Chapter 117: Aberrant 7

The cries in the Infant Room grew louder again.

Qian was the first to see Aberrant appear, and she immediately ran over, her cries drowning out those of the other babies.

“Mom, they’re pulling my hair!”

Aberrant’s hand reached out and touched her head. Qian was about to continue complaining when she suddenly noticed that her mother’s hand was melting.

There was a small hole in her arm, and embedded inside was a round bead. The skin around it was melting, like candle wax dripping down.

It wasn’t just her arm; there were several other small holes like this on her body.

But Aberrant didn’t seem to mind. As before, she first comforted the babies crawling towards her, especially focusing on calming the loudest cry—Qian—gently rubbing the back of her head and smoothing her hair.

Qian frowned, feeling that it must hurt. She couldn’t help but reach out to pry the bead out of her mother’s arm.

Once the bead, faintly glowing with golden light, was pried out, it slowly dimmed.

Aberrant reacted immediately, slapping the Buddhist Bead from Qian’s hand and grasping her hand, searching.

Qian understood her worry.

“Mom, I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt,” she pulled out one hand and also removed a Buddhist Bead from Aberrant’s shoulder.

Aberrant grabbed her hand again, squeezing her fingers.

The babies who had crawled over saw what Qian was doing and tried to reach for the beads as well, but Aberrant stopped them. However, there were too many babies, and one managed to touch a bead. The child let out a sharp cry.

Aberrant hurried to calm the crying baby, momentarily forgetting about Qian. Qian, quick as ever, pried all the other beads off her mother’s body.

Seven beads rolled onto the floor, and Qian picked them all up. The beads she had touched were dark and dull. Curious babies crawled over to touch the beads, but there was no reaction.

Only the unlucky child from earlier, who had touched a bead, was still crying, holding a hand that had turned black.

Qian threw a bead, which caught the attention of several babies, who tumbled and crawled after it. One small, thin baby was the quickest, snatching the bead, but then was pinned down by two other babies, all rolling in a heap.

Aberrant finished calming the crying child, then came over to separate the three babies fighting over the bead.

Qian watched with amusement and threw out the remaining beads. Soon, more than ten babies were scrambling to grab them, including the one who had been crying earlier.

Aberrant stood in the middle, watching the chaos. After a while, she decisively pulled Qian close and began collecting the other squirming babies one by one.

Qian, held tightly in her mother’s arms by four of Aberrant’s limbs, wriggled.

“Hmm… I don’t want to sleep, I want to play.”

But her mother held her too tightly, and she couldn’t break free. Realizing she couldn’t escape, Qian decided to pretend to sleep.

She was well-practiced at pretending to be asleep and then sneaking off to play when her parents weren’t paying attention!

Sure enough, when she became still, Aberrant loosened her grip. When her mother closed her eyes to sleep, and the other babies were asleep too, Qian knew it was her chance.

She quietly slipped out of Aberrant’s embrace, feeling along the wall, and skillfully made her way through the shelves in Room 414, opening the door to step outside.

Today, her mother had taken her through the rooms without hesitation, and Qian’s fear had lessened a great deal. She vaguely understood that the whole building might be her mother’s home, which was why she could go into every room.

In a new environment, children were naturally curious about exploring their new home. However, it was so dark outside, Qian didn’t dare run too far, so she simply walked in circles on the fourth floor.

After two full circles, all the lights on the fourth floor went out.

A small team of five stationed at the observation point outside Tianzi Building felt the atmosphere grow tense. Teacher Wen was watching the lights in the building when he suddenly noticed the lights on the entire fourth floor gradually turning off.

After last night’s events, any disturbance in the building made him extremely alert.

The other team members joined him in looking out.

“What’s going on? Did someone enter the building and do something?”

“Probably not. We didn’t hear any screams.”

“Should White Eagle and I check the nearby rooftops?”

“Not yet. We still have a few days. Let’s stay cautious tonight and observe. We can act tomorrow.”

Not only the five-person team but also others hiding nearby, observing Tianzi Building, were all speculating about the fourth floor going dark.

They kept their eyes fixed on the building, not wanting to miss any unusual sounds coming from inside.

Suddenly, a light on the completely dark fourth floor flickered on.

Qian, on tiptoe, had turned on the light in Room 410. This was the room her mother had taken her to wash her face earlier, and she remembered there were toys here.

The electronic piano by the wall! Qian ran over and climbed onto the chair, reaching up to press the piano keys.

Ding ding ding—ding ding—

Ding ding—ding—

The discordant sounds of the piano echoed through the silent night, loud enough for the entire building to hear. As a result, all the other rooms in the building, except for the fourth floor, lit up, as if something had been disturbed.

“What’s going on now? Someone playing the piano?”

The five-person team stood by the observation window, watching.

“Who would dare play the piano in Tianzi Building?”

“It’s not a person, is it? Is it an entity playing it?”

“I’ve encountered an entity in an A-level domain that played the piano by itself.”

“This sound was probably created by an entity, maybe with a mental attack effect. If we listen too long, it could make us dizzy.”

Teacher Wen sternly warned his team to block out the sound of the piano.

Luckily, the sound didn’t last too long. Unfortunately, after the piano stopped, a guitar sound followed.

Qian was strumming the guitar with both hands, not noticing that the chair behind her moved slightly, and the piano keys were pressed by something invisible.

The piano began to play a serenade automatically, the smooth melody overpowering her noise.

Qian turned her head in surprise, looking at the empty space, then suddenly got up and ran out, slamming the door shut from the outside.

The piano sound instantly became lighter and more cheerful, but the next moment, the door was pushed open, and Qian’s head popped through, asking, “Can you play Little Qinglong?”

The piano stopped abruptly, no matter how much Qian fiddled with the piano or strummed the guitar, there was no sound left in the room.

Feeling regretful, Qian played with the piano and guitar for a while before standing up and heading out.

All the lights on the fourth floor were off. She noticed that the third floor had lights on, so she walked down the stairs to the third floor.

As she neared, the lights on the third floor slowly turned off.

Watching the lights in the rooms go out, Qian knocked on the door.

“Knock knock, I’m coming in!”

The door opened with a push, and Qian found the switch to turn on the lights.

The room was quite ordinary, with a wooden bed, an assembled canvas wardrobe, and a large red and blue plastic bag filled with clothes piled up in one corner. There were both men’s and women’s clothes, stacked and tied with ropes, looking like clothes for a street stall.

Qian glanced at the clothes she had been wearing for two days, wrinkled her nose in disdain, and dove into the large bag to dig for clothes.

She pulled out a floral dress, held it up to her body, and then carried it out, planning to get her mom to help her put it on later.

She felt a sense of joy, like she was treasure hunting.

Entering the next room, she found that the floor was covered with a nice carpet, and there was a small bookshelf beside the wardrobe.

Qian looked around and noticed a blanket draped over the bed, with a cute bunny pattern.

She rolled up the blanket and hugged it to her chest, heading back toward the fourth floor.

Struggling with the blanket that was almost as large as herself, she walked forward with difficulty, looking sideways because she couldn’t see the way ahead.

Carelessly, the floral dress she had tucked under her arm fell to the floor. Qian squatted down to pick it up, and when she let go of the blanket, half of it unfurled and dragged on the ground.

Like a little ant carrying food, she moved the large blanket to Room 414.

Inside the small room, her mother and the babies were still fast asleep. Qian sighed, covered her mother with the blanket, and then ran around pulling at the corners, trying to cover all the babies.

But there were too many, and a few couldn’t be covered. She put down the dress and decided to go back for another blanket.

Their room had nothing—no pillows—how could anyone sleep like this? Qian sighed deeply.

She didn’t go back to the third floor; instead, she opened the doors to the rooms on the fourth floor one by one. Whenever she saw a pillow, she took it, squeezing one under each arm and going back and forth several times. Whether it was a bright red peony pillow with a pillowcase or a soft, checkered cotton pillow, she cleared them all out.

She counted with her fingers—one for herself, one for her mother, and one for each baby—how many would be needed.

Of course, she didn’t forget to grab more blankets.

Busy sister Qian spent the whole night working hard and finally prepared a set of bedding for the whole family.

She pulled the curled-up little babies out one by one, placing them on pillows, lined them up neatly, and covered them with blankets.

Once that was done, she felt tired and rubbed her eyes, snuggling into Aberrant’s arms. She rested her head on her mother’s chest, covered herself with the blanket she’d brought, and fell into a deep sleep.

She slept through the brief daylight, and the night of the third day fell.

With the night came a heavy rain. Amid the rain, the six-story building suddenly grew taller, adding another six floors below, though these new floors were dim and shrouded in a layer of gray.

In the Monster Domain, seven days formed a cycle, and the Survival System gave players a mission every seven days.

Generally, on the third night, that was when Aberrant truly woke up.

Aberrant slowly woke up.

She saw the little bunny blanket covering her and froze for a moment before getting up.

The ugly little babies began to wake up one by one, curiously looking at the pillows and blankets around them. They had been in this room all along and had never seen these things before, so they bit and clawed at them.

Qian opened her eyes in her mother’s arms and immediately saw two babies tearing at the floral dress she had found yesterday. The once perfect dress was now torn with two large holes.

That was the dress she had planned to wear today.

Qian let out a loud cry, storming over to hit the two babies on their behinds, one smack for each. They both wailed loudly. The three of them—two sitting and one standing—were all howling.

Aberrant hugged them all together, but Qian immediately pulled Aberrant’s arms away, not allowing her to hold the two babies. Crying, she said, “They tore my dress… it’s ruined, they ruined my dress…”

“I even found them pillows… sob, I won’t let you use my pillows anymore…”

“Huff… how can I wear my dress now!”

Seeing her sister cry so loudly, the babies dared not make a sound. One particularly clever baby seemed to understand what Qian meant and pounced on the two babies tearing at the dress, starting to fight them.

In no time, a group of babies was fighting in a tangle.

Aberrant, with four arms, was wiping Qian’s tears and comforting her, while trying to pull apart the fighting babies. With so many arms, it was almost too much to manage.

A mighty S-grade Domain BOSS, a terrifying entity feared by all, trapped in a hell of child-rearing.

The babies stopped fighting once they were restrained, but Qian wasn’t so easily comforted. She was still crying, angrily throwing herself onto the pillow, kicking her legs, her cries coming in short bursts.

Aberrant watched her for a moment, then picked up the torn dress, stood up, and left the room.

She was going to bring back a new dress for the child.

Meanwhile, the five-member team stood in the rain in front of the Tianzi Building.

Leader Teacher Wen took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

They had come with the Association’s mission, and even if they couldn’t kill Aberrant, they would still try.