Watching the paper frog swallow up the male ghost in the kitchen, Gu Jiu chuckled softly.
Her light, gentle laughter sounded in the still darkness, subtly breaking the eerie, haunting atmosphere and adding a touch of warmth. Suddenly, the darkness seemed a bit more bearable.
Lu Ji turned his head to look at her; the darkness held no power over him, allowing him to clearly see the soft, porcelain-white features of the person beside him.
And that beautiful smile at the corner of her lips.
“That’s the second ghost now.” Gu Jiu said lightly, “Ah Ji, how many more ghosts do you think are in this house?”
Lu Ji replied, “I don’t know.”
“Then let’s go find out. There’s definitely one on the first floor, though it refuses to come find me.” She sounded a bit disappointed but didn’t push further.
The two continued to wander on the third floor and eventually reached the bathroom.
The bathroom was similarly quiet; the sound of dripping water was clearly audible, echoing in the dark, silent world with unusual clarity, as if alerting the players to something strange.
Following the sound, Gu Jiu approached the dripping area and found it was coming from one of the shower stalls. The door was tightly shut.
She reached out and pushed it, the old door creaking open slowly to reveal the scene behind it.
A person was hanging upside-down from the ceiling, blood trickling down from his body, gathering on his head. The blood-soaked hair let droplets fall one by one to the floor, making a steady dripping sound.
The upside-down person faced the door, with his unusually tiny pupils staring wide open in deathly intensity, his gaze fixed on the two people standing at the doorway of the bathroom.
Gu Jiu looked at the scene calmly.
Lu Ji remained silent as well.
Under their quiet gazes, the upside-down figure—or ghost—began to twist. Though its body was still hanging there, its neck stretched out like a rubber band, head reaching towards the door, with a stiff, eerie smile plastered on its face. Yellowish liquid dripped from the corners of its mouth.
The liquid resembled corpse fluid.
As the ghost’s head approached, Gu Jiu slapped it away.
After the slap, her face showed a look of disgust. She grabbed the bathroom door, yanked off a piece of wood, and started smacking the overly flexible ghost head with it.
The ghost’s head bounced like a ping pong ball, getting slapped back into the bathroom, hitting the wall, and then rebounding.
Each time it bounced back to the door, Gu Jiu picked up the wood plank and swatted it again.
After a few rounds, the ghost’s hanging body wobbled, its long neck twisted into a knot, and its face was smeared with blood, making its expression indistinguishable.
Gu Jiu finally smacked it one last time, pressing the ghost’s head to the ground with the plank, and impatiently said, “You think you can scare your great-aunt with this kind of trick? Dream on! Ah Ji, let the paper frog swallow it.”
The paper frog hopped over, opened its mouth, and swallowed the ghost Gu Jiu was pressing down.
Looking displeased, Gu Jiu went to wash her hands at the side, muttering as she did, “Are all the ghosts here this disgusting?”
Today’s two ghosts were either scavenging in the kitchen or hanging upside down in the bathroom. Absolutely revolting.
Lu Ji, for once, offered some comfort: “This is probably the lowest-tier game field, so the ghosts here aren’t very powerful. They can only rely on frightening appearances to scare players.”
If it were ordinary players, they’d have bolted at the first sight of such a scene. Who else would face the ghosts head-on like her and put on a show of ripping them apart?
Gu Jiu knew how to appreciate things. Since her first game, she’d realized that ghosts in D-level fields had weak attack power and posed no real threat to her. Even if they did, there would always be some item to counter them.
This was part of the unique rule of D-level game fields—there was always a glimmer of hope for players to survive, never cutting off all escape routes.
However, this didn’t mean all ghosts in the game world were so weak. She just hadn’t encountered any tougher ones yet. But she was confident; by the time she moved up to C-level fields and encountered stronger ghosts, her own strength would have improved as well.
After washing her hands, the two of them left the bathroom.
They wandered around the third floor a bit more, but didn’t run into any more ghosts, so they decided to leave.
As they were heading downstairs, they encountered other players who had come up to explore the third floor.
The house wasn’t that large, and with so many players, it wasn’t hard to bump into each other.
Gu Jiu chatted with them briefly, asking, “Did you encounter any ghosts?”
A male player responded, “No, but it seems like there’s someone in the room next to mine… I mean, not one of us players, but there are strange sounds. My neighboring room is empty, yet it feels as if someone lives there. I checked this morning, opened the door, but no one was inside.”
Though there were thirteen players in total, they had paired up for safety, occupying only seven rooms, leaving six rooms empty.
This particular male player was the odd one out, unable to find a roommate, so he stayed in a room by himself.
Gu Jiu, intrigued, turned and went to the empty room the male player had mentioned.
She opened the door and, unsurprisingly, found the room completely empty, littered with trash as if no one had lived there at all.
Without any hint of disappointment, Gu Jiu inspected the room thoroughly and then turned to leave.
The male player who had followed her asked curiously, “Miss Gu, are you looking for the ghost in this house?”
Gu Jiu responded with a soft affirmation.
The male player’s face showed a peculiar expression. Most players in the game wished to avoid ghosts altogether, yet here was this young lady, seemingly eager to encounter them, even actively seeking them out. The whole vibe felt surreal.
Without offering much explanation, Gu Jiu and Lu Ji continued down to the first floor.
For some reason, the male player tagged along behind them. Lu Ji glanced back at him, and under that gaze, the male player scratched his head awkwardly, forcing out a reason: “I’ll join you in the search. Maybe we’ll have better luck finding one with more people around.”
In truth, he secretly hoped they wouldn’t encounter anything.
Once on the first floor, Gu Jiu started exploring, meticulously checking every corner.
Perhaps she had exhausted her ghost encounter luck on the third floor, as there wasn’t much activity on the first floor. Even in the long hallway, all remained eerily quiet.
At the end of the corridor, they came upon a locked room. Gu Jiu stared at the lock on the door, then turned to the male player and asked, “Do you have an axe?”
The male player asked in a daze, “What do you need an axe for?”
“To break this lock, of course,” Gu Jiu replied.
The male player went silent, feeling like he had just asked the dumbest question.
But… was this young lady really that reckless? She actually wanted to break open parts of the game world by force? Wouldn’t that enrage the boss, causing it to jump out and tear them all apart?
Sweating nervously, he said, “Even if we had an axe, I doubt it would actually work.”
“Worth a try,” Gu Jiu said, unconcerned.
The male player sighed, “Sorry, I don’t have an axe, nor do I have any lockpicking tools.”
Disappointed, Gu Jiu remarked, “Seems like I should spend some time learning lockpicking skills.”
The male player: “….”
As the three of them turned back, they encountered Ying Tong, Fatty, and a few others. With a quick glance, Gu Jiu noticed that almost all the players had gathered on the first floor.
The players had searched every floor of the house and still found this corridor on the first floor to be the most suspicious.
Why would there be such a long hallway, leading only to a single locked room at the end? Given the landlord’s stingy attitude when describing this self-built house, it seemed unlikely that he’d create such an unusual layout. Clearly, something was off.
After finding nothing on the second and third floors, the players had naturally regrouped on the first floor to re-examine this corridor.
“Miss, any discoveries?” Fatty asked cheerfully.
Gu Jiu pointed at the corridor. “I was just planning to open that door. Anyone here know how to pick locks? Or does someone have an axe?”
The players looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and admiration, as though witnessing a marvel.
Fatty couldn’t help but recall the “Cursed Village” instance, where she had encouraged Wu Yang to kick down the door to the Li family’s home. He knew well enough that she was definitely capable of such things.
Thinking about her usual way of clearing levels, Fatty was quick to agree, “I think it’s worth a try. Every door in this house is unlocked except for this one at the end of the corridor. There has to be something secret behind it. We should open it up and see.”
Someone hesitated, “What if it’s the boss of the game?”
If the boss appeared ahead of time, none of them would make it out alive.
The newer players clustered together, and even Brother Qiang, who usually seemed quite bold, showed signs of fear, unnerved by the young lady’s boldness.
At this moment, Ying Tong said, “I have an axe.”
Everyone fell silent.
When she pulled out a large, gleaming axe from her inventory, the group couldn’t help but wonder, “Big sister, why in the world would you carry around such a deadly weapon?”
Ying Tong explained, “I bought it as a game item after completing a previous instance. It was really cheap.”
Because it was cheap, she’d bought it—just in case it ever came in handy. There was no downside to having it.
This reasoning was so solid that no one could argue with it.
As Ying Tong hefted the axe and walked down the long corridor, the other players, though filled with hesitation, didn’t dare say anything. Ying Tong’s first impression had already established her authority within the group, and whatever she chose to do, no one would contradict her right away.
However, Ying Tong’s typically cautious behavior had always won the players’ trust—so why was she suddenly acting as recklessly as this young lady? Could recklessness really be contagious?
When they reached the door at the end of the corridor, Ying Tong raised the axe and swung it toward the lock, only to find herself striking empty air.
Frowning, she looked around and realized the door had vanished. Not only was the door gone, but so were her companions. An endless darkness spread around her, and the once narrow space had become vast and open.
Without hesitation, Ying Tong quietly reached for the flashlight on her belt, flicking it on. The beam illuminated half a meter ahead, where she spotted a pair of slender legs.
Ying Tong was already aware that there was a ghost lurking in this corridor. This ghost only ever revealed a pair of pale, thin legs in front of players, resembling skeletal limbs. Worse still, when players tried to flee, it would chase after them, ensuring they couldn’t escape, driving them to the brink of breakdown from fear long before it even killed them.
Calmly, Ying Tong lifted the axe and swung it toward where the ghost was standing.
With a loud clang, her axe struck something solid. Thrilled, Ying Tong prepared to swing again—only to hit empty space this time. The ghost had vanished.
The surroundings remained unchanged, though, still filled with an infinite, oppressive darkness. She was clearly still trapped within the ghost’s domain.
Scanning her surroundings warily, Ying Tong took a few steps forward…
After just a few steps, she unexpectedly bumped into a wall. The impact made her wince as tears stung her eyes, and her nose throbbed with pain. Squinting, she noticed that the ghost’s realm had disappeared.
What happened?
Her instincts kicked in, and she quickly pressed herself against the wall. She observed the other players nearby, noticing their bizarre behaviors. Some were running in place, others were flailing their arms wildly, and some were crouched down, holding their heads, screaming in terror.
Scanning the scene, she noticed two individuals who stood out—Gu Jiu and Lu Ji.
Gu Jiu leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed, looking somewhat bored.
Lu Ji stood beside her, her head tilted as she observed her. A faint, subtle smile played at the corner of her lips as she watched her nonchalant expression.
Their calm demeanor immediately clued Ying Tong in—they hadn’t been affected by the ghost at all.
“What the hell just happened?” Fatty’s loud voice boomed, snapping everyone back to their senses.
Everyone looked around, wide-eyed, both terrified and confused. They realized that they’d escaped the darkness, and their missing companions were back, allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Miss Gu, I encountered that same ghost from yesterday again,” Tu Shuai said, approaching Gu Jiu with a tearful expression.
He’d thought he was tough enough to handle ghosts, but after being scared by the same one twice, he was starting to develop a serious phobia.
Gu Jiu gave his shoulder a reassuring pat, “It’s okay. You’re still alive, which means the ghost has no interest in killing you.”
Tu Shuai: “….”
Ying Tong approached Gu Jiu and Lu Ji, asking, “Miss Gu, Miss Lu, are you both alright?”
Her question seemed strange, prompting the others to look over in confusion.
Gu Jiu shrugged, “Maybe the ghost just doesn’t like me. It never bothers to look for me.”
Lu Ji simply added, “I have no idea.”
Everyone: “….” Suddenly, a wave of envy, jealousy, and resentment surged within them! Why weren’t the ghosts targeting them? Was it because they were good-looking?
Ying Tong gave the pair a thoughtful glance, then turned her attention back to the lock on the door.
Although a ghost had come out earlier to cause trouble, it didn’t affect their plans. It even made Ying Tong curious—if they continued, would that ghost appear again to stir things up?
Ying Tong raised the axe and swung it at the lock.
A sharp, metallic clang echoed as the rusty-looking lock remained completely intact.
The axe struck not only the lock but occasionally hit the door as well. Yet, despite its old and seemingly fragile appearance, the wooden door didn’t bear a single scratch.
After several powerful swings, Ying Tong finally lowered the axe with a sigh of resignation.
“This lock and door can’t be broken. It seems we won’t be able to open it for now.”
The players felt a mix of disappointment and relief.
They were disappointed that the door couldn’t be opened, confirming that it was likely very important. And yet, they couldn’t help feeling relieved, as if they had narrowly avoided something.