Cheat Awakening

{ In five minutes, one of the tenants of this apartment will crawl out from the toilet to give their newcomer a surprise. }

"What kind of weird hobby is this?" Myne's mouth couldn't help but twist at the hint given to him by the golden question mark, and his anus tightened, just thinking about sitting on the toilet and suddenly a person poking his head out of it, made him shudder.

He slowly stood up, walked toward the bathroom, and opened the door. The bathroom wasn't big, with a commode, a shower, and a washbasin. For some reason, the mirror was removed on top of the washbasin, and what was left were marks on the paint which showed that there was a mirror before.

Myne ignored the rest of the details and directly came in front of the commode, with a { ? } floating on top of it. It had strange, dark tar-like liquid inside, which didn't look natural no matter how you looked at it.

"I wonder what kind of courage and perversity a man needs to enter into pipes filled with this kind of liquid."

Myne frowned with disgust as he looked into the commode before closing the lid, walking out of the bathroom, and starting to look around. But there weren't many things in the room in the first place, and the ones that could be put on the commode to seal it were even less.

If it were before, Myne just needed to use his paste skill, and even if his friendly neighbourhood tenant had four hands, he might not be able to come out from the commode easily. Now, he can only do some basic tricks and hope that this unknown tenant would remember the apartment rules fearing to alert the landlord by making too much noise, he would return after realizing that his little trick had already been seen through.

Shaking his head, Myne first picked up the small stool along with the lamp beside the bed and put it on the commode, but not feeling satisfied as their weight was a bit too light, he came in front of the black box ( TV ) with a hazy mirror on the front on the wall and was about to carry it into the bathroom when he noticed something different from his reflection.

Although the image was unclear, the suspicious golden circle in his pupil, which was shining dimly in the darkness, was a bit too obvious to ignore. Because there was no other mirror and he couldn't use his inventory, Myne was forced to put his face very close to the black box and open his eyes wide to get a clear view of his eyes.

"Weird, where is that golden circle made of runes come from? Wait, is this the reason why I am seeing these mysterious { ? } mark symbols? If that's the case, then I explain everything, however, where did I get the power from?"

Although the golden magic circle in his eyes solved a few of his doubts, they also raised more other questions, leaving Myne scratching his head confusedly, so much that he now felt as if he was being played by some mysterious force.

Not able to figure out any clue, helplessly, Myne could only put aside his doubts temporarily and deal with the current urgent situation before him.

After putting the black box on the commode as well, he closed the bathroom, and took out the grey briefcase under the bed, which also had { ? } floating on it. There was nothing special about the briefcase, and it barely had much weight, indicating that the content in it wasn't much. There was also a three-digit dial lock on it, which Myne, of course, had never seen before. For him, even the briefcase was a very noble thing.

Thankfully, he had something to guide him otherwise he would have already started scratching his head again wondering how to open it.

{ A simple briefcase with a not-so-simple pocket watch in it left by an unfortunate soul.

The code is 143 }

"Do I need to set those numbers in this lock-like thing?" Myne muttered with a strange expression as he slowly moved the dials on the briefcase, and with a soft click sound, the briefcase opened, leaving him speechless.

"Isn't it a bit too much of cheating?" He couldn't help but complain. He felt that this new ability of his, seeing { ? } which provided all kinds of remarks and guides, is even more powerful than his original awakening skills.

Inside the briefcase wasn't much, a black shirt, and a simple rusty old-looking pocket watch with a thin, long silver chain attached to it. He pressed the button on top of it, and its lid opened, revealing a simple interior of the watch with all three of the needles fixed on 12, clearly, the watch wasn't working.

Continue reading at My Virtual Library Empire

"Weird, what can be special about this broken watch?"

If it was before reading the remark of { ? }, Myne might not have thought much about it and would have tossed it aside, thinking it was just a random broken watch. Now, stranded in this strange and creepy place with no skills to ensure his survival, he didn't dare to ignore anything useful lightly, even if it had minimal effect. In his current situation, even the slightest help could be a lifesaver.

[ A broken watch with some uses. ]

"Sigh," Myne sighed softly, "as expected, when I need it most, Appraisal never fails to disappoint me." He was getting used to the unreliability of his Appraisal skill, which seemed useful only in his own world, offering little assistance as he crossed the world boundary.

However, just as Myne was about to close the appraisal interface, it began glitching wildly, as if something was trying to interfere with it. After a few moments of glitching, the interface slowly transformed from blue to gold, and a row of information about the broken watch appeared on it.

{ Name: Clock

Type: Polluted Item

Quality: Poor

Function: After turning the spring for the next five minutes, you will be immune to 90% of pollution. Can slightly recover lost San Value.

Only be used three times a day. }

"Did Appraisal feel hurt by my nonstop complaints and update itself on the spot to give me a face slap?" Myne joked to lighten his mood before shifting his gaze to the broken watch's info.

"San Value... Pollution? Now what the hell are those two? Is the air outside polluted, or what? Is this why there are no windows in this creepy room?"

Just as Myne was grappling with another set of new questions that popped up in his head, he heard the soft sound of knocking coming from the bathroom. Given the deadly silence of the surroundings, it was impossible to miss.

Hearing the sound, Myne quickly hung the watch around his neck and tucked it inside his shirt. A magical prop like this, which was clearly far from normal, required careful handling.

Then, he grabbed the edge of the queen-size bed and effortlessly lifted it, as if it weighed next to nothing, before placing it upright in front of the bedroom door, completely blocking it.

Even though he had lost most of his skills, his levels were still intact. He had also trained under the strict (forced) guidance of Aisha, who had taught him the barbarians' exercise routines, as she and other girls had long left him behind in this regard.

Despite looking like an average guy without muscles—someone easy to bully—he had no problem wrestling with ten big guys and beating them with ease. He was now probably four times stronger than a normal adult, so, of course, lifting a bed was nothing.

Dang! Dang! Dang!

Myne's heartbeat and the knocking sound from the bathroom seemed to synchronize, at least that's what he thought before he started cursing the person who had designed the bathroom door to open inwards. Otherwise, he would have felt more confident in locking his dear "neighbour," who had so kindly decided to surprise him at such a late hour.

{ It is getting irritated. }

{ It is cursing the person who locked the commode lid. }

{ It accidentally swallowed a mouthful of sewage water and found that the taste wasn't that bad, but it is still very angry with your response. }

{ It is anxious, fearing that its deed might alert the landlord, but it also doesn't want to go back without greeting its new neighbour. }

{ It found something interesting in the pipes, which were accidentally dropped into the toilet by the previous tenant. }

{ It is recalling some unpleasant memories. }

{ All emotions turn into madness. }

Bang!

After reading the last remark of the mysterious { ? }, which changed every three seconds, Myne gently closed his room door with a calm expression. Right at that moment, he heard the sound of things falling on the ground and water splashing, clearly indicating that his dear neighbour had finally crawled out of the toilet.

{ It couldn't wait to rip you apart and make something delicious from your body. }

{ It can feel that you are looking at it from the other side of the door. }

"What's wrong with people's tastes nowadays? It's getting weirder and weirder. What is edible about me? Not only am I not handsome, but there's nothing special about me. I believe my taste is nothing special, but still, people are just crazy about my poor body. Sigh, it's hard to live."

Myne shook his head helplessly, stopping himself from looking at his room—which would probably be unusable for the time being.

As for what 'It' means by { ? }—Myne concluded that the person who could crawl in the small, dirty sewage pipes and feel good after swallowing filth couldn't be a normal person, and he wasn't the slightest bit surprised that the other party turned out to be some kind of weird monster.

After calming down his nervous heart, he observed his surroundings. He was in a not-so-long, dark corridor with two dim red lights hanging from the ceiling.

The ground was filthy as if it hadn't been cleaned in years. There were dried bloodstains and dark liquid-like substances all over both side walls of the corridor.

There were only four rooms on the entire floor. Two had "Out of Reach" signs on them, one was Myne's, room number 8, and the remaining one was opposite his, which he was staring at with a complicated expression.

{ The occupant of room 9 is watching you through the peephole. }

"Why do I suddenly feel like an innocent sheep entering a wolf den? This feeling wasn't very pleasant. And this guy or girl is staring at me without making any noise. Don't tell me it's also a pervert like the guy inside my room."

Myne couldn't help but take a step back unconsciously and become more vigilant. He felt that his innocence was in extreme danger in this strange place.

{ It is waiting for you to knock on the door... }