Creating a zombie in a mountain village terrifies players worldwide.

Chapter 6 Beauty of Chu

The whole process was incredibly fast, taking only two or three seconds from appearance to disappearance.

The short corridor fell silent instantly, leaving only Brother Akashi standing frozen in place. After a full ten seconds, he finally spoke in a dry voice.

"Wow... this female ghost is something else!"

"In the blink of an eye, these glasses are gone?"

Akashi felt a chill run down his spine again.

"This game, wow, the ghosts don't attack me directly, but instead gradually break down my mental defenses by killing NPCs. Well done, developer, you've got some skills!"

Akashi-san is a bit flustered.

This game is completely different from the previous Red Stone games, leaving him speechless.

The two men in the living room seemed oblivious to everything, as if they were on a completely different channel, and continued to shake the unconscious woman.

So what's the next step?
Solve the mystery? Or escape?

Just as he was at a loss, another unexpected event occurred.

"boom!"

With a loud bang, the television in the living room exploded, the screen shattered on the floor, and the flickering light went out completely, leaving the screen completely black.

The only light source in the house was now out of service, and the entire living room and corridor were instantly swallowed by thick darkness, with only a faint light from outside the window providing some illumination so that it wasn't pitch black.

That's quite a commotion.

The two NPCs in the living room finally "woke up." As if a switch had been flipped, they stopped shaking the woman and then screamed as words appeared above their heads and they ran out of the apartment.

The scene was chaotic and comical at times.

Only the unconscious female NPC and Brother Shi remained.

"Wait a minute! Can you guys run?"

Akashi looked at the door that had been closed again, and didn't react for a moment.

"I thought the developers were lazy and didn't include an escape AI for you guys... Hey! Wait! I haven't gotten out yet!"

With a strange cry, Brother Akashi abandoned all pretense of decorum, sprinted toward the door, grabbed the doorknob, and pulled it open with all his might.

Then, he froze on the spot, his expression as if he had seen a ghost.

Outside the door, the light was dim.

But it wasn't the apartment building corridor he had imagined; instead, it was... that pitifully short corridor in front of the bathroom!

How did this door become a bathroom door?!
"No way?"

Akaishi rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "Spatial connection? I'm trapped in my apartment?"

He felt a chill run down his spine and rushed out the door.

Sure enough, he returned to the living room and saw the female NPC still lying dead.

Without thinking twice, Brother Akashi rushed to the gate again and yanked it open.

Outside the door, there was still that familiar, damned little corridor leading to the living room!

The dim lighting seemed to mock his futile efforts.

"It's a ghost wall! It's a ghost wall!"

Akashi cried out in his heart, he was trapped, trapped in this bizarre circular apartment.

"I refuse to believe we can't get out."

"This is just an indie horror game without even voice acting, so it can't be that surprising. There must be something to trigger it."

A surge of brute force rose within him, and Brother Chishi rushed to the gate again, pulled it open, and walked out.

The result was the same familiar corridor, dimly lit; he was back at the starting point.

"Come again!"

Charge! Open the door! The hallway!

Get out! Close the door! Open the door! Still in the hallway!

He wandered aimlessly along the route to the apartment like a headless fly, mechanically repeating the same pattern.

Fortunately, it was just a game with no stamina limit, otherwise he would have been exhausted long ago, but this made him question the meaning of life.

"What's going on... Is this game over? Am I just going to be stuck here forever?"

"Or is it about solving a mystery? Did I miss some clues?"

Akashi slowed down and began to observe the apartment environment.

If this is a trash game, he will never waste his time on it.

But the atmosphere of the terrifying hand at the beginning was so striking that it scared him and made him believe that there was still something to play in the game.

So he stepped into the apartment loop again.

First time.

Nothing changed; the lights still flickered, sometimes bright, sometimes dim, and the mottled stains on the walls looked slightly eerie in the dim light.

Second time.

Everything is normal, and there is nothing different.

The third time, the fourth time...

Shi Ge felt like a mouse trapped in a cage, running around aimlessly.

The fifth time.

A different situation has arisen.

The female NPC who had fainted actually straightened up slowly this time.

She sat there with her head down, her long hair cascading down to cover her face, her arms hanging limply at her sides, looking eerily strange.

And above their heads, lines of text appeared one after another.

'She's here'

'She's right here.'

'Inescapable'

'This is Ju-on.'

'Auntie Mei'

Upon seeing this, Brother Akashi's eyes widened slightly, and he couldn't help but feel a chill.

"Ju-on? What's that?"

"And Aunt Mei?"

"Could this be a ghost's name?"

He stared at the text repeating above the female NPC's head, a chill running down his spine.

"Is this NPC possessed?"

Akashi stared at the motionless woman whose head was filled with words, his heart pounding. He dared not approach, fearing he might trigger some unknown danger.

This is definitely a high-energy spot; nothing good ever comes from here. The developers must have planted a trap here, waiting for curious kids like him to jump in.

"Let's play it safe for now, let's play it safe for now."

"Iron Stone muttered to himself, then ignored the female NPC, opened the door again, and went through the loop several more times."

The sixth time, the seventh time, the eighth time...

Until the tenth time.

The apartment remained unchanged, and the female NPC remained seated.

Brother Shi stopped and looked at the short corridor outside the door, gently pinching his chin.

"We've gone forward so many times and nothing's worked, maybe turning back will bring something different?"

The thought flashed through his mind, and he decided to try going back.

After all, many games have this design: when the road ahead is blocked, you only find a way back.

So he immediately closed the door and turned to walk towards the bathroom.

I walked through the short corridor to the door and pushed the glass door open.

The next second, he was stunned.

The cycle has been broken!
Because behind the door, a dark, gloomy, and deathly silent mourning hall had suddenly appeared!

The interior was dilapidated and covered with cobwebs.

The altar was covered in a thick layer of dust, clearly indicating that it had not been tended to for a long time.

Only a few pale rays of moonlight slanted down, barely illuminating a corner of the mourning hall, but adding to the eeriness of the place.

Akashi's Adam's apple bobbed, and he felt a chill run down his back.

He knew very well that the appearance of new scenes in horror games meant there were new clues or new content.

You can't advance the plot without exploring.

But if you go in, who knows what kind of monsters you'll encounter?

Akashi hesitated for a few seconds before finally gritting his teeth and going inside.

The dusty ground beneath my feet made a soft "rustling" sound, which was particularly clear in the deathly silence.

Arriving at the mourning hall, he saw two memorial tablets, one large and one small, by the moonlight.

The smaller one has a plaque inscribed in traditional Chinese characters that reads 'The Spirit Tablet of Qian'er.'

She appears to be a maid or similar servant.

The larger one, also in traditional Chinese characters, is inscribed with 'The Spirit Tablet of the Beautiful Woman of the Bu Family'.

"The Chu family. Chu Renmei? Aunt Mei!?"

Upon seeing this, Akashi's mind went blank for a moment, and he remembered the female NPC who had been possessed before.

She called her Aunt Mei.

"I see, I understand."

He slapped his thigh suddenly, his voice tinged with a sense of realization.

"Based on my more than ten years of gaming experience, this female ghost must be named Chu Renmei. If not, I'll eat this offering table on the spot!"

"The game deliberately arranged this funeral hall scene, which is clearly a part of the identity reveal. Although the funeral hall is a bit dilapidated, the information is conveyed effectively."

"So I know even with my toes that the next part is going to explore who Chu Renmei is, how she died, and how she became a vengeful ghost."

Having analyzed this far, Akashi felt that his logic was incredibly meticulous, making him practically a master detective in the gaming world; he was practically brimming with confidence.

The viewers in the live stream poured cold water on his smugness.

"Brother Chishi's analysis is like an old lady crawling into bed—it made me laugh."

"That's right, the streamer's analysis was a stroke of genius—after the female ghost announced her name."

"Exactly, the female NPC in front called her 'Auntie Mei.' If you can't guess that, you might as well go back to elementary school and retake the exam."

"Regarding the fact that I finally got a name for the female ghost in the horror game I played."

"Brother Akaishi: I've discovered a shocking secret! Audience: Oh."

"Trying to freeload again, huh?"

"That's it? You need to use your toes to figure it out? I guessed this scenario as soon as it appeared, okay?"

Seeing the sarcastic comments from his friends in the live stream, Brother Chishi snorted, feeling embarrassed.

"Give me a break, you guys. Do you think you're all as handsome as me?"

"Speaking of which, could that female NPC just now have been possessed by Qian'er? I remember the NPC mentioned a female ghost in red, so there are two ghosts in this game? Luckily I didn't get close, or I would have been gone."

"But what should we do now? Continue solving the mystery?"

Chishi glanced at the spirit tablet again, and suddenly noticed two slips of paper on the offering table.

Pick them up and look at them, and the contents will appear.

—A yellowed and rotten page of a newspaper.

[Title: Female corpse found in Huangshan Village; face severely mutilated, a gruesome sight!]

[Subtitle: A woman's body found on a straw mat in the wilderness of Huangshan Village; investigation reveals the deceased to be Chu Renmei, a famous Cantonese opera singer from the village.]

[Content: In June 1916, the police received a report from the deceased's husband, Bu Wantian (the document was severely damaged). Because Bu Wantian (the contents of the document were heavily smeared with ink), and because he himself stated that the writing had been further smeared and was illegible, the investigation was suspended.]

"Face smashed? A famous Cantonese opera actress?"

As Akashi read the text word by word, his brows furrowed deeper and deeper, sensing that things were not so simple.

Then he picked up the second slip of paper.

But this one was even more badly damaged, almost only half of it remained, and the edges were torn.

—A badly damaged page from a newspaper.

[Headline: Shocking! 66 people killed in Huangshan Village in three days (writing damaged and missing)!]

[Subtitle: (Original text largely covered in ink) I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. (A string of words written in black ink, densely packed, messy and distorted)]

[Content: (First half torn up). The remaining villagers have moved away, and the numerous unclaimed corpses in the mass grave have left Huangshan Village a ghost town.]

"hiss--"

After reading the two notes, Akashi-kun gasped.

"Sixty-six people died in three days?!"

"This must have been done by a ghost. Wow, that ghost is awesome."

He felt even more uneasy looking at the repeated string of "I'm sorry".

"Who wrote this? A confession? Or fear?"

With these two tattered newspapers placed together, Akaishi-kun finally understood what story this game was trying to tell.

(End of this chapter)