Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 40: Escaping Is Also an Art

Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Escaping Is Also an Art

Intelligence Jiuyue?

A few people and their bonded monsters looked at each other in bewilderment; the title sounded very impressive.

As they were secretly speculating about the power of Intelligence Jiuyue, the little fox demon, who had completed the check-in procedures, walked towards them gracefully. She raised the room cards in her hand and said, "Although the organization is covering the expenses this time, we still need to adhere to the virtue of frugality. I’ve booked three single rooms, so everyone will share a room with their bonded monster."

While distributing the room cards, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.

She had recently encountered such a scenario in the comics she downloaded on her phone.

Jiuyue originally sneered at romance comics, but lately, she had discovered a unique way of reading them.

First, she would imagine herself as the female protagonist, and then picture Mr. Mingyuan as the male lead. Those mundane life details suddenly became interesting, and could even be described as thrilling.

This Congyun Hotel, known as such, wasn’t doing great business and had many vacant rooms all year round, so there was never a situation where twin rooms were fully booked, leaving only double rooms available.

The hotel’s bleak situation was inseparable from its business strategy.

Operated with the mindset of gouging every possible penny, the room prices were even higher than those of five-star luxury hotels, and the customer target was locked firmly on supernatural aficionados who liked to follow trends and join the excitement.

In fact, aside from supernatural aficionados, no normal person would want to stay in such an old and rundown place.

"We don’t have a problem with that, but... you’re sharing a room?"

Tang Qianqian raised an objection.

"This is the most scientific allocation method, whether it’s the tacit understanding between a bonded monster and its partner, or the matching of the team’s strength and weaknesses."

Jiuyue had a bunch of reasons ready. Although she was answering Tang Qianqian’s question, she kept looking at Duan Mingyuan, "My life energy is 0, I’m undoubtedly the weakest link in the team, so it’s only reasonable for me to share a room with Mingyuan."

"That’s not what I meant."

Tang Qianqian cleared her throat and said seriously, "What I mean is, can we visit each other at night? Or even just observe on site. Frankly, I am very interested."

She was genuinely happy for her senior; when they were at the company, she had felt that someone as excellent as her senior was somewhat wasted.

And Jiuyue was a fox demon.

Based on her years of binging TV dramas, who in the world wouldn’t want to engage in a sweet romance with a fox demon?

"Don’t always think about such nonsense."

Duan Mingyuan interrupted the increasingly off-topic conversation, "I chose this place for a reason. After a member of the organization disappeared here, Da Jiang classified this area as forbidden for private investigation."

"But senior, don’t you find it strange?"

Tang Qianqian pointed at the hotel entrance, "If there really are evil spirits roaming here, why are those supernatural enthusiasts able to leave alive?"

There were indeed some missing cases circulating online, but they were mainly unsubstantiated rumors, with credibility akin to chat records forwarded in groups. She was skeptical while reviewing the information. If Congyun Hotel had truly experienced so many deaths and countless disappearances, even Mouri Kogoro could tell there was a big problem here.

Just a little investigation by Yunlong City would immediately lead to the hotel being sealed off. How could it possibly have survived until now?

"It seems you’ve finally realized it," he said.

He felt that if Tang Qianqian had read his manuscript carefully, she should have noticed something peculiar about Congyun Hotel.

But considering her learning efficiency, he still reminded her, "Evil spirits in the ’intern’ phase usually lack independent thinking. Upon encountering prey, they attack indiscriminately, so there’s no such thing as ’controlling their diet’ for these spirits."

But the situation at Congyun Hotel was obviously different.

Almost every month, new urban legends were born here, and among the circles of supernatural enthusiasts, it had become one of the holy sites. However, upon closer inspection of all the terrifying tales, one would invariably reach the conclusion of them being unverifiable.

Meanwhile, those vloggers who came to take videos and check in did encounter some bizarre events, but these events were always kept within the range of people’s acceptance. Moreover, they all left the hotel safely in the end.

The true and false rumors undoubtedly became the best advertisement. If supernatural aficionados were passing through Yunlong City, they would definitely want to check in at this holy site.

The evil spirit that resided here was a special entity that knew how to operate a hotel.

"Official employee!"

Tang Qianqian suddenly realized.

The manuscript had mentioned that once evil spirits passed the intern stage, they would gradually develop autonomous consciousness.

Duan Mingyuan made his judgement, "In my opinion, it looks more like some evil spirits have entered the Nesting Phase here."

And considering the situation at Congyun Hotel, the Nesting evil spirit is likely to be more cunning than the one that lurked in the abandoned construction site before, and it’s very possible that it has already integrated into human society.

For the two inexperienced individuals, an evil spirit in the Nesting Phase was far beyond what they could handle, and if it weren’t for the upcoming commission, Duan Mingyuan wouldn’t have chosen this almost forced-growth approach.

But reality isn’t like fictional tales where every stage conveniently provides an opponent of equal caliber.

The Night Disaster and its accomplices undoubtedly were terrifying beings that had completed the Nesting Phase.

"Senior, are you serious?"

Tang Qianqian still remembered her defeat at the hands of the Red-eyed Demon. It’s worth noting that the elusive foe she couldn’t beat had only 5 Life Energy, which, from a macro perspective, was dismissible as negligible.

Although she was now equipped with Divine Equipment, attempting to leap two rankings in a challenge was somewhat too forced.

"This special training is not to enable you to defeat an evil spirit in the Nesting Phase. You need to learn only one thing—that is how to escape from the sphere of influence of an evil spirit of this level."

Duan Mingyuan continued with his previous train of thought, implementing the organization’s early strategy of "run if you can’t beat them."

Escaping, too, is an art.

For him, it was also a new kind of practice.

Since childhood, he had encountered countless evil spirits, yet he had never chosen to retreat in any encounter.

But for Tang Qianqian and Yang Ping at their current stage, there was no doubt that this was the most beneficial practice for them right now.

"...Ah?"

Tang Qianqian was stunned for a good while, "Shouldn’t it be about working together side by side in combat, overcoming enemies with friendship and bonds?"

"Don’t do unnecessary things."

In that moment, Duan Mingyuan’s "blade" radar sent out a strong warning.

Upon closer inspection, both Tang Qianqian and Yang Ping were the type not to give peace of mind.

Tang Qianqian was straightforward to a fault, undoubtedly the most likely to fall for a First Encounter Kill amongst everyone, fitting the role of "sacrificing oneself to help comrades discover the enemy’s ability secrets" in a story.

Yang Ping, although highly intelligent, was at the most delicate age of life, and coupled with his introverted personality, he could easily become the character who’s "quiet and reticent on normal days but steps in to take a hit for his comrades at a critical moment, revealing his gentle nature only in his final moments of life."

Duan Mingyuan looked them over and felt as if two invisible blades were already hanging over their heads.

"I am your senior, and you are my juniors."

He emphasized again, "Starting now, erase words like friendship, bonds, and sacrifice from your minds. If you encounter an opponent of this level, you have only one task, and that is to escape from them, then tell me their approximate location when you are out of danger. It’s a senior’s duty to confront such enemies."

"But if it’s just you alone, senior..."

Tang Qianqian hesitated.

Traps, First Encounter Kills, those unknown enemies might even use them as bait to lure the senior into traps.

If they all chose to run away, wouldn’t all the danger be shifted onto the senior alone?

"It’s okay."

Duan Mingyuan glanced at them both and instructed with an indisputable tone, "I’m the strongest, or at least until you grow up, I will hold this position."