Chapter 102
Chapter 102
The other Fan Tiantian in the mirror wore a rigid mask of terror. Her bulging eyes were webbed with blood vessels.
Her face and body were covered in cuts from a sharp weapon. The wounds no longer bled; only hideous, dark purple gashes remained.
Fan Tiantian panicked. What was happening?
How could this happen? Why did I end up like this?
Was it because I ate the food meant for the dead? It had to be!
It had to be!
What do I do? What do I do? What do I do…?
Fine beads of sweat covered Fan Tiantian’s forehead. She did not realize she had been staring into the dead woman’s eyes the entire time.
“Do you want to know why? Turn around and look at me. Turn around and look at me.”
Her own voice came from behind her. Fan Tiantian began shaking uncontrollably.
In a flash, she remembered Cheng Miao’s warning. She must never turn around!
She had not asked the question yet, but if she smashed the mirror now, she could at least survive, couldn’t she?
Fan Tiantian tried to throw the mirror down, only to find her body frozen in place, no longer obeying her. At last, she realized what was happening.
Why am I still looking into her eyes?
Stop looking!
Stop looking!
It was useless. Fan Tiantian’s gaze remained glued to those terrifying, blood-red eyes. Her body went rigid and slowly began to turn, as if invisible hands were wrenching her around.
She came face-to-face with the mutilated figure behind her. The woman who looked exactly like her opened a blood-filled mouth and unleashed a piercing shriek.
“You turned around! That’s why you ended up like this!!”
…
At half past midnight, the door to Room 201 opened. Mohawk stumbled out on legs as limp as noodles. Only after he crossed the threshold did he dare open his eyes. His hand shook as he returned the comb to the Pregnant Woman.
“What is the answer?” she asked matter-of-factly, without a trace of sympathy for him.
Mohawk swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “She drowned.”
The Pregnant Woman nodded without saying whether he was right or wrong. She and the other Longtime Tenants entered the elevator and slowly departed. They did not so much as mention Fan Tiantian in the other room, leaving the players alone on the second floor.
Sun Jiao had a terrible feeling. She took out her Item, a pitch-black staff.
Without asking anyone to accompany her, she pushed open the door to Room 201.
The room was a wreck. Fan Tiantian lay in the middle of a pool of blood, her eyes still open in death.
The shattered pieces of the mirror had slashed her body to ribbons. She lay there without a trace of life, like a broken doll.
Sun Jiao dropped to her knees, covered her face, and began to sob. The other players who had followed her inside stood in silence, not knowing how to comfort her.
That was the nature of this path. People would keep leaving them behind. All they could do was keep walking, find the way out, and earn back their lives.
Cheng Miao had Freckles help Sun Jiao sit to one side, then went to question Mohawk about what had happened.
The burly man usually looked ready for a fight, but even he still seemed badly shaken by the game.
“As soon as I finished combing my hair, I felt something show up. It pressed right against my back, cold as hell. Scared me half to death. I asked the question right away, didn’t waste a single second, smashed the mirror, and got out.”
“You have no idea how that thing behind me kept telling me to turn around and look at him. Who the fuck would dare?”
Cheng Miao frowned. There had been nothing wrong with the game itself. She had specifically warned them not to turn around, and someone as timid as Fan Tiantian should not have broken that rule.
Then how had she died…?
Could eating that bowl of rice at dinner have caused her death during the game?
Cheng Miao considered it but could not make sense of it. She turned to Mohawk. “Did you see clearly? Was the thing that appeared behind you another version of yourself?”
Mohawk rubbed his hair, looking surprised. “No. I didn’t dare open my eyes from the moment the game started until I came out. I felt my way through the dark. I have no idea what was behind me.”
Everyone stared at him in silence. That worked too?
It seemed they would get nothing more out of him. All they knew was that following Cheng Miao’s and the Pregnant Woman’s instructions could indeed keep a person alive.
Whether Fan Tiantian had died because she ate that bowl of rice or broke some other taboo remained a mystery.
“Let’s go back and rest. It’s late. We can discuss everything else tomorrow.” Seeing how exhausted and shaken everyone was, Cheng Miao sent them back to their rooms.
Before they parted, Lin Zhu and the other two still looked worried about her. Cheng Miao’s lips curved. “What are you afraid of? Did you forget I still have that lantern?”
In the Lantern instance, Cheng Miao had received an Item that could negate one instance of supernatural damage. She also had her dagger and the jump rope, which still had three uses left. If something could kill her despite all that, then she probably had no business playing this game in the first place.
The three of them relaxed a little and returned to their rooms.
After what had happened that night, having to sleep alone in a gloomy apartment was no easy thing for any of the players.
That was especially true for Little Red and Little Green. They had deliberately chosen rooms on the second floor to stay far away from the Longtime Tenants. Now Fan Tiantian had died inexplicably right next door, and in such a gruesome way.
But the Landlord had said they could not switch after choosing a room. They could only steel themselves and go inside.
When Cheng Miao returned to her room, that ever-present sensation of being watched returned.
She washed up quickly, paying particular attention to the bathroom mirror throughout the process. Nothing appeared in it.
Still fully dressed, she lay down on the bed and slipped the Fishbone Dagger into her hand beneath the covers before drifting into a light sleep.
She had no idea how long she had slept when the feeling of being watched intensified through the haze of sleep. It was as if someone had bent over her and pressed their face close to stare.
Her eyes flew open at the same instant her dagger slashed fiercely through the air. Cheng Miao felt the blade strike something, but when she looked up, she caught only a glimpse of a black shadow vanishing rapidly from the room.
She raised the Fishbone Dagger for a closer look. Something like black mist clung to the blade, only to be devoured by it in an instant.
Was it her imagination, or did the edge look brighter…?
Apparently, killing a few more ghosts would help her Item upgrade faster.
Cheng Miao rolled over and went back to sleep.
Nothing else happened that night. When the players assembled the next morning, nearly all of them had dark circles under their eyes. The others had been too frightened to sleep, while Lin Zhu and his teammates had been too worried about Cheng Miao.
Only Cheng Miao, Baili Qianqiu, and Gu Jian looked as though they had slept soundly, drawing envious looks from everyone else.
Once Cheng Miao told them what had happened during the night, their envy turned to sympathy and admiration.
Waking to find a ghost standing beside the bed and staring at you would terrify anyone. Cheng Miao had actually managed to wound it. A powerhouse indeed.
The Landlord arrived to deliver porridge that morning with a dark expression. The moment Cheng Miao noticed his impaired movements, she knew her dagger had wounded him badly the night before.
He shot Cheng Miao several cold, sinister looks. She ignored him completely, accepted her porridge, and drank it with perfect composure.
The Landlord stormed off in fury.
Only after he left did Cheng Miao finish what she had been about to say. “Even though none of these Longtime Tenants are normal, we should avoid conflict whenever possible. Last night, he was spying on me, so wounding him was self-defense. If we attack a Longtime Tenant without cause, I’m worried we may trigger a taboo.”
Everyone nodded repeatedly. Without quite realizing it, they had begun treating Cheng Miao as the center of the group.
Old Zhao took a bite of his steamed bun and craned his neck toward her. “Miss Cheng, what are we doing during the day?”
Cheng Miao glanced in the direction the Landlord had gone and lowered her voice. “I plan to search Room 602.”