Infinite spooky game

At dawn in the east, all things come to life.

The milky white morning light slanted into the house from the east, dispelling the ignorance and darkness in the mansion, and even the flying dust and specks of blood were covered with a faint layer of glow.

Qi Si woke up slowly and looked at the time displayed on the fate pocket watch. It was exactly six o'clock in the morning.

He yawned listlessly and stared at the ceiling with empty eyes.

He found that he could never sleep in in the dungeon. No matter how good his sleep quality was on weekdays, or how sleepy and tired he was after a busy night, he would always wake up uncontrollably at about the same time as other players.

For example, last night, after realizing that an invisible force would overturn the lantern, he sat up on the bed holding the lantern, intending to stay awake all night.

——Although I don’t know what the lanterns are used for, it’s always a good idea to not let the ghosts get what they want easily.

Unfortunately, he fell asleep in a daze and didn't even know when he put the lantern back on the bedside table. It must be that some mechanism of the copy that ensures players get enough rest came into play.

His last memory was the loud sound of a night watchman, and the hoarse recitation of "Three o'clock in the morning, all is well and safe", as if it were a prophecy read out by an ancient witch.

Qi Si remembered that the midnight hour was the time period between 23pm and 1am. He woke up now, having only slept for six hours.

Well, in order to avoid players having insufficient time to explore dungeons and complete tasks, Weird Games has always been very proactive in waking up players.

"Brother Qi, why is the window so dark and has so many holes?" Lin Chen sat up from the bed and noticed the abnormality of the window at a glance.

The originally smooth and clean paper window became tattered after a night of destruction, with holes of all sizes all over the surface.

The side facing outside seemed to be covered with a layer of dust and looked dirty, like a rag that had been buried in the soil.

Lin Chen went to bed early last night and was full of energy at the moment. He climbed out of bed, walked to the bedside, and stretched out his fingers to touch the hole in the window.

"These holes appear to have been pierced from the outside by a sharp object, and the black powder covering the outside of the window should be coagulated blood..."

Lin Chen made a judgment based on common sense, pondered for two seconds, looked at Qi Si, and said the same line as after the first night of "Rose Manor": "Did something happen last night?"

He fell asleep in a daze last night under Qisi's urging. Although he knew that Qisi would not harm him, he still felt that everything was weird when he thought about it now.

——What does it matter whether he sleeps or not?
After he fell asleep, Qis probably didn't fall asleep immediately. He must know more about what happened during that period than he did. It wouldn't hurt to ask him about it.

Qi Si heard Lin Chen's doubts, and said "hmm" to express his affirmativeness. He stopped hesitating and sat up from the bed.

He picked up the lantern on the bedside table and gave a simplified account of what had happened last night, naturally omitting the part where the fate watch went back one minute.

"At present, we can confirm the following points: First, the information that the scholar told us yesterday, 'the ghosts will only appear after midnight', is wrong, at least for us outsiders.

“Basically, after the second update, the ghosts in the corpse pit will start to attack the residence, with a certain probability of causing a death point. Players currently have no means of countermeasure.

"Second, the lantern in our hands may be the key prop. I found that the candle in the lantern will turn green after it comes into contact with the outside air, which is consistent with the record of ghost fire in the Netherworld Record.

“Most of the ghosts outside the mansion are attracted to the candles, and invisible beings will try to push over the lanterns and cause fires.

"Third, after the night watchman's call of 'midnight, all is well' sounds, all strange signs in the mansion will disappear. Players who haven't fallen asleep yet will automatically fall asleep under the influence of the dungeon mechanism."

Qi Si's face looked a little pale due to lack of sleep, and his voice was weak, as if he would fall asleep at any time.

Lin Chen speculated for no reason, maybe he did something big last night...

Then the young man said in a matter-of-fact tone, "I stayed up until midnight last night, and I don't think I can make it tonight. I'm afraid you'll have to keep watch. I hope you had a good rest last night."

"Ah?...Oh oh!" Lin Chen responded without knowing why.

It has been mentioned in the forum that some players will take advantage of their roommates sleeping, or explore alone and fail to download important information, or secretly arrange and harm others.

Qis took the initiative to share his discoveries and proposed taking turns to keep watch, so he should not fall into either of these two situations.

What's more, he knew that a small guild like the Unnamed Guild, which had less than ten members, would be disbanded directly if the leader died - there was no reason for Qi Si to harm him.

So, Qi Si let him go to bed first last night. Was it planned that they would take turns to keep watch?

But I always feel that the logic is not right. There were clearly no signs at that time, so how could they predict that there would be danger later?

Qi Si glanced at the confused Lin Chen and continued, "Let's go to the town later to see if we can borrow some materials from the townspeople to repair the windows.

"Ghosts with physical form are unlikely to enter the room without the player actively opening the window. What needs to be focused on are the invisible entities that will overturn the lanterns - just guard the lanterns at night."

Lin Chen subconsciously forgot to worry about the issue of Qi Si asking him to go to bed early last night.

A lot of melodramatic short ghost stories popped up in his mind, and his imagination was blown: "Brother Qi, do you think there is a possibility that those ghosts are trapped in the town and need the guiding lanterns to find the way to reincarnation, so they want to steal our lanterns?"

Qi Si raised his eyelids and looked at him: "There is such a possibility, but there is no solid evidence. Don't take the puzzles in the copy for granted, otherwise you will preset the answer and affect your judgment."

Lin Chen touched his nose awkwardly and thought from another angle: "From the time they appeared, it can be seen that the ghosts outside the mansion and the ghosts hiding among the townspeople are not the same group.

“At midnight, we will fall asleep uncontrollably, and the strangeness outside the mansion will also disappear. Does this mean that the copy intends to stagger the action time between us and certain entities?

"Brother Qi, do you think there will be some major events after midnight that we cannot know about?"

"That makes sense." Qi Si did not deny it and bent down to pick up the paper under the bedside table.

Lin Chen found this piece of paper last night. Because the light was too dim, he couldn't see the words clearly, so he put it back.

A lot of things happened last night, and as soon as they woke up in the morning, they began to review the information, and they both almost forgot about the piece of paper.

Qi Si walked to the window, stuffed the paper into Lin Chen's hand, raised his hand and pushed the window open.

The towering pile of corpses lay quietly in the sunlight, and the withered white bones reflected the thin morning light.

The two identical bodies of the old man were lying quietly on the top, exactly the same as what was seen last night before the first watch, and had not been moved at all.

Everything that happened last night seemed like just a horrible nightmare, a collective hysterical hallucination.

Lin Chen was startled by Qi Si's sudden action and took a step back reflexively.

Fortunately, the pile of corpses outside the window was particularly well-behaved during the day. Apart from the bad smell and ugly appearance, there was nothing abnormal.

Large swathes of white sunlight poured in through the wide-open window, shining onto the paper in Lin Chen's hand, adding a layer of exposure to each word.

Lin Chen subconsciously read out the words above:

【…It has been prosperous since ancient times, with celebrities gathering here, strong cities and strong military, and all the people who come here are wealthy and powerful. It is not a place that must be fought for by military strategists, but if we work together and hold on to one side, we may be able to avoid disaster…

[After the loss of Baiyang River, the soldiers and civilians from all sides stumbled and fled. Perhaps they could occupy this city and then try to regain their momentum...

[Those who are not of my kind must have different hearts. They eat raw meat and drink blood, and behave like jackals. We must not yield to them...]

This is a letter, which is incomplete in many places and we can only piece together the general events.

Lin Chen concluded: "This should be a letter exchanged within the army. After the invasion of foreign races, various places were lost frequently, and the soldiers and civilians fled in all directions. Someone proposed to defend this town and then seek to recover the lost territory." He put down the letter and looked up at Qi Si: "Brother Qi, what does this have to do with the 'accomplices'? Walking along all the way yesterday, this Yanghua Town didn't look like it was in wartime..."

"Maybe the war is over, and this letter is just a slice of Yanghua Town's history - who knows?" Qi Si smiled noncommittally, "Well, this copy has become interesting."

Lin Chen didn't find it interesting at all.

The name of the copy is "Ghosts". The mechanism of the "Ghosts"' actions has not been figured out yet, and a war hidden in history has emerged.

The background of this copy is probably more complicated than imagined, and it may even be a multi-layered nested world view, almost catching up with some puzzle copies.

I hope... I can pass the customs safely.

Qis picked up the letter that Lin Chen had placed on the windowsill, folded it and put it into his sleeve. He ignored his worried teammates, turned around and stood in front of the wooden door.

He reached out and pushed the wooden door twice, but it didn't budge.

The iron lock outside the door has not been opened yet. I don’t know when the old man who manages the mansion will be able to go upstairs and release the players from the room.

Keith sat down on the edge of the bed and stared out the open window in boredom.

He suddenly thought that because of the pile of corpses, the distance from the second floor to the ground was not too far.

As long as you can overcome your fear of corpses, you can easily climb out of the house through the window by using the pile of corpses as stepping stones...

How about trying it during the day?

Zeiss fell into thought.

……

In the room on the right side of the second floor, Tang Yu opened his eyes on the bed, looked to the right, and did not see Qiu Xin.

The memory of the second half of last night came back to him. He vaguely remembered that Qiu Xin opened the window and climbed out when he was not paying attention.

Although Qiu Xin closed the window after climbing out, several ghosts still rushed in through the gap.

Tang Yu fought back for a while, but gradually became unable to defeat the opponent, so he opened the [Ink Soul Scroll] in desperation and let the ink characters float in the air, outlining the shape of a door in the void.

As expected, the ghosts that entered the house had some intelligence and did not get into the door made of the long scroll.

Tang Yu struggled awkwardly for a while, and in a panic, he tripped and fell straight into the scroll.

When he came out of the scroll again, he heard the night watchman's sound at the third watch of the night outside the window.

He inexplicably fell asleep and lost consciousness.

"Hate is a 'ghost' who must kill people every day. If she is trapped in the mansion, she will be exposed and attacked by the townspeople. So she left through the window.

"The scholar said that the ghosts appeared before midnight. She could just act as a messenger and deal with the lone human townspeople before midnight... But at night when you can't see any shadows, how can she be sure that those townspeople are human and not ghosts?"

Tang Yu calmly reviewed the details of what had happened.

Strangely enough, after this incident, he didn't have much resentment towards his enemy anymore.

He was innocently assigned the identity of a person who is hated by the weird game. He is isolated and helpless, so it is understandable that he has a bad temper.

Last night, when I was unsure whether I could find a human townsperson to kill, I did not choose to kill him directly since he was in the same room with me. I have already done my best.

Tang Yu shook his head and unfolded the [Ink Soul Scroll] that he had used once.

The flowing running script cascades down like a waterfall, and simple portraits are printed in the corners, all of whom are passers-by who have entered the scroll.

This item is worth 500,000 points on the market, but it is actually out of stock. Tang Yu exchanged it from the internal mall of Jiuzhou Guild before leaving.

These days, many people in Jiuzhou were expelled from the guild on the surface, but in fact they were preparing for a certain plan of the top leaders. Tang Yu was one of them.

They are asked to act recklessly, even at the cost of defilement, and display some of the traits of massacre players in order to achieve a confusing effect.

Not everyone is as famous as Fu Jue. Most of the players with a little fame who were removed from Jiuzhou for various reasons would be criticized and attacked to varying degrees.

Therefore, Jiuzhou allows every player to take away a powerful item before leaving as compensation and also for self-protection.

"Why can I enter the scroll? I tried the previous copies, but couldn't get in. Only this copy can..."

Tang Yu's gaze fell on the statement "Only spirits can enter", and he looked down at his feet.

In the morning light as bright as gauze, the soles of his feet were clean and there was no shadow.

"The players are all spirits, or ghosts... so what about the townspeople?"

Tang Yu caught a glimpse of a white spot under the bedside table, which seemed to be a piece of paper.

He walked over, picked it up, and read the incomplete traditional Chinese characters on it:

[I used to feel that the geographical records of the world were empty and vague, so I climbed mountains and waded through rivers, trying to make it more realistic. When I arrived at Yangzhou City, I wandered around the mountains and forests in a daze, not knowing east from west.

[Then the willows are dark and the flowers are bright, and I see the towns in all directions. The people are happy and the houses are well-maintained...

[…Piao Piao suddenly woke up with a start, and then realized that it was his soul that had left his body and was wandering in the void.]

……

In an alley in Yanghua Town, the early morning sunlight cast a white path of light, falling on Qiu Xin's handsome face.

Qiu Xin woke up with sleepy eyes, but after seeing the surrounding environment, he immediately lost all sleepiness.

After killing the old man last night, she heard the night watchman's sound and fell asleep unknowingly.

Thinking about how she slept in the open air without any protection in the copy, she now felt scared and thrilled.

“Fortunately, the ghosts in this copy will not harm their own kind, so I don’t have to worry about strange threats for the time being.

"At the moment, all I need to deal with are the main quest, human townspeople, and other players."

Qiu Xin made a judgment, but he didn't feel much at ease.

She walked out of the alley and looked far away in the direction of the mansion.

Even though she didn't want to hurt anyone, there was no way back.

The grudges in the players' hearts will eventually become the seeds of hostility, taking root and sprouting under the high pressure of the crisis.

There is a great terror between life and death. No one can afford to gamble with trust, bottom line and human nature. (End of this chapter)