He sat upright in the chair, staring at the white-haired man in front of him. "You still know Ye Tianxuan?"
"I know him," Mu He replied casually, then turned and groped for a chair to sit down. "I need to collect all the information about where Ye Tianxuan is in the dungeon. I'm the boss of the side quest, so I must have met him."
"That makes sense…" Yin Xiu thought it was reasonable, so he continued to ask, "You said you have information that Ye Tianxuan left for me before. How did he foresee that you and I would meet in the future?"
Mu He smiled, lowered her gray pupils, and said softly, "It wasn't foresight. He simply left a message about the path you would take in the future."
He pointed to himself, "I am Mu He, the boss of the side quest in the dungeon. You usually won't encounter me when you clear the dungeon normally, let alone someone like you who has cleared the entire dungeon. You have even less chance of seeing me. When you finally meet me in a normal way, what will it be like?"
"I went to do the side quest in the dungeon..." Yin Xiu thought for a moment and could only give this answer. Even now, Yin Xiu was not looking for the so-called side quest, but met Mu He in this unexpected situation.
"Yes, the God of Slaughter has obediently gone to pursue the side quests. There must be some special reason for it." Mu He smiled. "Ye Tianxuan mentioned you to me in a dungeon about three years ago."
"He said he felt you had changed a lot recently, and that you might become more normal in the future. He said that one day you might take a side quest for some reason, so he left messages for the side quest bosses in many dungeons. You will eventually meet one of them."
Yin Xiu was stunned. He didn't expect that this person would have time to chat with the monsters in the dungeon and leave messages in addition to collecting information during the dungeon.
And there was more than one left.
"Why doesn't he just tell me what he wants to say? Why leave messages..." If Yin Xiu doesn't change and remains the same killing god he used to be, he won't hear these messages at all.
Mu He chuckled softly, her gray pupils dim, but her smile was bright. "Ye Tianxuan said that in the worst-case scenario, you would only meet me after he has died and you have been changed. So these messages are all presupposed to be told to you in the future, assuming he is already dead."
"In a sense, he guessed right, didn't he?"
Yin Xiu remained silent for two seconds before saying calmly, "Alright, tell me, what message did he leave for me?"
"Don't rush." Mu He rummaged in her sleeve and found something that Yin Xiu recognized. "This is a voice recorder that Ye Tianxuan gave me. It seems that all the strange things he left messages for are there. Maybe you can look for them slowly later."
He handed the recorder to Yin Xiu, saying, "Ghosts don't use human things, so we're responsible for keeping it and giving it to you. I don't know what's inside."
Yin Xiu took it and pressed the switch on the recorder.
After a two-second silence in the quiet lobby, Ye Tianxuan's voice came through the small recording pen.
Good evening, Yin the Killer.
"Oh, it's nighttime here, but it might not be nighttime when you hear this. Well then, good morning or good afternoon, should I say 'Long time no see, God of War Yin'?"
According to Mu He, this recording pen was given to him by Ye Tianxuan three years ago. So, this is the recording pen that Ye Tianxuan prepared three years ago for Yin Xiu, who would receive it many years later.
Only three years ago did Ye Tianxuan still call him Yin the God of Slaughter.
This familiar, now-forgotten name instantly reminded Yin Xiu of the person who used to hand out rule leaflets in the small town.
"Yin, the God of Slaughter, was I still alive when you received this recording pen?"
"If I'm still alive, just pretend I'm dead, and keep listening."
Yin Xiu remained silent, feeling an urge to shut the recorder. This person always talked about life and death, just like he always had.
"I know you've always been careless when doing dungeons and never learn about the side quests. Now that you've met Muhe, you should have already started to learn about a part of the supernatural world, right?"
"This message contains some clues I left to help you better understand some of the rules of the supernatural world."
"Because I don't know how many years it will be since you got this recording pen, what I will be like then, or what the town will be like. I can only hope that in the future you will take over the management of the town after I die, and as the strange world changes, update the dungeons, and update some high-difficulty dungeons for me."
"I didn't treat you like a tool, I really considered you a good friend, so consider this my last words! I believe you'll help me in the future! Please, God of Slaughter, you're a great God of Slaughter! If there's anything you can't do, save those useless people in town, it's just a small favor!"
Three years ago, Ye Tianxuan would still make some witty remarks, but now he is more composed and values life more.
Yin Xiu hadn't noticed before, but now he clearly realized that he had changed a little, and everything around him was changing.
"First of all, I'll tell you a big secret I just learned, a secret about the monster group. You'd better not let the other monsters hear this!"
Yin Xiu glanced at Mu He silently, but Mu He turned her head away, pretending not to exist.
"That's right. I've discovered that players can transform into monsters through a contract with a monster, but this isn't popular among native monsters; it's an anomaly."
"When you obtain the contract, you have two choices: First, become a monster completely and give up being human. In that case, if you are killed, you will be reborn like the original monsters and can slowly become a high-level monster, use monster items, and enter the dungeon to customize the rules. From then on, you will become a complete part of the monster group and no longer be human."
"Second, even if you don't become a monster, you are still a player. Players who trade will obtain special items, which can be used at an extremely high cost. The user will have a monster contract on them. The contract is engraved on their soul and will remain permanently, never disappearing."
"The cigarette you saw me use before was my contract item. I traded it with a black cat monster. It seems to be a manager-like entity in the dungeon, in charge of everything within the dungeon, just like the Night Goddess manages the town."
"After trading with it, I obtained the item, but the price was my lifespan."
"The black cat believes that everyone in the dungeon is pursuing survival, and life is the most precious price to pay. If you can't leave the dungeon, everything you've traded is meaningless. It made a bet with me, saying that someone like me who sacrifices their life cannot leave the dungeon."
"But I don't care. I've gained by exchanging my life for the lives of many others."
"But I still really want to know, years after you got this recorder, did I win my bet?"