Chapter 69 - All Clear

With Lin He's help, Bai Zhi released Xu Feng from the iron hook he had been hanging from, but the extreme blood loss had rendered him unconscious, and so he remained.

Outside the shop, Lin He supported Xu Feng's slack body with one hand as he looked worriedly toward Bai Zhi. "What do we do now?"

"We were given a deadline of three hours—considering the time it will take us to walk back along that long path, I reckon we have less than an hour here before we have to leave, or miss the bus altogether."

Bai Zhi looked at the shops on either side of the road with a neutral expression.

"How many Hell Dollars do you have on you?"

"...A hundred." said Lin He, after a moment's hesitation.

Bai Zhi's eyes flicked imperceptibly to Xu Feng's neck, which had been healed using the Recuperative Clay. "Let's leave Xu Feng here for now, and let's clear some more challenges, you and me. I could give you a leg up, by walking you through the challenges I cleared...

"First off, I wouldn't recommend visiting the clown. The rules there may have since changed, too risky. The ragdoll is also a bad idea, but you should try the ghostly girl. The key is to pick an instrument that can overwhelm the sound of the zither without giving it a break, and remember to stuff your ears. I recommend the drums—no skills needed, just bang away."

After quickly going over the strategy one more time, Bai Zhi jerked a thumb at Gourmet House, behind him.

"As for this one, you saw how it went earlier, keep in mind that it's not just the food you make, the judges you pick to taste them have to be perfect, too. Also, the cat in the Pool Hall and the spirit in Rainfall Pavilion are different from the paper doll, the clown, and the ragdoll, so... Anyway, just follow my exact steps and you'll be fine. Do you need any supplies?"

As he spoke, Bai Zhi retrieved a giant bag of trash from his Inventory and laid in on the ground.

"I had meant to dump it in a trash can somewhere along the way, but I kinda forgot about it after I realized I was on the wrong bus."

As he looked at the bulging trashbag before him, Lin He could not help grimacing in disbelief, and he simply nodded.

...Does this guy stuff literally anything and everything into his Inventory?

"Welp, I'll let you get on with it. Meet you back here later."

Bai Zhi waved and made straight for the shop next to Gourmet House.

Lin He watched Bai Zhi's receding figure with a stony expression. Suddenly, the silver-barreled pistol appeared in his hands without a sound and he aimed it directly at Bai Zhi's back... but the gun disappeared again in a flash.

Sighing softly, Lin He carried Xu Feng to the Pool Hall and sat him on the front step. The ginger cat wearing a yellow riding jacket merely looked at them and turned away.

Once he made sure Xu Feng was comfortable, Lin He turned and headed into Gourmet House.

———

There were ten shops in this small village situated at the entrance to the Underworld, evenly spaced on either side of a street.

They were: Art's Pawnshop, Funhouse, Riddle Room, Rainfall Pavilion, Martial Arts Hall, Pool Hall, Gourmet House, Herb Palace, Courage Court, and Monster Mansion.

Each shop presented their visitor with a challenge, and clearing the challenge would earn them one hundred Hell Dollars, but on the flip side, the cost of failing even one of the challenges... was their life.

The Martial Arts Hall was manned by a panda in a kung-fu outfit* and was mainly a test of the visitor's combat techniques. The win condition was simple: survive one minute without getting killed.

With the help of the cement and sand in his Inventory, as well as a large tub of grease, Bai Zhi just barely managed to survive the full minute.

Herb Palace was the shop next to Gourmet House, and the shopkeeper was a weird, lanky creature. It was a test of medical expertise—the first one to treat ten patients was declared the winner.

Bai Zhi was still wondering where his patients would come from when suddenly, several shadowy figures, just like the ones they had encountered on the way to the village, trooped in one after another. There was one with half a brain missing, one with their guts all hanging out, one with fat maggots crawling around the empty, black socket where its eye used to be... Each of these walking corpses, who looked like they had dug themselves out of the ground, was more terrifying than the last, especially when seen up close.

It was a great challenge, to be sure. Having to treat such ghoulish patients went beyond the realm of disgusting—the mere sight of them was enough to trigger violent nausea.

That is, for anyone except Bai Zhi. The biggest effect the challenge had on Bai Zhi was that, after treating several of these patients, he started to work up an appetite.

Meanwhile, he had even spotted the one who had lost his head when he got ambushed by those monsters—the unfortunate Zheng YaoWen—among the horde of zombies shuffling in and out...

As he watched each of his newly-stitched-up zombie patients shamble out of the shop, only to fall flat on their faces and sink into the ground, Bai Zhi suddenly realized what the sticky, squishy red ground was really made of.

All in all, it was a challenge that most normal people would not be expected to complete.

Courage Court, as the name implied, was a place that tested the visitor's mettle. All they needed to do to win was not lose their nerve, and remain quiet throughout the challenge.

The shopkeeper was, of all things, an electric standing fan... God only knew how an appliance ascended into sentience.

The last shop, Monster Mansion, was the creepiest of the ten shops, and the one where Bai Zhi spent the most time. And yet, from beginning to end, he never figured out who, or what, the shopkeeper was.

In the end, Bai Zhi collected a total of 890 Hell Dollars, after deducting the 10 Dollars he had spent to save Xu Feng from the pig-man. This was equivalent to 8,900 Coins, and undoubtedly a significant sum of money.

"The greater the risk, the greater the reward" was a saying grounded in truth, after all.

After successfully clearing all the challenges, Bai Zhi arrived at the rendezvous point, but saw no sign of Lin He, who was still occupied. He did not loiter, but made a beeline for Art's Pawnshop.

This novel is available on bit.ly/3Tfs4P4.

As he sat down at the counter, Bai Zhi rapped on the surface and directed a question at the paper doll.

"Tell me, if I follow the road past this village, where does it lead?"