The girl selling goods at the market had never seen money before.

"Why can't you understand? That's No. 2 Middle School! A place that ordinary people like us can never reach in our entire lives. Why not seize such a great opportunity?"

Bai Jinxuan got angrier and angrier as she talked. She had been trying to persuade Yao Yao all morning, but Yao Yao just wouldn't listen. She was even more stubborn than Bai Jinxuan.

That's 30! That's almost enough to pay off the rest of my loan. I wouldn't even take it for free, it's unbelievable!

The two opened the door together, and were greeted by a pair of gentle smiling faces.

Yao's dad placed the sliced ​​apples into a fruit bowl, while Yao's mom poked her head out from the kitchen: "Go eat some fruit on the sofa first, dinner will be ready in a bit..."

Halfway through their conversation, they noticed that the two girls' expressions were a little off.

So, Yao's mother quickly put down the spatula, turned down the heat, took off her apron, and pulled them to sit on the sofa.

"What happened? Did you have a fight?"

Faced with her mother's kind smile, Murong Yao felt a little aggrieved, her lips trembling slightly. Just as she was about to say something, she heard Bai Jinxuan speak first.

"Yaoyao did very well in this joint exam. The Second Middle School wants to recruit her, offering not only a full tuition waiver but also a subsidy of 30 yuan."

"Honey, did you hear that? Our Yaoyao is eligible to go to No. 2 Middle School!"

Yao's mother covered her mouth, her eyes already closed, while Yao's father covered his face and raised his head, his lips curving upwards.

"I knew it, Yao Yao could definitely do it..."

He gently patted Murong Yao on the back, about to say something, when he suddenly remembered the expressions on their faces when they returned, and a question arose in his mind.

"This should be a good thing, so why aren't you happy?"

Bai Jinxuan remained silent, so Yao's parents turned their attention to Murong Yao.

She clenched her fists, pursed her lips, and her thoughts were in complete disarray.

After leaving the underground city, both parents found ordinary jobs. Dad worked in a processing plant, leveraging his experience as a miner, while Mom cooked in a restaurant.

This kind of work is not only tiring, but the pay is also very low. However, in order to save enough money for their college tuition, they grit their teeth and look forward to that meager salary every day...

30 is a significant number. It can ease the burden on parents, reduce the financial strain on the family, and give them a little more confidence when facing their superiors.

But...but...

Murong Yao gritted her teeth and forced herself to make a sound.

"I do not want to go."

Yao's parents were stunned for a moment, then looked at each other and smiled.

"Don't think too much about it, let's eat."

Today's lunch was plentiful and the food was delicious, but the atmosphere was quite different from usual. Everyone ate their own food, and after finishing, Murong Yao returned to her room without saying a word and closed the door.

Seeing this, Bai Jinxuan sighed, quickly finished her meal, washed the dishes, hurriedly said goodbye, and left the Murong family.

The two middle-aged people were left alone, helplessly picking up the dishes from the table.

----------

"Yaoyao is such a big idiot!"

After returning home, Bai Jinxuan couldn't help but call out to the empty living room.

However, there was no response.

This desolate scene was like a bucket of cold water being poured from the sky, gradually calming Bai Jinxuan down.

She clutched the black box necklace around her neck and walked toward her room.

The corridor was quite long, and when she turned the doorknob, she realized that her palms were covered in sweat.

"Me too... a big idiot."

The girl closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.

This is a simply furnished room in a black and white style. There are several dolls on the bed, a wardrobe next to it, and a full-length mirror next to it.

He opened his eyes and looked around; there were no strange props, nor any signs that anyone had been there.

It is safe.

Bai Jinxuan took out the Shadowless Cloak from the treasure chest and covered herself with it.

In an instant, the reflection in the mirror turned into a blurry black shadow. With a gentle shake of the fabric, the shadow became distorted, chaotic, and erratic, like a candle flame in the wind.

With another flick of his cloak, it was as if nothing had happened.

"Oh right, and the Mask of Deception."

The silver-haired girl, belatedly realizing what was happening, took out a black lace mask, stuck it to her face, and transformed herself into a faceless lump of flesh, leaving only a pair of blood-red eyes staring at her.

"This world is dark; only by becoming stronger can one have the right to survive."

She murmured to herself in the mirror while stretching out her black-stockinged legs and drawing circles on the ground.

"This is what the Earth's surface looks like."

After the painting was finished, her figure slowly descended, merging into the shadow like water.

"The same goes for dungeons."

His body completely blended into the shadow, and several markings appeared within the black 'chariot'.

"As long as there is a glimmer of hope, I will do everything I can to seize it. This is my only chip at the gambling table... I will never follow in my parents' footsteps, never."

“Yaoyao, you should go to a brighter place, instead of staying in No. 5 Middle School and sinking into darkness.”

Volume 1: Chapter 5: The Girl Opening the Box

"You have entered the city of the underworld... You have a new outsourced order for the dead group, please process it in time."

As soon as she emerged from the shadows deep in the alley, Bai Jinxuan's phone began to vibrate frantically.

The reason was simple: in order to operate within the city limits, Bai Jinxuan obtained the title of 'cleaner' through the illegal organization, the Dead Group.

Face identity.

The price to pay is to become an assassin planted outside the death squad.

Since the Dead Group is a secretive organization, it is not rigorous in verifying identities and relies on facial recognition. Therefore, Bai Jinxuan was able to blend in by simply creating a freckled face using the Wuwang Mask.

"We have so many orders, we can't possibly handle them all... Is outsourcing group bookings becoming quite popular lately?"

Bai Jinxuan pulled down her hood and looked around with the face of a certified cleaner.

There was no one around, so it was very safe.

After thinking for a moment, she accepted an order to bury a body in an undeveloped area.

To prevent assassins from infiltrating and stealing orders, the Deadly Gang has a rule: if a member fails to complete a single order within a week, they will permanently lose their assassin status, and their cleaner identity will also be revoked.

Without an identity, it's difficult to enter the city...

Of course, this has nothing to do with Bai Jinxuan. First, she can change her identity and open a fake account, and second, she smuggled herself in. So, even if she doesn't take orders, it won't have much of an impact.

Even so, Bai Jinxuan still occasionally takes orders, because besides selling goods, her main business also includes ghouls.

So-called ghouls don't actually eat corpses; they plunder the useful equipment and items found on them.

The dungeon is divided into developed areas (urban areas), semi-developed areas, and undeveloped areas. The essential difference between semi-developed and undeveloped areas lies in whether there is light, whether there is a safe zone, and whether there is supervision.

In other words, being a ghoul in a partially developed area with sunlight carries the risk of being caught by the security guards of the safe zone. You could say that looting corpses in a partially developed area is like stealing from the guild's profits. Going to jail and being fined are minor issues; the real danger is execution.

The situation is completely different in undeveloped areas. If a few murders occur and some people die, it won't affect the union's ability to make money in the semi-developed area, and the union won't care at all.

After all, the dungeon is too big, and each level seems to have no end. No matter how you go, you can't reach the end. Going deep into the undeveloped areas, there is a risk of getting lost or starving to death. The guild simply doesn't have the time to pay attention to these people who like to court death.

Therefore, if you're lucky, you might even encounter the untouched corpses of Tier 3 or Tier 4 explorers while wandering around undeveloped areas. Their equipment is incredibly rich.

"Alright, time to go deliver the food."

Not wanting to waste a teleportation opportunity, Bai Jinxuan slipped into the shadows, swam to the crack in the underground city's ceiling, and quickly headed towards the merchant's location.

The assassins hired by the Dead Gang have two main types of jobs: one is to just bury the killers, and the other is to kill and bury them all at once. The latter is more likely to offend people, so Bai Jinxuan usually only takes on the former type of job.

Soon, based on the merchant's location on her phone, she arrived at the semi-developed area.

The area is maintained by the union, and at regular intervals, there is a voice-activated magic lamp that can provide continuous illumination by absorbing a small amount of magic energy from the air.

However, Bai Jinxuan has innate night vision, so it doesn't matter to her whether there is light or not. Soon, she used her stealth ability to silently move to a well-lit area.

It's obvious that the magic lamp here was triggered not long ago, and the shopkeeper is nearby.

After looking around, she saw a man whose face looked somewhat familiar.

It was that bastard who secretly filmed me!

Wait... isn't that the corpse I'm looking for next to him?

Is the merchant that unscrupulous blogger?

Bai Jinxuan took out her phone and checked the location. It showed that the store was only 200 meters away from her.

It’s really him!

I never expected that delivering a package would bring me such an extra reward.

Her crimson eyes focused slightly, and words immediately appeared on the other person's body.

[Mana Potion] x3

[Immediately restores a certain amount of mana and temporarily increases mana regeneration speed.]

【dagger】

[A common dagger]

After confirming that the other party had no other items besides three bottles of mana potions and a dagger, Bai Jinxuan put on a mask, emerged from the shadows, and appeared behind the other party.

In that instant, the man felt a cold wind sweep past him, and his back went cold.

Immediately afterwards, he heard a familiar hoarse voice behind him.

"You secretly filmed me, and it seems you made quite a bit of money."

"I'm super, box!"

Zhou Kai was startled, turned around, and fell to the ground, his legs kicking wildly behind him. He stammered, "Brother Heiheihei!? This is all a misunderstanding..."

"Misunderstand?"

Bai Jinxuan clenched her fist, activated the voice changer, and made her voice even deeper, like a wild beast growling.

"You mean, the video I saw was fake?"

With the cloak obscuring visual details, Bai Jinxuan's current appearance was no different from that of a monster. Rather than a human, she was more like a black paper shadow, with a blurry and eerie mist beneath her blood-red eyes.

Seeing that Brother Hei was angry, Zhou Kai did not dare to be defiant and quickly knelt down to beg for mercy.

Actually, he was prepared. After all, the legendary Black Brother could teleport, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to find him. Therefore, he had thought of his excuse long ago. He just didn't expect the other party to come so quickly. He sent the video in the morning, and Black Brother came over at noon.

"Brother Hei, this was unintentional. I was just filming a little movie, who knew I'd end up filming you..."

"Enough with the nonsense." Bai Jinxuan interrupted him, forcefully extending her hand: "Give me 20 yuan, and I won't pursue the matter."

"2...20?"

Zhou Kai thought he had misheard. How many movies would he have to make to earn that much?

These days, the red-light district industry on the surface is already very developed, and the red-light districts in urban areas are even more impressive. They are affordable and offer a variety of activities. In the words of the audience, it's better to get hands-on experience than to just talk about it.

20 yuan is enough to live in a red-light district for more than a year! What an outrageous demand! He's been making movies for several years, and with his income from social media, he's only saved around 10 yuan. Even the most popular video he's ever made only earns him around 5 yuan. How can this guy even bring up 20 yuan?!

"No matter what, this is still too much, Brother Black. We're just a small business..."

“21.” Bai Jinxuan pointed to the female corpse at the man’s feet and said calmly, “You killed someone in the semi-developed area, I can keep that a secret.”