The world has turned into Hell's Game, why should I stay human?
Chapter 53 Dedicates Your Flesh and Blood

Chapter 53: Chapter 53 Dedicates Your Flesh and Blood

On the fourth day after entering the instance world.

Liu Zheng woke up to a chorus of shouting.

He opened his eyes and found Niu Ma doing sit-ups.

With its mass, the pressure it exerted on the ground was comparable to that of a pile driver.

"Boss, are you suggesting that the foundation isn’t solid enough?"

Liu Zheng teased.

"You know nothing. We’re about to go to Heaven Island, I need to quickly work on my core strength,"

Niu Ma said.

"What does Heaven Island have to do with core strength?"

"You kid, you’re not still a virgin, are you?"

Niu Ma looked at him askew.

"Hey, why the sudden insult?"

Liu Zheng exclaimed dissatisfied.

"If you’re not a virgin, how do you not understand? The service standards on Heaven Island are even higher than those of the black market,"

Niu Ma said with a look of longing.

"Aren’t you going there with your wife?"

Do Niu Ma’s kind play around that much?

"Those beauty and cosmetic shops are enough to keep her busy, where would she find time for me? Plus, as long as I tell her I’m going fishing, she’ll lose patience after a mere three minutes,"

Niu Ma said proudly.

"Pah! Scumbag."

He scorned.

"Humph, you set your moral standards too high, don’t blame others for being low. Besides, compared to other Niu Ma, I’m already a model husband, at least I take my own wife on vacation,"

Niu Ma argued confidently.

"What a messy circle."

After more idle chit-chat, their drawer buzzed.

The staff meal had arrived.

"Hurry up, pass me your meal,"

excited, Niu Ma urged.

"Are you really that hungry?"

Liu Zheng stepped back, lest it was so ravenous it’d nibble on him too.

"You don’t have a clue. Every time I help out in the kitchen, the next day I get to eat something really good, even better than what they sell outside,"

Niu Ma explained.

"After you offended Napoleon so badly yesterday, will you still get it this time?"

"That old snob may be petty, but he’s good on his word. As long as he hasn’t said it’s canceled, it will definitely be there,"

Niu Ma replied.

"Alright then."

Liu Zheng shrugged, pulling his portion of the staff meal from the drawer.

Upon opening it, his face immediately contorted in disgust.

One after another, mouse heads were embedded in the pizza, gazing up at the stars as slices of mouse meat encircled them neatly.

The sliced mouse tails were arranged in the middle of the pizza, creating a typhoon-like pattern.

"Name: Vampire Rat Family Pizza"

"Type: Item"

"Quality: Fine"

"Effect One: Restores a large amount of physical strength."

"Effect Two: Gain ’Bloodthirsty’ status for 72 hours."

"Note: A family should be together, neat and complete."

"Can be taken out of the instance: Yes"

"Bloodthirsty: During the status duration, one periodically experiences a strong urge to suck blood. If the urge is not satisfied, all attributes decrease by 10 points, and if satisfied, all attributes increase by 10 points. If high-quality blood is consumed, there’s a chance for additional effects."

"Eh, isn’t this the nest of mice you fed?"

Niu Ma exclaimed in surprise.

Liu Zheng was startled and looked more closely, it really was them.

The largest mouse head in there was the one with the gray fur.

He clearly remembered it had 53 whiskers, with two more on the right than the left.

"Hahaha, I won’t fight you for that."

"After all, they were nourished by your blood and sweat."

Niu Ma said jokingly.

Liu Zheng looked at the mouse meat pizza, his expression shifting uncertainly.

"Of course, if you really don’t want to eat it, I can do you this favor, you don’t need to thank me too much,"

Niu Ma said thoughtfully.

He glanced at his shrunken tentacles.

Even though it wasn’t displayed on the system panel, his real attributes had decreased by at least half.

Going out in his current state was akin to seeking death.

"I’ll eat,"

Liu Zheng picked up a slice of pizza and, with his eyes closed, shoved it in his mouth.

The taste wasn’t surprisingly good but even better than any pizza he’d had in reality.

The mouse meat didn’t have any gamey flavor; it was, in fact, somewhat similar to the taste of Wagyu beef.

But the thought of their original form made Liu Zheng unable to suppress the waves of nausea.

However, he endured the disgust and finished the entire plate of pizza cleanly.

Soon, Liu Zheng’s stomach began burning like it was on fire.

The burning pain contorted his face.

But what was even more contorted was his body.

Liu Zheng’s skin started to bulge and move as if mice were scurrying beneath it, continuously expanding and deforming.

As this transformation took place, his body size inflated like a balloon, becoming even larger than before.

Only during reformation, the remnants of his human skin were thoroughly destroyed, turning into a chitinous exoskeleton.

Liu Zheng looked at his shiny, dark tentacles in silence.

"Want to look in the mirror?"

Niu Ma asked, full of mischief.

"No need."

He said flatly.

Niu Ma seemed to take great pleasure in seeing him completely transform into a non-human.

But what it didn’t know was that he just had to complete the instance to return to his original form.

The residents of this world, though strange and powerful, were still ignorant and confined.

And though he was weak, as long as he survived, the possibilities were limitless.

"Hey, kid, what’s with that look?"

Niu Ma asked, displeased.

"Nothing."

Liu Zheng looked at it with pity and then averted his gaze.

He had decided to use the sick leave slip, but there was some preparatory work to do before that.

"Boss, did you save any alcohol for me?"

He asked.

"First, tell me what you meant just now?"

Niu Ma persisted in asking.

"It’s admiration, it’s reverence, it’s an ant’s upturned gaze upon a towering tree, it’s a jackdaw’s self-pity before the Phoenix."

"What?"

Niu Ma had a look of confusion.

"You’re just too awesome, I admire you so much."

Liu Zheng sighed.

"Humph, you’ve got some insight, kid. Here."

Niu Ma rummaged through the pile of bottles and scraped together three unopened ones for him.

"Thanks, boss."

Liu Zheng took the bottles and sat down by the door.

Now, he just had to wait for the hand to appear.

After more than an hour, the activity board was finally pushed open.

Ghost Hand crept in, only to find Liu Zheng staring at it, causing it momentary confusion; it even forgot to drop off the delivery slip.

Liu Zheng remembered the rules: he said nothing but simply placed the three bottles of alcohol in front of it.

Faced with this situation, Ghost Hand clenched its four fingers, tapping at the air with its index as if thinking.

After a long pause, it spread its fingers, a human mouth appeared in its palm.

Then, it swallowed all three bottles, including the bottles themselves.

A few seconds later, a blush spread from the palm, infusing the entire hand.

The originally withered and decaying Ghost Hand looked somewhat revitalized.

It staggered as it set down the delivery slip, then wobbled back out of the break room.

Aside from the delivery slip on the floor, nothing else happened.

"Hahaha!!!!!"

Niu Ma let out another burst of laughter.

"Shocked, huh? Did you think they’d all deal fairly like me and that tree? Someone’s been playing the system every day, and now they finally got burned."

It laughed so hard that its newly trained abs started to hurt.

"Just three bottles of alcohol, let’s call it a good deed. When you’re rich, you’re capricious."

Although Liu Zheng was a bit surprised, he didn’t dwell on it.

It was only a move made in passing, not truly a part of his strategy to win.

He picked up the delivery slip and looked at the information on it.

"Meal: One portion of Wood Elf Milk."

"Address: West River Center, Block E, Room 403."

"Customer: Manager Wang."

"Time Limit: Within forty minutes."

"Huh, it’s not a residential area this time?"

And there was a customer’s name, too.

Liu Zheng’s expression shifted subtly.

This delivery, it seemed unlikely to be an easy one.