Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Cheng Miao returned the Fishbone Dagger to her Space Backpack, then walked outside with Lin Zhu and several trembling maids. The muscular man stood beyond the door dressed as a bandit, a headscarf tied around his brow and a bloodied saber in hand. Several servants’ bodies lay at his feet.
The sight of Cheng Miao and Lin Zhu made him pause. He looked them up and down, contempt flashing in his eyes, then turned his head and spat a glob of phlegm. “So you got roles as a young master and lady. Good thing I didn’t pair with you. I’d have suffocated playing that part.”
Several maids still stood nearby, and no one knew whether Madam Chang had sent them to watch. Lin Zhu grew anxious. “You can’t say things like that out loud! If you don’t care about clearing the instance, don’t drag us down with you.”
The muscular man looked at him disdainfully and ran his thumb along the blade, staining it with blood. “Relax. I’m not the kind of bastard who spends all his time hurting people.”
With that, he raised the flashing saber. Before Lin Zhu could react, the maids beside him screamed and collapsed.
Lin Zhu stood frozen, his limbs numb. They might only be NPCs, but they looked like people exactly like him. This was the first time he had watched someone murder them face-to-face.
Nausea rose in his throat, but he forced it down and turned away, face gray.
Cheng Miao frowned but said nothing. She was no saint. Once the muscular man exposed them, those witnesses could not be allowed to remain.
“Why are you robbing the Chang Residence? This household is dangerous. Don’t act recklessly.” Cheng Miao regarded him with obvious disapproval.
The muscular man had powerful limbs but a simple mind. As he led them toward the main hall, he explained, “Our task says we have to get some kind of… some damned vase from Madam Chang. Both our roles are bandits. It’s practically ordering us to rob the place.”
Cheng Miao stopped. The muscular man turned to her in confusion. He did not underestimate her; he simply had never considered teaming up with a woman. She appeared steady, at least far more so than the bespectacled pretty boy beside her.
“Judging by your and your partner’s experience, the instance gave you the easiest mission. But even the easiest mission wouldn’t hand you the exact path to completion.”
Cheng Miao folded her arms. They were nearly at the main hall, so anything important had to be said now. “The instance must have provided some hidden, safer method. Madam Chang isn’t human. If you storm in and rob her directly, you won’t leave unscathed.”
This was the muscular man’s first mission and the yellow-haired man’s second. One additional mission made the latter the veteran, so the muscular man followed his advice.
The yellow-haired man claimed this plan would clear the instance, and he had believed him. Now Cheng Miao’s warning forced his sluggish mind to turn. She seemed to have a point.
“Fuck it. We’ve already started, so what is there to fear?”
Perhaps the historical setting seemed neither bloody nor violent. There were no zombies invading a city or lonely graves in a wasteland, only delicate beauties and potbellied merchants. It left the muscular man convinced that the instance was nothing special.
He had no idea what blood-soaked truth lay beneath its lovely surface.
Seeing that further persuasion was useless, Cheng Miao offered one final warning before entering the main hall. “Don’t lower your guard. If anything feels wrong, run. Run outside.”
The muscular man nodded perfunctorily. Whether he listened was another matter.
Inside the hall, Madam Chang was already weeping behind Master Chang. The bedridden Second Master Chang had been carried in on a rattan chair, with the Second Madam standing protectively beside him in tears.
Two men dressed as physicians stood behind the Second Madam. They were Li Cheng’s teammates. Cheng Miao remembered his introduction: the taller man was Jiang Hao, and the shorter one was Zhang Hui.
Li Cheng and Jiang Qi were also driven into the main hall. Li Cheng exchanged a glance with Cheng Miao, then lowered his head.
The yellow-haired man wore the same bandit garb as the muscular man and carried a saber as he paced nearby. When he noticed Li Cheng and Cheng Miao’s groups, his mouth curved as if he wanted to show off or mock them. In the end, his lips moved without producing a word.
“Everyone’s here. Go find it.” He nodded to the muscular man, who shoved Lin Zhu forward before entering the inner room.
Cheng Miao sat cross-legged on the floor. The two women’s delicate sobs filled her ears, punctuated by the yellow-haired man’s tireless flirting, while she sorted through her mission in her head.
She happened to have read this story. The instance had probably selected her memory to generate its setting, giving her an advantage and allowing her to identify Madam Chang early.
Another player might discover that Madam Chang was not human, yet still fail to learn her weaknesses or spot the doubts hidden in the mission.
Li Cheng’s group only knew something was wrong with the Chang Residence, not where the problem lay. An instance could not be that hostile to its players. There had to be another clue pointing toward Madam Chang’s identity and helping the others complete their missions.
The most likely candidate was the muscular man’s task. The vase his pair needed would surely offer the rest of them a clue. That connected every thread.
They were supposed to help one another. Only after the muscular man’s pair cleared their mission would everyone else receive the clues needed to identify their own targets.
Unfortunately, Cheng Miao did not fear losing that clue because she knew the source story. Li Cheng had also grasped the key, but the yellow-haired man insisted on courting death. He continuously harassed the household’s two mistresses and had chosen the stupidest, most direct possible robbery.
They probably could no longer count on this clue.
“Found it… Is this the one…?” the muscular man roared from inside.
Cheng Miao, Li Cheng, and the others brightened and started to look up. Suddenly, an overwhelming fragrance flooded the room.
It was the floral perfume worn by Madam Chang and the Second Madam. The scent struck violently. One breath made Cheng Miao’s head pound.
Through the haze, she saw a woman sprawled in the distance. Just as Lin Zhu had described, the figure wore red, with black hair covering her face and limbs twisted at unnatural angles. She crawled toward Cheng Miao at a steady pace.
Alarm jolted through Cheng Miao, but she could not move. She could not even reach for the ring that held her Items. As the woman crawled closer, a deathly chill consumed her, as though she lay naked on ice.
Then a strange scent threaded through the thick floral perfume, instantly clearing Cheng Miao’s muddled mind.
“Sister Miaomiao! Sister Miaomiao, wake up!” Lin Zhu’s voice reached her ears.
Cheng Miao bit the tip of her tongue. Pain and the strong taste of blood dragged her completely awake.
She lay on her back, upper body propped off the floor. No hideous ghost stood before her. Lin Zhu sighed in relief beside her. “Thank goodness. You’re afraid of ghosts, Sister Miaomiao. I was worried I couldn’t wake you.”
With Lin Zhu’s help, Cheng Miao moved to a chair. Li Cheng and his teammates were still trapped in nightmares. Elsewhere, servants smashed their heads against walls or threw themselves into wells. The hall had become a scene of carnage.
Madam Chang, the Second Madam, the yellow-haired man, and the muscular man who had found the object were all gone. Master Chang and Second Master Chang lay unconscious on the ground.
Cheng Miao took the remaining musk from her ring and handed it to Lin Zhu. “Wake Li Cheng’s group quickly. The yellow-haired man and his partner are probably dead.”