Underworld Player

Bai Zhi and Lin He faced each other on the ghoulish path paved with bone. To either side of them were jet-black, twisted trees, while in the darkness, dim red lights, which hadn't been there before, could be seen floating amongst them.

"...I didn't lie about what I said earlier," said Lin He coldly.

"Hmm?" said Bai Zhi blandly. "Since when does you telling the truth have anything to do with whether I trust you?"

Bai Zhi hefted the emerald-green box in his hand, then stuffed it in his Inventory. "Thanks for the gifts, anyway. I'll honor our deal and get the box to your sister."

Lin He growled. "...I saw the parasite infect your arm myself! I don't care what items you have, there's no way—"

"Hmm? Oh, this?" Bai Zhi brought out something from behind his back and tossed it at Lin He's feet. "Just a sleight of hand."

The baffled Lin He tilted his head downward and flew into a sudden rage as he realized how Bai Zhi had tricked him.

"Just what the fuck kinda weird shit do you keep stuffing your damn Inventory with?!"

At Lin He's feet was a severed arm, plump and unnaturally pale. Fleshy sprouts were multiplying and swarming all over the back of the hand, making it look much creepier than it already was.

"When I was treating the undead, I had one patient whose arm I just couldn't reattach. It was in great condition, too, barely decomposed, so I helped myself to it. I was hoping to preserve it in forearm-alin* for research purposes."

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Bai Zhi shrugged.

"Don't you know, in this age of peace, how hard it is to wrangle up a cadaver to study? I'm a law-abiding citizen, you know. I'm not just saying that either—I once held the Excellent Young Pioneer of China Certificate**, was named head of the bullies at the orphanage—multiple times—and as the Prince of Many Instruments, I played on a big stage and wowed the audience with sounds that were out of this world... Hey, don't you want to hear more?"

Clearly sick of Bai Zhi's interminable speech, Lin He pounced at him with a roar before he could finish. It seemed that completing his transformation into a monster had greatly impaired his ability to keep his cool.

The fleshy sprouts on Lin He's wrist had exploded all over his body, expanding and fusing together to give him a grotesque bodybuilder's physique, as well as long, lashing tentacles. He—it—had lost any semblance of humanity. Its head was barely poking out from among the mass of muscle, and where its neck should have been, there was a swollen, walnut-shaped boil... It looked like the stuff of nightmares.

"See, I told you that supernatural beings experience the senses differently than humans. If you still had your human body, you might have realized, from the smell, what I poured all over you, but now—"

Shaking his head ruefully as the monster charged at him, Bai Zhi lit a Zippo lighter with a flick and casually tossed it at his opponent...

With a whoosh, a massive ball of flame bloomed into existence.

Before leaving the village, Bai Zhi had used his Coins to purchase a PODS, so with his strength, dexterity, and constitution at the peak of human performance, pulling off such a stunt was a snap.

Of course, that wasn't enough to immediately take out the monster, but having wrapped that thing in searing flame, Bai Zhi felt good about his chances.

Now, he contemplated the still body of Xu Feng, still lying on the bone-paved path. Just as he was thinking how he might get past the writhing, screaming ball of fire and make it back to the bus with Xu Feng, the bony path was suddenly struck by a tremor. It was accompanied by a strange rush of malevolent energy, which caught Bai Zhi off-guard. It was so sudden and so intense that even Bai Zhi's heart seemed to stop beating for a split second.

Without a second thought, Bai Zhi sprinted for the exit, all thoughts of saving Xu Feng abandoned. As he put ever greater distance between himself and the unknown threat, he couldn't help but look backward.

The trees on either side of the path were tilting and a spiderweb of fissures had appeared in the ground. The bone-paved path beneath his feet was splitting open as if someone had fitted it with a giant, invisible zipper, and the forces that tore the trembling ground apart also shook the trees so violently that they tumbled one by one into the gaping hole where the path once stood.

The "zipper" was still being pulled open, and the terrible tremors showed no sign of stopping. Bai Zhi's legs were pumping as fast as they could, and it was all he could do just to stay ahead of the relentless quake. Just then, from within the gloomy blackness of the hole revealed by the "zipper" arose a great mass of something that was colored a dull burgundy.

Bai Zhi had kept his eyes on the phenomena happening behind him the whole time, so he was able to clearly tell what it was that had rolled out from the strange opening, like some macabre carpet—it was a tongue of gigantic proportions.

The tongue was covered all over in something slimy and slippery, like saliva, that glistened in the light from the monster Bai Zhi had immolated. Said monster had also realized it was in danger and started running toward the edge of the forest, but the tongue was preternaturally agile. With a single lash, it gripped the fleeing fireball, then swiftly retracted with it into the bottomless chasm—or, more aptly, the gaping maw.

Fortunately for Xu Feng, when the quakes began, the tremors had somehow bucked him to the side of the path such that he had avoided getting swallowed by the maw or slurped up by the tongue.

Then again, who knew what perils he would face in the dark corners of this place. Perhaps in time, he would simply turn into another creature that stalked the shadows, since he was, after all, one of the dead to begin with.

...Should've shot him in the head when I had the chance.

Bai Zhi thought with a regretful sigh, but nevertheless seized the opportunity to escape while the tongue remained out of sight.

As the ground trembled once again, Bai Zhi's attention was focused on his own safety, and he failed to notice the long, thin shape that had appeared next to Xu Feng, desperately tugging on his clothes with its teeth...

* Formalin. Raw had some wordplay elsewhere in the sentence, so I took liberties. I apologize if the pun made you cringe. 🙇

** The YPC is a youth organization for children aged six to fourteen in China, thus the certificate he's talking about is for kids.