57: Chapter 57 Friends, let's have fun!

Bi was a Satanist.

She traded virgins for youth and beauty through sacrifice.

She had seen blood and death.

But the system she believed in seemed completely useless before this monster.

She had just tried to recite an exorcism spell.

As a result, the monster only tilted its head, looking at her as if she were a fool, then teleported to the other side through the wall socket.

"Damn it... damn it..."

Bi cursed under her breath, cold sweat completely soaking her low-cut top.

Suddenly.

The phone in her pocket vibrated.

In this dead-silent basement, the vibration sounded like thunder.

Bi was so startled she almost threw the phone away.

She tremblingly took out the phone.

The screen lit up automatically.

There was no caller ID.

On the screen was a picture in a picture-book style.

In the picture was a thin, lonely monster.

A line of text slowly emerged:

【Larry... wants to find... a friend.】

"Go to hell!!"

Bi smashed the phone hard against the far corner.

Crack.

The phone screen shattered.

But it didn't go black.

Instead, it became even brighter.

The light from the cracked screen illuminated the shadows in the corner.

Between the interplay of light and shadow.

An incredibly thin and tall figure stood there, hunched over.

Larry.

He really followed the phone through.

Bi screamed and turned to run.

But there was no second exit in the basement.

In her panic, she knocked over an old shelf, and paint buckets crashed to the floor.

Zzt... zzt...

The only lightbulb in the basement suddenly exploded.

The world plunged into darkness.

No.

Not complete darkness.

In the dark, there were some glowing things.

Those were Larry's eyes.

Along with tablets, discarded electronic clocks, and even the long-broken Gameboy in the corner that had lit up at some point.

Everything with a screen lit up.

Emitting a pale, ghostly light.

These lights converged, stretching Larry's shadow extremely long and projecting it onto Bi like a giant net.

A patchwork of voices echoed in the darkness.

It was audio clips taken from various TV programs, awkwardly pieced together:

【Friend】...【We're going to】...【Have】...【Fun】...

A withered, large hand reached out from the darkness.

That hand had no warmth, carrying a static suction force.

Bi frantically brandished the folding knife in her hand.

"Don't come near me! I am the bride of Lucifer! I have the protection of demons!!"

The blade slashed across Larry's body.

No blood.

Only the sound of electric sparks bursting.

Larry didn't seem to feel pain.

Or rather, he didn't understand the concept of an attack at all.

He just wanted to... play.

That withered hand grabbed Bi's wrist.

The sensation was like grabbing an exposed high-voltage wire.

"Aaah!!"

Bi felt every muscle in her body convulse.

Her consciousness began to blur.

Her vision was filled with black and white static.

Larry pulled her toward him.

That twisted face drew close to Bi's beautiful face, which was distorted by fear.

Zzt... zzt...

【We're going】...【To go】...【Inside】...【To play】...

The cracked phone in the corner suddenly erupted with a burst of bright light.

Larry grabbed Bi, and his body began to twist like a fluid.

He was about to drag this new "friend" into that world of screens and data.

"No... I'm not going... Help!!"

Bi's fingers clawed bloody marks onto the concrete floor.

She didn't want to be trapped in that cold electronic world.

Larry's withered hand grabbed Bi's shoulder.

A massive force came through.

Bi felt like a thin piece of paper being forcibly crumpled and stuffed into a narrow bottle.

"...Ugh!!"

Her final roar turned into distorted electronic noise.

Pop.

Like the soft sound of a champagne cork being pulled.

The living woman in the basement vanished.

Only the cracked phone in the corner remained, its screen flickering once.

A pixel-style little person appeared on the screen—a miniature version of Bi.

She was frantically pounding on non-existent glass in a pixel dungeon on the screen, screaming silently.

Then, the screen flickered twice and went completely black.

【Ding! Captured Low-level Fallen Believer (Bi), gained 1 point.】

【Remaining points: 132.】

Qin Ming, sitting on a dining chair, raised an eyebrow.

He looked at the system prompt that popped up in his mind and casually tossed the unfinished pizza crust back into the box.

"Oh? This counts too?"

Qin Ming had originally thought it only counted if he did it himself or if his believer Emma did it.

This was interesting.

It meant he could completely be an idle boss, building an army of evil spirits to farm points.

"I've finally experienced the joy of a capitalist."

Qin Ming stood up, brushed the crumbs off his hands, and looked up at the ceiling.

The vibrations on the second floor continued.

He could faintly hear Emma's signature, sickeningly sweet laughter, along with the sound of heavy objects hitting the wall.

"Larry."

Qin Ming softly gave an order to the air.

"Go up and help Emma."

"Don't keep our guest waiting too long, after all—" Qin Ming glanced at the wall clock, "it's time for bed."

Zzt—

An electronic response came from the darkness of the basement.

Meanwhile.

Second-floor bathroom.

Esther had nowhere left to retreat.

Just then, the incredibly old LCD screen hanging on the bathroom wall suddenly flickered with a piercing green light.

It was a backup TV installed for guests to watch the news while bathing, but now it had become an entrance to hell.

Zzt—

The harsh sound of static instantly drowned out Esther's scream.

"Larry, come in and play."

Emma whispered softly to the air.

Inside the LCD screen, black and white static began to swirl frantically, finally converging into a twisted face.

That face was almost pressed against the screen glass, its features showing a weird flatness from the pressure.

Esther turned her head in terror.

She saw a withered, pale hand crawling out bit by bit along the frame of the TV.

That hand grabbed the edge of the bathtub.

Larry's thin, inhumanly long body shot out from the monitor like a compressed spring.

He didn't land directly on the floor but clung to the ceiling like a gecko, his body twisted in a 180-degree joint reversal.

Zzt... 【New friend】... Zzt... 【Together】... 【Film a movie】...

Larry opened his mouth, and what came out was not hot breath but static with a burnt smell.

"No... stay away from me! Monster!"

Esther swung the eyebrow trimmer in her hand, frantically stabbing at the ceiling.

Larry didn't dodge.

The moment his body touched the tip of the blade, it turned into a cluster of flickering pixels, then re-solidified behind Esther.

His long fingertips lightly rested on Esther's shoulder.

Her vision began to break down.

The originally colorful world rapidly faded, and all objects turned into low-resolution models made of blocks.

"Save me! Emma! Please!"

Emma leaned against the doorframe, watching the scene with interest, even taking a mint out of her pocket and popping it into her mouth.

"Larry is very lonely, sister."

"In his world, you will become the eternal protagonist."

Larry gave a sudden yank.

Esther's petite body was forcibly pulled toward the 14-inch old TV.

Her body was stretched and twisted in mid-air, eventually turning into a green data stream and whooshing into the screen.

Pop.

With a soft sound, the TV screen returned to calm.

A grim pixel-style dungeon appeared on the screen.

A pixel figure wearing a one-piece dress and twin tails was frantically pounding on the black frame at the edge of the screen.

That was Esther.

In another corner of the dungeon, another pixel figure—Bi—sat dully in the corner.

A text bubble appeared above the pixel figure's head: 【Let me out!】

Larry gave a satisfied belch accompanied by electric sparks.

He slid down the wall and hid behind Emma like a shy child.

【Ding! Captured Low-level Murderer (Esther), gained 1 point.】

【Remaining points: 133.】

Qin Ming, listening to the prompts in his head downstairs, his lips curled slightly upward.