111. This game now has a sanity meter?

After finishing the temporary assignment for the Tokugawa Clan, their date continued as usual.

They found a private cinema owned by A-Sougi and rented it out to watch several movies. Then they chose a café and sat for an hour. Finally, Chen Sang accompanied Chiyo back to the Tokugawa headquarters, where they practiced swordsmanship together all evening.

This kind of mundane, almost boring date seemed out of place for someone like the Tokugawa Clan’s decision-maker. Yet Chen Sang knew Chiyo didn’t care what they did together—even if it was just sparring in the training room. She simply wanted his company.

“Let’s call it a day for now,” Chen Sang said as they parted. “I have classes tomorrow. Come find me after school.”

“See you tomorrow, Junior Chen,” Chiyo replied cheerfully, her smile warm as melting ice.

After they separated, Chiyo’s expression shifted back to its usual coldness, tinged with worry.

“I’m possessed by an evil spirit.” That offhand joke Chen Sang made still echoed in her mind.

Though Chen Sang often spouted nonsense, Chiyo felt this time he wasn’t joking; rather, he was hiding something behind a façade of humor.

Having undergone various genetic modifications and enhancements since childhood, Chiyo possessed keen intuition. This ability once allowed her to glimpse indescribable illusions when facing the abbot of the Buddhist temple—illusions that nearly brought her to her knees.

When Chen Sang was kidnapped, she sensed something similar—a subtle, unsettling aura emanating from him, almost inhuman.

But Chiyo never believed in ghosts or monsters. She thought those who claimed to have seen such beings were simply hallucinating due to mental disorders.

After all, in this era, the proportion of mentally disturbed individuals in Yashu City was high: addicts abusing hallucinogens; cyborgs suffering from phantom limb rage due to excessive modifications; refugees plagued by PTSD; radiation-mutated individuals with fragmented minds; and countless mental interference technologies.

Even when Chiyo stared down the Buddhist abbot, she believed he had used some form of psychological interference, which caused her hallucinations.

Therefore, despite the illogical events surrounding Chen Sang, Chiyo tried to explain them scientifically.

First, Chen Sang used some unknown black-tech weapon during the preliminary round of the Grand Arena Tournament, causing all contestants to fall into suicidal madness.

Second, Chen Sang earnestly asked her to investigate the “Goddess of the Abyss and Otherworld,” likely because he had inadvertently become entangled with a mysterious organization skilled in hallucinogenic technology. He wanted her to discreetly probe into this group.

Lastly, Chen Sang, through suspicious means, caused his kidnappers to lose their minds and painfully told her he was possessed by an evil spirit. Most likely, this was an uncontrolled side effect of his hallucinogenic black-tech weapon affecting himself.

Chiyo connected these unusual incidents and tried to rationalize them scientifically, quickly arriving at the simplest conclusion:

Chen Sang had gone mad.

Sakura Honbu had begun investigating, but with a name sounding like a deity from some chuunibyou fantasy, the scope was too vast.

“Just to be safe, I’ll take him to that place to check it out tomorrow,” Chiyo resolved silently.

……

Another Monday dawned as usual, the sun rising through the sandstorms. Students at Upper City High School gradually arrived for class.

Many were discussing the Grand Arena Tournament. However, since the Phantom Thieves had been too low-key—vanishing after collecting their prize—the main topic was Xu Qing.

Xu Qing, the school’s model student and heartthrob, had surprisingly impersonated someone else to enter the tournament, and even cursed angrily during the live broadcast.

This stark contrast was like a celebrity known for a “pure boy” image suddenly exposed for smoking, drinking, dyeing his hair, and being linked to multiple women. It caused many students to drastically reevaluate him.

Walking through the school corridors, Chen Sang overheard numerous conversations about Xu Qing.

“I never thought Xu Qing was like that…”

“I always thought he was a quiet, handsome guy.”

“I heard the student council plans to remove Xu Qing. Is that true?”

“Xu Qing is heir to the Xu conglomerate. Does the student council really dare to touch him?”

“But still, the way he fights and curses is so cool—there’s a wild innocence to it!”

“You’re just fangirling, aren’t you?”

According to Nayuta’s intel, Xu Qing was skipping class today.

This was his second sick leave since the Kunlun District incident.

Chen Sang hummed a tune as he entered his classroom. He couldn’t help but laugh at Xu Qing’s blunder.

After all, this privileged heir, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, lacked maturity. Thinking he could succeed at anything led to such a reckless plan.

Opening his system, Chen Sang saw his corruption points had mysteriously increased by at least five thousand.

He no longer bothered counting; the mall had nothing worthwhile, and even with many points, there was nothing to spend them on.

Just as he was about to close the mall and head to class, a notification suddenly popped up:

【“Abyssal Shop” has unlocked more items. Come check them out!】

Chen Sang furrowed his brow and quickly went into the restroom stall to take a look.

He opened the Abyssal Shop and found four new items in the previously empty store.

Three were consumable potions with purchase limits of five each: “Sanity Potion,” “Calm Cocktail,” and “Willpower Stabilizer.”

【Sanity Potion: 60 points, restores 3 sanity points.】

【Calm Cocktail: 150 points, restores 5 sanity points and recovers an additional 5 points over the next ten minutes.】

【Willpower Stabilizer: 230 points, reduces sanity loss by 50% for the next ten minutes.】

Seeing these three items, Chen Sang frowned, almost donning a mask of anguish.

“Sanity” was usually a mechanic found in horror or bizarre games. That the Abyssal Shop was selling sanity-related potions meant this game was veering toward horror and weirdness.

Logically, if this corruption was caused by Chen Sang, his points should be skyrocketing into the tens of thousands.

But his points showed no sign of rapid growth, indicating this corruption stemmed from the world’s own self-correction, unrelated to his actions.

Moreover, this self-correction might be linked to the emergence of the “Book of Curses.”

“Why did I set up that damn Book of Curses in the first place…” Chen Sang sighed, feeling considerable pressure.

The development team had only dropped a K-class Easter egg item into the game, yet it had resulted in genuinely strange elements manifesting in this world.

Most importantly, the so-called Abyssal Goddess seemed to pay special attention to him. Merely mentioning her name triggered strange hallucinations.

Chen Sang then examined the last item in the shop:

【Dice Gloves: 600 points, equipment item. Usage instructions will be sent to you along with the item after purchase. I think you’ll need this item~】

“So you won’t tell me what this does? Why learn when you can riddle, huh?” Chen Sang shrugged helplessly and clicked to buy.

After all, he had more points than he could spend. Buying it to see what it did was no problem: 17,081/9,419,482.