33 - Worse Than a Ghost

Translated by rabbitrisu

Because there was identification system in the nightmare world, let alone cell phone or internet signals, there was simply no way to prove someone’s identity.

So was the Cheng Yun in front of Su Zimo a fake?

With such a crazy idea in his mind, Su Zimo glanced at Bai Man sitting next to him, and watched as he raised her head. Bai Man, who raised her head to stare at Su Zimo, was still indifferent. The only action was that after she lowered her head again, she shook her head a small amount. It was a hint to Su Zimo – don’t stir the grass and startle the snake.

Crazy thoughts passed through Su Zimo’s mind like a racecar. Su Zimo thought of a problem after the car was no longer visible–

If someone was really pretending to be Cheng Yun, why would they have his wallet?

That wallet should be with the real Cheng Yun himself!

“Don’t just be idle while resting. You can observe the details around you like Dr. Jin, and every once in a while we can collaborate. Maybe there will be clues about the so called ‘lifeline,’ right Bai Man?

“Liu, Liu Xu.” Bai Man seemed to want to avoid something, and suddenly raised her voice to call the trainer who had been very silent. “I seem to have heard your name. You’ve experienced a lot of nightmare worlds?”

Su Zimo felt that miss Bai Man looked like a strong woman, but she didn’t seem to be good at concealing her emotions.

“En.” The trainer named Liu Xu was the one who Su Zimo previously evaluated as having ‘muscles more explosive than Du Xin.’

“The name Liu Xu is a bit common.” Cheng Yun also said a normal sentence, one that Bai Man couldn’t dodge.

“But Mr. Liu gives people a different feeling, like the one often mentioned in the Dawn Communication Area. His skin is dark and he doesn’t talk much. His skills are very good. It’s said that he can do incredible things like jump from the roof of one building to another.” Although Bai Man seemed to answer Cheng Yun, her eyes fell on Liu Xu. “The name is the same as the one mentioned in the communication area.”

“En.” Liu Xu answered simply.

“It seems that everyone is hiding, ah.” Old man Fang with his frail bones touched his white beard. “The next generation is awesome.”

Since Liu Xu didn’t actively respond, the atmosphere in the hall was silent for a while. Everyone was immersed in their own thoughts, and Bai Man felt that she was too deliberate about dodging Cheng Yun, so she was completely silent after her brief sentence.

“Hai-” Su Zimo coughed and got up to break the silence that had lasted for over an hour. When everyone looked over, he smiled. “Leader Cheng, I want to go take a look at other places on this floor.”

Su Zimo could see that the trainers haven’t acted for a while, but when he thinks about how he’ll be able to open the store after this restocking, he appeared more active than the other trainers. And after learning of the existence of ‘ghost tools,’ Su Zimo had higher standards for restocking every two days. In addition to the unstarred goods that sell for 1 yuan, Su Zimo still wanted to find ‘ghost tools’ in the nightmare world.

According to the ghost umbrella, the more difficult the nightmare world, the more likely a tool will appear.

What Su Zimo had to do was use the glasses on the bridge of his nose to find ghost tools hidden in the villa. Such a thing couldn’t be done by sitting in a daze and waiting for ghosts to come to the door.

Su Zimo’s eyes crinkled in a smile behind his glasses, and it was a smile that couldn’t be refused.

“I…” Du Xin was about to stand up next to him.

But he didn’t expect Bai Man, who was across the table from him, to stand up first and expressionlessly say, “I’m going with you. When I first came to the nightmare world, most of the trainers were locked in different rooms on the first floor. Let’s go take a look.”

“I’m going too.” Doctor Jin also stood up. “There may be some clues there.”

“Then let’s go together?” Cheng Yun said from the start that separating was the stupidest thing they could do, so it was natural to oppose Su Zimo’s plan to split up.

“You can’t guarantee that everyone will act together, right?” Jin Lei glanced at the madman who fell asleep on the sofa next to them. “You stay here to take care of Wan Ling, Elder Fang, and the others. We’ll be right back, and you’ll be able to respond to anything quickly.”

With that said, Jin Lei tapped Wan Ling and told the the little girl to sit beside Fang Qin with a gentle smile. Thirteen or fourteen years old wasn’t too young. It was the age people graduated junior high school, but Wan Ling was like a fragile doll, so Jin Lei couldn’t take her everywhere.

Su Zimo thought that the child would stick to Dr. Jin, but she released her hand quietly after Dr. Jin comforted her and sat comfortable beside Fang Qin.

“Very good.”

Jin Lei praised her, then gestured to Bai Man and Su Zimo. She took the scalpels out of her pocket and walked to the first floor corridor on the right side of the main hall.

The corridor on the first floor and the third floor were lit with candles, so the whole space was bright, just as Su Zimo saw through the door slit when he first entered the world. However, there were more doors on the first floor than the third floor. This wasn’t because the first floor was larger, but because the rooms on the first floor were small and the distance between them was short.

“I was found on the third floor, just like you.” Jin Lei looked around carefully. The floor made crunching sounds under her feet. “So I haven’t seen the first floor. I may have missed some important clues…”

“The rest of us appeared in various rooms on the first floor, so when I came out, I just searched the other rooms on the first floor.” Bai Man’s voice was as calm as possible. They weren’t too far from the hall where everyone was sitting. “There are some rooms here, and on the other side of the hall there’s a kitchen, restroom, and utility room.”

“Squeak–“

Bai Man opened the first door. Because there was no light source in the room, all three took out their phones and turned on the flashlights.

Inside was a normal-looking bedroom with little space and very simple furniture: a bed, a cabinet, a desk, and a wooden hanger by the window. The windows of the room were sealed the same way as the others, and there was obviously no possibility of escaping.

There was a set of white uniforms and hats on the wooden hanger that had yellowed and been covered with a layer of dust.

“This should be the chef’s room.” Bai Man added. “I was in this room before.”

Jin Lei immediately drew a picture of the floor on the paper, and took notes about the possible owner of the house and the trainers who had appeared in the rooms. Su Zimo looked around, even opened the cabinet, but the entire room was in ruins. There was nothing intact except the chef’s uniform.

“This is the room where Liu Xu, Cheng Yun,, and Wan Ling woke up.” Bai Man pushed open the door of the second room. “At first, the girl was quite helpless and seemed to be autistic, but after you got downstairs, Dr. Jin, she stuck to you.”

“This is… the maid’s room?” Su Zimo saw three small beds and three hangers in the room that was twice the size of the chef’s bedroom. On the hangers were maid uniforms that were old but still intact. It was a Western style that was particularly common on the internet, so it could be recognized at a glance.

Su Zimo also remembered the vase he had found at the corner of the stairs before. He even remembered that the text boxes on the vase read ‘It’s been wiped down by the maid the entire time, but is the maid lazy now? Why haven’t they come?’ After all, when he held the vase in his hands, he had read it many times.

“Did the three maids’ room have three trainers appear inside?”

“Unfortunately, two of the three trainers are male.” Su Zimo said, then looked at Jin Lei thoughtfully. If three female trainers woke up here, then he would’ve guessed that this nightmare world was a role-playing game.

Of course, it’s not impossible for the male trainers.

“Hak-” Jin Lei suddenly choked.

“What’s wrong?” Bai Man asked with concern.

“Nothing. I just thought of Master Liu Xu and Cheng Yun wearing maid costumes.” Jin Lei couldn’t help but grin. She even caught Su Zimo in a trance.

“The layout of the room is basically the same.” Bai Man looked puzzled at Jin Lei, then took the two people to the first room across the hall. “This room is where Xiao Huo appeared. There’s a cheap suit hung up, but the keys to an expensive car are on the desk. I guess it’s the chauffeur’s room.”

Su Zimo also searched this room, but it was to no success.

“Speaking of that, I also found a stethoscope and some medical supplies in the room on the third floor. If the owner here isn’t a doctor, it’s likely to be the family’s doctor’s room.” Jin Lei continued to take notes.

“As for the two rooms in the back, one had Du Xin and Qi Xiaomin, and the other had the madman.” As the three people moved away from the main hall, Bai Man’s speech began to speed up. “There were some gardening tools in the room with Du Xin and Qi Xiaomin, so it should be the gardener’s room. The room where the madman was in is somewhat hard to tell.”

There were rooms on both sides of the hallway. One side had the chef’s room and the three maids’ room, which took up enough space for three rooms altogether. The other side had the chauffeur, gardener, and another room, which also made three.

Su Zimo opened the room that Bai Man said had no clues, and found that there wasn’t a hanger in the room. The other furniture was no different from the other rooms, but Su Zimo found something with a text box in the pile of ruins on the bed when he shined his flashlight over it.

[Nightmare Brand Tactical Pen (No Stars)]

[Sale Price: 10 yuan]

[Description: One side has a very easy-to-use pen, and the other side is a very sharp knife. This was a gift from the Master to Mr. Bodyguard, and it’s also Mr. Bodyguard’s most beloved treasure.]

Perhaps it’s because this tactical pen was well preserved that it’s identified as a commodity. But because the sharp knife wasn’t useful against malicious spirits, it was just an ordinary starless object.

Su Zimo picked up the black tactical pen and found it was much lighter than the metal pen he carried with him. There were two caps, a sharp knife with a barb on one end, and a pen nib for writing on the other side. It seemed easy to use.

“This may be the bodyguard’s room.” Su Zimo showed the tactical pen to the others.

“It’s possible, but it’s not confirmed.” Jin Lei couldn’t see the text boxes on the commodity, so she just nodded and wrote bodyguard in brackets on the notes. After all, even ordinary people may have hidden tactical pens.

“Finally, the room where Elder Fang Qin stayed.” Bai Man took Su Zimo and Jin Lei into the room at the end of the corridor. Relying on the light of their phones, they could see that the room was larger and more furnished than the other rooms. There was even a sealed balcony, a bookshelf that had fallen to the ground, and a wrecked pile of books scattered all over the floor.

“Elder Fang said it might be the housekeeper’s room since one of the books with the cover intact read ‘The Self-Cultivation of the Housekeeper.’ Bai Man introduced.

“….” Su Zimo was silent for a moment when he thought of who was studying various housekeeper classics in his own shop.

“Pa!” Bai Man who just entered the room shut the door suddenly, reducing the light within the room.

“Cheng Jingmeng…” Bai Man said the name softly.

“Ah?” Jin Lei, who wanted to find clues, was puzzled. Su Zimo’s expression was calm. When Bai Man got up and wanted to walk with him, he knew that Bai Man might have wanted to do something.

“Cheng Jingmeng is Cheng Yun’s sister.” Bai Man’s steady voice began to tremble. “Because their parents divorced early, he and his sister lived in two different cities. Cheng Yun likes his sister very much, but because they were apart for too long, they aren’t close and he worries about her. When Cheng Yun and I met last month, he was happy to say that he finally saved enough money to buy a big house and wanted to pick up his sister to live with him for a while.”

“Cheng Jingmeng? It seems that Mr. Su mentioned the name just now?” Jin Lei remembered something.

“The photo in Leader Cheng’s wallet is with Cheng Jingmeng.” Su Zimo looked at Jin Lei and felt that Bai Man trusted the doctor.

“I haven’t seen his wallet, but he shouldn’t have heard his sister’s name and connection to a slave mark and not responded!” Bai Man covered her face in pain. “He didn’t show any signs of amnesia, so I doubt…”

“Do you suspect that Cheng Yun is a fake? He wouldn’t be possessed by a ghost, right?” Jin Lei frowned. “After all, that wallet should be his own.”

“Yeah… that wallet… When he chatted with me before, he also mentioned the things that we’ve experienced together in earlier nightmare worlds, and also mentioned things about his wife. The things about his sister were also correct.” Bai Man took a deep breath. “I’m afraid it’s worse than a ghost.”

“What?”

“A person.”

Translator’s Notes:

Bai Man: There’s only one thing worse than a ghost… *rips off paper*

Bai Man: A person.