/
After he made the decision, he didn’t implement it immediately. Su Er lingered at the door for a while. The ghost bone flower could deceive the ghost’s perception, but not necessarily the host’s.
According to the beginner’s guide, hosts had the ability to monitor. This meant that little tricks played between players couldn’t be hidden from them.
“No…” Su Er murmured and shook his head: “This is a fallacy.”
The taser was also a prop, but it also affected the host. The effect was the complete opposite when applied to ghosts, though. (1)
Thinking of this, Su Er squinted his eyes. He was afraid that not even Ji Heng knew if this thing would be useful against the host. After all, the enemy the player faced was the ghosts. Regarding the host, they just needed to be careful.
“Let’s try it.”
There was no better place to go as of now. He couldn’t go to the ancestral hall by himself and force Wen Buyu and Ji Heng out. He didn’t have that idea or the ability.
Su Er slowly climbed over the wall and went into the yard, with the skeleton behind him like a shadow.
Mr. Shuhai was leaning against the headboard of the bed, flipping through a book in his hand. Heaving movements in the yard, he frowned.
Su Er deliberately made some noise to lead the other party to check it out, but it was to no avail. On second thought, when Ge Xuyan was killed on the first day, the host must have heard something, but he ignored it.
Making up his mind, he simply pushed the door in directly. (2)
When things were said and done, it was inevitable to feel a little cowardly the moment he entered. His hand never left the taser, as if he was seeking some kind of psychological comfort.
Mr. Shuhai raised his eyes and looked over Su Er towards the skeleton behind him.
Su Er couldn’t help but secretly rejoice. It worked!
This joy didn’t last long. He soon found that the ghost bone flower in his pocket was blooming faster than before. While Mr. Shuhai’s attention was attracted by the skeleton at the door, he quickly turned to the end of the bed and silently climbed onto it.
Mr. Shuhai seemed to feel something and was about to turn around. Su Er immediately stiffened. No matter how careful he was, there would inevitably be a small dent on the bed due to weight. Fortunately, the living environment provided by the Educational Hall was not good, so there was only a thin mattress, making the dent not too obvious. (3)
Su Er took a deep breath and continued to crawl forward a little bit.
Before Mr. Shuhai could study the bed carefully, his face rapidly changed. Fat maggots were crawling towards the bed, and some even tried to drill into his shoes. (4)
“Bastard things!”
Su Er smiled faintly behind him. From his usual manner of dressing, he could tell that Mr. Shuhai loved to read and be tidy. Even his clothing hardly had any wrinkles. At the first sight of these maggots, how could he calm down?
There was a sizzling noise, and the maggots’ bodies seemed to ignite, crackling before exploding.
“Hand over the person.” The skeleton ignored the dead maggots and moved forward, his body making a scraping sound against the floor. The voice was extremely hoarse as if mixed with something. (5)
Su Er raised his eyebrows. The voice seemed similar and consistent with the one he had heard from the coffin earlier that day.
Zhou Linjun.
He still remembered the name on the tombstone and connected it to the last words it left him. Whoever could keep the red paper would be the chief guard. It can be seen that of the many tombs, this ghost dominates.
“Ghost King, the well water does not intrude into the river…” (6)
“Hand over the person.” The skeleton repeated.
They refused to give in to the other. Predicting that the skeleton would not rush in for no reason, Mr. Shuhai frowned and first said: “You go back three feet.”
When the skeleton went out of the threshold, Mr. Shuhai swept the cover of the book gently.
The furniture (TN: excluding the bed) instantly turned to dust and scattered across the floor, leaving not a single solid fragment behind. Su Er was surprised. The strength of the host was far beyond his imagination. You could tell how precise his control over his power was as well. Several small flowers that were stuck on the walls and corners remained intact.
“If there is any living creature, even if it hides its figure, it cannot resist.” Mr. Shuhai’s eyes were like knives. His tone was normal, but there was an underlying sense of dissatisfaction: “Ghost King, are you deliberately looking for trouble?” (7)
Su Er was not narcissistic, but he couldn’t help but sigh at his brilliance… Sure enough, the bed was the safest.
Otherwise, he was afraid there wouldn’t even be an intact body left.
The skeleton also seemed surprised by this result.
Mr. Shuhai said coldly: “Don’t be so stupid to be fooled by other people’s tricks.”
At such a close distance, every word Mr. Shuhai said could be heard clearly in Su Er’s ears. The joy of being a survivor of such a disaster passed quickly, and Su Er realized for the first time that the identity of the host did not allow them to dominate everything as he had imagined. Not only were they subject to the rules, but they also had to deal with some high-level ghosts. (8)
He couldn’t help but hate how shallow his experience was. If Ji Heng was here, he must have had a method to test out more useful information.
Because he only had half of its body, the skeleton’s movement when he turned around wasn’t smooth, and its voice was even more hoarse: “His life, mine.”
The clanging echoed in the yard and drifted away with the wind. The skeleton was long gone.
Su Er stared at his back and frowned. Before she disappeared, Zhu Yun’s dream was to study medicine. If there is a chance to in the future, he wanted to grab this skeleton and send it to Zhu Yun for research. He didn’t even have vocal cords- how could he speak?
An idea flashed by, and Su Er slowly lowered his eyes (T/N: in contemplation)… Just then, did the skeleton say that only he could kill him?
Is this the beginning of love?
He couldn’t help but squint at Mr. Shuhai. Why not throw away the old and go find another to hook up with? If you could be called the Ghost King by the host, your ability shouldn’t be too bad. (9)
While Su Er was enjoying a few moments of happiness amid suffering, Mr. Shuhai had already laid on the bed again. Su Er held his breath and pressed back against the wall. More than half of the ghost bone flower had bloomed. Let alone lasting until dawn, it was difficult to tell if it could hold on for another hour. (10)
Without the interference of the skeleton, Su Er tried to move for a while. At that moment, Mr. Shuhai frowned slightly, and Su Er didn’t dare to move rashly anymore.
For the next ten minutes, Su Er almost degenerated into a snail, even being cautious when turning his head. After finally getting out of the bed, he was just about to leave when he caught sight of the maggot’s corpse next to the bed.
According to his original idea, the skeleton could locate him because of the maggots. But these worms were just underground things, unlike those with IQ. Can they really be so bright?
Su Er bit his lip and his eyes twinkled. After a moment, he took out the red paper he got during the day from his pocket. After marking them all and leaving only three pieces in his hand, he stuffed the rest quietly into the cracks of the bed. (11)
He didn’t dare rashly put away the ghost bone flower until he’d escaped from the yard.
Outside the courtyard. (12)
Ghosts have no shadows, but skeletons do.
The moonlight drew out a long section of broken bones, and Su Er’s eyelid twitched fiercely. He was worthy of being a Ghost King… He didn’t forget to wait for the rabbit. The other party stuck close to the wall opposite the yard. Obviously, he didn’t fully believe in Mr. Shuhai’s words.
When Su Er appeared, the skeleton seemed to have been alerted and moved forward, but he soon retreated, still kept waiting outside the yard.
It was impossible to go to the ancestral hall. Su Er weighed his options repeatedly before sprinting off toward the Li house.
After determining he’d put enough distance between himself and the skeleton, Su Er hurriedly returned the ghost bone flower to the box, and the speed of the flower blooming instantly slowed down. Closing the lid, Su Er thought, this box was also probably a treasure. (13)
With no means of hiding himself, he could only carefully find things to obstruct his body as he moved forward, his speed much slower. (14)
He climbed over the wall and entered the Li family’s house and found the place where the workers lived. Complaints floated in the wind—
“What sort of luck is this today?” Wan Yi was a little surprised: “Su Er?”
On the other side, Wen Buyu was even more surprised than him: “Why are you here?”
Su Er: “Hiding from ghosts, need help.”
“…”
Su Er guessed that Wen Buyu was most likely here to seek protection and frowned: “Where is your red paper?”
Wen Buyu was a little wary.
This reaction was normal, and Su Er didn’t care: “Find a way to spread them out. These things can attract ghosts.”
Wen Buyu was stunned, her face turning pale. Wan Yi let out a curse.
A man who usually looked like a very elegant gentleman sometimes swore regardless of his image.
“No wonder…” Wan Yi looked at her silently. Ever since she came, even with props, ghosts still discovered her.
“It’d be a shame to throw them all away,” Shen Jiangbei, who had been silent, suddenly said. “Each person should take some and then act separately.”
Su Er also had the same idea, and repeated the word ‘disperse,’ but he paid more attention to Wen Buyu: “Didn’t you go to the ancestral hall?” (15)
It’d be okay as long as it wasn’t mentioned, but it’s inevitable to feel wronged when it was. Wen Buyu: “Ji Heng kicked me out.”
Of course, she couldn’t say anything. After all, Ji Heng had been there long before she arrived.
Su Er: “Then I’ll go tell him about the red paper.”
Hearing this, Wan Yi looked at him appreciatively. Let’s not talk about Su Er’s way of handling things, at least he was up to standard (T/N: as a dependable player/teammate).
Su Er gave him a curt nod, looked at Shen Jiangbei again, and continued: “So which one of you wants to go with me?”
“…”
Su Er: “My values aren’t at the critical point. I can’t kill ghosts.”
Wan Yi was a profit-oriented person: “What are the benefits of helping you?”
Su Er: “Ji Heng holds the most of the red paper.”
The more red paper they had, the better it was for them.
The empty-handed white wolf had to admit that was reasonable. Wan Yi sighed and said to Shen Jiangbei: “I’ll follow him.” (16)
As soon as he left the Li’s house, Wan Yi’s temperament suddenly became more vigilant. He paid careful attention to his surroundings and didn’t dare to slack off.
Su Er: “Take a detour. There’s a big problem at the gate of the courtyard where we lived before.”
Wan Yi gave him a deep look but asked little. They were also lucky and didn’t meet a single ghost on the road. It was the dead of night. Many trees towered over them silently outside of the ancestral hall, their canopy obscuring most of the night sky and moonlight.
Wan Yi moved forward cautiously in the dark. The ancestral hall door lay ajar. The moment he stepped in, he felt bitter killing intent. When Ji Heng saw Su Er, the killing intent dispersed by a lot.
Ji Heng leaned against a pillar a looked over: “So long?”
Su Er smiled bitterly: “I was targeted by a skeleton, who was nevertheless the Ghost King.” (17)
“Impossible.” Before Ji Heng opened his mouth, Wan Yi subconsciously interrupted: “If you met the Ghost King, you can’t survive.”
Su Er: “Go to a temporary shelter.”
He explained most of his experience in a few words, but when it came to the dialogue between Mr. Shuhai and the skeleton, he repeated it verbatim: “Say, what’s the relationship between the host and the ghost?”
After waiting for a few seconds, he heard no response.
Su Er looked up and found Wan Yi staring at him in indescribable shock.
What kind of expression was that?
Su Er looked at Ji Heng again. Seeing that he was also deep in thought, Su Er asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” After a brief silence, Ji Heng returned to normal and said lightly: “It’s just that the story is a little strange. I didn’t know who to pity for a while.”
The author has something to say:
Ji Heng: I pity myself, who waited for him for most of the night. I pity the poor Ghost King, who is still obsessively guarding the outside of the courtyard. I pity the poor Mr. Shuhai whose bed was climbed into without his knowing. Anyway, I don’t pity Su Er. (18)
Su Er: …
PS: Let’s answer the question together. (19) Su Er knows that this is a horror novel, but he thinks that the core and essence are on a larger scale; I will write about the time difference later, but everyone who wanted to take advantage of the time difference (T/N: in the game vs. real life) ended up being beaten to death by the game… Just like Su Er, they had the idea to cheat, which caused a series of butterfly effects, but it didn’t work out in the end. (20)
FOOTNOTES
Su Er still does not know that the taser can also negatively affect the host. When the host or any ghost touches the taser, their life force is sucked out from them, just like what happened to The Rose Gentleman in chapter. Excerpt from chapter 3 (translation by 404errorunfound):
.
Gentleman Rosa snatched the item away from him easily and, after studying it only for a short while, violently threw it back at Su Er. Just now this thing… seemed to be drawing life energy from him.
.心一横 – “With a horizontal hear;” means to make up your mind after having had difficulties deciding something. It is a term only used in context to difficult decisions Su Er went back to the living quarters (provided by the Educational Hall) that the players and the host live in.Original raws more literal translation: “Suddenly his face changed slightly.” 喑哑 – hoarse, raspy; “scraping” was not in the raws: 竟是发出了声音 – “He made a sound”井水不犯河水 – “The well water does not intrude into the river water;” Mean that each person minds his own business.语气平常却带着丝丝不善 – “his tone is ordinary but slightly bad.”劫后余生 – being a survivor of disaster勾搭 – hook up with, hit on, seduce, flirt, snag, gang up with/fool around with; 踹了去 – kick it. Original raws: “Why not kick it away.” “Old” was not in raws.苦中作乐 – to enjoy life in midst of sorrow and adversitySu Er is saying the maggots can’t be smart enough to be able to differentiate people and accurately guide Zhou Linjun to him. Therefore, there must be something on Su Er’s person that is attracting them院 – hospital, courtyard, collage, institution, compound, yardBecause it could slow down the speed of the flower blossoming, Su Er thinks the box might have some sort of time altering power障碍物 – obstacle, barrier所以才用了‘散’字 – “so he used the word ‘scatter’”Wan Yi and Shen Jiangbei didn’t have any as much red paper of their own, so Wan Yi agreed to help Su Er get to the ancestral hall in exchange for some of Ji Heng’s red paper还是: still; nevertheless; all the sameMore literally: “Poor Mr. Shuhai, who was climbed into bed without knowing it” 答疑: answer the questions of a teacher/speaker/etc.Reminder that time does not pass in the real world while you are in the game. However, if you stay in the rest area (it was the place the characters had their organizations’ headquarters and can view the tutorial games) for more than 3 days, you’ll automatically be sent to a high-difficulty game.