Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Please Follow the Game Rules

"Dark cuisine?"

Duan Mingyuan didn’t even look up, his speech somewhat muffled by the severed finger he was holding in his mouth, "I just don’t like wasting food and I’m always up for trying new things."

Jiuyue didn’t respond immediately; she squinted at the tomato sauce smeared at the corner of Duan Mingyuan’s mouth, which she had accidentally caused earlier.

She was a monster, with taste buds far more sensitive than humans’, and she had always had absolute confidence in her palate.

Jiuyue was certain the severed finger tasted atrociously bad, even if she disregarded the bizarre texture of the maple sugar and tomato sauce, the quality of the maple sugar itself was so poor it was outrageous, sickeningly sweet; the hotel obviously was going for gimmicks completely neglecting the taste of the food.

But perhaps they never anticipated that someone would discover a severed finger in their fries and still nonchalantly keep it in their mouth.

The great Ogre boxer Mr. Mingyuan.

The nickname was becoming more and more appropriate.

Jiuyue could never have imagined Mr. Mingyuan was also a dark cuisine aficionado, which completely ruined her plan. According to her setup, the severed finger would taste so bad it would befuddle Mr. Mingyuan’s mind. Then, she would swoop in, offering her half-drunk cola to him, and subsequently take a seat next to Mr. Mingyuan while he was going through his documents, feeding him fries with her own hands.

What an intimate scene!

As she said, Mr. Mingyuan didn’t have many friends and seldom interacted deeply with the opposite sex; he surely had never witnessed such a scenario. By then, she would just need to move her lips, and she could take Mr. Mingyuan down in one fell swoop!

However, now, the severed finger had foiled everything.

Mr. Mingyuan had the severed finger in his mouth, his mind completely off her, and he had refused any further feeding.

"Mr. Mingyuan."

Jiuyue stamped her foot in frustration, "Has anyone ever told you that you’re really stubborn!"

"No, my annual work evaluations are always that I understand teamwork and am good at taking advice from others."

"Hiss."

Who wrote this work evaluation, there must have been some behind-the-scenes manipulation!

Don’t want to eat it?

Don’t want to eat, so be it!

I’ll eat it myself!

Jiuyue sat down opposite Duan Mingyuan, fuming and noisily munching.

This time, she did manage to get Duan Mingyuan’s attention.

"Jiuyue!"

"Present!"

"Don’t smack your lips while eating and could you please keep your plate steady, how come there are crumbs falling everywhere!"

Duan Mingyuan’s blood pressure went up by 20 points.

This was his bed!

After making a mess of her own bed, this little fox demon came over to wreak havoc on his.

"I was just worried your work was getting dull."

Jiuyue retracted her neck, speaking in a pitiful tone, with her sharp ears drooping listlessly on her head and her fluffy tail wilting. Putting on an act of being pitiful was a natural talent for every fox demon, effortlessly mastered without any need for practice.

Of course, she had only used this talent in front of Mr. Mingyuan so far.

If someone else had been so distracted while talking to her, she would have become violent.

According to the "Auspicious Fox Cultivation Manual," an auspicious fox’s plan wouldn’t fail twice in a row; the act of playing pitiful was top-notch, and Duan Mingyuan’s stern gaze softened slightly, "Don’t let this happen again."

"Mr. Mingyuan, the hamburger."

Jiuyue tore her beef burger in half and handed it to Duan Mingyuan. In the world of monsters, sharing food is a sign of intimacy.

This time Duan Mingyuan did not refuse; he took the burger reluctantly and, to Jiuyue’s astonishment, stuffed a piece of maple sugar between the burger buns and bit into it right in front of her, the crunching noise "crackling" clearly audible.

Mr. Mingyuan...

Suddenly it doesn’t seem so appetizing.

Oh, no, that’s not right.

Jiuyue shook her head to calm herself down. It was all the severed finger’s fault; Mr. Mingyuan was still appealing.

It was time for work to lighten her heavy mood, "Mr. Mingyuan, have you discovered anything?"

"I’ve been wondering why the evil spirits created so many urban legends."

The company meticulously compiled all the urban legends that had arisen from Congyun Hotel in recent years, and the more Duan Mingyuan read, the more he felt these urban legends were extraordinarily elaborate, amounting to a thorough set of settings for Congyun Hotel.

Guests stepping into the hotel were like players in a horror game.

Take "The Resurrecting Frame" as an example.

It not only described the mechanism by which the portraits in the frames came to life, but it also provided "players" with strategies to cope, stating in the "setting collection" that every portrait in the frames held significant meaning for Congyun Hotel. They shared complex interpersonal relationships. To use gaming terminology, there was mutual suppression among different portraits.

If a "player" inadvertently resurrected one of the portraits, they would have to find another frame that "suppressed" that portrait to stall their pursuit. Then the newly resurrected frame would continue the chase until they traced the suppression relationship back to the founder of Congyun Hotel—Mr. Qian Congyun, whose portrait was on the second-floor corridor.

If the "players" failed to solve the puzzle during this process and got cornered by the pursuing frames, they would have to "sacrifice" a companion to stall the frames further.

Mr. Qian Congyun’s suppressive relationship wasn’t included in "The Resurrecting Frame," leading to another legend called "The Eyeless Man in the Mirror."

Each urban legend was interconnected, but by strictly following the "setting collection’s" game rules, even an ordinary person could turn danger into safety.

"But what’s the benefit for the nesting evil spirit if they do this?"

They painstakingly create rules only to help ordinary people escape their clutches ultimately.

Congyun Hotel’s reputation was well-known among occult enthusiasts, which would inevitably attract the attention of organizations and companies.

"Unless the rules of Congyun Hotel are the rules of its ability, which is also the secret to its manipulation of so many urban legends."

According to the manuscript, the hotel’s urban legends did not fall under the category of evil spirits.

Ordinary people could perceive their existence with the naked eye and had ample time to consider countermeasures, which was clearly not the style of evil spirits.

A true evil spirit would use its unrecognizable nature to silently move behind its prey and strike through the heart when they least expected it.

"Perhaps sending these enthusiasts back is also part of perfecting its own abilities."

The information from Da Jiang showed that the number of urban legends born from Congyun Hotel was increasing yearly, and there had even emerged a group among the occult enthusiasts dedicated to organizing and revising the hotel’s legends.

As these stories spread through communities and the internet, the number of urban legends inside Congyun Hotel would grow, and its ability naturally would become stronger.

Jiuyue just stayed sitting opposite Duan Mingyuan, staring at him without speaking for a long time.

The same thought unavoidably surged in her mind again.

Mr. Mingyuan,

you must be cheating, right?

How is it that after just browsing through the information Da Jiang sent over, you managed to almost precisely deduce the opponent’s ability?

For those evil spirits hidden in the dark, diligently cultivating their own abilities, this hardly seems fair!

Mr. Mingyuan,

if you continue like this, you’re going to run out of formidable opponents!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read