Sunako was still hugging Rover’s legs.
Very tightly.
So tight that Rover began to suspect that if he lifted his foot, she could genuinely be dragged along for several ters without letting go.
He lowered his head to look at the girl clinging to him, then glanced at Thunder Dragon standing not far away. The small purple-black dragon had just caught Rover’s gaze and slightly tilted its head, its eyes lighting up with innocent blankness.
Rover frowned.
"What did you do to her?"
Thunder Dragon imdiately let out a sound.
"Krit?"
That sound was extrely guileless.
As if it had absolutely no idea what Rover was talking about.
The mont Sunako heard this question, her eyes imdiately reddened. She raised her head to look at Rover, her expression so pitiful she looked like soone who had endured a terrible injustice for three days and three nights, finally eting an upright official who could restore justice for her.
"Great Lord Rover, you must stand up for !"
Rover: "..."
He suddenly had a bad premonition.
Sure enough, Sunako imdiately began pouring out her grievances. She said she was just a weak, pitiful, innocent girl swept into the battlefield, but had been tied to the wall by Elith like a decorative ornant. Then, every ti she tried to use words to ease the tense atmosphere, Thunder Dragon would look at her with contemptuous eyes. Not only that, it had also used lightning to threaten her, leaving her living under a heavy psychological shadow.
The more Sunako talked, the more she got into character.
"You don’t know, Great Lord Rover. I only said a few sentences and it was already looking at like it wanted to roast into jerky. I’m clearly a lively, lovable girl with extrely high spiritual value, yet today I was treated like a wall specin. If word of this got out, how badly would my fragile dignity be wounded?"
Thunder Dragon, hearing this, imdiately turned its head to look at her.
Krit?
Sunako shrank her neck, but because she was hugging Rover’s legs her courage was a bit greater. She imdiately pointed at Thunder Dragon, tears brimming in her eyes:
"See! That’s the exact look! It’s threatening again!"
Thunder Dragon: "..."
Rover looked at Thunder Dragon, then looked at Sunako. He knew very clearly that the words from this girl needed to be discounted by at least seventy percent before they could be believed, but looking at how long she had been hung up, her hair all tangled, her eyes red, her clothes covered in spider silk, he still felt she was genuinely a bit pitiable.
After all, Sunako wasn’t an enemy.
Talking too much was very annoying, but it wasn’t enough to deserve being hung on a wall like a specin.
Rover sighed, reaching out to rub her head.
"Alright. Go inside. No one will bully you anymore."
Sunako froze.
Then, her eyes lit up.
She looked at Rover like soone seeing sunlight piercing through the dark clouds of the Apocalypse. For the first ti since stepping into room 2705, she felt she had found the most correct path to survival.
Not winning over Elith.
Not winning over Morie.
Even less so winning over that small Thunder Dragon whose temperant was harder to please than a pampered noble.
The apex of the power pyramid was Rover.
As long as she stuck to him, she could survive.
Not just survive, perhaps even live very well.
The mont this thought appeared, Sunako imdiately hugged Rover’s legs more tightly. Her voice beca so soft that it made Rover’s scalp feel slightly numb.
"Great Lord Rover, you truly are the best person in this room. From now on, I’ve decided I will loyally follow by your side."
Rover lowered his head to look at her.
"I don’t recall agreeing to take you in."
Sunako imdiately said: "That’s fine, I can appoint myself to the role. Do you need any accessories? I can be your accessory. The kind that can talk, give complints, feed itself, with extrely low maintenance costs, and can occasionally provide supplentary emotional support on the battlefield."
Rover fell silent.
Sunako hurriedly added: "If you feel a talking accessory is a bit too noisy, I can also be a mascot. A mascot that knows how to tremble, knows how to cheer, knows how to yell when enemies appear, and can even make the atmosphere less heavy. Very high value."
Thunder Dragon glanced at her.
Krit.
Sunako imdiately turned to glare at it, but only managed to hold the glare for half a second before quickly turning back to hug Rover’s legs.
"Of course, if Great Lord Thunder Dragon doesn’t like mascots, I can also change professions to beco a wall decoration... No, skip that one. I just experienced it. No future prospects."
Rover pressed his hand to his forehead.
He decided to stop engaging in dialogue with Sunako anymore.
Because he discovered that if he let her keep talking, she could probably invent eighteen bizarre occupations on the spot just to prove she had value worth keeping alive.
"Stand up. If you want to go inside, go inside. Stop hugging my legs."
Sunako imdiately obediently let go.
But she didn’t go far.
She only stood half a step behind Rover, her face as serious as a newly hired handmaiden, but her eyes still occasionally glancing toward Thunder Dragon, clearly on guard against the small dragon firing a warning bolt of electricity at her again.
Rover was too lazy to pay attention to her anymore. He continued watching his shadow swallow the last remaining ice monster corpses in the corridor.
The night created by [Shadow] gradually retreated back under his feet.
The battlefield that had been filled with monster corpses, ice fragnts, and pale blue blood had now beco much cleaner. Even though the layer of ice still covered the ground and walls, the feeling of bloody chaos had diminished considerably.
Elith stood beside him watching the entire process, then coldly said:
"Cleaned up very thoroughly."
Rover smiled.
"Of course. I don’t like waste."
Sunako, standing behind him, softly said: "That’s right, Great Lord Rover is soone who knows economy, knows how to collect, knows how to treasure every fragnt of monster corpse..."
Rover turned his head to look at her.
Sunako imdiately fell silent, then used both hands to mi zipping her mouth shut.
Thunder Dragon saw this and nodded in satisfaction.
Krit.
At the sa ti, in another room elsewhere in the apartnt complex.
Pale violet lamplight illuminated a spacious room, casting everything inside with a layer of vague ambiguity. On a long couch placed near the window, a girl was lazily leaning against the backrest, one hand propping her chin, her long hair falling to one side.
She had deep, sharp eyes. The corner of her mouth always curved up slightly as if smiling, but that smile didn’t make people feel safe at all. On the contrary, it resembled a dangerous invitation, gentle on the outside but with poisonous thorns hidden within.
Her na was Laylah.
Beside Laylah were two other girls.
One had short pale gray hair, a quick and sharp aura. The other had long blue-black hair, a gentler appearance, but when looking at the observation screen, her hands still unconsciously clenched.
The two of them were discussing the scene that had just appeared on the 27th floor.
"Sister Laylah, that shadow is definitely the ability of the Owner of room 2705."
The short-haired girl said, her voice still carrying a hint of astonishnt.
"Before this, we’d always only seen the Tenants speaking up. Nanoe, Morie, Elith... even that Thunder Dragon made a move. But from start to finish, the Owner of room 2705 almost never fought on his own."
The blue-black haired girl softly continued:
"But the mont he appeared, all the ice monster corpses were swallowed clean. That shadow enveloped the entire corridor like nightfall. If it’s not only a spoils-reclaiming ability, but can also be used in combat..."
She didn’t finish the sentence.
But the aning was already very clear.
If that black shadow could swallow corpses, could it swallow the living?
If it could swallow ice monsters, could it swallow Survivors?
Laylah listened quietly as the two spoke, the smile on her lips becoming clearer and clearer.
She had made her move from the shadows, controlling the massive hand to attack Ad’s puppet. At the ti, she had only found this contest rather interesting. Ad wasn’t weak. His puppet was also very special. But precisely because of that, watching him get utterly thrashed was all the more satisfying.
But now, Laylah’s interest was no longer placed on Ad.
Room 2705 was far more interesting.
Just the Tenants of that room alone had forced the entire apartnt complex to shut up. Nanoe used a few words to suppress the chat channel. Morie used Titan hands to crush Dokai. Elith commanded a sea of spiders to liquidate the battlefield. Thunder Dragon turned ice Golems into rubble with just one bolt of lightning.
Then what about the Owner of room 2705?
A person who could gather such existences under their command, what kind of person were they really?
The more Laylah thought, the brighter her eyes beca.
She slowly ran the tip of her tongue lightly across her lower lip. The motion wasn’t crude at all; on the contrary it carried a kind of allure that made the room feel several degrees warr.
"Interesting."
The two girls beside her imdiately fell silent.
Laylah propped her chin, looking at the image of Rover standing in the corridor on the screen. The black shadow had retreated back under his feet, but in Laylah’s eyes, that dangerous feeling had still not disappeared.
"We’ve always only been seeing his Tenants."
She softly said.
"But the person truly making that room operate at this level is certainly not the Tenants."
The short-haired girl asked: "Do you want to make contact with him, Sister?"
"Not in a rush."
Laylah smiled.
"A person like him can’t be casually touched. Moving too fast would be seen as provocation. Too slow, and the opportunity would be taken by soone else. We need to know what he likes, what he dislikes, what he lacks, and... what he can be exchanged with."
The blue-black haired girl gently nodded.
"I’ll investigate the chat channel and any transactions related to room 2705."
"Not just the chat channel."
Laylah said.
"Go ask the people who have had indirect contact with them. Especially those who have done transactions with Nanoe. I want to know what kind of transactions the Owner of room 2705 prefers, how many Tenants he has, what the relationships between them are like, and what role that girl nad Nanoe truly plays in that room."
The short-haired girl hesitated slightly.
"What about Ad?"
Hearing that na, Laylah smiled softly.
"Ad?"
In her voice was a very faint hint of contempt.
"Soone who lost his puppet, got soul-backlashed to the point of barely being able to stand, but still thinks he can reverse the situation through hatred. He’s no longer the main player of this chessboard."
She slightly tilted her head, her gaze falling back on the screen showing Rover’s image.
"At the very least right now, I want to know more about this person."
The two girls beside her imdiately bowed their heads.
"Yes."
Laylah watched Rover’s silhouette on the screen, the smile on her lips becoming more dangerous with each mont.
"Owner of room 2705..."
"Don’t disappoint ."
At the sa ti, in Ad’s room, the atmosphere was completely different.
No soft lamplight.
No laughter.
No alluring curiosity like in Laylah’s room.
Here there was only the thick, heavy scent of blood.
Ad was slumped in his chair, one hand propping himself on the table, the other gripping the armrest so tightly his knuckle joints were white. The blood from his nose still wouldn’t stop flowing. Blood from the corner of his mouth also trailed into dark red streaks down his chin.
His face, already pale to begin with, was now as white as a corpse.
His breathing was chaotic.
Every ti he inhaled, his chest ached as if soone was using an iron hook to pull hard from within. But the physical pain was still not as frightening as what was gnawing at his soul.
His puppet had been destroyed.
Not just destroyed in the material sense.
Because he used a soul link to control it, when the puppet was incinerated by Thunder Dragon, a part of Ad’s soul had also been burned through by that fla. The sensation was like a red-hot blade being gouged into his head, then twisted violently, leaving a charred hollow in his soul.
Ryu stood beside him, his expression also very unpleasant.
"Master, you should rest first."
Ad didn’t answer.
He only stared at the screen.
On the screen was the image of Rover using black shadow to swallow all the remaining ice monster corpses.
With each monster corpse that disappeared, Ad’s eyes darkened a little more.
He had paid such a heavy price.
He lost the puppet.
He suffered soul backlash.
He bled until he nearly passed out.
But what about room 2705?
They still won.
Not just won, but won extrely cleanly.
They captured the Ice Wolf General, killed Dokai, suppressed Millan, threatened the chat channel, collected the entire battlefield. And now the Owner of room 2705 was even leisurely stepping out to sweep up the final scraps of benefit.
This feeling made Ad nearly go mad.
Why?
Why could one room hold so many cards?
Why had he prepared for so long, only to end up like a clown jumping out to serve as their backdrop?
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