Chapter 365
Chapter 365
His body was rigidly straight, his eyes wide, his expression stiff.
Then the scene from the recording played out again.
The corpse’s body did not move, but his head suddenly turned backward.
The five shifted their gazes from the corpse to the camera and its operator behind him.
Even now, the cameraman held the camera directly in front of his face, keeping his features hidden.
And the corpse?
His head suddenly shot forward. From the camera’s angle, that face would have grown abruptly larger until it filled the entire frame.
The cameraman deliberately shook the camera.
Yes.
Deliberately.
Jian Fan was certain the cameraman had shaken it on purpose, rather than out of fright. After making the picture wobble a few times, he pressed the stop button. Only then did he finally move the camera aside and reveal the face behind it.
Although he wore a mask and heavy-framed glasses, Qin Nan recognized him at a glance.
The cameraman looked like…
The reanimated corpse, whose enlarged face was now right in front of him.
They looked exactly alike.
In other words, the cameraman looked exactly like Qi Xu.
No, wait. Which one was Qi Xu?
Qin Nan was baffled.
He was good at recognizing faces. The others were not necessarily as skilled.
Jian Fan merely thought the cameraman looked familiar. Unable to place him immediately, he frowned. Then he felt Qin Nan cautiously tug his sleeve.
He turned to Qin Nan with a questioning look.
Qin Nan lowered his voice. “This cameraman looks exactly like Qi Xu. Could he be the real one?”
Jian Fan: “?”
He immediately studied the cameraman again. With Qin Nan’s reminder directing his attention, he could now see that the two faces really were identical!
The cameraman and the corpse seemed to hear Qin Nan. The corpse even moved his head alongside the cameraman’s, and both faces looked at them together, as though saying, Look. Don’t we look exactly alike?
The sight…
The corpse’s body was still lying on the wooden boards, his neck stretched to an extraordinary length. The cameraman stood normally, with the corpse’s extended head beside his own.
The corpse and the cameraman were dressed differently, but wore the same expression.
This…
Was far too eerie.
Mu Xin silently edged behind Lu Jing.
While the five stood facing the cameraman and the corpse, one of the NPCs finally turned around.
One look was enough to provoke an earth-shattering scream.
“Aaaaah! A ghost!”
The cry drew everyone’s attention. At the sight, screams erupted one after another. The NPCs screamed and pounded on the doors, shouting for someone to open them. They wanted to escape.
The cameraman and the corpse, who had been looking at Jian Fan’s group, finally turned their attention toward the noise.
Jian Fan noticed the cameraman’s fingertips move slightly.
The instant they moved, the corpse’s elongated neck slowly shortened until his head settled firmly back onto his body.
Once his head was back in place, the corpse suddenly hopped down from the boards and stood rigidly before them.
“Aaaah!”
Another wave of screams.
Those farther from the corpse hurried into the corners, huddling together for courage.
Jian Fan rubbed his ears with a slight headache.
These NPCs… if they served no purpose, why put them here? Just to inflict a little damage on their ears?
The corpse apparently found them noisy too.
He opened his mouth, reached out, and began stuffing them into it, one from the left, another from the right.
He could lengthen not only his neck but his arms as well. No matter how far away they hid, he only had to reach out to catch an NPC and feed them into his mouth.
Before long, the mourning hall fell quiet.
The corpse gave a remarkably human burp of satisfaction.
Of course, Jian Fan had not been idle.
While the corpse fed, he watched the cameraman.
The man stood there without making any large movements, but his fingers kept moving. It was as though… whenever he moved a finger, the corpse acted. The cameraman was controlling the body.
And when he thought of their identical faces…
“Now it’s your turn.” The cameraman suddenly looked at the five of them.
As he finished speaking, the corpse turned to look at Jian Fan’s group too.
“Qi Xu,” Jian Fan suddenly said.
The cameraman raised an eyebrow.
“The real Qi Xu never died,” Jian Fan continued. Then he asked with complete confidence, “Did he?”
The cameraman paused.
“If you think he’s alive, then he’s alive,” he replied.
Qin Nan very much wanted to retort that, by that logic, would Qi Xu be dead if they thought he was?
“None of this is real,” Jian Fan continued.
The cameraman did not answer, but the corpse remained motionless as well.
“I think I did something unnecessary,” Jian Fan added.
Qin Nan and the others were lost, but the cameraman laughed.
“You’re the cleverest Player I’ve ever met.”
“Then are you the cleverest creator I’ve ever met, Qi Xu?” Jian Fan replied.
The cameraman, Qi Xu, laughed.
He removed his glasses and mask, revealing his true face.
It was identical to the corpse’s.
But the corpse was deathly pale, whereas his complexion was normal. That made the resemblance a little less chilling.
“Then allow me to introduce myself formally for the first time.” Qi Xu laughed. “I like the word ‘creator.’ But perhaps I prefer ‘Creator.'”
“Qi Xu, the one and only Creator of this world.”
Creator?
Qin Nan nearly rolled his eyes.
“Until next time, then,” Qi Xu said.
The words startled Qin Nan and the others. As they watched in astonishment, the scene before them, including Qi Xu and the corpse, gradually dissolved into abstract shapes.
Their surroundings changed.
When they looked again, they were back in the original mourning hall.
It was the same hall, but in the space where Qi Xu had been, it was much newer. Here, it had clearly stood for some years. One other thing confirmed where they were: the camera lying on the floor.
Its light had faded. It looked like the most ordinary camera imaginable.
Jian Fan stepped forward and picked it up.
He searched through the videos.
The recording of Qi Xu was gone.
Qin Nan leaned over to look too. Seeing this, he asked, “What exactly is going on?”
His head was full of questions.
They had all been together. Why did Jian Fan seem to know the story already?
What was this Creator business? How had Jian Fan known none of it was real? Qin Nan had far too many questions.
“The facts are incompatible,” Jian Fan said.
Qin Nan: “?”