[Congratulations to Player Ruan Qing for clearing the dungeon <Haunted Building>. Reward: 300 points.]
[Congratulations to Player for identifying ‘Him’. Reward: 3000 points.]
[Total points settled: 6600.]
Ruan Qing’s heart skipped a beat when the clearance announcement stuttered, his fingers clenching tightly. Fortunately, the system ultimately judged his clearance valid.
He let out a sigh of relief. That method really worked.
Uncurling his fingers, he murmured a quiet thanks to the System, "This time… I owe you one."
His later self would have lost his memories too. If he hadn’t become a vengeful ghost, the amnesia would have plagued him, pushing the situation into uncontrollable chaos.
The System didn’t acknowledge his gratitude. Instead, his voice was low, carrying a rare trace of lingering fear and regret. "This was my mistake."
A player of Ruan Qing’s level should never have been sent to that dungeon.
Every player tier had its own corresponding dungeon pool, with each assignment randomly drawn from it.
But that dungeon wasn’t supposed to appear in the pool for ordinary high-level players.
If not for his carelessness, Ruan Qing would never have been sent there in the first place.
Still…
The System spoke again, this time with a hint of confusion. "How did you clear it?"
Hadn’t Wang Qian died on the third night?
The System remembered the brutal fight—how the building collapsed in the chaos, how Wang Qian had been caught in the wreckage, dying just a short distance away.
Her death had been undeniably real.
"The mirror."
Ruan Qing kept his eyes on his points panel as he pulled up the system store, explaining calmly, "As long as they’re still alive, I can pull people into the mirror."
He wasn’t entirely powerless. His ability seemed to involve dragging humans into mirrors—something like a mirror ghost.
The catch was, it only worked near reflective surfaces.
When the building collapsed, there had been broken mirrors nearby. Combined with the reflection from his phone, he’d been able to move freely in and out of the mirror world.
While Wang Qian was still alive—before her last breath had faded—he pulled her soul into the mirror world. From then on, he kept her hidden there.
The mirror world was fragmented, its realms disconnected. Yet those inside could travel between them using mirrors.
As long as Wang Qian hid in another room’s mirror whenever Ren Qing entered the mirror world, she would be in a completely different reflection-space. The chances of detection were slim.
And indeed, Ren Qing never sensed her.
To Ren Qing, Wang Qian was already dead. He never noticed that, unlike others, she hadn’t transformed into a vengeful ghost after death.
Or perhaps he simply didn’t care whether some random person became a ghost.
But as the others shattered more mirrors, the rooms where Wang Qian could hide dwindled. Eventually—unluckily—she crossed paths with Ren Qing.
If Ren Qing hadn’t happened to glance into the mirror while washing his hands, drawing him into its reflection, Wang Qian, hidden inside, would have been discovered.
It was a close call. In the end, he managed to deceive Ren Qing, securing their only escape route.
He was a vengeful ghost, incapable of clearing the dungeon. But Wang Qian wasn’t.
He had pulled her into the mirror before her death. Since only the living could enter mirrors, her soul wasn’t classified as a ghost’s.
Yet without a body, leaving the mirror world would instantly turn her into a vengeful ghost, forfeiting any chance of escape.
As for him, though he had a human body, his soul couldn’t clear the dungeon either.
Individually, neither could pass. But together—they met the conditions.
So the moment Ruan Qing submitted the answer, he vacated his body, letting Wang Qian take his place.
With a body, she gained the right to clear the dungeon. With a human soul, his body did too.
The System fell silent. This was the only solution—but arriving at it couldn’t have been easy.
First, Ruang Qing had to realize he was no longer human. Then, that the person in his body wasn’t himself. Finally, he had to find a human soul capable of deceiving everyone—even Ren Qing, who knew the truth.
That was why 'He' had killed Lan Xu at the last moment: to sever every possible escape for Ruan Qing.
Clearly, this young man had been laying the groundwork long before.
The System held back for a moment, then finally couldn’t resist murmuring in a low voice, "When... did you realize that wasn’t you?"
Ruan Qing let out a soft laugh. "I suspected it the first time we spoke on the phone."
Back then, the other’s tone had been off—what he’d said hadn’t quite fit.
More importantly, if his own phone had rung with a call from his own number, he never would’ve answered.
He wasn’t the type to tempt fate.
Of course, memory loss could’ve been a factor.
A version of himself without memories might have recklessly picked up the call—or even killed someone in a fit of anger.
So, "The moment I was completely sure was the first time he said ‘switch’ to me."
The him who feared ghosts would never suggest switching unless the other him was truly on the verge of collapse.
But that hadn’t been the case.
The vengeful ghost they’d encountered then was Xu He—a man who’d always harbored those kinds of thoughts toward him. The likelihood of Xu He killing him outright was slim.
If the other had really been him, he would’ve forced the switch without hesitation, never uttering ‘switch’ like a plea.
And since Xu He was already a vengeful ghost, there was no way he would’ve suggested switching at all.
Unless… the other wasn’t him.
The System fell into an eerie silence. If he remembered correctly…
Ren Qing had said ‘switch’—after this person had been shown the illusion.
Meaning, even after Ren Qing had done that, this man still hadn’t been entirely sure the other wasn’t himself…
"Oh, right." Unaware of the System’s thoughts, Ruan Qing tapped the screen and added, "Snow and those flowers appearing together defies the laws of nature."
Defied nature? It violated the very rules of creation.
The more something adhered to natural laws, the easier it was to conjure—the less power it required.
But the further it strayed from those rules, the greater the cost.
That snowfall had drained nearly all his clones’ strength, leaving them irrecoverable.
Yet the System didn’t regret it. "Did you like it?" he asked quietly.
Ruan Qing’s fingers paused mid-tap. Finally, his eyes softened almost imperceptibly as he let out a faint, "Mn."
Ruan Qing’s voice was so soft it was almost inaudible unless one listened carefully.
But the System heard him. He watched as the young man lowered his gaze with a faint smile, the corners of his lips curling slightly.
As long as you like it, that’s enough.
The system space only allowed a one-hour stay, and Ruan Qing remained until the very last minute before choosing to enter the next dungeon.
[Welcome, players, to the dungeon: <Horror Cruise>]
***
Since the system space was merely a transit zone—unconnected to the main city of the Infinite Game—it was impossible to access the game’s forums via phone or look up any information about the dungeons.
So Ruan Qing had no idea that after the bounty placed on him, he had once again become a sensation.
The Infinite Game forums were flooded with posts about him.
Not only because someone had cleared a No Survivors dungeon, but also because the legendary top-ranked player on the leaderboard had made an appearance.
All of this had been recorded by players watching the livestream and uploaded to the forums.
The uploader had set a high viewing point requirement, but the tags—"Top-Ranked Player ‘Lan Yu’ Appears" and "No Survivors Dungeon Cleared"—drew countless players to click.
[Holy shit! Is that really Lan Yu’s avatar?! No way! That’s the mythical top-tier player we’ve only heard about!]
[No mistake—it’s definitely him! What other player could suppress a dungeon boss like that?]
[What’s going on lately? Did we stumble into a nest of elite players? Normally, we don’t hear a peep from these legends for years, but now they’re showing up one after another. Did something happen in the Infinite Horror Game?]
[No wonder someone cleared the No Survivors dungeon. With that kind of power, couldn’t they bulldoze through any dungeon? Ugh, I wanna cling to those thighs!]
The uploader had been watching Lan Xu’s livestream, so the video only showed his perspective.
When the footage reached the moment Lan Xu extended an invitation to Ruan Qing, the players were stunned—some even itched to accept on the boy’s behalf.
But what they never expected was… the boy refused.
Refused.
Re! Fused!
[Kid, I’ll admit you’ve got looks, but do you have any idea who you’re talking to? That’s Lan Yu, the number one player on the leaderboard! And you turned him down?! YOU TURNED HIM DOWN!]
[Some people spend their whole lives without ever getting a chance to meet a top-tier player, while others don’t hesitate for a second before rejecting an invitation from one. Is this the unfairness of the world? (Tears streaming down uncontrollably.jpg)]
[Wuwuwu… Being good-looking really lets you do whatever you want—even refusing an offer from the number one ranked player.]
[He’s definitely going to regret this! Absolutely! But it’s too late now. With this rejection, he probably won’t even survive this dungeon. What a shame.]
At first, the players felt sorry for the young man, thinking he’d missed his chance to clear the dungeon. But the more they watched, the more something seemed off. And when Lan Xu died, they were completely stunned.
This death was different from the last one. The previous time, the livestream had continued even after Lan Xu’s death. But this time, the screen went black the moment he died—even the live chat disappeared entirely, just like when a player dies and their stream shuts down.
[Wait, what? How did Lan Xu die? Wasn’t he supposed to be the one clearing the dungeon?]
[What kind of twist is this? Lan Xu just died like that? Wasn’t the title saying someone cleared this dungeon? Damn clickbait!!!?]
[The title wasn’t lying. I just checked the clearance rate for that dungeon—it’s no longer zero. Someone really did clear it, and judging by the numbers, it might’ve been more than one person.]
[Two people. I did some rough calculations—it’s highly likely two players cleared it. Lan Xu probably faked his death again and shut down his stream himself. No way a top-ranked player would die that easily.]
[No, I don’t think Lan Xu was one of the two. One of them was probably that young man, and the other was most likely that woman, Wang Qian. Her death was weird—the glass shards near her flickered, and right before she died, her expression was off. She didn’t just look scared; it wasn’t the face of someone about to die.]
[Damn! Now that you mention it, Wang Qian’s death was strange. But her body was completely crushed—how could she have cleared it?]
[She must’ve been saved by that young man. Right when she died, he glanced at his phone, and the glass shards near him flickered too. My guess? That kid’s a hidden top-tier player. Wang Qian probably cleared the dungeon because of him.]
[Holy shit! For real? I thought he was an idiot for rejecting Lan Xu, but turns out I’m the idiot. As expected—no player who makes it into a dungeon like this is a pushover.]
[Wait… did you guys notice? That young man… isn’t he the one those top players put a bounty on?]
[!!!]
The complete ✋ chaos 🤚
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chapter!!