Her Talent for Courting Death Has Always Been Impressive - Chapter 37 Part 2

While frantically hinting, she further observed the person sitting across from her. The young man was visibly stunned when he heard her call him “brother,” looking at her in surprise, seeming about to say something, but then holding back.

…A very real reaction. So real that it didn’t seem like an act at all.

A strange feeling arose in Xu Turan’s heart. The next second, she saw the CEO adopted brother pick up the phone on the table and sandwich it between slices of bread, then take a bite—

His teeth clinked against the phone screen, making a harsh noise. He chewed calmly like nothing was wrong, made a swallowing motion, and then said: “The coffee is good. What, did you drug me?”

Xu Turan: “…”

In a sense, it could indeed be considered drugging.

But now it seemed that this drug wasn’t strong enough—her upgraded “Confusion” had clearly affected the person sitting across from her, but this influence seemed very limited.

Apart from developing a puzzling change in taste for food, her convenient adopted brother was completely normal, showing no oddities.

Xu Turan tried again, casting the active effect of “Confusion” on the person opposite her—which should theoretically make the target fall into a 1.5-second blank state. But in reality, after she finished her set of skills, the person opposite showed no reaction at all.

Still drinking butter coffee and eating phone sandwiches. Not even pausing for a moment.

…What’s going on?

Xu Turan was full of questions.

She stubbornly observed around for a while longer, confirming that she couldn’t find anything more with the naked eye, and then made up her mind to reach into her pocket.

In her pocket was the Planchette Pen, wrapped in silver-colored paper. Xu Turan peeled off the layer of colored paper and slowly pulled out the pen.

…She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but when she took it out, the pen seemed quite unwilling, struggling desperately. A layer of fuzz inexplicably appeared on the smooth pen barrel, wriggling constantly, trying to push away her fingers.

Xu Turan carried through with her forceful seizure, very firmly taking out the Planchette Pen completely. Almost at the instant the pen left the colored paper, the person across the dining table had a bigger reaction.

In front of Xu Turan, he picked up the coffee cup again. The next second, with a “pa” sound, he buried half his face into the coffee cup.

The cup made a cracking sound, and when he raised his head, Xu Turan realized that the cracking sound came from his teeth—he had bitten off a piece from the cup rim.

The adopted brother, oblivious, chewed the fragment, swallowed it, and opened his mouth to speak:

“I, coffee finished, go. You, arrange, yourself…”

“Not coming back, dinner, eat…”

“I, company, manage…”

“Uncle, Auntie, Uncle…”

Fragmented sentences came out of his bloodstained mouth, disjointed and jumbled. He seemed like a drunk robot, illogically repeating pre-set sentences.

…As expected.

Xu Turan’s heart was in suspense.

Her attempt had succeeded. The Planchette Pen had been freed from the restraint of the silver-colored paper and had also become a target of influence for “Confusion.” And its addition had deepened the effect of “Confusion” on the person opposite—

After all, one of the main characteristics of the passive skill “Confusion” was that the more targets it covered, the deeper the influence it caused.

Xu Turan took the opportunity to activate the active effect of “Confusion” again, but the person opposite still had no reaction. He spoke haltingly, his originally indifferent features suddenly twisting, gradually forming a pained expression:

“I, work, you at home… university…”

“After you graduate… take over… run…”

“Run… run…”

“…” Xu Turan’s heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly stood up, “Brother? Brother, what do you mean? Brother?”

The person opposite didn’t answer, but instead started convulsing violently. His features twisted in pain, suddenly opening his blood-filled mouth and letting out a heart-wrenching scream:

“Run—quick run—run!”

After saying this, he suddenly drooped his head like a toy that had lost power, and didn’t move.

Xu Turan never imagined things would develop like this. She hurried over and tried to shake his shoulders.

“Strange… there’s still a pulse…”

Her hand was on the side of his neck, and her fingers inadvertently moved, suddenly seeming to touch something.

Xu Turan’s breath caught, and she quickly explored with her fingers, feeling around her adopted brother’s neck.

She felt a line.

The line was at the back of his neck. It was thick, smooth, and went straight up.

Xu Turan followed the line’s direction and looked up, her gaze falling on the ceiling.

It was empty, there was nothing there.

…No, that’s not right.

The long-dormant danger prediction finally sounded again, the beeping sound like hypnosis. Xu Turan stepped back, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then looked at the ceiling again—

This time, she saw it.

There was something on the ceiling.

It looked like a fish, a ray, but several times larger than any Xu Turan had seen in an aquarium. Its pale black and enormous body was stretched out, as if stuck to the ceiling, its soft pectoral fins covered in arcs that seemed like giant fish scales.

Its tail was curled, coiled in a large curve around its body, emitting a faint green light. Around the tail were large patches of black threads—these threads looked like hair, yet had a metallic sheen. They covered the entire ceiling, like a dense, heavy spider web.

…Good grief.

Xu Turan inwardly clicked her tongue. If one didn’t know better, they might think her house was the Spider Cave.

With the appearance of the giant ray, it was as if all the light in the house had been swallowed. The surroundings visibly darkened, and Xu Turan instinctively looked around, her heart even more astonished.

—Black lines.

Throughout the dining room. Table legs, chair backs, stair railings, including the front door—every place she could see had masses of black lines.

They silently entwined every inch of space, as if they had been breeding here for a long time. On some piles of black lines, there were arc after arc—looking just like the fish scales on the giant ray’s body.

Xu Turan pressed her lips together, her gaze returning to her convenient adopted brother. This time, she could finally see it.

A strand of black thread extended upward from the back of her adopted brother’s neck, connecting directly to the ceiling.

…She fell silent for a moment, then slowly reached out her hand, feeling the back of her own neck.

Unsurprisingly, she felt a line there too.

It also extended upwards, but was much thinner than the one on the back of her adopted brother’s neck.

Xu Turan felt along the line downwards, reaching her own skin. The line was like a mosquito’s mouth, deeply embedded, yet she couldn’t feel it at all.

…So that’s how it is.

A chill ran through Xu Turan’s heart.

She recalled again the five stutters of the system on the first night she moved in. She had always suspected that the stutter meant there was a problem with the system, that some hidden force had interfered with her system’s operation.

However, she had forgotten one thing. The Courting Death Value system was connected to her consciousness. In a sense, it was already a part of her.

The system stuttering didn’t necessarily mean the system itself had been interfered with—

What had been interfered with might have been herself.

“This move is absolutely brilliant,” Xu Turan inwardly marveled. The person had already been affected, yet couldn’t discover it at all. If she hadn’t impulsively spent a fortune to try, how much longer would she have been deceived?