire Monster. What's the difference? How is it different?"
Jia Yahua, who had turned analyzing instances into an obsession, seriously broke down the difference: "Last time, the dead man was naked. This time, she died before even getting into bed..."
"..."
The atmosphere fell silent.
Ten seconds later, Qin Wu stood up and kicked Jia Yahua. "You're the only one who knows! You're the only one with a mouth!"
The four of them made their way to the sixth floor in a mix of half-silence and half-bickering.
The tenement building had no elevator—only a single staircase, narrow and dimly lit.
As they climbed, a man in a navy-blue shirt and white undershirt came down from above, brushing past them.
He only glanced at them, but a flash of red light flickered in his eyes.
Ning Su stopped and turned to look at him.
This was the same man who, on their first night here, had turned his head to look back during the safety meeting Uncle Li had held in the courtyard.
Ning Su and Ling Xiao had noticed his abnormality back then.
Ning Su remembered Ling Xiao mentioning his room number. "He lives in 610?"
Ling Xiao was also watching the man. "Yeah. Very close to the Desire Monster Xue Fei's room, 612."
Neither of them said what they were thinking.
Qin Wu asked, "What did you two spot again? That guy just now, right? I saw the red glow in his eyes too—pretty creepy in the middle of the night, isn't it?"
Jia Yahua: "Clearly, the color red is significant in this world. Red light in his eyes... and you said he lives in 610? That's right next to the Desire Monster Xue Fei. They've probably had quite a bit of contact, too?"
Ning Su: "It's a full-instance scenario. The ten of us players appeared in this tenement building, and after we entered, the main gate was sealed. Clearly, this is our fixed instance map."
Ling Xiao: "If that's the case, with ten players, there should be at least a hundred Desire Monsters here."
Ning Su: "But it's already day six, and only one Desire Monster has appeared so far."
Ling Xiao: "From now on, more should start appearing one after another. There might even be a period of mass emergence."
Ning Su: "What kind of situation would cause a mass emergence?"
Ling Xiao: "Probably... exactly what you're thinking."
The two fell silent again. The other two couldn't follow their line of thought.
Qin Wu: "So? What does that mean?"
Ning Su: "Is it possible that desire is contagious—or that it can trigger more desire in others?"
The two of them were stunned, their words stumbling out.
Jia Yahua: "H-how do you trigger it? Trigger them into becoming Desire Monsters?"
Ning Su: "Just a sudden guess—I'm not sure. For example, could it be that people who come into contact with a Desire Monster's core desire get their own deepest desire awakened, and then turn into the corresponding Desire Monster?"
Qin Wu's speech was even more halting: "Xue Fei's core desire was—was childbirth. Someone who comes into contact with her core desire... wouldn't that mean... having relations with her? Didn't they say half the men in this tenement building had...?!"
