Matryoshka Off-Limits Chapter 91 Part 2

Chapter 91.2 Crimson Sunset Expedition

It wasn’t until they got off the bus that Wen Shi remained in an eerie state of contemplation.

Qian Laiye had a point. It was true that one person alone could not possess such awareness. What was even more perplexing was that after considering it all, Wen Shi had to admit that no one was better suited than him to possess this information.

They still had to walk a bit from the bus stop to the inn. There were many turtlekin near the train station. Seeing the tour guide and the group walking along the side of the road, they held their breaths and refrained from inhaling the air the tour guide had breathed.

The tour guide resisted the urge to take action.

Witnessing this, Wen Shi raised an eyebrow without hesitation. “I’m suddenly curious, what consequences would occur if you reported me? Want to try?”

The tour guide shot him a fierce glare and walked ahead with her clothes billowing in the wind.

Wen Shi laughed and continued to walk forward as if nothing happened.

Before entering the inn, he intentionally slowed his pace, discreetly stopping Qian Laiye. “You better tell me what to watch out for.”

Qian Laiye glanced around and quickly said, “Finding the true spirit’s manifestation is helpful for clearing the instance. The manifestation could be a person or even an object, like the mirror I mentioned earlier. But the mirror part is just my personal speculation. I’m also somewhat clueless about much of it, and sharing might even mislead you.”

Gathering experience could save one from taking detours, but experience could sometimes be detrimental. For example, today, in an unexpected turn of events, Song Yan had the smoothest outcome despite all odds.

With one following the other, the two walked into the inn. Passing by the front desk, Wen Shi noticed that the landlord’s expression seemed a bit unnatural. Without showing any reaction, he went upstairs and checked his room, finding signs that things had been tampered with.

Clearly, in his absence, the mosquito landlord had tried to find the traces of the walking four hundred thousand in the room.

Since there wasn’t anything valuable, Wen Shi didn’t make a big deal out of it. He leaned back on the bed and perused the more detailed game guide that Ji Yuanzhi had given him.

The part about true spirits, as he didn’t think he would encounter them for the time being, he skimmed over. The records about this aspect in the game guide were also quite sparse. It mentioned that true spirits could manifest as incarnations to move within instances. Object-type true spirits were comparatively more rigid and easier to deal with. There was also an unverified legend that an extremely experienced player had mentioned in the original version of “Virtual World Guide.” In that version, true spirits weren’t the ultimate form of monster NPCs. There was an even more terrifying entity known as the “Lord of Horror.”

“Lord of Horror.” Wen Shi found this title rather intriguing. Shouldn’t the one who lorded over players’ dreads be the game itself?

Similar to his past attitude towards true spirits, he didn’t believe he would encounter this supposedly legendary Lord of Horror, so he didn’t dwell on it. Seeing that time was passing, he put away the guide and headed for a shower.

There wasn’t a hint of steam in the bathroom.

The landlord hadn’t provided hot water today. Cold water cascading from head to toe, Wen Shi shivered from the intense cold, his legs trembling slightly.

He didn’t seem to be showering, but rather suffering in a freezing rain. After sneezing, Wen Shi suddenly challenged, “Let the storm come more fiercely.”

In an instant, a system prompt sound even colder than the water resounded in his ears—

“Congratulations, you’ve triggered a special side quest—Who is the Killer.”

Wen Shi froze in place.

The prompt tone completely disregarded his feelings, continuing to announce smoothly:

“Player must determine the identity of the assassin who will attempt to kill you tonight before you are killed.”

“Note: In this round, player have only one chance to answer. If you answer incorrectly, you will miss the only path of salvation.”

“Note: Upon successfully surviving the pursuit, you will receive a special reward.”

“The countdown for the pursuit is about to begin: 10s, 9s, 8s…”

“Holy sh—t sh—t sh—t, wait for me to put on some clothes!” Wen Shi hurriedly turned off the shower. He had only managed to put on his pants halfway when there were just four seconds left. He cursed as he hastily pulled a bathrobe off the rack, catching a glimpse of his utterly disheveled appearance in the mirror.

Dripping wet hair continuously shed water, a pale face due to the low temperature, and an additional touch of rosy redness from his current impatience.

“You better remember this!”

Damn game, he would definitely get his revenge in the future!

Wen Shi opened the bathroom door, hurriedly putting on the bathrobe. He barely managed to hastily fasten the belt around his waist as he rushed out.

Two seconds left.

Since it was a pursuit, staying in his room was out of the question. As he opened the door, he also mentally accessed his attribute panel.

“Would you like to spend three hundred points to activate Cat’s Temptation?”

“Yes!”

Cat ears and a slender tail emerged as Wen Shi twisted the doorknob. At the same time, a blade whiter than his face lunged straight towards him.

Instinctively, Wen Shi dodged to the side. With a “boom,” the blade struck the door behind him, splitting the wooden door into pieces.

Seizing the moment when his attacker was pulling back the blade, Wen Shi, taking advantage of his smaller stature, swiftly slipped out from under his arm.

The assailant was abnormally tall, his head almost brushing against the ceiling. He wore a bizarre and grotesque mask, and every action exuded a sense of absurdity.

But Wen Shi didn’t have time to observe further. He needed to create some distance now.

“Is anyone there?!”

Wen Shi shouted as loud as he could while running, simultaneously pounding on each door. Of course, he didn’t expect anyone to come out and rescue him. The corridor was unnaturally silent, and he wanted to probe the situation.

As expected, no matter how hard he knocked or shouted, no one responded.

Normally, even if they didn’t offer help, some timid players would find something to barricade the door. There shouldn’t be complete silence.

A large shadow fell behind him, the result of the massive blade’s swing. While Wen Shi sprinted frantically, he stole a glance behind him. The bizarre figure was still separated by several room doors, but the blade in his hand was continuously elongating.

He suddenly recalled an internet joke: “I allow you to run thirty-nine meters first.”

The reason for the allowance was that the blade had a range of forty meters!

Without any finesse, the long blade came straight down.

An unnatural rush of air brushed against his back. Wen Shi could feel that if it came just two or three centimeters closer, the edge of the blade would scrape against his scalp.

He didn’t dare to look back now. All he could think of was: Run!

The bathrobe, too large for his teenage frame, couldn’t be held up properly. As he dashed downstairs, Wen Shi struggled to retie his belt. He ran barefoot on the stairs, and a dripping droplet caused him to skid, nearly slipping.

With the mosquito landlord absent, Wen Shi rushed all the way to the main entrance, about to hit it with all his might.

Bang!

The loud noise echoed in his ears, but the front door seemed to have been bolted from the outside. He couldn’t push it open at all.

The bizarre figure had also descended the stairs by now. This time, Wen Shi didn’t immediately flee. He paused for a few seconds in place, enticing the opponent to swing at him.

The long blade came down. Wen Shi narrowly evaded it, the blade colliding with the decayed doorframe. Surprisingly, the door still stood strong.

“Something’s off.” There was no reason the blade couldn’t break through as it did upstairs. The wooden door up there was split open effortlessly. This area felt like it had been sealed off, preventing his desperate escape.

With the distance between them so short, the bizarre mask on the figure looked even more terrifying under the dim lighting.

Wen Shi fully realized that he wasn’t in a normal space. Although it was still an inn, the direction of the counter and the arrangement of tables were all opposite to what he remembered.

“Mirror.”

Suddenly, Wen Shi recalled Qian Laiye’s words, suspecting that he had entered a world inside a mirror.

Where did his super dumb luck go?

Qian Laiye had mentioned that noticing the existence of true spirits could make one easily targeted by the rules, but it shouldn’t have happened so quickly. During his escape, he didn’t see Qian Laiye, proving that he was the only one in trouble tonight.

“If I had known, I would have informed that shadow about this information.” Wen Shi’s attempt to escape once again left him in despair. “If we were both being chased, at least we would have each other’s back.”

The inn’s area was limited, and now his only choice was to run upstairs.

As the bizarre figure swung the blade again, a cool breeze swept by. Wen Shi could clearly feel that this swing was aimed at his ankle.

The inn had only one staircase. No matter which end of the corridor he ran towards later, it would be difficult to have such luck again. He wouldn’t be able to repeat the escape to the downstairs area. The more likely scenario was that he’d be trapped in a corner and subjected to a chaotic hacking with the blade.

“Who is trying to kill me?”

Only by figuring out the answer to this question would he have a chance to survive.

Wen Shi fought to stay clear-headed. In terms of height and build, the assassin was different from everyone he knew. The part of the head approaching the ceiling seemed automatically blurred, and besides the bizarre mask, nothing was discernible. The clothing was obscured into the semblance of a black robe.

Within the instance, there were many who wanted to kill him. Not just NPCs, but players and shadows too.

The ticket seller?

The other party was killed by a kitchen knife. Now, coming for revenge with a cleaver wasn’t implausible. With the chubby worms as the best example, beastkin could freely adjust their size according to need.

But if the ticket seller was roasted, wouldn’t there be a hint of a burnt smell about her?

From behind, the bizarre figure’s speed grew slower. It wasn’t because they couldn’t run anymore. It was because the massive blade in their hand had grown several meters long.

With the advantage of length, haphazard swings were less effective than cornering the prey, methodically peeling their skin and flesh.

Faced with the choice between the end of the corridor and his own room, Wen Shi reluctantly dashed back into his room.

The window was wide open. Unsurprisingly, when he tried to jump out of it, an invisible barrier blocked his way.

“Damn it, who the hell uses a cleaver… No, the issue isn’t with the weapon.” Now with no escape, Wen Shi realized that in this eerie mirrored space, the blade’s tip directly in front of him was elongating slowly under the illumination, resembling a stretching shadow.

It might have originally been just a short knife.

The killer intentionally altered their physique and wore a mask, surely to prevent him from identifying their identity. So, it was highly unlikely that the assassin was using a common weapon.

The bizarre figure had already arrived at his room’s doorway. Wen Shi’s brain was racing at an unexpectedly rapid pace. He was leaning towards the notion that the killer was an NPC. While the game could potentially allow players to freely shape their form as an assassin, that seemed too capricious. It was more like killing him just for the sake of killing.

“There must be a logical chain that can explain the appearance of the killer.”

The long blade descended directly towards him. Wen Shi rolled away, narrowly avoiding it. However, within two seconds, the blade was brought down again, without hesitation, and this time, it sliced into the edge of his bathrobe. A terrifying tear appeared at the hem of his sleeve, and he was almost rolling into the corner of the room.

“You only know how to use a cleaver?”

Wen Shi attempted to converse with the figure, but the creature continued its silent approach, relentlessly hacking away.

“Ticket seller, tour guide…” Every NPC he had encountered, even the conductors who had been on the train when he first boarded, the turtlekin at the train station, spun through his mind in a whirlwind of thoughts.

With no more room to dodge in the corner, Wen Shi pressed tightly against the wall, gasping for air. The shining blade above nearly blinded him as it came down. In that split second, a flash of realization crossed his mind, linking two of the NPCs together. He quickly shouted out a name!

The next moment, the system’s prompt sounded in his ear: “Congratulations, you have escaped the mirrored space and found the path to salvation.”

……

“The sun is shining brightly—It’s a great time—”

The out-of-tune melody filled the room, and the tour guide’s mood began to brighten. After feeling down for an entire afternoon, she finally decided to reconcile with herself.

The turtleguy was right. She had already lost enough. She didn’t know if the museum incident might implicate her. Considering the behavior of the tourists in the House of Screams, gambling with her conscience was a dangerous choice.

“I can’t act as foolish as those tourists.”

In any case, the number of people in the tour group had already significantly decreased. A few more days, and she would be free of them. During this time, she just needed to pretend she didn’t see that bastard named Aaron.

Bang, bang, bang!

Bang, bang, bang!

The song was abruptly interrupted, and the tour guide frowned. Who would dare to knock on her door so recklessly in the late hours of the night?

She swung the door open, ready to unleash a torrent of curses, but the person outside was also preparing to slam into the door. Inertia caused them to crash right into her arms. The tour guide stared at the person who had fallen solidly into her embrace, momentarily taken aback. Bathrobe, barefoot, cat ears… What was he up to?!

“Help me!”

The instant Wen Shi shouted, someone appeared out of thin air not far away. This person was no longer the imposing figure from the mirrored space. Their body was smaller, and the blade in their hand had shrunk several times over.

Transitioning from illusion to reality, the comical mask split open down the middle as it fell to the ground, revealing a face exactly like that of the tour guide. Without a word, she lunged to use the blade to sever Wen Shi’s neck.

In the moment her pupils dilated, it seemed like the tour guide understood something. Her body reacted instinctively, pushing Wen Shi aside with one hand and delivering a kick to the assassin’s chin.

Drenched in sweat and then hit by the cold wind, Wen Shi’s nose turned red from the cold. He looked pitiful as he said, “You’re going to get me killed.”

He had sensed that something was off before, but it wasn’t until the blade was about to fall that he suddenly remembered a few details. When passing by the train station earlier today, the tour guide had acted as if she wanted nothing to do with the turtlekin’s presence, yet she hadn’t come forward to confront them. Later, even after he had provocatively taunted her, she had simply walked away.

All these signs indicated that the tour guide was prepared to stop targeting him. In a significant choice in life, this NPC had actually deviated from her original intention!

The assassin was the tour guide’s shadow, carrying her true desire for bloodshed.

The shadow of a monster was much more relentless than that of a human. It would persist until it achieved its goal. The tour guide couldn’t allow her own shadow to kill a tourist. It would be a major work mistake.

The clash between the two created a thunderous uproar.

All the players and shadows instantly snapped back to awareness. The aged wooden doors lacked peepholes, so they could only press against the doors and listen to the commotion outside.

The mosquito landlord rushed over and caught sight of the shattered door panel, nearly dropping his jaw in astonishment.

“My seventy-year-old pear wood door!”

The tour guide executed a skillful side spin kick, and the shadow’s agility was remarkable. It managed to evade the attack, causing the kick to strike the dark wall instead, creating cracks in the bricks.

“My century-old black brick!”

By the end, the landlord had grown tired of complaining. He held an abacus and began counting, “Five hundred plus sixty plus…”

The sound of the abacus beads and counting numbers in the tour guide’s ears was driving her nearly insane. She let out an almost mournful roar, “Why—”

Why did she have to surrender to the fate she resisted? Misfortune still arrived as planned!

Inside the room, after being relentlessly pursued for so long, Wen Shi had just managed to calm down. He looked disheveled and tattered, especially his bathrobe, which was dirty, wrinkled, and worn out. The belt around his waist was showing signs of coming loose at any moment. He raised his voice and said, “Is there anyone kind enough to bring me some clothes!”

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