As Xie He finished speaking, the baby ghosts within the mistress began to stir. A black mist enveloped her, the thick fog seeming to contain a thousand blades, churning and releasing a strong, pungent stench of blood.
"Aaaaah!!!" The mistress's face contorted more and more, the cries of countless infants echoing in her ears—scenes she had once dreaded in her dreams.
Before her eyes, like fleeting clouds, flashed images from the past five years.
She had once used evil magic to sacrifice the souls of children. Five years ago, she wanted to raise a ghost child to win back the master's heart, but the ritual went awry, and the master died on the spot.
The child she had aborted also became an evil ghost, beginning its vengeance. The ghost's resentment grew stronger, forcing her to resort to desperate measures, sacrificing the lives of more infants in the town to suppress the resentment of her own child.
Now, all the sins she had committed were beginning to exact their revenge.
The woman was now a grotesque, inhuman figure, her body covered in fine black lines, blood tears streaming from her eyes. She cried out in agony, "Please! Please!! Make them stop! I know I was wrong, I know I was wrong, please, I don't want to die!"
How strange, who wanted to die? Did the evil ghost or the baby ghosts?
Xie He leaned against the wall, calmly observing everything without answering.
Bang!
The door to the blind box room opened, and Yu You and Xia Gu, who had just entered, froze at the sight before them, goosebumps rising on their skin. They almost ran away.
Xie He said nonchalantly, "It's alright. They won't attack us."
Yu You and Xia Gu looked around in terror.
Two wisps of black mist were devouring the woman, who screamed in agony. They were busy with their own tasks, seemingly oblivious to their suffering. Cold sweat dripped from their foreheads as they trembled and approached Xie He.
Yu You returned the meal card to Xie He, nervously whispering, "Um... everything you asked us to do, we've done. Thank you so much. We received the game notification, which is why we gained some survival points; otherwise, we wouldn't even be able to get out of the dungeon alive..."
Xia Gu secretly glanced at the mistress and said, "That was so exciting! I didn't expect that eating barbecue in the room would fool the mistress..."
The mistress, currently suffering, was speechless.
Xie He remained silent, only offering a faint smile.
While the mistress was showing them around the blind box room, Xie He had already realized that the blind box dolls contained another group of ghosts—the later-emerging baby ghosts.
But how to deal with the mistress?
The fact that the mistress dared to show them the blind box dolls meant that the baby ghosts could harm the players, but dared not approach the mistress herself. This meant the baby ghosts couldn't take revenge on the mistress.
Clearly, only if the mistress willingly allowed them to get close could they succeed.
That's why they thought of using reverse psychology to trick the mistress into exchanging her soul with the baby ghosts.
The thick smoke billowing from the window… wasn't from burning candles; Yu You and Xia Gu had conjured up barbecue using their meal cards in the woman's room.
Then, while eating the barbecue, they pointed a fan out the window to create the illusion of billowing smoke.
Upstairs, the two boys were slurping bamboo skewers, making loud "slurp, slurp" noises.
Yu You exclaimed excitedly, "I didn't expect this dungeon to be so exciting and fun! Xie He's idea is brilliant. Luckily we followed him; if we had followed that old player, we'd be running for our lives right now!"
Xia Gu, eating his barbecue, nodded in satisfaction, "I think this is delicious."
"It proves that following the right person is really important," Yu You said happily, chewing on a mouthful of lamb skewers.
…
So that's how it was.
Upon learning the truth, the woman was filled with remorse. She screamed even louder in an instant, and the black mist instantly tore her apart, a burst of blood exploding within the mist!
Seeing the ghost chasing them suddenly disappear, and hearing the screams of the woman from the blind box room, the other players gathered outside the door, whispering amongst themselves.
The blond-haired boy was filled with trepidation: "That guy must have angered the woman, right? He's ruthless, destroying her cross and listing all her sins, showing no mercy whatsoever."
"I feel like he's doomed this time. The woman will surely kill him, won't she?"
As they talked, they felt the ground shaking, and the light bulbs on the ceiling crackled and sputtered, as if something was about to burst through the walls.
Just then, with a loud "boom," the door to the room was blown off by a gust of wind.
They cautiously peered in, only to be horrified by what they saw!
The boy stood there calmly.
The woman was lying flat on the floor, clearly a corpse. Her abdomen had been ripped out, and the evil ghost was devouring her right in front of Xie He, the sticky, ravenous chewing sounds echoing through the room, a horrifying sight. As this horrific scene unfolded, Xie He sat idly in a chair, his fingertips lightly tracing the crucifix.
Everyone was horrified; cold sweat broke out on their backs as they felt their vision was subjected to an unprecedented shock.
***
After excitedly strangling its mistress, the infant ghosts, a ball of black mist, bounced a few times before obediently retreating back into the mountain of candles.
The black mist belonging to the evil ghost had transformed into the form of a five-year-old child.
It wore a yellow floral hat and tattered, light blue overalls, looking exactly the same as when it first appeared to the players.
However, its face was now pale, blood was still dripping from its body, large patches of skin had peeled off, and in some places, bone was exposed; it looked to be in great pain.
The evil ghost was much weaker during the day; it had been severely injured by its mistress and later wounded by Liao Mingze while chasing the players…
Although it was eating with relish now, it probably wouldn't live much longer.
Xie He called out to it, “Little ghost, here’s something for you.”
The child looked up blankly.
Xie He conjured something with his meal card, tossed it in front of the child, yawned, and said awkwardly, “Kids always seem to like these things, so annoying.”
It was a… lollipop.
After saying that, Xie He turned away to look at something else, looking very indifferent.
The child blankly picked up the strawberry lollipop that had fallen to the ground.
He didn't seem to know what it was, but it looked pink and cute, and seemed fun.
He squeezed it, feeling happy, and a smile slowly spread across his face, revealing his dimples.
He remembered that day, many guests had come to his house. He had gone downstairs to eat with them, and the older boy closest to him had even held his hand. Although his hand was icy cold, he seemed quite happy then, his eyes crinkling into a smile…
Only when there was no more movement beside him did Xie He turn around.
The little ghost clutched a lollipop tightly in his hand, lying in the arms of his mangled, bloodied mistress. Finally, he turned into a wisp of black mist and vanished completely.
Xie He's eyes remained pure black for a long time.
The system notification arrived as expected:
[Congratulations player Xie He, side quest progress (2/3), points +20]
[Main quest progress 30%, points +100.]
Main quest progress, only 30%.
Xie He thought to himself, "Just as I expected."
The game rules stated: [Every night, an evil ghost will come and take away a blind box doll. If you draw the wrong one, it will kill the wrong doll.]
But last night, two players died.
The rules weren't wrong; the card-drawing world was actually playing a word game with them.
The woman was offering a pair of children's silver bracelets.
Because she was actually pregnant with…twins!
Two evil ghosts ate the wrong dolls.
The reason two players died last night was because of this…
And the other evil ghost, a little boy, ate one player on the first night and transformed himself into that player's appearance to hide among them.
Who is the other evil ghost mixed in with the players…?
***
Meanwhile, a group of people gathered in the first-floor living room, anxiously discussing their situation.
Recalling the scene just now, the blond-haired boy hugged his arms, trembling. "Logically, that person unlocked the backstory, so they should have killed the mistress and the evil ghost. Does that mean our game is over? But why can't we get out, Brother Liao? Is it because that ghost is among us?"
Liao Mingze unfolded the blueprints and said in a deep voice, "Now we can basically determine that the ghost among us is Xie He."
"Really, now that I think about it, from the first day we arrived, when he calmly went to retrieve the corpse, I felt something was off. What normal person would do something like that?" another player chimed in.
"But players can't kill players, what should we do?" someone else asked.
Liao Mingze smiled confidently, "Simple. We can use the game rules to kill him."
As he spoke, the system notification sounded simultaneously on everyone's phones.
System: [Game progress notification. Currently alive players: 3, dead players: 9]
After seeing this message, everyone fell silent.
???
There are 3 players still alive.
Liao Mingze's eyes narrowed: "..."
First of all, he has 5 players on his side, right?
Comments
Post a Comment