The bright sunlight suddenly vanished, and the sky turned overcast.
The once brightly lit corridor dimmed in an instant, as if night had fallen abruptly.
A chill ran down the players’ spines. They instinctively gripped their phones tightly. Only after seeing the other players around them did they let out a slow breath of relief.
What was bound to come would come—fear wouldn’t help. They could only stay vigilant and try their best to survive this challenge.
Tan Lan glanced at the information on her phone. “Haunted House Maze… Does this mean that the Xiao Qiao Inn has now turned into a maze-like haunted house?”
Tong Shen sighed. “Yesterday was the Ghost Cavern, and today it’s the Haunted House Maze. Doesn’t seem much different to me.”
The players who had experienced the Ghost Cavern at the Xiao Qiao Inn yesterday nodded, their nerves tightening again.
Someone gulped nervously and asked, “So, what do we do now?”
“Of course, we start by finding a way to break through,” Chai Yingying said decisively. “If we can’t figure it out, we’ll use the Spirit Communication Cards… By the way, how many Spirit Communication Cards does everyone still have?”
The players exchanged glances.
“I have three left.”
“I’ve got one.”
“I’ve got two.”
“I don’t have any left.”
“…”
Gu Jiu spoke calmly, “I still have four.”
Everyone looked enviously at Gu Jiu. She had the most Spirit Communication Cards among them. Most of the others only had one or two, while some had none at all.
Based on their experience in this game world over the past few days, there were at least two or three death notices every day. Players never knew when they’d receive a text message on their phones, and it wasn’t always possible to escape those situations unscathed. Spirit Communication Cards were considered the ultimate tool for averting a death ending.
However, items like these were bound to their owners, and even if someone had plenty, others couldn’t just take them.
Chai Yingying concluded, “So, we should still try to break through the death notices on our own.”
She herself had three Spirit Communication Cards, but they weren’t enough. She preferred to save them for emergencies.
As the group talked, a thump, thump, thump sound echoed from the end of the quiet corridor, as if someone was bouncing a ball down the hall.
Everyone turned toward the sound, their eyes fixed on the corridor. The rhythmic thumping grew closer, each beat landing heavily on their hearts, making them feel as if their own pulses were matching its tempo.
Under the players’ watchful eyes, a small figure emerged from around the corner.
It was a little boy, about three or four years old, with a pale and stiff face. His dark, hollow eyes stared directly at them.
He held a ball in his arms. Due to the dim lighting, the players couldn’t see clearly what the ball looked like, but the dark surface gave the eerie impression of tangled human hair.
The boy opened his mouth and asked, “Do you want to play ball with me?”
All the players shook their heads resolutely. Who would dare play ball with a ghost? Waiting to have their heads twisted off to use as balls? No, thanks!
The boy tilted his head and asked again, “Then… can I use your heads as balls instead?”
Players: “.…” They shook their heads again, decisively.
Seeing their unanimous refusal, the little boy’s face twisted into an eerie smile as he hurled the ball toward them.
The ball bounced through the air before hitting the ground, behaving just like a regular ball, bouncing its way toward the players.
Finally, the players got a clear look at the ball—it was a human head. The dark, matted strands were indeed hair, and its face bore an expression identical to the little boy’s, a sinister grin.
As it neared, the head suddenly leapt high into the air, opening its mouth wide to bite at the players. Its mouth was filled with ghostly, jagged teeth that jutted out far beyond its lips, sharp and menacing.
Chai Yingying leapt forward, striking the head with her sword.
The head ricocheted off the wall and rebounded toward another player.
The head bounced erratically through the corridor, chasing after the players and attempting to bite them. The players scrambled to dodge its attacks, or, like Chai Yingying, smacked it away with weapons whenever it got too close.
They desperately wanted to destroy the head, but no matter how hard they tried, it was indestructible.
From afar, the little boy clapped his hands gleefully, laughing as he called out, “Come play ball, everyone~~!”
Each time he spoke, the head’s power surged, growing stronger and more aggressive. After a few cycles, the players realized that the boy was somehow enhancing the head’s strength.
“This little brat is a menace,” Chai Yingying muttered. “Miss Gu, take care of him!”
She recalled how, in the Reincarnation School instance, Miss Gu had pummeled a ghost inviting them to play ball so thoroughly that it had been left lopsided and disoriented. This time, though, the ghostly head was controlled by the boy, making it far more dangerous than the headless ghost from before.
Gu Jiu nodded. “Got it. You all keep the ball occupied; I’ll handle him.”
The players’ spirits lifted as they unleashed their full abilities to block and delay the head, giving Gu Jiu the opportunity to approach the boy.
With the team’s cooperation, Gu Jiu soon reached the little boy.
The boy’s face showed a flicker of fear as he prepared to summon the head back. But before he could, Gu Jiu grabbed him by the back of his collar like a kitten. He opened his mouth to bite her, only for Miss Gu to land a solid punch, knocking out two of his jagged teeth.
“Waaah!”
The boy burst into tears, crying pitifully with streams of bloody tears running down his face.
With the boy subdued, the head’s power waned drastically, and the players quickly managed to pin it to the ground. No matter how it rolled or struggled, it couldn’t escape their hold.
Even as the boy sobbed with his face streaked in blood, the players felt no sympathy. If they let their guard down for even a moment, they would be the ones dead.
Gu Jiu smiled gently at the boy. “Little brother, playing ball is dangerous. Don’t come bothering your older siblings again, alright?”
The boy, still crying, nodded.
Gu Jiu gestured to the other players. “Give him back his ball.”
The players hesitated but understood that the boy was just one part of the haunted house maze. Killing him would likely serve no purpose. Reluctantly, they released the head.
The head rolled toward the boy.
But just as it reached him, it suddenly leapt up, its mouth wide open, aiming to bite Gu Jiu.
“Watch out!” the players cried in alarm.
Gu Jiu reacted instantly, kicking the head midair with a powerful blow. The force flattened the head, leaving its jagged teeth tumbling out one by one.
The little boy saw their reaction and started wailing again. His ghostly cries were so piercing that the players couldn’t help wanting to cover their ears—it was truly unbearable.
Gu Jiu, with a calm and gentle tone, said, “If you keep crying, I’ll knock your teeth out.”
The cries stopped immediately. The little boy sniffled, looking at her with deep fear in his eyes.
Once Gu Jiu let him go, the boy hurriedly scooped up the misshapen, flattened head from the ground and ran off.
The first ghost was dealt with.
Gu Jiu clapped her hands and said, “Alright, let’s explore this Haunted House Maze. Mazes can be fun, too.”
The group: “….” Fine, you win.
Reluctantly, they followed Gu Jiu into the maze-like haunted house. As they wandered through the eerie corridors, they couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Somehow, they just went along with Gu Jiu’s commands without even realizing it, obediently trailing behind her.
Chai Yingying, seeing their confusion, shrugged and said, “Trust the lady of the house. With her, we don’t need to think. We’re bound to win just by following her.”
Jiang Ze nodded in agreement.
The group: “.…” Fair enough.
After transforming into the haunted house, the Xiao Qiao Inn’s layout didn’t seem to have drastically changed. However, it felt like there were more corridors or additional rooms. If they weren’t careful, they would lose their sense of direction.
“Everything feels right… but we’re just going in circles.”
It was true—their direction was correct, yet they kept looping back to the same spot.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, ghosts would suddenly appear in their path, charging at them without warning.
In yesterday’s Ghost Cavern, when players encountered ghosts, they were chased to the brink of despair. One player even died, leaving a lingering trauma for people like Tan Lan. But today, the ghosts weren’t terrifying anyone—Gu Jiu was terrifying the ghosts.
The lady of the house alone was worth ten players.
Thud, thud, thud!
While the players were searching for a way out on the first floor, a door began to bang loudly, as if someone were knocking on it—or perhaps something was repeatedly slamming into it.
Jiang Ze and Tong Shen, who were closest to the door, exchanged a glance. Without hesitation, one of them kicked the door open.
The door swung open to reveal a room filled with thick, choking smoke. Flames flickered faintly inside, and a bloodcurdling scream pierced the air, as if someone were being burned alive within.
The fire began spreading outward from the room, and the temperature in the corridor started to rise.
The players’ scalps prickled with fear, and their instincts told them to run upstairs, away from the flames.
The haunted house was sealed, with no exits on the ground floor. Their only option was to flee upward.
“Miss Gu, Lu Ji, hurry up!” Chai Yingying shouted anxiously when she saw Gu Jiu and Lu Ji still standing by the door.
Gu Jiu shook her head and said, “We can’t leave. If this fire spreads, it will burn down the entire haunted house, and we won’t be able to escape.”
This was a death notice. If the haunted house turned into an inferno, all the players trapped inside would perish together. The only way out was to extinguish the fire.
Tan Lan asked frantically, “Then what do we do? Do we put out the fire? How?”
“Would a fire extinguisher work?” someone suggested hopefully.
“There’s a well in the courtyard. Should we fetch some water?”
“I’m just afraid we’ll end up pulling a ghost out of the well instead.”
“…”
The players were growing anxious as they tried to come up with a solution. One of them even pulled out a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at the creeping flames. Naturally, it didn’t work. The fire showed no sign of being extinguished.
This fire was incredibly peculiar. It didn’t seem to need any fuel to burn—not even the cement floor beneath it was spared.
Gu Jiu calmly took out a magic clock and adjusted its magical time.
Magic Clock Usage Time: 04:37.
Everything in the space suddenly froze in place. The only ones unaffected were the players.
When the others saw the magic clock in Gu Jiu’s hands, their faces lit up with surprise. A time-controlling tool like that was extremely rare and expensive. None of them had expected her to own one.
Without wasting words, Gu Jiu activated the frozen time and headed straight into the burning room.
03:23.
About a minute later, she emerged, tucking the magic clock away.
The fire was gone. The ground still bore the scorched traces of the flames, and the burned room was now filled with blackened ash, completely empty.
“Miss Gu, how did this room catch fire?” Chai Yingying asked curiously.
Gu Jiu answered nonchalantly, “There was a ghost inside who was playing with fire and burned himself to death. I shoved him into the wall so he wouldn’t start any more fires.”
Everyone: “…”
Chai Yingying, being the nosy type, actually went into the room to investigate. From a crack in the wall, she found a ghost that had been burned black. Judging by its appearance, it had likely died in a fire while alive, and afterward gained the ability to control flames. Just moments ago, it had been trying to burn them alive.
The more Chai Yingying thought about it, the angrier she became. She yanked the ghost out of the crack and gave it a thorough beating.
Not content with handling it alone, she called out to Jiang Ze, “Jiang Ze, come beat him too!”
Jiang Ze obediently rolled up his sleeves and joined in on punching the ghost.
The other players watching this scene were at a loss for words.
They couldn’t help but think that this group around Gu Jiu was incredibly odd. No matter how dangerous a situation was, it somehow felt lighter and easier to deal with as long as they were there.
After finishing off the fire-starting ghost, the players found themselves suddenly calm. They felt that no matter what kind of ghost they encountered next, there was no need to worry anymore.
After all, they had the extremely dependable Gu Jiu with them.