Chapter 73: CH 41.1

The garden was silent, and the silence lasted for a while.

Zhu Shuangshuang’s face turned pale, and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

Ji Mingrui asked her, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know either, I just suddenly felt very anxious,” she said, bending slightly and clutching her chest. “I’m having trouble breathing.”

Ning Su blinked, his once silent eyes regained vitality as he looked at the ghost friends in the garden.

At that moment, they were all hiding behind the players, looking scared.

Meng Jiang thought that Zhu Shuangshuang must have been frightened by seeing someone melting into a sheet of skin, so he said, “Let’s go upstairs.”

In the garden, the strong scent of flowers mixed with the stench of human flesh, creating a more stomach-turning smell than a mere foul odor, further intensifying the oppressive atmosphere. It was really not suitable to stay there for long.

The four of them went upstairs.

In room 407, Ji Mingrui poured a cup of hot water for Zhu Shuangshuang.

This room had become their gathering, discussion, and observation place. Zhu Shuangshuang sat on the rocking chair on the balcony, watching the scene below, still feeling uncomfortable.

She said, “Shouldn’t we have told Zhu Ji that the slime ghost friend can leave as soon as we found out about it yesterday?”

“If we had told him, wouldn’t he have been saved?”

“Did we make a mistake?”

When faced with a severe and stimulating event, some people would attribute the mistake to others, while others would shoulder the blame and feel guilty.

Meng Jiang didn’t know how to comfort her, so he could only superficially say, “Zhu Ji also knew that the slime ghost friend could leave. Surely there are others in the garden who know, but you were the only one who stood up and told him. You’ve done well, it’s his own fault for not listening.”

This straightforward comfort didn’t make Zhu Shuangshuang feel much better.

She looked at Ning Su and asked, “Susu, do you think we should have told him yesterday?”

Yesterday when she asked whether to tell Zhu Ji or not, Ning Su didn’t express an opinion, like many times before.

Zhu Shuangshuang knew that he was like this, but this time, she really wanted to hear his opinion.

She only wanted to hear Ning Su’s opinion, as he was the only one who could put her at ease.

Ning Su: “Don’t tell.”

“Revealing the key to a predicament filled with possibilities to someone who has no means of self-preservation is not a good idea.”

Ji Mingrui continued from his words, “Yes, we only know that the slime ghost friend can get out, but we don’t know if he can take others out. If we had mentioned it at that time, the slime ghost friend would have faced more than just the pressure from one player.”

“His death wasn’t due to physical injury. Don’t dwell on it. Instead of continuing to think about this matter, let’s think about how to escape and how to deal with the opening of the window tomorrow night.”

Zhu Shuangshuang murmured in agreement and glanced at Ning Su again.

Being sensitive, she faintly felt that something was off with Ning Su’s state.

A person’s choices and judgments were often based on past experiences.

Was his confident answer a result of experiencing something similar?

“This instance is really difficult,” Zhu Shuangshuang said, bowing her head.

The difficulty didn’t lie in reasoning; it lay in making it hard for people to persist and smearing weariness and darkness layer by layer into their hearts.

Meng Jiang squatted in front of Zhu Shuangshuang and said, “You’ve already done very well. With a few more instances, you’ll get used to it. It’s the norm in these games.”

Ji Mingrui said, “Don’t dwell on those things. Let’s think about what to do next.”

He analyzed, “Based on the current situation, there are two possibilities for ‘birth.’ One is as other players have said, when our luck value reaches 8 points.”

“The other possibility is...”

What was it? He thought about the reservations Zhu Shuangshuang and Ning Su’s ghost friend had in front of them that day, and he stopped there.

He didn’t say, and the other three also knew.

Another possibility was that there might be a ghost friend who could help them escape.

This possibility hadn’t been verified yet.

What’s even worse was that both Bubu and Slime, the ghost friends that could possibly do this, had been destroyed.

Meng Jiang: “Are they the only two?”

Ji Mingrui: “Perhaps there is one more.”

Who that one was, was difficult to say.

Some players speculated that if they accumulated enough luck points, they could be “reborn” on a certain day. However, these two players, Chen Jinpeng and Zhu Ji, had zero luck points. Later, they resorted to coercion and obtained three luck points from their ghost friends.

There was also another player who had only one luck point at that time and still had only one luck point today.

That person was the little Gu Witch.

She had been a very low-key figure since moving into the castle.

Like Shi Tianzhu, she always stayed in her room and never came to the garden to play.

Shi Tianzhu at least would say a few words during meals, even if she only spoke one or two words when answering questions.

“So, what do we do this time?” Meng Jiang pondered for a moment and then said, “She is so powerful and belongs to that kind of guild. I feel she must already know, and we don’t need to tell her.”

Among all the players in the entire game base, no one understood the dark creatures better than those in the Yongming Guild.

Among the skilled individuals who frequently gather in the Yongming Guild, there was a black-clothed Azan. The Gu Witch must understand the ghost friends better than them. Perhaps she discovered all of this even earlier than they did.

“And she is really dangerous. In her eyes, the lives of humans are nothing compared to bugs. We better not provoke her easily.”

The three of them also knew she was dangerous. On the way to the castle, she quietly took down a person without making a sound.

Ji Mingrui said, “Actually, according to the first method, the three of you are only 1 point away from the required luck, and I am only 2 points away. If we don’t interfere too much and persist for another day or two, we can leave this place.”

Because something happened in the garden just now that made their mood somewhat heavy, they ultimately didn’t reach a definite conclusion regarding that matter.

After parting ways at 407, Ning Su, along with Gui Sheng and Blood Doll, went to the sixth floor.

He glanced at the door of Room 603 and knocked on Shi Tianzhu’s door.

After Shi Tianzhu opened the door for him, she didn’t ask him why he came. She gave him a cup of hot water, then continued sitting on the sofa by the window, observing the situation outside in the garden.

This morning, there were two instances where ghost friends were destroyed, and it wasn’t caused by the monster children.

There was a strong, putrid smell in the garden. Initially, they thought it was the smell of Zhu Ji’s human skin, but when they were cleaning up the body and the balloon doll, they finally discovered that the putrid smell was coming from the liquid oozing out of the balloon doll’s body.

That liquid had seeped into the flower soil, and it was unclear what it was, but it still caused the faces of the players to change.

Shi Tianzhu looked at the way they were looking at the ghost friends and picked up the bone china teacup, taking a sip of water.

Just at that moment, she heard the boy sitting next to Gui Sheng on the carpet at her feet say, “I don’t like humans.”

The boy hadn’t spoken much since he came in. Sitting on the left side, next to Gui Sheng, holding Blood Doll in his arms, he kept his head down. Those were the first words he uttered.

Shi Tianzhu placed the teacup on the small table and looked at the thin white neck that showed faint black veins, saying, “Well, as a human, I apologize.”

She didn’t know where she took out a shiny golden-wrapped round chocolate candy and placed it in front of Ning Su.

“Hmm?” The little boy immediately lifted his head, his eyes sparkling as they focused on the chocolate.

Shi Tianzhu looked at him with amusement.

“I apologize on behalf of humans. Do you still dislike humans?”

Ning Su immediately replied, “Humans are amazing as long as they have you!”

He happily stared at the chocolate bar in his hand, contemplating whether or not to open and eat it when he smelled another fragrance.

On the small table on the carpet, there was now an exquisite cream cake.

The small cake looked small but was covered in a thick layer of cream. On the creamy white surface, there were two purplish-black cherries and a bright red strawberry.

Beside the small cake were two cups of steaming milk.

Ning Su looked at Shi Tianzhu with a mixture of surprise and joy, his eyes sparkling.

Shi Tianzhu smiled and said, “Go ahead and eat.”

Ning Su gave the milk bottle to Blood Doll and handed a cup of milk to Gui Sheng. Holding a silver fork, he stared at the small cake for a while.

He had never eaten such an exquisite small cake before.

Sunlight streamed through the French windows, and after finishing the soft, creamy cake and drinking the fragrant hot milk, perhaps feeling extremely satisfied, Ning Su sat on the carpet leaning against Gui Sheng and Blood Doll, rested his head on the small table, and fell asleep in the warm afternoon sunlight.

Once again, he dreamt of that year when he was 18.

His dark-element superpower had been discovered, a bizarre ability never seen among other superhumans.

Many people surrounded him: his mentor, the authority figures of the base, scientists, and his classmates, all looking at him with cold eyes, as if they were seeing a freak but also filled with excitement.

He had grown accustomed to such stares since childhood, but in the cold winter wind, he still felt pierced by icy needles.

They chased him out, telling him to go cleanse the zombie virus.

Many people pushed him, but he couldn’t remember who gave him the final push out of the base.

He found himself among a horde of zombies, their decaying stench overwhelming, closing in on him.

“Groan...“

Suddenly, he saw that one zombie had a head made of chocolate, with cream bubbles coming out of it.

He plucked the chocolate zombie head and happily sat on the ground, gnawing on it.

On that sunny day, a group of zombies knelt around him, offering themselves for his enjoyment.

There were chocolate zombies, cream zombies, strawberry zombies... If you ate one each day, you could keep eating for a long, long time...

The little boy in his dream swallowed his saliva.

Shi Tianzhu looked at the boy sleeping beside her, and a slight smile appeared at the corner of her lips.

She stood up from the sofa and lowered her head to look at his delicate eyebrows and eyes, bathed in the sunlight. It felt like her heart had also been warmed by the sunshine.

“After we get out of this instance, I’ll bring you to the Yinhua Guild and make you my little brother.”

“Having a little brother seems nice, too.”

That afternoon, Ning Su ate less than usual, surprising Zhu Shuangshuang.

Could it be that he’s still stuck in what happened this morning? She’s already fine. Why was this extraordinary person still not feeling well?

“Don’t you want a chicken leg?” Zhu Shuangshuang asked tentatively.

Ning Su: “We have to follow President Shi’s diet rules. We can’t eat so much.”

Zhu Shuangshuang: “?”

Ning Su conscientiously redirected his gaze from the chicken leg after ten seconds.

After finishing their meal, the four of them, now restored with energy, returned to room 407 to discuss their next course of action.

Luck points were basically a matter of letting things take their natural course. Whenever they had enough points to reach eight, they would go and try to go out, without needing further discussion.

There were two questions before them. First, should they inform the Gu Witch of the hints? Second, how should they deal with the monster children tomorrow night?

The first question was difficult because a player of the Gu Witch’s level probably didn’t need their hints at all. Revealing that they knew about her ghost friend could pose a security risk.

Besides, the Gu Witch probably hadn’t been mistreating her ghost friend like Chen Jinpeng and the others.

However, what happened to Zhu Ji made them hesitate to make a hasty decision.

Ning Su surveyed room 407 and confirmed that after he drove away the gu worms last time, they hadn’t appeared on the fourth floor again. “Then let’s not give her any hints. We’ll just do it on our own.”

Zhu Shuangshuang looked puzzled and asked, “Huh? Why are you so proactive?”

Ning Su replied, “Here, I have to eat less to protect our mother’s body, but once I leave the instance and return to the base, I can spend the accumulated points from the Boss Ji. Maybe I can eat a feast.”

“...”

Meng Jiang cleared his throat and asked, “Um, how do you plan to do that?”

Ning Su responded, “I’ll sneak out her ghost friend and see if it can take me out.”

“...”

They didn’t know whether to comment on the first half of the sentence or the second half.

Meng Jiang said, “I have something to tell you. The witch has 123 types of gu insects. She can use life gu, love gu, and madness gu. There are gu insects all over her room.”

Ji Mingrui had to strike another blow, “Moreover, why would her ghost friend take you?”

Ning Su said, “You guys don’t worry about it.”

The conversation ended there.

The three of them truly didn’t intervene and just watched what he would do.

Room 405 remained closed all afternoon. Ning Su and Gui Sheng slept in bed the whole afternoon.

Strangely enough, as soon as dinner was served, both of them opened their eyes at the same time and went downstairs with Blood Doll, eating dinner on time.

The three of them remained silent.

After finishing dinner, he returned to his room and slept again. Gui Sheng brought Blood Doll to the corridor, waiting for the monster children together.

Tonight, the window on the fifth floor was still the one open.

Bai Shuang sat behind the door with her three ghost friends.

With three ghost friends, she should be safe tonight, but deep down, she felt a sense of unease.

Today, Shi Tianzhu rejected her.