Chapter 67.2 Crazy Love Season
The Ghost Gate was open, and it was getting more unsafe as the night got deeper. With no further clues, players could only passively set forth, becoming nighttime travelers once again.
“This is reckless.” Someone sighed.
Walking on the mountain path so late was undeniably a reckless act. The rugged and winding narrow trail reminded Wen Shi of the covered walkway in the old mansion, deepening his sense of ominous foreboding.
“Can you smell it?” Zhou Lulu suddenly asked.
The mixture of sweet and foul odor, a scent they hadn’t encountered since leaving Sealed Coffin Village, assaulted them again. Now, the nauseating aroma hit them head-on.
In the beginning, things were fine with everyone walking together. As the fog grew denser, the outlines of those around them became harder to see. Wen Shi held A’Sang’s little hand tightly, feeling the mist transform into dewdrops on his palm, unpleasantly clammy.
As the footsteps of the nearby players faded, a chilling sensation crept up Wen Shi’s back. It felt like an invisible, colossal hand might ambush him, pushing him off the cliff at any moment. This notion intensified, compelling him to walk as close to the mountainside as possible.
Calling out a name while crossing a mountain path wasn’t considered auspicious. As a superstitious father entirely concerned for his child’s well-being, Wen Shi refrained from calling A’Sang. When they neared a bend, he couldn’t resist looking back. Amidst the reddish haze, nothing could be seen. He used his other arm to confirm that no one was behind him.
“Phew~” Wen Shi let out a sigh of relief.
As he turned around, he was met face-to-face with an enlarged scarecrow!
Unlike traditional scarecrows, this one had several bloody gashes on its face, with the mouth area mostly hollowed out. When the wind blew, the sparse straw on its body produced a rustling sound.
“Going back to the village?” it asked.
The lowermost slip of paper in Wen Shi’s pocket grew increasingly warm.
“Going back?” the scarecrow asked again.
“Yes,” Wen Shi replied as the curve of the scarecrow’s mouth became increasingly eerie.
Satisfied, the scarecrow exhaled a pitch-black straw from its hollow mouth and inserted it into Wen Shi’s hair.
His nervousness seemed to ease a bit.
A’Sang hadn’t responded yet, indicating this was a segment triggering a side quest—immune to external influences.
If there was a quest, there was a way out, which was better than facing a certain logical monster that only knew how to unleash violence.
【Side Quest: Return to the Village.
On your way back, you encounter a demon emerging from the Ghost Gate. It’s also a loyal fan of “Crazy Love Season” and is willing to guide you.
Remember, no matter what happens along the way, don’t make any deals with the demon.
If you can remember, that is.】
What did “if you can remember” mean?
Wen Shi didn’t have time to ponder the quest’s details. The scarecrow’s straw grew redder, enveloping him in the distinct odor of Sealed Coffin Village—a mixture of decay. The scarecrow was tall, hunching down as it spoke, its two-hole eyes fixed on him.
The scarecrow started discussing love topics related to variety shows.
“Just getting by isn’t enough. To successfully hold hands until the end, you need to fulfill many conditions.” Its peculiar tone sent shivers down Wen Shi’s skin beneath his clothes.
“Do you have a car and a house?”
“Yes.”
Big Factory’s company car and his home.
“Do you have a stable job?”
“Yes.”
Being a doctor.
“Do you have a perfect nuclear family?”
Wen Shi’s expression changed slightly.
The scarecrow chuckled, its proximity causing the messy straw to prick Wen Shi’s skin.
“Found it.”
Found your weakness.
The straw on Wen Shi’s head suddenly grew finer, becoming a thin strand of hair that infiltrated his follicles. His entire scalp tingled instantly, and he appeared dazed as the straw continuously extracted his memories. Distant images rolled over, layer by layer, reappearing vividly.
The mechanical voice of the system followed suit:
“Time rewinding—”
“Emphasizing once again, in your most painful moment, please resist making a deal with the demon.”
“The only thing the demon seeks as a tribute is your soul.”
“Note that this rewind journey will be sponsored by the【Paranormal Time Drone】livestreamed by You Fushang. Additional payment from the audience is required, and the system will receive a share as a side reward during the event.”
[T/N: you fushang: literally means gaming tycoon]
His head spun further, everything appearing as a series of fading images, the world collapsing into numerous blocks of color. This sensation was all too familiar to Wen Shi.
When doing the archive and quality inspection area tasks, the sensation during this rewind felt the same—losing control and balance first.
“Dad.” A’Sang, restricted by the game, finally snapped back to reality, astonished to find Wen Shi within arm’s reach but seemingly inaccessible, as if separated by a translucent barrier.
“Dad, catch!” A’Sang suddenly pulled off the vial hanging around his neck and attempted to throw it to Wen Shi.
This time, the vial cooperated well.
A’Sang threw it with all his might. If the vial couldn’t reach Wen Shi’s hand, it would meet the fate of plummeting off the cliff.
Amidst a hazy state, Wen Shi heard the sound and instinctively reached out his hand.
The next moment, at the bend of the mountain path, the crimson mist formed a series of brick walls that completely enveloped Wen Shi and the scarecrow, creating an isolated space. The sky’s drone, along with them, was encircled by these brick walls, gradually fading from view.
…
Dizzy.
Spinning wildly.
The intense dizziness made Wen Shi feel like he had been thrown into a flushing toilet, swept along with the swirling vortex of water into a dark and winding sewer. After experiencing a period of mad descent, he finally reached his destination.
Of course, the destination wasn’t a sewage pit.
However, when Wen Shi regained consciousness and opened his eyes to see the handsome face of a man and the beautiful smile of a woman, he thought it might as well have been a sewage pit.
“Did you make a good wish?” the woman asked gently.
There was a creamy birthday cake on the table. Wen Shi glanced down at his hands and realized he had become as young and innocent as A’Sang. It wasn’t surprising at all. The game emphasized not making deals with the demon during the most painful moments, so he had returned to that very point of pain.
Wen Shi sighed. Had he started a rivalry with time itself?
Combining the two instances and rewinding three times.
Where did the scarecrow go? Wen Shi looked around but couldn’t find the it or anything else. In the final moment before the rewind, A’Sang seemed to have tossed him a vial.
“What’s wrong? Is the cake too small for your liking?” The woman looked at him with concern when he didn’t respond.
Wen Shi shook his head. “It’s fine.”
No sign of the the scarecrow demon, but sitting beside him was a demon couple.
This couple happened to be Pei Hongxin and Wei Yue.
Wei Yue remained unchanged from his memories. At this moment, Pei Hongxin was in his early thirties, his eyes devoid of the calculating wrinkles that would come later.
On the sofa, the man’s shoulders were slightly hunched, lacking the usual confidence. After the company’s bankruptcy and unpaid employees, the family was forced to move into their self-built house. The weight of responsibilities piled up, causing his usually straight posture to curve.
Even during the toughest times, this couple didn’t forget to celebrate their child’s birthday. Wei Yue, who usually didn’t dabble in domestic chores, even made a cake with her own hands.
The warm glow of the colored candles filled the room. Wen Shi lowered his eyes.
Suddenly, a surge of uncontrollable emotion and happiness welled up from deep inside. He clutched his chest, feeling exactly how he did back then.
Damn.
Thankfully, he lowered his head when clutching his chest, and the lip movements of his swearing went unnoticed by the couple.
Thinking that he wasn’t feeling well, Wei Yue quickly helped Wen Shi up.
Memories began to fade bit by bit. Wen Shi despised this feeling of being controlled. He knew memories were missing but couldn’t pinpoint what exactly was absent. By the time he snapped out of it, he had forgotten why he was here.
Time travel, rebirth, reverse time flow?
These absurd words had barely formed before memories further disappeared. Wen Shi even forgot he was an adult.
Eventually, only one thought remained: Today is his birthday, and his parents are celebrating for him.
“Mom.”
As he raised his head again, an involuntary sense of fondness filled his gaze. His face lit up with a happy smile, blowing out birthday candles.
The【Paranormal Time Drone】outside the window accurately captured this scene.
The family celebrated the birthday with warmth and joy.
After finishing the cake, Wen Shi returned to his room.
For some reason, he felt unusually tired today. After eating the cake, he didn’t even have the strength to brush his teeth. He collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
All the lights in the self-built house went out, plunging the dim street into complete darkness.
Stray cats occasionally meowed by the roadside, and further away, a drunk lay on the other side of the road, clutching a bottle and muttering to himself.
… So noisy.
Wen Shi was half-asleep when suddenly he felt that the noise wasn’t just outside. There seemed to be sounds inside the room too. It sounded like the creaking of a door and footsteps. He struggled to open his eyelids, catching a glimpse of a corner of a woman’s skirt. Being too tired, he drifted back to sleep.
After an unknown period of time, a cool breeze roused him. This time, he was awakened by the cold. In the icy moonlight, he saw that the window was wide open and a dark figure stood there.
He jolted awake, fully alert now.
A thief?
No, the person held a sharp knife, not like an ordinary thief, but more like someone intent on robbery and harm.
But their family was already out of money.
There was no time for further contemplation as the thief was already heading straight towards his bed.
Wen Shi sprang up like a startled fish, forcefully hurling his pillow at the intruder, attempting to impede their advance.
“Dad, Mom.” His body felt somewhat weak, and his voice followed suit, lacking strength. Wen Shi strained his vocal cords, “Run! Run quickly!”
He didn’t yell for help. He simply shouted urgently for them to escape. The surroundings were chaotic, and someone wielding a knife was likely a desperado. Besides, this thief had a muscular build, a clear indication of some genuine combat skills. If confronted, there would hardly be a way out.
With a heavy head, Wen Shi ran too hastily and stumbled to the ground, blood trickling from his nose.
The thief halted. Without saying a word, the knife plunged straight into Wen Shi’s shoulder.
Intense pain surged through, and Wen Shi realized that fleeing was no longer an option. He clung desperately to the intruder’s leg, trying to impede their progress, hoping to buy his parents a few more seconds to escape.
“I-I don’t have money at home.”
He was sprawled on the ground, not noticing the thief’s face overhead morphing into that of a scarecrow.
“Yes, you do,” it was a trick often employed by demons—unearthing the person’s most painful memories and then assuming one of the roles, luring the other party into a deal.
“It was your dad and mom who hired me to harm you.”
The demon whispered by the bleeding child’s ear, “Later, I’m going to start a fire. They find the insurance money insufficient and plan to use a severely injured child to raise a large sum. When you die, not only will they get double the money, but they’ll also garner societal sympathy.”
The demon didn’t fabricate anything. All of these were facts from Wen Shi’s memories.
The child, already precocious and highly intelligent, remembered a welfare home employee who secretly fed sleeping pills to the children to make them fall asleep quickly.
The sensation after taking those pills was similar to tonight.
The windows that were closed during the day were wide open at night, and the footsteps he faintly heard… Everything was pointing towards what had actually happened.
The demon began enticing its prey, “Would you like to make a deal with me? I can help you seek revenge.”
This wasn’t just linguistic temptation. The demon could manipulate its prey’s consciousness, magnifying their deepest desires limitlessly.
The child who had tried desperately to hold off the thief to help his parents and then discovered the truth now had a crystal-clear longing: vengeance.
The【Paranormal Time Drone】flew in through the window, capturing everything up close.
The viewers were captivated by this, as it was the most popular segment of “Crazy Love Season.” Since the program started, none of the special guests had survived. All had died during their most excruciating moments.
Wen Shi’s throat felt like it was filled with lead. He opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a word.
It felt like he had forgotten something crucial.
Amplified desires by the demon seemed to trigger a recollection.
The demon asked again, “Your family hurt you. Don’t you want to take revenge on them?”
Family?
Upon hearing the word, Wen Shi unconsciously shook his head, “I want them to be happy.”
The demon magnified the desires in Wen Shi’s heart, unaware that these desires were closely tied to his family. However, the family that Wen Shi kept hidden deep within him wasn’t Pei Hongxin and Wei Yue, but the versions of himself from the parallel worlds.
The scarecrow’s expression turned fierce, “They’re using you!”
Despite his severe injuries, Wen Shi tried to defend, “No, that’s not true. They’re just facing difficulties.”
A fragment of memory returned to Wen Shi. He subconsciously sensed that his family members probably had their own hardships, and someone seemed to have been imprisoned and lost their freedom.
The two sides were not on the same page, each insisting on their own perspective.
At this point, the viewers, including the demon, had been enduring two days of frustrating content, little did they know that even more frustrating developments were yet to come.
The special guest who indirectly caused the deaths of countless ghosts on the show, when faced with humans who had harmed him, not only refrained from seeking revenge but willingly sacrificed for them.
How infuriating!
Where’s that bold attitude you displayed in front of demons and monsters?
Submissive to humans, but striking back hard against demons?!
They wished Wen Shi would be tormented to death, but not by two ordinary humans.
In the next moment, blood splattered.
The true condition for death in this rewind was making a deal. No matter how severe the injury, it wouldn’t affect reality. If Wen Shi died now, he would immediately exit this space. So, the demon dared not go too far. The blade was thrust into Wen Shi’s left shoulder once again, and the moment the flesh was pierced, a dull sound resonated.
“Think about the harm you’ve endured. Don’t you hate them?”
Desire was amplified too much. Wen Shi’s mind was filled with just one word—family. In response to the question, he stuttered, “W-want…”
“A deal, right?” The slashes on the scarecrow’s face widened, revealing a human-like excitement. “You hate them so much, you want to make a deal, don’t you?”
“Love… love.” Wen Shi finally managed to speak a complete response.
Love even in death.
“……”
The straw around the demon’s body became sharper. It was almost being driven to madness by this pushover!
Not only the demon, but also the viewers who were waiting to see Wen Shi make a deal with the demon were on the brink of fury.
Bleeding and lying amidst crimson, Wen Shi’s expression was serene and peaceful. An unconscious smile gave his face an air of sanctity, like an enlightened monk, only missing the lotus flower in his hand, shouting “love and peace.”
The viewers and the demon might have strong bodies, but their faces were grotesque.
In this moment, the wounds were on Wen Shi’s body, but the pain was felt in the hearts of the viewers.
Urrrgggghhhhhh, how maddening!
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