Chapter 336: Beware of Rabbits (10) Midnight Horror

Qi Si decisively let go and continued forward without looking sideways.

Light and nimble footsteps followed closely behind him, always maintaining a distance of one step.

Qi Si placed his right hand on the Pocket Watch of Fate and turned his head to look. He saw a giant rabbit wearing a red kimono standing upright like a human, its blood-red eyes staring intently at him.

Reiko was nowhere to be seen, or rather… she had turned into this rabbit.

“You’re going the wrong way. If you go from here, you’ll never get out…” A sharp female voice rang out from behind his ear, shrill and mournful.

A woman in white with disheveled hair stumbled out of the fog, only to be pulled back by people wearing rabbit masks.

Qi Si looked sideways at the woman and saw a beautiful but pale face, as if she had just escaped from the convulsions of a nightmare or been fished out of cold water.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The woman didn’t answer him. Instead, she looked at the red-clothed rabbit with a sad and pained expression, muttering, “Reiko… my daughter… they have made you suffer so much…”

The rabbit tilted its head at her, its grinning mouth stretching all the way to its ears, revealing jagged fangs with bits of flesh still hanging from them. Saliva dripped from the corners of its mouth onto the ground, dispersing the surrounding white mist.

The scene suddenly plunged into black, white, and gray. Handwritten white characters appeared in the void before his eyes:

【Ending of “Escape from Rabbit God Town” Second Playthrough】

【Attained Ending: The Spirited Away Boy and Girl】

【You took Reiko and headed northwest, intending to leave Rabbit God Town, but unexpectedly strayed into the territory of gods and Ghosts.】

【In the thick fog, you lost your way and saw various eerie scenes. You felt fear, but the path you came from had already disappeared. Reiko was assimilated, and those who were not assimilated went mad.】

【Your physical body was brought back to Rabbit God Town by the members of the Kannagi family, but your soul remained forever in that treacherous mist. The eerie legend of the Spirited Away spread in Rabbit God Town, and children were no longer allowed to go to the northwest of Rabbit God Town.】

【And from then on, you became crazed, never able to escape…】

Another failed ending, but many clues were obtained.

For example, the northwest is the wrong escape route; another example is that the mad woman is Reiko’s mother, and her words seemed to mention someone wanting to harm Reiko… The three major families were originally of equal strength, but if the male head of one family died unexpectedly and the female head went mad, they would surely be devoured by the other two.

Reiko currently faced such a predicament. “Being like the Rabbit God” was definitely not a good thing, otherwise, it would never have fallen upon her… The scene before him shattered into fragments and drifted away like clouds and smoke, leaving only a line of cold text.

【Time until the next opening of “Escape from Rabbit God Town”: 11:59:59】

Qi Si found himself sitting in a chair, while Lu Ming, who wore his face, sat opposite him, gazing at him without blinking.

“You failed again,” Lu Ming said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Qi Si looked at him and smiled. “It seems you have a way to fast-forward. Why not do it again and let me start the third playthrough as soon as possible? How about it?”

One of the main quests was 【Attend the Fireworks Festival in seven days】, which meant pushing the time of “Escape from Rabbit God Town” to August 7th. Currently, Qi Si’s progress was still stuck on the first day… However, after two trials, Qi Si more or less understood where the death points of this game were: one was triggering the NPCs’ suspicion, and the other was encountering supernatural events.

If he tried again, he would temporarily set aside the matter of “escaping from Rabbit God Town” and try to follow the normal development of the game as much as possible.

“You have to save Reiko,” Lu Ming answered irrelevantly.

He began to chant a nursery rhyme in a low, haunting voice: “The first rabbit got sick, the second rabbit looked on, the third rabbit bought medicine, the fourth rabbit brewed it… The ninth rabbit mourned on the ground, and the tenth rabbit asked why? The ninth rabbit said, the fifth rabbit went away and never came back…”

After finishing it once, he looked at Qi Si and said, “The tenth rabbit knows…”

In an instant, everything disappeared, including the game interface, the Prayer Ribbon, and Lu Ming.

Qi Si woke up on the hard bed board of the Hope Middle School dormitory, his eyes met with the darkness representing the night.

Lu Ming’s final words echoed in his ears. He remembered that 【Lu Ming’s Diary】 also contained a transcription of this nursery rhyme, with a small note next to it saying 【We are all the dead】.

At this point, it was no longer important who the “fifth rabbit” in the school was; it was enough to know that it was dead.

Qi Si had dared to enter and leave the office before because he relied on being the “ninth rabbit” in the nursery rhyme. To ensure the normal operation of logic, he wouldn’t encounter fatal danger before the “tenth rabbit” appeared.

But the moment he saw the diary, theoretically, two people knew the truth: one was him, and the other was Lu Ming, whose actual existence was uncertain.

Between the two of them, one was the “ninth rabbit” and the other was the “tenth rabbit.” The logic of the nursery rhyme was now complete and no longer constituted a restriction. The danger of this instance had truly arrived.

As if to confirm Qi Si’s guess, a nauseating stench of rot began to permeate the air, lingering around his nose like a persistent ghost, delivering a terrible warning.

By the dim light, Qi Si caught a glimpse of a rotting head out of the corner of his eye. It was connected by a thin layer of flesh, hanging from the edge of the opposite bed.

As if sensing the gaze of a living person, the head fell to the ground with a “thud” and rolled toward the bed where Qi Si was.

Rotting corpses were also sprawled on the other beds, continuously dripping foul-smelling liquid; the same was true for the Dormitory Head’s bed behind his feet.

Everyone was dead. Ghosts or corpses presented a normal and peaceful side during the day, but they would reveal their true forms at night.

But what kind of power could kill everyone in the whole school and imprison their Ghosts in this space?

Could it also be the work of the Rabbit God?

Qi Si pulled his thoughts back, sat up from the bed, stepped over a skeletal leg of a roommate lying on the floor, and pushed the door open.

Since there were Ghosts both inside and outside the room, there was nothing to be picky about. He might as well go out and explore at night to collect more clues.

The door rubbed against the floor, making a “creak” that was particularly piercing in the silent scene, enough to attract entities waiting for an opportunity in the dark.

In a second, a cluster of ghastly green light flickered on, illuminating a dusty figure at the corner of the stairs.

The figure crawled twistedly like a beast, but its speed was not slow. Within seconds, it had crawled in front of Qi Si.

The voice of the female dormitory supervisor came from its mouth, intermittent and blurred: “Why… not sleeping? At night… why… running around?”

Half of her wrinkled face was rotten, covered with fat, grayish-white maggots. Her bent right arm exposed the bone, and at the break, a ghostly green fire flickered, dripping corpse oil.

Qi Si reacted extremely quickly, taking a step back into the dormitory, pulling the door shut, and locking it in one fluid motion.

His heel seemed to step on something squishy. He looked down and saw a palm so rotten its shape was indistinguishable being stepped on by his shoe.

Qi Si: “…”

…Is it too late to throw the shoes away now?

Outside the door, the female dormitory supervisor clearly didn’t intend to let it go. She began to pound on the door with a “bang bang,” letting out a roar: “Who was that just now? Hand him over, or your entire dormitory will lose points!”

It could be seen that this lady was very dedicated; even in death, she still remembered her job.

Qi Si felt a sense of respect, carefully stepped over the limbs strewn on the floor, and retreated to his bed.

Just now, he heard a “sizzling” electromagnetic disturbance coming from under his pillow, which seemed to be mixed with some bytes. It wasn’t very obvious amidst the rustling sounds of the Ghosts moving, but it could be identified.

He reached into the pillowcase to grope around and actually pulled out a cold Recording Pen. It was buried deep in the cotton; if it hadn’t made a sound, it would have been impossible to find.

On the long black strip, a small white light glowed, indicating the power status. The Recording Pen had turned itself on at some point.

Qi Si tried pressing the switch, but there was no response. The Recording Pen continued to play the pre-recorded content on its own.

【Four… Two… Nine… Seven… Three… Six】

He didn’t know if it was a password or something else.

Outside the door, the sound of pounding grew more intense. The rusted lock soon became overwhelmed and snapped with a “crack.”

In a flash, Qi Si rolled off the bed and crouched in the shadow between the bed frame and the wardrobe.

The next second, the female dormitory supervisor burst through the door. Her joints scraped against the door, making a “creak” that made one’s teeth ache.

She dragged her feet, walking step by step into the depths of the dormitory, her head turning constantly, searching everywhere with her gaze.

The distance grew closer, and the uncomfortable stench of decay hit him. Qi Si stared at the black toes that had reached him, ready to activate the effect of the Pocket Watch of Fate at any time.

To his surprise, the female dormitory supervisor walked straight past him and stood right in front of him, opening the wardrobe next to him.

The wardrobe was naturally empty.

The female dormitory supervisor let out an angry question: “Where is he? Where did he go?”

Qi Si, separated by only a palm’s distance: “…”

He looked down at the Recording Pen in his hand, forming some conjectures.

Immediately, he raised his hand and, almost as if courting death, tapped the bed frame twice.

The metal bed frame emitted two crisp “ding” sounds. The female dormitory supervisor turned her head abruptly, but her gaze passed straight over Qi Si as if he didn’t exist in this time and space.

At this point, Qi Si was certain that the Recording Pen had the effect of shielding the perception of Ghosts, which could help him move around at night.

The female dormitory supervisor was still rummaging through the dormitory. Qi Si silently held the Recording Pen in his right hand and walked out of the dormitory door again.

He walked along the corridor all the way to the stairwell. The sensor lights crackled and lit up all along the way, provoking bursts of roars from the dormitory supervisor behind him.

Qi Si walked down the stairs without changing his expression. The stairwell and the corridor on the Third Floor were separated by an iron door, so he went directly down to the second floor.

Only the part of the second-floor corridor near the stairwell lit up because of Qi Si’s footsteps. The depths were in deep darkness, with eerie red lights jumping from time to time.

Bursts of silvery laughter drifted to Qi Si’s ears, light and lively, belonging to young girls.

Haunting singing drifted over like ghost talk:

“The Rabbit God descends to the northwest, draped in red and colors, sitting on a high platform, bestowing blessings for ten thousand generations… The three families celebrate with fireworks, the carriage passes through the Southeast Street, buried deep in front of the mountain cave…”

It was exactly the two couplets of haiku related to the Rabbit God Festival in the “Escape from Rabbit God Town” game.

Two different times and spaces seemed to have connected to some extent. Even if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Qi Si seemed to see a group of brightly dressed girls surrounding an Idol, clapping and singing.

And the face of that Idol was blurred; all that was known was that it was a human-like rabbit wearing red clothes… Qi Si walked over, his footsteps causing the sensor lights to light up along the way. When he reached a certain point, the sensor light above his head seemed to be broken and didn’t shed white light as expected.

Sensing something, he looked back. The lights behind him also went out one by one. Light grew further and further away, and he was trapped in darkness.

Enchanting red light permeated the entire space. The female students had changed into kimonos at some point and filed out of the dormitory doors.

They also ignored Qi Si, accompanying each other in twos and threes, laughing and talking to each other.

“It’s almost time, and everything is prepared. Let’s invite the Rabbit God together.”

“Everyone must be present. If even one person is missing, the Rabbit God will be displeased and will punish everyone.”

“Everyone, think quickly about what questions you want to ask the Rabbit God later and what wishes you want to make.”

The girls sat cross-legged, forming a circle.

Qi Si noticed that their faces were as pale as if they were covered in a layer of powder, their pitch-black eyes were stiff and unmoving, and their voices were as awkward as a mechanical reading.

——Clearly not living people.

Paper sheets drawn with strange symbols, multicolored Prayer Ribbons, and symbolic sand tables and ornaments were placed in the circle, much like the “Spirit of the Pen” game that girls liked to play when Qi Si was in middle school.

But unlike the “Spirit of the Pen,” these girls were not inviting a ghost, but a god.

The last dormitory door opened, and two girls supported a person in red with a red cloth covering their head. They led the person to sit in the circle.

“It’s a wonderful thing to please the deity with the most hated person among us in exchange for all our wishes coming true.”

“Once she helps us realize our wishes, we won’t hate her anymore, because she’s going to die.”

“Keep your voices down, don’t let Teacher Qian hear and come to catch us…”

The girls whispered and then began to sing loudly: “The Rabbit God descends to the northwest, draped in red and colors, sitting on a high platform, bestowing blessings for ten thousand generations… The three families celebrate with fireworks, the carriage passes through the Southeast Street, buried deep in front of the mountain cave…”

A gust of wind blew away the red cloth on the person’s face in the circle, revealing a girl’s face as pale as paper—a face Qi Si was already familiar with.

——Reiko.

【main quest progress updated】

【main quest: Find Reiko’s complete corpse (4/7)】

Reiko’s corpse quickly grew rabbit fur, her mouth and nose protruded, showing the characteristics of a rabbit’s face, and her eyes became blood-red.

It was clearly a terrifying situation, but the girls all laughed: “The Rabbit God is here, the Rabbit God has descended!”

They crawled on their knees toward Reiko in the center of the circle, like devout servants approaching their king, prostrating and bowing their heads, telling their wishes one after another:

“I want him to like me!”

“I want to become more beautiful!”

“I hope to get good grades in the next monthly exam…”

Qi Si had no intention of getting involved in this evil Ritual and stepped back.

Reiko’s blood-colored eyes looked at him at some point, as if entangled by Puppet Threads in the void. He suddenly became unable to move.

After a whirl of the world, his vision settled again. He was actually sitting in the middle of the girls, in Reiko’s position.

From his perspective, he could see his own body holding the Recording Pen, standing quietly a step away, like a ghost or a corpse.