Chapter 274: Wraith (21) — A Momentary Thought

It was the second watch; one more watch and it would be the Zi Hour.

Qiu Xin listened to the Night-Watchman’s cries, carefully discerning the direction.

She hadn’t killed anyone today, but it wasn’t too late to do so now.

Based on the experience of the first night, the Night-Watchman was most likely the old man managing the Residence, and also the “living person” chosen by the townspeople to be sacrificed; the shadow behind him was human-shaped.

Although she didn’t understand how a “living person” was actually chosen when almost all the townspeople were Ghosts;

Nor did she understand how a person killed by a player was credited to the agreement between the townspeople and the Mountain God;

This didn’t stop Qiu Xin from seizing the opportunity to complete the daily killing task of the Wraith faction.

“Clang, clang—”

The sound of the clapper drew closer, dragging messy footsteps deep into the alley.

Holding a lantern in her mouth, Qiu Xin flipped down from the roof and landed softly in the haystack behind the house, peering through the gaps in the hay toward the direction of the watchman’s sound.

In the darkness, the shadow behind the newcomer couldn’t be seen clearly. Only by the faint light falling from somewhere could she see it was a hunched little old lady wearing a bamboo hat and a straw raincoat, with a cane tucked under her arm and a watchmans gong in her hand, which she was dutifully striking.

Just a tap on her shoulder would kill her, and today’s task would be complete… Qiu Xin pushed aside the hay, muffled her footsteps, and walked forward step by step.

As her field of vision opened up, she saw an orange halo following the little old lady on the ground, splashing brightly and moving forward with her steps.

That was the light of a lantern.

But how could an NPC have a lantern?

Qiu Xin looked toward the light source and saw a figure in red with loose hair, holding a white paper lantern, silently following the little old lady, always maintaining a distance of two steps.

The night wind blew the sleeves and long hem, the blood-colored fabric fluttering silently in the air, as graceful as a drop of blood in clear water, its edges blurred like a ghost walking the night.

It was Lin Wen!

What was Lin Wen doing following the Night-Watchman? Had he discovered something, or… did he also want to make a move on the watchman?

That was it. The fact that Lin Wen could come out at night without being attacked by Ghosts was enough to prove that he was also a Wraith.

A Wraith had to kill people, and the Night-Watchman, who was clearly a living person, was undoubtedly the best target.

There was only one Night-Watchman; whoever grabbed her first got her.

Qiu Xin no longer hesitated, grabbed a handful of fine sand from her inventory, and threw it at the person in red behind the old lady.

The person in red reacted extremely quickly and stepped back. Qiu Xin took the opportunity to rush forward, darting behind the old lady in a few steps, and gave her a heavy pat on her right shoulder.

“Clang— Thud—”

The watchmans gong fell to the ground, and the little old lady collapsed forward.

【You have used your identity effect once today, killing one person】

【Please kill the next person within twelve double-hours】

Except for the victim being a different person, everything was exactly the same as the first night.

Having succeeded in one strike, Qiu Xin had no intention of lingering and turned to run back the way she came.

After running only a few steps, she felt a chill at her right ankle, as if something had looped around it.

Her foot couldn’t move, and her upper body leaned forward due to inertia. She stumbled and fell headlong into the soft haystack.

Then she heard a clear voice ring out from behind her: “I knew I’d find you by following the Night-Watchman, Qiu Xin.

“Now, as teammates in the same faction, let’s have a good talk.”

…Half an hour ago, Qi Si hadn’t sat in his room for long. Estimating that the two next door were asleep, he pushed the door open and went down the stairs to the first floor of the Residence.

With the dungeon progressing to this point, clues and information had been mostly collected. He already had a rough idea of how to clear this dungeon, but the details still needed to be designed.

For example, how to inform the other players of information known only to Wraiths without raising suspicion.

For another, how to complete the task of “eliminating all humans among the players” without shedding blood.

On the first night, Qi Si had easily taken advantage of the other players’ absence to kill an unlucky player. He had originally thought that he would only need to identify who was a Wraith and who was a human, and then do the same to the humans.

Unexpectedly, after just one night of waiting, although the identities and factions were clear, his perspective had changed.

Lin Chen was a “human” and theoretically an object to be eliminated, but considering that useful tools were hard to find, killing him in this dungeon did not align with the principle of squeezing out every bit of surplus value.

Therefore, he could only uphold the inference that “eliminating does not equal killing” and put a rather complex special method on the agenda.

And the foundation of that special method lay in trust.

He couldn’t expose his Wraith identity, yet he had to reveal some clues exclusive to the Wraith faction. The only way was to mobilize more chess pieces into the performance of the plan.

Qiu Xin was one of the chess pieces to be used.

Qi Si’s initiative to explore at night had a hidden purpose: to find Qiu Xin.

As for how… he believed that people had inertia in their thinking. After Qiu Xin’s success on the first night, there was a high probability she would continue to target the Night-Watchman on the second night.

Based on this, it wasn’t difficult to track her down.

Qi Si carried his lantern out of the Residence’s main gate and followed the sound of the Night-Watchman that enveloped all of Yanghua Town. Finally, after crossing three streets and alleys, he found the figure of the little old lady responsible for the watch tonight.

He quietly followed her, and after another fifteen minutes, he luckily encountered Qiu Xin, who had been away from the team for a long time.

At this moment, the crimson Cursed Pendulum was wrapped around Qiu Xin’s ankle, looking like a gruesome bloodstain from a distance.

Qi Si stood before Qiu Xin, leaning over slightly to reveal a mouthful of white teeth: “First, I hope you don’t act rashly. Although the item wrapped around your foot isn’t lethal, if it cuts you, it will randomly apply one of three debuffs: amnesia, hallucination, or high fever.

“The other two are fine, but amnesia would be troublesome. You might end up drooling like an Alzheimer’s patient, unable to recognize anyone, and perhaps even stay here forever as an NPC.”

Qiu Xin suddenly looked up, her gaze gloomy: “Are you threatening me?”

Qi Si Looking into her eyes，He sighed: “That’s the second point I wanted to make. I have a well-intentioned, cooperative attitude toward you. In my view, there’s no need for you to be so defensive.

“In this dungeon, you and I are in the same faction, and our stances are completely aligned. Only cooperation can achieve the greatest benefit. Besides, the fourth point of the identity effects says that if I kill a Wraith, I will also be wiped out.

“While I’m not someone who treasures my life, to trade my life for the value of yours—to be honest, I’d feel like I’m getting a raw deal.”

The words were unpleasant, but the logic was sound.

Qiu Xin was silent for two seconds before speaking slowly: “The living people we encounter each day are limited, and Wraiths must compete for them; even within the faction, there’s a competitive relationship. I don’t think the traditional principles of cooperation apply to this dungeon.”

“That leads to the third point.” Qi Si smiled, raising his index finger to his lips, “Today I followed them through the east and west of the town and found many key clues pointing to completely different developments. Do you want to hear them?”

“You’ll tell me?”

“You only need to promise me that you will never expose my identity and will do nothing detrimental to me, and I’ll tell you.”

“Fine.”

【Contract signed. This Contract is guaranteed by the world rules; no existence shall defy it】

Silver-white writing refreshed on both of their system interfaces simultaneously. Qiu Xin looked up at the sky, then down at the pendulum hanging from her ankle, a strange look flashing in her eyes: “A Contract-type skill? A red pendulum?”

Qi Si nodded candidly: “Yes, that ‘Cheng An’ who was posted on the forum not long ago is also me.”

Qiu Xin:?!!

Now that the Contract was established, the clause “never expose identity” covered a very broad range—it could be the “Wraith” identity, the “Cheng An” identity, or even more.

Qi Si wasn’t worried that Qiu Xin would hinder his plan after learning certain information.

Looking at Qiu Xin, whose expression was about to crack, he continued to himself: “This morning, we followed the funeral procession to the Bamboo Forest in the east of the town and saw that the corpses they had inserted vertically into the ground had turned into scarecrows.

“Through some experiments, we determined that most of the townspeople are Ghosts possessing scarecrows; their shadows are actually the shadows of the scarecrows. Do you understand?”

“Are you saying that if the scarecrow a townsman possesses is tiger-shaped, the shadow is tiger-shaped; if the possessed scarecrow is human-shaped, the shadow is human-shaped?”

Qiu Xin calmed down and quickly entered the state of reviewing clues: “There is no distinction between living people and Wraiths among the townspeople; they are all Ghosts. We can complete the daily task by tapping anyone’s shoulder, is that it?

“Why would the dungeon be designed this way? How can I be sure you’re telling the truth?”

“Just find a townsman and try it, you’ll see. You can try it yourself, or let me.” Qi Si stepped back a few paces, bent down to pick up the watchmans gong from the ground, and glanced at Qiu Xin’s side.

There was a dilapidated wooden house, from which came a continuous sound of crying; clearly, someone lived inside.

“I’ll try it myself,” Qiu Xin said.

She walked to the wooden house and knocked on the door twice. After knocking, she remembered that Yanghua Town strictly forbade townspeople from opening their doors at night… She took a medicine pestle from her inventory and was about to smash the lock when the sound of “patter-patter” footsteps came from inside.

“An’an, is that you back?” The old lady who had lost her grandson, her eyes red and swollen, pushed open the wooden door in a daze and peered outside, as if she had completely forgotten about the danger.

Qiu Xin reached out extremely quickly and lightly tapped her left shoulder.

“Thud—”

The old lady collapsed to the ground as if her soul had been sucked out.

【You have used your identity effect twice today, killing two people】

【Please kill the next person within twelve double-hours】

Hearing the system announcement, Qiu Xin remained silent.

The townspeople were not fellow Wraiths, but targets that could be killed.

But… why use different shaped scarecrows to distinguish between human shadows and tiger shadows among them?

Two meters away, Qi Si looked down at the photographic negative in his hand.

The fast-developing image captured the scene at the moment Qiu Xin acted.

A grayish-black phantom enveloped the scarecrow in tattered gray clothes. At the moment its shoulder was touched, it suddenly dispersed and flowed in all directions like a stone thrown into a pond, as if it had been greatly frightened… Ghosts fear Zhan, and can easily be scared into soul-dissipation; players with the Wraith identity happen to be Zhan.

Normally, the townspeople think they are human and do not fear Zhan; once they discover they are Ghosts, they become terrified of Zhan.

This was the principle by which the Wraiths among the players could easily kill townspeople by touching their shoulders.

Qi Si tucked the developed negative into his sleeve, walked a distance toward the alley entrance, and looked back at Qiu Xin, who was still stunned in place: “Interested in accompanying me to a place?”

Qiu Xin said nothing, but carrying her flickering lantern, she slowly followed Qi Si.

After crossing a few more streets, the “clang-clang” of the Night-Watchman’s clapper sounded again.

A hoarse cry echoed in the silent night, chanting blurred words:

“My wife died by the tiger, my son died as well. Why not leave? There is war in other lands…”

Qi Si followed the cry. By the light of the lantern spreading outward, he saw a scholar in black clothes with white hair and beard.

After the change in identity, the scholar with the human-shaped shadow had also acquired the duty of the Night-Watchman. He would likely die tonight, just like the old lady who managed the Residence, as a sacrifice to the tiger demon.

Qiu Xin murmured: “The villagers themselves are all spiritual bodies; their identities are determined by the scarecrows they possess, which change every day.

“Just like reincarnation, some are wealthy, some are as poor as dirt, and some… because they possess human-shaped scarecrows, are destined to die at the hands of Wraiths at night.”

“Smart.” Qi Si smiled and said, “The situation now is that our scholar comrade, who received us yesterday, has unluckily possessed a human-shaped scarecrow.

“I just don’t know if this possession is random or if someone is controlling it. Whether it’s just a random ghost being picked for sacrifice to the tiger, or an opportunity to eliminate specific individuals.”

Qiu Xin thought for a moment and asked: “Do you have a way to verify it?”

Qi Si nodded and said: “I want to try. If we don’t kill him according to the rules’ arrangement, can he see tomorrow’s sun?”

Having said that, he controlled the Cursed Pendulum to fly back to his side and turned into a street alley.

He held the lantern high, shining it through the windows one by one. Before long, he found a dilapidated, long-neglected paper window.

Without knocking, he threw the Cursed Pendulum directly at the paper window, piercing through the thin layer of obstruction.

A middle-aged couple lay on the k’ang inside. After the window was broken, they huddled together in fear, their faces pale as they stared at the uninvited guest outside.

Qi Si was in no hurry to enter. Instead, he unhurriedly controlled the Cursed Pendulum to fly into the room and flick off the door bolt.

The door opened.

Qi Si strolled in leisurely and gave each of the couple’s shoulders a tap.

【You have used your identity effect once today, killing one person】

【Please kill the next person within twelve double-hours】

【You have used your identity effect twice today, killing two people】

【Please kill the next person within twelve double-hours】

“Clang, clang, clang!”

Three strikes of the watch sounded in the distance, causing the watchmans gong in his hand to vibrate in a mournful wail.

Qi Si took out the 【Ink Soul Scroll】 and the 【Umbrella Filled with Pain】 from his inventory, activating their effects simultaneously.

Ink steamed out from the landscape scroll, swirling and floating in the air like clouds and mist, while scattered bits of golden light outlined the silhouette of a door.

Qi Si stepped into the door, hooking a stroke of freehand landscape with his finger, looking back as the ground gradually receded.

Yet he heard someone shouting at the top of their lungs where the watch sounded:

“Third watch of the Zi Hour, all is well!”