55 - Red Moon

Translated by rabbitrisu

Su Zimo didn’t notice the two ‘people’ sitting on the balcony at first. Even when he looked around, he seemed to miss the situation on the balcony.

It wasn’t until the girl with the delicate makeup announced it that Su Zimo noticed the two shadows.

This may be the first time Su Zimo truly saw the sky of the nightmare world. It was also the first time he saw the moon there. It was a crimson crescent moon that was more eye-catching than that of the real world.

After returning to his senses, Su Zimo unexpectedly found that his thoughts were stolen by the moon, and he was ignoring the two figures sitting on the balcony.

Before Su Zimo could look at it again, he heard the voices of the other trainers around him.

“That one. The three of us were right here as soon as we opened out eyes, yeah? Why did he come out of the restroom? There’s no problem, right?” The guy who was talking was a handsome boy who was thin and tall. There was a trace of hostility in his eyes when he looked at Su Zimo.

Su Zimo could only turn around, roll up the sleeves of his white shirt, and reveal his right arm that actually had nothing on it. He said with a smile, “I’m also a trainer. If possible, I don’t want to appear in a restroom. After all, it’s a popular place for spirits in the nightmare world.”

Su Zimo’s grey and black backpack was compacted with a zipper, so the black umbrella handle stuck out of it, but it didn’t look strange overall. After all, Boss Su’s appearance could satisfy everyone who imagined him in a two-dimensional male gentleman’s role. It wasn’t surprising that other men would be hostile. In particular, the glasses from An Yu Yi Yu seemed to be attractive to those who didn’t know about them. They looked very good when resting on the bridge of his nose.

“The two people on the balcony… are they ghosts?” Cowering in the other corner was a round-faced girl with naturally curly short hair and glasses. She looked about the same age as the other two trainers.

When Su Zimo stood with those trainers, they could’ve been recognized as a group of university students hanging out together.

Because of the girl with the glasses, everyone turned their eyes to the two figures sitting together on the balcony. It wasn’t a weird thing to put a casual set of tables and chairs on the balcony, but now there were two women sitting there with their backs to the living room. Both were wearing loose white skirts. The one on the left had her hair down, and the one on the right had a loose bun.

The two ‘people’ were sitting on either side of the round table on the balcony. They were close together without making any sounds, as if they couldn’t see each other. They looked strange under the pale red moonlight.

“If they’re ghosts, how can they come out so quickly?” The tall and handsome boy frowned. “Isn’t the first task for us to tell a story at the ghost story assembly?”

The boy’s words told Su Zimo two very important messages. The task for this nightmare world was a phased task, so it was multiple tasks where each would be released after completing the prior task.

And the first of the three trainers’ tasks should be to ‘tell a ghost story at the assembly.’

Ghost story assembly?

Su Zimo pondered the words for a while, then looked outside at the balcony. He didn’t feel that there was anything connecting the two.

“Hahaha-“

At that moment, a girl’s laugh came from outside the door of the half-covered balcony. When everyone looked outside, they found that the bun-head girl sitting on the right had moved. Her upright posture from the beginning had changed to one where her head was tilted slightly tot he right, and she laughed.

“Really? Did he really say that? Thank you for telling me. You’re worthy of being my good friend.”

Everyone could hear what the bun-head girl said.

“Are they chatting?” A trainer asked suspiciously, “Aren’t they ghosts from the nightmare world?”

“No, they don’t look like they’re chatting.” The girl with the delicate makeup said in a hushed voice. “The person who laughed just now is sitting on the right, but her head is tilted to the right. She didn’t get closer to the person on the left. If you’re chatting, you wouldn’t distance yourself like that.”

“She should be on the phone.” Su Zimo glanced at the girl’s movements and said, “She was chatting with someone on the phone, and she laughed because of what someone said on the phone.”

“The future hasn’t been written yet, what nonsense are you talking!” The girl with the bun waved her hands in the air, then got up and walked to the balcony railing before saying shyly,” There’s no reason for the girl to say it first. The guy can take the initiative.”

“I’m going to hang up. The game is about to start.” The girl said, then she hung up the phone as Su Zimo assumed, and leaned on the railing while looking up at the night sky.

This may be the most ‘alive’ person Su Zimo had ever seen in the nightmare world. He could even see the wind blowing through her hair and the white dress on her body in the night. Her face while looking up at the red moon also held an indescribable sadness.

“If she’s alive, then the other….”

The gazes of Su Zimo and the other trainers followed the voice of the girl with glasses to the back of the person with her hair down on the left. The ‘person’ had been sitting there with her body straight and motionless, as if nothing around her had anything to do with her.

Then in the next second, Su Zimo unexpectedly found that the unmoving girl on the left got up, but her white skirt wasn’t being blown by the night wind. It was hanging vertically on her like cardboard.

“The ‘person’ walked past the bun-head girl, but the girl leaning on the railing seemed completely unaware of the other party’s existence and didn’t look back at all.

Seeing the girl with the long hair was about to turn and enter the living room, the trainers subconsciously stood in the dark corner by the wall where there was a hollowed-out bookshelf partition. It was just big enough to hide four or five people, so even Su Zimo hid cautiously.

They watched the ‘person’ move through the living room like a sleepwalker, disappearing into the dark part of the hallway on the other side of the living room.

When the figure disappeared, Su Zimo and the others walked out from behind the partition and looked carefully at the other side of the hall. Because they were in an ordinary apartment, nothing too small or too big, in addition to the living room and balcony, there was a short hallway leading to each bedroom. You could see the whole picture at a glance.

However, the ‘person’ with the long hair and white skirt seemed to disappear after walking down the hall. What Su Zimo and the others saw was just a few closed doors. The ‘person’ wasn’t there anymore.

“Don’t worry about it.” The girl with delicate makeup whispered. “That’s probably the content of the next task. The most important thing now is to safely complete the first task. Don’t disturb the rhythm.”

“My name is Xu Yingying, ying from crystal clear. This is Zhuzhu, a girl from my club at school. Zhu from pearls.” The girl with delicate makeup and a light brown, pear blossom hairstyle was wearing a white chiffon single-shoulder top and a denim miniskirt. ¹ She seemed like she would be very popular at school, and her mouth was smiling. When she stood with Su Zimo, it was like two smiling machines without emotion. ²

When she stood beside Xu Yingying, the round-faced girl with short curly hair and glasses was a little outdone. She lowered her head and clutched her striped skirt with her hands, looking timid and shy.

“Zhu from scarlet and then Zhu from pearls.” Zhuzhu’s voice was a little weak, and she was even more uncomfortable around Xu Yingying.

“I know you. You attend Jiangdu Drama Academy, right?” The tall and handsome guy on the other side lifted his chin.

“You, too?” Xu Yingying glanced over.

“No, I went to university in Xiyang, but I saw your pictures and videos online.” The guy smiled. “My name is Du Lei, from three stone pile. I’m in my second year like you.”

The introductions of the three trainers drew Su Zimo’s attention. The two girls were both university students in Jiangdu, and the other boy’s name, Du Lei, reminded Su Zimo of Du Xin.

But they were all ordinary names and surnames, so Su Zimo didn’t think there should be a relationship between the two.

The strangest thing was that the three people who entered the nightmare world were all university students, right? And they seemed to be students who had just finished their first year. That also reminded Su Zimo of what happened in the last nightmare world. He felt that every nightmare world would make decisions in advance before the trainers even entered.

“What about you?” Xu Yingying looked at Su Zimo with some curiosity after the three people’s introductions.

Perhaps because he placed himself in the role of a bystander, Su Zimo’s words and actions seemed a bit out of place, or very abrupt.

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“I…” Su Zimo paused, swallowing back the name he was going to blurt out, then said, “We just met. Please just call me A-Yu.”

It’s not that Su Zimo hadn’t thought of choosing a better name, or a name that looked more like a name, but choosing a name wasn’t something that could be done with just a flash of inspiration. The name that came to mind most quickly must be familiar to him.

However, hiding his real name was originally to avoid trouble. Borrowing someone else’s name wasn’t something Su Zimo wanted to do, and he couldn’t use a deceased person’s name, so in the end, only ‘Ayuyuyu’ could be used.

“A-Yu? That’s not your real name, right?” Du Lei looked a little unhappy. “We all said our real names. It’s only you who didn’t. Isn’t that unfair?”

“It’s just that everyone’s choice is different.” Su Zimo raised his eyebrows. “You don’t look like newcomers anymore. Aren’t you afraid of meeting some ghost that can kill you if it knows your name? Aren’t you afraid that there are ghosts among us? Aren’t you afraid of encountering a prop that would be unlucky if you were named?”

“I…” After hearing Su Zimo’s words, the three students were speechless for a while.

“I kept you waiting!” Just when the atmosphere became quiet, the girl who was on the phone outside on the balcony before came inside, bounced, and smiled before saying to them, “Shall we start the ghost story assembly?”

The girl invited all four people present to sit down on the sofa in the living room. She and Su Zimo sat on the love seats on either side, and the remaining three trainers sat on the three-person sofa in the middle. Du Lei sat beside Xu Yingying for the reason of ‘protecting female classmates,’ and five people total sat around the coffee table.

The girl had a loose bun on her head that matched her flowing white skirt very nicely. When they saw her front, Du Lei, who was sitting to the side, was somewhat disappointed. The girl’s appearance was really ordinary. Her facial features looked very wide, different from the gently sloping back that he just saw.

Su Zimo saw girl lean forward and reach to tap on the tablet on the coffee table. After seeing nothing new from any messaging apps, she leaned back into the sofa.

Su Zimo’s observation and memorization skills had always been good, so when he looked at the tablet screen that was still lit, even though it was upside down, he still recognized that it was a chat group interface.

There was only one message in the entire chat log, and judging from the color and position of the chat bubble, it was sent from this tablet. In other words, it was the message sent by the girl with the bun head opposite Su Zimo before they arrived–

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[Tonight, you’ll come to my house to play at the ghost story assembly, right? I’ll have snacks ready and waiting for you!]

Footnotes

<ol>Pear blossom hairstyle is where the bangs are cut at the eyebrows and the rest of the hair falls to about shoulder length. It can be slightly waved or straight. So this part mentions her mouth because smiling with just the mouth is very fake. Smiling is mainly shown with the eyes, so if there’s no crinkling at the corner, then the smile is very obviously fake.</ol>