Haunted by a Vicious Ghost, the Instance Begins!

“Little Brother… hurry back…”

“Your poor Big Sister is going to starve to death…”

Wu Xiaoyou stared at the mountain of instant noodle containers and takeout bags littering the table. With a sigh, she began to clean up the trash and tidy the apartment.

The mere thought of Wu Wang's delicious home-cooked meals made tears of longing well up in her eyes.

Where in the world did that brat go!

She hadn't seen him in ten days! If it weren't for the note he left assuring her he was safe, Wu Xiaoyou would have called the police long ago.

It wasn't that she was worried about his life.

Thanks to his 【Undying】 ability, Wu Xiaoyou had once witnessed the horrifying sight of him cutting off his own head, only for his body to grope around, find it, and screw it back on.

The odd thing was, her little brother had no memory of the event. He always assumed he'd simply been resurrected on the spot, just like any other time.

Normally he did resurrect instantly, but it seemed that if his head and body were separated, the body would sometimes go looking for the head on its own. The whole thing was bizarre.

No, what Wu Xiaoyou worried about was a matter of public safety.

She had always been concerned about Wu Wang's mental state. It was the whole reason she worked herself to the bone to hire the best psychologist for him.

If he went missing out there… who knew what might happen? There was no guarantee his brain wouldn't short-circuit and he'd try to pull off something big.

She could already picture the headlines tomorrow. Some idiot in Mingyang City uses a banana as a pistol, charges into a bank, and gets subdued. When they pull off his mask, it reveals Wu Wang's delicate little face.

If that really happened… she wouldn't even be surprised.

Of course, the most important thing was something else entirely.

She really couldn't cook.

Little Brother, hurry back and save your Big Sister! I'm eating junk food every day and not getting enough nutrition! I still have to go to work and use my brain and my body!

Ding ding ding~

Her phone rang. Wu Xiaoyou quickly wiped the miserable, tear-streaked expression from her face.

When she saw the caller ID, an icy coldness crept over her features.

"Welcome to Spider Lily Delivery."

“Click click click… click click click…”

No one spoke. The other end was silent except for a few strange sounds, like someone typing on an old-fashioned typewriter.

Wu Xiaoyou didn't speak either. She silently committed the number and frequency of the clicks to memory.

A moment later, the caller hung up.

She slipped her phone into her pocket and returned to her bedroom, humming a strange, eerie little tune. She took a key from a hidden compartment in her wardrobe and changed into an inconspicuous set of clothes. Then she applied makeup to her face, which normally turned heads on the street, making it look much plainer.

Just as Wu Wang had snuck past surveillance to leave his note, Wu Xiaoyou now made her way to a small bar in an extremely clever and unnoticeable manner.

The light inside was dim, and the music was so loud it made one's eardrums ache. It was a cheap bar where you could barely see the person in front of you unless you were standing face-to-face.

She sat at the far corner of the high-top bar.

The bartender slid a drink menu across the counter, but Wu Xiaoyou didn't even look up.

"I'll have a… hmm… let me think."

For a moment, she seemed to have forgotten the code represented by the clicks. A full ten seconds passed before she continued.

"A Bloody Mary without the tomato, extra sugar, extra milk, with a small umbrella."

The bartender nodded silently. Under the dim lights, he passed over a small, palm-sized box with a metallic sheen. It looked very sturdy.

Wu Xiaoyou took the box, got up, and prepared to leave.

Suddenly, a man with a missing tooth and a mean-looking face sat down beside her.

He sneered, "Well, well, well, where did this newbie come from? How can your memory be so bad? You look so distracted, what are you thinking about?"

"Maybe she's thinking about how her pretty boy got stolen by someone else, hahaha!" a companion next to the man joked.

Wu Xiaoyou glanced at them. Her gaze was so cold it could almost freeze the air, instantly making them feel as if they were sitting on pins and needles.

"I'm in a bad mood today," she said flatly. "I'll take one finger from each of you as a lesson."

With that, she raised her palm and slowly opened it.

Plop.

Two bloody fingers fell to the floor. The pupils of those who saw it shrank in shock.

Immediately after, the two men's screams rang out, only to be instantly drowned by the noisy, feverish rave music.

They stared in horror at their hands. Their index fingers were gone! They hadn't even felt a shred of pain before she dropped them on the floor.

What kind of sorcery was this!

Seeing this, the bartender simply waved for a cleaner to sweep up the trash on the floor. He then took a roll of bandages from behind the bar, handed it over, and asked doubtfully, "How long have you two been in this business?"

"H-half a year…" the men trembled, wrapping their wounds to stop the bleeding.

The bartender's mocking voice sounded in their ears.

"She hasn't taken a single job from this shop all year, so it's no wonder you don't recognize her. Have you ever heard the story of one pencil killing three people from the Blacklist?"

The mean-faced man's expression turned ugly. Thinking the bartender was joking, he asked, "Are you talking about the movie John Wick?"

But the bartender revealed a strange smile. He shook his head.

"I'm talking about her. Anything the killer in the movie can do, she can do too."

"When the Spider Lily blooms, to see it is to see the Yellow Springs."

"You two dared to mock Spider Lily. If word of this gets out tonight, I don't know how many of our peers will be filled with solemn respect. After all, idiots like you are a rare sight."

At these words, the two men's expressions went slack.

They belonged to a group of Bounty Hunters who roamed the city's shadows, occasionally taking on assassination jobs. In secret, they were called "Postmen." They delivered letters for people, and they delivered people to their graves.

In recent years, a legendary Postman had gained great fame in the industry, a woman called "Spider Lily."

She never accepted assassination jobs. She only accepted hits on those within the industry who were on the Blacklist. These were Postmen who had bounties on their heads for violating the rules or for doing extremely vicious things.

To put it mildly, these were unscrupulous and audacious scoundrels. For them, murder and arson were trivial matters. They participated in all sorts of things that morality and law could not tolerate, stopping at nothing. People like this were the scum of the bounty hunter world.

If you rounded up nine people from the Blacklist and put them on trial, at least ten of them would deserve to be shot several times over.

Spider Lily only accepted bounties to eliminate such people. She was more like a cleaner in the industry, specifically making sure Postmen didn't cross the line. Because of this, she was quite favored by the higher-ups.

Most importantly, she never failed.

"I… I have something urgent… I have to go home now."

The mean-faced man's teeth chattered as he scrambled out of the bar. He couldn't stay in this city anymore! Run! He had to run as far away as possible!

Meanwhile, Wu Xiaoyou strolled through an alley. She used the key to open the metal box and took out a slip of paper.

She glanced at it casually. The target was in the neighboring city.

Sighing, she took out her phone and sent a voice message to Wu Wang's WeChat.

"Little Brother, I'm going on a business trip for a few days too. When I get back, make sure you eat on time every day, keep a regular schedule, and don't just kill yourself for no reason, understand?"

With that, she gave a casual wave of her hand. The ghost that had just severed the two men's fingers obediently crawled back into her body.

Not only could she see ghosts… she could now command them.

This was the secret to why Spider Lily never failed.

Taking out a lighter, she lit the slip of paper and prepared to go home and pack. But as the paper turned to ash, a wisp of strange black smoke floated out from the embers, following in the direction she had left.

A deep voice seemed to roar from within the black smoke.

"The scent of the Old Days…"

"The Old Days' Fragment stolen by the Yin Fate Thief…"

"The Old Days' 【Relic】 Fragment is mine!"

"The 【Relic Scramble】 will begin in five minutes. Colleagues, please return safely!"

A high-ranking member of the Abnormal Affairs Bureau in the capital was giving a motivational speech to the thirty people participating in the Instance. His gaze fell on a certain person standing at the very front, his eyes as determined as ever, and he couldn't help but sigh.

The Abnormal Affairs Bureau's entry slots for this Instance were one for each level from 5 to 25, with ten slots for those above level 25. This time, Mingyang City had surprisingly applied for three slots. a level 7, a level 16, and a level 26.

The key was that all three of them had truly bested their rivals. They had all stood out among those of the same level.

One of them was Xiezhi.

He had strongly vouched for the man back then, but unfortunately, he was still demoted to Mingyang City. It was a matter that could have been resolved if he had just bowed his head and admitted his mistake. This guy… he was too stubborn.

"Elder Li, don't worry," Xiezhi said, looking at the high-ranking official with a smile. "In this Relic Scramble, I will achieve a result that will satisfy the Bureau."

This was the only high-ranking official in the capital he was on good terms with. He felt a little guilty now for all the trouble he had caused the man.

"We'll see about being satisfied," Elder Li said, shaking his head helplessly. "You must come back alive."

As the countdown ticked to its final second, the Bronze Tokens in everyone's hands grew progressively hotter.

A chime sounded in their minds.

【Multi-person Competitive Instance has been matched】

【Welcome to Bloodthirsty Wharf】

【Instance Name: Old Days' Battlefield】