Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 224

Chapter 224

“Madam, why don’t you take a look first? Then you can decide.” Gu Huaiwei unfurled her own painting, looking forward to the Female Painter’s appraisal.

Aesthetic taste was a very personal thing, after all.

What if the Female Painter before her happened to appreciate her work?

Han Zhusheng had witnessed scenes like this countless times.

He had died long ago.

He had no breath. His heart was something that would never beat again.

Bringing other humans here was simply part of completing the Instance.

He felt that this time would be no different from every time before.

The Female Painter’s gaze fell on the painting. She was arrogant, so she only gave it the briefest glance, decided it looked like kindergarten scribbles, and looked away again.

Layer upon layer of chaotic interwoven lines, irregular patches of color scattered without rhyme or reason-no matter how one looked at it, it seemed like… abstract doodling that was completely impossible to understand.

“Was this painted by the little girl beside you? Children have yet to see much of the world. The works they create do not meet my expectations.”

What the Female Painter needed were paintings created in the midst of extreme agony.

They could be chaotic, but there had to be structure.

A static painting had to be able to scream.

“No, I painted it.” Gu Huaiwei felt the need to emphasize that she was the artist.

She also felt it was necessary to explain her creative process and the meaning behind every brushstroke.

But the Female Painter did not want to listen.

Gu Huaiwei sighed mournfully. Was there truly no one in this world who could empathize with her aesthetic sense? She clearly thought her painting was rather pretty.

“Let’s go,” Han Zhusheng said. Although he did want to leave with Gu Huaiwei, Gu Huaiwei did not seem capable of moving his mother with her painting.

If the Library Director did not drink the medicine, the Female Painter would not leave the basement.

Han Zhusheng would not leave the Instance.

“Wait. I have one more painting.”

Gu Huaiwei took Beasts Devouring Prey out of the Jade Bracelet. This palm-sized oil painting was something Gu Huaiwei had found among Xiling Yuan’s leftover possessions when she helped collect his body in the Real World.

Han Zhusheng had no expectations for it. The Female Painter looked over again, and with that single glance, her expression abruptly twisted into something savage.

She shot up from her chair, knocking over the paints at her side. They splashed across her white dress like flowers bursting into bloom.

“Give it to me. Give me that painting!” Her voice was shrill, threaded with a low, clacking “kakakaka” sound, like fractured noises squeezed from deep within her throat.

“Here.” Gu Huaiwei generously handed the painting over.

The Female Painter casually tossed the human-bone paintbrush in her hand onto the floor. Barefoot, she stepped into the scattered paint trays on the ground, thick pigment splattering over her ankles. She herself looked more like a work of art than the painting did.

Yet none of it diminished the fanaticism on her face.

The Female Painter held the painting with a kind of fervor, obsession spreading across her features as she pressed her face against the oil painting. “Perfect. Too perfect… kakakaka… I can hear the screams tearing their hearts and lungs apart. More beautiful than the screams that came from downstairs during last night’s fire.”

Then she extended her wet tongue and greedily licked across the surface of the framed oil painting. Saliva clung to the outer layer of glass, leaving behind a nauseating sheen.

After licking it, she slowly raised her head, her gaze locking hard onto Gu Huaiwei. “Kakakaka… Who painted this work? Was it you?”

Gu Huaiwei deliberately kept her in suspense. “Want to know?”

The Female Painter nodded.

“Leave the basement, and I’ll tell you.”

The Female Painter lowered her head and stared silently at the oil painting in her hands. She was struggling. She both wanted to create the perfect work with her own hands and yearned to meet the artist who had painted the oil painting she held.
Han Zhusheng had never seen the Female Painter like this before.

In his memory, his mother was beautiful, cold, and kept everyone at arm’s length.

This time seemed different.

He should have watched from the sidelines with indifference, but he still pleaded, “Mom, you once said that as long as you saw a painting that truly moved you, you would leave this place, right?”

“Actually… I have more than one.” Gu Huaiwei gestured to the size of the Ferris Wheel Oil Painting hanging in the hall. “In the lobby of my Sanatorium, there’s a painting much larger than this one.”

The Female Painter’s eyes filled with longing. Her voice trembled as she asked, “I… I want to see it.”

The corners of Gu Huaiwei’s lips lifted. “Of course, beautiful madam. As long as you check into the Sanatorium, you can look at it for as long as you like.”

In the end, the Female Painter left the basement.

The rest of the time was left to Han Zhusheng and the Female Painter.

After the Instance ended, they would wait for Gu Huaiwei at the Library entrance.

The second-stage mission to recruit Anomaly customers was now complete.

The three Anomalies from the Mine Instance, plus the three Anomalies from the Library Instance, made six in total-one more than Oasis Sanatorium required.

But Gu Huaiwei was not the type to slack off the moment she met her goal and call it good.

When it came to Anomaly customers, the more, the better.

Since she was already in the Instance anyway, Gu Huaiwei decided to bring the Library Director out with her too.

Humming a little tune, Gu Huaiwei headed for the Library Director’s Office.

Bai Miemie followed at Gu Huaiwei’s side, clutching the hem of her clothes, taking the same steps as her. In garbled syllables, Bai Miemie tried to hum along with her.

Gu Huaiwei was humming: “Inheritance~ inheriting an inheritance~”

Bai Miemie was humming: “Eeya~ eeya eeya~”

Lu Xiaoxing stood at the door to the Library Director’s study. He raised a hand to adjust the wig on his head, tugged his high-waisted bodycon skirt upward, and, in three-inch heels, wobbled his way inside.

He was currently dressed as a woman, applying to be the Library Director’s Secretary.

From a distance, Gu Huaiwei saw Lu Xiaoxing exaggerating the sway of his hips, deliberately pitching his voice high as he flaunted himself in front of the Library Director.

Being an Anomaly was pretty hard too.

He didn’t look remotely like a woman in that outfit.

He hadn’t shaved his beard, and the black hair on his chest was practically about to poke out from under his white shirt.

But the Anomaly still had to pretend to be blind, acting as though the person standing before him really was a girl.

The Secretary’s job was to take care of the Library Director’s daily needs, help decoct his medicine, and handle the Library’s day-to-day work.

Gu Huaiwei saw the Library Director sitting there with drooping eyelids, emotionlessly reciting the same lines.

She walked straight in.

“Director, I also want to apply for the Secretary position.”

Lu Xiaoxing was in the middle of introducing himself when Gu Huaiwei suddenly appeared, making his heart jolt.

It would have been one thing if another Trial-taker came to fight him for the Secretary position, but why was an Anomaly competing with him too?

The Library Director had originally been planning to make things difficult for Lu Xiaoxing and tempt him into violating the Rules.

But the moment Gu Huaiwei appeared, he immediately said to Lu Xiaoxing, “Good. It’s you. You’re hired… ka-ka-ka… You can start right now.”

“?” For the first time, Lu Xiaoxing felt that talking to an Anomaly could be this easy.

There was only one opening for Secretary.

“What a shame.” Gu Huaiwei showed no intention of leaving. She slowly walked to the Library Director’s side, her slender fingers resting lightly on his shoulder. “Uncle, then I’ll be a volunteer for once and take care of you for free.”