I’m Crazy About Clearing Levels in the Horror Game

Chapter 40

Chu Yue could feel Shen Yubi’s gaze scraping back and forth between the two of them, as if he wanted to carve a piece of meat right off their bones.

But Chu Yue truly couldn’t help it.

Ever since he was a child, anything slimy had disgusted him. Snakes, lizards, geckos, frogs-it was a visceral, conditioned revulsion etched into his very being.

Chu Yue turned away, avoiding his gaze, and looked up to inspect the cobwebs on the eaves. They were caked in filth; there was no telling if spiders were still lurking inside.

“Then what are we still looking at? Might as well head back,” Shen Yubi snorted.

Chu Yue agreed. “That sounds good. We can prepare and try again tomorrow.”

Shen Yubi mocked him. “Heh, and you won’t be afraid tomorrow?”

Chu Yue nodded. “Tomorrow, I’ll change my clothes.”

If he could guarantee those things wouldn’t touch his skin, it would be a bit better.

As the two bickered, Guan Doujin naturally kept his mouth shut.

In the end, the three of them headed back the way they came, having wasted a significant amount of time for nothing.

By now, the lunch hour had passed. Because that girl had burst in earlier that morning, the three of them hadn’t even finished their breakfast before leaving. After walking for so long, their stomachs were completely empty.

Returning to the street with the Market, they saw a few other Players asking the vendors for information.

“I feel like we’re going to be eating steamed buns for the next few days,” Guan Doujin said, his face full of melancholy. “That rice is barely fit for human consumption. I’d rather gnaw on dry buns.”

“And the meat… some of it’s okay, but some has this fishy stench. One whiff and you want to vomit up everything you’ve ever eaten.”

Guan Doujin complained as they walked. Ultimately, it was because many spices hadn’t been invented yet in this ancient setting.

Chu Yue understood this point all too well.

The meat might taste fine one moment, but if the next bite carried that rank, gamey aftertaste, everything already in his stomach suddenly felt wrong.

The three of them strolled along, but as they approached the Inn, they suddenly heard the sounds of an argument coming from that direction.

“I have nothing to do with you! Can you stop pestering me?!”

“Your death wasn’t my fault! I didn’t take advantage of you! Stop looking for me!”

It was the man from this morning.

The three followed the sound of the voice. A window was open in one of the rooms on the 2nd Floor of the Inn, and the man was standing with his back to the window.

Due to their position, they couldn’t see the person he was facing, but based on his words, it wasn’t hard to guess who it was.

That thing still hadn’t left.

Whatever the person inside said made the man raise his voice even louder.

“Can you fucking understand human speech?! If you want your corpse, then go get it! Why do you keep following me?!”

The other side spoke again.

At this, the man completely broke down.

“Go die! Just fucking die!”

In a flash, Chu Yue saw the two figures by the window swap positions. With a ferocious expression, the man grabbed the girl by the throat and shoved her toward the window, her body bending at an impossible angle.

Yet, the girl’s exposed face actually bore a massive grin.

That expression only incensed the man further. He used his other hand to shove her out with all his might, watching as the girl plummeted from the 2nd Floor.

It wasn’t a particularly high floor. For an ordinary person, a fall from the 2nd Floor would result in a broken bone at most; unless they were extremely unlucky, it generally wasn’t fatal.

Splat-

The woman hit the ground.

The expected scene didn’t occur. Instead, the woman’s body was like a massive balloon filled with water; the moment she hit the ground, she suddenly split open and burst.
Chu Yue and the other two were standing too close. They didn’t even have time to react before bright red blood splashed all over their heads and faces.

The man upstairs stared in shock, let out a scream, and slammed the window shut with a bang.

He wasn’t the only one stunned; Chu Yue, Shen Yubi, and Guan Doujin were all frozen in place. It took nearly ten seconds for them to snap out of it.

The muscles in Chu Yue’s face twitched faintly. What had he done to deserve this? He ended up with a face full of blood every single time.

Shen Yubi walked over to where the woman had fallen. A pool of blood was forming there, and within it lay something ruptured and still, looking like the discarded skin of a popped balloon.

It was a pale yellow outer layer, now torn to shreds, but the arms and legs were so easily identifiable that it was impossible to mistake them for anything else.

This wasn’t just anything; it was the skin that had been missing from the girl who died this morning.

Her entire skin had been peeled off in one piece, and every drop of blood had been drained from her body. Now, the purpose of that became clear.

All that blood had been injected into this layer of skin to create a fake person.

Chu Yue walked over and took a couple of looks. This time, he really couldn’t hold it back; he ran off to the side and started vomiting.

Scenes from various versions of “Painted Skin” flashed through his mind.

Zhang Duo and her man stepped out of the Inn at that moment. Seeing the scene before them, they immediately realized what was going on.

“So that’s how it is,” she murmured. Then, as if she had discovered something, she turned and went back into the Inn. Judging by the creaking sounds, she was clearly heading upstairs.

Chu Yue’s stomach had been empty to begin with, and after vomiting, he felt truly famished, his stomach practically sticking to his spine.

The three of them entered the Inn with grim expressions. They called for a Waiter to bring water and returned to their rooms to wash up before coming back downstairs.

The meal they had ordered earlier was ready. This time, they didn’t ask for any meat. They sat down and dug into two plates of steamed buns and some small side pickles.

After finishing their meal, they returned to their room and began to discuss the day’s events.

Thinking back to the man who had pushed the woman off the balcony, Chu Yue felt something was off.

That woman was supposed to be a Monster. How could she be pushed off so easily by an ordinary Player?

“Then what was the point of her disguise?”

When that man was angry earlier, she hadn’t been afraid at all. The smile on her face had seemed almost provocative. Why would she deliberately put on the skin of someone who was already dead and come back?

Could it be just to show off and increase their fear?

If that was the case, this Monster seemed excessively malicious.

“Do you think the one who dies tonight will be that man?” Guan Doujin asked.

“It’s hard to say.”

“If there’s a Death Condition involved, then it’s probably him. But if this doesn’t constitute a Death Condition, no one can say for sure who will die tonight.

After all, aside from the rule about not tearing the paper-cuts, we haven’t found any other clues.”

Shen Yubi glanced at the two of them. “Regardless, we must go to Zhou Laoda’s house tomorrow to take a look. I have a feeling there are important clues there.”

The three of them were well aware of this.

Of course, they hadn’t forgotten the small details in the man’s words.

At one point, the paper-cut business in this town hadn’t been very good, but then everyone suddenly became wealthy. After a period of prosperity, the town had ended up in its current state.