Survival in an apartment, starting with a stroke of luck on a plane

Then, he looked at the elephant troupe leader and asked the most crucial question: "So, respected leader, do you think my 'impromptu performance' qualifies as a qualified 'joyful clown'? Did the audience (even though they were all dead)... approve?"

The elephant leader paused for a moment, seemingly just coming back to his senses from his reflection.

It looked at Lin Yu, then surveyed the chaotic "stage," and slowly nodded, revealing a complex smile: "Although the method was... a bit extreme, there's no doubt that you brought me 'joy' that I haven't seen in a long time. So, your mission is complete."

Almost the instant it finished speaking, a system notification sounded in Lin Yu's mind:

[Hidden Quest: The Joyful Clown is Completed!]

The rewards will be distributed by the Elephant Team Leader.

In reality, the elephant leader carefully pulled an apple from the inner pocket of his tattered gentleman's suit.

The apple was an ominous dark red color, with a twisted, painful, and seemingly screaming ghost face naturally growing on its skin, emitting a faint black aura and an enticing fruity aroma.

"This is your reward, sir." The elephant leader handed the grotesque apple to Lin Yu: "The power it contains should be useful to you."

Lin Yu took the apple and stared at it intently:

【Ghost Face Apple】

Category: Props

Grade: Silver

Effects: After consumption, Strength +1, Constitution +1, Agility +1, Spirit +3, Maximum Health +100, Maximum Mana +100.

Description: A fruit born from extreme chaos and negative emotions, said to taste incredibly sweet, but when eaten, one can almost hear the wails of countless souls. It is a favorite snack of demons and certain dark creatures.

"Good stuff!" Lin Yu's eyes lit up. Ignoring the apple's strange appearance, he took a bite without saying a word.

"ah!!!"

As Lin Yu took a bite of the fruit, the ghostly face on the apple seemed to come alive, emitting a terrifying scream.

Lin Yu ignored him and ate the fruit one bite at a time.

The fruit was unexpectedly crisp and sweet, but the moment he swallowed it, a surge of energy did enter his body.

On his attribute panel, his strength, constitution, agility, and spirit immediately increased by the corresponding points, and his maximum health and mana also permanently increased by 100 points.

Their strength has been enhanced once again.

After finishing the apple, the elephant leader slowly stood up, regaining some of his former composure, and asked, "So, deliveryman, would you mind telling me your number? Your performance left a deep impression on me."

Lin Yu wiped his mouth and said, "Number 003, if you want me to deliver your food, please give me a five-star review."

The elephant team leader nodded: "I'll remember that, Mr. Deliveryman No. 003."

Its tone was meaningful.

After saying that, it turned around and, with heavy steps, slowly walked into the depths of the circus.

As it left, the entire Happy Circus began to undergo strange changes—the huge tents, the gorgeous decorations, the dazzling lights… began to distort, fade, and eventually disappear completely, like a mirage.

In just a few seconds, the circus was transformed into a desolate wasteland, leaving only Lin Yu standing amidst the mess, and his shadow clone obediently guarding his electric scooter in the distance.

Lin Yu didn't care that the circus had disappeared.

He immediately took the gift box given by the two-headed man out of the delivery box.

Now, he is the "Joyful Clown," and the designated recipient of this item is himself, without a doubt.

He simply tore open the beautifully packaged box.

There was no extra stuffing inside, just a single playing card, lying quietly at the bottom of the box.

This playing card is the same size as a regular playing card, but the back of the card features a deep, seemingly rotating starry sky pattern.

The card features the classic "Joker" design, but this Joker is more sinister and insane, with eyes that seem to pierce through the card and look directly into people's hearts.

The phone vibrated the instant the gift box was opened.

[Delivery order completed!]

[Customer review: Five-star rating! (Delivered successfully within one hour.)]

[Basic delivery points +50]

[5-star review reward: Double points, +50]

[Special Reward for Delivery Orders: Double Points, +100]

Total points earned: 200

[Current total points: 290]

"Great!" Lin Yu couldn't help but pump his fist.

The profits from this order far exceeded his expectations, resulting in a significant increase in his points.

Immediately afterwards, another notification popped up:

[You have successfully met the customer's request (delivery within one hour) and will receive an extra tip from the customer for their stored items: +50 points!]

[Current total points: 340]

"And a tip!" Lin Yu was in a great mood, and his points suddenly became plentiful.

He now has enough points to buy some things in the points mall.

Lin Yu thought for a moment, then picked up the playing card from the box and examined it carefully:

[Special Item: Playing Cards - Joker]

Category: Special Quest Trigger Item (Cannot be taken out of this game world)

Effect: Tear up this card to immediately accept a special order, "The Joker's Gift." Completing the order will grant you a generous reward.

Warning: This order is extremely difficult. Please carefully consider whether to accept it.

Description: Hehehe...

"A special order trigger item?" Lin Yu stroked the card, feeling that this thing was a hot potato.

"Could this be the kind of 'special delivery' or 'punishment order' that Captain Bull and the lizardmen were talking about?"

The rewards are substantial, but the risks are extremely high.

Lin Yu stroked his chin.

His electric scooter is currently low on battery and not in perfect condition, so he naturally wouldn't be so reckless as to use it immediately.

He carefully tucked the playing card into the innermost part of his backpack, intending to try it again when he was fully prepared.

After tidying everything up, Lin Yu returned to his electric scooter.

Lin Yu got on the car and immediately checked the battery level – only 38% remained.

"Tsk, I guess that's enough for only one more delivery. Besides, I need to save some power to send back to the station, so I can't take orders that are too far away." He frowned.

It seems that buying new batteries is imperative, since he needs to compete for the top spot in the delivery business, and going back to charge them would reduce his delivery efficiency.

While thinking, Lin Yu opened the order-taking app on his phone to check.

However, he paused for a moment when the order list refreshed.

Unlike before when only three orders were displayed each time, this time, the screen showed five available orders.

Could it be that my ranking increased because I received three five-star reviews in a row?

In addition, Lin Yu also discovered that the two old orders in his software had disappeared, and five brand new orders had appeared.

Order 1: The "Brain of Wisdom" to be delivered to the City Library.

[Order 2: "Indulgence Perfume" to be delivered to "Desire Street".]

Order 3: "Niu Ma No. 2 Set Meal" delivered to [Niu Ma Building].

Order 4: Energy drinks to be delivered to the "Death Arena".

[Order 5: "Inspiration Brain Fluid" delivered to [Howling Recording Studio]]

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow as he looked at the five new orders that had appeared on his phone screen.

The destinations of these orders sound much more "high-class" than the previous ones like the "Rotten Mine," and of course, the level of danger is probably no less.

In addition, Lin Yu's gaze lingered on the fifth order.

[Howling Recording Studio]? Isn't this the place where he delivered his first "screaming cassette tape"? Although the boss of that howling worm was "made" into a cassette tape by him.

And the customer who placed the order was... [Mr. Rock Bones]?

"It's that skull with the afro..." Lin Yu immediately remembered.

That guy said he would become his customer, and it seems he wasn't just saying that casually, because he gave him a specific order.

Without much hesitation, Lin Yu directly clicked to accept [Order 5].

The reason for choosing it is quite simple.

First, this is a "designated order." Given the skull's attitude, the probability of getting a five-star review is extremely high. After all, that guy said he was very generous, and Lin Yu was quite looking forward to his tip.

Secondly, the location of the "Howling Recording Studio" happens to be the closest of the five destinations to the food delivery station. For him, whose battery was only at 38%, this was the most convenient and energy-saving option on his way back.

Order accepted successfully. The navigation system automatically planned the pickup route – the pickup point is [Lao Hou Nao Products Specialty Store].

"Old monkey brain... Inspiration fluid... What a strange thing." Lin Yu muttered to himself. Although he was used to the routines of this strange game world, he did not expect it to always come up with some strange new tricks for him.

Lin Yu turned on the ignition, and the electric scooter sped off again, heading towards the pickup point.

The return journey was still fraught with danger. Various low-level monsters, like flies drawn by the smell of blood, swarmed out from every corner of the ruins, trying to stop the speeding "delivery van."

This time, Lin Yu was too lazy to even do it himself.

With a thought, the [Demon Sword] flashed with an eerie light, and twenty ghosts roared out.

Like invisible grim reapers, they pounced on the monsters blocking their path, either piercing through, tearing, or possessing and interfering, clearing the way ahead of Lin Yu.

At the same time, the [Heavenly Cloak] also acts like a living guardian, sometimes suddenly being pulled out to swat away approaching flying monsters or ranged attacks.

Lin Yu only needs to focus on driving and avoiding large obstacles.

This "automated" method of clearing monsters greatly saved him from consuming mental and magical energy.

"These ghosts are indeed much more useful after the upgrade." Lin Yu nodded in satisfaction.

His previous "harvest" in the Happy Circus and the city ruins allowed him to successfully replace the few unranked cannon fodder ghosts in the Demon Sword with Black Iron-rank ones.

Compared to the trash without any rank, these Iron-rank ghosts, though still weak in his eyes, were still difficult to deal with for these even more trashy monsters.

Lin Yu followed the navigation and drove. The pickup point seemed to be located in a rather remote area.

Following the navigation, Lin Yu navigated through a rather remote, maze-like alleyway before finally arriving at his destination – [Old Monkey Brain Products Specialty Store].

This shop is not only located in a remote area, but its appearance is also extremely abstract and disturbing.

Its overall design is shaped like a huge, pale, skinned human head, with the "mouth" serving as the entrance, open to reveal a dark, esophageal passage inside.

The "nostrils" and "eye sockets" are adorned with eerie neon signs.

It looks extremely strange.

Furthermore, what caught Lin Yu's attention even more was that there were two electric scooters parked in front of the shop, both bearing the same "Starving to Death Takeout" logo.

"Are there other delivery drivers here?" Lin Yu was slightly surprised. After all, this city was quite large. Lin Yu hadn't encountered many human players at the pickup points for the previous orders.

He parked the car in the shadows a little further away, leaving a shadow clone to guard it, while he gripped the [Demon Sword] and walked into the entrance of the "head and mouth".

As soon as he stepped into the shop, an indescribable stench, a mixture of formaldehyde, blood, and the distinctive fishy smell of some kind of animal den, hit him, causing Lin Yu to frown involuntarily.

The interior of the shop looks slightly more "normal" than the exterior, resembling a dimly lit laboratory reception area filled with various glasswares and specimens.

Many vessels contained brains of varying sizes and shapes, some of which were still pulsating slightly.

However, Lin Yu's gaze swept across the area, but he did not see any other deliverymen.

The two electric bikes are still parked outside, but the people are nowhere to be seen?

This immediately put him on high alert.

Based on past experience, these monstrous merchants are hardly friendly to delivery drivers.

He walked to the front desk, and behind the front desk sat a... monkey.

The monkey was wearing a tiny white coat, but its skull had been completely opened, revealing its pink, slightly pulsating brain.

Even more bizarrely, there was a clear, spoon-sized notch on its exposed brain.

The fact that they can still survive like this just shows how illogical these monsters are.

At the same time, when the "brain-baring monkey" saw Lin Yu, it squeezed out an extremely ugly and distorted smile.

Lin Yu suppressed his discomfort and calmly said, "I'm starving, takeout, order number 83."

The monkey nodded, then... extended its paw and pointed to a tightly closed, inconspicuous little wooden door behind it.

Its meaning is clear: go in and get it yourself.

Lin Yu frowned: "Can't you take it out for me? I can pay a small tip."

He tried to avoid entering unknown areas, and also tried to see if he could bribe the NPCs, since if he could, the game would have a lot more room for maneuver.

Unfortunately, the monkey with its exposed head shrugged helplessly, pointed to its own brain, and then to the door, indicating that this was the rule.

Lin Yu hesitated for a moment before not going in himself immediately. He activated the [Demon Sword] again, sending out a Black Iron-level ghost and ordering it to go through the small door to investigate the situation.

The ghost drifted silently toward the wooden door and passed right through it.

The monkey with its head exposed simply watched and did not stop it.

However, less than five seconds after the ghost entered the door—

Lin Yu suddenly felt that the connection representing that ghost in the soul nest of the [Evil Ghost Sword] was instantly severed and disappeared!

He didn't even hear any fighting or screams coming from inside the door.

Lin Yu's eyes sharpened instantly. "Interesting."

He muttered to himself.

The monkey at the front desk seemed to sense something, and grinned at Lin Yu, as if mocking the failure of his attempt to take shortcuts.

Lin Yu ignored the monkey's mockery.

He used his thoughts to communicate with his shadow clone in the outside world and summoned it in.

"Go in and see what's going on inside," Lin Yu ordered. He wanted to use the shared vision of his shadow clones to see what strange things were behind the door.

The shadow clone nodded expressionlessly, walked to the wooden door, pushed it open, and went inside.

boom!

Almost the instant the shadow clone entered, Lin Yu felt a sharp pain in his head, as if he had been pricked by a needle.

At the same time, a very brief, blurry fragment of a scene flooded his mind: pitch black... then a flash of extremely fast, cold white light... and then... nothing more.

The shadow clone was instantly killed before it could even see the enemy's face.

"Tsk..." Lin Yu rubbed his throbbing temples, his expression turning serious.

What's behind the door seems more dangerous and powerful than I imagined.

But the order must be completed.

He took a deep breath, released the safety of the Azure Rose, placed his right hand on the gun handle, gripped the Demon Sword tightly in his left hand, and stepped towards the small wooden door, his body crackling with electricity.

squeak-

He pushed open the door, but the attack he had imagined did not come immediately.

The scene behind the door wasn't pitch black; it was... an even more terrifying place.

This place is like a combination of a biological laboratory and an operating room.

The walls were covered with various delicate but stained surgical instruments, and the table was filled with chemical reagents and petri dishes that gleamed with a faint light.

The pungent smell of fish and chemicals in the air became even stronger.

At the far end of the laboratory, an old monkey with a hunched back, also wearing a white lab coat, but whose skull had been opened to reveal a wrinkled, grayish-white brain, was busy at a lab table with its back to the door, seemingly mixing some kind of medicine.

Even more striking was the sight of two naked humans, tightly bound with belts, lying on two operating tables in the center of the laboratory.

Judging from the faint energy fluctuations still emanating from them and the scattered pieces of clothing nearby, they were indeed the two missing deliverymen.

But their eyes were wide open and their pupils were dilated, clearly indicating that they had lost their life force.

It seems they are the owners of those two electric bikes outside.

Hearing the door open, the old monkey slowly turned around. Wearing reading glasses, its eyes behind the lenses scrutinized Lin Yu, then it asked in a hoarse, aged voice, "You are... which order number?"

Lin Yu's right index finger was already lightly on the trigger of [Azure Rose], but his emotions and tone remained calm: "Number 83."

"83?" The old monkey adjusted his glasses, slowly picked up a tablet-like device next to him, checked it, and said after a few seconds, "Oh... it's that noisy skull order."

As it spoke, it picked up a tube of green, bubbling reagent from the lab table, drew a small amount with a long syringe, and then shakily walked toward the body of a food delivery worker next to it.

It precisely inserted the needle into the skull through the corpse's temple, slowly pushing in the green reagent while seemingly talking to itself, yet also explaining to Lin Yu: "Wait a moment, the order will be completed soon... Fresh raw materials... always need a catalyst..."

Lin Yu's lips twitched slightly as he watched this scene.

Good grief, it turns out these two unlucky deliverymen were the raw materials for making "inspiration brain fluid".

After the green reagent was injected, the already dead player's corpse reacted violently.

His head swelled and turned green at a visible speed, and the blood vessels under his skin bulged and twisted like worms. You could even hear a faint "gurgling" sound coming from inside his skull.

The old monkey nodded in satisfaction and then brought over an empty, transparent test tube and a new, thicker syringe.

It waited patiently for about two minutes until the corpse's head swelled up to be almost transparent, like a green water bag, before it plunged the thick needle in.

laugh--

A turbid, viscous liquid mixed with green filaments and tiny fragments was slowly drawn out, filling the entire test tube.

The old monkey skillfully sealed the test tube and handed it to Lin Yu, his face seemingly carrying a hint of "craftsman" pride.

Lin Yu took the so-called "inspiration fluid". It was cold to the touch, and he could feel something wriggling slightly inside.

He felt that this thing was extremely eerie and bizarre, even more unsettling than the skin of the howling worm.

[Inspiration Brain Fluid] (Quest Item)

Description: A liquid extracted from catalyzed brain tissue using a special process, said to greatly inspire creativity (especially in music), with freshness being of paramount importance.

Just as Lin Yu was about to put the brain fluid into the delivery box and leave this awful place, the old monkey spoke again. It looked at Lin Yu with its "eyes" hidden behind its glasses and said, "This tube of brain fluid... isn't the most perfect product yet. To achieve its best effect, it needs more 'auxiliaries'... Of course, if you're willing to provide your own... well, that would be the best of the best."

As it spoke, it pointed to its own brain with the syringe, then glanced meaningfully at Lin Yu's head, and finally its gaze swept over the two corpses on the operating table.

Lin Yu was somewhat surprised.

What surprised him wasn't that the old monkey wanted his brain (which was perfectly normal), but that the guy didn't just try to take it by force, but instead negotiated with him in a way that was almost like "issuing a task".

This is quite rare in this dog-eat-dog world.

The old monkey seemed to sense Lin Yu's confusion. Its aged voice carried an eerie calm: "I am indeed very interested in your brain fluid... The brain fluid of humans, especially powerful humans like you, is an irreplaceable treasure. However, I am not one of those brainless fools."

It tapped its head (or rather, its exposed brain) with the syringe: "I can smell... the aura of a great deal of terror clinging to you."

The fact that you were able to escape from them alive, and even get them to trade with you... is enough to show that if I chose to attack you, I would likely be the one left on the experimental table in the end.

I'm just a researcher, not a soldier.