Chapter 191 Keeping an Appointment

Chapter 191: An Appointment Kept

"What's wrong?" To Su Bai, the Jin brothers seemed to be brimming with questions.

"So this really is your shop." As Jin Zheng spoke, his gaze drifted to the door of the back room behind Su Bai.

Though they had long suspected the shop's connection to Su Bai, and despite their mental conditioning to believe that even if Su Bai was an Eerie Entity, he was a special one who had never harmed them, the Jin brothers still harbored many doubts. Given even a sliver of possibility, they would have preferred to believe the Fog Shop was merely a mysterious establishment that had inexplicably appeared in the dense fog, and that Su Bai was just a powerful, reliable player with no ties to it.

After all, it's truly difficult for humans to relax in the presence of Eerie Entities.

But when Su Bai familiarly pushed open the door behind the counter, the last possibility vanished, and all speculation settled. Jin Zheng and Jin Yi could now confirm an undeniable link between Su Bai and the Fog Shop—or rather, that Su Bai was a mysterious Eerie Entity who owned a mysterious shop!

They had been walking alongside an Eerie Entity all this time, and they had entered a shop owned by one.

Just moments before, the Jin brothers had considered the Fog Shop the safest place. Now, however, their mood was even more weary than when they had battled ghosts in the thick fog. For a moment, they were torn: should they seize the chance to bolt while this Eerie Entity still harbored no ill will, and face the terrifying ghosts in the fog on their own? Or should they remain by the side of this currently non-hostile Eerie Entity to gain assistance?

Had they known that the Fog Shop building was the only "external structure" in the entire Fog City, their feelings would likely have been even more complicated. Unfortunately, ordinary players like the Jin brothers not only didn't realize they were inside the body of an Eerie Entity whose true form was the fog, but they were also completely unaware of the Fog City Lord's existence.

Most players still believed Fog City was just an ordinary area in the Nightmare World. In such a world, the appearance of various Eerie Entities or the sudden emergence of a previously non-existent shop seemed perfectly reasonable.

Su Bai could discern the indecision and struggle in the Jin brothers' eyes, but he could more or less guess their ultimate choice. After all, this wasn't the first time Jin Zheng and Jin Yi had faced such a decision; they had made a similar one when they first met Su Xuan. Their final choice then was to stay by Su Xuan's side for protection, despite their hatred and loathing for him.

"We need to go. While this shop is safe, it can't take us where we truly want to go. The rest of the journey is still up to us." As Su Bai spoke, he glanced at the small cat sleeping on the counter. "Happy, we're going out to play."

Hearing the words "out to play," the black kitten immediately opened its wide, round eyes.

As if knowing what might happen next, the little one didn't pounce into Su Bai's arms as usual. Instead, it meowed at Su Bai once, then meowed several times at the ceramic ornament beside it, which was formed from the power of the cat spirit.

What even Su Bai didn't expect was that the black kitten, Happy, along with that ceramic ornament, transformed into a black light and flew toward his left hand.

When Su Bai looked closely, he saw that, in addition to the strand of beads that absorbed power, his left wrist now had an extra black rope, just like when he had taken the kitten out before. However, compared to before, the black rope transformed from the kitten seemed a bit thicker, and it now had several ceramic beads shaped like cat heads and knots for fastening, resembling the peace cords that many people in the real world cherish.

Although he wasn't entirely sure how different this black peace cord would be from before, Su Bai could tell that the little one, Happy, seemed to have brought along the entire power of the cat spirit into this black peace cord, as if dragging its whole family along.

If Su Bai remembered correctly, the original ability of that ceramic ornament seemed to be summoning cat spirits for him to command?

"Are you ready?" Su Bai stroked the peace cord on his left wrist, transformed from the kitten, and looked at Jin Zheng and Jin Yi, who had already risen from the sofa.

The abilities of Jin Zheng and Jin Yi as players seemed related to their twin talents, but this hadn't been very evident yet, possibly due to their repeated clearing of nightmare games with others' help. In any case, the two likely had no clear understanding of the power brought by the Red Moon. Besides knowing that the Red Moon helped strengthen human players' bodies, they probably had no idea that the Red Moon's power could be stored within the human body, nor would they actively store this power, allowing it to dissipate throughout their bodies.

This is actually why physical enhancement abilities are the most common among human players.

Precisely because they lacked the awareness to actively store the Red Moon's power, even when collapsing from exhaustion in battle, many people wouldn't associate it with "depleted power." So when the Jin brothers heard Su Bai telling them to rest, they only thought he meant for them to recover their physical strength and mental energy, without considering the more mystical concepts of "meditation" or "power."

"...Boss." Jin Zheng finally settled on how to address Su Bai. "The agreement between you and us has actually been fulfilled, and we no longer have any important information related to Su Xuan. Why are you still setting out with us?"

"Just heading the same way." Su Bai had already pushed open the door of the Fog Shop. "I said this shop can't take me where I want to go. The journey ahead still requires walking on our own. It's not just that you don't want to stay in the fog; I also have someone I must find after leaving the fog."

In Su Bai's view, the Fog City Lord, who enjoyed watching Fog City be destroyed time and again, would also choose the best viewing spot this time. Although the fog couldn't obscure the vision of the entity that is the fog, compared to the foggy area, other parts of Fog City should now be filled with more of the panic and despair that ghosts favor.

That's why, when Su Bai met Mayor Bai earlier, the other party was also standing in the shadows with him, observing the chaos near the foggy area.

"Su Xuan?"

"No." Su Bai stepped out of the shop. "More like a... date, I suppose?"

The purpose of Su Bai's journey was to invite Mayor Bai to the Fog Shop for a potentially fatal "date" that might ensure the other never returns.

"Ahem." The Thread-Wrapped Doll sitting on the counter coughed lightly as if choking, making the Jin brothers curiously look around.

As Jin Yi, walking at the rear of the group, stepped out of the Fog Shop, he could feel that the shop hadn't disappeared. The shop in the ruins still existed in its place. But for some reason, Jin Yi could no longer clearly see the storefront of the Fog Shop; even the lights that were still on inside had completely vanished, as if a layer of fog had enveloped the area, obscuring the view.