What the hell? Whoever’s name is written dies?
Are you the Grim Reaper?
Meeting their gazes, Zhou Qi’an waved his hand, signaling them to be calm. “It’s just a possibility.”
A mere eighty percent probability.
Everyone present clearly thought of the same thing. Not long ago, the game had sent a server-wide notification that the Holy Relic holder had obtained the legendary [Death Curse Bone], even using celebratory phrases like “boundless good fortune” and “the envy of all.”
Now it seemed it wasn’t about envy.
It was about bringing a fatal curse upon others.
Now, it wasn’t just Zhou Qi’an; everyone was staring at the note after the relic’s name. “How many times can it be used?”
Zhou Qi’an looked regretful. “Twice.”
Saying that, he took out the [Little Alarm Clock] to check the time. There were less than twenty minutes until the museum closed.
Ying Yu told them to wait where they were. He was no longer visible on the first floor.
Zhou Qi’an wasn’t too worried. He had great trust in Ying Yu’s abilities. To date, the other man had only messed up once, and that was because he was dragged down by a group of wonderful teammates.
The psychic constitution suddenly felt a slight chill. Zhou Qi’an’s attention shifted from the name, and he walked a few steps towards the door. The fading light shone on the large well in the courtyard, dyeing the entire surface of the water.
The well water was still clear.
But when he stretched his neck to look, the unfathomable bottom of the well surprisingly revealed miniature figures of corpses. Under the refraction of light, it was as bizarre as looking through a kaleidoscope.
These corpses gradually grew larger, holding hands and floating upwards on their tiptoes.
Although he was still some distance from the well, Zhou Qi’an’s face was already reflected on the water’s surface, as if overlapping with the swollen faces of the corpses below.
He immediately backed away.
“What the hell is this?”
He couldn’t help but think of the scene in Fengshui Village where the corpses were thrown into the village chief’s well and then reanimated.
Yuan frowned. “These wrongfully dead corpses might reanimate at night and climb out of the water.”
The university student who had also taken a look shivered all over upon hearing this.
The number of floating corpses at the bottom of the well was enough to trigger trypophobia when they climbed out.
Besides the well water, the surrounding players also seemed a bit strange.
As it was almost closing time, most people had finished their visit early. Many of the players gathered now were unfamiliar faces. This group hadn’t participated in the earlier siege and were focused on their tasks.
Now they were gathering in twos and threes, seemingly forming temporary teams.
Forming teams right before closing was not logical.
Red HOOD had clearly noticed this as well. She happened to see a player she had interacted with before and walked over to proactively find them.
A moment later, when Red HOOD returned, her expression was somewhat subtle.
She had obviously obtained some unexpected information by exchanging intel.
She used an anti-eavesdropping item and said, “They’re not planning to go back tonight. They’re staying to deal with the floating corpses.”
This time, it was Zhou Qi’an’s turn to be surprised.
“It’s related to the exhibits in the Ridie Pavilion,” Red HOOD said, looking at her superior. Among them, only he had been there.
Zhou Qi’an was just thinking about how to sweet-talk his superior into giving him information when the latter, in a good mood due to the employee’s wedding leave exemption, took the initiative to speak under the ‘groom’s’ earnest gaze:
“In the Ridie Pavilion, the exhibits are all ancient artifacts for subduing demons and monsters.”
Before everyone could react, Shen Zhiyi’s eyes first revealed a look of understanding.
He looked at Zhou Qi’an. “The Risheng Pavilion and the Xishi Pavilion are located on the left and right sides, respectively, with the Ridie Pavilion in the center, occupying the main position. The tools inside are just right to suppress the malevolent aura of the two side buildings, thus achieving a balance.”
Zhou Qi’an’s eyelid twitched.
As the saying goes, every trade has its master.
What industry was this person in, exactly?
Shaking his head, Zhou Qi’an first focused his thoughts on the relics. Connecting it to the strange behavior of the players outside, he guessed, “Is the way to view the exhibits in the Ridie Pavilion to hunt ghosts?”
After confirming from her superior that the player hadn’t lied, Red HOOD nodded. “Rent an artifact, then capture ghosts other than the relics. At first, some players chose to seal the lone ghosts in the back mountain, but for some reason, the death rate was exceptionally high. Later, they simply decided not to return to the town at night and stayed to deal with the floating corpses.”
To a certain extent, this choice was not wrong, even quite clever.
The Xishi Pavilion they had just come out of contained a large number of fakes, forcing them to return to town to analyze and visit.
But for these players preparing to kill the floating corpses in the well, the fact that they dared to do so suggested that there weren’t many fakes in the Ridie Pavilion.
One minute before the museum closed, the sheep-headed man came in with a heavy lock, stood at the door, and prepared to lock it on the dot.
It seemed to know that there were still players inside the Xishi Pavilion, as it kept loitering around Zhou Qi’an and the others.
With less than half a minute to closing, just as Zhou Qi’an was considering whether to shout into the pavilion with a megaphone, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from inside, and Ying Yu walked out.
His steps were fast, showing no sense of urgency. As he walked, he was even changing the lenses of his glasses.
Zhou Qi’an squinted.
His superior’s lenses were non-prescription, mainly used to enhance his professional image. Ying Yu’s glasses… whether they were props or not, he was certain they had a prescription.
“The number of unsolved human mysteries is increasing.”
A person who should have long since reached full evolution was wearing prescription glasses.
By now, Ying Yu had walked up to them and nodded slightly.
Zhou Qi’an no longer focused on the glasses. His eyes lit up; it seemed they had succeeded.
The sheep cart only picked up and dropped off players once. They would have to walk back at night.
It got dark early in the mountains. Zhou Qi’an率先 headed towards a less crowded spot by the door. As he stepped over the threshold, he remembered the frustrating encounter with the sheep-headed man that day and forgot to spit at him before leaving.
He was too lazy to go back just for that.
His peripheral vision caught the sheep cart. Zhou Qi’an puffed up his cheeks and, imitating an alpaca, went “tui.”
The sheep: “…”
If a player tried to steal the relics on the cart or attack the cart, according to the rules, the sheep could kill them.
For a mere behavioral insult, the sheep could only glare.
As the sun set, very few players chose to return to town.
The distance between the teams was very far, so communication didn’t even require anti-eavesdropping props.
On the way, Ying Yu revealed the decoded character: “Yún.”
He also reminded the others that the ancient book could not be taken out, and a decryption side quest was required for each use.
“Li Yún,” Zhou Qi’an memorized the name.
Unsure which member of the Whalers’ Association the other party was, he naturally wouldn’t use the Death Curse Bone directly.
To catch the thief, first catch the king. The prop had to be used at the most critical moment.
Red HOOD said hatefully, “From now on, we kill any Whalers’ Association member on sight.”
Her words were laced with a strong personal grudge, but no one refuted it.
Using the Death Curse Bone to eliminate or severely injure the leader of the Whalers’ Association would maximize their benefits.
There were now about a dozen related relics, but the number of times they could update relic information was very limited. They had to reduce the number of other association members as much as possible, killing them off until only a few remained, in order to shorten the process of identifying the target.
On the other hand, players needed to view four relics to gain purchasing qualifications.
In their confrontation with the Whalers’ Association, they were also viewing relics, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.
As they were about to reach Silent Town, Zhou Qi’an’s gaze hardened slightly. “Everyone be careful tonight.”
The town’s residents were basically transformed from relics. Who knew what other dangers awaited them at night.
Just as Zhou Qi’an was about to step into the town, the crows in the trees let out a series of shrill caws. Behind him, the sheep-headed man’s sinister voice suddenly came, “Wait.”
It appeared out of nowhere. Near Silent Town, it became taciturn again.
The sheep-headed man walked in front of Zhou Qi’an, leading the way again. It’s unknown if it was related to discovering the fake Dragon-Drinking Saber in the museum, but the sheep-headed man had changed his lodging.
Zhou Qi’an was led to the home of a smiling, beautiful young woman.
He stared at the young woman for a couple of extra seconds, mainly suspecting that she might be a member of the Whalers’ Association.
Otherwise, why would the sheep-headed man specifically lead him here?
The young woman had a beautiful smile. She was about to smile again when she met Shen Zhiyi’s eyes unexpectedly and somehow couldn’t bring herself to smile anymore.
“Come,” her eyes flirted as she invited Zhou Qi’an into the house.
There was no choice in lodging. Forcibly changing it could trigger a death rule. Amidst his teammates’ sympathetic gazes, Zhou Qi’an entered the courtyard with her.
With a clang of the courtyard gate, the sun set completely.
Under the night sky, the young woman playfully made a heart shape with her hands above her head, leaving behind a meaningful smile before entering the room on the right.
Zhou Qi’an frowned slightly.
Usually, when facing teammates who wanted to backstab him, he would make this gesture.
An NPC wouldn’t coincidentally make such an out-of-character gesture… Was it a clumsy attempt to hide something? Or was she really an association member?
A thousand thoughts ultimately turned into three words: Whatever.
There were two rooms in total, so Zhou Qi’an could only go to the one on the left.
The small courtyard was extremely quiet. According to last night’s process, after midnight, these relics would actively cause trouble. As for whether to accept the challenges they brought, players had a certain degree of choice.
There were still a few hours until midnight. Zhou Qi’an lay on the bed, closing his eyes to rest.
He didn’t dare to let his guard down for a moment. The Holy Relic was always kept by his side.
Time flowed quietly in the night. After experiencing several battles during the day, now that he was resting for a moment, the muscle soreness and fatigue all came flooding in with a delayed rush. Zhou Qi’an’s bright red wedding robe had completely turned into ordinary paper, crumbling into ash-like fragments with his occasional turns.
After an unknown amount of time, a slight dizziness replaced the fatigue.
Zhou Qi’an’s vigilance was high, and he immediately tried to get up.
However, his head was dizzy and heavy, and it took him a few seconds to barely sit up. His eyes blinked, stimulated by a special light.
Gripping the Holy Relic, Zhou Qi’an looked towards the door.
Outside the thin paper window, a red light had gathered at some unknown time.
Perhaps because it was through a layer of paper, the red light was indistinct. Soon, the layer of paper could no longer filter it, and the red light became more intense. Zhou Qi’an subconsciously thought of the Whalers’ Association.
Before He Yang and the slender woman pulled him into the relic world, a similar red light had appeared.
Under the radiation of the red light, a person’s movements would slow down for a second or two.
“Is the Whalers’ Association attacking?” Zhou Qi’an weighed this possibility in his mind.
They had lost several members during the day, so it was normal for them to come for revenge at night. Plus, there was the young woman’s strange behavior earlier. She might have chosen to strike directly.
However, upon closer inspection, the color of this red light was somewhat different from his memory, a bit ethereal.
Being trapped in a limited-sized room would only make the situation more and more disadvantageous.
As the red light grew thicker, footsteps approached. The thing outside seemed to be getting closer.
The NPC doors in the small town could be kicked open with one foot.
Zhou Qi’an decided to proactively walk towards the door.
As his feet touched the ground, it felt as if the familiar sense of weightlessness would come in the next moment, and he would be pulled somewhere.
Zhou Qi’an gritted his teeth against the discomfort and quickly walked to the door.
Clack.
Before he could open the door, it opened first.
Instantly, faint laughter entered his ears. The blood moon in the sky was redder than before. At this moment, the moonlight poured down like water, and the entire courtyard, including the house, was submerged.
Zhou Qi’an had no time to resist at all. After a strong sense of suffocation, the scene between heaven and earth suddenly became blurry.
The red moon, the courtyard… all disappeared.
Only the laughter remained, but it was not the young woman’s laughter. The voice was much lower, becoming childlike and innocent… it was a child speaking!
“Hahaha, this is fun, I want to buy this toy!”
The parent holding the child’s hand was also easygoing. “Okay, then let’s buy it.”
They walked past Zhou Qi’an, talking and laughing.
Zhou Qi’an took two seconds to react, belatedly realizing he was standing on an unfamiliar street.
The commercial street was bustling. The road outside the guardrail was full of traffic, and the street was crowded with people. Today seemed to be some kind of festival. There were young couples everywhere, many holding fragrant flowers.
Zhou Qi’an also had something in his arms. He was holding a sparkling Holy Relic.
But the passing pedestrians seemed not to see it, still going their own ways.
“Am I… pulled into a relic world?”
Zhou Qi’an’s confusion deepened. The prelude this time is a bit long.
Until now, his dizziness had not completely disappeared. This dizzy feeling made it impossible for him to concentrate. His already somewhat problematic brain was also accompanied by intermittent stabbing pain.
The scenes within a relic world were bizarre. In this strange scene, Zhou Qi’an did not immediately put away the Holy Relic, still holding it in his arms.
Anyway, the people on the street acted as if they couldn’t see him.
Finally, he completely gave up on managing his image, summoning the white silk sash as well, going for a fully armed look.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes.
Nothing happened.
Only fallen leaves swirled around his feet, creating a strange sense of being detached from the world.
