MMPS Ch. 49

Chapter 49: Courtship

Yu An kept telling himself he was only borrowing warmth from the monster for a while, forcing himself not to fall asleep. He curled up in a daze, unsure how much time had passed.

A pair of warm hands rested on his head, occasionally giving it a gentle rub. Half-asleep, Yu An grabbed one of the hands, just as he often did when lying on the interviewer’s bed.

He wasn’t well-versed in romance, clueless about the sweet interactions between couples. He wasn’t even sure if they were truly in a relationship or if it was just his one-sided delusion. He was simply addicted to the twisted pleasure of enjoying privileges—Zhao Ran loathed having his hands touched by anything, except for Yu An.

Even though Zhao Ran would act a bit strange when touched, no matter what reservations he harbored, to Yu An, it was a privilege granted to him. No one in the world disliked being treated as special.

Yu An also enjoyed testing the limits of Zhao Ran’s tolerance for his privileges, so he habitually defied him. Every time he crossed Zhao Ran’s boundaries, survived his anger, and made it to the next day, the thrill and sense of accomplishment felt like planting a flag on an uncharted planet. Annoy him, soothe him, infuriate him, kiss him.

The hand he tightly held trembled and tried to pull back, but Yu An interlocked their fingers, leaving no room for retreat.

In his haze, a faint, dry woody scent lingered in his nostrils. Yu An suddenly woke up, his vision blocked by a restless darkness. The multi-handed monster had unknowingly enveloped him entirely, its tangled arms writhing like a stomach, greedily digesting the prey that had fallen into its trap, much like a pitcher plant.

This was bad. He’d been tricked.

Yu An kicked fiercely at the twisting arms blocking his way. The arms were far tougher than he’d imagined. A normal person’s arm would have snapped under such force, but this monster’s limbs were unyielding, as if made of steel.

He calmed down, pulled out the Armor-Piercing Awl, and thrust it forward.

The Tier 2 Red core embedded in the awl flickered faintly, its blade radiating an unstoppable chill. With a single slash, it cut through the obstructing arms like severing thorny vines, hot blood splattering onto Yu An’s cheeks.

The monster let out a muffled roar of pain, and all its arms retreated like a receding tide. Yu An was once again exposed to the world, the bright, dazzling orange light stinging his eyes. He raised a hand to shield his face, squinting at the sun rising from the vast icy plains.

The people of Riyu Town had longed for the dawn after half a year of eternal night. The sun, having slept for too long, had finally arrived.

The multi-armed monster’s body had completely lost its color. Compared to its pale appearance the night before, it now looked stiff and lifeless, as if most of its vitality had drained away.

It had faded. Yu An stared blankly at the blade in his hand, blood dripping from his cheeks to his chin.

Was it afraid of light? Why didn’t it leave?

Had it wrapped him tightly in its arms to protect him from the sunlight while he slept, fearing he might die from exposure?

The long-awaited sunlight bathed his skin, but he felt no warmth. The sun was like a distant, glowing ice ball. The cold wind blew, and the only warmth Yu An felt came from the monster beneath him. His soaked clothes had dried, and to Yu An, the monster was the real sun.

The hand that had been slashed by the Armor-Piercing Awl slowly dissolved into a mist of blood and vanished. The monster grew even weaker, its once lively hands now limp, like a withered sea anemone.

Yu An bit his lip and crouched to check on the monster. He put away the awl and tried to push the massive creature toward the boat tied to the rocks. The monster’s body was heavy, and Yu An had to lean against it, pushing inch by inch.

The monster slid off the edge and plopped into the boat, causing it to rock violently. Yu An jumped down from above, untied the rope, and slung it over his shoulder, dragging the monster toward a shaded ice cave.

In his haste, Yu An felt a gaze full of malice fixed on him. He turned around and saw the giant fossilized seashell he had just stepped on slightly open, a row of eyes peering out from the crack. Each eye blinked at a different rhythm, accompanied by the sound of bubbles.

Another terrifying, deformed creature. The secrets of Riyu Town seemed far from fully uncovered. The strange culture and bizarre realities he had witnessed were just the tip of the iceberg.

Yu An pulled the boat into the dim ice cave, away from the scorching sunlight. The multi-armed monster felt much better, beginning to writhe again, emitting heavy breaths from some unknown part of its body.

The monster took Yu An’s Armor-Piercing Awl and placed it far away, wagging a finger at him as if scolding, “Kids shouldn’t play with such dangerous things.” It had lost several arms from the stab wound but seemed to think it was just a playful scratch from a small animal.

“…” Yu An sat on the shore, hugging his knees and facing the simple-minded ball of hands.

“You’re so dumb. How have you survived here on your own? That babbling giant seashell over there seems much smarter than you.”

If humans ever discovered its existence and realized it wasn’t the deity they worshipped, would they come with harpoons and torches to kill it? What could it do to resist? Or maybe it was so clueless that it wouldn’t even understand why it was being attacked until it was nearly dead.

Was that why the interviewer had killed it and taken its Aberrant Core?

For the first time in many years, Yu An questioned the survival-of-the-fittest rule he had always believed in.

He wanted to take the monster home, but after some thought, he realized his physical body was still lying in the circus illusion chamber in Hongli City.

“There’s a train nearby, number K88M88. If you can catch it, you can leave this place and go to other cities. You have so many hands and aren’t afraid of the cold. You could probably sneak onto the roof, right? Just don’t let anyone see you.”

“I live in Hongli City, North District, Longhu Community, Building 1, Unit 2, Room 302. If you can leave here, come find me.”

“If you’re an Aberrant, I’ll be your contracted master. You’re so weak; even if you enter the cocoon stage, I should be able to handle it.”

The multi-handed monster lay quietly, every finger listening intently. The water on its surface had dried in the cold wind, and a faint, dry woody scent emanated from its skin.

Yu An suddenly stopped speaking, sniffing the air.

The warm breath at Zhao Ran’s neck, the heat of his breath during a kiss, even the thin layer of sweat during their most intimate moments, all carried the same peculiar woody scent.

He stood up in a daze, scrutinizing the monster before him. After a long while, he tentatively asked, “Zhao Ran?”

The monster gurgled, trying to adjust its vocal cords, and in a low, hoarse voice, it mimicked, “Zhao—Ran—” The growl echoed in the ice cave.

Yu An grabbed one of the monster’s wandering hands and pressed: “Zhao Ran?”

“Never mind.” Yu An realized his imagination was running wild and rubbed his temples in frustration. Comparing a monster to the interviewer was quite a stretch.

It was an Aberrant, and the interviewer’s job was to hunt it.

But the seed of doubt had taken root, making him search for clues in his memories of Zhao Ran.

The hand he held began to turn red from the fingertips, spreading to the wrist and all the way to the base of the ball. The hands shyly covered its face, and the entire monster curled into a pink ball, rolling off the boat and skipping across the water.

“What…” Yu An looked down at his palm, where a puddle of translucent slime remained.

“It didn’t react like this when I touched its other hands… Could it be…” Yu An was still pondering when the ball of hands suddenly dove into the water, swimming away like a jellyfish.

Not long after, a pink shadow approached underwater and burst through the surface in a dazzling display, each hand clutching something, which it piled up in front of Yu An.

It had dredged up “treasures” from the bottom of the water. Smooth pebbles, pretty sea glass, amber-like ice containing colorful fish, and some brightly colored seashells.

The obvious courtship behavior made Yu An instinctively take two steps back.

Could it be that the hand he had just grabbed was its reproductive organ?

It seemed to have misunderstood something.

Among the pile of junk was a deep purple sphere emitting a faint glow, with a lock symbol etched on its surface.

“An Aberratnt core? Tier 3 Purple?” Yu An picked up the core from the pile, washed it in the water, and placed it in the Core Box Expansion attached to his inner pocket.

The Core Box Expansion he had bought from the Midnight Trader looked like Doraemon’s fourth-dimensional pocket, a neat semicircle, about as thick as two sheets of paper. It currently held only the newly purchased Reverse Fairy Tale core and a Tier 1 Blue core extracted from the mechanical wolf, with two slots still empty.

He slotted the core the monster had retrieved into an empty slot, and it fit perfectly, displaying the core’s information.

Name: Function Core – Anti-Addiction System
Source: Dropped by the Game King’s Illusion Chamber
Type: Illusion Chamber Variant
Grade: Tier 3 Purple (Mallow Purple)
Primary Ability: Forced Logout. In combat, if the battle remains unresolved for one hour, the opponent will be forcibly logged out.
Usage Limit: Can be used three times in total.
Description: Kids are only allowed to play for one hour!
Resonance Requirement: Unknown

An hour-long stalemate counted as a win for the user. A powerful ability, but its biggest flaw was the usage limit. If it could be used infinitely like the Picture Within the Painting core, it might have reached gold instead of stopping at Tier 3 Purple.

Since it could be stored in the Core Box Expansion, did that mean he could take it back to reality even after the consciousness link ended?

Yu An was lost in the joy of acquiring a free Aberrant Core, completely ignoring the doting monster lying beside him. The monster watched happily as Yu An accepted its courtship gift and pocketed it.

A hand gently rested on Yu An’s lower back, showing a desire to reach further.

“Go away.” Yu An turned and smacked it. The monster retracted its hand, expressing dissatisfaction with a heavy exhale.

“Do you want to mate with me?” Yu An accurately grabbed the two special hands, rubbing his thumb over its palm. Sure enough, the monster turned red from the fingertips to the center of the ball.

“But what’s standing here is just a consciousness projection. I can’t stay here forever. I’ll disappear soon unless you come find me in reality.”

The monster seemed to half-understand, wilting in disappointment. It lifted Yu An with two ordinary hands and placed him back on the boat, then dove underwater, pushing the boat toward the sunlight.

Yu An thought the monster might try to “pluck the melon^[1]” regardless of whether it was ripe, but as the boat passed through a crack in the icy plains, the sunlight turned golden, and the surroundings grew more familiar.

The sea and lake met, with snowy plains and emerald-green waters forming a clear boundary. Crossing this twisted, intertwined line, the scenery on the other side matched the “Lost Town” game map.

So it had understood.

The monster surfaced under the sunlight, its arms resting on the boat, enduring the pain of the light burning its skin. Its pale, faded skin clung silently to Yu An, bidding farewell without words.

Yu An took off his coat and draped it over the monster’s head. The coat was insignificant compared to the monster’s size, but it provided some shade. Yu An leaned into its arms, closing his eyes and breathing in the gentle woody scent.

Such a weak, clueless creature, with no offensive abilities or a hard shell. Could it really board that train? Would it die trying to navigate the bustling crowds?

As the boat drifted, reaching the boundary between sea and lake, a drumbeat suddenly echoed in Yu An’s ears.

An intense instrumental piece rose with the drums. Yu An jumped up in shock, gripping the boat’s edge and looking ahead.

This music was practically engraved in his DNA. During his countless attempts to defeat the final boss of the Lost Town scenario, the Parasite of the Dead Lake, this passionate BGM would always play when the boss appeared.

The Parasite of the Dead Lake was the strongest boss in the three currently available scenarios of Gray Crow: Toy House. It had complex attack patterns, high damage, rapid attack frequency, and an enormous health pool. From its release to its removal, no player had managed to defeat it without cheating. The boss was intentionally designed to create suspense, ensuring that skilled players wouldn’t feel the game was overhyped. It was a challenging boss, theoretically beatable but extremely difficult in practice.

Since the Lost Town scenario was based on Riyu Town, the final boss, the Parasite of the Dead Lake, was likely inspired by the deity of Riyu Town.

A rapid vortex formed in the emerald-green lake, and a wooden coffin rose swiftly with the current, bursting through the surface. Accompanied by the intense music, it let out a sharp, furious roar before crashing back onto the water. The coffin lid opened, and a headless skeleton with eight bone arms crawled out.

The headless skeleton stood on the water like a spider, its lower half still hidden in the coffin. Its design, with a hunched back and a coffin on its back, seemed to draw inspiration from hermit crabs.

The terrifying, imposing design, the grand entrance music, and the overwhelming size made this monster one of the game’s most iconic bosses, destined to be remembered in gaming history.

The multi-armed monster lying on the boat stared at its high-end counterpart, resting its chin on a hand (if it had one) and falling into deep thought.

The simple-minded ball of hands was overheating its limited brain CPU, finally reaching a conclusion.

A similar creature appearing near its territory must be here to compete for a mate.