CHAPTER 658: LITTLE SKELETON AND BLACK CAT (2)

Albeit reluctant, the black cat had no choice but to agree, "Well, you’re right. The recent batches seem quite mediocre compared to the previous ones. If nothing else happens, there should only be one or two survivors in the end. How boring."

It finished grooming its fur and turned away with a swish, but not before asking the little skeleton,

"I’m going to find some delicious food to eat. You wanna come?"

The little skeleton leveled the cat with an unimpressed look, its green orbs flickering. It had only bones, no flesh, blood or organs—how was it supposed to eat?

"Put away that stinky face, duh. Can’t a cat ask?" The black cat rolled its eyes before leaping off the tree with a harrumph. Despite its feline figure, it was exceedingly expressive down to its whiskers and tail. Even the sight of its sashaying back was enough to convey its innate haughtiness.

The little skeleton: "..."

My face has always been like this, though?

With nothing else to do, the little skeleton turned back to the art room and keenly noticed that the position of some of the clay statues seemed to differ from the last time it saw them. However, it paid them no heed at all and clumsily crawled itself back to the bottom compartment of the cabinet, though this time it didn’t close the panels fully, leaving a small gap wide enough for it to peek at the situation outside.

Before long, the Intermediate players from before returned, seemingly having heard the man’s bone-chilling scream.

They first knocked on the door and called out a few times. Upon receiving no response, only then did they cautiously unlock the door and push it open bit by bit.

"Is he dead? Why can’t I see anything—damn, the window! Don’t tell me that coward escaped!"

"What?! But this is the fifth floor!"

Taken aback, the two of them barged in and made their way straight to the broken window. A single glance revealed the deceased man who had fallen to his death. Instead of remorse, the two of them simply chortled in a mix of disbelief and disdain, "Did he jump by himself?"

"Serves him right. If he couldn’t even survive this low-level Cycle, he would only become a useless waste here!"

"Sheesh, what a waste of time. Come on, let’s search for clues here and call it a day..." the player had not even finished his sentence when the door behind them slammed shut with a bang, causing them to flinch in shock.

After a brief exchange of glances, they rushed at the door in unison, only to find it locked!

Foul curses erupted from their mouths as they turned to face the art room, where all the clay statues began coming to life.

The little skeleton watched through the gap in its hiding place as the two players began to fight against the statues, leaving behind chaos and destruction everywhere. The floor was covered in shattered plasters, dust and blood. At first, the two of them could still stand their ground and fought back calmly, but as time passed and they realized that the number of statues were more than they could handle, the situation shifted in a blink of an eye.

The weapon, which they had used to slay the nightmare creatures, became aimed at each other. But one of them was stronger and faster, leaving the other behind as a distraction for the ferocious clay statues while he took his escape.

"Fuck you! Fuck your ancestors!! Mark my words, you bastard! You will not have an easy death here. You—ARGHHH!!" The man’s vengeful words abruptly morphed into a sharp and harrowing scream, interspersed with the sharp crunch of bones breaking and squelch of bloody flesh being grounded to a pulp.

The unfortunate player had his bones pulled out of his body alive, reducing him into nothing but a bag of skin and a pool of bloody flesh. It was an extremely gruesome and excruciating death.

After swallowing the bones, the clay statues were appeased and returned to their original position.

Silence returned to the art room once more.

The little skeleton did not move, curled up inside the narrow compartment, staring at the lone eyeball that had rolled to where it was. Its green ghostly eyes flickered once, twice, then as if coming to a decision, it stretched out a skeletal hand toward the eyeball...

"I advise you not to do that. That eyeball is ugly as hell."

It swiftly withdrew its hand and turned to the direction of the voice, finding the black cat perched on the window sill since God-knows-when.

With a graceful motion, it leaped into the room and sauntered toward where the little skeleton was, carefully bypassing what remained of the man’s corpse with an air of disgust and taking care not to let even a single drop of blood get on its paws. It arrived before the little skeleton and tipped its chin at the eyeball,

"Look, the color of its pupil is dull and the sclera is covered in red veins. Tsk tsk, you can tell that the owner must have liked staying up late at night."

The little skeleton belatedly realized that the black cat had misunderstood its intention. It was interested in the eyeball not because it wanted to put it on itself, but simply because it wanted to play with it...

The bored little skeleton, who had no one to talk to and nothing to play with, just wanted to find something to amuse itself with— even if it’s an ugly eyeball.

Alas, before it could explain its action, the black cat nudged something toward it. The little skeleton took a closer look and realized that it was a packaged sausage.

It glanced at the black cat with a look that seemed to ask, ’Is that for me?’

"Ahem, don’t misunderstand!" The black cat stubbornly turned its head away with a harrumph. "I didn’t bring it specifically for you. It’s just that the stupid player gave me a lot, and I couldn’t finish them all by myself! I definitely did not bring it for you!"

Confused by the black cat’s sudden aggression, the little skeleton had no choice but to nod.

Once again, it crawled out of the cabinet and, choosing a relatively clean place, settled with the black cat on the floor. It struggled to tear open the package with its clumsy skeletal hands, earning it a contemptuous look from the black cat. In the end, it was the black cat who helped him tear the plastic wrap open with its sharp claws.

"Eat," the black cat commanded with a domineering tone.

This time, the little skeleton did not mention how it had no flesh and organs and thus could not eat. It held the sausage in its hand, which still retained a hint of the cat’s body warmth, and slowly brought it to its mouth.

With a bite, a piece of the sausage crossed its esophagus, chest, and stomach, falling straight to the bottom of the dusty floor with a small thud.

The little skeleton: "..."

"Is it yummy?" the black cat asked, as if it had noticed nothing at all.

Under those round glimmering emerald eyes, the little skeleton had no idea why it nodded despite the fact that it could taste nothing. "Yum...my..."

The black cat’s tail swished, seemingly satisfied. Surrounded by shattered statues and a grotesque boneless corpse nearby, the two of them enjoyed each other’s company under the moonlight.

"Ai, what a beautiful night..." the black cat sighed in contentment as it stretched its feline body.

Taking another bite of the sausage, the little skeleton glanced at the messy art room and the pool of blood nearby before nodding in agreement once more—a beautiful night, indeed.