Chapter 4: The Real Supernatural World Descends
"Hey, Mom, you and Dad…"
"Mhm, okay, um, son, your mom and I are very busy and can't come back for a while, but we've already gotten you a doctor. Dr. Brandon is a world-renowned authority in the field of psychology, you…"
"Mom, I'm really not sick… Forget it, just remember what I said."
In the room.
Li Guanqi sat on the bed, hung up the phone, and flipped the phone over and over in his hand, constantly thinking.
His parents managed their business abroad all year round, both were model cases of athletes turned entrepreneurs.
He had just made several consecutive calls to his parents, constantly talking about the supernatural world, and even told them the clearance conditions for [Sorcerer's Apprentice].
After all, he didn't know if his parents would be among the one percent of humanity chosen.
He also didn't know how "soon" the simutor meant when it said the supernatural world would descend.
An hour?
A day?
He had no idea.
So he could only tell his parents the normal clearance conditions first.
The normal clearance ending, naturally, was to follow the bck-robed old man and learn curse techniques, then wait for him to die of old age, thus clearing the instance.
But because Li Guanqi had obtained the [Communicate with the Netherworld (Purple)] talent at the beginning, his sorcerer aptitude was too high, causing the bck-robed old man to be unwilling to die, so he didn't unlock this normal ending.
Three endings.
[The Fool's Choice]
[Immortality and the Disciple]
[Master, I will fulfill your wish]
None of them were normal endings.
And after unlocking the perfect ending, the simution closed.
However, from the description of the second ending, [Immortality and the Disciple], it was easy to deduce that the normal ending was actually to become an apprentice normally and wait for the bck-robed old man to die of old age.
Li Guanqi also told his parents the clearance conditions for this normal ending.
And the result, of course, was as expected.
Even his own parents thought he was crazy, and even got him a doctor within a few minutes. Their efficiency was simply amazi—…
"Global Supernatural World, initiating!"
Suddenly, a cold, mechanical female voice sounded in Li Guanqi's ear, interrupting his thoughts.
Li Guanqi was slightly taken aback.
So, when the simutor said "soon," it meant this soon!
It hadn't even been ten minutes since he came out of the simutor!
"Beep beep… Insufficient energy… Number of world instance participants reduced…"
"Randomly selecting one percent of the global popution, immediately participating in the supernatural world instance."
"Swish—"
A white light fshed, and Li Guanqi instantly disappeared from the spot.
The room was empty, only the light blue curtains were blown up by the wind, constantly fluttering, and the city outside the window was drizzling.
...
...
When Li Guanqi regained consciousness again, he felt himself sitting in a chair, his hands tied.
He didn't open his eyes, because in the darkness of his closed-eye "perspective," a line of somewhat inconspicuous small text was floating in the upper right corner, easily overlooked if one wasn't paying attention:
[Current Supernatural World, Number of Surviving Espers: 102,620,357 (approximately 100 million).]
Li Guanqi remembered that since st year, the global popution had exceeded ten billion, so one percent of the selected individuals was about one hundred million espers.
"Thump thump thump…"
At this moment, a series of footsteps approached from a distance, accompanied by the "creaking" sound of stepping on rotten floorboards.
Soon, Li Guanqi felt someone sit down opposite him.
Then, a hoarse, low, old man's voice sounded:
"Want to be my apprentice?"
It was this sentence.
Li Guanqi lowered his head and smiled slightly, then opened his eyes.
In the dim light, the first thing that came into his view was a rotten, cracked table with green mold growing on it.
And what he was wearing at this moment was no longer a brand-name sports outfit, but a set of gray coarse cloth robes.
Li Guanqi raised his head.
Sitting opposite the table was an extremely thin and small figure, completely shrouded in a bck robe, wearing a hood.
Li Guanqi could only barely make out from the faint yellow firelight around that there should be an old man's face under the hood. Presumably, the hoarse voice just now also came from this person.
But this person's body was too small.
He had a rge head and a small body, and his limbs were very short, looking somewhat deformed.
This bck-robed old man's height was like that of a seven or eight-year-old child. Although he was sitting in a chair, Li Guanqi judged that the other person's height would not exceed 1.2 meters.
Dwarfism?
Li Guanqi thought to himself.
According to the situation during the simution, it was obvious that this guy was the "bck-robed old man." So, this bck-robed old man was actually a dwarf.
But there was nothing to be surprised about.
The most important thing was that the "bck-robed old man" had no patience.
Li Guanqi very directly raised his head, looked at the bck-robed dwarf opposite him, and said seriously: "Yes, I want to be your apprentice!"
"Then choose one."
The bck-robed dwarf's empty right hand swept across the moldy long table, and then two dark brown wooden bowls appeared out of thin air on the table.
Li Guanqi frowned slightly.
Wooden bowls?
Why were they wooden bowls?
This was different from the cups in the simution!
Although this difference seemed harmless, the discrepancy between the simution and reality still sounded an arm for Li Guanqi.
Simution was simution, and reality was reality.
It turned out that they could be different!
He still needed to be careful.
Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed slightly, and with the help of the faint yellow firelight around, he could barely make out what was in the two wooden bowls.
In the left wooden bowl, there were plump and juicy white maggots, constantly wriggling in the bowl, as if telling Li Guanqi, I'm delicious, come and eat… yuck!
Li Guanqi's face was ugly, and he forcibly suppressed the churning acid in his stomach, forcibly suppressing the urge to vomit.
Damn!
No wonder he vomited during the simution.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath, suppressed his Communicate with the Netherworld talent, after all, he didn't want to hear the maggots' low-level thoughts.
He turned his head to look at the right wooden bowl.
Just like in the simution, the right one was even more intense than the left.
It not only contained bck bedbugs, but also many long roundworms, and a rge pile of colorful, strange insects that kept spitting out disgusting mucus. The mucus was almost soaking the wooden bowl into insect soup.
"Choose a bowl and eat it."
As the bck-robed dwarf spoke, the ropes on Li Guanqi's body automatically untied and fell to the ground.
But Li Guanqi had already "died" many times in the simutor.
He couldn't eat either bowl of insects. No matter which bowl he ate, he would be killed by this inhumane old thing.
So…
"I won't eat either bowl."
Li Guanqi put his elbows on the table, csped his hands, pced them in front of his mouth, with a solemn look. Thinking.jpg.
"Oh?"
The bck-robed dwarf's eyes squinted, vaguely revealing a sinister killing intent.
But Li Guanqi wasn't afraid.
He still looked serious, and said in a deep voice:
"A qualified sorcerer would never consume another's curse insects."
Li Guanqi's expression was very serious. He seemed very impressive when he spoke. He put it on.
He couldn't eat, so he had to be stubborn and refuse to eat.
But the actual situation was different from the simution.
During the simution, he wasn't there in person, and only needed to simply choose [Don't eat]. But in the actual situation, he had to do something to expin why he wouldn't eat.
Then, thinking of the name [Sorcerer's Apprentice], he casually made up a sentence.
"Heh!"
The bck-robed dwarf sneered, raised his hand, and from his wide, empty bck sleeve, flew out a bck beetle the size of a fist, resembling a mosquito.
Its sharp proboscis was like a steel needle, definitely seven or eight centimeters long!
"Buzz buzz—"
The bck beetle fpped its wings and flew over, its sharp proboscis resting against the center of Li Guanqi's forehead. The sharp tip of the proboscis gleamed coldly under the surrounding firelight.
"If you don't eat, you die!"
The bck-robed dwarf stared at Li Guanqi, his gaze extremely cold, his voice suddenly rising!
"I'd rather die than eat."
Li Guanqi closed his eyes.
Because this old dwarf's gaze was too strange, sometimes like a bottomless abyss, sometimes like a sharp sword, so sharp that he didn't dare to look directly at it.
He was afraid that looking at the bck-robed dwarf for too long would shake his will.
Then.
Li Guanqi felt a strange sensation at the center of his forehead. It was a feeling simir to that of a sharp object approaching. Many people had experienced this feeling, even without seeing or touching it, they could still feel it.
Li Guanqi felt it now too.
Then.
"Prick!"
A bead of blood oozed out.
The bck beetle's proboscis had directly pierced his forehead!
However, it had only pierced the skin.
"I'll ask you one more time, eat or not!"
The bck-robed dwarf's voice was gloomy, like a ghost from the depths of hell, conveying a bewitching threat: "If you don't eat, you die. If you eat, it's just a little disgusting. Compared to your life, which is more important?!"
"I won't eat!"
Li Guanqi shouted in a deep voice.
The only chance of survival.
Was not to eat!
With that, Li Guanqi suddenly opened his eyes, ignoring the bck beetle piercing his forehead, his gaze burning as he stared at the bck-robed dwarf, meeting his gaze, unyielding, without retreating.
Stick to your guns!
This old dwarf's strange gaze no longer had any effect on him.
And the bck-robed dwarf also stared at him coldly, "I'll ask you one more time, eat or die, choose one."
"Prick!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the bck beetle's proboscis pierced in a little further, and traces of bright red blood slid down from the center of Li Guanqi's forehead, all the way to the bridge of his nose.
