Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 247

Chapter 247

As the thing beneath the water appeared, red mist began to rise from the hot spring pool, and the bubbles on the surface grew even finer and denser.

That loach-slick thing coiled around Gu Huaiwei’s wrist and yanked down hard. Warm, wet, and slippery, it felt like rotting waterweed as it tried to drag her into the pool and drown her.

If this had been a Trial-taker, they would already be thrashing around in the water by now.

Not only did Gu Huaiwei not budge an inch, she even had the spare hand to reach over and feel it.

It was too slippery. She couldn’t get a grip on it.

Gu Huaiwei narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be shy. What are you hiding underwater for? Come on out and show yourself.”

She gave it a hard tug, and the thing was dragged out along with her movement.

Water splashed up from the hot spring pool, and Gu Huaiwei saw a scarlet tongue wrapped tightly around her wrist.

“That tongue of yours is… kind of long,” Gu Huaiwei muttered inwardly.

Attached to the tongue was a dripping-wet Beautiful Head. Her face was pale, her eyes were closed, and the corners of her mouth were slightly curved, carrying the faintest hint of a smile.

“Is that you? Xiaoyu.” As if she had found a treasure, Gu Huaiwei cupped the head with its eyes closed and patted it, forcibly booting it up.

The head slowly opened its eyes. Two nails had been driven straight into them.

“It’s so dark here… ka-ka-ka… Why am I still thirsty after drinking so much water?”

“It’s dark because there’s something in your eyes, so you can’t see. It’s fine. I’ll help you.” Gu Huaiwei reached out to pull the nails from the Beautiful Head’s eyes. The head quickly shut its eyelids to keep her eyeballs from getting gouged out.

“Ka-ka-ka… It hurts… The medical fees are hidden in my shoes. I can’t see with my eyes. Did you find my shoes in the water?”

What Xiaoyu said was probably a fixed line.

Gu Huaiwei was not a Trial-taker, so of course she would not play by the rules.

She shoved Xiaoyu’s head into the pool. “You stay in there every day. You look for them yourself. You’ll be faster than me.”

“Gurgle, gurgle-”

The bubbles in the pool grew larger.

Xiaoyu seemed to still have something to say, but underwater, it came out unclear.

Gu Huaiwei fished the head back out again.

“Give me my shoes… and I’ll tell you my secret… ka-ka-ka…”

Xiaoyu looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but with nails in them, she couldn’t.

“What big secret are you planning to share with me?” Gu Huaiwei held her head and walked toward the side of the hot spring pool. “Soaking in the water must be uncomfortable. Let’s go sit over there and have a nice, slow chat.”

Beneath the Beautiful Head was not a pale neck, but countless strands of hair.

She looked at Gu Huaiwei with a resentful expression.

Black hair wrapped around the entire back of her head, while the other end seemed connected to the whole bottom of the pool. A tremendous force tugged at the head, refusing to let her leave.

It seemed Xiaoyu did not want to go ashore.

Gu Huaiwei tried to tear those strands of hair apart, but they kept growing without end, like cat hair stuck to a sofa-no matter what, it could not be cleaned up completely.

“Ka-ka-ka… Let go of me…”

“Nope. Bite me if you can.” Gu Huaiwei’s smile was perfunctory. She would only let go once she got what she wanted. “I’m looking for your deskmate. Tell me where she is, and I’ll let you go.”

“Ka-ka-ka… Shoes… The medical fees are hidden in my shoes. If you can’t find them, lend me your glasses… ka-ka-ka…”

Xiaoyu repeated the same line over and over. Then her tongue slowly withdrew from Gu Huaiwei’s wrist, trying to escape her and shrink back into the water.

Gu Huaiwei clamped down on her head.

The skull was hard, but it was no match for the strength in Gu Huaiwei’s hand.

If she used just a little more force, this round head would become a flat one.

“Ka-ka-ka…”

The Anomaly really did bite.

She sank her teeth into Gu Huaiwei’s wrist. Gu Huaiwei felt only a slight sting there, and then a red mark appeared, counting down from thirty seconds.
“What is this?”

Gu Huaiwei found it rather curious. It seemed Xiaoyu really did have some skills after all, to be able to leave a mark on her. But before Gu Huaiwei could figure out what was going on with the mark, it faded away on its own.

The Beautiful Head took advantage of the moment Gu Huaiwei spent studying her wrist and tried to flee.

“Hey, don’t go yet. The thing you just left on my hand disappeared.”

Gu Huaiwei hooked a finger around the long hair connected to her head and showed her wrist to her.

Aside from the marks left by He Xueyi and Lin She, the skin there was smooth and unblemished. There was nothing at all.

The Beautiful Head, who had already been about to sink back to the bottom of the water, was forcibly dragged back again.

She stretched out her tongue and licked the spot where the mark had originally been.

Something was wrong. She licked it again.

The black qi seeping out couldn’t burrow into Gu Huaiwei’s body.

The faint halo around her kept all contamination out.

This time, she couldn’t even leave behind that shallow mark.

Could an Anomaly be dumbfounded too?

Xiaoyu retracted her long tongue.

Then she circled Gu Huaiwei in the water several times.

After that, with a slippery whoosh, she seized the moment Gu Huaiwei was off guard and shot straight down to the bottom of the pool.

She ran.

She actually just ran away like that.

Bai Miemie had wanted to show off. After hearing that Xiaoyu needed someone to find her shoes, she rolled up her pant legs and had just fished the shoes out of the water. Before she could hand them to Gu Huaiwei, Xiaoyu had already hidden underwater and refused to come out.

Holding the dripping shoes, she asked blankly, “Oh no, Sister Gu, do we still need these shoes?”

“Yes. Miemie is the best.” Gu Huaiwei felt a little helpless.

It wasn’t as if she were some savage monster. Why were the Anomalies in these Instances getting more and more wary of her?

Could it be that she had bullied too many Anomalies in these Instances and they had collectively put out a warrant for her?

Gu Huaiwei pulled several crumpled bills out of the black leather shoe.

Facing the now-calm surface of the water, she said gently, “Xiaoyu, don’t be scared. The shoes you wanted have been found. Don’t worry, I’m a good person. I don’t advocate violence.”

Gu Huaiwei wished she could write the four words “I am good” across her face.

Xiaoyu: trembling in fear.

Just now, as an Anomaly, Xiaoyu had already unleashed her trump card under the conditions permitted by the Instance.

Absolute malice. A fatal invasion of contamination.

Those thirty seconds should have been the countdown to death, a punishment for humans who violated the Rules and challenged the authority of the Instance.

But on Gu Huaiwei, it had appeared for a single moment and then vanished.

Forget the contamination eroding her body and mind.

Xiaoyu hadn’t even been able to leave behind the simplest marker.

Xiaoyu shut down.

As an Anomaly, she had suffered the Waterloo of her anomalous life.

Now, all she wanted was to sink back to the bottom of her water and stop communicating with Gu Huaiwei.

However, Gu Huaiwei was now tempting her with the shoes.

Due to the restrictions of the Instance, Xiaoyu had no choice but to face her again.

At the corner of the hot spring pool, half of the black-haired Beautiful Head slowly emerged.

She seemed to have very little faith in Gu Huaiwei’s claim that she “didn’t advocate violence.”

Just moments ago, Gu Huaiwei had nearly crushed her head.

And she called that nonviolent?

Humans really were creatures who said one thing and meant another.

Gu Huaiwei spread her hands to prove she had no intention of attacking.

Only then did Xiaoyu slowly swim over.

Gu Huaiwei placed the shoes and the bills in front of her.

The shoes slowly sank into the water.

Xiaoyu opened her mouth. Inside was a photograph.

An Anomaly Artifact? Fine, she would give it to her.

Right now, Xiaoyu only hoped that Gu Huaiwei would hurry up and leave the basement, then go to some other Anomaly’s territory instead.

This messy, impossible-to-bite-through human needed to stop causing trouble on her turf.

She was clocking out.