Underworld Player-Novel

-Marina City University-

"Bo~ring. I expected it to be more persistent..."

This latest conversation with the impostor campus belle had been shorter than the last, but had ended just as abruptly.

Bai Zhi pocketed his phone and shook his head as he made his way toward the campus.

He received no further messages from that number, and when he tried to call it, found the number unreachable.

The world was getting deadlier by the day, and the proliferation of supernatural entities was only the tip of the iceberg. The world's governments and all the Players might so far have been able to hide the current state of affairs from normal people, but how long could they keep it up?

Bai Zhi could not say for sure, but he could hazard a guess.

There were supernatural entities all over the world, easily numbering in the tens of thousands. It was fortunate that their range of influence tended to be highly limited.

The one with the largest scope of influence thus far was none other than the Impossible-class entity known as Falsehood Hell, which had appeared in North America and grown until its reach extended across an entire county. It was unfortunate, since if the Players in the region had done their job properly, Falsehood Hell would never have expanded far beyond the room that it first had influence over.

Nonetheless, this was all just the opening act.

There would surely be a day when the supernatural entities would show up in such numbers that they could no longer be concealed from the public, and one could only imagine the severity of their impact on the world then. In the face of such threats, even the Players could only hope to survive marginally longer than their normal counterparts.

Under these circumstances, it went without saying that a well-informed, rational supernatural entity open to negotiations was an invaluable asset.

It was really too bad that the impostor campus belle had been making sure not to show up near him ever since she found out he was a Player. Otherwise, he would have liked to capture her and make her a pet...

Bai Zhi had seen an item at the Auction House called "Master Ball", which possessed the ability to capture supernatural entities. He would have bought it... if the price weren't so exorbitant.

If he could use it to capture her and keep her like a pet...

Somewhere, a certain pissed-off lolita suddenly shivered for no apparent reason.

One shouldn't compare people—everyone was different, after all. For example, there was the Player who was so overwhelmed with rage they slipped on something and was eaten by a tiger, the Player who was so overwhelmed by depression they slipped on something and was eaten by a tiger, and then there was the one so overwhelmed by fear they slipped on something and was eaten by a tiger... What a well-fed tiger.

Bai Zhi may have missed a whole day of class yesterday, but thanks to his glowing track record, none of his teachers raised any alarms, or indeed even an eyebrow, at such a normal occurrence. It would have been far stranger if he had suddenly started showing up every day without fail.

Taking a seat in the last row, as was his custom, Bai Zhi made a big show of placing a big Political Science textbook on his desk, then brought out his newly-purchased talismans so he could study them instead.

"Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime", as they say. He had ordered the cinnabar and paper he needed, and if he could just figure out the intricacies of the talisman patterns while the materials were on their way, he might even be able to start drawing as soon as they arrived. Whether or not they would work was a separate question entirely.

There was clearly a crafting mechanic at work, so if Players had the ability to make items and equipment, Bai Zhi was sure his efforts would pay off. The Warding Talismans looked simple enough...

College wasn't like high school, and the lecturers generally paid no heed to students who chose not to pay attention in the classroom, especially for electives like Political Science*. As long as you weren't doing something blatantly inappropriate like making and slurping instant noodles right on your desk or playing card games like Landlord** with your friends, they usually closed one eye to any shenanigans.

In any case, the best and brightest students sat at the front of the lecture hall, while the middle section was occupied by students who had similarly middling performance. Students who sat at the very back of the hall were invariably those who couldn't care less, like Bai Zhi.

Even though Bai Zhi was intently studying the paper talisman in his hands from all angles, he maintained a veneer of respect for classroom etiquette by flipping a few pages on cue or randomly scanning the pages. The same could not be said for the other students sitting in the back.

Take, for example, the tall male who occupied a seat in front of Bai Zhi. His phone was turned to the side and propped up on his desk while he listened to something on his earphones, clearly disregarding the lecturer completely.

Su Long tore into a bag of chips as he lazily browsed a selection of livestreams.

He was used to seeing streamers who drew in audiences with their pretty faces and figures, but this one was a refreshing change—the only things shown on screen were an arm, a drawing brush or pen, and the canvas being drawn on, but the voice that accompanied all these was quite alluring.

Su Long put a chip in his mouth and crunched loudly as he enthusiastically typed a message to this streamer, whose viewership, though significant, was still far from the crowds that buzzed around the typical pretty face.

<What's Draw the Dead Studio mean?>

Since the audience was small enough, Su Long's message was noticed immediately and the girl spoke in response.

"It means drawing the faces of those who've passed, of course~" said the artist, tapping the canvas lightly with her pen.

"Well? Would you like to see me draw one right now? It's going to be a dead ringer~"

As he mindlessly mashed more chips in his maw, Su Long resumed typing, somewhat astonished.

<Oh yeah? Go ahead, I'd like to se >

He was in the middle of his response when a hand clapped him heavily on the shoulder.

"Bro, mind picking up that pen for me?"

Bai Zhi flashed Su Long a smile as he jerked his chin at the pen that had rolled under Su Long's feet.