When the ghost umbrellaâs voice rang in his ears, Su Zimo thought he had heard incorrectly.
Medium?
[The black umbrella is a medium.] Ghost Umbrella seemed to understand the doubts in Su Zimoâs heart. [But the black umbrella is only great for defense, and it doesnât have any ability to fight. If I want to fight, itâs better to use a human body.]
[Although I donât remember why, other ghostsâ abilities would increase after entering the nightmare world, but mine will be limited. I can only rely on a medium to act.]
Su Zimo heard what the ghost umbrella said, and finally understood why, when the ghost umbrella appeared for the first time, even after Su Zimo lost the black umbrella, he still couldnât make a move.
âWhat should I do?â Su Zimo immediately asked, looking at the faceless boy who attacked them.
[I wonât take away control of your body during possession, so you must relax your whole body.]
[Imagine yourself lying on a comfortable soft bed, relaxing your limbs. After I enter your body, you may feel uncomfortable, but after I move a little bit, the feeling will be relieved. At that time, no matter how I move, you just need to stay relaxed and leave everything to me.] <sup>1</sup>
ââŠâŠâ
"
"
Su Zimo didnât know why, but after the ghost umbrella explained the possession process in detail, he felt weird. He even wanted to take him out of the umbrella and give him a beating.
Speaking of, the ghost umbrella seemed quite awkward from the start.
âShut up and do as you said.â Su Zimo said in a low voice. âHurry and fight. Make a decision and donât be so messy!â
[âŠWhat did I do wrongâŠ] Ghost Umbrellaâs tone sounded particularly wronged.
Then, Su Zimo felt a chill spreading throughout his arms into his whole body. It was like being in a cold spring, but it didnât feel dangerous.
Watching those faceless people, the stunned trainers with headaches behind the closed classroom door suddenly saw âA-Yuâ walk past them and stand in front of the faceless people.
However, they felt for some reason that the figure standing there was a bit strange, as if it wasnât the same âA-Yuâ as before.
When the other party walked in front of the faceless people, he said with a cold tone, âBack away! The sky is cold, let the faceless ghosts ascend to heaven!â
The trainers retreated obediently, with confusion in their heartsâ
This isnât the A-Yu we know! Where did this copycat director come from! <sup>2</sup>
âBoom!â
The black umbrella opened again, and as soon as âA-Yuâ raised the umbrella, all the faceless people rushed toward him as if a switch was flipped.
âItâs really weird. Every time I show up in a nightmare world, all kinds of ghosts either run away very fast, or they all rush over like they want to eat me. These days, even figures in my dreams get lost when they see me.â The ghost umbrella within Su Zimo whispered to his boss.
Su Zimo, who was lying motionlessly in his body with great experience, felt that this ghost umbrellaâs âpopularityâ among other malicious spirits was very bad. Hearing him mention other ghosts several times, he could feel him being squeezed out.
When Su Zimo first asked the ghost umbrellaâs name, he said that many ghosts who knew him would shout âRun! That ghost umbrella is here again!â
Back then, the ghosts seemed to hate the ghost umbrellaâs singing. But now, Su Zimo could understand them.
This time, it was Su Zimo who saw the faceless people rushing toward them like hungry dogs to a bone. There were over thirty figures, and none of them cared about hiding at all. All of them were crazed and ran toward him.
Itâs almost like attracting all the hatred without any exception, completely ensuring the safety of those behind him.
The ghost umbrella controlled Su Zimoâs body without moving. After the figures gathered around him, he sudden;y asked, âBoss, should we solve this problem the fast way, or do it like ordinary people?â
In other words, âthe fast wayâ wouldnât be something ordinary people could do?
Su Zimo chose the latter.
Then he saw the ghost umbrella close the black umbrella, and when he turned his wrist, directly pierced the tip into the chest of the faceless man. He watched the faceless man turn into ash.
Knowing that the faceless figures wouldnât attack anyone else, the ghost umbrella moved with ease. Even if he didnât use the faster way, he didnât appear flustered.
The ghost umbrella didnât forget to protect his bossâ precious body while attacking. When a faceless personâs bloody mouth was wide open like a beast for sacrifice, the umbrella in Ghost Umbrellaâs hand was pushed directly outwards. The black surface spread out and instantly blocked the faceless ghost who wanted to attempt a sneak attack.
The black umbrellaâs defensive power was unquestionable. The âordinary skillâ the ghost umbrella displayed was also good, but in Su Zimoâs view, the most powerful ability the ghost umbrella was using at the moment was actually his ability to âpull aggro.â <sup>3</sup>
After a series of smooth fights, the trainers who hadnât even been touched by the faceless figures opened their mouths and stared blankly at âA-Yu,â who had instantly turned into a master.
Su Zimoâs physical performance was very good before and he was slightly strengthened. He had even learned fencing and other sports. But the fighting that Ghost Umbrella was doing at that moment was still impossible for Su Zimo, even if he went all out.
After most of the faceless people in the classroom were cleared out, Ghost Umbrella could feel Su Zimoâs body through his possession, and felt double the fatigue, so his hand movements began to slow down.
The three trainers who were protected behind him seemed to finally recover fro their shock, and rushed toward the few faceless people remaining.
Although Du Lei and the others were attacking one-on-one, they wouldnât get hurt when attacked by other faceless people. But because there were so few faceless people left in the classroom, and âA-Yuâ was still slowly cleaning up, it wasnât a major problem even if the trainers were injured.
But after fighting, Du Lei, who had the strongest body, somehow turned out to have the most injuries.
For some reason, the ghost umbrella would always throw faceless people directly in front of Du Lei, scratching him with claws or taking a bite of him without warning.
Seeing another faceless person rush toward him, Du Lei didnât know whether this was A-Yuâs trust in him, or if he had offended himâŠ
Just thinking about that, the ghost umbrella not far away kicked another faceless person in front of Du Lei.
After who-knows-how-long, all the faceless people in the classroom turned to ash!
âThereâs still an hour left.â Xu Yingying clutched a bite wound on top of the countdown timer on her right arm and leaned against the window to rest.
Ghost Umbrella also returned to the black umbrella after the battle. His physique wasnât suitable for appearing in the nightmare world, and would add a lot of unnecessary trouble.
Su Zimo dragged his exhausted and aching body to the side with everyone else, looking at the red moon and resting in a daze.
At that moment, they suddenly heard a rusting sound coming from outside the window.
Following the noise, Su Zimo and the other trainers looked out the window. He thought he would see an ordinary school campus, but he didnât expect that the scenery outside appeared to be a small forest. Three familiar faceless figures stood together, digging a hole in the ground with shovels.
âIs that the school flower and the glasses girl?â Xu Yingying quickly recognized the three people digging a hole outside as the three pranksters from upstairs based on their clothing.
âWhy are they digging a hole?â
As soon as Zhu Zhu asked the question, Su ZImo and the others saw Hua Xiaowan and the two others throw something into the hold, and then start filling it in.
âWhat was that?â Maybe it was because the thing they threw into the hole was too small, but Du Lei couldnât recognize it.
âIt may be a cell phone. Zhang Xiaoqingâs cell phone.â Su Zimo only saw the outline, but felt that his guess should be accurate.
ââŠâŠâ The trainersâ minds also began to fill in the storyline like Su Zimo did, so they all fell into silence.
âAre we going to continue to head downstairs?â After experiencing the situation just now, the trainers all looked at Su Zimo with strange expressions. That is, with the feeling that they wanted to get both closer and farther away, both respecting and fearingâŠ
After going back and forth in the red hallway for so long, the trainers were somewhat immune to the dizzying redness. Their nausea was disappearing faster, especially when they found themselves staring at A-Yu.
"
"
When Su Zimo saw that weird expression appear on Du Leiâs face when asking questions, he couldnât help but think of Du Xin from beforeâŠ
In fact, it was not only Du Lei and Du Xin, but also many similar people around him. Most of them didnât leave a clear impression, though. The most clearly remembered people were Du Lei and Du Xin simply because he hadnât yet had time to forget.
So before answering Du Leiâs questions, Su Zimo, who was exhausted after being possessed by the ghost umbrella before, leaned against the railing in the red hallway and asked abruptly, âDo you have a brother named Du Xin?â
âAh?â Du Lei didnât seem to expect that Su Zimo would ask that, and he was a little stunned.
âNevermind.â Su Zimo shook his head, then straightened up against the railing. âGo down and take a look.â
The four people walked downstairs again. The influence of the red staircase seemed gradually less effective against the trainers, and then they saw a completely different door appear on the next floor. The door was open. The closer they got, the more they could hear the mournful funeral music through the door.
This time Su Zimo didnât plan on entering the door, since inside the door seemed to be a funeral hall. A middle-aged couple with crying and swollen eyes stood there. A black and white picture of Zhang Xiaoqing was on the altar.
The couple had clear facial features, and the similarity between them and Zhang Xiaowing could be seen, so Su Zimo felt that they may not attack the trainers without warning.
[Uncle, aunt, Iâm really sorry.] Hua Xiaowanâs voice came from inside the door.
[We troubled you.] Zhang Xiaoqingâs mother was crying. [We also heard those rumours. Iâm truly sorry. My daughter caused you so much trouble after she passed. Iâm truly sorry!]
[Donât say that. Weâre Zhang Xiaoqingâs best friends after all.] Hua Xiaowanâs voice was sad, as if she was born with the gift of lying. [Can we go to her room and see?]
[Go. Her room is still the same, but the things brought back from school are piled up in there, so it may be a bit messy.]
[Itâs okay. We just want to see her room.]
After Hua Xiaowan finished speaking, there was no other sound besides the mournful funeral music through the door. The door that was originally completely open shut in front of them. No more faceless figures would expose themselves. <sup>4</sup>
âThis is when they took Zhang Xiaoqingâs phone, right?â Zhu Zhu, who was learning to analyze, adjusted her glasses. âNo one seems to have investigated Zhang Xiaoqingâs phone, so the three took the phone away at this time.â
Su Zimo didnât know why the most crucial piece of evidence, the cell phone, wasnât investigated. It seems that no one had looked into Zhang Xiaoqingâs call records. He could only watch the three people take Zhang Xiaoqingâs phone away, leaving only a mess of speculations and rumours about the entire incident. The truth of the matter was completely covered up.
If he were Zhang Xiaoqing, the grievances in his heart wouldnât be light.
âAre we really going to continue going downstairs?â After understanding the stories told on these floors, although the faceless peopleâs attacks were horrifying, the trainers felt conflicted. Even Du Lei, who had a simple mind, was somewhat sentimental.
âThereâs still forty minutes.â Looking at the countdown on their right arms, the trainers felt that the path ahead was bleak.
Su Zimo, who had already walked halfway down the hallway, glanced down, then raised his head and suggested seriously to the other trainers,
âWhy donât we change our minds?â
âChange our minds?â
âThe task requirement is to leave the building, right?â Because Su Zimo didnât have anything on his left arm, and there was no countdown on his right arm, he could only remember the most basic task requirement.
âYes. But there is more than one way to leave this building.â
As Su Zimo spoke, he actually turned back and began walking upstairs instead.
In fact, when he first left the apartment, Su Zimo kept thinking about what Zhang Xiaoqing said. She saidâ
[If you want to survive, escape from this apartment.]
[You will know the feeling of despair.]
[Hurry up, thereâs no time.]
If analyzing those three sentences alone, Zhang Xiaoqing meant that the trainers would experience the despair she felt. So when was Zhang Xiaowing most desperate?
Was it when Zhang Xiaoqing jumped down?
Su Zimo shook his head secretly. The moment Zhang Xiaoqing jumped, she probably wasnât desperate because she had already made her decision and thought she could save Lin Zhe.
So when Zhang Xiaoqing was really desperate was probably that time she was standing on the rooftop in pain and confusion, right?
In any case, there was only one correct answer that Su Zimo could think ofâ
Go to the rooftop!
*
âMore than one way? How can we leave this building?â Although Du Lei questioned it, his feet automatically followed Su Zimo upstairs.
ââŠâŠâ Su ZImo paused, then said shortly. âJump off the building.â
Before going downstairs, Su Zimo had actually considered that possibility. The seemingly endless stairs down were just an unsolvable situation to trap them like beasts. Those faceless people were just a means to eliminate the trapped beasts. Thatâs all.
The real way out had always been to go up.
Su Zimo only followed the trainers downstairs to find more products. Although, he eventually found two cell phones in the abandoned classroom. Su Zimo remembered that they were now hidden in his backpack. His phone capabilities werenât bad, and they also provided him with a very important clue.
[Cell Phone of the Admired, Fake (One Star)]
[Sale Price: 20 yuan]
[Description: Disposable Item â When using this ghost tool to dial a human phone, you can ask the human to complete a request.]
[Limitation: The degree of completion of the holderâs request is related to the willpower of the recipient.]
[Cell Phone of the Fake Psychic, Fake (One Star)]
[Sale Price: 20 yuan]
[Description: Disposable Item â Use this ghost tool to channel a random malicious spirit. You can ask the ghost to answer five questions.]
[Limitation: The degree of correctness of the malicious spiritâs answers is related to the strength of the malicious spirit itself. Violating taboos may cause backlash.]
Although the two tools were just low-grade one star tools, the price of one star products ranged from ten to twenty yuan. These two tools could be regarded as the best one star ghost tools. In addition, the products with the âlimitationâ text box seemed to be very powerful in Su Zimoâs eyes.
If these two ghost tools werenât disposable items, Su Zimo felt that their star ratings would be higher.
While thinking about that, Su Zimo discovered that they had unknowingly already gone up several floors, and the original apartment door had appeared in front of them. Behind that door was where the nightmare world began.
Su Zimo found that the originally closed door was ajar. He tried to push it and opened the apartment door with ease.
After looking inside for a while, Su Zimo found that the apartment was still the same, except that the balcony door was now tightly closed and the thick curtains were drawn shut. It looked like it was to prevent Su Zimo and the others from jumping directly from that balcony.
Su Zimo never thought about opening the balcony doors. AFter all, in this world, as long as Zhang Xiaoqing didnât allow it, they wouldnât be able to open any doors.
âWhen coming back here, I suddenly feel peace of mind.â Xu Yingying looked and the soft and comfortable sofa and the gentle lighting, and she was relieved. But when she turned her head, she saw Su Zimo looking deep into the hallway at the closed bedroom door and walked over, âA-Yu, isnât there a ghost in that room?â
âItâs not a ghost. Itâs just an illusion.â Su Zimo briefly explained, and then easily opened the bedroom door. Using the light from the living room, he found the third cell phone on the bedside table.
[Cell Phone of the Liar, Fake (Two Stars)]
[Sale Price: 50 yuan]
[Description: The holder gets three minutes of talking time every Monday, and it resets every Sunday. When the holder uses the âCell Phone of the Liarâ to talk to others, if the recipient is lying, the holder can hear it in their voice.]
When he saw this phone that should belong to Hua Xiaowan, Su Zimo couldnât help but increase his focus. This phone was not only a higher ranked two star tool, but also had no limitations and wasnât a disposable item. In Su Zimoâs opinion, that was a sign that this ghost tool was more powerful.
Although it wasnât a ghost tool for combat, it could have some use in some strange occasions.
[The ghosts in this world are very powerful.] The voice of the ghost umbrella rang in Su Zimoâs ears. [Itâs really amazing that something created by relying only on dreams could become a ghost tool.]
âLetâs continue going upstairs.â After Su Zimo exited the bedroom, he glances at the apartment where nothing useful remained, and then left the apartment with the other trainers to continue going up.
This time, Su Zimo didnât stay behind.
What surprised the trainers was that when they walked up the red staircase, although the dizziness and nausea returned, and it was worsening, they didnât see another door upstairs. It seemed that they only had to climb up the spiral staircase.
âThe task wonât be easy to clear.â Su Zimo looked at the trainers who stopped in the hallway to rest their eyes and breathe. Although he felt a little tired, he still said, âEveryone hold on. Itâs not as complicated as it seems.â
At that time, Zhu Zhu grabbed the cloth strip in her hand again, and then handed the other end of it to Xu Yinginy. She grit her teeth and said, âYingying, when you hold this cloth strip, your nausea will feel better. If it doesnât work, close your eyes and Iâll pull you up.â
With that, Zhu Zhu, who had been pulled along by Xu Yingying, began to pull Xu Yingying for a little bit.
At the beginning of the nightmare world, when Xu Yingying introduced Zhu Zhu on her behalf, Su Zimo thought that the relationship between the two friends was like that of the school flower and glasses girl in Zhang Xiaoqingâs story.
But after learning the three trainersâ personalities, Su Zimo felt that the relationship between Xu Yingying and Zhu Zhu wasnât bad. It was actually much better than he had thought.
Itâs just that⊠Zhu Zhu really didnât understand the way that the cloth strip could be used.
Su Zimo glanced helplessly at the text boxes on the cloth strip in Zhu Zhuâs hand, and couldnât guess when Zhu Zhu, itâs master, would realize its true purpose.
[Ghost Eyes of the Blind (Two Stars)]
[Sale Price: 50 yuan]
[Description: The blood on the cloth strip comes from a deceased blind man â a dead man who had never before seen light, and still had an obsession to see the world after death. When the holder wraps the cloth strip around their eyes, they can open their eyes and see a special world in black and white through the cloth.]
[Special Ability: Please note that you are seeing the world through the eyes of a ghost, so you may see something that ordinary people canât see.]
Such a special white cloth strip was used by Zhu Zhu as a guide rope, but Su Zimo couldnât risk telling Zhu Zhu the true purpose of the cloth strip. Su Zimo felt that in the future, though, he would be able to carry out some appraisals and even charge a fee to compensate for losses.
But Su Zimoâs ability to identify the ghost tools comes from the glasses on the bridge of his nose, so he wouldnât rashly identify ghost tool for anyone since he understood the truth of being âguilty of his crime.â <sup>5</sup>
âI saw it, the ceiling of the building!â Du Lei saw that the two girls were working hard, and they were climbing up step by step with clenched teeth, even faster than Su Zimo, who was lost in thought.
When Du Lei reached the top, he shouted in surprise.
If he really saw the ceiling of the building, that meant that they were about to reach the top of the building, and that meant that they were getting closer and closer to the rooftop that Su Zimo was looking for.
Footnotes
<ol>_(:3ïœŁâ )_ It says æ»èŁ here, meaning some leader of a company usually, so I went with director since GU is directing his body, but a more straightforward translation would be chairman/CEO. Pulling aggro is a gaming term meaning to attract the attention of all the enemies in the area. A literal translation here is embarrass themselves, not expose themselves. But the meaning is more like they wouldnât unintentionally display their emotions for outsiders to see, rather than being embarrassed by anything. This is referencing the proverb ćč怫æ çœȘïŒæç§ć ¶çœȘ (The husband is not guilty, but he is guilty of his crime.) The proverb is related to a story about a circus knife thrower who was doing a routine with his wife and killed her with a knife. During a trial, it was said to have been an accident, not murder, so he was innocent in intention but guilty in action.</ol>