Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Strange Shadows in the Villa

Heya had known since childhood that he was particularly afraid of these vague, ghostly things. He would even become tense and anxious when staying alone in the dark.

But he couldn’t be afraid, because he was a descendant of the Guan family, whose members had been bravely charging into battle for the empire for hundreds of years. If there was a coward, many people would be waiting to laugh at his family, so he had never told anyone about this.

After growing up, his father wanted him to join the military, as everyone in the Guan family would enter the military after coming of age, without exception.

But he didn’t want to, partly because he knew his shortcomings, and partly because he didn’t want to be restrained.

Over the years, the empire had basically had no enemies, so his request was quickly approved.

The life of a mercenary was indeed carefree, but deep down, he had always admired his grandparents, parents, and older brother.

So when Ryan encountered jobs that they couldn’t handle, he would take them on.

Although he had known what kind of game Nightmare City was, and had mentally prepared himself, he didn’t expect that a small game would expose his true nature.

Even His Majesty had seen his ugly state.

But the feeling of fear was something he couldn’t control.

As the resentful woman approached them, her horrifying face made Heya terrified. His neck felt like it was being tightly strangled by a hand, his face turning red, his throat letting out broken cries, and his whole body drenched in sweat.

The holographic system completely displayed all the reactions of his body.

Finally, he made a move that he regretted countless times after sobering up.

He threw away the person who had always wanted to comfort him and reached out a hand to him when he was most afraid.

He just wanted to knock down that eerie woman, not wanting to see her face anymore or experience that feeling again, but he didn’t look carefully at what was in his hand.

“Damn it! What the hell are you doing, you bastard?” Qian Le was also too shocked to be afraid anymore. This guy actually, actually threw Zhou Zhou out!

With training since childhood and years of experience as a mercenary, Heya’s throwing accuracy was very high.

Zhou Zhou flew straight into the resentful woman’s embrace.

It was expected that they would both be knocked down, as a full-grown human’s weight was not light, especially when thrown by a tall and sturdy man like Heya, and the force must have been considerable.

But unexpectedly, the resentful woman reached out and caught Zhou Zhou!

As if she had anticipated it, the resentful woman easily cradled Zhou Zhou in a princess carry.

She glanced at Heya, who was still frozen in place as if just realizing what happened, and at Qian Le shouting and about to charge over.

Then she floated backward at an extremely fast speed, holding Zhou Zhou as she merged into the wall and disappeared.

Qian Le chased after her, frantically feeling the wall and hitting it hard twice. The walls here were solid, with no way to continue the pursuit, and he didn’t know where the resentful woman had taken Zhou Zhou.

He turned to look at Heya and shouted loudly, “Are you satisfied now, you coward!”

Heya stood there with his head lowered, his expression unclear, and it was unknown whether he had sobered up.

Qian Le was furious, his chest heaving up and down. If he had known this guy would do such a thing, he would have strictly refused to let him tag along before entering the instance.

As a result, he had stubbornly followed them into the instance, and then used Zhou Zhou as a shield and threw him out.

That eerie woman was probably the one who killed Luna and the other players later. She had captured Zhou Zhou, and Zhou Zhou would definitely die.

“If Zhou Zhou had entered the instance alone, he would have cleared it smoothly. But now… I should have pulled Zhou Zhou away and run on the second floor, not letting him save you. You ungrateful, cowardly bastard!”

Qian Le’s heart was burning with fire, wanting to curse him fiercely and make him realize what he had done.

But seeing his dead-pig-not-fearing-hot-water appearance, as if he was just waiting for Qian Le to curse him, Qian Le stopped and coldly snorted at him before walking away without looking back.

He would strive to clear the instance, so that even if Zhou Zhou really died, his score could still be shared with him.

He wouldn’t bother cursing him anymore, which would only reduce the psychological burden on him. Anyway, after the instance ended, he would make Zhou Zhou delete this guy. They absolutely couldn’t continue doing instances with someone like this.

On the other side, Zhou Zhou was taken away by the resentful woman. They passed through the wall and entered a small room.

The room was very dark, with no light at all around. Zhou Zhou looked left and right and found that this small room didn’t belong to any of the rooms on the second floor. Inside, there was only a bed, a dressing table, and a stool by the bed.

The resentful woman carried Zhou Zhou and gently placed him on the bed.

A bright red satin quilt, the fabric smooth and delicate. Zhou Zhou sat up, propping himself against the quilt, and found that many things in this small room were red.

A red bed, a red dressing table with a red candle on it, and even the ceiling was covered in red silk. It seemed to be a bridal chamber.

The red candle suddenly lit up, and the resentful woman’s hair, long enough to trail on the ground, was disheveled. She stood in front of Zhou Zhou, expressionless as she looked at him.

Zhou Zhou also looked at her, blinking his eyes and asking, “Aren’t you going to sit down?”

“Hee hee hee hee hee.”

The resentful woman suddenly laughed, her laughter still shrill and eerie. Her face, twisted by the laughter, looked even more terrifying than when she was expressionless.

“Aren’t you~ afraid?” The resentful woman actually spoke, her voice slow and shrill, raspy, and about as eerie as her laughter.

Afraid of what?

Zhou Zhou didn’t understand what he should be afraid of, looking at the resentful woman with a puzzled gaze.

Suddenly, his brows furrowed slightly, and his expression became serious.

Just when the resentful woman thought he was finally afraid, Zhou Zhou suddenly stood up and leaned in close to her, the distance between them becoming extremely close. Zhou Zhou only needed to move a little forward to kiss her.

The resentful woman stepped back abruptly, her voice shrill as she asked, “What are you doing?”

Zhou Zhou stood up straight, his expression unusually solemn. He pointed at the resentful woman’s face and said seriously, “You have powder caking.”

The resentful woman: “……”

“There’s still dead skin, you definitely haven’t taken good care of it,” he said.

The resentful woman: “……”

“And your hair is so messy. It’s so long and black, very beautiful, but now it’s all messed up. I wanted to say it earlier when you were outside the window, but you ran away so fast.”

The resentful woman looked at Zhou Zhou’s clear eyes and said, “You think~ I’m beautiful?”

“Of course, every girl is the most beautiful. As for you…” Zhou Zhou studied her seriously for a moment. “You didn’t take care of yourself properly. Your makeup is too white, and it’ll fall off when you laugh. Aiya~”

The resentful woman laughed hee hee hee again. “You’re the~ first human~ who isn’t afraid of me.”

Zhou Zhou looked at her, then lowered his head shyly and said, “Actually, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about makeup techniques before, but I’ve never practiced them. Could I, could I try it out? I promise I’ll make you look even more beautiful.”

At the Romance Academy, many girls would gather and discuss things like clothing and makeup techniques. He had actually heard it all and remembered it carefully, but there was no place for him to practice at the Romance Academy, so he had never mentioned it to anyone else.

The resentful woman had already felt that this player was different from the others. But after capturing him, she realized he was truly very interesting.

“Okay, if you don’t do a good job with the makeup, then I’ll eat you~” The resentful woman deliberately stretched out her hands with long black nails and said ominously.

“Okay.” Zhou Zhou naturally saw that she was just teasing him. These girls were so naughty, always liking to tease him. He had known that for a long time.

The two happily did each other’s makeup in the red-filled room, while outside was no longer so peaceful.

Although Neon Green’s shout to cover their chests was heard by the players on the second floor, several players had already been possessed before that.

If someone had stopped them, the possession would have been lifted after ten minutes, and those players might have been fine. But at the time, everyone was preoccupied with their own situations. Seeing the possessed people, they only wanted to stay far away, so four more ghosts were added.

The ten ghosts found that the remaining players were hugging their chests with both arms, unable to possess them. So the ghosts floated out through the cracked windows on the second floor, and it was unknown where they had gone.

The players, still shaken, came out and saw that all the ghosts had left the villa, finally breathing a sigh of relief.

Neon Green looked at the remaining players and, noticing that Zhou Zhou was not among them, asked Qian Le, who was always by Zhou Zhou’s side, “Hey? Where’s Zhou Zhou?”

Qian Le’s expression turned even more sour as he looked at Heya, who had recovered but remained silent, and said irritably, “Ask him!”

Neon Green gazed up at the tense-faced Heya and guessed that perhaps because of this person, Zhou Zhou had also perished, so he didn’t ask further.

Alvia looked at Heya, whose expression was abnormal, and Zhou Zhou was not here. Among the ten ghosts that had just floated out, there was no Zhou Zhou. So where had he gone?

After the ghosts floated out, they didn’t come back in, and the remaining players began searching the rooms again.

This time, they quickly found a clue. On a table in one of the rooms, there was a letter addressed to the letter writer’s newly married daughter, wishing her happiness and blessings after marriage and so on.

Everyone quickly associated it with the woman in the red dress. Was the newly married daughter mentioned the eerie woman?

“We searched this room before, and there was nothing on this table,” a player said softly.

“Maybe we didn’t meet certain conditions before, like it being night, or seeing that woman, to find the letter,” someone suggested.

At this moment, the players’ quest panels chimed simultaneously.

When they opened them, they found that a new quest had indeed appeared.

【Main Quest: Find three items from the resentful woman’s past life to dispel her resentment.】

“This letter should count as one item,” a player said, waving the letter.

The letter was written by the resentful woman’s father, full of blessings for his daughter, so it should count as the resentful woman’s possession. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have triggered the main quest.

Everyone began searching for the remaining two items and found an exquisite phoenix coronet and a jade bangle in other rooms.

These were all women’s items and should belong to the resentful woman, appearing in places they had searched before but found nothing, just like the letter.

After finding the three items, everyone expected the resentful woman to appear before them, but they waited for a long time with no sign of her.

Was there another rule they needed to follow?

“Do we have to actively go find her?” a player guessed.

But no one knew where the resentful woman was now. She could not only appear outside the villa but also merge into walls. How could they find her?

Alvia noticed something the others hadn’t and reminded them, “The study is now one-third smaller than when we searched it during the day.”

Smaller in area…

Neon Green was the first to realize. “You mean there’s a hidden room in the study at night?”

So the group headed to the study to search for the hidden room.

Although Zhou Zhou was skilled with his hands, he was also very attentive. After brushing out the resentful woman’s long hair with a comb and simply braiding it into two French braids, he removed the overly white powder from her face.

Underneath was still a bluish complexion with several scars, winding crookedly across her face and forehead like centipedes.

The resentful woman sat on the stool, her pitch-black eyes staring fixedly at Zhou Zhou, as if wanting to see his reaction to this appearance.

But Zhou Zhou showed no reaction at all. Although the room’s bed and dressing table were very antique, there was an abundance of makeup products in various types.

He was like a child playing with a doll for the first time, eagerly applying makeup to the resentful woman, his eyes brimming with happiness and excitement.

Soon, the scars on the resentful woman’s face were concealed, and her bluish complexion had become a rosy white glow. Her black-blue lips turned a brilliant red, and her eyes were adorned with exquisite makeup.

Hmm~ There are no eyebrows, he still needs to draw some eyebrows on.

Aside from those abnormal eyes, the resentful woman did look very beautiful. But with those eyes that lacked whites, the exquisite, lovely makeup made her appear even more eerie instead.

Zhou Zhou just felt accomplished, having applied all the techniques he had heard and achieving great results after doing her makeup.

“Look, isn’t it more beautiful now?” Zhou Zhou held up the mirror from the dressing table for the resentful woman to see, speaking with a tone of presenting a treasure.

The resentful woman looked at her reflection in the mirror and started laughing hee hee hee again, seeming very pleased.

“Thump! Thump! Thump!” Just as the two were happily discussing makeup techniques, a knocking sound came from the small room.

The resentful woman abruptly looked in that direction, the smile disappearing from her face.

Zhou Zhou also looked toward the source of the knocking, which made a muffled sound against the thick wall, over and over.

Could it be that everyone was coming in?

When Zhou Zhou thought of this, he couldn’t help but glance at the resentful woman, only for his eyes to widen instantly.

What happened to the makeup he had done? The French braids he had styled? How did she revert to her original appearance?

The resentful woman now looked the same as before, with her hair trailing on the ground and her face deathly pale. What had just happened seemed like an illusion to Zhou Zhou.

“Thump!”

The wall was broken through, accompanied by debris and dust scattering on the floor, as Heya appeared behind the wall.

“We broke through, we broke through,” the few players behind him exclaimed excitedly.

Once the dust cleared, everyone saw the scene inside the hidden room and their mouths fell open.

The hidden room was filled with red, like an ancient bridal chamber. The resentful woman stood there, with Zhou Zhou beside her, holding up a mirror.

Why was he here?

Neon Green poked his glowing green head through and saw Zhou Zhou standing dazedly beside the resentful woman, holding up the mirror like a servant, and the various arrangements in the room.

“Oh man! Don’t tell me you got captured by the resentful woman to consummate the marriage?”

Zhou Zhou immediately refuted, “Of course not, we’re not even boyfriend and girlfriend yet, so we wouldn’t do that kind of thing.”

Neon Green: …Yet? So it would be fine once they became a couple?

Neon Green glanced at the resentful woman and noticed her lips seemed to curl up slightly, as if smiling.

Damn, what a high-end playboy, hooking multiple people in just one game? Not even sparing an NPC that looks like that.

Neon Green turned to look at Al, who was standing at the back, with a sympathetic expression. He was wrong, such a wooden guy could never catch up to a high-end playboy. He should just wash up and go to sleep.

Alvia noticed Neon Green looking at him with a strange gaze, making him feel very uncomfortable.

“Zhou Zhou! It really is you, Zhou Zhou!” Qian Le thought he must be seeing things. How could he hear Zhou Zhou’s voice? But after taking a few steps forward to the wall, he realized it was indeed Zhou Zhou.

Not a ghost, but the real, unharmed Zhou Zhou.

“Qian Le~” Zhou Zhou put down the mirror he was holding onto the dressing table and waved at Qian Le.

Qian Le didn’t care about the resentful woman standing nearby and immediately squeezed through the wall first, checking Zhou Zhou over and over again.

“It’s good you’re fine, it’s good you’re fine.” Qian Le finally felt relieved.

The resentful woman stood to the side, her eyes suddenly turning toward the player holding the three items.

The player then remembered what he was supposed to do and timidly walked over, trembling as he handed the three items to the resentful woman. What should he do? His legs were shaking. Up close, she was even more terrifying. Who had designed such a horrifying NPC?

“H-Here, for you.”

The resentful woman ignored the player’s fear and took the three items. After glancing at Zhou Zhou, she turned into a wisp of blue smoke and vanished from the spot.

“J-Just like that? She’s gone?”

“Was her resentment dispelled?”

“I don’t know, it should be dispelled since she disappeared.”

Dawn arrived.

Rays of sunlight shone through the study’s windows, illuminating the entire room. The broken hidden room was also filled with light, the warm and gentle radiance falling on everyone, driving away the horror and chill.

“Did we clear it?” a player shouted excitedly.

Alvia cut him off, “No, we only completed the main quest. The exit hasn’t been found yet.”

Neon Green glanced at the quest panel and told everyone, “Friends, let me give you some bad news. There are only two hours left until the clear time limit.”

They had 24 hours to clear it, and now there were only 2 hours left. If they couldn’t find the exit within that time, they would all fail.

Neon Green’s words made everyone tense up. The key problem was that they had already searched the villa twice without finding any sign of an exit.

Zhou Zhou also realized this point and looked around the small room. “We haven’t searched in here yet.”

This hidden room was indeed the only place they hadn’t checked.

Everyone immediately started searching the room.

Alvia noticed something off. Heya had been very quiet and hadn’t gone over to talk to Zhou Zhou after seeing him. Even Zhou Zhou hadn’t glanced in Heya’s direction, and Qian Le had been ignoring Heya too.

Did something happen between them?

When Zhou Zhou was captured by the resentful woman on the first floor, did Heya do something then?

They were about to exit the instance soon, so Alvia thought it would be better to ask Heya about it after leaving.

Behind the dressing table in the hidden room, they found a door, a square cement door in the wall with a steel bar as a handle.

One player tried pulling on it for a while but couldn’t open it. Heya silently stepped forward, grabbed the steel bar, and pulled it upward with force, successfully opening the door.

A foul odor wafted out after the door opened. Inside was pitch-black, with only a square shaft visible below, and one wall had steel bars bent into step-like shapes.

A player peeked down and saw that it seemed to go quite far down, too dark to see clearly. They would have to feel their way through.

“The exit should be down there.”

“Should we go down? Who goes first?”

The player peering down listened carefully for a moment and thought he heard sounds from below. He told everyone to be quiet and leaned down, listening intently for a while before hearing some very familiar voices.

“Give me back my life~”

Player: …He just said where the ghosts went, turns out they were waiting here.

So we still have to face ten ghosts before clearing it. Can we really succeed?

Knowing there were ghosts down there, everyone looked at Zhou Zhou again.

“Are you guys ever going to stop relying on Zhou Zhou? Did he owe you all money in his past life?” Qian Le scolded.

“But only he can deal with ghosts. We’ll get possessed if we go down. We’re about to clear it anyway, so since you all have to go down too, he might as well handle it.” A player said seemingly awkwardly, but was actually pretty shameless.

Neon Green glanced at him. “Didn’t I tell you all before that the ghosts can’t possess you as long as you cover your chests?”

“But, but we’ll need both hands and feet to climb down. Look, those steel bars can’t be considered steps. How are we supposed to cover our chests?”

“I’ll go,” Heya, who had been silent, suddenly said.

Although the players were relieved they didn’t have to go first, looking at Heya’s size, if he got possessed and turned into a ghost, he might be even harder to handle.

Wouldn’t Zhou Zhou be the most suitable? He wouldn’t get possessed. If he went down first and captured all the ghosts, they could come down safely. If someone else went first and got possessed, they would face greater danger.

Now they were at an impasse again. With victory in sight, no one wanted to fail at this point.

Neon Green glanced anxiously at the time and suddenly had an idea. “How about this, Zhou Zhou still goes first, but he won’t be working for free. After clearing it, each of us will give him 1,000 points as compensation for his hard work.”

“1,000 points! I might not even earn that much from this instance,” a player said regretfully.

Neon Green glanced at him. “Don’t worry, you definitely will. This instance is much harder than my last one. The points will be at least a few thousand, maybe even over ten thousand. And if you don’t agree, then we’ll just stay deadlocked, and none of us will pass.”

Alvia didn’t mind. Qian Le and Heya agreed, and the remaining five players had no choice but to agree too. Losing 1,000 points was better than failing completely.

Zhou Zhou also agreed to Neon Green’s suggestion and was the first to climb through the square hole.

Qian Le originally wanted to go second, but Heya went ahead of him. Unable to beat him, Qian Le could only go third, grumbling angrily.

Neon Green and Alvia followed, then the remaining five players.

At this point, there was 1 hour and 40 minutes left until the clear time limit.

Inside the shaft, the smell was foul. Zhou Zhou couldn’t see the end as he climbed down the step-like bars.

“I’m sorry,” a voice suddenly came from above him.

Zhou Zhou knew it was Heya and why he was apologizing.

But Zhou Zhou wasn’t happy. He pouted and climbed down, ignoring Heya’s apology.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

Apologies echoed in the dark, narrow space.

“Now you know you’re sorry? What took you so long?” Qian Le’s angry voice came from further above.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey hey, why don’t you tell me what happened? I’ll evaluate it for you and see who was right or wrong,” Neon Green’s voice came from even higher up, sounding like he wanted gossip.

Qian Le: “It was his fault! No need to evaluate.”

“I’m sorry.”

Neon Green: “Why are you apologizing? I’m dying here. You people shouldn’t be so cruel to gossip lovers, okay?”

“I’m sorry.”

Neon Green: “Help! Quick, tell me what happened?”

Qian Le: “Can you not talk? You’re too noisy.”

“I’m sorry.”

Heya kept apologizing, his voice changing from calm to what seemed like sobbing.

As a descendant of a military family in the empire, this was probably the most despicable act he had ever committed, using the weak as a shield in front of himself, even throwing that person away because of fear. On a battlefield, his behavior would deserve execution a hundred times over.

He couldn’t forgive himself, but he didn’t know how else to express his remorse, so he could only do it this way.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Do you really know you were wrong?” After who knows how many apologies, Zhou Zhou finally spoke from below.

Heya’s eyes were reddening. He nodded, “…Yes.”

“Okay then, I forgive you,” Zhou Zhou said.

After saying he forgave him, Zhou Zhou’s voice suddenly became quieter, whispering so only they could hear, “Next time if you’re scared, you can tell me first. I’ll protect you, or I’ll grab you and we’ll keep running until we find a safe place. What you did made me feel upset and hurt.”

“Yes…thank you,” Heya blinked the moisture from his eyes as he looked up. “Next time I’ll definitely tell you first, then you can grab me and we’ll run together.”

“Mm!” After Zhou Zhou said that, he didn’t feel resentful anymore. His emotions came and went quickly, and he cheerfully continued climbing down.

With his incredible hearing, Alvia finally pieced together what had happened from their conversation. On the first floor, Heya had done something out of fear, leading to Zhou Zhou being captured by the resentful woman, which explained the attitudes between the three of them.

Heya felt extremely guilty toward Zhou Zhou. It seemed he really wasn’t suited to continue this mission.

Zhou Zhou finally reached the bottom, his vision opening up to reveal many shelves with ghosts floating all around.

“Don’t come down yet, wait until I’ve captured the ghosts,” Zhou Zhou called up. Heya immediately stopped climbing.

Looking at the drifting ghosts, Zhou Zhou rolled up his sleeves and charged in, skillfully beginning to capture them.

Soon, all ten ghosts were neatly caught in Zhou Zhou’s hands.

“Okay, you can come down now.”

Heya immediately climbed down again, jumping the last few steps.

The remaining players also continued climbing down. By the time the last player reached the bottom, there was 1 hour and 25 minutes left until the clear time limit.

Neon Green used his glowing head to look around. This seemed to be the villa’s basement with many wine racks and barrels, appearing to be a wine cellar.

He seemed to recall something. “No wonder, when we looked out the windows during the day, there was a large vineyard planted outside. I didn’t look closely then, but now I realize they were probably grape vines.”

But now that they thought about it, it was too late. With little time left, everyone hurried to search for the exit in the wine cellar.

They found four human-shaped mosaics in the wine cellar, which were probably the four players captured by the resentful woman. No wonder they hadn’t seen the bodies.

They even found two coffins.

Each coffin had a red silk flower on top, like those used for weddings.

The wine cellar wasn’t very large. After searching everywhere, the players found no exit, leaving only these two coffins.

In the chilly, windy wine cellar with the two eerie coffins, everyone exchanged glances, unsure what to do.

“The coffins have nail marks, but it seems someone opened them later, so they aren’t sealed shut now. Should we open them?” Alvia stared at Zhou Zhou and asked.

“Huh? No way, why would we open someone’s coffin?” Neon Green said uneasily, taking over the conversation.

Zhou Zhou looked at them for a while. They had searched everywhere else, leaving only this place, and there wasn’t much time left.

“Open them,” Zhou Zhou said firmly.

Heya immediately went to push the coffins open. Alvia frowned as he watched, seeming to think Heya was…very obedient to Zhou Zhou, likely because of what he had done to wrong him previously.

The two coffins were pushed open, revealing two human-shaped mosaics inside, clearly one male and one female.

“Look, they’re both wearing red clothes, like they’re about to get married,” a player said.

“The woman looks a bit like the resentful woman. Could it be her?” Of course, since they currently looked like blurred mosaics, the player wasn’t too sure.

Zhou Zhou stepped forward to examine them. “It’s her.”

The resentful woman’s hair was very long. If the black mosaic part was her hair, the length matched hers.

Neon Green also noticed something. “Look, there are a lot of scratch marks inside the resentful woman’s coffin.”

The inner walls of her coffin were covered in scratch marks, unlike the mosaic effect elsewhere. The marks were very clear, with traces of blood.

Zhou Zhou frowned as he looked at the coffin lid. Heya understood and flipped it open, revealing it was also covered in a dense pattern of scratch marks that made one feel uncomfortable.

“Could it be… the resentful woman was buried alive here before she died?” a player guessed.

Alvia noticed their clueless looks and explained, “In ancient times, if an unmarried young person from a family died, the family would arrange a spirit marriage for them. If they had a fiance, the fiance would be brought into the family, and after a spirit marriage ceremony, the two would be buried together. If they had no fiance, they would find a suitable spouse based on their birth data. So in this instance, the resentful woman was likely tricked into coming here and forced into a spirit marriage with the villa’s owner before her coffin was placed here.”

“How do you know she was tricked?” Qian Le asked.

“That letter we found earlier was written by the resentful woman’s father, full of a father’s hopes for his daughter’s happiness after marriage. And the other two items were also quite valuable, all belonging to the resentful woman. That’s why seeing them dispelled her resentment, proving her family had some wealth. A father who could write such blessings wouldn’t throw his daughter into fire.”

Qian Le grunted twice. “Those items could have been from the groom’s family, though.”

Alvia glanced at him. “Then the resentful woman seeing them would have only increased her resentment.”

Qian Le: …He had a point, but there was no way to refute it.

Although Zhou Zhou was listening to Alvia, his eyes were fixed on the resentful woman. After Alvia finished speaking, he noticed one of the resentful woman’s fingers had reverted from the mosaic effect.

“Everyone, look quickly!” He called them over.

The resentful woman’s index finger was slightly curled, pointing downward.

“Down there,” Zhou Zhou shouted.

Heya immediately began pushing the coffins aside. Alvia rubbed his forehead with a sigh, no longer knowing what to say about Heya’s obedience.

Sure enough, after the coffins were pushed aside, there was a gray vortex below – the exit.

【Players have found the exit. Please escape the villa quickly.】

The quest panel had updated with the clear success message.

At this point, there were still 30 minutes left until the clear time limit.

The ghosts in Zhou Zhou’s hands slowly dispersed into the air, but this time he wasn’t sad. He had made many friends and no longer needed those ghosts.

Moreover, he would definitely see them again in the next instance, so until next time.

He waved toward where the ghosts had vanished, then unhesitatingly jumped into the gray vortex with everyone else…

The ten players stood in the dilapidated shack, feeling it slowly rise up.

“I thought we’d end up on the street or something after getting out, but we’re still in this run-down shack where we started,” a player complained.

“It’s good enough that we got out.”

“Yeah, if not for Zhou Zhou and Neon Green, we definitely couldn’t have cleared it.”

Neon Green: “…Thanks, but I’m not called Neon Green. I’m Eddie.”

“Eddie…green?”

Neon Green: “Just Eddie! No green!”

“Alright alright, no green, don’t get mad.”

“But seriously, this shack is way too dilapidated, with the wind blowing in everywhere.”

“Let it leak, no big deal, we’ll be out soon anyway.”

“Hee hee hee hee hee.”

“Damn, who’s imitating the resentful woman’s laugh? Trying to scare us to death?”  Several players who had been chatting were startled by the resentful woman’s laughter and angrily cursed.

A player looked around to see which jerk was imitating her laugh at this time, but then felt a tap on his shoulder.

“I’m~ here~”

He instinctively turned his head and came face-to-face with a woman. She had two thick black French braids, a rosy white complexion, red lips, and a small face that looked quite young.

But those black, white-less eyes were eerily familiar. Despite the changed appearance, the player immediately recognized her.

“Aaahhhh! Help! The resentful woman followed us out!”

Chaos erupted inside the small shack.