Escape from the Thriller World – Chapter 11
by Little PandaVolume One: The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village
Danger Approaches
The storyline has changed again!
They had all fallen under the spell of the paper doll’s nursery rhyme.
Ning Lan knew they were possessed, and she trembled as she reached into her backpack on the sofa to take out her earphones.
Ghosts are affected by electromagnetic waves, and the nursery rhyme sung by the paper doll had influenced their minds, making them follow the paper doll like zombies.
After putting on her earphones, Ning Lan felt her ears much clearer, and randomly played some instrumental music. She then ran to the kitchen to fill a washbasin with water.
Water! Now only water might save her! (Reference to water as a purifying element in Chinese folklore)
Ning Lan ran up the stairs carrying the basin of water with both hands, following their direction.
The paper doll walked in front, like a military commander, turning those behind it into mere puppets!
Ning Lan noticed the paper doll seemed to be deliberately leading them to the 23rd floor rooftop, which was the forbidden zone of the Tong Lau!
When Ning Lan caught up to them from behind, she splashed the water from the basin onto Shen Qingyou from the side.
Shen Qingyou suddenly shuddered, as the bone-chilling coldness penetrated her entire body, feeling the wetness on her face.
Ning Lan shouted: “Shen Qingyou, wake up, don’t let the ghost take you up there!”
After being splashed in the face by Ning Lan, Shen Qingyou finally came to her senses and backed down from the stairs!
The paper doll stopped, and Ning Lan made a “shush” gesture telling her to stay quiet, and both of them hid around the corner of the 20th floor.
They held their breath and dared not make a sound. The paper doll in front sensed something was wrong and paused at the stairway entrance.
The paper doll’s head moved, turning from front to back, its mouth opening and closing, making “hee-hee-hee” sounds.
Just as the paper doll was about to attack Watanabe Keiko from behind, her body suddenly burst with a “boom,” emitting a yellow light (yellow light in Chinese folklore represents divine protection).
The paper doll’s eyes were blinded by the yellow light, and green fluid poured from its eyes, a truly sickening sight (green fluid commonly represents evil essence in Chinese supernatural stories).
Watanabe Keiko shook her head, and her consciousness immediately returned.
She looked around to find herself on the stairs of the 21st floor, having fallen for the paper doll’s trick!
Watanabe Keiko kicked off the paper doll’s head – the life-saving talisman she had exchanged at the shop had worked.
The paper doll’s head was fragile and was kicked by Watanabe Keiko to the edge of the stairs.
The paper doll’s body twitched several times, its eyeballs still spinning continuously!
【The life-saving talisman breaks the ghost’s threat at the crucial moment】
【Life-saving talisman skill cooldown: 10 minutes】
The talismans they exchanged at the mall could be stacked, but there was a bug with the cooldown time.
Watanabe Keiko knew she only had ten minutes to escape. She looked back and saw Xie Wu had also recovered – he too had used a life-saving talisman.
Xie Wu didn’t wait for Watanabe Keiko and immediately ran away.
After they left, the paper doll’s head slowly slid back to its body, automatically reconnecting itself…
“Smack, smack… Mama” it began chanting the nursery rhyme again!
The two had used their only life-saving talismans here. Without much thought, Watanabe Keiko also ran down the stairs.
Leave! Must leave this place!
At this moment, the two found themselves on the same side again, with Xie Wu in front and Watanabe Keiko behind.
When they ran back to the 10th floor, they met a patrolling security guard. Upon seeing actual living people, Watanabe Keiko said breathlessly: “Upstairs, there’s something unclean upstairs.” (Chinese euphemism for supernatural entities)
Several security guards pointed their flashlights upstairs, but saw nothing.
“Are you sure you didn’t see wrong? What’s upstairs?” the security guard asked, puzzled.
Xie Wu also felt confused – the paper doll was clearly on the 21st floor, but suddenly disappeared…
Five minutes later.
Ning Lan and Shen Qingyou, who were hiding on the 20th floor, heard the commotion on the 21st floor stop, and only then did they hurriedly continue downstairs.
“Let’s go! Don’t just stand there!” Ning Lan spoke up.
Shen Qingyou nodded and followed Ning Lan’s footsteps down the stairs.
Just then, Xu Sanduo, who was patrolling the building, shone his flashlight at them and said: “What’s going on with you all? Have you forgotten the Tong Lau’s rules? I heard noises up here and came to check.”
Xu Sanduo was patrolling upstairs alone when he encountered them, noticing their panicked expressions.
Shen Qingyou pointed behind Xu Sanduo and shouted: “Run!”
The Ah Gong who had collapsed on the 18th floor had somehow stood up – his corpse had undergone a corpse transformation!
Ah Gong’s face showed clear light-brown postmortem lividity, definitely a sign of corpse transformation!
This type of change occurs when a corpse becomes rigid after sensing the presence of living people (traditional Chinese zombie lore). Based on initial assessment, Ah Gong’s time of death couldn’t have been more than five hours ago, probably within three hours.
The timing matched – she had encountered him at 6 PM.
He was no longer that Ah Gong, but a jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire/zombie).
Sweat dripped from Xu Sanduo’s forehead onto his flashlight, his back turning cold as he felt some liquid flowing on his shoulder.
Xu Sanduo was only 1.6 meters tall, while Ah Gong was 1.75 meters tall. The pus dripping from his mouth fell right onto Xu Sanduo’s shoulder!
Still terrified, Xu Sanduo threw away his flashlight and ran, with all five people frantically fleeing between floors.
Ning Lan and the others could only choose to escape back to the 18th floor, where the door was still open, and they hid inside.
Xu Sanduo, running last, slammed the door shut and finally caught his breath.
He shouted “Mama mia, scared me to death!”, and collapsed sitting against the door.
It was precisely his words that attracted the jiangshi. “Ah Gong’s” footsteps grew clearer, and Ning Lan looked through the peephole in the door to see him coming in their direction.
“Don’t breathe, don’t let him detect us!” Ning Lan covered her mouth while warning them (traditional Chinese belief that jiangshi detect living beings through their breath).
Shen Qingyou and Xu Sanduo nodded, not daring to make a sound.
After the jiangshi had passed, Xu Sanduo carefully opened a crack in the door to peek out.
He said to them: “The Tong Lau isn’t safe with a jiangshi around. I’ll report this to Master Wei Jinye, and tomorrow we’ll invite a Taoist priest!”
The Tong Lau had been haunted for quite some time, but today he had witnessed it firsthand!
Just as Xu Sanduo finished speaking, Xiao Ming’s voice rang out from beyond the door: “The Sanqing Priest is here, you jiangshi surrender at once!” (Sanqing refers to the three highest deities in Taoism)
Xiao Ming wore a Taoist yellow robe and a black cap (traditional Taoist priest attire), holding a black donkey hoof which he thrust into Ah Gong’s mouth, paralyzing the jiangshi (donkey hoofs are traditional Taoist tools for controlling undead).
Ah Gong’s eyes rolled back, his body completely frozen, limbs straight and rigid, extending forward stiffly.
Xu Sanduo trembled in fear and knelt down, kowtowing to Xiao Ming: “Sanqing Priest, please save us!”
Xiao Ming had unlocked the Yin-Yang Eyes ability and a Celestial Master identity in this instance.
Perhaps his appearance was meant to advance their storyline?
Xiao Ming had waited several days at his paper offering shop without news of them retrieving the bronze mirror, so he grew anxious and decided to take action himself.
These past few days, Xiao Ming had performed several divinations at his paper offering shop, revealing that they were meant to help resolve a female ghost’s issues, and needed his intervention.
Sanqing Priest Xiao Ming pointed toward Ah Gong’s home on the 18th floor, joining two fingers together: “The evil spirit is in that room, open it immediately!”
Xu Sanduo nodded and said: “I’ll go get the spare key right away!”
Building residents had one key, and the security office had a set of spare keys.
While Xu Sanduo went down to get the spare key, Xiao Ming told them: “I waited for you at the paper offering shop until the flowers nearly wilted. I divined a hexagram showing you were in danger, so I rushed here!”
Ning Lan made a fist-and-palm salute to Xiao Ming: “Our night operation was interrupted by that ‘it’, we were just about to enter Ah Gong’s apartment.”
“I’ll explain everything in detail after this is over,” Xiao Ming said, taking a talisman from his robe and sticking it on the jiangshi’s forehead.
Xu Sanduo ran back up to the 18th floor with a ring of keys, while Ning Lan helped him by providing light as he searched for the 18th floor key.
After fumbling with the keys for a while, Xu Sanduo finally found the key to Ah Gong’s apartment, marked with “18-3.”
Xu Sanduo inserted the key and turned it gently, opening the door with ease.
A strong smell of alcohol wafted from the room, with two bottles of Red Star Erguotou carelessly thrown beside the table, and a plate with a few scattered peanuts remaining.
Ning Lan stood at the edge of the living room and turned on the light, instantly illuminating the room.
“He must have drunk quite a bit. Seems he was attacked by that ghost while at home,” Xiao Ming analyzed.
Xu Sanduo anxiously said: “Sanqing Master, please quickly find where that evil entity is!”
Xiao Ming solemnly searched through Ah Gong’s home, turning everything upside down but couldn’t find the bronze mirror.
Xiao Ming shook his head: “The evil entity has already escaped.”
After Xu Sanduo saw Xiao Ming off, Xiao Ming said one last thing to them before leaving: “I have an uneasy feeling that the bronze mirror might have fallen into the ghost’s hands. You must find a way to get it back!”
“We’re just ordinary people, how can we retrieve a mirror from a ghost?” Ning Lan asked.
Xiao Ming shook his head: “No, where there’s a will, there’s a way!”
【Story Unlock Progress: 22%】
The storyline has changed again!
【Game System Notice】
【Quest: Find the Lost Bronze Mirror】
【Survival Side Quest: 4 People Remaining】
The bronze mirror wasn’t as easy to find as they had imagined – so where exactly was it?
The quest indicated that 4 people must survive; they needed to keep the other two alive to complete the side mission.
“We can’t eliminate Watanabe Keiko yet, we must wait until the scenario ends,” Shen Qingyou sighed.
The blood of a National Security agent flowed through Shen Qingyou’s veins, and she vowed to personally kill Watanabe Keiko for her country.
Ning Lan said: “No rush, she might not even be able to enter Huangshan Village.”
The night passed, and none of them dared to sleep, worried that the ghost would return with a vengeance.
Ning Lan, with dark circles under her eyes, couldn’t hold out and dozed off on the sofa.
When daybreak came, Ning Lan rolled over and fell off the sofa, clutching her face in pain.
Shen Qingyou sat on the sofa and chuckled: “Were you analyzing ghosts even in your dreams?”
Ning Lan got up and said: “No, I was thinking about where our breakthrough point is now. Without Xiao Ming, we can’t enter Huangshan Village, and we still need to find that bronze mirror.”
“Master Wei Jinye is our breakthrough point. If he won’t tell us, why don’t we find a way to make him volunteer the information?” Shen Qingyou said with determination in her eyes.
Ning Lan asked: “Ice Block Shen, you have an idea?”
Shen Qingyou nodded: “The residents are all moving out of the Tong Lau. Let’s add fuel to the fire and make Master Wei Jinye, who’s usually unmovable as thunder, understand the gravity of the situation.”
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