Chapter 589 Points

Chapter 589: Points

Because of those two people's weird outfits and condition, Lu Jinyan felt a weird mix of curiosity and confusion he couldn't quite put into words. He couldn't help sneaking a few more glances at them, but kept his usual calm look on his face.

After all, he didn't know much about the Nightmare Game, and he knew nothing about the popular clothing styles among players.

Who knows, maybe there are a bunch of weirdos who like wearing cloaks and doing performance art?

Look at Pei Zhan over there, carrying that huge sword on his back, and everyone just thinks he's cool, nobody thinks it's weird.

"Excuse me, may I ask your name?" Shen Guanlan walked a few steps closer to the cloaked guy and politely asked.

The cloaked guy didn't answer at first, but after glancing at the person in his arms, he finally said his name: "Wu Heng."

It was a nice male voice, even making Bai Qi, who was standing next to Pei Zhan, look over.

But other than that, the guy named Wu Heng didn't say another word. He didn't say who he was holding or explain why the person in his arms looked unconscious.

The others were naturally confused, their eyes unconsciously glued to the lounge area, but nobody dared to ask more. The scene froze for a moment.

Just then, the sharp sound of high heels clicking on the hard floor came from the front desk, getting closer.

Lu Jinyan and the others almost all turned their heads at the same time, staring at the hallway by the front desk.

A few seconds later, a "person" in a well-fitted red skirt suit and bright red stilettos walked out—tall and graceful.

But the thing was, it didn't have a head.

To be exact, it was cut off right at the neck. Above the neck was empty, the cut so smooth it looked almost fake, not a drop of blood in sight.

Lu Jinyan stared at the creepy thing's neck stump, holding his breath in fear.

Even though he'd already seen terrifying monsters that didn't look human at all in his last two missions, he was still really scared of this kind of humanoid horror.

A kind of dread that felt way too real.

"Welcome, new employees, to 'Fragrant Memory Coffee.' Our company already runs █ chain cafes. New employees have to do various tasks like coffee and machine R&D, brand operations, maintenance, and product delivery." The humanoid walked behind the front desk holding a black folder, its voice seeming to come from the severed neck.

"Before you officially start, please show me the 'points' on your left wrist. I'll record them as your starting 'employee points.' While you're employed, you can check any increases or decreases in 'employee points' at the front desk."

With that, the humanoid turned on the computer at the front desk—a bulky, old model that had been phased out in the real world a long time ago.

The streets and some stuff in the Nightmare World looked like the real world, but with a certain time lag. That's also why Lu Jinyan had mentioned the latest movie info to prove who he was.

But... employee points?

He looked down at his left hand.

He slowly pushed up his shirt cuff, showing a patch of skin under the cold, pale light.

On the inside of his wrist, a set of numbers was clearly carved—"20."

Were these his points?

Lu Jinyan touched the two numbers. They looked and felt like knife wounds that hadn't fully healed, but they didn't hurt at all.

"Please show me the points on your wrists."

The front desk urged, but Lu Jinyan and some of the other players hesitated, not sure what these points meant for them or if they'd affect the game later.

"I'll go first." In the end, the oldest, Shen Guanlan, stepped forward a few steps, showing three numbers on his wrist, also carved like knife wounds.

"My points are 260." Shen Guanlan's number was more than ten times Lu Jinyan's.

The front desk didn't respond or ask for names, just silently typed the numbers into the system. Maybe it already knew, or maybe it didn't need to.

This made Lu Jinyan instinctively cover the numbers on his wrist.

"That many?" Zhou Shirong, in a suit, stepped forward, showing the numbers on his wrist while complaining, "Why do I only have 10 points?"

"Mine are 30." The sharp-looking newcomer, Chu Qianren, who looked like he could fight, also stepped forward. "Looks like newbies all have really low points."

Pei Zhan, standing behind them, let out a light laugh at this, looking arrogant. He slowly raised his left hand, palm slightly open, showing the numbers on his wrist: "Only 960 points? Maybe your company miscounted a bit."

Hearing the admiring exclamations around him, Pei Zhan still had a cold look, but Lu Jinyan could tell from his face that he was enjoying the moment.

"As expected of Boss Pei!" Xiong Yi looked at him with admiration. "My points are only 210. I'm not a newbie, but still far from the boss. Could this initial number represent our strength as players?"

"Mr. Pei is amazing!"

"540." The female celebrity, Wen Ya, showed no interest in the flattery over there. She simply walked straight to the front desk and revealed the numbers on the inside of her wrist.

Xiong Yi, who had previously looked down on the female celebrity, now fell silent. If these numbers truly represented their strength, then Wen Ya might be able to kill him without much effort.

Pei Zhan's expression toward Wen Ya also shifted.

After hearing the points his idol possessed, Lu Jinyan felt both happy and excited, but more than that, a sense of shame.

It was as if... even though they were all in the Nightmare World together, Wen Ya still stood at a distance far, far away from him.

Bai Qi also stared at Wen Ya for a moment, then pressed her hand over her wrist without moving. After a while, she walked to the front desk and said somewhat sheepishly, "My points are only 10 too."

Her number was the same as Zhou Shirong's, and both had only been through one game.

The numbers carved into the inside of their wrists were very clear, easily visible to those around them.

"And the gentleman standing over there?" The headless front desk couldn't lift its head, but it seemed to be "looking" at Lu Jinyan, who was standing at the back.

"I..." Lu Jinyan had been trying to hide his newbie status, but he never expected that he couldn't escape it in the end. He could only lower his head and reveal the numbers on his wrist. The bright red "20" ultimately exposed his identity as a newcomer.

"What? Another newbie?" Xiong Yi frowned. "Is this a newbie round? Are we supposed to be babysitters?"

But after Xiong Yi spoke, no one else said anything. It was as if no one really cared whether Lu Jinyan was a newbie or not.

Lu Jinyan lowered his head even further. This was what he hated most since birth—something he had pondered over for a long time and cared deeply about, yet in reality, no one else gave a damn.

"And those two over there." The headless front desk turned its severed neck in another direction, its "gaze" fixed on the two figures in the lounge area who had not moved.

At the thought of those two strange players sitting over there, everyone's curiosity was piqued. They were especially eager to know how many points the cloaked man named Wu Heng and the person in his arms had.

After all, based on the current situation, the number of points did seem to correlate with their strength.

Wu Heng, sitting there, did not hide anything either. He extended a wrist from under his cloak that was unnaturally pale compared to an ordinary human's. The numbers carved into it were—1000.

1000 points.

If this number truly represented strength, then this peculiar but pleasant-voiced cloaked man was even more powerful than Pei Zhan, whom Xiong Yi had been so eagerly flattering.

The eyes of some in the crowd lit up instantly.

The next moment, Wu Heng looked down at the person in his arms and gently lifted that person's wrist with a tender motion.

Even from a distance, everyone could clearly see the numbers carved into the wrist of Wu Heng's mysterious companion—

0.