Proofreader & Editor: Peter Pan
"Lulu, is big brother back?"
A gentle female voice wafted from the darkness, ethereal yet chilling.
"Nope, big brother went to buy me a gift. Chronicle Brother came up first."
The little girl turned her head to respond, revealing the back of her head with thick hair and wriggling white maggots.
"That's disgusting."
Chronicle muttered as he was about to enter the room.
At that moment, the girl known as "Lulu" turned around, blinking her eyes and asked him, "Chronicle Brother! Where's my gift?"
She grinned, her bloodless lips slowly stretching to her ears, growing paler.
"Here, your birthday present."
Chronicle fished out a workbook he had confiscated on the school bus and tossed it into Lulu's arms, "Finish this, and Chronicle Brother will buy you a new one."
Clutching the thick stack of workbooks, the girl was stunned. Her eyes, devoid of whites and dark as abysses, took a moment to regain their liveliness, "Thank you, Chronicle Brother. I'll definitely get back at you when I grow up."
"Hmm?"
Chronicle narrowed his eyes, and the girl quickly corrected herself, "I mean, repay, repay."
"Hmm."
Chronicle walked into the living room without any reservations.
It was a child's birthday, yet the house was dark with only a few candles stuck in a cake with a bizarre smiling face.
The light that had slipped through the door crack came from an old gray-white TV, flickering with "static."
Occasionally, an animated scene flashed by.
A blue-haired, white-bellied, bipedal cat caught a filthy, ugly, yellow mouse and cooked it with snakes, toads, and other repulsive creatures into a soup.
With his back to the screen, he filled a spoonful of soup, savoring it as the broth spilled over.
Then he suddenly turned around, revealing a sinister, eerie smile.
"Uh…"
Chronicle smacked his lips but said nothing, settling himself on the sofa.
Beside him sat a man, presumably the "father" of this domain.
He was lounging with one leg crossed over the other, reading a newspaper, glancing at his watch now and then.
The frequency of his leg shaking betrayed his inner restlessness.
As if at any second, he might explode.
Beyond this middle-aged man, on a single sofa by the balcony, an old lady with white hair was knitting a sweater, her reading glasses perched on her nose.
Due to the dim light, she had to lower her head to see the stitches clearly.
Then, her eyeball dropped out with a "plop," leaving a dark red stain on the pale sweater.
"The old lady sure knows how to live, knitting without the lights on."
Chronicle, with his legs crossed, played a game, his tone, movements, and expression as natural as if he were in his own home.
As he spoke, the middle-aged man reading the newspaper stopped shaking his leg, turned his head slightly, and peered out with one eye bloodshot.
"Huff! Hiss!"
He breathed heavily through his nostrils, deep and muffled, like a beast starved for a long time.
In the presence of a stranger, he couldn't help but drool, soaking the old, yellowed newspaper.
"Ugh." Chronicle glanced at him with disgust, "You really don't care about hygiene, do you?"
"?"
The middle-aged man seemed to grow angry, emitting sounds of gas venting.
But soon, he was silent as if his neck had been choked.
"Be generous, let him have a look too."
As Chronicle finished speaking, the stiffly posed Incomplete Brother, with his leg crossed and hugging the middle-aged man's shoulder, leaned his head into the newspaper as if trying to make out the words.
Soon, his leg began to shake too.
—The simple-minded creature couldn't even recognize the pictures.
"Dinner's ready."
The gentle female voice came from behind.
Chronicle turned to see an intelligent, elegant, and gentle middle-aged woman emerge from the darkness, carrying a plate of bright red meat chunks.
Clearly, the family was well-off, the fat dripping down the edge of the plate.
"Little Chronicle is here."
She said with a smile.
Her demeanor was as normal as could be.
"Yeah, I'm here."
Chronicle quietly observed the woman:
A beige turtleneck sweater, jeans, red cotton slippers, and a pink plaid apron with a bow-tied mouthless cat.
Her figure was well-proportioned, her face pretty, with only faint crow's feet at the corners of her eyes.
She looked perfectly normal.
But Chronicle keenly noticed a deep strangulation mark on her neck.
Though she tried to hide it with the high collar of her sweater, it still caught Chronicle's eye with her movements.
"Ah Bin, that child, is so slow even to buy a gift."
She placed the dishes on the greasy dining table, glancing at the broken, motionless clock, "He's still not back this late."
"Then let's not wait for him."
The old lady, who had been silent all this time, spoke up with a sinister voice, "That little bastard, better starve to death outside."
"Mom…" The middle-aged woman smiled awkwardly at Chronicle, rubbed her hanging right hand gently, then turned silently, "Lulu, time to eat."
"Wow, so sumptuous."
Lulu instinctively reached for the red meat chunks but was tapped by the woman with her chopstick, "We have a guest, mind your manners."
"I know." The girl pouted slightly, then turned to Chronicle with a smile, "Chronicle Brother, you're the guest, you eat first."
"Hmm."
Chronicle nodded, sat down, picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks, and flung it into Incomplete Brother's mouth from a distance.
"Spit."
Incomplete Brother initially chewed with delight, but the next moment, he spat out the meat chunk.
Chronicle usually treated him like a garbage disposal.
Even he couldn't swallow this meat, which said a lot about how revolting it was.
The key to breaking the domain was clear the moment Chronicle opened the door; the domain rules had explicitly informed him:
He had to sit here and eat for ten minutes at the pace of a normal high school student.
"Quite a clever task-based domain…"
Chronicle nodded in approval.
In his possession, whether it was the "completed" Red and White Collision or the plugin Death of Daiyu, both were aggressive domain cards.
To escape, one simply needed to smash all the card spirits within the domain.
No need for such convolutions.
"I'm just too kind-hearted, always considering my opponents."
"Not like those students from the Cloud Summit, each one worse than the last, resorting to trick after trick, lacking the simplicity of the Green Mountain folks."
"I'm starting to dislike them too."
As Chronicle mused, the door in the corner of the living room suddenly opened.
A high school student with long bangs covering his eyes, tall and thin, walked in, holding a toy cat.
He didn't speak, handed the item to Lulu, and sat next to Chronicle.
Though separated by a damp "curtain," Chronicle could still see those eyes filled with resentment, like black holes.
"What are you looking at me for? Eat."
Ah Gai is the oldest child at home, went to deliver lanterns in the afternoon, came back a bit late, so there's less update today, will update earlier tomorrow to make up for it.