“Ahhh~~~ it hurts so much!!”
Song Linjia clutched her head and burst into tears.
Just moments ago, the thought that she might have turned into a porcelain doll made her lose the will to live.
Like those desperate people in dramas, she thought she might as well end it all by ramming into something and dying.
But when she did, she didn’t die. Instead, her head ached terribly, as if it had split open.
Li Ran and Lu Zhaohui had originally planned to help her up, but when Song Linjia struggled to her feet, the two froze where they stood.
“Do you two have no conscience? I’m like this and you’re not even coming to help me!” Song Linjia cried even harder when she saw the two standing motionless.
“Song Linjia…” Lu Zhaohui pointed at her head in horror, trying to speak but choking on his words.
Li Ran, looking grim, walked up to her and picked up a piece of what appeared to be… her skull from the ground.
As if realizing something, Song Linjia fearfully pulled out a mirror from her storage space and slowly raised it in front of her face.
The reflection showed her usual tear-streaked face.
But when she angled the mirror toward the left side of her head, her whole body shuddered like a broken frame in a video.
The left side of her forehead had caved in—like the corner of a porcelain vase that had been chipped.
Even more terrifying, the caved-in area was hollow. Black. Empty.
Song Linjia trembled violently. With her right hand, she slowly reached toward the dent in her head.
Her hand slipped in with no resistance.
It entered her own skull.
It was hollow—completely empty…
“Ah!!”
She screamed in terror, unable to withstand the shock, and fainted on the spot.
Li Ran caught her quickly, afraid that if she moved even a little, she might smash her skull further.
Lu Zhaohui rushed over to help. One grabbed her head, the other her feet, and together they carefully laid her down on a soft patch of grass.
Li Ran picked up the broken piece of skull and tried to fit it back into the hole in her head. He tried several times, but it wouldn’t go back in.
“If only we had some glue,” he muttered while fiddling with the skull fragment.
“I have glue,” Lu Zhaohui said, pulling out a bottle of it.
Li Ran stared, mouth agape. He hadn’t been serious—and this idiot actually had some?
But then again… could glue really fix a skull?
“I’ve been helping out at Meng Ge’s house these past couple of days. I bought this super glue at Happy Supermarket for patching stuff up. It works on anything,” Lu Zhaohui explained.
Looking at his dead-serious face, Li Ran had the urge to kick him. “Are you planning to marry into her family or something?”
Lu Zhaohui scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Meng Ge’s mom really likes me. The tasks they give me are all light ones—changing bulbs, fixing pipes. Nothing too hard.”
Li Ran didn’t even know how to respond.
He took the glue, looked at the skull fragment in his hand, then at Song Linjia’s hollowed-out head. Honestly, it couldn’t get any worse.
He carefully aligned the broken piece with the hole in her skull, then used his other hand to squeeze glue along the cracks and edges. Once the glue covered the area, Li Ran slowly let go and waited a moment.
To his shock, the piece held firmly in place.
He was speechless.
“Told you. This glue sticks to anything,” Lu Zhaohui said proudly.
Li Ran took a few steps back. From a distance, you could barely tell anything was wrong. But up close, you could still see traces of glue—and faint lines where the cracks were.
Still, the fact that the skull could be glued back at all was amazing.
It confirmed a theory Li Ran had been entertaining: Song Linjia’s body wasn’t exactly dead. It was possible she could be patched up and keep living.
Absolutely insane.
Since Song Linjia was still unconscious, they’d have to wait for her to wake up to learn what happened to her.
That afternoon, Li Ran had to go to Building No. 4 to pick up Zhao Yingzhi.
If she came back safe, it would prove that living people could enter the Dark Palace and return.
Li Ran was deeply curious about what kind of world existed inside that place.
But if Zhao Yingzhi didn’t return… then he’d never risk going there himself.
This was his eighth day surviving in this bizarre world.
No new teammates had shown up. Out of the original 25 players, only four remained.
One had become a porcelain doll. One was in the Dark Palace, fate unknown.
And one… was a clueless fool.
With other people, you either admired them or you didn’t. But looking at Lu Zhaohui… Li Ran didn’t admire him, but couldn’t exactly dismiss him either.
Honestly, this was the third day he found himself jealous of the idiot.
—One hour later—
Song Linjia slowly came to.
She seemed to have accepted her new porcelain form, her face void of all hope.
“Tell us what happened to you. Why are you like this?”
If there was a way to save her, of course they would. But if not, Li Ran wouldn’t force it.
Only by knowing what she’d been through could they prevent it from happening again.
Song Linjia paused, then murmured softly, “Is there… really any hope for me?”
“How would you know if you don’t try?”
That line came from Lu Zhaohui. Li Ran couldn’t give a definite answer to that question.
“Three days ago…”
Song Linjia began recounting her experience.
“After we finished Yang Baobao’s quest and went our separate ways, I ran into a black cat blocking the road. It had a woman’s face.”
Lu Zhaohui exclaimed, shocked, “A human-faced cat? What the hell?”
Li Ran, however, seemed to have expected this. His brow furrowed as he said, “It’s Yang Baobao’s revenge.”
When he got the summoner’s emblem from Yang Baobao, he had sensed that she likely had a pet. He hadn’t seen it that day—but apparently, after they split up, it went after Song Linjia.
Song Linjia had always been extremely cautious. Since she could transform into a cat and had the [Stealth] skill, she usually stayed in feline form while sneaking around.
“I was terrified. I ran and ran, and it kept chasing me.”
Song Linjia trembled as she recalled being chased by the human-faced cat.
“I don’t know how long I ran, but eventually night fell. In a panic, I stumbled into a shop full of porcelain figurines. I didn’t dare go back out… I was too scared that the cat was still waiting outside…”
As she spoke, her whole body trembled violently. Her eyes were filled with fear.
“But… but I didn’t expect… there was someone in the shop.”
“He told me to go into a room filled with faceless porcelain dolls… and pick the most perfect piece of art.”
Her words grew jumbled with fear, as though she were back in that terrifying moment.
“I… I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. I didn’t want to choose. I was so scared.”
“But… but if I didn’t choose, I… I will die.”
“He… he just stood there, constantly… constantly pressuring me to pick. That man was… the most terrifying person I’ve ever seen!”
“In the end… I-I… I picked one…”
“But he… he told me…”
“I chose wrong.”
(End of Chapter)