Yes, not death, but being forced to stay behind after failing a mission, and finally being taken away and killed by the master's faction.
Lu Mingran thought he wouldn't mention this old friend, but then Senior Tao smiled, his gentle face still bearing that warm smile:
“He would also get up in the middle of the night to find something to eat, and then he would run into me.”
At this point, Xiao Tao fell silent. To ease the tension, Cheng Yungui smiled and said:
"We will try our best to come back alive, so that you won't miss any new old friends."
This worked, and the atmosphere immediately lightened considerably. Senior Tao then joked:
"Don't worry, you're nothing special to me, and I won't miss you."
So Lu Mingran promptly asked him:
"Why? We've seen you wear dinosaur pajamas before, isn't that special?"
Author's Note: Lu, guess what Senior Tao is thinking right now?
Chapter 65 Want to find the heart? No way (1)
Looking into Xiao Tao's eyes, Lu Mingran was certain that he was mentally sharpening his knives.
Thankfully, Senior Tao held back, and Lu Mingran survived to the day before the mission began. However, that very night, the system woke him up and asked him a question:
Do you want to be a writer?
————————
Before entering the instance, Cheng Yungui was carrying a cup downstairs, but after he stepped down the last step, everything under his feet and in front of him changed.
He was standing in a tea room, and in his hand, a white cup was steaming with the aroma of coffee.
But his palms were ice-cold. Even though he was holding a cup of scalding hot coffee with his fingers touching the cup, he didn't flinch and wasn't burned at all.
Cheng Yungui looked at the cup in his hand, opened his lips and called out in a very low voice, "Steamed bun."
No kittens came to rub against his legs, not even a meow.
Cheng Yun then regained consciousness. He took a sip of coffee and then pushed open the door to the break room.
Before him lay a cramped and cluttered office, with piles of belongings on everyone's desks. On the white wall in front hung a huge poster depicting a darkly lit classroom, with the words "A Night of Horror" written in large characters on the blackboard.
So this must be the editorial department. Cheng Yungui turned his gaze away and looked at the people busy at their computers.
Well, how should I put it...
The keyboards in their hands were clattering away, and some were even on the phone making endless "uh-huh" sounds, but it was obvious that they were slacking off and had no interest in their work.
This shows that everyone has regained their consciousness.
It seems that the Lone Wolf's Heart is indeed as powerful as the rumors say. This is the first time Cheng Yungui has encountered a situation where everyone is fully awake as soon as they enter.
Wait, everyone's awake... Cheng Yungui remembered something and glanced at the group.
Just then, that person was also looking for him. As soon as Lu Mingran saw him, she raised the pen in her hand. Of course, there were pens everywhere in this kind of place; regaining consciousness wouldn't be difficult for him.
Moreover, their workstations were next to each other. Cheng Yungui walked over, pulled out a chair, sat down, and smiled at him.
Before the two could exchange more than a few words, the man on the far left stood up. As soon as he stood up, everyone around him stopped what they were doing.
This was a foreign man with blond hair tied in a small bun at the back of his head. He tapped the table with his long, slender fingers, his narrow eyes narrowing.
"Is everyone here? I hope you all cherish these last few days working together."
Without a doubt, this is the Earl. It's clear that he slightly toned down his coldness while on a mission, but ordinary people would still feel an involuntary sense of fear upon seeing him.
He plays the role of the editor-in-chief. Now he's acting out a scene from the script, calling out names.
Each editor has their own section to cover. On Lone Wolf's Heart side, the alluring woman Julie is the art editor, while the mute girl Xiaoyun beside her is in charge of the "Fun Facts from the Editorial Department" section. The three men—the bald man, the bespectacled man, and Yingshan—are respectively responsible for "Ghostly Encounters in the Human World," "Unbreakable Love Between Humans and Ghosts," and "Midnight Ghost Knocking on the Door."
Cheng Yungui checked his email. The manuscript he received was "I'm By Your Side," while Lu Mingran's was "Campus Ghost Stories."
"Alright, let's get to work!" the editor-in-chief said curtly.
However, the game has not officially started yet.
It was afternoon, and the office was bathed in warm sunlight and smelled of snacks. Everyone, whether they were slacking off or not, was gathered around their computers.
Like the script for "Marriage," this one was being developed gradually. They were waiting for the first email notification.
The small alarm clock on Cheng Yun's desk ticked away, and when it started its fourth rotation, "ding," the email notification sounded.
The sound came from the workstation by the window on the right. Cheng Yungui turned around and saw a face that was deathly pale with fright.
That was a bespectacled man in Lone Wolf's Heart. As soon as Cheng Yungui saw him, he knew that this was a new recruit.
The bald man was sitting right across from him. When he heard the voice, he just glanced up and then went back to doing his own thing.
The others were the same; probably only he and Lu Mingran cared about the situation there at this moment.
The count's expression changed slightly, indicating that he had received a new script.
"Yibo, even though the magazine is about to cease publication, isn't it a bit much to treat your work so lazily?"
The man called Yibo opened his mouth several times before finally stammering out his lines: "I understand, editor-in-chief, I will definitely try my best!"
The Earl continued, "Alright. Yibo, check your email; there are already over a dozen manuscripts piling up. Hurry up and finalize one."
"Hmm, it's almost time to get off work. Yibo, let's finish this before we leave."
Time was already tight enough, and Yi Bo's next line was: "Editor-in-chief, I've actually already made my choice, and I can finalize it in an hour!"
Cheng Yungui looked at the alarm clock; it was four o'clock in the afternoon.
The "Unbreakable Love Between Humans and Ghosts" column, which Yibo was in charge of, required around a thousand words, which was indeed relatively easy. However, this wasn't about selecting manuscripts; it was about choosing how you would die. Whichever one you chose, the story within that one would happen to you.
Yibo exhibited the most common reaction among newcomers: trembling and avoidance.
Cheng Yungui stood up, grabbed a bottle of water, and handed it to him, hoping he could calm down. After doing this, he returned to his seat and looked at Lu Mingran, wanting to discuss their thoughts with him.
However, Lu Mingran just stared at the screen. Strangely enough, this person had been unusually silent since entering the dungeon, and barely even looked at him.
Was it because he was too scared? Thinking of this, Cheng Yungui picked up a pen, quickly wrote a note, and handed it over.
"Comrade Democracy, keep it up!"
These words actually had some effect. Lu Mingran's expression wasn't as tense anymore. He turned around and smiled at him: "Keep it up."
It was a perfectly normal reaction from a good friend, but for some reason, Cheng Yungui felt a little empty inside after hearing that response.
It seems like something is missing, but what is it?
Half an hour passed quickly.
Yibo on the other side kept mechanically and meaninglessly clicking the mouse, and it seemed that no one else in Lone Wolf's Heart intended to care about him. No one wanted to give him any advice and just watched him struggle coldly.
The sun was gradually setting outside, and the crimson sunset arrived as expected. At their workstations, people began organizing files and packing their bags—a seemingly ordinary day before the workday ended.
“Little mute,” Julie nudged Xiaoyun beside her with her elbow, “Want to go shopping later?”
Xiaoyun nodded expressionlessly, at which point the bald man shouted that he wanted to join in too.
Yingshan glanced at the bald man sideways: "Boring, you might as well stay with me and analyze... the manuscript."
Of course, this refers to the analysis task, not the analysis of Yibo's manuscript.
The people from Lone Wolf's Heart started chatting like this, and finally the Earl spoke up, addressing Yibo:
"Yibo, have you made your decision?"
"An hour has passed."
Once it's finalized, Yibo will send the manuscript to his email for final review. There's a 50% chance this ghost story will happen to the editor-in-chief, and a 100% chance of it mutating.
Unfortunately, the count remained silent. He rubbed his lips with his fingers, watched silently for a while, and then shut down the computer.
This meant it was officially time to leave work. Julie and the others got excited and got up to leave.
At that moment, Yi Bo's mournful voice came over: "No, don't go... Please, stay with me, okay?"
"How about we go out to eat together?"
Yibo frantically tried to grasp at these lifelines.
Normally, the count wouldn't have paid any attention to such a person. But today, the count suddenly said, "Let's have a late-night snack together."
As he said this, he deliberately looked in Cheng Yungui's direction.
He cursed Jack, who is now dead because his identity was exposed. However, he discovered that Cheng Yungui seemed completely unaware of this.
That's when the person next to him noticed, but that person looked a bit silly.
In any case, it's always good to sit down together, have a meal, and chat.
Cheng Yungui had no objections. The happiest person was probably Yibo, since as long as he wasn't alone, his chances of survival would be much higher.
"Let's go, Mingran." Cheng Yungui also stood up.
The late-night snack was chosen at a small restaurant, which, to be honest, seemed a bit out of place with the Earl's aristocratic air. The six of them sat around the table, and as soon as the skewers arrived, Yibo was the first to grab one.
He may have forgotten that in this instance, if you don't do what an editor is supposed to do, you don't deserve to eat.
"ah--!"
Yibo's outstretched hand suddenly froze; the food in front of him seemed to have transformed into something terrifying. Julie glanced at him, casually picked up a skewer, and handed it to the Earl, saying, "Eating, what's wrong?"
"Yes, it's quite delicious."
The bald man picked up a skewer of meat and started chewing, deliberately eating it in front of Yibo. This caused Yibo to break down, pointing at the bald man and repeatedly shouting, "Spit it out! That's a tongue!"...
If it were Cheng Yungui, he probably wouldn't be able to eat after hearing such a description, but the bald guy's heart is really strong. He even asked Yibo with a smile what the tongue looked like.
"Oh, a tongue with eyes, is that it?" The bald man licked a piece of meat. "Am I licking the eyeball now?"
Yingshan couldn't stand it anymore and patted Yibo on the back: "Why don't you go somewhere else and throw up for a while?"
Yibo, however, had long since lost patience and scrambled away, disappearing from sight in no time.
Everyone knew that Yibo would either starve to death or die in an accident; in their eyes, he was practically a dead man.
"cheers."
The count raised the glass of cheap beer as if he were picking it up...