Chapter 136: Aberrant 26

Having persuaded their two little troublemakers to go play next door, the Harris couple, following the social etiquette of reciprocity, decided to accompany the kids on their first visit and bring some small gifts—just in case their children caused trouble and the hosts had to deal with it.

When the Blood Castle’s boss family arrived at Tianzi Building with Qian, they happened to run into Aberrant locked in battle with the Association’s Vice President Cui and his Five-person squad.

Vice President Cui’s ability was fire, and squad member Magpie’s ability was wind—wind only fueled the flames. The floor where Aberrant was located was almost completely engulfed in fire, lighting up half the sky red.

The other squad members used special nets, talismans, and other tools to assist in restraining Aberrant. The scene looked extremely dangerous.

But it was only the appearance of danger. Although Aberrant sustained some damage from the flames, it was far less than the harm caused earlier when Liu Zhi used her power.

Even the floor of Tianzi Building scorched by the flames only blackened slightly—it hadn’t caught fire completely.

It was clear that in such a stalemate, it was uncertain who would suffer more losses.

“Oh!” “Wow!”

The Harris family had just arrived at Tianzi Building when the sudden blaze pushed them back a step.

“Looks like our neighbors are quite busy right now.”

Aberrant, who had been roaring hungrily at the food, stiffened briefly when she saw her daughter. Her fierce, gaping mouth paused and lowered.

Seeing her mother engulfed in flames, Qian froze for a moment before bursting into loud, frantic crying.

She jumped up and down shouting, “Mom! Mom!”

She tore her hand away from her friends and tried to rush to her mother, but Harriet and Muriel couldn’t hold her back.

As Qian tried to get closer, Aberrant’s eating grew visibly more urgent. Her movements suddenly sped up, breaking the squad’s tight coordination.

Suddenly, several new long arms sprouted from Aberrant’s back. She grabbed a squad member attacking with talismans nearby and shoved them into the big mouth on her back, while her front head bit into an unguarded Outer Region member.

To put it bluntly, at that moment Aberrant was like a mom secretly eating takeout late at night, who suddenly spots her child awake and running toward her…

If she didn’t hurry up, she wouldn’t get to finish eating.

Sure enough, after seeing one squad member die and hearing terrified Outer Region players shout that the Blood Castle boss family had arrived, Vice President Cui panicked, weighing the risks, and decisively abandoned the fight to retreat strategically.

An Aberrant like this was hard enough to take down?

Aberrant only managed to grab one more squad member before the other three escaped.

She hurriedly took a last bite as her daughter ran through the dying flames and threw herself onto her, clinging tightly to her legs, calling “Mom” with a mix of fear and affection.

Such vivid attachment and worry—despite being interrupted during her meal—Aberrant picked up her frightened child and stroked her head and cheeks several times.

But the warm parent-child moment didn’t last long. When Harriet and Muriel came running hand in hand to check on them, Aberrant set Qian down and gently pushed her back.

“Go play, go play.”

The Harris couple stepped forward to exchange pleasantries. They basically said the kids would be playing together here, asked Aberrant to look after their children, then put down the small gifts they’d brought and hurried away.

The “small gift” pushed forward was none other than Li Dashao, the part-time translator.

As the neighborly visiting gift, he felt Aberrant’s cold hand brush across his neck, sending goosebumps all over him. The slightly melting, sticky skin sensation was extremely subtle. He even felt as if Aberrant’s melting skin still lingered on his neck, a burning feeling somewhere between real and illusion.

Just like before when Aberrant had tried countless times to get Players to play with her, she said to her daughter, “Go play, play with him.”

Only after the three kids led her out of Aberrant’s sight did Li Dashao finally regain his composure, his face darkening.

Harriet and Muriel were excitedly grabbing him to translate what they were saying—they wanted to talk to Qian.

Li Dashao’s eyes flickered as he looked at the three kids in front of him. His mind started working again.

He knew their identities, but the children’s appearances were so deceiving—none of them looked nearly as terrifying as their parents, especially Qian, who could easily pass as an ordinary child outside.

Maybe, just maybe, he could escape from their hands. Li Dashao had an idea.

He obediently translated for the three kids, then subtly guided the conversation. When Harriet asked Qian where she wanted to play, Li Dashao told Qian, “They want to invite you to play hide-and-seek.”

Qian immediately responded, “Okay, hide-and-seek!”

Li Dashao then told the other two kids that Qian wanted to play hide-and-seek.

Since it was hide-and-seek, they would have to separate and hide. Once apart, he only had to deal with one child at a time—it would be much easier.

“I’ll find first,” Muriel said. She glanced at Li Dashao and suddenly pulled out a dog leash. “I’ll hold him.”

Her face was pretty like a little angel’s, but when she smiled, it was like a demon’s.

With the leash around his neck, Li Dashao was led by Muriel while Harriet and Qian ran off in different directions.

“Are you hiding well? I’m coming to find you!”

Muriel’s voice, cheerful and clear, echoed through Tianzi Building. It didn’t get any reaction from the kids, but it scared a group of Outer Region Players hiding nearby.

Those Players had entered Tianzi Building by accident, trying to escape the demons from Blood Castle. They never expected to meet even scarier monsters here—and then to hear the voice of this little demon while hiding.

On their regional gaming forums, the two little demons from Blood Castle were very famous.

Unaware that the children were just playing a game, the Outer Region Players believed the demons were toying with them, and that once found, they’d be drained of their blood!

Li Dashao silently followed Muriel from room to room. Each time Muriel found an Outer Region Player, she frightened them to tears but didn’t kill them. Instead, she bared her sharp teeth and scared them into fleeing wildly.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Just as Li Dashao patiently waited for the right moment, Muriel was suddenly tripped by an Outer Region Player who had appeared out of nowhere.

The moment Li Dashao vanished, Muriel bit down hard on that Outer Region Player’s neck, her eyes fixed on where Li Dashao was

“Run faster, little dog! Hide well, don’t let us find you! Haha!” He slammed the body he was holding onto the ground and hummed happily.

A drop of his blood transformed into a small bat, and soon Harriet followed the little bat over.

She complained to her younger brother, “You haven’t found me yet! Why did you call me here?”

Muriel picked up the empty dog leash and said innocently, “The little dog’s hiding, so now let’s play hide-and-seek with the little dog!”

Li Dashao clutched his chest and hurried downstairs.

His special ability was invisibility, but it lasted only briefly, and using it too much could trigger illness. He had escaped from Blood Castle’s prison because of this ability before.

“Little dog, are you hiding well? We’re coming to find you!” The children’s clear, sweet voices echoed from upstairs. Only then did Li Dashao truly understand what those Outer Region Players felt.

The relentless, pressing danger. The hopelessness of nowhere to run. This was the game they really wanted to play.

The mighty Li Dashao, supported by his family’s power and trained Players, had never been this desperate in any dungeon.

A dull pain in his chest forced him to stop and find a place to hide.

He opened a door and met eyes with Qian crouched behind it.

Li Dashao: “…”

He took out a peachwood sword wrapped in yellow talismans—a high-level item far more effective against Weird Entities than firearms.

Qian, crouching in the corner waiting for her friends to find her, suddenly found a peachwood sword pressed against her neck at first glance.

The sword looked strange and gave her a bad feeling. She instinctively froze, clenching her fists.

“Found you…” The door was pushed open, revealing two little girls holding hands.

Li Dashao calmly turned and revealed Qian beside him, finally regaining a bit of his usual composure.

“Your companion is here. I can kill her anytime. If I can’t leave safely, she dies too.”

The twins smiled identically and stared at Li Dashao as if trying to read his mind.

Qian watched the standoff.

The danger she felt from the sword suddenly vanished after she clenched her fists. At this moment, Li Dashao’s attention wasn’t on her. She reached out and tried to push the wooden sword off her neck.

Li Dashao, realizing something was wrong, looked down: “…?”

He couldn’t believe it. He repositioned the sword on Qian’s neck and pressed harder.

According to his plan, that pressure should have cut the neck of this little Weird Entity, but no red mark appeared—like the sword was just a toy made of wood.

He watched helplessly as the little Weird Entity grabbed the sword again and pushed it away.

Still confused, a rustling of wings sounded and a swarm of bats like black mist rushed over.

He swung the talisman-covered sword he had exchanged for many points, but found it useless—not only against the little Weird Entity at his feet but also against the bats!

His hand went limp, and the peachwood sword slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor.

Qian bent down, picked up the peachwood sword, ran to Muriel and Harriet, and happily waved the sword twice, showing off her new toy.

Li Dashao relied on his life-saving protective amulet to escape. The bats occasionally sucked his blood, making him look utterly miserable.

He scrambled to the corridor and suddenly heard a familiar shout from the opposite side.

“Young Master!”

His heart skipped a beat—it was Liu Zhi, his most trusted ally!

Liu Zhi and a bodyguard spotted Li Dashao at the other end of the spiral corridor and sprinted toward him.

They had been separated by the Domain Fusion’s disturbance. Liu Zhi had searched Tianzi Building and then Blood Castle all day with no luck.

She had already spotted the bats chasing Li Dashao and the trio of children. Without hesitation, she activated her ability, spreading a purification domain—a soft white light radiating outward.

This ability was very effective against Aberrants but only moderately so against the vampire twins from the Outer Region. The bats chasing Li Dashao grew dizzy and fell from the air one by one, but Harriet and Muriel remained unharmed.

Only Qian immediately crouched when the white light washed over her. She remembered how painful this light was.

The last time she encountered it, Chen Cailing was beside her and immediately helped her avoid it, but now the light covered her directly, and she couldn’t dodge.

Feeling a faint pain, Qian clenched her fists, and the pain suddenly vanished.

She looked at her small fists in surprise and saw a faint golden glow between her palms.

Harriet and Muriel also felt uncomfortable in the light, but seeing Qian crouched and curled up as if in pain, they bared their sharp teeth angrily.

“Damn bugs! Annoying bugs!”

“We wanted you to become a Blood Servant, but now we’re going to kill you!”

The children’s shrill voices screamed in frustration.

Liu Zhi had not yet recovered and struggled to maintain the purification domain, her face pale. The bodyguard quickly moved to assist Li Dashao.

They ran downstairs, with Harriet and Muriel angrily transforming into blood-red bats and chasing after them, leaving only Qian crouching alone.

Surprised to see her fists, Qian looked up and realized everyone else had fled, leaving her behind. “Huh?”

She stood up holding the peachwood sword and hurried after them: “Wait for me!”

Reaching the sixth floor, Liu Zhi and the others avoided the gathering gray misty shadows around them.

Li Dashao heard the bats behind him and told the bodyguard, “Go slow them down.”

The bodyguard silently followed him but hesitated and stopped.

The screams behind them didn’t make Li Dashao and Liu Zhi slow down; if anything, they ran faster.

It wasn’t that they didn’t care—the bodyguard had been carefully cultivated right under the old man’s nose and wasn’t easy to come by.

After a while, the bats stopped making noise behind them, and the bodyguard caught up again.

He looked paler but seemed unharmed.

Li Dashao glanced at him in surprise and breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to ask what happened, the silent bodyguard suddenly opened his mouth, revealing sharp vampire fangs.

“Young Master, watch out!”

Liu Zhi shouted and lunged forward, but in an instant, the bodyguard, who had originally aimed for Li Dashao’s neck, suddenly changed direction and bit into her neck instead.

In a flash of shock and anger, Liu Zhi was caught off guard, her neck bone snapping with a crack.

Her head tilted and hung limply as her body suddenly emitted a burst of white light at the last moment, knocking the bodyguard who had been biting her neck to the ground.

Veins bulging on his forehead, Li Dashao glanced once more at Liu Zhi, clutched his chest, and kept moving downstairs.

He had to live and get out of here!

The white light from Liu Zhi’s death bought him some time; no bats pursued him for the moment, and the gray shadows ahead had thinned.

Step by step, Li Dashao moved forward.

Until he saw a gray shadow in the corridor—the face of his dead younger brother.

The face came close, passed right through his body, as if giving him a hug.

When they were kids, before he had secretly come to resent his brother for various reasons, the two brothers often shared such intimate embraces.

But sadly, he was dead—turned into a Weird Entity inside Tianzi Building—and so his brother’s embrace became a deadly one, draining the life from Li Dashao’s body.

Li Dashao collapsed to the ground, eyes fixed unwaveringly on the lingering gray shadow beside him, his body stiffening and turning pale.

How could he, just like that useless brother, die here?