WTNL Chapter 47

Antai Community
Chapter 47: Paper Figurines

Upon seeing Su Cheng’s figure, the young man stopped his conversation and turned sideways to look over:

“And who is this?”

Su Cheng’s mouth twitched slightly. He expressionlessly took a step forward and introduced himself according to the information on his identity card: “Ninth floor, Wang Runcheng.”

Under the dim yellow light of the corridor, a hint of a smile flashed deep within the young man’s bright eyes:

“Hello, my name is Zhou Xiuze. I’m a resident here.”

Su Cheng: “…”

Hehe.

Like I’d believe your nonsense.

“Since that’s the case, we have a deal?” Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at the other two streamers in front of him.

The two streamers exchanged a glance and nodded:

“Naturally.”

“Alright, wait a moment. I’ll tell my mom and then come right over.”

After a brief goodbye, Wen Jianyan turned and went back into the room.

The door clicked shut, and the corridor returned to deadly silence once again.

Chen Mo and the others cautiously walked a distance away from Room 1326. After making sure their conversation wouldn’t be heard by the “NPC”, they finally spoke:

“That NPC just now is the second son of the crazy old woman in 1326. According to him, the entire family of his older brother, who lived in Room 1304, died a month ago, and his mother’s mental state also had problems, so he moved in to take care of her.

After moving in, he found this building to be very sinister, but all the other residents hid things from him, and his mother’s condition kept getting worse. So he also really hopes to figure out what happened in this building. They should be acting with us for a while later.”

Su Cheng: “…”

Sigh.

However, he also noticed that these two streamers both coincidentally omitted the existence of the copper coin in Wen Jianyan’s hand, not showing the slightest intention of bringing it up.

Could this be the reason why they sent another streamer to the elevator to call them?

Could it be some crucial item?

However, the moment he thought about who was holding the item, Su Cheng immediately calmed down again.

In this world, anyone could be scammed, except for this guy.

He was the only one scamming others.

This dog scammer must be plotting some scheme again!

Wen Jianyan closed the door and casually stuffed the oil paper copper coin back into his pocket.

In Nightmare, the system only judges hidden items upon the first contact.

That means the moment a streamer touches a [Hidden Item], the system’s judgment sound will ring in their ears, but it won’t ring again after that. Furthermore, until leaving the instance, hidden items will not be named, nor can they be stored back into the backpack.

The method to make other streamers believe this was a hidden item was very simple. He just had to cleverly adjust his angle when handing the copper coin over, lightly brushing the beaded bracelet on his wrist against their skin.

At that instant, the system’s hidden item judgment would definitely ring in the other party’s ears, and they would thus firmly believe in the identity of this copper coin without any doubt.

This way, he could not only use it as bait to entice other streamers to do things for him, but even if he messed up, he could still cleverly hide the truly valuable item.

After being scammed by the system so many times, occasionally using system loopholes to scam other streamers wasn’t a bad thing at all.

And the reason he called himself Zhou Xiuqing’s younger brother was also very simple. After all, this case of Room 1304 wasn’t a secret in this building, and Zhou Xiuqing’s death was already known to everyone. If he assumed that person’s identity, not only would he easily be exposed, but if he was mistaken for a monster and focused down, it would be extremely troublesome.

On the other hand, the identity of a “younger brother” was much easier to operate and easier to cover up with lies.

Wen Jianyan took his phone out of his pocket, opened the Nightmare APP, and glanced at it.

The first two hours of the instance had ended, and the new main quests had been issued.

[Main Quest 1: Find the next filming location within two hours]
[Completion: 0%]

[Main Quest 2: Go to the filming location to film, duration must not be less than ten minutes]
[Completion: 0%]

The related plot on his identity card had not updated.

Wen Jianyan put his phone back into his pocket and walked over to the rocking chair where the old woman was lying.

She had already been awakened from her light sleep, opening her cloudy eyes and raising a wrinkled, rough old hand to grope in the air: “Xiuqing, Xiuqing ah, where are you?”

Wen Jianyan caught her palm: “I’m right here.”

The old woman looked over: “Who came just now?”

“Just a neighbor asking for my help.”

Wen Jianyan leaned down, scooped up a blanket from the side, and skillfully and naturally draped it over the old woman’s legs, his voice gentle: “I’m going out for a bit; I’ll be back soon.”

“Ah, good, good.”

The old woman patted his hand: “Go quickly and come back soon.”

Wen Jianyan turned to leave but heard the old woman’s aged voice ring from behind: “Oh right, Xiuqing ah, it’s almost the 15th of July; don’t forget to kowtow to the Bodhisattva.”

“…”

Wen Jianyan paused, turning his head to look at the old woman behind him.

He saw her eyes, chaotic and covered in white cataracts, wide open as she said tremblingly:

“Otherwise, you will be blamed by the Bodhisattva.”

After saying that, the old woman slowly closed her eyes and stopped talking.

Wen Jianyan thoughtfully narrowed his eyes, then turned and left Room 1326.

Those streamers were waiting for him at the door.

Seeing Wen Jianyan come out, Chen Mo stepped forward and spoke with seeming concern: “Little brother, have you said goodbye to your mother? Is the old lady’s condition alright?”

“I’ve said goodbye.”

Wen Jianyan nodded, letting out a shallow sigh: “Mom has… not been doing too well lately. Not only is her health deteriorating day by day, but she also calls out my brother’s name every day, as if… they haven’t passed away yet.”

He lowered his eyes:

“I’ve been trying to persuade Mom to move away from this sad place with me, but every time I bring it up, she flies into a rage. Even if it’s just for her, I have to…”

The young man’s voice trembled at the end, swallowing the rest of his words.

He pursed his lips. His long eyelashes cast a faint shadow on his fair face, making him look somewhat fragile, as if enduring in silence.

Chen Mo sighed and raised a hand to pat his shoulder:

“Don’t worry, little brother, we will definitely find the cause of all this. When that time comes, perhaps your mother can return to normal.”

Wen Jianyan raised his eyes, a hint of gratitude in them: “Thank you.”

Su Cheng, who had remained silent since the beginning: “…”

He couldn’t bear to watch, slowly turning his gaze away.

In the ensuing time, Wen Jianyan briefly answered a few questions regarding Room 1304. The answers he gave were basically no different from what the neighbor initially revealed:

The family of four in Room 1304 was poisoned at home, and the bodies were discovered by the mother living across the hall.

If the streamers pressed for details of the case, he brushed them off with the excuse that the case was still under investigation and the police hadn’t disclosed the criminal investigation process to the victims’ families.

If they asked about the internal relationships of Zhou Xiuqing’s family and any unusual events before the murder, Wen Jianyan answered that he was working out of town and hadn’t contacted his brother’s family for a long time. He only rushed back after the incident occurred, so he wasn’t clear about these things.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Good heavens… I’ve never seen anyone answer questions about a disguised identity so fluently…]

[Incredible, as expected of you dog scammer. Even the internal logic matches up! What kind of little lying genius is this!]

[Truly, I was almost in a daze thinking he really is a resident of this building…]

[So where does this guy who spews nonsense have the face to name his live broadcast room ‘Integrity First’!]

“Do you mind… if we go take a look inside Room 1304?”

Chen Mo asked.

Wen Jianyan: “Of course I don’t mind.”

After a brief exchange of information, Chen Mo turned his head to look at the other streamers:

“Then let’s go to 1304 first, and then to 1306. What do you guys think?”

“No problem.”

The other streamers nodded in agreement.

The group pushed open the door of 1304 and walked in.

After all, these streamers were C-rank at the lowest. Their actions were cautious and careful; clearly, it wasn’t their first time doing this kind of thing.

The lights in 1304 were broken, and the windows were sealed with bricks, leaving only pitch-black darkness inside where one couldn’t even see their own fingers.

A suffocating, murky stench permeated the air.

The streamers walking at the very front turned on their flashlights one after another, relying on the light emitted to grope their way forward in the room. Wen Jianyan didn’t take out his phone, merely tagging along in the middle of the group, not too close nor too far, keeping a low profile as he followed them forward.

Soon, a gasp of surprise came from the kitchen.

Wen Jianyan wasn’t surprised by this at all.

He turned his head and looked in the direction the sound came from.

A few streamers covered their noses with their sleeves and gathered around the dining table, looking down at the rotten food on the table.

But the four seats around the table…

Were completely empty.

At some unknown point, the three smiling, ghastly pale paper dolls had disappeared, as if they had never existed, leaving only four empty chairs.

Wen Jianyan paused.

This… was something he hadn’t expected.

Chen Mo turned his head and looked at Wen Jianyan:

“Little brother, do you know what’s going on here?”

Wen Jianyan recovered his wits and answered in a natural voice:

“My mom has always thought my brother is still alive, so she often comes to deliver food. I noticed it before and came over to clean it up, but I’ve been running around busy with funeral arrangements lately, so I haven’t handled it in time.”

The streamers who got the answer didn’t continue to press further, but scattered and began to look for clues in the room.

Wen Jianyan raised his vigilance.

He subconsciously lightened his steps, carefully pacing the room, his gaze searching the dark corners for those three missing paper dolls.

“…Fuck.” A low curse came from the direction of the bathroom: “Come take a look at this!”

The streamers exchanged glances and gathered over one after another.

The bathroom door was wide open, and the narrow space was illuminated by several swaying flashlights, revealing its layout in full detail.

Two paper dolls lay in the bathtub, one male and one female.

The female paper doll wore a bright smile on her ghastly pale face, while the features on the male paper doll’s face were messily scribbled out with a scarlet pen, its hollow, rigid eyes staring fixedly at the bathroom doorway.

“There’s… something here.”

The male and female paper dolls both seemed to be clutching something in their hands.

Su Cheng leaned down, carefully pried open the male paper doll’s palm, and took out a small yellow wad of paper from each. Wang Hanyu opened the other one.

The rustling sound of paper being unfolded rang out in the narrow space.

“What does it say?” one streamer asked.

Wang Hanyu held the wad of paper from the female paper doll’s hand and repeated the words written on it: “The family will be together forever.”

Su Cheng paused for a moment before somewhat stiffly repeating the sentence in his hand:

“…Let that crazy old woman go to hell.”

“Hey! Who’s there!”

Suddenly, accompanied by the swaying of a flashlight, a shout came from the doorway of 1304: “Come out quickly!”

Chen Mo, who was closest to the door, walked out first: “Sorry, we got permission from the owner of this house…”

The person who came held a flashlight and frowned, replying: “This is a murder scene! Unauthorized personnel are not allowed inside!”

Chen Mo skillfully handed over a cigarette:

“Please, accommodate us a bit…”

Wen Jianyan retracted his gaze that had fallen on the Bodhisattva statue and turned his head to look outside the door.

The moment his gaze landed on the other party, his pupils couldn’t help but shrink.

Standing at the door was, remarkably, the security guard he had persuaded to leave.

Perhaps it was the lighting, but the guard’s face had an eerie paleness. His gaze swept over Wen Jianyan, seemingly not recognizing him.

His lips twitched stiffly as he issued a reprimanding sound: “Accommodate what? You guys come out quickly! There’s no room for discussion on this!”

In the corner of Wen Jianyan’s eye, something seemed to move suddenly.

He slightly held his breath and subtly turned his head, glancing sideways.

In the floor-length mirror near the door, “Wen Jianyan” was standing facing the mirror. His ghastly pale face looked straight out of the mirror, the corners of his lips curving up, slowly revealing a smile.

Mirror.

Wish.

These two keywords were so familiar, awakening memories that weren’t too distant to begin with.

Wen Jianyan’s heart pounded wildly, and a vague guess surged in his mind. A certain excessively ominous thought struck him squarely.

A buzzing sound rang in his ears, his breathing hitched slightly, and an intense sense of unease instantly washed over him.

He had obtained the epic-level item [Mr. Mirror] in Decai Middle School, and its main body was merely a tiny shard.

It called that man Father God.

Then, evidently, as the “Father God”, that evil spirit definitely had more than one believer, or rather, follower.

Could it be…

Wen Jianyan’s right hand hung by his side, and the small patch of skin wrapped in bandages grew scalding hot like fire, as if that talisman-like tattoo was struggling to grow out from beneath his skin.
__

Author’s Note:

Dog scammer: Sudden vigilance