Chapter 152
Chapter 152
When Cheng Miao got up the next morning, she found Qin Musong with dark circles under his eyes and Lin Zhu rubbing his neck as if he had slept on it wrong.
As Qin Musong recounted what happened the night before, Lin Zhu kept rubbing the goose bumps on his arms. He had no idea when the attack had taken hold.
The hallucination was gone now, and he could distinguish the painting from the wall.
“Thank you, Brother Qin. If it weren’t for you last night, I’d already be dead.” Lin Zhu was still shaken.
Qin Musong merely patted his head and told him not to dwell on it.
This left Cheng Miao puzzled. She had looked at the dolls too, and Gu Jian had even shut himself in with them, yet neither of them had been affected.
But every person who had been affected really had examined a doll closely beforehand. What did they have in common?
“My fourteen honored guests, are all of you awake?” Kojima’s voice came from above. Seeing him walk downstairs with a cheerful smile, Cheng Miao raised an eyebrow.
“You seem to be in a good mood today, Mr. Kojima.”
Kojima nodded to her. “Yes. Yuko’s health has improved considerably today.”
While the players ate breakfast, Kojima hummed happily and refilled everyone’s tea.
Ah Qi and Peng Sheng had poor nerves and could barely force down any food.
“Since Miss Yuko is feeling better, does that mean we can visit her studio?” Cheng Miao asked Kojima.
“Yes, yes, my dear guest.” Kojima answered with a beaming smile. “We will visit the studio this afternoon.”
After eating, Cheng Miao sat in the living room and thought. This was undoubtedly a supernatural instance, yet she had not seen a single ghost so far.
How strange. Cheng Miao did not believe there was a problem with her buff. That meant the ghosts might be subject to certain restrictions.
Perhaps the time had not yet come. Cheng Miao knew that in some instances, the restrictions on ghosts were lifted in stages.
By her count, this was their third day in the instance. A ghost ought to appear soon.
There was one other possibility.
Cheng Miao narrowed her eyes. Perhaps the ghosts could only appear when someone triggered a taboo. If that was the case, this instance imposed more limitations on her than most.
The ghost-sensing buff she possessed beyond those of ordinary players would be basically useless. She would have to place herself in danger before she could see a ghost.
What a nuisance. Cheng Miao leaned back.
From the corner of her eye, she glanced at Qiudong sitting quietly nearby. She sighed inwardly and twitched her fingers twice.
If only Qiudong were still a cat. She could pet him a couple of times.
What Cheng Miao failed to notice was that Qiudong saw the tiny motion. After a moment’s thought, he understood exactly what was going through her head.
Qiudong’s handsome face instantly darkened.
Ever since Xiao Yan’s incident in the third-floor washroom, Xiang Ping had been somewhat afraid to use the shared facilities.
He looked perfectly calm on the outside, and no one could see how badly he was panicking.
He could not let those pretty boys laugh at him.
So when Xiang Ping urgently needed the toilet, he chose to return to his room.
All the paintings in his private washroom had been covered. Besides, after staying there for two days, he had grown familiar with the room.
Xiang Ping used the toilet, zipped up, flushed, and washed his hands. Shaking the water from them, he reached for the door.
He had used the washroom several times, and many of the motions had become habitual. So when his swinging hand struck something on the wall that did not feel like a wall, he froze without understanding what had happened.
When he followed his hand with his gaze and discovered that a new painting had somehow appeared on the wall, with his palm already touching it, he nearly collapsed in terror.
There was no time to wonder why an oil painting that had not been there before had suddenly appeared on the wall. Xiang Ping’s first instinct was to open the door.
Get out. Reach a place with more people, then find a solution.
But no matter how hard he pulled, the door remained motionless, as if it had been locked solid.
The washroom grew cold. Something seemed to press close behind him, but he did not dare look back.
With trembling hands, he took out an offensive Item and flung it behind him without looking.
The Item exploded with a bang, and the chill behind him disappeared.
Xiang Ping swallowed, then tried the door again.
It still would not open.
It was all right, Xiang Ping reassured himself. Gu Fan and Ah Qi would come looking once they noticed he had been gone too long.
How long had he been in here? Three minutes? Five?
Despair crept over Xiang Ping. He had no idea whether the thing behind him was still there.
As he frantically debated whether to turn around, coldness brushed his cheeks. A woman’s icy, soft hands cradled both sides of his head.
As the hands exerted force, Xiang Ping’s head twisted backward beyond his control. He found himself staring into a pair of bloodred eyes that looked seventy or eighty percent like the ones in the painting.
When Gu Fan realized Xiang Ping had been gone for a long time, a sense of foreboding came over her. After they forced open the washroom door in Xiang Ping’s room, everyone present fell silent.
Xiang Ping was dead. His neck had been stretched grotesquely long. The bones and sinews inside were clearly broken, and dark purplish-red blood had spread beneath the thin layer of skin still connecting his head to his body. The sight was horrifying.
Gu Fan and Ah Qi were consumed by grief. Cheng Miao said nothing, but everyone could see that the manner of Xiang Ping’s death resembled the woman in the painting.
“A fire should start soon. We should leave.” Yun Su, who had barely spoken since the instance began, took two steps toward the door and spoke in an indifferent tone.
“You!” Perhaps Yun Su’s attitude was too cold. Gu Fan glared at her with reddened eyes.
Cheng Miao stepped between them and met Gu Fan’s gaze calmly. “Yun Su is right. You don’t want anyone else to die, do you?”
Gu Fan wanted to argue, but the breathtakingly handsome man beside Cheng Miao gave her a cold glance, frightening the words back down her throat.
Xiao Wen and Xiao Qing helped Ah Qi and Gu Fan to their feet. Everyone withdrew from the room and waited for the fire to start.
Each person was lost in their own thoughts, some grieving, some frightened, some despairing, and some agitated.
One sentence from Cheng Miao broke the silence. “Why hasn’t the fire started yet?”
In both previous incidents, the fire had started as soon as the victims died. This time, not only had the players been able to see Xiang Ping’s corpse clearly, but there was still no sign of a fire.
Cheng Miao pushed open the door. Xiang Ping was still lying there in his gruesome state.
No one could make sense of it. Peng Sheng, however, became anxious. “I share this room with him. How am I supposed to sleep here tonight?”
Gu Fan and Ah Qi shot Peng Sheng cold looks. He shrank back, then decided he was in the right and raised his voice again. “It’s true! I’m sorry your teammate died, but you can’t expect me to sleep beside a corpse like that for two more nights!”
Cheng Miao ignored their argument. Hearing footsteps, she dashed outside and saw Kojima walking toward the third floor with an armful of dollmaking materials.
With no time to explain, Cheng Miao half dragged and half hauled him into the washroom. Pointing at Xiang Ping’s corpse, she said, “Mr. Kojima, someone has died here. What should we do?”
Kojima did not so much as twitch an eyebrow. He stared quietly at Xiang Ping’s body, then turned to Cheng Miao after a moment. “Guest, I don’t know what you mean. There’s nothing on the floor.”