Chapter 14.2 Night of the Ancient Castle
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Wen Shi’s attribute panel updated.
【Player Number: 460872
Code Name: Not Generated
Health Points: 101 (?)
Memory Points: 101 (?)
Charm Points: [-∞, 89] (?)
Note: -∞ is only applicable to female NPCs more beautiful than the blood bride.
Oh, your charm is truly boundless.】
He read it twice to make sure he didn’t misread.
At this moment, Wen Shi suddenly felt that losing a few charm points in the cursed flower field was nothing at all. He could even lose more because the final result would be infinite.
Negative charm was like a double-edged sword. In the future, he might face two situations: monsters detesting and targeting him, or them voluntarily staying away from him.
He just didn’t know how the game defined “more beautiful than the blood bride.”
While Wen Shi was weighing the pros and cons, the castle master mercilessly wielded his wand, reaping the lives of the remaining blood brides.
As Wen Shi had deduced, the castle master undoubtedly suppressed the blood brides in terms of power, but due to certain conditions, he had to resort to indirect means to deal with them, relying on the player.
However, it was challenging for the player to face so many blood brides. The uncertainty was significantly increased, indirectly giving the blood brides a glimmer of hope.
From this perspective, the player seemed more like a tool used by the game to balance certain elements of the instance.
The castle master looked impassively at the ashes on the ground, then glanced at Wen Shi for two seconds before closing the door.
“Five hundred points.” Just as the door closed, Luo Xiao suddenly said, “If you can truly figure out what rule I triggered, I’ll transfer the points to you.”
Previously, when Wen Shi said, “You won’t live through tonight,” she didn’t think it was a mere verbal threat.
As someone driven by his own interests, this time Wen Shi ignored her and turned back to his own room, leaving behind a light-hearted remark.
“You should use your intelligence to decipher the rules, like understanding the fear psychology arising from seeing one’s own reflection, which the blood bride is afraid of.”
Luo Xiao didn’t care about the reprimand. She just wanted to confirm if she had accidentally triggered a rule.
Wen Shi shook his head.
This person’s cleverness was all focused on scheming against players.
Seeing him ignoring her, Luo Xiao caught up and reached out to grab his arm, but Wen Shi preemptively evaded the contact. His dark eyes brought a sense of oppression from the shadows, not inferior to the castle master’s. Slightly embarrassed, Luo Xiao took two steps back, cursing herself for showing weakness in front of a newbie. By the time she regained her composure, Wen Shi had already gone far.
Peng Lu had also disappeared, clearly not wanting to get involved.
Luo Xiao ran to Peng Lu’s room and knocked on the door heavily from outside, saying, “Exiu’s death is related to Pei Wenwei. That person has a vengeful nature. If you continue to be passive, the next one to suffer will be you.”
The door opened slightly. Luo Xiao’s smile appeared on her face, but the next moment, she completely froze upon hearing Peng Lu’s words.
“I advise you to go back early. The side quest has ended, and the corridor is not safe now.”
After saying that, Peng Lu closed the door again.
Luo Xiao gritted her teeth with frustration and weighed her options before choosing to return to her room.
The candlestick on the guest’s dressing table couldn’t be lit. This was a death rule that had been confirmed. Luo Xiao stood in a corner near the window, with talismans plastered on the wall to prevent monsters from attacking from behind. She kept her eyes fixed on the ceiling and the direction of the door, holding an item in her hand, ready to defend herself.
Luo Xiao was in a highly tense state, which had affected her body’s reaction time.
“Calm down,” she said, her other hand’s nails digging into the wall crack behind her. “How could I be scared by a newbie’s few words?”
Time passed minute by minute, and for now, there were no abnormal occurrences.
Luo Xiao still dared not blink, observing the surroundings while replaying all her actions of the day.
Most of her actions were done together with Wen Shi and Peng Lu, so if something happened, she shouldn’t be alone. The only exception was when she secretly let the little white mouse enter Wen Shi’s room to find a strand of his hair for future use.
None of these things violated the death rules.
Thinking this way, Luo Xiao’s heart gradually calmed down.
At three in the morning, the cuckoo clock in the dining room chimed. Normally, this clock would only chime twice, with a particularly piercing sound, at midnight and eight in the morning. This time was a first.
Luo Xiao, who had just relaxed for less than three seconds, became tense again.
Unidentifiable liquid slowly seeped in through the door crack, emitting a foul, bloody smell. In the center of the liquid floated a thin paper, slightly over a meter long. As the liquid flowed, the paper stood upright when it completely passed through the door crack.
It resembled the human skin in horror movies and also resembled a walking human-shaped sign.
The remaining rationality forced Luo Xiao to suppress her urge to run away.
Escaping would only lead to a faster death.
In her pupils, a vague outline of a woman reflected, with a veil and a dress… As these key elements appeared one by one, Luo Xiao exclaimed, “Blood bride.”
She suddenly remembered the side quest prompt, which mentioned that helping the butler complete the task would trigger the monster’s hatred.
Could it be that there were still blood brides in the castle? Was she now seeking revenge?
Luo Xiao immediately took out the undead camera and took a photo of the blood bride.
The flash was very bright, but the blood bride, as thin as paper, showed no reaction.
How could this be?!
Regarding the blood bride’s weakness, Wen Shi shouldn’t have lied.
The blood bride’s feet didn’t touch the ground. She was floating on the blood, and Luo Xiao finally noticed the difference in front of her. Although her features looked unnatural, the lack of coordination wasn’t due to patchwork. Luo Xiao, herself, was a skilled makeup artist and could confirm that the woman deliberately made her face look this way.
A bold idea suddenly occurred to her: this was the perfect bride that the castle master was looking for!
To avoid detection, this person had been posing as a blood bride and wandering around the castle. Their actions of helping the castle master capture blood brides had clearly angered the real bride.
The reason this special side quest offered generous rewards was because it was a matter of life or death.
Once you took on the quest, you were in direct opposition to the blood bride. To survive, you must successfully complete the quest and obtain the reward.
The 【Family Crest】was meant to deter the blood bride and keep oneself alive.
Realizing this, Luo Xiao immediately took out the crest.
“Failed to use the 【Family Crest】. This item requires a favorability rating of 20 or higher from the Earl.”
Luo Xiao’s lips trembled continuously, sweating palms holding the crest tightly while silently repeating, “The bride you’re looking for is right here.”
Attempting to pass on the message to the castle master in this way.
The crest remained cold and unresponsive.
Luo Xiao usually saved her points to stock up on talismans. Now, she quickly threw out an advanced talisman that could immobilize ordinary ghosts and monsters for ten seconds. With confidence, she believed it could at least buy her some time.
The woman flicked her fingers, and the blood on the ground defied gravity, forming a vortex that enveloped the talismans. As the talisman was consumed, a small amount of blood turned into blood bubbles and slowly disappeared.
This minor damage didn’t hinder the woman in the slightest.
Suddenly, half of her body merged into the bloodwater, vanishing from sight.
Except for the area with flowing blood, the ground was covered in frost, indicating that the woman hadn’t really disappeared.
Where did she run off to?
Luo Xiao attempted to look in all directions until she felt a damp sensation from behind. The talismans on the wall had fallen off without her noticing, and a thin, withered arm reached out from the wall, enveloping her from behind.
In an instant, Luo Xiao’s entire body felt almost frozen.
Before losing all ability to move, she desperately struggled to extend an arm and grabbed a candlestick from the nearby table, then forcefully hurled it towards the window. The night wind rushed in. Luo Xiao’s mouth opened and closed weakly, gasping for breath as she let out a final cry, “The bride… is here!”
The woman behind her looked cold and heartless, gripping Luo Xiao’s long hair and forcefully pulling her backward. At this moment, Luo Xiao couldn’t even move her eyeballs properly, let alone close her eyes, so she could only watch helplessly as she was dragged into the wall.
The whole process was too brutal, the intense smell of blood filling the air beyond imagination.
Before losing consciousness, Luo Xiao’s expression turned fierce: “Peng Lu, you’re next.”
It was ironic to think that they completed the mission but couldn’t activate the life-saving item due to insufficient favorability.
Pei Wenwei, I curse you to suffer an awful death.
More curses were on the tip of Luo Xiao’s tongue, but she couldn’t spit them as the world before her turned pitch black.
*
In the virtual world.
Following Exiu, another player’s number transformed into gray.
*
“It’s the Night of the Horror Ancient Castle, the instance where the 3S-level triggered for that new player!” The first player to discover it couldn’t believe their eyes and watched again: “What’s going on?”
An old player sacrificed themselves before the newbie.
More and more people started paying attention, and the discussions grew louder.
“I was worried the newbie wouldn’t last long, and the clues for the 3S instance would disappear. But it seems like they’ve got quite the luck.”
“This is getting interesting.” Not everyone had the ambition to challenge a 3S-level instance. Just an S-level instance could lead to their demise, and now, they were just watching the show.
The members of the Ten Commandments didn’t expect the newbie to survive for long, but now, they all dispatched someone to guard the exit of the 1332 instance.
As more people gathered at the exit, the onlookers whispered to their friends. “Watch closely. This will definitely turn into a bloody mess.”
Assuming this newbie could manage to make it out alive, the clues they possessed could cause chaos in the entire thirteen districts, even triggering a reshuffling of power.
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