Chapter 33: Game Lobby

How did this thing manage to make his life bar drop red?

"Siren's fishbone." Without meaning to hide it, Bai Liu lifted his shirt to show Mu Sicheng the fishbone around his waist, and before Bai Liu knew it, the fishbone contracted several times, wrapping around Bai Liu's waist and covering all the skin that Bai Liu might have exposed.

Bai Liu said quite frankly, "You should have seen this prop in my prop awards."

This is the reason why Bai Liu didn't hide it, it had already been "pulled out" by the system, and Bai Liu didn't have any intention to hide the prop function. There is no need to hide the prop function from the public.

But he has a special personal skill that he can hide, which is a good card to have, and Bai Liu is prepared to hide it for as long as he can.

However, Bai Liu was blind to the exact function of the item and needed to experiment with it. Bai Liu did not want to experiment in-game because the risk was too great and Bai Liu would easily die if the item flipped against a monster.

Experimenting outside of the game requires subjects, and Bai Liu felt that Muke, trapped and dying, would be a good and obedient subject for him.

Bai Liu was not prepared to experiment with Mu Sicheng, but Mu Sicheng's hands were too cheap and he touched them, which made Bai Liu realise that the fishbone whip could attack people inside the system hall, in other words, it could indeed rip through space.

"They say it can rip through time and space, so I'm going to try it on Muke." Bai Liu looks at Muke on the small TV and naturally lifts the whip ready to fling it.

Wang Shun was again in a state of confusion, unable to understand Bai Liu's thinking: "Wait! Bai Liu, what are you doing? What if you throw a whip straight in and kill Muke?"

Mu Sicheng was quick to realise what Bai Liu was up to and sniggered, "You're going to save him? That's kind."

"No." Bai Liu smiled, "It wasn't really a rescue, I was going to trade with him."

Bai Liu pulls the fishbone whip from his waist, shakes it twice with an active wrist, takes a deep breath and lifts the fishbone and swings it down at Muke's small TV.

In a moment of force Bai Liu felt as if his left arm holding the whip weighed a thousand pounds. The fishbone he barely swung up hit a transparent barrier in front of the small TV and quickly dangled down, but with that small swing the bottom of the sea in Muke's small TV began to shake and vibrate, and the small TV flickered as if it had a bad signal.

Everything around Bai Liu shatters into a glassy landscape the moment the whip falls, and Mu Sicheng and Wang Shun become blurred and disoriented, like a television with poor contact, its characters distorted and distant.

In the darkness, Bai Liu could hear the sound of the waves and Muke's hysterical cries for help from his small TV, as if he were there.

As if realising that someone had descended on the bottom of the sea, Muke began frantically begging for help.

"Somebody help me!!!" Muke fell to his knees in a broken bubble of water at the bottom of the sea as he lay dying and in tears, "I'll do anything!!! Please save me!"

Bai Liu wanted to take another swing, but the system suddenly warned.

[System warning: Using this item is extremely taxing on Bai Liu, who is unable to use it again, and will be forcibly returned to the game if he reluctantly uses it.

Bai Liu gives up instantly: [So am I now at the same latitude as Muke?

[System: Calculation in progress ...... Player Bai Liu and player Muke's latitudes have a small overlap due to some kind of attack, player Bai Liu is currently in the rift between the two torn latitudes and can only transmit sound, not images, he can barely make some simple transactions]

"The voice?" Bai Liu was thoughtful as he whispered Muke's name, " Muke ."

Muke howled and crawled on his hands and knees in the bubble several times, whimpering like a bereaved dog as he replied to Bai Liu: "I'm here! What are you! Help me!"

"I'm a vagrant." Bai Liu whispers, watching Muke on the small TV, and it's hard to connect the sobbing man with the condescending young master who chased him away.

In a way Bai Liu became a [poor drifter] on Muke's whim, but now Muke is making a desperate plea for help from the drifter he drove away, who will take what little is left of Muke, what is of value, in a terrible bargain.

A very wonderful chain of logical turns.

"I can save you, but not for free, because I'm poor too." Bai Liu said honestly, "You will need to make a deal with me, and as payment I will give you reward points for saving you out, but accordingly, you will need to give me something."

"Yes! I'll give you anything you want!!! Please save me!!!" Muke cried out as he reached out to touch the non-existent god, "Are you a god? Or a system? Where are you?! What do you want me to give you! Money? Or something else! I don't have anything on me right now ooooooooo ...... don't give up on me, I want to live!!!"

"I am not a god, and objectively speaking, I should not be a good presence for you." Bai Liu appraises himself sensibly.

Although he had no particular extreme malice towards the young master, just an ordinary degree of dislike, his very ordinary dislike of a person was quite frightening enough, Bai Liu thought matter-of-factly, "I should be considered a devilish sort of being to you."

"Devil's words ...... So you want my soul?" Muke flinched, his eyes blanked for a moment before exploding with unprecedented light the next, "I will offer my soul to you if you save me."

The words [I want your mermaid amulet] stopped on Bai Liu's lips and he raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, suddenly intrigued by the brand new motion Muke had proposed.

He does need [Mermaid's Amulet], but at the same time Bai Liu needs a test subject to experiment with exactly what his strange skill [Old Wallet] does, and one of the explanations for [Old Wallet] is that you can trade souls ......

"Deal." Bai Liu smiled and drew two hundred points from his crumpled wallet and handed them to Muke on the small TV, the coin on his chest lit up and the points disappeared.

[System: Player Bai Liu used two hundred points to buy the soul of player Muke]

[System Alert: Player Muke gains two hundred points to recharge]

Muke almost cried out when he saw the two hundred points: "You really are the devil! I've sold my soul to you, but you're too stingy! Only two hundred points! That's not enough for me to buy props!"

"I am indeed stingy, am I a poor wanderer." Bai Liu reasoned back, "But two hundred points plus this broken bubble in the water you're in is enough to keep you alive by following my words, open your system shop and go buy alcohol, yes alcohol, eh, can you stop crying, you're crying louder than I'm talking brother... ..."

----

When Muke had successfully cleared the level, Bai Liu found a brand new coin in his wallet that looked like a Polaroid picture, with Muke's black and white smile printed on it, [200 points] reflected in the corner, and [Soul Coin] written on the back.

[Props: Player Muke's Soul Coin]

How to use: You own the soul debt to player Muke and have all the rights to dominate, control, raise, and erase player Muke].

Domination, regulation, nurturing, obliteration, Bai Liu narrowed his eyes - isn't that all the authority the system has over the player?

It turns out it's called [soul debt ownership].

In other words, the system has ownership of this soul debt to all players, so it could be argued that these players have sold their souls to the system when they entered the game?

A bit of fun.

Bai Liu asks: [So I'm Muke's system now? So who has more authority over Muke, me or the official system of the game?

[System: Calculation in progress ...... When the system conflicts with player Bai Liu's deployment of player Muke, the system's decision will prevail, considering that player Bai Liu is currently underpowered]

Gee, it's based on strength, so if he gets stronger, can he take away the system's power over Muke? Or even he could dominate the system in turn?

He stepped out of the dark chasm with a dizzy spiral and almost fell to his knees with his legs weak - the aftermath of his exhaustion.

Wang Shun rushed to help Bai Liu: "What just happened to you? You swung a whip and suddenly you didn't move."

Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu thoughtfully: "How did you do that? Just now Muke got through in the same way you did before."