***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to Fray for the donation! ^^
***
As soon as Ruan Qing finished saying "goodnight," the person in his arms vanished without a trace.
After all, a vengeful ghost was still a vengeful ghost, even if it reverted to its living state. There was no such thing as a corpse.
And a vengeful ghost that died during the day, barring any unexpected circumstances, could no longer appear during the day.
It might even be devoured by other vengeful ghosts due to its greatly diminished strength.
Ruan Qing had been relying on holding Zhou Jinchen to support his body. After Zhou Jinchen disappeared, he weakly collapsed back onto the ground, lying there quietly as he gazed at the ruins.
It was unclear what he was thinking.
Without Zhou Jinchen, the collapsed ruins lost their support, yet strangely, they did not come crashing down. Instead, they remained in the same state as when Zhou Jinchen was there.
The black mist also swirled around the edges, not harming Ruan Qing in the slightest.
Just as Ruan Qing had guessed, he could survive until the final day of this instance.
...But only until the final day of the instance.
Ruan Qing lay there quietly for almost a minute, then with great difficulty, he pulled out his phone and glanced at it. The light from the phone reflected off the shards of glass around him, somewhat blinding. The next second, Ruan Qing slowly closed his eyes.
This was the fourth day since entering the instance, the only day any players had survived—and not just one player.
Aside from the powerful Lan Xu, who had survived, Ruan Qing had also made it.
The other players had all died the previous night.
Some had died at the hands of vengeful ghosts, while others had perished in the crossfire of battles, like Wang Qian.
When the building collapsed, she too had been buried under the rubble. But unlike Ruan Qing, no one had shielded her from the falling debris.
Wang Qian's personality wasn't particularly likable, and her livestream had almost no viewers. As a result, no one noticed that while her livestream had dimmed, it hadn't completely shut down.
***
When Ruan Qing opened his eyes again, he was no longer in that dark, narrow crevice within the ruins. Instead, he was lying on a soft bed.
This was the apartment in the residential complex. Ruan Qing realized this the moment he woke up.
"You're awake?" Just as Ruan Qing propped himself up to sit, a familiar voice came from nearby.
Hearing the voice, Ruan Qing's slender fingers instantly tightened, and he instinctively turned his gaze toward the door.
Lan Xu walked in, holding a bowl of porridge, his tone tinged with concern. "Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
When Ruan Qing saw that it was Lan Xu, he relaxed slightly, then shook his head gently.
Lan Xu sat down on the edge of the bed, scooped up a spoonful of porridge, and brought it to Ruan Qing's lips. His deep voice carried a magnetic tone, "Now, there are only two of us left in this instance."
Ruan Qing didn't open his mouth. Instead, he took the spoon and bowl from Lan Xu's hands and began eating on his own.
Since the spoon wasn't very large, Ruan Qing inevitably brushed against Lan Xu's hand as he took it.
Lan Xu paused for a moment, glancing down at the spot where he had been touched, his eyes dark and unreadable.
But in the next second, he lowered his gaze, concealing the emotions in his eyes, and calmly and rationally analyzed the current situation. "This instance is too dangerous. Surviving until the seventh day is practically impossible. Now, the only option is to try and find 'It.'"
Lan Xu slowly shared the clues he had gathered. "This instance is special. All the clues are tied to the vengeful ghosts. The stronger the ghost, the more critical the clues they carry."
"There are six vengeful ghosts currently residing in Building D. They are stronger than the others, so the key clues are likely with them."
After speaking, Lan Xu turned to Ruan Qing. "Do you have any clues on your end?"
Ruan Qing didn't withhold the information he had discovered and shared the clues he had found in Duan Ming's room.
Everything in this instance seemed to be connected to the former graveyard.
The six individuals who gathered at the graveyard must have been involved in some incident, and Ren Yanqing was likely the one who benefited the most, which led to the kidnapping case back then.
The five people kidnapped Ren Yanqing's only son, undoubtedly to achieve some goal or obtain something.
If their goal was indeed to acquire something, that thing was likely what Ren Yanqing had obtained from the graveyard.
And that thing was probably related to the 'It' mentioned in the instance.
After listening, Lan Xu frowned. "This place used to be a graveyard?"
Ruan Qing nodded. "Yes."
Lan Xu thought for a moment and asked, "Was it a mass burial ground or a proper cemetery?"
"I don't know," Ruan Qing replied. He had only taken a few bites of the porridge before setting the bowl down on the table beside him. "I only found out this much. I'm not sure what kind of graveyard it was."
Lan Xu had been deep in thought, but when he noticed Ruan Qing putting down the porridge, his gaze fell on the bowl. In the next moment, he reached out, picked it up, and without any hesitation, began eating the remaining porridge himself, spoonful by spoonful, not minding that Ruan Qing had already eaten from it.
Ruan Qing looked at Lan Xu in surprise.
Seeing Ruan Qing's gaze, Lan Xu explained naturally, "It's already the fourth day. We can't just eat anything in the neighborhood casually. We can't afford to waste food."
Ruan Qing's long eyelashes fluttered a few times, but in the end, he said nothing.
The third day of the instance was a dividing line. By the fourth day, even the daytime was no longer safe.
The neighborhood had now returned to its previous state, with no traces of the earlier collapse visible. It was as if the building's collapse had been nothing more than an illusion.
However, upon closer inspection, one would notice that many of the residents in the neighborhood were gone. Clearly, the building collapse had taken quite a few lives.
Not just the living, but also the vengeful ghosts.
Perhaps because of the collapse, the residents who usually loved to go out had stayed indoors today. The entire neighborhood was eerily quiet, filled with a sense of oppressive tension, as if a storm was brewing.
This time, Ruan Qing and Lan Xu did not separate.
They already had a rough understanding of the instance's situation. Now, all that was left was to uncover what had truly happened in the graveyard back then.
Such a crucial clue was likely hidden either in the rooms of those five individuals or in Ren Yanqing's room.
With little time left, Ruan Qing didn't hesitate for long before following Lan Xu to Building D.
Building D was still as silent as ever, with no signs of life to be seen in the entire building.
A direct confrontation with those six vengeful ghosts would almost certainly be fatal. They had to act while the ghosts were not in their rooms.
However, just figuring out which rooms the six ghosts resided in was already a daunting task, let alone determining whether the ghosts were currently inside.
The best approach would be to have someone knock on the doors to lure the ghosts out.
And the person for this task didn't even need to be sought out.
After what had happened last night, it was clear to anyone that those six ghosts had a particular interest in Ruan Qing. Having him lure the ghosts away would be the most effective method.
But Lan Xu didn't seem to have this intention. From start to finish, he never brought it up. Instead, he was considering the possibility of capturing a neighborhood resident to use as bait.
After all, luring out the ghosts didn't necessarily require a player to do it themselves.
Lan Xu shared his thoughts with Ruan Qing, but as soon as he finished speaking, he noticed Ruan Qing looking at him with surprise and shock in his beautiful eyes.
It seemed Ruan Qing hadn't expected him to suggest such a thing.
Lan Xu immediately realized that his words might have come across wrong. He paused for a moment before clarifying, "...The relationships between the vengeful ghosts aren't good. What I meant was to use one of the ghosts to lure the others."
The residents of this community are divided into two types: vengeful ghosts and living residents.
The ordinary living residents are no different from real living people.
The longer you stay in the Infinite Horror Game, the more you realize one thing—everything here might be real.
The Infinite Horror World is real, the players are real, and even the ordinary NPCs in the instances could be real.
So, using the lives of ordinary living residents to lure away vengeful ghosts was no different from being a living demon.
Lan Xu didn't care about the lives of others, but he subconsciously didn't want the person in front of him to think of him as a bloodthirsty monster.
After listening to Lan Xu's words, Ruan Qing neither agreed nor disagreed. He pursed his lips and said, "There's an empty room."
Lan Xu looked at Ruan Qing, seemingly puzzled by why he mentioned this.
Ruan Qing lowered his gaze slightly. "Earlier, a vengeful ghost died."
Zhou Jinchen played a special role in the kidnapping case as the liaison, making his position particularly unique. His room would definitely contain crucial clues.
More importantly, he definitely wasn't in his room right now.
Hearing this, Lan Xu frowned but ultimately said nothing, choosing to trust Ruan Qing.
The two of them cautiously made their way to Building D, aiming to locate Zhou Jinchen's room.
The building has ten floors in total. Given the vengeful ghosts' mutual hostility, they wouldn't live too close to each other, nor would they reside on the same floor.
However, it was difficult to determine exactly which floor Zhou Jinchen lived on.
After a moment of contemplation, Ruan Qing finally spoke two words: "Sixth floor."
Lan Xu's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly for a moment, but he quickly returned to normal. He looked at Ruan Qing with confusion and asked, "How do you know it's the sixth floor?"
Ruan Qing pursed his lips and replied indifferently, "Intuition."
In the Infinite Horror instances, intuition could sometimes be relied upon, but Lan Xu didn't believe this was mere intuition. Still, he didn't press further and simply took Ruan Qing to the sixth floor.
There were quite a few rooms on the sixth floor, but Ruan Qing unhesitatingly chose one of them.
Seeing this, Lan Xu pulled out a set of keys from somewhere and unlocked the door.
However, what the two of them didn't expect was that there was... someone inside the room.
At that moment, five figures were standing in the room, all staring intently at a transparent screen in the air. The atmosphere was eerily terrifying and oppressive.
And what was playing on the screen... was the scene of Ruan Qing wrapping his arms around Zhou Jinchen's neck and actively kissing him.
Ruan Qing: "!!!"
Fudeu demais...
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