Chapter 71 - The Fallen

"Fallen One?" Bai Zhi swept his gaze over the fleshy sprouts on Lin He's left wrist and frowned.

"Or you could say 'one of the Fallen'. Doesn't matter what you use. As you can see, I am no longer human," Lin He explained.

Lin He seemed to sag with exhaustion as he looked at the sprouts on his wrist, and he promptly sat down on the bone-paved path.

"I was once like you, a Player brought here by the bus to be tested, but I couldn't collect the bus fare in time, and was forced to stay here for seven days.

Bai Zhi narrowed his eyes. "Does your body mutate when you spend too long in here?"

"You're a Player too, right? Bring up your Attributes panel—you should see that your Sanity is lower than before, and slowly decreasing."

Lin He's was speaking in an emotionless monotone.

"It costs Sanity to stay here, and when normal people lose all of their Sanity, they turn into monsters... just like you saw happen to Zheng YaoWen."

When Bai Zhi brought up his Attributes panel, a quick glance at his Sanity showed that, as always, the value was '???'. Bai Zhi contemplated it in silence, then closed the panel once more. "...You're right, it has dropped a ton."

"To survive, I ate the food here, and..." Lin He raised his left hand. "This place is far more insidious than you can imagine. What you've seen so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Even now, I can feel it slowly eroding my humanity, subtly changing the way I think. It won't be long before I become completely corrupted.

"But you haven't yet."

Bai Zhi fixed Lin He with a piercing gaze.

"So you got some extra things sprouting from your arm, so what? Once you're out of here—" Bai Zhi frowned, struck by a thought. "Unless... you can't leave?"

"...No, I can. Provided I kill you first," said Lin He grimly as he looked at his left hand.

"Of course, I'm keenly aware that I've become a mutant. To allow me to return to human society would be a bad idea, because there's a high chance I will kill those who I once wanted to protect, by my own hand."

Lin He raised his head.

"I'm not the only Fallen. We are the most dangerous kind of monster, because we can blend in perfectly amongst humans, while retaining all our intelligence... We even retain our status as Player."

Bai Zhi raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you gotta kill me? Can't you guys get on the bus just by paying the bus fare? Look, if you don't have enough, I can loan you what you need. Just pay it back with interest."

"Looks like you still don't understand my point... We Fallen think in completely different ways from humans." Lin He flashed a terrible grin. "When I return to human society, do you know what's the first thing I will absolutely do? I will murder my entire family, so that I can grow by feeding on them."

"Ehh, you look pretty normal right now, though."

"That's because I'm still in the Underworld, and I am bound by certain restrictions. Once I leave, the irreversible changes... Forget it. Let me offer you a word of advice: if you encounter any Fallen in the real world, it's in your best interest to kill it immediately, and not to trust a single word they say."

Lin He turned his face away, indicating that he was done talking, and got up.

"My plan was to kill you, then return to the humans pretending to be you, but it seems my soul is still human, and I couldn't do it after all."

"So you're not going back?" said Bai Zhi with some surprise.

"Exactly. This is probably the last thing I can be proud of, as a human."

Lin He looked Bai Zhi in the eye. " ...Say, would you mind doing me a favor? There's a person, out there in the real world, that I worry for. Now that the world is becoming more deadly and I'm not there to protect her, I fear she is in constant danger... Relax, I won't ask you to do the impossible, only that you take a few items to her—my sister.

"Your sister?"

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"Everyone has someone they want to protect. As do I."

With a protracted sigh, Lin He laid his silver pistol, a stack of Hell Dollars and an emerald-green box at Bai Zhi's feet.

"The pistol is a Rare piece of equipment. You can have it, along with the Hell Dollars, as payment... Please just deliver the box to my sister."

Bai Zhi took in Lin He's calm countenance, then nodded. "Sure."

He bent to pick up the items on the ground, reaching for the pistol first, because that was the nearest to him. Bai Zhi's fingers had barely brushed against the grip when a flesh-colored mass of sprouts flew through the air and landed on the back of his hand. Almost instantly, they twisted themselves into a spike and burrowed directly into his flesh!

Lin He watched as the flesh spike burrowed into Bai Zhi's hand and shook his head mockingly. "Told ya, don't trust anything a Fallen One says."

Contorting his lips into a gleeful smile, he began walking toward Bai Zhi, who was still frozen in the pose of someone bending to pick up something on the ground.

"Now that the trials are over, you are no longer under Hell's protection, and I can finally make a move against you. Lord knows how hard it's been to wait patiently for this moment... Say, wasn't that some Oscar-worthy acting earlier?"

Lin He's lips opened to reveal tightly-packed, orderly rows of razor-sharp teeth—five whole rows of them.

"Even if you got something good from that paper doll, while you have my parasite sprout inside your hand, there's nowhere for you to run. Someone of your caliber deserves my undivided, unwavering attention..."

Without warning, it was drenched from top to toe with a deluge of some liquid, before it had even finished speaking.

"Tsk tsk tsk, don't you know the villains always screw themselves over by talking too much?"

Bai Zhi had repositioned himself, and meanwhile, tossed the empty bucket far away. Now, he smirked with disdain.

"Say, you weren't about to give me a whole 'bag of rice' speech*, were you?"

Lin He, who now looked completely inhuman, ground its teeth silently. Finally, it asked, "...How did you know?"

Reflected in its eyes, the figure of Bai Zhi crossed his arms and smirked.

"Easy. I never once trusted your kind."