Chapter 255: [Rotten Bones and Resurrected Flesh] Poor Health
Bai Cha’s final new appearance retained a fifty percent resemblance to her original face, yet upon closer inspection, every feature was subtly different.
Her double eyelids, the corners of her eyes, her eyelashes, and her lower eyelids had all undergone minute adjustments.
These subtle tweaks were not so drastic as to transform her face completely, yet they steadily set her apart from her real self.
Her facial structure was adjusted to appear more childishly adorable, making it easier for others to let their guard down, while her overall beauty was lowered a bit so as not to draw too much eye-catching attention.
She possessed a durable, cute, girl-next-door charm.
Her rank was lowered by merely a single level.
When disguising themselves, many people instinctively chose something with a stark contrast or at least avoided staying this close to their original look.
Consequently, a disguise like this was far more effective at fooling the vast majority of people; as for the calculating minority, no matter how cautious she was, she likely couldn’t hide from them anyway.
So long as she fended off the crowd looking to join the commotion, she could handle the rest slowly.
Her personal profile naturally required modifications as well.
While altering her information, Bai Cha couldn’t help marveling at Xu Ming-wang from back then—his customized face held absolute zero relation to his real self.
She modified her publicly visible information as follows:
Name: Tao Tao.
Age: 19.
Rank: B3.
As for the remaining unhidden details, those belonged to the backstory she intended to display outward.
She had already constructed her persona: she entered the game alongside her older brother.
Over these past two years, she had cleared instances trailing behind her brother, but regrettably, her brother sacrificed his life for her sake during the previous level.
Having completed all these preparations, the time for her to enter the game arrived.
This part served as a test of her acting skills.
Meanwhile, viewers in the live stream room would not see her previous true information either.
In fact, those who had followed her previously would not see her enter the game in person.
The streamer page belonging to [Bai Cha] would display an offline status.
Of course, after clearing the game, it would still register on her personal page.
At that time, everyone would learn that she had entered an instance under the radar once.
So concealing one’s identity like this was merely another form of fishing.
Because she entered the game an hour early this time, she didn’t fall asleep.
The surrounding environment shifted directly.
She materialized inside a somewhat dilapidated house.
[Welcome to the B9-tier Horror Instance “Rotten Bones and Resurrected Flesh”.]
[Number of participants in this instance: 6.]
[Instance mode for this run: Competition Mode.]
[You have come specifically to this shop to apprentice and learn the craft, but only one among you can be accepted as an apprentice. The remaining five will be eliminated! Elimination equals failure! Failure might result in death~ That’s right, which is to say, only one person can emerge victorious in this instance! Hee-hee…]
[May everyone strive to clear the instance! Oh, right… a friendly tip: the old master thoroughly despises clumsy, butterfingered people. He might not be able to resist correcting you a bit~]
[Secretive APP wishes you a pleasant life~]
The surrounding environment officially solidified into reality.
Bai Cha caught a whiff of strange odors almost instantly.
It was a blend of something rotting paired with the stale stench wafting from ancient, decayed objects.
Five other people stood around her.
Four men and one woman.
The clearance mode this time clearly forced player conflict.
Though in Bai Cha’s view, given the game’s fond habit of playing word games, the sole victor might not necessarily clear the instance either.
Nor did failure guarantee an inability to clear, though it would likely prove far more dangerous.
Regardless, this mode successfully rendered it impossible for players to establish cooperative relationships in the short term.
What was more, this instance didn’t hold many participants.
No NPCs were present inside the room for now, only a few players.
It appeared to be raining outside.
As moisture seeped in from beyond the door, Bai Cha immediately felt an itchy sensation in her throat.
Her illness in reality hadn’t healed to begin with.
Meanwhile, her body in the game remained in a state simultaneously formidable and frail.
An uncontrollable cough erupted from her immediately.
The coughing steadily turned wracking and severe, completely beyond her ability to suppress.
Until she spat out a mouthful of blood.
She had been using her arm frantically to muffle the sound, and catching sight of the fresh blood on her arm right now, a thread of sorrow surfaced across her face first.
Ever since she began coughing moments ago, the other five players couldn’t help staring at her.
Seeing her spit up blood the moment she opened her mouth, they exchanged glances with one another.
The remaining female player spoke up: “You… are you alright? Is your health really that terrible?”
Saying this, she made a move to step forward to support her.
Bai Cha retreated with alert caution, opening up distance between them.
No matter how she had been protected by an older brother to reach her current rank, she couldn’t possibly lack a guard against others.
Raising her eyes, she wiped the corner of her mouth, forcing out a strained smile.
“I’m sorry for making a fool of myself. My health in reality isn’t very good.”
“With poor health in reality, you still managed to survive until now? You’ve even entered a B9 instance.”
A male player nearby raised doubts immediately, as expected.
Bai Cha pursed her lips.
“I usually cleared instances with my older brother in the past.”
The group exchanged glances, unable to tell whether they believed her or not, yet refraining from pressing further questions.
“Although this instance is a competition mode… generally speaking, in this kind of competitive setup, if everyone genuinely fights individually from start to finish, death is virtually guaranteed.”
Another male player spoke up; he appeared quite polite and refined.
“So I think in the early stage, there’s no need for us to fight to the death excessively. Let’s get a handle on the instance situation first. How about we introduce ourselves? My name is Chen Mi. How should I address you all?”
The male player who had questioned Bai Cha spoke up: “Song Shi-fan.”
The other female player was named Shen Xiao-luo.
Of the remaining two players, the man with the buzzcut was named Wang Yuan, while the one wearing thick black-rimmed glasses was named Zheng Zelin.
Bai Cha shared her name as well.
“My name is Tao Tao.”
With the self-introductions concluded, the group fell back into an alert silence.
The door was pushed open at this exact moment.
An elderly man holding an umbrella stepped inside.
A massive wave of chill and moisture seeped in from outside; the rain beat down heavily outdoors, and the sky looked overcast and dreary.
Bai Cha began coughing uncontrollably once more.
This successfully drew the incoming elderly man’s gaze straight onto Bai Cha.
This old man appeared to be in his sixties or seventies, his back relatively straight. After collapsing the black umbrella in his hand, he used it as a walking stick against the ground, his eyes sharp and piercing.
Bai Cha felt anxious under his stare, attempting to halt her coughing, yet how could coughing ever be stopped at will?
Not until another wracking, severe fit shook her—feeling as though her windpipe might be coughed out, accompanied by another trace of fresh blood—did it barely subside.
“You brought a body like this over to be an apprentice?”
The old man’s expression was far from pleasant.
“I think you’d better hurry up and buy a coffin, then scram back and lie down inside it!”
His words were thoroughly blunt and rude.
Bai Cha’s eye rims turned red from the intense coughing. She raised her hand to wipe away the physiological tears brimming at the corners of her eyes, offering an apologetic bow.
“I’m truly sorry. I’ve simply been feeling unwell recently. Rest assured, I will definitely learn properly!”
The corners of the old man’s mouth twitched as he cast a glance at the blood on her arm.
This counts as merely feeling a bit unwell recently?
Yet he indeed refrained from chasing her away on the spot.
“I don’t care what your situation is. Since you want to come here as apprentices, every single one of you better learn properly!”
He walked toward the inner room.
“Step one: clean up these few rooms for me!”
Saying this, he stepped to the side.
