Lin En said calmly, "Just a small business here. No barter deals, don’t worry. I only want your right eye. Once you have the money, you can come buy it back."
The girl whimpered, "O... okay... boohoo!"
…
A few minutes later.
Ding! You've obtained a rare item: Blood Doll's Right Eye x1.
[Blood Doll's Right Eye: Carrying it increases hunger by 10. Grants skill: Invincible Stomach.]
Ding! You completed the quest and received the following rewards: 50 Skeleton Coins, +50 Surgery Skill XP, Special Reward: Blood Doll Fear Level +30, Doll's Fear Level +50.
Lin En quietly washed the blood from his hands, then placed the eye into a vial of special reagent, carefully labeling it. Turning around, he looked at the girl clutching her wounded eye, his tone polite:
“Thank you for your patronage. The Blood Saw Apothecary is at your service.”
Lin En gave a slight bow.
The girl, still holding her doll, stumbled out, her voice trailing off from a distance.
"I need to find my mom... I’m never coming back here again… so shady…"
Ding! You triggered a hidden quest: Blood Doll Finds Her Mother. Help the Blood Doll locate her mother. Rewards for completion: Blood Doll Affection +200, Doll Affection +100, Special Reward x1.
Current Task Completion: 2%.
Lin En was taken aback.
Glancing toward the door, he saw the girl’s silhouette vanish into the dark.
2% completion?
His eyes shifted to the dish on the counter, where he’d extracted several organs from the girl's stomach.
[Unknown Woman's Hair x50]
[Unknown Woman's Ears x2]
[Unknown Woman's Comb x1]
Lin En: "..."
He couldn't deny it—a disturbing thought had crossed his mind.
He stood up, cleaned the organs, sealed them in vials, and made a mental note to bring it up with the girl if she ever returned.
Opening his panel, he saw he’d received 50 Surgery Skill XP along with 50 extra Skeleton Coins from his previous rewards. The customers’ payments belonged to the shop, and he couldn’t touch them, so he now had 150 Skeleton Coins in personal funds.
Skeleton Coins were the basic currency in this world, an equivalent means of exchange, though Lin En hadn’t left the shop in two years and thus had never used them. Still, more money was always good.
Time passed quickly. Lin En sat motionless, eyes closed, holding a boning knife like a statue.
The soul lantern outside represented a rule—it signaled to the wandering souls in the darkness that this was a claimed territory. Any malicious intentions would come at a price.
Most wandering monsters wouldn’t intrude while the soul lantern burned. Within its protective zone, as long as the owner wished, they could use it to suppress any invading evil spirits.
But there were always those malevolent enough to ignore any rules.
Knock, knock, knock—
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
“Welcome.”
Lin En opened his eyes and saw a hulking figure at the entrance—a pig-headed monster with one bloody, empty eye socket, wearing a crimson-stained apron and wielding a freshly used butcher’s knife.
A panel immediately appeared before Lin En:
[Pighead Demon]
[Level]: 21
[Race: Deformed Freak]
[Alignment]: Lawful Evil
[Combat Ability]: As long as you’re willing to be eaten...
[Description: The butcher from Soul Alley. He’s your ‘friendly’ neighbor and is always happy to share his latest kill... or share you with someone else…]
[-5 Sanity Points]
“Dammit.” The Pighead Demon cursed, clutching his empty eye socket. “Just because I didn’t have some junk for that old hag, she took my eye. Next time I see her, I swear… I’ll… Bah!”
He spat on the ground, the stench overwhelming, muttering under his breath. Lin En's system notification sounded in his mind.
Ding! Pighead Demon Quest: Help him find a suitable eye. Quest reward: 50 Skeleton Coins, +50 Surgery Skill XP, Pighead Demon Affection +20, Special Reward +1.
“Come in.”
Lin En remained composed, quietly gripping the boning knife.
The Pighead Demon entered, and the soul lantern flickered as a nauseating stench filled the air, making Lin En fight the urge to gag.
The demon dropped heavily onto a stool by the counter, his lone pig eye glaring at Lin En as he surveyed the shop.
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“Where’s Blood Saw? Get him out here. I want a new eye. I’ve got prime cuts to trade for it!”
Lin En held his composure, replying calmly, “My teacher’s out on business. If there’s anything you need, you can talk to me.”
The Pighead Demon paused, narrowing his gaze, assessing Lin En as if sizing up a piece of meat.
"Oh?"
Ding! Crisis Level increased to 89%.
Lin En’s heart raced, though his face betrayed nothing.
Lying would’ve been a mistake; claiming his teacher was in the back could have provoked immediate violence if the Pighead Demon caught on. Honesty, however, might make him hesitate.
“What kind of eye do you need?” Lin En gestured to the cabinet where several eyes floated in vials. “We have human eyes, pig eyes, necro eyes, bat eyes, Blood Doll eyes. Pick whichever suits you, though prices vary.”
The Pighead Demon’s eyes gleamed with malice, revealing a row of sharp teeth, his rancid breath hitting Lin En full force.
“Your eye looks like it’d do just fine.”
He licked his cracked lips.
[-10 Sanity Points]
Ding! Crisis Level increased to 91%.
Lin En knew that showing fear now would only prompt the Pighead Demon to attack.
"Mine?"
Lin En turned his head slowly, meeting the demon’s gaze with a steady stare. Then, in a deliberately calm motion, he extended three fingers, reaching into his eye socket and carefully extracting his right eye.
Squelch… squelch…
Ding! Host health decreased!
Ding! Host organ missing!
After a few seconds, Lin En held his eye in his palm, presenting it to the demon.
[-20 Sanity Points for Pighead Demon!]
Lin En remained unfazed.
"Two hundred Skeleton Coins. No refunds if it doesn’t match."
The Pighead Demon froze, clearly stunned. He hadn’t expected this seemingly frail human to gouge out his own eye without hesitation. When the scavenger had taken his eye, the Pighead Demon had screamed in pain. Yet Lin En maintained his composure.
Ding! Crisis Level decreased to 50%.
His eyes flickered with suspicion.
He was beginning to doubt that Bloodsaw’s young apprentice might already have been transformed into some sort of stitched-up monster. If this were an ordinary human, there was no way he could stay so calm in his presence.
“I don’t want yours. I want my own eyeball,” he rasped in a low, gravelly voice.
[Ding! Crisis level decreased to 45%]
Lin En’s expression remained calm as he casually pressed his eye back into its socket and quietly took a seat. He reached into his coat, and with a measured tone, he said, “I do happen to have something like that.”
Under the pig-headed demon’s astonished gaze, Lin En pulled out a large, blood-streaked eyeball from his coat. The eye was still moving.
Squelch—
The pig-headed demon shot up, shocked. “This… this…”
Yes!
He instantly recognized it as the very eye that had been taken from him by that old woman. But how could his eyeball be in the hands of this human apprentice?
Lin En placed the eye on the counter and said in a calm voice, “Ran into that helpful granny this morning. She gave me this as a toy.”
[Pig-headed demon’s sanity -30]
The demon stared at the eyeball on the counter, cold sweat dripping from the pig hairs at the back of his neck down his spine. He knew very well just how dangerous that scavenger woman was. With his strength, she had taken his eye with ease; if she’d wanted to, she could have taken his head, too. And yet, she’d handed his eye to this frail human?
This human apprentice was becoming more and more unfathomable. No… more terrifying, even. He couldn’t gauge the depth of this human at all.
[Ding! Crisis level decreased to 20%]
The pig-headed demon eyed Lin En warily. “Would you really just give me something from that old woman?”
Lin En responded coolly, “Not give. Sell. It’s 200 skeleton coins—market price.”
Was he really unafraid?
The demon scrutinized him, searching for any crack in his resolve. Could there be some kind of bond between this human and the scavenger?
[Ding! Crisis level decreased to 10%]
With a jingle, the pig-headed demon produced a pouch of skeleton coins and poured them out onto the counter. “Fine, I’ll buy it,” he said, staring intently at Lin En.
Lin En calmly swept the coins into the drawer, then replaced his gloves, mask, and donned a monocle. “Deal. Would you like this done here, or in the operating room?”
“Here,” the pig-headed demon replied firmly. No resident of Phantom Alley wanted to set foot in Bloodsaw’s operating room if they could help it.
“Alright.” Lin En picked up a boning knife. “Lean against the counter and rest your head on the table. If it hurts, feel free to scream.”
“Afraid of pain? Me?” The pig-headed demon sneered.
Lin En took a swig of alcohol, then spat it onto the blade, which made the demon go quiet. After lighting a candle, he carefully heated the blade for several minutes before narrowing his eyes and inching it toward the pig’s head.
Sweat dripped onto the counter.
The pig-headed demon shivered. “Do you really need a knife to put an eye in?”
[Pig-headed demon’s sanity -10]
“Just noticed some stones and clotted blood in your socket,” Lin En replied coolly. “It shows you haven’t been taking good care of your eye. This is a complimentary service. No need to thank me.”
“W-wait!” the demon protested, alarmed.
But it was too late.
Scrape—scrape—
“Aaargh!” The demon screamed in agony, his voice tearing through the silence.
…
[Knife skill experience +1]
After a few minutes, Lin En cleaned out the remnants in the socket with antiseptic, wondering why his knife skill was leveling up rather than his surgical skill.
“Alright,” he said, wiping his boning knife. “Don’t move. Now I’ll install your eyeball. If you squirm, I might install it backward.”
The pig-headed demon was slumped there, frothing at the mouth and twitching uncontrollably, clearly not hearing Lin En’s words.
Lin En muttered to himself, “Ah… forgot the anesthesia again…”
Just like last time, when he stitched that doll’s arm.
Oh well.
Lin En shook his head, regaining his calm expression. He used tweezers to retrieve the Pigman Boss’s Eyeball from a solution and scanned the cabinet behind him.
A few seconds later, he retrieved a white bottle with handwritten numbers like “5” and “0” and “2” scrawled on it.
“W-what’s that?” asked the pig-headed demon, coming to his senses.
“Special adhesive of mine,” Lin En replied with quiet authority. “Keeps the eye secure. Coupled with my teacher’s recovery potion, it guarantees a 95% success rate.”
Lin En spoke with a seriousness that made the demon tremble. “Hurry up and finish! I don’t want to stay here any longer!” he shouted, his voice breaking.
“Relax,” Lin En replied, his tone calm. “We doctors hold a strong sense of professionalism.”
He blended the thick adhesive evenly around the eyeball and carefully placed it into the socket. Then, taking a specialized tool, he adjusted its angle.
Reaching into his toolbox, he produced a hammer.
The pig-headed demon: “(ΩДΩ)!!”
“What…what are you doing?!” he shrieked, horrified.
“Stay still,” Lin En said, frowning. “It’s the final physical procedure. If you move and it shifts out of place, I’ll have to redo it. That will add a lot to your bill.”
Lin En held the demon’s head down and, with the hammer in hand, tapped the eye carefully, setting it into place bit by bit.
Several minutes later, Lin En paused.
The pig-headed demon immediately shuddered. “What is it?! What’s wrong?!”
Lin En frowned. “Installed backward.”
The demon: “(ΩДΩ)!!”
“Don’t worry,” Lin En reassured him. “Just a minor medical error. I’ll adjust it at no extra cost.”
The pig-headed demon screamed in terror as Lin En yanked the eye back out with a loud squelch, ignoring the demon’s rapidly decreasing sanity.
“Hold still!” Lin En commanded, voice stern. “You paid, so I’m obligated to ensure my patients leave here good as new!”
With that, he raised the hammer high.
“Stop!” the pig-headed demon screamed, trying to block him.
Bang—
Sparks flew.