Lynn said calmly, "Small business. We don't accept sexual compensation. Don't worry—I only want your right eye. When you earn enough money in the future, you can come back and redeem it."
The girl burst into tears, o(╥﹏╥)o."O-okay… okay… sob…"
...
A few minutes later.
[Ding! You have obtained a rare item: Blood Doll's Right Eye x1][Blood Doll's Right Eye: When carried, Hunger +10. Usable Skill: Invincible Stomach]
[Ding! Quest completed. You have received: Skull Coins x50, Surgery Skill EXP +50][Special Rewards: Blood Doll Fear +30, Blood Doll's Doll Fear +50]
Lynn calmly washed the blood from his hands.
He then placed the eyeball into a bottle filled with a special reagent and carefully labeled it.
Turning around, he looked at the girl clutching her eye, o(x﹏╥)o, and said politely:
"Thank you for your patronage. Blood Saw Apothecary is always at your service."
Lynn bowed.
The girl hugged her doll tightly and staggered out. From afar, her voice could still be heard:
"I should go find Mom quickly… I'll never come back again… sob… this is a black shop…"
[Ding! Hidden Quest Triggered: Blood Doll Finds Her Mother][Objective: Help the Blood Doll find her mother][Rewards upon completion: Blood Doll Favorability +200, Doll Favorability +100, Special Reward x1][Current Progress: 2%]
Lynn froze.
When he looked back outside, the girl had already disappeared into the darkness.
Two percent?
Lynn's gaze slowly fell onto the plate on the counter—the items he had dug out of the girl's stomach earlier.
[Unknown Woman's Hair x50][Unknown Woman's Ears x2][Unknown Woman's Comb x1]
Lynn: "..."
He had to admit—he had a rather terrifying suspicion.
Lynn stood up, carefully washed the items, sealed them into bottles, and stored them away, planning to tell the girl about them the next time she came.
He opened his status panel.
Thanks to the earlier rewards, he had gained 50 Surgery EXP, plus an additional 50 Skull Coins of his own.
The money paid by customers belonged to the shop—he couldn't touch that.
So he currently possessed a total of 150 Skull Coins.
Skull Coins were the basic currency of this world, usable as a standard medium of exchange. But in the past two years, Lynn had never truly left the shop, so he had never had the chance to spend any.
Still—having money never hurt.
Time passed quickly.
Lynn closed his eyes, gripping the bone-carving knife, standing motionless like a statue.
The soul lamp at the entrance represented a rule—a warning to the wandering spirits in the darkness that this place was claimed, and that malicious intent would be met with consequences.
Most wandering spirits would not dare invade while the soul lamp was lit.
Within the territory protected by the soul lamp, as long as the owner wished, they could suppress invading spirits at any time.
Of course, there were exceptions.
Some extremely evil entities feared nothing.
To them, rules meant nothing.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
At that moment, knocking sounded at the door again.
"Welcome."
Lynn opened his eyes.
Instantly, he saw a massive creature standing at the entrance—a pig's head atop a humanoid body. One of its eye sockets was bloody and empty. It wore a crimson apron and carried a butcher's cleaver that looked as if it had just finished cutting something.
A panel appeared before Lynn's eyes.
[Pig-Headed Demon][Level]: 21[Race]: Deformed Aberration[Alignment]: Lawful Evil[Combat Ability]: As long as you're willing to be eaten…[Description]: Owner of the pork shop in Wandering Soul Alley. Your "friendly" neighbor, happy to share his freshly slaughtered prey—or share you with others.
[Lynn SAN -5]
"Bad luck," the pig-headed demon cursed, clutching his eye socket."Just because I didn't give that old hag some useless trash, she took one of my eyes! Next time I see her, I swear I'll—damn it!"
He spat a mouthful of foul-smelling phlegm and continued swearing.
At the same time, the system prompt rang out in Lynn's mind.
[Ding! Pig-Headed Demon Quest: Find a suitable replacement eye][Rewards: Skull Coins x50, Surgery EXP +50, Pig-Headed Demon Favorability +20][Special Reward x1]
"Please come in."
Lynn remained expressionless, sitting behind the counter, secretly tightening his grip on the bone-carving knife.
The pig-headed demon strode inside. The soul lamp flickered violently.
A wave of blood and rot washed over Lynn, making him almost gag.
The demon plopped down onto the stool, staring at Lynn with his remaining sharp pig eye.
"Where's Blood Saw? Tell him to come out. I want a new eye—I'll trade him premium prey!"
Lynn replied calmly,"My teacher has stepped out. You can speak to me."
The pig-headed demon paused, then slowly turned his head, squinting as he looked Lynn up and down—like inspecting a piece of meat.
"Oh?"
[Ding! Danger Level increased to 89%]
Lynn's heart surged, but his expression remained steady.
He knew his decision was correct.
If he had lied—claimed his teacher was in the back—and the demon sensed something wrong, he would be killed instantly.
Honesty, paradoxically, made the demon cautious.
"What kind of eye do you need?" Lynn asked calmly, gesturing to the cabinet where eyeballs floated in solution."We have human eyes, pig eyes, necromantic eyes, bat eyes, Blood Doll eyes. Prices vary."
The pig-headed demon's eyes gleamed viciously. He bared his tusks, his rancid breath flooding forward.
"I think… your eye looks pretty good."
He licked his cracked lips.
[Lynn SAN -10][Ding! Danger Level increased to 91%]
Lynn knew—if he hesitated even slightly, the demon would attack without mercy.
"Mine?"
Lynn turned his head and looked at him calmly.
Then, under the pig-headed demon's brutal gaze, Lynn slowly raised three fingers and, right before him, inserted them into his own eye socket—
And plucked out his right eye, inch by inch.
Squelch—Squelch—
[Ding! Host HP loss detected!][Ding! Host organ missing!]
A few seconds later, Lynn opened his palm.
A steaming eyeball lay there.
His empty eye socket gushed blood, heat visibly rising.
[Pig-Headed Demon SAN -20]
Yet Lynn's expression never changed.
"Two hundred Skull Coins," he said calmly."No refunds if it doesn't match."
The pig-headed demon stood frozen.
He had never imagined that this seemingly weak human could be so ruthless—ripping out his own eye without hesitation.
When his eye had been taken, he had screamed in agony for ages.
And yet this human remained perfectly calm.
[Ding! Danger Level reduced to 50%]