Chapter 271: Wraith (Part 18): Hard to Fathom the Coldness of the World

The sky over Yanghua Town was as pitch-black as the interior of a tomb; looking around, one couldn’t even see the outlines of the Residences.

Fortunately, most of the main roads in the town ran east-west. As long as they walked straight west, they wouldn’t fail to find the place.

Qi Si let Tang Yu step ahead of him while he carried the lantern and followed behind.

The three players used the lantern’s light to see the road, walking forward with their heads down in the chosen direction.

In the silence, Tang Yu suddenly asked, “Do you think we’ll run into Qiu Xin when we get back?”

Although he and Qiu Xin had many verbal disagreements and he knew the girl was a Wraith, he still couldn’t bring himself to ignore a companion’s safety in a team dungeon.

Qi Si’s previous assertion had the subtext that the old man the scholar had turned into would die at the hands of a Wraith, and that Wraith was Qiu Xin.

Faced with an obviously strange situation, Qiu Xin was forced by the rules to kill an eerie NPC. Would there really be no problem?

“No,” Qi Si shook his head. “From the moment she left through the window last night, she knew her identity as a ‘Wraith’ would be exposed to us, and she prepared herself to be our enemy.

“Even if this is a team dungeon, as an individual who doesn’t trust us, she certainly wouldn’t dare gamble her life on our kindness.”

Ever since becoming a guild leader, Lin Chen had been consciously studying game theory. At this moment, he could easily understand Qi Si’s logic.

In the Prisoner’s Dilemma, cooperation clearly yields the greatest benefit, yet because of mutual distrust between individuals, it ends in a lose-lose situation.

Trust has always been the key to cooperation and the answer to breaking a deadlock, yet it can never become the collective choice of human groups.

It’s like the death spiral of army ants, cycling over and over, leading to an inevitable dead end.

Lin Chen was silent for a moment, then frowned and asked, “If Qiu Xin doesn’t go back to the Residence, is there anywhere else she can stay? Could she go to the east side of town and run into Teacher Luo and the others?”

Luo Haihua and her husband were in a deep sleep and could not be awakened by outside noises.

And a Wraith was an existence capable of easily killing players… If Qiu Xin encountered Luo Haihua and her husband, the worst-case scenario would be the human camp losing two members for nothing, and the clues regarding Nothingness and the East Town Residence would be cut off.

Although Qiu Xin wasn’t necessarily a Slaughter-path player who killed on sight, what if she didn’t have enough time to find prey and had to kill someone at random for an emergency?

Human nature can never withstand the test of a crisis.

Tang Yu and Lin Chen reached the same conclusion. Tang Yu slapped his thigh and cursed, “Damn! What kind of team dungeon is this? Splitting us into camps and imposing a limit where someone must be killed every day—might as well call it a competitive dungeon!”

He grumbled a bit, then continued, “Even though I don’t know if Teacher Luo and the others will see it, when we get back to the Residence, let’s remember to leave a message on those papers to warn them to be careful.”

Trust is hard to build, but the seeds of suspicion are easily sown.

Listening to the conversation between the two beside him, Qi Si knew they had already developed a secret wariness toward Qiu Xin, the only overt ‘Wraith’ in the dungeon.

If casualties occurred later, they would inevitably make Qiu Xin their first suspect.

Some things were best left at a hint; excessive discussion would inevitably seem calculated.

Qi Si timely shifted the topic, smiling comfortingly. “The situation might not be as bad as you imagine. From Qiu Xin’s choice on the first day, we can infer that players with the ‘Wraith’ identity won’t be harmed by Ghosts.

“If she wants to find a place to stay, she can just stay at any household, or even sleep in the open. Without knowing Teacher Luo’s situation, she has no reason to go all the way to the east of town when there are closer options.”

At this point, the young man lowered his eyes and adopted a speculative tone. “Also, I might understand a bit why this dungeon is categorized as ‘Team Survival’.

“At night, a hundred Ghosts emerge. Players with the ‘human’ identity will inevitably be attacked by Ghosts if they go out to explore. In other words, the only ones who can move freely at night and gather clues are players with the ‘Wraith’ identity.

“To fully unravel the world-building, we cannot do without Qiu Xin’s help.”

These words were not without merit; they might even be the truth.

Lin Chen’s face soured. “But Qiu Xin is already gone. What do we do if we can’t find her?”

“What to do? It’s simple…” Qi Si paused for a moment, his smile remaining. “We can completely give up on unraveling the world-building and take the NE clear route.”

Lin Chen and Tang Yu: “…”

*Clang!*

“First watch of the Zi Hour! The weather is dry, watch out for fires!”

The sound of the night watchman’s gong echoed from afar, piercing through the spatial barriers to reach them.

The three walked in silence for another stretch of road when the figure of a small old lady in black suddenly appeared in the middle of the wide, empty road ahead.

She held a watchman’s gong in one hand and a set of door keys in the other, grinning at the players. “Guests, follow me back to the Residence.”

The small old lady spoke the same lines as the old man from the first day, like a machine set with a fixed program, every movement following a standard.

She dragged a human-shaped shadow under the light of the lantern, turned around shakily, and led the way at a steady pace.

Qi Si asked with a smile, “Auntie, it’s so dark. Why aren’t you carrying a lamp? Can you see the road?”

The small old lady didn’t look back. “I can see. The world is bright in my eyes. Master Meng also doesn’t let us light lamps; open flames have always been forbidden in town.”

Indeed, throughout the entire day and their journey, they hadn’t seen a single flame in town except for the lantern they brought from outside.

The players exchanged looks, silently noting the suspicion, and followed the old lady one by one.

The Residence was not far ahead. A distance that originally seemed vast and unreachable was covered in just a few steps under the old lady’s guidance.

The two-story wooden building stood tall under the night sky. Without any lights, only a rough outline could be seen.

“The Residence is here. This is the place.”

The small old lady stopped in front of the door and looked back at Tang Yu. “Young man, you must share a room with someone tonight. If you’re both alive tomorrow morning, then we can be sure you’re not a Wraith.”

She had said this once in the morning, so hearing it again wasn’t surprising.

Tang Yu didn’t respond, glancing sideways at Qi Si.

Although he disliked some of Qi Si’s actions, the latter’s puzzle-solving abilities were obvious to all. Asking for an opinion at a critical moment wouldn’t hurt.

Qi Si received Tang Yu’s signal and scanned between the small old lady and the Residence behind her.

The players already knew the deceased old man was a scarecrow, and they could infer that the other townspeople were scarecrows as well.

But a single piece of evidence wasn’t enough. They needed to expand the sample size and conduct a few more experiments to be safe.

Or rather, to turn an uncertain speculation into a certainty.

Tang Yu understood. He drew the saber from his waist and slashed it across the old lady’s neck.

With a *shing*, the old lady’s head flew off, and crimson blood sprayed in an arc through the air, looking exceptionally realistic at first glance.

The gong fell with a *clang*, the keys dropped with a *jingle*, and the headless corpse crashed heavily to the ground. Black smoke billowed from the chest and drifted into the small wooden hut on the far left of the Residence.

Tang Yu didn’t hesitate. He flipped his wrist to rest the saber behind his back and chased the black smoke to the wooden hut.

Sure enough, a second later, the hut door opened from the inside. In the room lit only by a mesh bag of fireflies, the small old lady emerged from the dim shadows, perfectly intact and holding the keys.

“Guests, follow me to assign rooms. If they won’t take you, I will. If I don’t take you, you’ll end up in Grandpa Mountain God’s belly…”

The small old lady eerily recited the familiar lines. Her cloudy, yellowish eyes stared straight at Tang Yu, and her toothless mouth smiled kindly. In the silent night, it added a touch of creepiness that made one’s hair stand on end.

Tang Yu was creeped out by her gaze and said irritably, “Don’t you worry about that. Master Meng invited us here specifically to kill that so-called Grandpa Mountain God.”

The small old lady smiled. “You young man are just talking big. Grandpa Mountain God is neither demon nor ghost; none of us can defeat or kill him. With a build like yours, you’d be paralyzed by a single roar.”

“Since no one can kill him, why did your Master Meng bring us here? To serve as a snack for your Mountain God?”

“Master Meng’s thoughts are hard to say. You can ask him in person; he won’t harm you.”

“I… you freaking…”

While Tang Yu was bickering with the old lady, Qi Si directly pulled Lin Chen past the player and NPC, heading toward the small wooden hut behind the old lady.

Last night’s scene was vivid in his mind. The old man who should have died walked out of this hut unscathed, and after being killed again, black smoke rose from his blood, and he reappeared in human form before the players shortly after.

The situation with the old lady was exactly the same as the old man’s—black smoke billowing after death, and then reappearing alive and well from the hut… The hut before them was very likely the respawn point for the NPCs here at the Residence.

“Hey, you two young men, don’t go running off!”

Noticing Qi Si and Lin Chen’s movements, the old lady quickly turned around and reached out to grab their sleeves.

With great rapport, Tang Yu stepped sideways to block her path.

During this delay, Qi Si had already stepped into the hut, followed by Lin Chen.

The furnishings inside the hut were old and simple. On a low wooden table, a swarm of fireflies flickered with a swaying glow.

A narrow bed sat in the corner, apparently the old lady’s sleeping place, but the bedding was so flat it looked as if no one had ever lain there.

The gray bedsheet hung down from the edge of the bed like a curtain, dragging on the floor and thickly concealing the space beneath.

Qi Si walked to the bedside, reached out to lift the sheet, and shone the lantern downward to dispel the shadows under the bed.

On the floor beneath the bed, life-sized scarecrows were packed densely together, looking at first glance like human corpses piled in a mass grave.

Each scarecrow wore a black straw raincoat. Their heads were covered in white powder; one side was painted with a smile using rouge, while the other side was expressionless.

They were exactly like the eerie scarecrow the old man’s corpse had turned into after being planted in the Bamboo Forest!

The situation was clear: once a townsman’s body was destroyed by weapons, their soul would return to the place where the scarecrows were stored and possess a new one.

As long as there were spare scarecrows, the townspeople could not be truly killed—it was essentially a form of immortality.

Qi Si dropped the bedsheet and walked straight out of the hut.

The old lady was still being held back by Tang Yu. No matter which way she tried to go, Tang Yu would quickly block her path with his saber.

Seeing Qi Si come out, Tang Yu retracted his blade and stepped aside.

The small old lady leaned on her cane and hobbled into the room, lowering her head to look around, seemingly checking if the players had broken anything inside.

With her back to the door, she reached out trembling hands to feel over the table and bed, not forgetting to dutifully instruct the players: “Guests, remember, you must return to your rooms fifteen minutes before the Zi Hour. I will come to lock the doors for you.

“And that young man in black, you must choose someone to share a room with…”

Tang Yu, dressed in black martial attire, had a dark expression as he slammed the wooden door shut, cutting off the old lady’s voice inside.

Ever since Lin Chen came out of the room, he had been staring at the ground.

At this moment, he suddenly pointed to a spot, his expression strange. “Brother Lin, Brother Tang, look quickly. The corpse has changed.”

Qi Si and Tang Yu looked in the direction he pointed.

On the ground in a corner of the hut, the old lady’s corpse, which had been severed in two with blood everywhere, was losing its color at a visible rate, gradually turning the withered yellow of dry straw.

The crimson blood turned dry and charred before their eyes, scattering into grains of plant ash within seconds. The pale flesh shriveled like a deflated balloon, turning into a bundle of straw wrapped in black clothes.

Once the players had determined the old lady’s true identity, the false illusion blew away like a layer of ethereal smoke, revealing the real face beneath.

Previously, the players thought the townspeople were Ghosts who were unaware of their own nature, trapped in a delusion; looking at it now, weren’t the players the same?

Just as the townspeople didn’t know they were Ghosts and lived like humans, the players didn’t know the townspeople were scarecrows, so everything they saw and perceived was in human form.

Blinded by a single leaf, drifting in the mortal world—who can easily see through it all?

It was still early before the Zi Hour. The three sat around a table in the first-floor lobby of the Residence, which had a box of Qingming rice balls on it.

Tang Yu said with a cold face, “I knew that Meng Fang had no good intentions.

“The Tiger Demon in the mountains is a demon-ghost. A demon alone is hard enough to deal with, and adding a ghost… heaven knows what kind of thing that is.

“So many NPCs can’t handle that Tiger Demon, and they say things like ‘can’t be defeated or killed.’ Asking us to go fight a tiger, isn’t that a joke?”

He grabbed a Qingming rice ball and tightened his fingers as if it were Meng Fang’s incarnation. “Moreover, in the thirty-six years since the Eerie Game appeared, cases of directly boosting a player’s physical power are few and far between. No matter how combat-oriented a player is or how many defensive items they have, they are mostly used for self-preservation.

“This is a formal pool. No matter how powerful someone is, killing a few peripheral NPCs is about the limit; I only dare to bully old men and women. Having a player duel an anomaly directly… this is the first time I’ve encountered it.”

Tang Yu had a fair amount of self-awareness and spoke with indignation.

Qi Si, however, was not as filled with righteous fury as Tang Yu.

So far, the number of NPCs he had killed directly or indirectly wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either.

Furthermore, having gone through the task of “killing Ms. Medina” in “Red Maple Boarding School,” he wasn’t exactly caught off guard now.

Based on the experience from the “Red Maple Boarding School” dungeon, the so-called “killing the Tiger Demon” likely didn’t require the players to do it themselves but rather to use certain dungeon mechanisms.

He just didn’t know what that mechanism would be.

“We might not have to take the field ourselves. Don’t forget, this is a puzzle-solving dungeon; the requirements for physical power are not high.”

Qi Si lowered his eyes, looking at his fingers. “According to common social logic, the starting point of the task to kill the Tiger Demon is to protect the townspeople in Yanghua Town who are waiting to be slaughtered.

“Tell me, if all the townspeople were dead, would there still be a need to complete this task?”

Considering that puzzle dungeons have lower requirements for combat power, dealing with the townspeople was much more reasonable than dealing with the Tiger Demon.

NPCs in the Eerie Game were, at best, a pile of data and, at worst, viruses that could infect the real world at any time. No matter how human they appeared, veteran players wouldn’t feel much compassion.

Lin Chen thought seriously for a moment and shook his head. “That won’t work either. There are too many of them, at least a thousand, and there are only three of us. There’s no way to kill them all at once silently.

“And… even in a one-on-one, we might not necessarily be able to beat them.”

“Who said anything about doing it directly?” Qi Si asked back with a smile. “You couldn’t have forgotten what their true forms are so quickly, could you?”

“They’re scarecrows…”

Tang Yu thought of the key point, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He tossed the Qingming rice ball in his hand onto the table and cupped the flickering paper lantern with both hands, his lips moving slightly.

“Straw is afraid of fire. Open flames are forbidden in town, and we have fire.”