XiaZhi lay in a daze on the sofa for quite a while. During that time, Su Er had a conversation with the player playing the role of the family mediator. The player's name was Wang Sansi, and it was already his third day in the game.
Su Er: “Did you enter the instance the same day as Xia Zhi?”
Wang Sansi nodded. “We’re part of the second batch of players brought in to fill vacant roles.”
“Vacant roles?” That was the first time Su Er had heard this term.
Wang Sansi explained, “Some instances are special. If players portraying essential roles die, the game automatically brings in replacements.”
That one sentence made Su Er feel a chill despite the summer heat.
Su Er frowned. “So, the two players who were originally playing the bachelors… are already dead?”
Wang Sansi replied, “The day before you two arrived. They were hunted down as murder suspects and were accidentally beaten to death by the Regulation Bureau officers during the arrest.”
Su Er glanced at Ji Heng, his eyes clearly saying: Good thing we ran fast last night.
Ji Heng, ever focused, was more concerned with the mission than the cause of death: “Tell me about the stamps.”
Wang Sansi was shrewd. Thanks to his role, he was able to interact with different townspeople and gather comprehensive information: “Restaurants, convenience stores... stamps can appear anywhere. After midnight, the Coffin Bearers will appear. As long as you carry a stamp and go out onto the street, they’ll find you.”
Ji Heng: “What’s inside the coffins?”
“Medicines, invisibility talismans… all kinds of strange things. But they’re only effective in this specific instance, and the effects don’t last long. Kind of like…”
Wang Sansi struggled to find the right word.
Su Er said coldly, “Defective replicas or failed inventions.”
“Exactly!” Wang Sansi clapped his hands. “That’s it!”
Su Er and Ji Heng exchanged looks, both thinking of the eyeball inside Su Er and the bead held by Mister Rose. The Gravekeeper’s Servant had said the latter was a defective replica of the former.
Wang Sansi added, “There’s one more thing—rare stamps come with a special bonus item.”
Having gathered the essentials, Ji Heng suddenly stood up. “Let’s go.”
Su Er: “Where to?”
Ji Heng: “Didn’t you say you partnered with that adult products shop?”
Su Er coughed. “I’m just the supplier.”
They didn’t finish the conversation until they were at the door. Ji Heng explained, “The more dangerous the location, the more useful the stamp we’re likely to find.”
Su Er wondered why they were hiding this from Wang Sansi.
Ji Heng: “He only told us about the benefits of entering the coffin.”
Su Er immediately caught on. “He’s trying to bait us into going in?” Then he laughed. “No wonder you want to visit the adult store.”
It wasn’t exactly that Wang Sansi was trying to harm them—he simply treated them like stones tossed ahead to test the road. As for the shop owner, Su Er had seen her eat raw meat and ashes—clearly not human.
Chances were good that they’d find a useful stamp there.
Su Er asked, “You want to cover your face?”
Last night, the sound of patrol cars chasing Ji Heng could be heard from far away.
“No need,” Ji Heng replied. “The patrol officers are still unconscious. They won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
This was a strange, remote town. The people dressed plainly and held onto some superstitious beliefs, but it couldn’t be called conservative. The townsfolk looked down on the adult store’s owner and gossiped about her constantly, but that didn’t stop them from secretly buying her products.
Despite her unimpressive merchandise, the shop owner ran a thriving business.
“Sister Zhang!” Su Er adjusted his expression and called out cheerfully.
The woman he called Sister Zhang was sitting on a small stool, fanning herself with a banana leaf. She perked up at the sight of Su Er but frowned when she saw Ji Heng behind him.
Ji Heng was dressed in rags and looked pitiful by comparison.
“I hired him to lend a hand,” Su Er said with a smile. “With a job, maybe he’ll turn things around.”
Sister Zhang hid her exaggerated grin behind her fan. “Sister likes your kind heart.”
Su Er glanced into the messy shop and offered to help clean up.
Sister Zhang praised him for being thoughtful. But as Su Er rolled up his sleeves and stepped through the doorway, her smile turned meaningful: “Be careful when tidying up—some things in here aren’t meant for someone your age.”
At first it sounded like teasing, but upon closer thought, it felt like something more.
Many items were piled up in boxes without any organization. Hot-blooded youth might get curious, but Su Er was different. He had always been indifferent to matters of love or desire.
He went through the items one by one with no emotional fluctuations, seriously looking for signs of stamps.
Dozens of items passed through his hands, but there wasn’t a single trace of a stamp. Su Er shook his head. “Didn’t think my luck could get this bad.”
Several incense burners sat on nearby shelves, releasing an overwhelming fragrance that made him dizzy. He covered his mouth and nose, considering switching targets.
Just then, Ji Heng suddenly stopped what he was doing and quickly walked over to a short cabinet. After moving the clutter on top and giving a sharp tug, he revealed a hidden coffin beneath the tablecloth.
Su Er stared at the pitch-black coffin. “You’re opening it?”
Ji Heng nodded. “Step back—I’ll handle it.”
Su Er wasn’t the type to act tough. The moment Ji Heng spoke, he backed off a full meter and glanced at the shop owner. Sister Zhang was yawning and leaning against the doorframe, paying no attention to the noise inside.
Su Er whispered, “Still, better be careful.”
Opening the coffin made quite a racket, but the owner didn’t even look, as if waiting to trap them.
Inside the coffin, there wasn’t a horrifying corpse—just a single stamp lying there alone. It featured a plump woman, her clothes half-open, making it one of the rare stamps with clear sexual overtones.
Ji Heng casually tossed something inside. The coffin didn’t react. After a moment, he slowly extended a talisman toward the stamp. Everything seemed to be going smoothly—he was only a finger's length away from it—when suddenly, the woman on the stamp came to life and lunged out with her arm. The talisman was instantly burned to ash.
Ji Heng frowned, then calmly broke off half her arm with his bare hand. But the entity's regenerative powers were terrifying. Several new arms quickly sprouted, one of them twisting and stretching several meters as it lunged through the air toward Su Er.
Everything happened too suddenly—Su Er didn’t even have time to use his stun gun and was directly pulled into the coffin.
Seeing that the coffin lid was about to close, Ji Heng, before the ghost’s grasp on his hands could tighten further, jumped in as well.
Inside was another world.
The space was larger than expected—at least big enough for both of them to lie down without feeling cramped.
Su Er felt a tickling sensation on his face. Because it was too dark to see clearly, Ji Heng pulled out a Doraemon-like gadget that could emit light.
The moment the light appeared, Su Er found the source of the tickle: some long black strands of hair… Looking up, a woman was pressed against the inside of the coffin lid, her eyeballs slightly larger than normal, staring motionlessly down at the two of them.
Worried about limited air, Su Er controlled his breathing carefully and didn’t dare make a sound.
The woman had many arms, densely tangled like snakes.
Su Er thought if she attacked now, it wouldn’t be hard to strangle someone, but the woman only stared at them, seeming unable to strike a killing blow directly.
Ji Heng said, “She wants to slowly wear us down.”
The living don’t have the capital to outlast the dead. Su Er said grimly, “Hopefully we can find something that can restrain this kind of ghost.”
For now, the ghost’s biggest advantage was the many arms and the ability to regenerate severed limbs.
Ji Heng pondered briefly, “Incense ash.”
Su Er was stunned for a moment, recalling the shop owner eating incense ash, and thought it was plausible. The problem was that they were trapped inside the coffin—where to get incense ash?
The ghost silently watched them, enjoying their desperate struggle.
It wasn’t convenient to say the rest in front of the ghost, so Ji Heng quietly wrote a word in Su Er’s palm: “Shoe.”
The shop had many incense burners, all burning incense. When they were searching for the stamp earlier, it was very likely some incense ash stuck to the shoe soles.
Before the air became even thinner, Su Er composed himself and bent his legs. His waist strength was good, and in the cramped enclosed space he effortlessly kicked upward. The ghost instinctively used her extra limbs to block, and the moment shoe touched skin, smoke rose immediately from the contact point.
Opportunity!
Su Er narrowed his eyes and kicked twice more.
Ji Heng took advantage of the ghost’s pain, threw out two talismans, did a somersault, and sat up—throwing the ghost and the heavy coffin lid out together.
Fresh air rushed in. Su Er greedily took a few breaths, eager to get out. The ghost had already vanished. A stamp lay quietly on the ground, as if nothing had happened.
Next to the stamp was a red string with a thoughtful instruction card:
[Red string: A one-time dual-use item. When tied around the wrist, it reduces ghost damage by 30%.
Note: Only effective in this instance.]
At the same time,
Not far from this adult store, a man dressed in black carefully concealed his face, a slight curl of his lips showing his satisfaction with the outcome.
Confined spaces inevitably meant physical contact, maybe even some ambiguous sparks.
After watching a bit more, the man silently turned and entered a house around the corner.
This shadowy observer was none other than the Gravekeeper’s Servant, who hated daylight.
The house faced the shady side, never seeing sunlight all year round, very damp.
But the Gravekeeper’s servant liked this environment. He took out intelligence purchased from Gou Baopu, which recorded Su Er’s performance in other instances.
Very impressive—the highlight was his novelty. The host was used to being above everyone else, but suddenly this player appeared, taking a few small losses was normal. The Gravekeeper’s Servant never underestimated any opponent. After reading all of Su Er’s info, he quickly understood why Su Er could gain an advantage.
In short, it was relying on recklessness.
Ghost marriage, making children, sending money to ex-husbands… all manifestations of recklessness.
But at the same time, this person had some valuable qualities, like resilience, keeping promises, and not abandoning teammates.
“Cold on the outside, warm on the inside.”
The Gravekeeper’s Servant’s summary of Su Er’s personality was quite accurate. He knew well the complexity and darkness of human nature—people who pretend to be scoundrels often become more steadfast when they get serious about relationships.
At this thought, the host suddenly had a new stamp in hand. The ghost sealed inside was interesting—not powerful, but good at creating illusions.
Long slender fingers caressed the face on the stamp, the ghost inside kept trembling. The Gravekeeper’s Servant narrowed his eyes and said, “Ji Heng is also a troublemaker in the game. He likes to team up for instances. I have to help that along.”
As if ignoring the ghost’s fear in the stamp, the Gravekeeper’s Servant whispered, “Humans always think the scenes that appear in illusions are the hidden weaknesses in their hearts. Your job is to make those two mistake each other for their vulnerabilities.”
The ghost inside nodded repeatedly.
The Gravekeeper’s Servant then took out another stamp with the power to induce dreams and instructed, “As for you, paint some vivid dreams and plant psychological suggestions.”
After arranging everything, he rested his chin on his hand, looking out the window with a cruel gleam in his eyes, “Of course, it would be best if they die in the process, but that probably won’t be so easy.”
The ghost inside the stamp spoke cautiously, “According to the rules, we have to give the winning player an one time ‘item’. Isn’t that a bit of a loss?”
The Gravekeeper’s Servant shrugged, “Fighting monsters to get gear, fostering budding emotions—pretty good.”
Later, once a romantic relationship is established, killing one of them would be like destroying two.
“That idiot Rose just plays word tricks,” the Gravekeeper’s Servant raised an eyebrow with disdain. “Since players like recklessness, why not force him to fall in love?”
If they could get those two to work out their problems through free love early on, Su Er wouldn’t have gotten into a ghost marriage, and Ji Heng wouldn’t be hosting it. Those dumb colleagues don’t know how to fix the problem at its root.
Make the culprit fall madly in love—love like a gentle spring breeze, love like drawing water from the vast river, but only taking a single scoop—and everything disappears.
----------
No comments:
Post a Comment