***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to Winter for the donation! ^^
***
The sky was already growing dark. Nighttime, the period when the Yin energy was at its peak, was also the most dangerous time in ghost-related instances.
The man with glasses glanced at the time and then left, without any intention of inviting the young man to join him.
He hadn’t lowered his guard toward the young man; if the young man really had some connection to the instance's clues, traveling together might not be safe.
After the man with glasses left, another man wearing a T-shirt approached. He extended his hand toward the young man in a friendly manner. “Hi, I’m Zhao Xu. What about you?”
The young man stared blankly at the large hand before him and didn’t reach out to shake it. Instead, he shook his head with a confused expression. “I don’t remember what my name is.”
The man in the T-shirt, who had been standing nearby earlier, had naturally overheard the conversation between the man with glasses and the young man. Thus, he wasn’t surprised by this answer.
The man in the T-shirt wasn’t offended by the young man’s refusal to shake hands. Instead, he stared straight at the young man’s face, trying to make his smile appear as friendly as possible. “It’s dangerous to face this kind of instance alone. Want to team up?”
The young man hesitated at the suggestion. “Is that okay?”
The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and his smile widened. “Of course.”
The young man’s eyes curved slightly as he offered a shy smile. “Thank you.”
The live-stream audience watching the scene couldn’t focus on what had happened earlier; they were now urgently flooding the screen with comments.
[Don’t trust him, babe! This guy is clearly up to no good!]
[Ahhh! Stay away from my wife, you scum! Otherwise, I’ll curse you to be the first to die!]
[It’s over, it’s over! My wife actually followed him. No, babe, don’t!]
Perhaps because he couldn’t remember anything, the young man had no sense of caution toward others and was unaware of how unsafe his appearance made him.
Even as the man in the T-shirt led him toward a secluded area, the young man didn’t realize he was in danger.
Naively and innocently, the young man followed behind the man in the T-shirt, looking around as they walked. Suddenly, his gaze froze, and he hesitantly spoke.
“There… seems to be someone over there.”
The man in the T-shirt instinctively turned to look in the direction the young man had indicated, catching only a glimpse of a shadow darting past.
The man in the T-shirt glanced at the delicate-looking young man, then quickly chased after the direction the young man had pointed out.
For some reason, apart from the residents staying inside their own apartments, the Mingya Building seemed completely deserted. It was as if no one in the community ever stepped outside.
After entering the instance, they had tried knocking on doors, but the residents inside were all extremely indifferent. They either ignored them or directly told them to leave.
If someone did show up, it would definitely be very significant—perhaps even related to the clues of the instance.
The most important thing now was to find the clues for the instance and figure out a way to clear it. As for the young man, there would be plenty of chances to deal with him later.
However, what the man in the T-shirt didn’t expect was that he would run out of chances. As soon as he ran forward, before he could see clearly, a sharp pain shot through his neck. The next moment, the world before his eyes was stained red.
It was blood—his blood—gushing from his neck.
The man in the T-shirt couldn’t see any figure clearly, but he could vividly see his own body collapsing to the ground in a twisted, contorted position.
His head had fallen off.
The man’s head fell to the ground like a piece of garbage, rolling a few times before coming to a stop. The entire process happened so quickly that he didn’t even have time to gasp his last breath.
The last thing he saw was…the young man’s faint, mocking smile directed at him.
If the man in the T-shirt had looked back while running, he would have noticed that after the young man mentioned seeing someone, he didn’t follow him. Instead, the young man stood where he was, his eyes slightly curved with a smile as he watched the man run off.
And where the young man stood was entirely out of sight of that corner—an area where nothing could be seen. If it weren’t for the man’s head rolling back out into view, his figure would have remained hidden.
In other words, the young man had been standing in an absolutely safe position—completely invisible to the ghost.
The young man tilted his head innocently as he gazed at the blood spreading across the floor. A glimmer of joy flickered in his beautiful eyes. Then, with elegance and composure, he turned and walked away.
No one noticed this scene. No one even realized that a player had already died.
And this was only the first day of the instance.
The man in the T-shirt died without understanding why, but the viewers in the livestream saw everything clearly.
They also saw that the "figure" was not a person at all—it was a ghost.
It was a ghost.
[No way, uh, um, I feel like my brain can't process this. Is it just a coincidence? It must be a coincidence, right? How could my wife possibly send someone to their death on purpose?]
[Stop talking. I feel like my CPU is about to fry. One second I was worried about my wife being bullied, and the next second she’s sending someone to meet their doom.]
[My wife is so bad, sob sob sob. How can he be this bad? He didn’t even give the other person a chance before finishing them off. And yet, I can’t help but think my bad, bad wife is insanely cool.]
The young man left, heading in a particular direction. His slender and delicate figure carried a hint of urgency, his entire being radiating uncontrollable excitement and joy.
It was as if he was in an extraordinarily good mood.
The direction he walked was toward a remote corner leading to a basement.
The entrance to the basement was around a corner, a place where hardly anyone ever ventured. Yet, it was still well-lit by installed lamps, making the dark hallway surprisingly bright.
When the young man reached the stairway leading down to the basement, he paused. Adjusting his clothes, the excitement and joy in his eyes disappeared entirely, replaced with a pure and innocent expression.
He took out his phone and used the camera to check his appearance. Once he confirmed that there was nothing out of place, he stepped onto the staircase leading down.
The staircase wasn’t particularly long, and the young man quickly reached the bottom, standing at the basement’s door.
The basement door wasn’t locked. It looked as if it could be pushed open easily.
Suppressing his eagerness, the young man attempted to push the door.
It wouldn’t budge.
Not even the slightest bit.
As expected, it wouldn’t open. A shadow flickered across the young man’s eyes as he pressed his hand against the door. A black barrier suddenly appeared, visible for a moment.
The black barrier wrapped around the entire basement, forming an isolated space. Those inside couldn’t come out, and those outside couldn’t go in.
No—more accurately, only humans could pass through freely.
True humans.
Without hesitation, the young man turned and left the basement.
***
This time, there were a total of ten players entering the game, and there were exactly ten buildings in the Mingya Building, which meant that theoretically, each player could search one building.
However, most players chose not to investigate alone. In a horror instance, being alone was extremely dangerous. The players would rather team up in pairs to search two buildings sequentially than split up to save time.
Although the death rate on the first day of entering a game was relatively low, there was still a chance of accidentally triggering a death condition. Being cautious was always the wisest approach.
But there were always players who preferred to act alone, and the man wearing headphones was one of them.
The man went to Building D of the Mingya Building, which was at the corner of the rectangular layout of buildings and closest to the basement.
As he walked, the man observed his surroundings very carefully, even circling around the corners.
For some reason, the structure of the Mingya Building made him feel uneasy, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly was wrong.
Just as the man wearing headphones was about to head upstairs, his gaze suddenly froze, locking onto the corner of the building. There, in the direction of the corner, a familiar figure appeared.
It was the player who had been sitting by the flower bed.
The young man's appearance was like that of a celestial being who had accidentally wandered into the mortal world—so stunning that no one could look away. Simply sitting by the flower bed, he had captured everyone’s attention.
Because he was so beautiful, so clean, he looked like someone protected by an elite player. None of the other players had dared to approach him directly.
But it seemed their assumption was wrong. This beautiful player didn’t appear to have anyone protecting him after all.
The man’s steps came to a halt, and he just stood there, silently watching the young man.
The young man seemed to be lost, unsure of which direction to go. He hesitated, looking around in confusion, not knowing where to head.
At that moment, the young man noticed the man as well. He cautiously glanced at him a few times before finally walking over. Then, in a timid voice, he spoke to the man.
"Um… can I go with you?"
The young man was so stunningly beautiful that it was impossible to refuse any request he made. A flicker of light flashed through the eyes of the man wearing headphones. "Sure."
Hearing this, the young man breathed a sigh of relief and gave the man a brilliant smile—so radiant it almost seemed otherworldly. "Thank you."
And so, the two of them set off together, searching for clues. Their path, whether by accident or intention, gradually led them to increasingly remote areas.
It was a result dominated by the man, but the young man didn’t seem to notice this at all.
However, as the man continued walking, his steps suddenly slowed.
Something was wrong—very wrong.
The number of comments in his livestream chat... was too few.
The young man’s appearance was extraordinarily rare. Upon seeing him, no one should have been able to resist commenting on how beautiful he looked. Such compliments were unrelated to the game instance and normally wouldn’t be blocked by the livestream’s moderation.
But now, he couldn’t see any words of praise. The chat was pitifully sparse, as if the audience’s comments were all being filtered by the system.
Under what circumstances would the comments about a player so stunningly beautiful be blocked?
Only when there was... something wrong with that player.
Yet, by the time the man realized this, it was too late. A branch had already pierced through his heart.
The man looked down in disbelief, staring at the branch impaling his heart. Eventually, he collapsed to the ground, blood spreading from the wound and staining the floor bright red.
The branch came from a plant in the flowerbed, still connected to the other end that remained firmly rooted in the soil. It didn’t appear to have any sharp points.
Yet that branch had effortlessly taken the man’s life.
When the man’s steps slowed earlier, the branch seemed to come alive, growing bizarrely fast in an instant, and mercilessly stabbing into the man’s heart.
The moment the man stopped breathing, the plant immediately retracted, returning to its normal state.
However, the large amounts of blood staining the plant told the story of what had just happened. Blood dripped from the trunk, marking the aftermath of the event.
Not too far away, the young man remained untouched. He wasn’t attacked by the plant, nor did he have a single drop of blood or dirt on him.
He was as clean and pure as a magnolia after the rain, his expression unchanged.
Innocent and unassuming, as if none of this had anything to do with him.
Yet, the audience in the livestream couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spines, a creeping sense of unease.
This young man... was he really still the same player they thought they knew?
The young man casually lowered his gaze to the man lying motionless before him. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly for an instant, and in the next moment, the lifeless man suddenly stood up—even opening his eyes.
It was as if he had never died at all.
But upon closer inspection, one would notice the man's unfocused pupils, clouded and pale—a gaze no living person could possess.
After standing up, the man followed behind the young man, his walking posture grotesquely twisted, sending chills down anyone’s spine.
The young man led the man back to the underground room they had visited earlier. The man then staggered toward the entrance of the room, his movements distorted, and stiffly reached out to push the door.
It still didn’t budge an inch.
What’s more, the man’s hand was instantly consumed by the black barrier covering the door. Moments later, his entire body was swallowed up, leaving not even a trace of ash behind. The entire process was eerily silent.
It was as if he had never existed.
The young man’s delicate features furrowed in frustration, and he finally left with a face full of disappointment.
So, the dead really won’t do, huh...
(≧▽≦)
ReplyDeleteHuh? Since when did our man start sacrificing people to test theory?
ReplyDeleteI can understand the first guy's death but the headphone guy was just being chill 😔