Ita Era

Chapter 88 Death's Invitation

At 8:00 AM on the second day of the Death God instance, a newsboy on a bicycle threw a bundle of newspapers at number 99. The door to number 99 opened, and Ding Shi, dressed in pajamas, peeked out, observed for a moment, then swiftly picked up the newspapers and closed the door. He had already changed out of the system-provided sportswear and rubber shoes, and had even made coffee and toasted bread in the kitchen.

He poured himself a cup of coffee, grabbed a newspaper, and sat down at the table. The first thing Ding Shi saw was a familiar name: Liu Decai. This guy was actually the mayor of Ham Town; he was going to his house later. The secret from Death: if he could kill Liu Decai, he could solve the problem of the rampant assassins in Ham Town.

Death: I didn't say that. Don't make things up.

Logically speaking, as a patrol officer, he couldn't directly kill Liu Decai, a non-criminal, otherwise he would lose so many points that he would be stuck with nothing but working in Ham Town for the rest of his life.

Hmm? Speaking of which, is it really possible to stay in Ham Town? Just like not leaving Peach Blossom Village on the eighth day, is it possible to stay in the Peach Blossom Village world? Of course, this is on the premise that there are no Zombie Sister and Ghost Sister. Perhaps Peach Blossom Village is not possible because of the time limit. But Ham Town has no time limit; the main quest only says to survive for at least seven days.

Flipping through the newspaper, the news was incredibly boring—about factories, supermarkets, and so on—not even any national news. The last page had ten obituaries; the names sounded like those of gamers. They were all popular names like Zihan and Zixuan.

If it really was players, that's interesting. First, it's interesting that a player dying makes the newspapers—that's a kind of honor, isn't it? Second, it's interesting that only ten people died. Come to think of it, to enter Hell difficulty, you have to clear Nightmare dungeons first, and players who can enter Hell dungeons are usually quite skilled. They're either highly skilled, physically strong, or intelligent.

So the question is reversed: how did these ten people get through the Nightmare dungeon?
Ding Shi changed his clothes, released his electric scooter, and headed towards the affluent area. It wasn't that Ding Shi was being ostentatious, but rather that the affluent area was located halfway up a mountain, and that would wear out the bicycle chain too quickly. Nevertheless, Ding Shi still pretended to pedal, since the electric scooter looked almost identical to a bicycle.

At 10:00 AM, Ding Shi arrived at Liu Decai's villa in the wealthy district. The villa was very large, not only in terms of land area but also in building area. However, its appearance was quite uninteresting, a neat four-story rectangular building.

The butler greeted the guests at the door. Inside, many women dressed as maids were busy at work. After the butler took the invitation and looked at it, he asked Ding Shi to choose an animal mask.

Ding Shi picked up the mask and looked at it, then asked, "Is lunch not provided?" His question seemed strange and rude, but it had a deeper meaning.

The butler did indeed reveal a clue: "The distinguished guests are dining in their rooms and must wear masks when leaving."

As Ding turned to leave, the butler added, "There are many mini-games at the party where you can earn money, and the mayor will give everyone a gift tomorrow morning."

Ding held up two fingers: "Two portions."

The butler looked into Ding Shi's eyes and remained silent for a moment: "One serving."

Ding Shi: "Two portions."

"One."

"Two servings."

"Ok."

Ding Shi grinned and patted the butler on the shoulder: "You rascal, we meet again, hahahaha."

The butler clenched his fist; he had used the butler's body to participate in the party, but Ding Shi hadn't even entered before he recognized him. No wonder this person has that aura; all the people we hate have that same aura.

The butler forced a smile and gestured for Ding Shi to choose. Ding Shi didn't hesitate and took the duck's mask, saying to the butler, "You're weak."

Watching Ding Shi's arrogant back, the angry butler glanced at the gardener who was cutting branches with a chainsaw, gently blew a breath, and a caterpillar fell from above, landing in the gardener's neck. The gardener was startled, and the ladder fell backward, crashing down on Ding Shi, who was walking towards the villa, along with the chainsaw.

The shadow cast by the sun had already betrayed everything. Ding Shi stopped in advance, watched the gardener fall in front of him, turned around and raised a finger to the Grim Reaper butler: Today's one session is over.

Just kidding, how could I not be on guard after just provoking the butler?
So, this Ghost King isn't particularly intelligent; he's not a traditional boss. That makes sense, though; if he were a traditional boss, the obituary wouldn't only list 10 players.

Scratching the floor, scratching the floor, a child, unaccustomed to the local environment, smashed it over.

The Grim Reaper's butler didn't react much and was preparing to greet the next guest when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. As a ghost king, he had never felt this way before, but being clever, he deduced that he must have diarrhea.

Ignoring the strange looks around him, the Grim Reaper butler transformed into a beam of light and entered the nearest restroom. He slapped the maid occupying the stall with a teleportation palm strike, sending her a kilometer away, and casually snatched the toilet paper from her hand. (Pants off...)

This damn belt, I don't know how to undo it.

Unable to resist, Death's butler ripped his pants with a single rip and finally sat on the toilet. After the relief, he began to ponder a question: Why didn't he just break his belt instead of tearing his pants? A second question: Why was there an icon in his vision saying he was suffering from diarrhea due to a change in environment, lasting for 12 hours?

It must have been Ding Shi who did it. The Grim Reaper decided to ask Ding Shi. He had just stood up and hadn't even finished putting his pants on when a strange feeling forced him to squat down again.

Players arriving at the villa couldn't find anyone to greet them at the entrance. Some, bold and careful, took masks and entered the villa, while others obediently queued. Those who didn't want to queue and lacked courage could only complain incessantly.

Half an hour later, Death used a clone to control a maid to greet the players, finally bringing the chaos under control. However, his meticulously designed game was largely ruined because many players had already met. Therefore, he had no choice but to temporarily switch to a different murder mystery game.

In order to maintain control of the overall situation, the Grim Reaper, who was still in hiding, promoted his clone, the maid, to housekeeper.

Thirty players have arrived at the villa and, according to the housekeeper's arrangement, have checked into single rooms on the second and third floors. Upon entering their rooms and closing the doors, red text appears on the walls.

Rule 1: A room with the door closed is an absolutely safe zone.

Rule 2: Animal masks must be worn when leaving the room and must not be removed.

Rule 3: Don't go near ducks, it will bring you bad luck.

Rule 4: All meals are self-service buffets: lunch from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, dinner from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and breakfast from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM. One item of food or drink at each meal will be poisoned; death will occur two hours after consumption. All diners may only eat in their own rooms.

Rule 5: You are responsible for the cleanliness of your own room.

Rule Six: The butler possesses supreme power; please respect and revere him.

Rule Seven: Please turn on the radio; there may be a surprise.

Rule 8: Do not turn on the radio; it may kill you. Rule 9: Crossbows are prohibited.

Rule 10: Each room has a telephone with direct internal dialing to the room number.

Rule 11: You may not leave the villa area before 12 noon tomorrow.

Rule Twelve: Those who successfully survive to leave will receive the butler's mercy, 50 work points, and 1000 yuan in cash.

Rule Thirteen: Theft is a bad thing unless it is not discovered by the housekeeper.

Ding Shi's comment: Nothing shocking or frightening, just childish and laughable. Especially the third and ninth points. Is this something a ghost king would do?

Despite his complaints, Ding Shi remembered the rules, and the most important one was clearly Rule Four: either go hungry or risk your life. However, the Grim Reaper had previously mentioned that food would be delivered to his room; why has it changed to a buffet now? Even though he's the Demon King of this realm and can act recklessly, does being a Demon King excuse him from keeping his word?

It's speculated that Death may have temporarily changed the rules of the game, but why?

At 11 a.m., a static sound came from the radio, and Death's neutral voice came through: "Thank you to our friends who arrived early. Now, we're giving you the first welcome gift: 10000 yuan."

Death: "Between 11 and 12, a Pandora's Box will spawn in the building every ten minutes. Opening any of the boxes will grant you 2000 yuan. At the same time, it will release a curse. But don't worry, this curse will definitely not only target you."

Death: "By the way, just a heads up, there's an auction tomorrow morning, and the items will be provided by a mysterious guest named Little Sugar."

Without that last sentence, most people would probably consider money meaningless. But because of that last sentence, even Ding Shi couldn't resist, donning a duck mask and going out to search for the magic box with everyone else.

Ding Shi was staying in room 207. The first thing he saw when he stepped out was Wang Meng. Although Wang Meng was wearing a chicken mask, his size was still very eye-catching. Ding Shi wondered, "How could we be matched with the same instance?" Never mind, he decided to just throw a "culture shock" at him.

The cooldown time for the "unaccustomed to water and soil" effect is one hour, and it cannot be used on the same person within 24 hours. Without this restriction, Ding Shi would discard it along the way.

As soon as Wang Meng stepped outside, he noticed two negative symptoms: loss of appetite and nausea due to a heightened sensitivity to smells. The first thing he noticed was the sour, sweaty odor emanating from his neighbor. He couldn't blame the neighbor; the man was an outdoor worker who had just finished get off work and rushed to the villa.

Wang Meng could tolerate the smell, but the buff told him he couldn't. His stomach clenched, and he quickly returned to his room, removed his mask, and vomited into the toilet. He went out again, then went back to vomit; although nothing came out, it was truly disgusting.

As a result, Wang Meng did not consider why he had two negative states for a short period of time.

Ding Shi and the others went to the first floor first. Some people found clues, while others tried to snatch them away. There was a brief shoving between them, but no fight broke out. Having profited from the chaos, the two could only reveal the clue to the onlookers: the first magic box was on the fourth floor.

A large group of people went up to the fourth floor. The fourth floor was a grid-like corridor with more than 40 rooms, all of which had their doors closed but were not locked.

Everyone chose their own room and pushed it open. Then a scream was heard. Everyone came out of their rooms, looked at each other, and asked in question: Where did that scream come from?

After waiting a while, when things calmed down, everyone went back into the room to search for the magic box. No one knew how big it was. Some thought there were still clues, while others started rummaging through the room. About a minute later, another scream rang out.

"Is it 411 or 412?" someone said, and the crowd began to gather.

A young woman used a large, golden-ringed dagger to push open the door to room 411. The room was empty. Before she could even see clearly, a large man shoved her aside and ran to the table, where a box with a sinister aura sat.

Then the hidden compartment in the floor activated, and a section of the floorboards plummeted downwards. The large man screamed as he fell. The next second, the floorboards bounced back up, as if nothing had happened.

To everyone's astonishment, a person wearing a groundhog mask strode into the room, forming hand seals. As he did so, his shadow stretched forward, ever forward. Just as the shadow was about to touch the magic box, someone kicked him, interrupting the spell and nearly sending him tumbling into the trap.

Amidst the groundhogs' shoving and cursing, creating chaos, a flying needle shot into the magic box. The needle had a string attached; pulling the string sent the box flying towards the needle shooter. Just as the shooter was about to grab the box, someone bumped into her and delivered a series of powerful kicks, sending her crashing into the trap. The magic box also fell into the trap.

"Idiot! You're sick!" Amidst the insults, everyone attacked the person who kicked the box, not kicking him into the trap, but beating him to a pulp. Preventing others from getting the box benefits everyone; destroying the box harms everyone's interests.

Seeing that the first magic box was destroyed, everyone dispersed.

At 11:10, the second magic box respawned. This time, instead of acting as a group, everyone split up to search. Few people spoke during this time.

Ding Shi spotted the housekeeper and immediately moved closer to her, using her position to observe the surroundings. Sure enough, he saw a box in the kitchen from the living room on the first floor. A man wearing a camel mask also saw the box, and the two rushed towards the kitchen. The camel tried to hook Ding Shi with his leg, but Ding Shi delivered a powerful punch with 21 points of strength, sending the camel flying 20 centimeters off the ground. The camel fell to the side, unconscious.

Skyward Fist: Monkey Oil Root. Simply put, it's a hook punch that hits the opponent's chin.

Forces are reciprocal. A sharp pain shot through his right fist. Ding Shi disregarded everything else, slapped open the magic box with his left hand, took the two thousand yuan, and ran towards his room.

Broadcast: The evil spirit has been released. Evil spirit's name: Yihao, one rule for killing.

Upon learning that the magic box had been opened, everyone cursed and quickly returned to their rooms.

Ding Shi went back to his room to check his right hand. His middle finger joint was dislocated, but not seriously; it could be reset. Enduring the pain, Ding Shi pushed the joint, but it wouldn't reset. Tears streamed down Ding Shi's face. He truly regretted not having studied more when he needed the knowledge. He knew all sorts of people and knew something about joint reset, but it was all just conversation fodder at drinking parties.

He bit down on the blanket and tried to reset it again, but failed. Summarizing the reasons for the failure and recalling his remaining knowledge, Ding pressed on, resetting it for the third time, and this time he finally succeeded.

Covered in sweat, Ding Shi took off his shirt, revealing his bare chest. He checked his knuckles, which had now been realigned, and realized he'd discovered a serious bug in the pure Force class: his body couldn't handle high stats. Currently, his legs could still support 21 points of agility while running, but that couldn't continue indefinitely.

To date, Ding Shi has not discovered any real bugs in the world of Ita. Logically speaking, it is unlikely that such a serious bug would occur.

Ding Shi fell into deep thought. He began to recall the infusion process of the Force course, spending a certain amount of time infusing the Force into strength, and into agility... but the Force could not enhance physical fitness or improve endurance.

Little Sugar solicited a bribe, saying she was willing to use a trick to exchange for playing cards.

All of this leads to the following message: This is a solvable problem; I just don't know the trick.

What's the trick?
(End of this chapter)