Chapter 93.1 Crimson Sunset Expedition
Yu Xingzhou was not the only one with a hard-to-describe expression. Not far away, Li Nan only felt the two words “stay alive” ringing in his ears.
Amid the captivating slogan, he walked over unexpectedly and prevented the female player, who had been invited, from considering entering the Dangerous Room with Wen Shi.
“I’ll take you in a bit,” said Li Nan, reminding Wen Shi, “There weren’t many female players to begin with. Even taking one in would raise the level of danger.”
Wen Shi, along with the three worms and Song Yan, was almost like a daredevil team setup. Adding one more female player would probably make it hard to get out again.
Wen Shi knew this well too. He just wanted to see if anyone was willing to come out and guide the female player. Yu Xingzhou was definitely going to take Xiao Hua. If no one else stepped up, he would have to do it himself.
“Let’s get ready to go in,” he told the people around him.
“Mirror Person” was pretty much a clear feature in the game.
The proprietor said they were opening “Mirror Person” and “Spirit Summoning” today, indicating that the House of Mirrors had other attractions. They coincidentally encountered a part of the interactive activities that tailored to specific preferences, hinting a degree of manipulation by the hidden will of the game behind the scenes.
In this segment, once someone noticed something unusual like Yu Xingzhou did, they would mostly choose to encourage unfamiliar players to enter the Absolutely Safe Room, to confirm if any outsiders have infiltrated the group.
Unfortunately, Wen Shi had a rebellious nature from birth. He knew there might be danger, yet he preferred taking the risk.
With someone determined to enter the Dangerous Room, the proprietor’s smile grew wider. He explained what needed to be done after entering, “This room is really just one more game to test your courage. Inside, you’ll need to walk in circles, pat the shoulder of the person in front of you, call their name, and ask ‘Are you here?’ The person in front needs to reply ‘Here.’ Remember, while asking, you must never look at the mirror. Keep walking in circles like this, repeating the process. Sounds simple, right?”
Wen Shi: “What happens if you look at the mirror?”
The proprietor’s expression held hidden anticipation. “It is said that the Mirror Person will be summoned out and randomly take an organ from one person. When the Mirror Person appears, the courage test pauses. They’ll give you a clue about the one who looked, and then the game continues.”
“There are two ways to leave the room. After each round, you can accuse the one who looked. If you succeeded in identifying him, the door opens. Alternatively, you can wait until the candle in my hand burns out.”
The proprietor’s candle, from the moment they entered until now, hadn’t burned much. It seemed like it could last at least another half hour.
Faced with that unsettling smile, Wen Shi didn’t intentionally delay at the doorway.
After the five people entered the cramped room, the door closed automatically.
Inside, it was pitch-black. One of the wormplayers asked, “Can we use our phone flashlights?”
Wen Shi: “It’s better not to.”
The proprietor chose candles instead of lighting tools. It seemed that using outside items inside the mirror room might be a death rule.
Another wormplayer had another idea, “What if we don’t play the game and just wait until the candle outside…”
His voice grew weaker as he spoke, probably understanding that such sneaky behavior could be deadly.
Wen Shi found a spot to stand, judging everyone’s positions from their breathing sounds. Once he was sure everyone was ready, he said, “Let’s begin with me. Just do whatever needs to be done, and don’t deliberately drag it out.”
“Mirror Person” didn’t provide specific hints about death rules. All they needed to do was cooperate and play the game well.
Darkness had its advantages too. At least they wouldn’t see those hair-raising mirrors. As they took steps forward, each person felt their heart sink along with the darkness.
“Lin Yao, are you here?” Wen Shi called out, using Song Yan’s in-game name.
“Here.”
Song Yan’s breath was somewhat heavy as he patted the shoulder of the next person, “Zhao Yichen, are you here?”
“Here.”
One after another, soon the last person patted Wen Shi’s shoulder, and he said the same afterward. Within the cramped room, a faint light seemed to appear.
“Mirror…” the wormplayer gasped in surprise.
As the light source appeared, the wormplayer glanced at the mirror. The faint light was actually coming out from inside the mirror.
A woman with long hair appeared in the mirror, her complexion unnaturally stiff. Her muscles seemed devoid of life, her long hair hung over her face, and the most terrifying part was her mouth, completely split open. Lipstick was smeared at the corners of her lips, forced into a smile that strained her lips into an unnatural curve.
Everyone’s hearts turned cold. The appearance of the long-haired woman undoubtedly meant someone had broken the rules.
As the only shadow among the five, the wormshadow received more attention. He explained anxiously, “It’s not me! Don’t forget, I did everything to stay alive, that’s why I turned into a worm.”
He couldn’t easily sabotage the rules.
While the wormshadow was desperately explaining, it felt like something had settled on his eye. Because of his short legs, touching his eye was difficult, and when the itchiness in front of his eye subsided, he realized he couldn’t see with one eye.
“My eye! She took away the vision in my left eye.” The wormshadow was both sorrowful and relieved, relieved that at least he could prove his innocence, that he didn’t collude with the Mirror Person.
In reality, this self-defense wasn’t very convincing. To those who were suspicious, it seemed more like a desperate move.
“Let’s wait for a clue first.” Wen Shi’s voice was clear and gentle, carrying a soothing power.
The group’s attention shifted from mutual suspicion to the mirror.
The mirror, at this moment, resembled an old television. After a burst of black and white static, an image gradually emerged—a group of people sitting in a car, engaged in conversation.
Each person’s reflection was fuzzy, but judgments could still be made from their hairstyles to locate the woman in the mirror. The whole scene lasted only five or six seconds. The woman desperately shook her head at the people behind her, yet she still opened a travel bag. The image abruptly stopped.
The wormplayer discerned the clue, “This seems to be the players who entered the instance before us. Probably from the ‘Shadow Hunt’ quest.”
It seemed like this woman was being forced to open the bag.
Wen Shi’s expression darkened, as if confirming something.
The woman in the mirror vanished, darkness fell, and the game resumed once again.
This time, the wormshadow with impaired vision started first. He patted Wen Shi’s shoulder and asked, “Aaron, are you here?”
“Here.”
Wen Shi continued the questioning by patting Song Yan.
“Here.”
In less than half a minute, the second round concluded.
The Mirror Person appeared once more, taking the right eye of one of the wormplayers.
The remaining wormplayer’s voice trembled, “What if next time it’s my voice that’s taken? I won’t even be able to respond.”
This time, the mirror showed a longer scene: someone was getting physical with the woman, and she was desperately resisting. But no one came to help. In her desperation, the woman shattered a cup from her travel bag, grabbed a shard, and forcefully dragged it across the sides of her mouth.
The sight of the bloody scene made the man lose interest, and he continued cursing.
The woman stared at the glass shard in her hand, her spirit affected. “No one hears my screams, what’s the use of this mouth?”
She intensified the arc of the wound once again.
Normally, the most useful way to deal with a ghost was to find vulnerabilities in their life story and cause of death. However, in this game, there were only two ways to stop it: proving the ghost fall under force majeure circumstances, or her life story was a reflection of the person who peeked during the courage-testing game.
The game began for the third time. Song Yan’s palms were consistently sweaty.
The Mirror Person appeared weak on the train, either implying she was an inexperienced player or a newbie. Was this hinting that the person who peeked was either herself or another newbie?
“Lin Yao, are you here?”
As if understanding Song Yan’s thoughts, Wen Shi patted his shoulder with force this time.
“…Here.”
Another round concluded, accompanied by a buzzing sound, and it was the turn of the wormplayer to lose his left ear’s hearing.
There was little sympathy. More of a skeptical gaze fell on the wormplayer. Clearly, they all caught onto the hint that the person who peekes was likely a newbie. The wormplayer’s survivor identity, in contrast to Song Yan’s, made him seem more suspicious.
This time, the Mirror Person didn’t directly show scenes from her past. As she spoke, blood kept dripping from within the mirror.
“Someone has been watching me all along,” the Mirror Person tilted her head. “Aren’t any of you going to point them out?”
Wen Shi decisively replied, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Why?”
“We’re a team.”
Even when the Mirror Person didn’t smile, she seemed to be smiling. Her eyes appeared capable of seeing through everything. “You’re a very fortunate person. This luck is enough to ensure you’ll be the last one to lose an organ. But your stubbornness is built upon the sacrifices of others.”
The Mirror Person then asked the others, “Shall we vote?”
Surprisingly, the wormplayers agreed with Wen Shi’s perspective and were ready for a few more rounds.
The Mirror Person seemed quite astonished. Such a foolish team decision actually elicited a response.
One wormplayer said, “Each time the organ is taken, it’s from a different person. If he’s the last one, there’s a high chance the next thing taken will be his voice.”
The organ thief in this instance mostly targeted ears, eyes, and vocal cords. Losing one’s voice during the courage test was fatal.
So, in a way, this luck factor was quite a pitfall.
However, they truly didn’t know why Wen Shi abstained from voting. It was clear that the two newbies were the prime suspects.
The mirrored scene flashed again, the woman being bullied as before.
Unless useful skills were activated in later instances to find support, many newbies led miserable lives in the virtual world, let alone in the game.
However, this time a crucial detail was added. The man tossed a bottle of potion to the ground, as if dismissing a beggar.
A player who couldn’t even afford a twenty-point potion was undoubtedly a newbie.
Ignoring the conclusion thrown before him, Wen Shi only spoke two words, “Carry on.”
The courage test began again.
Wen Shi chose to bring all the worms in at once, partly because worms needed a leader. They had a tendency to pin their hopes on others and avoided internal disputes until the final moment. Other people wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Compared to suspicion toward the other party, the two newbies were now deeply self-doubting. Each time the game began, their consciousness grew blurred. Looking back later, they couldn’t even be sure if they had peeked.
A round of the game ended in less than a minute.
Soon, the Mirror Person reappear and this time it was Song Yan’s right ear that lost its hearing.
Mirror Person: “Shall we vote?”
Wen Shi: “Continue.”
Song Yan and the newbies both looked at Wen Shi in surprise. At this rate, in the next round, the other party was highly likely to lose his voice.
However, this time Wen Shi didn’t remain as quiet as before. Before the Mirror Person provided a clue, he suddenly said, “When I was still a newbie, the first instance proprietor I encountered was half a true spirit.”
Not a lie, nor the truth.
Back then, the Earl wasn’t yet mad, and his power wasn’t as formidable.
But this beginning successfully intrigued the Mirror Person.
“The monster’s identity was that of a mentally ill patient. We lived in an ancient castle, and I had to treat his illness and dine with him. One by one, players from the same instance died, leaving only me alive at the end,” Wen Shi spoke candidly, weaving half-truths, “Later on, I was thrown into a mental hospital. Do you know how much suffering a normal person experiences when thrown into a mental hospital?”
Everyone, including the Mirror Person, imagined the story of Wen Shi enduring mistreatment in a mental hospital.
“I managed to survive because I held onto one principle: in the game, never believe the information forcefully imposed on you from the outside. The more it’s repeated, the more you should counter it,” Wen Shi practically said, almost revealing that there was no actual peeker, and everything was orchestrated by the game itself.
The only thing he didn’t explicitly state was that there was no peeker. Everything was orchestrated by the game itself.
The Mirror Person paused. Wasn’t this just nonsense?
She knew better than anyone that the peeker was a real presence.
However, due to nestling effect, Song Yan had grown dependent on Wen Shi. His face turned pale as he said, “I don’t know if I peeked, I truly don’t know.”
This sentence was self-incriminating.
Wen Shi wasn’t surprised in the slightest. In fact, he used a voice even more compelling than the Mirror Person’s as he said, “When you can’t distinguish between reality and illusion, find something real to lean on. When I was in the mental hospital, I kept thinking of my father. He never once said I was abnormal.”
Sincere eyes locked onto Song Yan. “You can do the same.”
Song Yan had unconsciously been imitating Wen Shi all along. Upon hearing these words, the first person he thought of was the one before him.
Only by pushing a person’s emotions to the brink would these words be effective. Wen Shi had been waiting for this chance. He was redirecting Song Yan’s worldview.
“Trust me as you would trust a god.”
Since you want to imitate me, keep on imitating.
In an attempt to interrupt Wen Shi’s rambling, the Mirror Person began playing clues. However, this time, the clues she provided didn’t spark much interest among the group. As the courage test continued, Wen Shi took the initiative to start from his turn. He placed his hand on Song Yan’s shoulder, not too gently nor too heavily, and asked, “Lin Yao, are you here?”
“… Here.” If Song Yan had been previously torn between whether he had peeked or not, his concern had now shifted to considering what he would do if he were in someone else’s shoes.
The hand on his shoulder seemed to convey a message from its owner.
Before speaking the next name, Song Yan’s pupils grew deeper, as if he had finally made up his mind. His slender fingertips directly jabbed at his dark eyes. In the instant of intense pain, all he could see was a crimson hue.
“Zhao Yichen, are you here?” Due to the agony, each word seemed to be squeezed out of his throat.
Zhao Yichen was also uncertain whether he had peeked or not. He knew what had happened behind him. At the moment blood sprayed out, some of it even landed on him.
“Here.” Zhao Yichen also gouged his own eyes.
However, wormkin were practically insensible to pain, so he didn’t feel much agony.
The round was completed smoothly, and for the first time, the Mirror Person didn’t appear.
Everyone understood that from this moment on, the game was completely safe.
In the darkness, a heavy smell of blood spread as the proprietor’s candle continued to burn. Before they could leave, they still needed to repetitively call out names in the monotony.
Almost everyone had mixed feelings, except for Wen Shi.
He had always harbored some suspicion towards Song Yan.
Wen Shi’s quick adaptation to the game, attributed to his father’s influence, was undeniable. But for a newbie like Song Yan to reach this level within two days, it was practically impossible. However, Wen Shi didn’t consider the possibility of Song Yan being the true spirit’s incarnation. Song Yan knew what terms like “player” and “cuteness” meant. He was no different from people in the real world.
Initially, Wen Shi had assumed Song Yan received a special side quest, disguising himself as a newbie. It was only during the “Mirror Person” segment that Wen Shi began to consider the possibility of the true spirit’s incarnation.
Simultaneously, another terrifying thought emerged.
—Big Eye.
When the old lady appeared, she didn’t ridiculously burst out with nine suns, which proved that the replicated power from the large eyeball was beyond imagination.
A power even stronger than the old lady’s, only attainable by true spirits.
Could Jian Qingrong possibly be an incarnation of a true spirit as well?
With this notion in mind, Wen Shi immediately headed towards the “Truth, Kindness, Beautiful” area!
He was willing to team up with the ignored worms, but at the cost of sacrificing one of their organs.
He repeatedly risked his life in the game to save Song Yan, but the price was Song Yan and another newbie losing their sight.
Nonetheless, Sunset Town had no shortage of cosmetic surgery clinics. With money, lost organs could be replaced in a different way.
The saved Song Yan would be a living specimen. Wen Shi could learn from him to understand what choices would benefit Jian Qingrong. Wen Shi was also Song Yan’s most selfless model. He would permit and even guide Song Yan’s imitation to help him gain more survival experience.
“We all have a bright future.”
Wen Shi’s eyes held a mix of both cruelty and warmth.
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