Death Nearby

Of course, Lu Yuan had no intention of selling the Spirit Crystals.

He still needed them to charge the Evolution Cube — and for his own cultivation.

He had been cutting through Stone Men one by one, picking up each Stone Man's Heart from the ground, then storing his Spirit Crystals and heading back into the depths of the underground palace. When the exit Light Gate reopened — earlier than expected, before he'd even filled his Battle-mark Space to capacity — he took the hint.

He reached out with his mind. His vision went dark.

When it came back, he was in his sparse little room.

Lu Yuan checked his phone. Seven in the morning.

*Morning already? Spent a little more time inside this round than last.*

He had entered the Land of Origin at nine the night before, meaning ten full hours in real time. But the faint smile on his face had nothing to do with the hours.

Compared to yesterday, he had spent two more days inside the Land of Origin.

And his Gene Chain tempering had officially reached 20%.

A full ten percent gain over yesterday.

*Five days?*

The haul was enormous, naturally.

Beyond the Spirit Crystals, there were the material drops to account for.

Roughly two hundred-plus crafting materials in total. Four Gene Armaments.

Two of the leather armor sets had come from the cat-kin Hunter trio he'd defeated. One pair of daggers had been a drop from the Sand Ants. The last leather armor came from a Black Scorpion kill.

As for the armor he had originally looted from the Black-stripe Gray Rock Beetles — after absorbing the attacks of thousands upon thousands of creatures, it had finally been ground to tatters. Even the lingering impression it had left within his Gene Chain had completely dissolved. Irreparable.

One full suit of armor, gone. Easily tens of thousands of yuan. It stung.

He had, however, swapped into a Stone Man Battle Armor before exiting, salvaged from a Stone Man kill. Like his previous armor, it was Common Grade — but it actually provided a marginally larger defense enhancement. Likely because Stone Men themselves had a higher innate tempering degree.

After funneling several thousand Spirit Crystals into the Evolution Cube, his remaining supply sat at just 342 crystals.

He turned the morning over in his head.

*Time is still early. Check the forums first, then head over to Wild Wolf Materials. Not sure if the owner deals in Gene Armaments. If not, I'll just list them on the Battle Net.*

Any Gene Warrior could run their own shop and sell their own drops. Lu Yuan was no exception. Still, the whole process was a bit of a hassle — if a materials shop would simply take them off his hands, that was obviously the cleaner option.

He had just settled into his chair when —

A sharp, ragged scream tore through the wall from the room next door.

"A-Wei! A-Wei, wake up! What's wrong with you?!"

Lu Yuan went still.

*That sound... the couple next door?*

*Not again.*

His eyes flicked instinctively to the window. Outside, the sky had deepened to a dark, pre-dawn blue. The neon signs that had blazed through the entire night had at last gone dark and cold.

He frowned, rose to his feet, and walked out the door.

Lu Yuan made his way to the couple's door and knocked.

Frantic, stumbling footsteps clattered from inside.

The door opened.

A young woman stood before him — black hair, average looks, dressed in a black lace nightgown. Tears were still wet on her face, her expression wild with panic.

The couple's names were Feng Wei and Ma Lingling. Lu Yuan knew them by name, but they'd never had much reason to interact. Just a nod and a brief smile whenever they passed each other in the hallway.

He frowned slightly. "Miss Ma. I heard you from my room — I came to check. Are you alright?"

Ma Lingling seized his arm and yanked him forward.

"Help me — please! A-Wei — A-Wei isn't breathing!"

Lu Yuan's eyes hardened. He stepped inside quickly.

The couple's room shared the same basic layout as his own, just a little larger.

On the small desk sat a framed photo of the two of them together — both grinning, visibly happy. Beside it stood a plastic rose, its colors long since faded, placed in a small bottle.

Feng Wei was lying on the bed at the center of the room, dressed only in his underwear, bare-chested.

His face was an iron-gray blue. His body, rigid.

It was unsettling to look at.

Lu Yuan checked his pulse. Then his breathing.

Both had stopped. The body was already going cold.

Ma Lingling's face drained white. She screamed.

"A-Wei! A-Wei, wake up! What happened to you?!"

Lu Yuan caught her by the shoulders and shook her firmly.

"Miss Ma. Calm down. Feng Wei is dead."

She stared at him, tears streaming, voice cracking to pieces.

"What?! I don't believe it — A-Wei said he was going to marry me. He can't be dead! How could he just leave me all alone?!"

She clutched the front of his shirt with both hands, her body pressing back from the bed even as she wept. The color had drained completely from her face.

They had seemed so close, these two. No one could have imagined that between one night and the next, they would be separated forever.

Ma Lingling grabbed his sleeve and pulled, her voice going shrill:

"Lu Yuan — you're in high school, you have to know something, right?! Please, save A-Wei! Please!"

*Just how much does she think I can do?*

Lu Yuan watched her weep in silence. He felt a genuine pang of sympathy.

He waited until the worst of it had passed, then drew a slow breath.

"Miss Ma. Call the police. Let them handle this."

She fumbled out her phone and dialed.

The moment she finished the call and the door creaked, Ma Lingling flinched hard, snatching a fistful of Lu Yuan's shirt.

He turned toward her and said in a low, steady voice:

"Miss Ma. Let go. I need to check outside."

She nodded quickly and released him, her fingers trembling.

Lu Yuan took a long look at the body on the bed. Then he waited.

When the silence had stretched long enough, he spoke again.

"Miss Ma, can you think back to what happened earlier? Did Feng Wei have any pre-existing condition — heart trouble, anything like that?"

Ma Lingling wiped her eyes, voice still thick.

"A-Wei's health was always fine. He didn't have any illness."

"Fine, you say."

Lu Yuan's frown deepened. Something about this didn't sit right.

"Then did you notice anything unusual? Any sign that something was off?"

Ma Lingling thought for a moment. Then, as though something buried suddenly surfaced, her eyes went wide.

"While we were sleeping... A-Wei made a sound, like he was in pain. I half-woke up and looked over. There was something on him — a blurry dark shape. But the sound stopped quickly, and the shape disappeared. I... I thought I was seeing things. I went back to sleep."

Her voice faltered.

"I was so groggy... I don't even know if I really saw it."

Lu Yuan stared at her, expression grave.

"You're sure."

Ma Lingling hesitated — nodded, then shook her head. Her eyes were distant, half-lost.

"And do you have any guesses? Is there anyone who might have wanted to harm him?"

Ma Lingling shook her head, dabbing at her tears.

Lu Yuan went quiet.

He looked one last time at Feng Wei's body.

That blue-gray face. Almost certainly asphyxiation. And then Ma Lingling's shadow.

*That thing again.*

His mind went off like a detonation.

*Last time it was my room. And now, right next door?*

The Shadow only appeared at night. Last night, he had been inside the Land of Origin — it couldn't have reached him there. So instead, it had turned on the person beside him?

*Probably not specifically targeting me, then.*

His thoughts jumped immediately to Li Qinghe.

*If that's how it works... would the Shadow come after Sister Qinghe next?*

After the Aberration Event, nearly everyone had pulled away from Lu Yuan. Li Qinghe was the only person who had ever truly cared about him. He had always thought of her as a real older sister.

These were the original owner's memories — but Lu Yuan had made them his own. He genuinely did not want anything to happen to her.

Still, thinking it through — Li Qinghe was out most nights. The risk was lower than for others.

And if it really came to it, he could simply tell her: don't come home at night.

Lu Yuan left the couple's room and came out into the living room.

Li Qinghe was there, a cigarette dangling from her lips, using her foot to nudge the front door shut behind her. In one hand she held a bag of steamed buns; in the other, two cartons of soy milk.

When she spotted him, she smiled.

"Yuan. Figured you hadn't gone out yet. Have you been skipping class to cultivate again? I got your favorite pork buns."

She gave the bag a small lift.

Lu Yuan looked at the buns in her hand. Something warm moved quietly through his chest. He smiled back.

"Sister Qinghe, I've got money now. I'll cover meals from here on."

Li Qinghe plucked the cigarette from her lips with two fingers, blew a slow ring of smoke, and fixed him with a look.

"Oh? What's that supposed to mean? Think you've grown too big for your boots? Sister here can still afford to treat you to a bun, thank you very much."

Lu Yuan gave a helpless laugh. He was just about to reply when Li Qinghe raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise crossing her face.

"Hold on — Yuan, why are you coming out of the couple's room?"

*If the Shadow comes after Sister Qinghe...*

Lu Yuan went silent.