Chapter 155

Chapter 155

Everyone looked over. Cheng Miao pushed herself upright and faced Lin Zhu, excitement in her voice. “Lin Zhu, you were looking at a doll right before the hallucination, weren’t you?”

Confused, Lin Zhu nodded and added hesitantly, “It didn’t seem any different from the dolls we’d seen before.”

“There was a difference.” Cheng Miao thought back over her own experience. “This is our third day in the instance. We’re used to the dolls by now, especially when we know they might trigger a deadly rule. Why would we pick one up to examine it again?”

Some details were too small. Once a person’s thinking went down the wrong path, they became trapped there.

Cheng Miao did not keep them in suspense. She stated her idea directly. “It was the light!”

The light?

No one understood. They continued staring blankly at Cheng Miao.

Only Qiudong relaxed slightly, while Jiang Chen’s smile deepened.

“More precisely, it should be reflected light. I picked up the doll just now because I saw the light from its eyes reflected on the piano’s lacquer. Those two specks drew my attention to the doll, so I picked it up to see whether anything was different.”

At that, Lin Zhu remembered too. He slapped his forehead and agreed. “That’s right. The light reflected off my lenses and dazzled me. I thought it was strange, so I looked for the source of the reflection.”

Cheng Miao nodded. Lin Zhu’s account confirmed her reasoning. “Xiao Yan was affected in the washroom, while Brother Lü was in a living room surrounded by windows. And because Brother Lü was afraid of a fire, he didn’t draw the curtains that night. Both of them most likely saw light from a doll’s eyes reflected in glass or a mirror.”

Jiang Chen gave two gentlemanly claps. “Good reasoning.”

Cheng Miao gave Jiang Chen a complicated look. He and Lin Zhu were the only people here who wore glasses.

Given Jiang Chen’s abilities, he had probably encountered and broken through a similar hallucination long ago. Yet he had said nothing, insisting that she figure it out herself.

The unruly Gu Jian had probably discovered it already too, but he had kept quiet because he found it entertaining.

Cheng Miao looked at Lin Zhu with affirmation in her eyes. “So your interpretation of the hint was right. It means ‘doll.’ Now that everyone knows the key to triggering the hallucination, if you see a reflected gleam, don’t go looking for its source.”

As she spoke, Kojima called for the players from the second floor. It was time to visit the studio.

Cheng Miao led everyone to the third floor and into the studio, whose door was already open.

Kojima stood at the far end of the room, with Yuko seated in the wheelchair he was pushing.

The studio was enormous, filled with easels and piles of watercolors.

“Cough, cough. Welcome to my studio. This is where I usually work. Paper burns easily, so please be careful with the candles while you look around.” Yuko was still in poor health. After those two sentences, she sat quietly in her wheelchair.

Kojima knew little about painting and had nothing to explain to the players. He simply stood behind Yuko, keeping his beloved company.

Everyone explored the room cautiously. If nothing else, all the paintings throughout the castle had been produced here, so surely the canvases beneath the white cloths depicted the same terrifying woman.

No one intended to touch those paintings, creating an awkward standoff inside the studio.

Cheng Miao was different. She carefully lifted one corner of a cloth, then slowly drew it back.

It was not the same.

The painting beneath the cloth was not that eerie image.

Before Cheng Miao was an oil painting of a lakeside garden, bright and vivid with color. Even someone like her, who knew nothing about art, could tell it was pleasant and uplifting to look at.
Cheng Miao stood motionless before the painting while Lin Zhu, Qin Musong, and Qi Jiajia followed her example and uncovered the others.

None of them matched. Not one painting was the same as those hanging throughout the castle.

All these paintings used bold, vivid colors and conveyed an intense sense of joy.

Cheng Miao looked toward the woman seated beside the bed, took two steps forward, and asked while studying Yuko’s pale face, “Madam, did you paint both these works and the decorative paintings hanging throughout the castle?”

Yuko nodded. Cheng Miao showed just the right amount of puzzlement. “Then why are the paintings here so different from those displayed in the castle?”

A faint smile appeared on Yuko’s face. “As people grow older, they naturally want to try different styles. These days, I prefer bolder forms of expression.”

Cheng Miao fell silent. An artist’s style naturally did not remain unchanged forever.

But such an enormous shift, from sunny and cheerful to horrific and bizarre, could not have come from nowhere.

Cheng Miao’s gaze settled on Yuko. Yuko smiled and patted Kojima’s hand where it rested on her shoulder. “Darling, I’m a little tired. Please take me back to our room.”

Hesitation appeared on Kojima’s face, but Yuko said softly, “It’s all right. They are well-mannered guests. We can leave them here.”

Kojima nodded, apologized to the players, and wheeled Yuko away first.

“Search quickly,” Cheng Miao whispered to her teammates the moment Kojima left.

The other players did not remain idle. Now that they knew the lethal painting was not here, they searched more freely.

Peng Sheng was unwelcome everywhere now. He edged toward the calmest person present, Yun Su, and followed her while she searched the back of the studio.

Peng Sheng could never stay quiet. Watching Yun Su search the room in earnest, he followed behind and asked curiously, “Sister Yun Su, that’s a nice bracelet. Where did you get it?”

Yun Su looked at the beaded bracelet she had worn for years without removing. Her smile was faint. “It came from the real world. My husband gave it to me.”

“Oh.” Peng Sheng scratched his head. “Does something like that actually work in the Game?”

Yun Su smiled and shook her head. “Things like this work if you believe they do.”

Peng Sheng began calculating whether he should look for one at the General Store after he got out. If it was not expensive, he could buy one. Even if it did nothing else, it might offer some peace of mind.

Yun Su glanced at Peng Sheng and quietly began sharing some of her experience finding things in instances.

“Usually, they won’t be hidden anywhere obvious. There will be a mechanism, but it can’t be too difficult. If it exceeds what the players can manage, the instance’s mechanics would be unfair.”

Peng Sheng nodded while looking all around. It was impossible to tell whether he had listened.

Yun Su did not mind. Her tone remained unhurried, but her eyes had fixed on a faint gleam along the bookcase.

“For example, here. This book clearly has nothing to do with the others on this shelf. If you look carefully, you’ll notice something unusual.”

With that, Yun Su pressed the book on the shelf.

Rumble. A hidden door behind the bookcase slowly opened, revealing a dark room beyond.

Yun Su smiled and walked straight inside.

Peng Sheng hesitated outside. They were entering a room within the studio. Should he call the others?

But discoveries counted toward contribution points. Remembering that Cheng Miao had refused to let him share Qin Musong and Lin Zhu’s room, Peng Sheng narrowed his eyes, then turned and followed Yun Su into the hidden room.