Chapter 260: Wraith (7) Karmic Fire Born Last Night

Dawn broke in the east, and all things revived.

The milky white morning light slanted into the room from the east, dispelling the ignorance and gloom within the Residence, covering the swirling dust and scattered bloodstains with a thin layer of light.

Qi Si slowly woke up and checked the time displayed on the Pocket Watch of Fate: exactly six o’clock in the morning.

He listlessly yawned, staring blankly at the ceiling with dull eyes.

He realized that he could never sleep in late in the instance; no matter how good his sleep quality usually was, or how tired and exhausted he was after a busy night, he would always wake up uncontrollably around the same time, just like the other players.

For instance, last night, after realizing that an invisible force would try to knock over the lantern, he sat upright on the bed, holding the lantern, intending to stay awake all night.

—Although he didn’t know the exact use of the lantern, it was certainly correct not to let the Ghosts have their way easily.

Unfortunately, he still drifted off to sleep later, not even knowing when he put the lantern back on the nightstand. It must have been the instance’s mechanism to ensure players got enough rest taking effect.

His last memory was a loud watchman’s cry, hoarsely declaring, “Zi Hour, third watch, all is well,” like a prophecy read by an ancient shaman.

Qi Si remembered that the Zi Hour was the period between 11 PM and 1 AM. He had only slept for a total of six hours now that he was awake.

Hmm, the Eerie Game had always been very proactive in waking players up to ensure they had enough time to explore the instance and complete their tasks.

“Brother Qi, why is the window so dark, and why are there so many holes?” Lin Chen sat up in bed and immediately noticed the abnormality of the window.

The paper window, which originally only had a few small holes, was now tattered and covered in pits and holes of various sizes after a night of damage.

The side facing outside seemed to be covered in a layer of gray, looking filthy, like a piece of broken cloth that had been buried in the dirt.

Lin Chen had gone to sleep relatively early last night and was full of energy now. He climbed out of bed, walked to the window, and reached out a finger to touch the new holes in the window.

“These holes look like they were punctured from the outside by a sharp object, and the black powder covering the window should be solidified blood…”

Lin Chen made his judgment based on common sense, pondered for two seconds, looked at Brother Qi, and said the exact same line as after the first night in *Rose Manor*: “Brother Qi, did something happen last night?”

He had fallen asleep confusedly under Qi Si’s urging last night. Although he knew Qi Si wouldn’t harm him, he still felt that everything was strange upon reflection.

—What did his sleep have to do with Qi Si?

After he fell asleep, Qi Si probably didn’t immediately follow suit. He must know more clearly what happened during that time, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Qi Si heard Lin Chen’s doubts, affirmed with a “hmm,” and without further delay, sat up from the bed.

He picked up the lantern from the nightstand and briefly described what happened last night, naturally omitting the part where the Pocket Watch of Fate rewound by one minute.

“We can currently confirm the following points: First, the information the scholar told us yesterday—that ‘Wraiths only appear after the Zi Hour’—is incorrect, at least for external visitors like us.

“Basically, after the second watch, the Ghosts in the corpse pit will start attacking the Residence, which has a certain probability of triggering a death point. Players currently have no countermeasures.

“Second, the lantern in our hands might be a key item. I noticed that when the candle inside the lantern comes into contact with the outside air, the flame turns green, which matches the description of ‘Ghost Fire’ in the Underworld Record.

“Most of the Ghosts outside the Residence are attracted by the candle, and at the same time, an invisible presence attempts to knock over the lantern to cause a fire.

“Third, after the watchman’s cry of ‘Zi Hour, third watch, all is well’ sounds, all eerie signs on the Residence’s side will cease. Players who haven’t fallen asleep will automatically drift off under the influence of the instance mechanism.”

Qi Si’s face looked somewhat pale due to lack of sleep, and his voice was weak, as if he might fall back asleep at any moment.

Lin Chen inexplicably guessed that he must have done something major last night… Then he heard the young man say in a matter-of-fact tone: “I stood guard until the Zi Hour last night before sleeping. I probably can’t manage tonight, so you’ll have to take the watch. I hope you rested well last night.”

“Ah?… Oh, okay!” Lin Chen agreed, still confused.

It was mentioned in the forums that some players would take advantage of their roommates being asleep, either to explore alone, hide important information, or secretly scheme to harm others.

Qi Si actively shared his findings and proposed taking turns guarding, so he shouldn’t fall into either of those categories.

Moreover, he knew that small guilds like the Unnamed Guild, with fewer than ten members, would disband immediately if the leader died—there was no reason for Qi Si to harm him.

So, did Qi Si ask him to sleep first last night because he had already planned to take turns guarding?

But the logic still felt off. There were no signs of anything at that time, so how did he foresee the danger later?

Qi Si glanced at the bewildered Lin Chen and continued, “You don’t need to be too nervous. Physical Ghosts probably can’t enter the room unless a player actively opens the window. The focus should be on the invisible presence that tries to knock over the lantern—you just need to guard the lantern at night.”

Lin Chen subconsciously forgot to dwell on the issue of Qi Si urging him to sleep early last night.

A flood of melodramatic short ghost stories popped into his mind, and his imagination ran wild: “Brother Qi, do you think there’s a possibility that those Ghosts are trapped in the town and need the Guiding Green Lantern to find the path to reincarnation, which is why they want to steal our lantern?”

Qi Si lifted his eyelids to look at him: “That possibility exists, but there is no concrete evidence. When solving puzzles in an instance, you must avoid making assumptions, or you’ll pre-set the answer and affect your judgment.”

“Mhm!” Lin Chen awkwardly rubbed his nose and started thinking from a different angle. “Right, judging by the time of appearance, the Wraiths outside the Residence and the Wraiths hidden among the townspeople are not the same group.

“When the Zi Hour arrives, we fall asleep uncontrollably, and the eeriness outside the Residence also recedes. Does this mean the instance intentionally wants to stagger our active time with that of certain entities?

“Brother Qi, do you think some major events that we shouldn’t know about happen after the Zi Hour?”

“That makes some sense.” Qi Si did not deny it, bending down to pick up the piece of paper pressed under the nightstand.

Lin Chen had found this paper last night, but because the light was too dim to read the words, he put it back.

A lot happened overnight, and since they started reviewing information immediately after waking up, both of them nearly forgot about this piece of paper.

Qi Si walked to the window, put the paper into Lin Chen’s hand, and then pushed the window wide open.

The towering corpse pile lay quietly in the sunlight, the withered white bones reflecting the sparse morning light.

The two identical corpses of the old man lay securely on top, exactly as they had looked before the first watch last night, having not moved at all.

Everything that happened last night seemed like just a terrifying nightmare, a mass hysteria-like hallucination.

Lin Chen was startled by Qi Si’s sudden action and instinctively took a step back.

Fortunately, the corpse pile outside the window was exceptionally well-behaved during the day. Aside from the foul smell and unpleasant appearance, there was nothing unusual.

Large patches of white sunlight spilled in through the open window lattice, shining onto the paper in Lin Chen’s hand, adding a layer of exposure to every character.

Lin Chen subconsciously read the words aloud:

【Yanghua Town has been prosperous since ancient times, a gathering place for celebrities, with strong fortifications and soldiers, and frequented by wealthy families. It is not a place that strategists must fight for. If we unite our efforts and defend this area, we may avoid disaster… 【Since the Baiyang River has been lost, military and civilian forces are stumbling and fleeing. Perhaps we can occupy this city and plan a resurgence… 【Those who are not of our kind have different intentions. They drink blood and eat raw meat, acting like wolves and jackals. We must not surrender…】

This was a letter, heavily damaged in many places, allowing them only to piece together the general events.

Lin Chen summarized: “This should be a letter exchanged within the military. After the invasion of foreign tribes, various places frequently fell, and military and civilians scattered and fled. Someone proposed defending Yanghua Town to plan the recovery of lost territory.”

He put down the letter and looked up at Qi Si: “Brother Qi, what does this have to do with ‘Wraiths’? Walking through Yanghua Town yesterday, it didn’t look like it was in a state of war…”

“Perhaps the war passed long ago, and this letter is just a slice of Yanghua Town’s history—who knows?” Qi Si smiled noncommittally. “Hmm, this instance is getting interesting.”

Lin Chen didn’t find it interesting at all.

The instance title is “Wraith,” yet they haven’t figured out the mechanism of the Wraiths’ actions, and now a war hidden in history has emerged.

The background of this instance is likely more complex than imagined, possibly even a multi-layered nested world view. Should he say, ‘As expected of a puzzle instance’?

Hopefully… they can successfully solve the puzzle and pass the instance safely.

Qi Si picked up the letter that Lin Chen had placed on the windowsill, folded it, and put it into his sleeve. He stopped paying attention to his worried teammate and turned to stand in front of the wooden door.

He reached out and pushed the wooden door twice, but it didn’t budge.

The iron lock outside the door hadn’t been opened yet. He didn’t know when the old man managing the Residence would come upstairs to let the players out of the room.

Qi Si sat down on the edge of the bed, staring listlessly at the wide-open window.

He suddenly thought that because of the corpse pile foundation, the distance from the second floor to the ground wasn’t too far.

As long as one could overcome the fear of corpses, using the pile as a stepping stone, it would be easy to climb out of the Residence through the window… Should he try it during the day?

Qi Si pondered seriously… In the room on the right side of the second floor, Tang Yu opened his eyes in bed. He looked to the right and didn’t see Qiu Xin.

Memories from the latter half of last night resurfaced. He vaguely recalled that Qiu Xin had opened the window and climbed out when he wasn’t paying attention.

Although Qiu Xin closed the window after climbing out, a few Ghosts still surged in through the gap.

He parried for a while, but gradually couldn’t hold his own. In desperation, he opened the 【Ink Soul Scroll】, letting the ink characters float up and outline the shape of a door in the void.

As expected, the Wraiths that entered the room had some intelligence and stubbornly refused to enter the door formed by the scroll.

He struggled awkwardly for a while longer. In his panic, he tripped over his own feet and actually fell straight into the scroll.

When he emerged from the scroll again, he heard the watchman’s cry of the Zi Hour, third watch, coming from outside the window.

Sleepiness inexplicably overcame him, and he lost consciousness.

“Qiu Xin is a ‘Wraith’ and must kill someone every day. If she were confined to the Residence, she would definitely expose herself and be attacked by the townspeople. That’s why she left through the window.

“The scholar said Wraiths appear before the Zi Hour. She could take advantage of the information gap to deal with isolated human townspeople before the Zi Hour… But how would she determine if those townspeople were human and not Wraiths when shadows are invisible at night?”

Tang Yu calmly reviewed the details of what had happened.

Strangely enough, after going through this incident, he didn’t hold much resentment toward Qiu Xin.

Being innocently assigned a universally despised identity by the Eerie Game, finding himself isolated and helpless, her bad temper was understandable.

Last night, when she was unsure if she could find a human townsman to kill, she ultimately chose not to kill him, her roommate, which was already the limit of her benevolence.

Tang Yu shook his head and unrolled the 【Ink Soul Scroll】, which he had used once.

The elegant running script characters, flowing like clouds, cascaded down, and in the corners were stamped simple sketches of people, all passengers who had once entered the scroll.

This item was valued at 500,000 points on the market, but was practically priceless. Tang Yu had exchanged it from the internal mall of the Jiuzhou Guild before leaving.

In recent days, many people in Jiuzhou were ostensibly expelled from the guild, but were actually preparing for a plan by the higher-ups. Tang Yu was one of them.

They were required to act recklessly, even going so far as to damage their own reputations and display some characteristics of Slaughter-path playerss, to achieve the effect of confusing others.

Not everyone was as famous as Fu Jue. Most slightly known players who were expelled by Jiuzhou for various reasons faced varying degrees of criticism and attack.

Therefore, Jiuzhou allowed every player to take one powerful item before leaving, both as compensation and for self-protection.

“Speaking of which, why was I able to enter the scroll? I tried in previous instances, but couldn’t get in. Only this instance allows it…”

Tang Yu’s gaze fell on the description: 【Only spiritual bodies can enter】, and he looked down at his feet again.

In the bright, sheer morning light, the ground beneath his feet was clean, and there was no shadow.

“Players are all in a spiritual body state, meaning they are Ghosts… So what about the townspeople?”

Tang Yu’s peripheral vision caught a flash of white under the nightstand; it looked like a piece of paper.

He walked over, picked it up, and read the traditional characters on it, which had a large section missing:

【I have often lamented the vagueness of the world’s geographical records, striving to record facts by climbing mountains and crossing rivers. Upon reaching the former site of Yanghua Town, I wandered dazedly through the mountains and forests, losing all sense of direction.

【Suddenly, the willows parted and the flowers bloomed, and I saw a town in the four directions, where the people were content and the houses stood neatly… 【…I fluttered and suddenly realized that my soul had left my body, Wandering in the Great Void.】

…In an alleyway in Yanghua Town, the morning sun cast a clean, white path of light, falling upon Qiu Xin’s delicate face.

Qiu Xin woke up with sleepy eyes, and upon seeing her surroundings, her sleepiness immediately vanished.

After killing her target last night, she heard the watchman’s cry and fell asleep without realizing it.

It was a miracle that she could sleep defenseless in the open air in an instance and wake up unharmed.

“It seems that not only the Ghosts behind the Residence, but almost all Ghosts in this instance will not harm their own kind. I don’t need to worry about threats from the eerie for now.

“Currently, all I need to deal with are the main quest, the human townspeople, and the other players.”

Qiu Xin made her judgment and looked toward the Residence from afar.

She knew that the grudges in players’ hearts would eventually become seeds of hostility, taking root and sprouting under the high pressure of crisis.

Engaged in petty schemes, driven by transactions and self-interest, no one could afford to gamble on so-called trust, bottom lines, or humanity.

Perhaps only death can eliminate the chasms between people…