Chapter 434 – Palpitations from That World – Tang Tang Knocked Out by the Smell (01)
[Points settlement: Breaking up the male and female leads—reward: 10,000 points.
Side mission—clear your name—completion rate: 100%, reward: 1,000 points.
Helping elderly and vulnerable groups in need—completion rate: 100%, reward: 1,000 points.
The next world has an S+ danger level. Please adjust your condition and pay attention to your personal safety. Muah~]
Ever since the system matched itself with a partner, even its usually flat, mechanical voice had started to include playful remarks.
However, this S+ danger level…
“Tang Tang, how about we switch to another world?”
“Qiu’er, let’s check the plot first.”
Their voices sounded at the same time. Bai Tang smiled and lifted Qiu’er onto his lap, gently stroking his back in a steady rhythm.
“I know you’re worried about me, Qiu’er, but we can’t keep avoiding difficulties. If we run away now, it will come back to bite us someday.”
After traveling through so many worlds, Bai Tang’s knowledge and perspective were no longer what they used to be—he was no longer the little squirrel in the forest who only thought about fancy ways to eat pine nuts every day.
“You protected me as I grew. I’ll protect all of you until you can take human form.”
“Tang Tang…” Qiu’er’s eyes welled up with tears, deeply moved by Bai Tang’s sudden sincerity and affection. “Tang Tang, you’re so good…” The child had grown up—he was ready to spread his wings.
Xiao A jumped onto Bai Tang’s lap and gently patted Qiu’er’s back with his paw. “With us around, are you really afraid something will happen to our host?”
This wasn’t just empty boasting. After absorbing the fortune they had gathered in the previous world, Xiao A had vaguely touched upon certain laws and understood some truths. In the vast universe, while one could not oppose the Heavenly Dao, protecting a single person was still possible.
“Alright, then we’ll go to that world.”
Qiu’er wiped his eyes with his paw and pulled out a book from the archive titled <Palpitations from That World.>
This world was divided into two dimensions.
The male lead, Wen Junnan, lived in a normal timeline. Like any other child, he grew up safely and smoothly, studying without incident. It wasn’t until he entered university that things began to change. One night, in his sleep, he dreamed of a girl—and of cruel torture. After waking, he couldn’t calm the lingering fear the dream had left behind.
From that day on, he dreamed every night. Sometimes the girl appeared, sometimes she didn’t, but without exception, the world in his dreams was brutal. People he knew—classmates and friends—existed there as well, yet their personalities were drastically different from those in reality.
What he saw most often was the girl’s life. Watching her being bullied and tortured stirred even his normally indifferent heart with pity. Finally, unable to endure it any longer, he intervened in one of the dreams—and that was how he met her.
The girl’s name was Ning Sitong. Through their conversations, she learned that he did not belong to her world, and she became deeply fascinated with the sunlit world he came from.
Wen Junnan and Ning Sitong gradually grew closer, and he also taught her many ways to protect herself.
In the dream world, there was a ruler—the greatest villain in the original plot—who preyed on the weak and fed on fear. One day, he set his sights on Ning Sitong. With Wen Junnan’s help, the two of them narrowly escaped death multiple times. In the end, they broke through the barrier between dimensions, bringing Ning Sitong into Wen Junnan’s world, where they lived happily together from then on.
As for Bai Tang, his identity was a squirrel raised by the villain. He repeatedly assisted the villain in tracking the male and female leads and obstructing their escape. In the final battle, the villain casually grabbed him to block an attack, and he was killed by Wen Junnan with a single stab.
How should one put it? It truly deserved its S+ rating—the danger level and mission difficulty had skyrocketed. The male lead was in one dimension, while the female lead and the male supporting character were in another. The male supporting character had to stay under the villain’s watchful eye, avoid him, and at the same time prevent the leads from developing feelings for each other. This task was simply too difficult.
“No matter what, we have to give it a try~” Bai Tang wasn’t very confident either. He had always been afraid of worlds with strange energy fields, but he refused to back down. If even he retreated, wouldn’t Qiu’er be even more afraid? Thinking about it, this was already the third world of this kind.
“Host, don’t worry. I’ll take good care of Qiu’er.” After upgrading, Xiao A’s connection with the host had strengthened considerably. He smiled at the uneasy Bai Tang, signaling that he didn’t need to be so restrained.
After a flash of white light, Bai Tang entered the mission world.
This world was somewhat special. Unlike in the previous world, the two systems did not appear in physical form, which greatly reduced how often Qiu’er got scared. If anything happened, Xiao A would promptly cut off the connection between Qiu’er and Bai Tang, doing everything he could to help.
The male supporting character was a squirrel raised by the villain, usually feeding on the leftover fear the villain didn’t consume. When Bai Tang arrived, he was locked in a cage. The surroundings were dim, and his nose was assaulted by a foul smell made up of who-knows-how-many things. The stench irritated the little squirrel so much that he sneezed several times. He lifted his tail, trying to block the smell with it—only to realize that the worst stench was coming from his own tail.
The sticky fur was right under his nose. The little squirrel stiffened and toppled backward, shutting his eyes in agony.
He fainted from the smell.
Xiao A and Qiu’er, who hadn’t even had time to react: “…” They really hadn’t expected this situation. Truly!
The two systems hurriedly set up a protective barrier around the little squirrel, isolating the foul air, and then sprayed deodorizing and purifying mist all over him like crazy.
Bai Tang had been knocked unconscious by the stench, then sprayed awake. Before he could speak with Qiu’er and Xiao A, the infamous villain returned.
The little squirrel immediately fell silent, sitting upright in the cage with perfect composure.
A tall, jagged shadow was cast against the wall by the doorway, accompanied by a dull scraping sound as it moved.
To avoid arousing suspicion from the villain, who possessed special abilities, Qiu’er and Xiao A had no choice but to withdraw the protective barrier for the time being, much to Bai Tang’s dismay. With the door opening, the air began to circulate, and the suffocating stench weakened slightly.
After an unknown amount of time, Bai Tang finally saw the villain’s true appearance—
A bandaged man. And not even whole. Where the bandages were missing, charred flesh was exposed, and his pitch-black eyes were enough to send chills down one’s spine.
The little squirrel quickly averted his gaze—not only out of fear, but also because the man was simply too ugly.
With his aesthetic standards always intact, the little squirrel refused to accept such an eye-assaulting sight. He even felt like dripping a few drops of eye wash just to cleanse his vision.
“Heh heh heh—why aren’t you eating?” The bandaged man spoke slowly. The moment he opened his mouth, a strong foul odor wafted out.
How Bai Tang wished he could refuse to respond—but as the villain’s pet, and with memories of how his predecessor had interacted with him, he couldn’t ignore the question.
“Squeak, squeak—” I’m too full, too full…
There was still a lump of extracted fear in the bowl. Bai Tang absolutely refused to eat it, so he could only use being “too full” as an excuse to avoid further questioning.
Fortunately, the bandaged man didn’t press the matter. In his broken, bellows-like voice, he said, “This one was too ugly. The fear doesn’t taste good. Next time I find a higher-quality one, I’ll share some with you.”
Based on the memories Bai Tang had inherited, those were nothing but empty words. Whenever the bandaged man found good-looking humans, after scaring them out of their wits and extracting their fear, he would devour it all himself—never sharing any. Only the fear from ugly people, which he found unpalatable, would be tossed into the feeding pouch inside the cage.
“Squeak, squeak—” Thank you, Master. Thank you, Master.
Finally, after sending the bandaged man away, the little squirrel collapsed flat inside the cage like a lifeless heap. Before long, the sticky, grimy feeling on his body made him feel utterly disgusted with himself.
“Qiu’er, Xiao A, has that bandaged monster left? I want to take a bath.”
The little squirrel, who had always hated water, was now voluntarily asking for a bath—just showing how terrible the environment here was.
“Alright, no problem.”
The bandaged man was in the next room. Qiu’er activated a shielding mode; as long as the bandaged man was busy studying new ways to do evil, he wouldn’t notice anything happening on this side.
The little squirrel climbed into the mini bucket of water. The feeling of his paws touching the bottom helped ease his fear of water—at least he didn’t have to worry about it being too deep and drowning.
Sensing Bai Tang’s negative emotions, Xiao A quickly added another isolation barrier.
The bandaged man grew stronger by feeding on fear. The host’s fear was also fear—there was no guarantee he wouldn’t sense it and, in a fit of madness, kill even his own pet.
“In the future, you must never let your guard down,” Xiao A warned.
For now, Bai Tang was safe. As long as the bandaged man didn’t notice anything unusual, nothing would happen. After all, his destined fate was to be stabbed to death by the male lead. Of course… if the male lead were to see Bai Tang and realize that the bandaged man abused him—starving him and leaving him uncared for—then who would end up stabbing whom was another matter entirely.
On that point, Qiu’er, who could feel the master’s consciousness gradually awakening, was absolutely certain—his master would definitely be the one to stab that bandaged monster to death!
Bai Tang had arrived at just the right time—the very day the male lead first began dreaming.
He pricked up his ears, listening as the bandaged monster left and its footsteps faded into the distance. Once everything fell silent, he reached out a paw and pushed open the cage door.
Clang— The harsh sound rang out sharply in the quiet room, especially startling in the stillness.
The little squirrel raised a paw to pat his chest. It’s okay, it’s okay… that thing has already left.
Having long been in darkness, his eyes had adapted. He avoided obstacles on the ground and nimbly climbed onto a table, slipping out through an open skylight.
The little squirrel dashed forward at full speed. On both sides were tightly shut shopfronts rushing past in a blur. The damp night wind carried a faint fishy smell, tainting the fur Bai Tang had only just finished cleaning.
“Qiu’er, Xiao A—barrier, barrier!” Bai Tang was on the verge of going crazy. He had just finished bathing—he absolutely did not want to bathe again.
After running for who knows how long, he finally stopped beneath a dormitory building on a campus. This school corresponded to the one in Wen Junnan’s world.
If nothing had changed in the early stages, the first time the male lead entered this world would be in his university dorm.
The eerie atmosphere would make him uneasy. When calling out to his roommates yielded no response, the sudden strangeness would drive him into the corridor for a cigarette. It was then that he would see a girl running in panic below the dorm building and quickly entering the male dormitory. He would return to his room to grab a coat and rush downstairs—only to find the main entrance on the first floor tightly locked, making it impossible for anyone to enter. At that moment, he would finally realize what was wrong (as in the original plot).
The little squirrel stared at one of the dorm room doors on the fifth floor and eagerly ran upstairs.
“A Nan, wait for me—I’m coming!”