Chapter 05: The New Axe

Taking advantage of the fact that the three people from 702 were ignoring her, Xia Mi pulled out her phone and stole a quick glance.

Unknown Number: [I forgot to remind you of a rule just now. Use the elevator as much as possible; do not use the stairs. ￥%@&*… %#]

The first line was normal text, but everything after that had turned into gibberish.

Xia Mi would have to be a fool to believe that.

Setting aside the fact that “Xiao Mi” in Hani Apartments had died once in the elevator and only reached the Rooftop safely by escaping into the stairwell, even without the game context, the phrasing of this text was suspicious.

The correct description should have been “take the stairs” and “use the elevator.” While “take the elevator” and “use the stairs” weren’t major errors, they felt slightly off.

One should never underestimate the sensitivity to precise wording possessed by a small-town student raised on a diet of standardized testing¹!

Furthermore, the text following that sentence was clearly being blocked and scrambled into code by some unknown force. With such obvious signs of tampering, who would trust this information?

Xia Mi didn’t know exactly what “Zhuo” was, but she knew one thing now: Zhuo’s IQ was low and its literacy level was mediocre. The traces of its tampering were too obvious; it only knew how to swap nouns but didn’t know how to change the verbs to match.

However, Zhuo could silently alter the content of her messages.

This hadn’t happened inside her room; the message was only tampered with after she stepped out.

Xia Mi recalled the Unknown Number mentioning that her room had not yet been eroded by the Domain and belonged to “Qing.” Therefore, while she was inside, she could receive accurate information from the Unknown Number.

She took a step back, reaching the open doorway of her apartment. She extended her arm into the room, keeping the phone within the space of “Qing.”

This time, Xia Mi saw the correct message.

[I forgot to remind you of a few rules just now. First, use the stairs as much as possible; do not use the elevator. Remember, the more crowded a place is, the more turbid it becomes, and the stronger the power of “Zhuo” will be.

Second, once you leave your room, you are within the Domain of “Zhuo.” Any information you receive may have been tampered with by “Zhuo.” Do not trust anyone’s words, including my messages.

Third, do not let your body come into direct contact with the mutated parts of others, or you will be infected.

Fourth, if an object changes after coming into contact with someone’s mutated parts, that object may become a weapon to deal with the mutated. You can try to find weapons to protect yourself.]

Xia Mi ground her teeth as she read the message. Such important rules, yet the Unknown Number sent them after she had already left the room. Was their memory really that bad?

Still, it was a good sign. This message actually confirmed for Xia Mi that the Unknown Number wasn’t a fabrication created by “Zhuo” to deceive her. Her Bianzhi was real.

Xia Mi put away her phone and looked at the axe embedded in the wheel.

She saw that the grayish-black viscous liquid the wheel had transformed into had merged into the axe. The axe head had clearly grown larger and become exceptionally sharp, while the handle had lengthened, growing from ninety centimeters to about one and a half meters.

Xia Mi bent down to pick up the axe. Its weight hadn’t increased; it was unexpectedly light and easy to handle, yet it looked far more lethal.

With her new weapon in hand, Xia Mi felt terrifyingly powerful.

She aimed at the Otaku’s blood-red greatsword and swung down with force. The massive axe cleaved the greatsword in two with a single blow. The Otaku’s confidence vanished instantly, and he stared at Xia Mi in disbelief.

“How could my sword break? I still owe tens of thousands in consumer loans!” The Otaku cried out, collapsing emotionally.

However, his complexion gradually improved. Color returned to his pale face, and the vitality that had been drained by the greatsword was slowly returning to his body.

“You broke my sword! I’m going to kill you!” With a twisted expression, The Otaku lunged at Xia Mi.

Xia Mi dodged calmly and said composedly, “Your sword didn’t disappear. The one just now was a fake. The real sword is still in your game account. If you don’t believe me, go back and check.”

“Impossible! I pulled it out of the computer with my own hands!” The Otaku shouted.

Xia Mi asked, “Does your game have a mobile version? If it does, take your phone into Room 703 and log in. I guarantee the sword is still in your account.”

Half-doubting, The Otaku walked into Xia Mi’s room. A moment later, an excited roar erupted from inside: “It’s still there! It’s still there!”

Xia Mi sighed.

She had used The Otaku for an experiment.

If The Otaku could find that sword inside her room, it proved her room was indeed uncontaminated, and she could trust the words of the Unknown Number.

But doing so meant an Intruder had entered her room, and it would be completely occupied by “Zhuo.”

The only pure land in the entire building had vanished just like that.

Carrying her axe, Xia Mi prepared to head upstairs, but she was blocked by the snail-like real estate agent from 702. The agent kept muttering, “Miss Xia, buy a house. I’ll give you a discount.”

At the same time, the Delivery Man from 702 lay at Xia Mi’s feet and said, “You have to pay for my electric scooter.”

Under the influence of “Zhuo,” they were blocking Xia Mi using their own individual justifications.

Knowing they could still communicate, Xia Mi made a casual promise. “Alright, I’ll buy your house and I’ll pay for your scooter. I’m going to get the money right now. Wait for me in my room.”

The agent said, “Miss Xia, our company accepts cards. I have a POS machine right here.”

The Delivery Man added, “No way. What if you run away?”

Even in this state, they were still sharp enough to detect Xia Mi’s deception.

Xia Mi felt a headache coming on, yet she was also relieved that these people hadn’t lost their humanity yet; there was still a chance to save them.

She didn’t have time to entangle with them. While they were still capable of communication, she raised her axe and said, “Either go to my room and wait for me to come back, or get chopped up like that wheel and that sword. Take your pick.”

Xia Mi held the one-and-a-half-meter axe effortlessly in her hand and swung it toward the agent, leaving a deep gash on his thick snail shell.

The agent immediately crawled toward Room 703, saying, “Miss Xia is beautiful, kind, and high-class. Her word is her bond. She will definitely come back to buy a house.”

Seeing the agent flee, the Delivery Man followed suit. “Then I’ll wait for you. If you run away, I’ll cancel your lease on this room for you and ask the landlord for your security deposit to cover the debt.”

Under Xia Mi’s threats and inducements, the trio from 702 obediently locked themselves inside 703 and shut the door tight.

Xia Mi stared at the door of 703, recalling the scene of her hunting down Xiao Pi with her axe earlier. For a moment, she couldn’t tell who the real monster was.

Forget it, no use dwelling on that. It was better for the monsters to fear her than for her to fear the monsters.

Xia Mi turned the axe sideways, gripping it with both hands, and hurried toward the stairwell.

No one was more familiar with this route than Xia Mi.

Their residential complex was relatively old. They didn’t charge elevator maintenance fees, but you had to swipe a card to use the elevator. Each ride cost fifty cents, and during peak commuting hours, it went up to one yuan.

If she took the elevator every time she went up or down, she could easily spend five to ten yuan a day. That added up to anywhere between a hundred and three hundred yuan a month.

There was no way Xia Mi was paying that!

She was young and healthy, and she didn’t live that high up. It was only the seventh floor; she could climb it herself!

After living here for two months, Xia Mi had reached the point where she could carry a fifty-pound bag of rice up to the seventh floor. She was incredibly strong.

Since national regulations required dual elevators for buildings over twelve stories, this building was only eleven stories high. Climbing from the seventh floor to the eleventh was a walk in the park.

There were twenty-eight rooms on Xia Mi’s floor. The stairs and elevators were located in the middle section, between rooms 714 and 715, only a few dozen meters away.

Xia Mi was the only person in the hallway. Logically, she should have been able to walk into the stairwell without any trouble.

But Xia Mi knew better. She knew that if she went unprepared, the resident of 710 would snatch her into their room, granting her another death ending.

Thanks to “Hani Apartments,” Xia Mi was ready. The moment she reached the door of 710, she swung her axe.

Almost simultaneously, the door to 710 flew open. A tide of multicolored hair surged toward Xia Mi, attempting to bind her and drag her inside.

Xia Mi’s axe rose and fell. The unnaturally sharp blade cut through the hair like a hot knife through butter, severing every strand that lunged at her.

Even with her athletic reflexes, she shouldn’t have been this skilled.

The first time she used the axe to chop the tires, her movements had been clumsy. Her arms had gone numb from the vibration, and she could barely hold onto the handle.

Now, however, the axe felt as if it were alive. Though it wasn’t a part of her body, it felt connected to her, moving in perfect sync with her will.

Xia Mi only needed to give it a trajectory and a bit of momentum, and it would carry out the action on its own.

With a few horizontal sweeps, Xia Mi cleared the hair in front of her. Standing inside Room 710 was a young woman with trendy hair color and a very fashionable hairstyle.

Xia Mi had seen her before while climbing the stairs. They had walked up to the seventh floor together once and chatted briefly.

The woman’s hair was dyed in a popular Parisian Balayage² style, a misty haze blue that looked both chic and mysterious. Xia Mi had complimented her hair, and the woman told her she had dyed it herself. She was a hairdresser. She told Xia Mi that if she liked the color, she could come to her beauty salon and have it done.

Xia Mi had indeed liked it, but when she asked around about that salon, the prices for perms and dyes made her eyes roll back in her head. The minimum deposit for a membership card was two thousand yuan. Getting her hair dyed once would cost more than a month’s rent.

So, this girl lived in 710.

It made sense why she would be snatched by the hair reaching out from 710. Perhaps this girl had been waiting for her to come get her hair dyed all along.

Standing inside 710, the hairdresser said, “Xiao Xia, want to get a membership card? I have a special offer right now. Deposit two thousand yuan and get five hundred yuan worth of hair care products for free.”

Xia Mi felt that the hairdresser was scarier than the three guys from 702 combined. She hurriedly replied, “I don’t have any money. I’m poor. I can’t afford a card.”

Hearing Xia Mi’s triple-play of poverty, the hairdresser sighed softly and withdrew the hair surrounding Xia Mi.

Xia Mi noticed that the hair was all beautifully colored. Some were smooth and straight, others were wavy curls. They represented the hairdresser’s desires. These days, perms and dyes had high profit margins, so hairdressers naturally wanted customers to go for those services.

The Hairdresser said, “I must be out of my mind. You don’t have a job, you live in this dump just like me, and you’re so poor you won’t even pay for the elevator. How could you possibly have the money to get a card³ at our shop?”

“Why are you insulting me all of a sudden? Haven’t you heard the saying ‘don’t look down on the poor youth⁴‘?” Xia Mi said indignantly.

She felt the hairdresser’s words dealt more damage than the five people from 704 and 702 put together.

The Hairdresser sighed. “I can’t help it. The shop has heavy quotas. The manager requires us to sell twenty cards a month just to get a commission. One of the girls at my shop already slept with a balding middle-aged man just to get him to buy cards. That guy barely has any hair left, yet he bought five cards at once. Who knows how many years it’ll take him to use them.”

The Hairdresser looked at her own hands. “I have confidence in my skills, but the membership fees are really high. There used to be plenty of people buying them, but with the economy being so bad lately, customers are getting fewer and fewer. Tell me, do I really have to sell my body to meet my targets? If it comes to that, why did I bother learning how to cut hair? I should have just gone straight into that line of work, right?”

Xia Mi felt a pang of sympathy. This time, she spoke with genuine sincerity. “Once I pass the civil service exam, I’ll get a card from you even if I have to borrow the money.”

The Hairdresser was surrounded by floating, multicolored strands of long hair. The scene was eerie yet strangely beautiful.

Amidst the silken threads, she flashed a bright smile at Xia Mi and said happily, “Then it’s a deal. I wish you a speedy success on your exam!”

Xia Mi nodded and walked past the open door of 710, making her way all the way to the stairwell.

The door to the stairwell was slightly ajar. Xia Mi pushed it open and stepped inside. Knowing she had reached a temporary safe zone, she let out a small sigh of relief.

But before she could even finish exhaling, the hairdresser’s voice rang out from behind her. “I’m still one card short of my quota for the month. How about this? You write me an IOU, I’ll lend you the two thousand yuan, and you can get the card now. What do you think?”

Xia Mi: “…”

That mass of hair had actually followed her into the stairwell. This was a plot development that had never happened in Hani Apartments!

Translator’s Notes