[You are entering an area in the map that has yet to be unlocked. In order to not affect the progression of your currently selected scenario, the system will now return you to your starting point in 5...4…3…]

A few seconds before Ban Yue heard the familiar sound of a system window popping up, Ban Yue was sure he was going to die. 

After all, he had just finished running through the facts of his situation in his head, and the conclusion he managed to draw out didn’t look too promising. 

Ban Yue had lived most of his life with little to no support from others. 

At an early age when kids his age were mostly learning about good manners and right conduct, Ban Yue had already learned one cruel truth about life – that people’s favors changed as quickly as the shapes of the clouds in the sky did, and betting your fate on something so fickle was bound to result to disappointment. 

From then on, he came to believe that in this world where everyone was just trying to survive, there were only two things that can be trusted. 

One was skill, and the other was money. 

Whenever people told Ban Yue that his skill was lacking and kicked him out, he could continue living well because he still had some money left in his own bank account, and whenever Ban Yue was lacking money, as long as he did his best and never let his mentality drop, he knew he would eventually live to see better days. 

When the day that he no longer had any skill to show nor any money left to spend arrives, then he would most likely die.

Perhaps for some, Ban Yue’s beliefs may sound too cynical and materialistic, but he felt comforted by the simplicity and predictability of it. He didn’t believe that people were inherently bad and were always out to get him, but he also didn’t think he was entitled to their kindness. 

Because Ban Yue held no grudges nor wishful expectations towards others, he was rarely disappointed and was able to live a carefree and peaceful life.  

That was why in a situation where he neither had any advantageous skill nor points, Ban Yue had zero doubt that “that” time had finally come. 

He believed that even something like “luck” was fickle, so he rarely counted on nor prayed to the deities for things to go in his favor. 

After all, compared to winning the lottery, being crushed by a meteor was more likely to happen. 

Ban Yue often forgot that something called “luck” existed, so it could be said that whenever “luck” found him – something that seemed too good to be true – he was often left with a mixture of doubt and mystification – that something so elusive in his life had somehow managed to stumble upon him at just the exact moment when he needed it the most.

Ban Yue was already back in Ludville’s room sitting safely on top of two other cardboard boxes when he opened his eyes. He had returned to his initial place right by the window, overlooking the Clodine Becket Academy campus from four levels above ground. 

When he entered the game, he had no idea that map exploration restrictions like these existed, but thanks to the system’s timely interruption, he somehow managed to escape a dangerous situation which almost turned him into confetti.

Perhaps it was the combination of the physical fatigue and mental exhaustion from his sleepless days and the fading adrenaline after escaping a near-death experience that made him feel extremely drained even in his dreams. As soon as the relief started to flood into him, he felt the temptation of sleep get to him. After a few hours of fighting it, Ban Yue finally succumbed to it and fell asleep. 

The next time he opened his eyes, it was already 7am in the morning the next day, and Ludville was standing right in front of him.

“…No way…that’s the only reason why it would be here now.” He heard Ludville mutter under his breath as he chewed on his fingernail.

The first thing Ban Yue did when he woke up was to check the countdown. There were approximately 41 hours left before the deadline. Ban Yue was just thinking about what he should try next to get Ludville on his side when he heard the system window pop up.

[Congratulations! Your character “Ludville’s old tattered box” has been recognized by the NPC Ludville Eckart as a haunted box. As such, you have triggered the hidden character upgrade route and will be upgraded to “Ludville’s old tattered haunted box”.]

[Player Ban Yue can now use the hidden complementary skill <Ghostly Murmurs (D)>!]

At the same time, Ban Yue heard Ludville’s distressed and shaking voice, “…Are you really a haunted box? I’ve heard the maids from our estate say that the boxes in the old storage cabin move at night. Was that your doing? Who are you? What do you want with me?!”

At that moment, Ban Yue wanted to kneel on the floor and thank the heavens. 

He couldn’t believe he was hearing what he was hearing. After all the things he went through the night before, Ludville’s words sounded like a choir of angels singing into his ear. He thought he would get hit by lightning first before he finally managed to achieve this milestone!

Ban Yue considered his next words carefully. He needed to make a favorable impression on Ludville so he couldn’t afford to spoil this chance. Ban Yue thought back to Ludville Eckart’s character profile that he read during the first minutes of the game.

Name: Ludville Eckart

Age: 15 years old

Description:

Baron Pendrick Eckart’s only child with the late First Madame Violin Eckart. Extremely shy and timid. A very lonely and insecure child due to prolonged neglect. The others think he’s a lost cause, but he is able to exhibit a rare resoluteness and courage during critical times. Extremely gullible.

Ban Yue knew that he needed something impactful, but not so strong that he would drive Ludville away. 

He also couldn’t simply blurt out that the entire academy was filled with monsters and that they needed to work together to survive. 

Ludville’s profile said he was gullible, but he was also timid. If Ludville really believed him and became too scared to investigate, then both of them would really be done for.

Ban Yue attended a lot of seminars in the past while working in corporate as part of their quarterly skill refresh.

Most of the time, those seminars emphasized the importance of communication and how its execution can determine the failure or success of a negotiation. 

One suggestion that usually came up in all those seminars was to establish rapport before you start anything else. Usually, this could be done by finding a suitable common ground.

Case in point that in the first place, Ban Yue has never been good with small talk. While a lot of people relied on him, Ban Yue rarely relied on others. 

The same could be said about him when it came to social matters. 

There was rarely a time when Ban Yue took it upon himself to initiate a conversation, because Ban Yue himself was aware that while he was not necessarily extremely quiet and utterly boring, he did lack the daily common experiences that could be considered as a “suitable common ground” between two average social individuals. 

Therefore, since Ban Yue was already bad with the first step, his relationships with most people were often very shallow and couldn’t progress from the first stage. 

So, even though Ban Yue frequented these seminars with the genuine intention of improving, theory was one thing, and application was another after all, and since he mostly worked on the backend where everything was technical and straight to the point, it could be said that this particular skill of his never really developed that much.

To the clueless Ban Yue who struggled to find a common ground with almost everyone he met on the daily, this much anticipated moment was also akin to a towering wall that he had to climb and cross. 

Ban Yue was a 23-year-old young man who worked in corporate while Ludville was a 15-year-old child from a respected family of nobles. 

Ban Yue was a person who came from the real world while Ludville was a character who lived his entire life in a world brought to life by someone’s rich imagination. 

If he talked to Ludville about hotpot and kimchi, would the child even understand? 

Perhaps if it were someone else in this situation, they would pass this dilemma in a breeze, but since it was Ban Yue himself that was caught in this situation, he couldn’t help but be genuinely stumped. Just what on earth can a well-meaning haunted box say to a child already scared out of his wits? 

Boo?

So Ban Yue thought, “Fuck it. If there’s no common ground, I’ll create one!”

Ban Yue turned to face Ludville, and as he did, he looked into his eyes and said these words with admirable conviction:

“…Ludville, I am your mother.”

Of all things to come up with, the common ground Ban Yue chose was…blood (???).

BXX: Please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoyed this chapter! It would mean a lot to me! ( ﾟヮﾟ)