Darkness smothered the land, and the copper bells along the eaves rang and tinkled in the wind.
Ye Shu glanced at the timer for her respawn—it would be ready soon. Her spirits soared.
The bubbling hotpot sent up rolling clouds of steam; slippery, velvety potato noodles, beef slices slick with chili oil, crunchy lotus root, and golden enoki mushrooms crowded the bubbling pot. Ye Shu bade Pang Pangzi eat up, and both of them ate until their noses beaded with sweat, faces flushed bright red with satisfaction.
In their idle moments, she still managed to check on the player count. As she expected, fewer than two thousand remained.
Lu Ziqi and his group had managed to clear out a hall, so cautious they even covered the Buddha statue in red cloth. In the very center blazed a small fire, the searing warmth chasing away some of their dread and anxiety.
Bai Lili sat on the ground, biting into a dry, tasteless cracker, her eyes lowered in undisguised disgust.
Back in the real world, she was the pampered heiress of the Bai family. Though her family's influence paled compared to the Su clan, nothing had prepared her for such humiliation.
Their supplies were running out. The stash they’d prepared was long abandoned mid-journey, and the sole teammate with an inventory slot had been killed by something uncanny.
Suddenly, a delicious aroma swept past her nostrils and her hunger doubled.
“That smells so good! Am I imagining it?”
“That’s definitely the scent of hotpot!”
“I’m starving. If it wasn’t for this damned game, I’d be vacationing in Dongwei, sipping champagne with a beauty instead of ending up like this. Damn it.”
Su Xu quietly nibbled her grimy biscuit, saying nothing.
Her talent was the most useless in the team; getting hold of two crackers was already a stroke of luck. She wasn’t picky—survival was all that mattered. If she could get out alive, she’d have that engagement to the Lu family nullified, no question.
Given how pervasive the uncanny threats were, the group had assigned people for night watch.
Su Xu was one of them.
All at once, a waft of mist slipped in through the door crack. Drowsiness overwhelmed her; her eyelids felt glued shut and some ghostly voice whispered by her ear, "Go on, sleep."
A jolt ran through her. Sweat soaked her body as her consciousness sharpened.
She curled up, not daring to move a muscle. Even with her eyes squeezed shut, she could feel the pitch-black surround her, and the nearby fire’s warmth ebbing away.
Tap, tap, tap~
Something opened the door and stepped lightly inside. The sound drew closer—Su Xu still caught the words whispered: "You heard it."
One teammate cracked under pressure, screamed, and was torn to bloody shreds by the uncanny right then and there. Warm drops of something splattered Su Xu’s face, leaving a sickly-sweet and metallic tang.
Blood—
Her comrade’s blood. Still warm.
The footsteps faded away.
Then Lu Ziqi’s voice sounded by her ear. He apologized to her, saying everything had just been a show for Bai Lili, and that in truth, she was the one he loved.
"Susu, believe me. When we get back, let’s get married."
Hearing such falsity, Su Xu just wanted to laugh. All those sweet-nothings about endless love—her grandfather had been right; Lu Ziqi was hardly a man to trust. This was her mistake, after all.
She instinctively wanted to retort, but stopped short—something wasn’t right.
Lu Ziqi never called her "Susu" with such intimacy. So the voice speaking by her ear was… uncanny.
The woman remained rigid, seemingly calm. In truth, half her body was numb and icy cold, her limbs wouldn’t obey her.
"Susu, open your eyes. Are you afraid to look at me?"
"Susu, turn around. I don’t believe your eyes are empty."
"Damn it, why won’t you look? Look at me! Why won’t you—LOOK AT ME!"
The uncanny’s gentle croon turned shrill with madness. Su Xu’s body was stiff as stone. She hadn’t expected something uncanny would stoop to lying—this was on another level compared to what she’d faced before.
Time stretched. The uncanny’s steps grew distant. Su Xu had barely managed to keep herself together when—again—the sound of Bai Lili’s syrupy voice drifted to her ears.
"Sister Su, Brother Ziqi and I have known each other since we were children. You don’t mind, do you?"
"Su Xu, you’re completely useless. If not for the Su family, how could my brother fancy a vase like you?"
A shock went through her. The uncanny could even try to mislead with voices. If she hadn’t known Bai Lili’s personality so well, she might have been deceived.
"Sister, I’m talking to you—aren’t you being rude not opening your eyes?"
"Sister, answer me! Why won’t you speak?"
…………
No matter how the uncanny tried, Su Xu held fast. Not a flicker of expression, nothing but the appearance of peaceful sleep.
With a resentful glare at the woman on the floor, the uncanny turned to look for new victims.
………………
Ye Shu cradled Da Piaoliang as she stroked the cat’s sleek black fur. The feline purred, deeply content.
She glanced toward the great hall.
Something definitely felt off over there.
She’d only just turned to leave when a pallid, swollen face drifted into view—dark rimmed eyes, bloodshot and bulging, about to drop from their sockets with each shambling step. With a slick ‘plop’, one eyeball fell to the ground.
"You can see me! Heehee~"
The male uncanny, bare-chested, licked at the corners of his lips hungrily and lunged for Ye Shu without warning.
Ye Shu smiled coolly, raising her eyes to meet its horror-stricken face. Her foot stomped down, bursting the fallen eyeball with a sickening squelch.
Da Piaoliang, sitting on the side: "…………"
Her face was guileless, her actions anything but human.
Wasn’t a normal person supposed to cower in the dark, too scared to open their eyes?
"Kakaka~ I want… kakaka, to kill you!"
The male uncanny froze for a few seconds before registering—how dare a human, a mere morsel, mock him?
"Can’t even string a sentence together; maybe practice for a few more years."
Ye Shu leveled her peachwood sword—and dispatched the uncanny into the next world. She even made sure to wipe her sword clean when she finished.
Day nine of the game.
Ye Shu had barely stepped out the door when the din reached her ears. She asked Pang Pangzi what was going on and learned that half the traveling group was dead. All that remained were Lu Ziqi, Bai Lili, Su Xu, and the Zhang brothers: Zhang Congwen and Zhang Congwu.
The floor was dotted with splashes of blood and tufts of hair.
Bai Lili wiped her tears away, her gaze flicking sidelong at Ye Shu, and she lashed out coldly: “Why didn’t you warn us how strong the uncanny in Jingshan Temple were? If it weren’t for you, Xiao Cong and the others wouldn’t be dead.”
Lu Ziqi stood silent, his face ashen and dark, clearly in agreement with Bai Lili’s accusation.
Pang Tong could never stomach someone as calculating as Bai Lili. Letting them in was magnanimous enough, and yet she still shamelessly shoved the blame onto Ye Shu.
“Pfft—”
“Never have I seen such shamelessness. Have you no pride? They died to the uncanny—what’s it got to do with Heroine Ye? And why are you lot still alive, hmm? Don’t tell me you stood aside and let them die?”
Pang Pangzi’s biting words delighted Ye Shu.
Lu Ziqi’s face flickered between green and white, veins bulging on his temple. He forced a brittle smile: “Brother, you misunderstand. How could this be Miss Ye’s fault? We ourselves lowered our guard and fell prey to the uncanny.”
“We’re all players. It’s only right we look after one another and get through this together.”
Such pretty words might have fooled someone else, but Ye Shu remained unmoved, refusing to play along.
“Pangzi, pack up. Time to go.”
They gathered their things in the meditation quarters. With her pack on her back, Ye Shu was ready to leave.
All morning, her right eyelid had twitched—a bad omen gnawing at her gut. It felt like something major was coming. This place was no longer safe.
By the time Lu Ziqi’s group realized what was happening, Ye Shu and Pang Pangzi were long gone.
Before the darkness had completely closed in, a solitary figure stood inside the temple.
Zhang Congwen assumed it was a survivor and stepped forward to shake them down for supplies. He lifted their hat—and uncovered a breathtakingly handsome face, if one overlooked those eyes—entirely black from lid to lid.