"Finally done,"
Liu Zheng let out a sigh.
"You're finally awake, lad,"
Niu Ma said with a sinister tone.
"What happened to me?"
He asked curiously.
"Look at the time,"
Niu Ma nodded toward his mouth.
Liu Zheng took out his phone, which displayed the time.
11:30 PM.
"It's already this late,"
He was startled and turned to look at the Sudoku magazine.
There was something not quite right with this thing.
"Stop looking, it's no big deal. Even if you didn't finish, I would have kicked you awake,"
Niu Ma said.
Kicked awake, you mean kicked to death.
Liu Zheng chuckled.
"Hurry up and bring out your food, I'm starving to death,"
Niu Ma complained.
Liu Zheng took out two employee meals from the cabinet, a bowl of ramen, and a box of sushi.
The drinks were a bottle of raw cola and a bottle of clear sake.
After serving them up, he finished the remaining employee meal and drank the raw cola.
Liu Zheng unzipped his pants and peeked inside, clicking his tongue in disapproval.
There's no glow; this Japanese food was clearly inauthentic.
He pocketed the sake, planning to give it to the French Plane Tree.
That tree seemed to prefer drinking alcohol over other beverages.
He glanced at the time again, 11:56 PM.
Now, it all depended on whether the novelist was reliable.
Thankfully, the novelist indeed was reliable.
At midnight sharp, Ghost Hand extended in on time.
It dropped off the delivery note and gave Liu Zheng the middle finger.
Then it left before he could retaliate.
"Hahaha!"
Niu Ma erupted in an earth-shattering laugh.
Both of his thick lips were lifted by the laughter.
"You, what did you do to provoke it?"
After a long while, Niu Ma finally calmed down, gasping for breath as he spoke.
"Last time the meal had an issue, so I gave it a little scare,"
said Liu Zheng, shrugging his tentacles.
This little creature really held a grudge.
"Serves you right, you're lucky it didn't slap you both silly, hahaha!"
Niu Ma continued to laugh heartily.
Liu Zheng ignored him and picked up the delivery note.
"Meal: One order of Mermaid Egg Fried Rice"
"Address: 4-606 Green Garden Mad City"
"Time frame: Three hours"
"Three hours?!"
Niu Ma's big head loomed closer.
"That lover of yours really went all out."
He said with a click of his tongue.
"We're just friends,"
Liu Zheng corrected seriously.
"Well, your friend is really loyal. My wife wouldn't even give me that much,"
Niu Ma said jealously.
"Is it expensive?"
"Of course, do you think just anyone can afford Bloody Restaurant? To order proactively and set a custom delivery time, this one order could keep you going for a year,"
Niu Ma explained.
"That's really steep,"
Liu Zheng said sincerely.
"How else is the boss going to make money?"
Niu Ma chuckled.
"I didn't bring up the boss this time,"
he said, watching Niu Ma warily.
Last time he mentioned the boss, one of them got scared half to death, the other was beaten half to death.
Was Niu Ma feeling brave this time?
"It's fine to talk about that,"
Niu Ma waved a hoof.
"The boss loves hearing people praise her for being cunning and ruthless, and excessively greedy,"
"Does she also like to be hung from streetlamps?"
Liu Zheng asked with feigned innocence.
"Never heard that one. But I have heard she likes to bathe in gold,"
Niu Ma said with an air of mystery.
"Gold? A bath?"
He had only heard of milk baths and rose petal baths, but a gold bath?
"It's where you melt gold and pour it into an iron bathtub to bathe in,"
Niu Ma elaborated.
"Impressive,"
Liu Zheng gave a thumbs up.
That woman was definitely not human.
"Or she wouldn't be the boss. Enough with the questions, let's move. We don't have the luxury of three hours."
Niu Ma urged.
The two of them exited the tunnel, and Liu Zheng pulled out the map.
"Where is the black market located?"
he asked.
"Here."
Niu Ma pointed at the northwest corner of the map with his horn.
"Huh?"
Liu Zheng looked at the location and felt it looked familiar.
After a few seconds of reminiscing, he pulled out the letter he had received at the beginning.
Turning it over, indeed, the location of the black market coincided with one of the dots.
"City Hall has even marked the location of the black market, that's not really their style."
Niu Ma said, coming over.
"Really?"
Liu Zheng replied casually.
Maybe it was marked by the system as well.
"What about these other three places?"
he asked, pointing to the other dots.
"That one is Chaos Club, that one is a garbage dump, and the one in the middle is City Hall,"
Niu Ma explained each one in turn.
"What is Chaos Club?"
Liu Zheng asked.
"Don't know, I haven't taken a gig there. You'd better hope you don't either,"
Niu Ma shook his head and said.
"Why?"
"I heard it from someone at the black market, last time City Hall sent three teams of people in there, not one came out,"
Niu Ma said.
"Are those people strong? How do they measure up to you guys, the Niu Ma?"
Liu Zheng asked seriously.
"I'm talking in general terms, general! Do you understand?"
Niu Ma was first stunned and then raged.
"Got it, got it, big guy, please continue."
he placated.
"Continue my ass, let's just move. If it wasn't for counting on you to make money for me, I would've kicked you to death by now."
Niu Ma said, huffing and puffing.
Stepping outside for the first time at night, Liu Zheng distinctly felt the difference.
The watching eyes hidden in the darkness almost solidified, as if countless tongues were licking his body.
He felt his skin itch all over.
"Ticklish, right?"
Niu Ma teased.
"Yeah, a little."
Liu Zheng nodded, admitting it.
"Nighttime is nothing like daytime. If it wasn't for me being here, they would have rushed out and torn you apart already,"
Niu Ma said.
"Who are 'they'?"
he asked.
"Everything. Some love to eat humans, some will eat anything, others have been eaten hollow. Like this one!"
As Niu Ma spoke, he suddenly stamped fiercely on the ground.
The asphalt concrete surface instantly cracked in all directions, and dark green blood slowly oozed out from the ground.
Niu Ma kicked at the broken rocks, then thrust his horn into the ground, prying out a bizarrely shaped creature.
Its skin was pale; it had the physique of an obese toad with a bunch of pink tentacles where its head should be, and no eyes.
"Nice catch."
Niu Ma said, delighted.
He stuffed the creature into his mouth, biting off its head and half its body in one bite.
"Tastes like chicken, nice and crunchy."
Niu Ma licked his lips contentedly.
This creature was a rare sight, even on the Night of the Bloody seldom appearing.
Having gotten a bite of it, the trip today hadn't been in vain.
"Want a bite or two?"
Noticing Liu Zheng's gaze, he hesitated before asking.
After all, he still counted on the kid to share the loot, so he couldn't be too miserly.
Liu Zheng looked at the pale corpse, above which system prompts sparkled brightly.
"Name: Fresh Corpse of a Moon Beast Juvenile"
"Type: Item"
"Quality: Fine"
"Effect: Spirit +5, Perception +5, small chance of acquiring the 'Hallucination' state, very small chance of awakening 'Isolated Daughter' lineage."
"Note: The moon is watching you."
"Can be taken out of the instance: Yes"
"Warning, 'Isolated Daughter' lineage conflicts with the player's current state, forced awakening will produce uncontrollable consequences."
He had no intention of eating the thing, system warning or not.
Having eaten a Black Mountain Goat eyeball, he had already turned into a Tentacle Monster; eating this thing, he figured he might not even retain his human form.
"A timid person just doesn't know what's good."
Niu Ma taunted before shaking his head and moving forward.
Liu Zheng followed closely behind.
Along the path they were taking were drips of green body fluid.
Pair after pair of crimson eyes emerged from the darkness, emitting excited growls.