Escape from the Thriller World – Chapter 4
by Little PandaVolume One: The Old Corpse in the Mountain Village
Pawnshop No. 8
She didn’t mind sacrificing Watanabe Keiko to the “ghost”.
Tonight that “ghost” won’t come for now, as Pawnshop No. 8 is set up in the game as a void two-dimensional space, making the “ghost” unable to see its existence.
The death watch vibrated once again.
【Story Exploration Progress: 15%】
【Obtained one Escape Talisman】
Ning Lan spent 200 points to exchange for an Escape Talisman, and then the newcomer’s gift package popped up, specially prepared by the game’s “Controller” for new players.
【Ning Lan — Novice Player】
【Obtained — Newcomer’s Body Refinement Package】
【Constitution +10】
【Strength +10】
【Agility +10】
Game players keep each other in check (refers to a system of checks and balances), they improve themselves by earning points through completing tasks, with higher difficulty instances (dungeons) offering richer rewards upon completion.
The newcomer’s gift package was just the beginning.
The bartender NPC smiled while wiping a glass: “After drinking, everyone will be able to better merge with their bodies.”
Ning Lan wanted to learn more information from this NPC, but unfortunately, he was just an NPC programmed to serve them.
Ning Lan stretched her body, feeling light as a swallow, her muscles and bones expanded, filled with strength.
Analyzing the situation now, four people were just eliminated, and now the real game begins.
Ning Lan took out a notebook from her backpack, it was her small notebook for recording daily materials, where she could immediately record any bursts of inspiration.
She found a quiet spot in Pawnshop No. 8, sat down quietly on a vine-covered chair, and began sketching quick portraits of these three people in her notebook.
Although Ning Lan is a novelist, she can also draw.
Ning Lan attended intensive art training classes in high school, missing admission to Sichuan Fine Arts Institute by 10 points, and regrettably ended up attending an ordinary second-tier university.
Discouraged, Ning Lan couldn’t attend her dream school Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, so she chose to major in graphic design.
These past few years, Ning Lan has been struggling to make a living in Chongqing, working at various advertising companies, mostly designing simple posters, trifolds, and promotional materials.
Tired of the office politics, she switched careers to writing novels, as at least writing novels allowed her to work undisturbed.
With her slender fingers holding a 4B pencil, she spent just a few minutes sketching out the outlines of the three people.
She analyzed each person, but put a question mark next to Shen Qingyou’s identity in her pencil drawings.
Ning Lan was suspicious of Shen Qingyou’s identity, wondering how she knew that Ning Lan was a novelist.
Which part had gone wrong, allowing Shen Qingyou to learn of her identity?
While Ning Lan was hesitating, the death watch moved again.
The death watch issued the latest mission:
Tomorrow at 12 o’clock, go to Dongfa Dessert Shop at 88 Dingxiang Street, Hong Kong, to find Xiao Ming.
Xiao Ming is a key trigger character in 《The Wicked Ghost》.
According to the plot of 《The Wicked Ghost》, shouldn’t this Xiao Ming appear after the protagonist’s girlfriend’s incident?
Now the sequence of events seems to have changed, and the plot is different?
First: None of them could possibly have yin-yang eyes (ruled out) (supernatural ability to see spirits)
Second: Starting with 8 people, now back to 4 people at the original point.
Third: Movie ≠ Game instance.
The moment they left the tenement building, the game’s plot had already changed direction. To put it another way, every step they take in the plot will cause subtle changes in the story’s direction.
The other three people had already gone upstairs to rest in their rooms, while only Ning Lan remained tirelessly analyzing the entire logical chain.
While Ning Lan was reviewing the details of the tenement building, a scream came from the second-floor rooms of Pawnshop No. 8’s attic.
Xie Wu was the first to be awakened by the woman’s scream; he rushed out with just a white towel wrapped around his waist to inquire.
Watanabe Keiko ran out from her room, hastily grabbing a cloak and wrapping herself up like a French baguette.
Her wet hair was dripping with water, her lips trembling, her heart pounding wildly.
The uncontrollable heartbeat almost left Watanabe Keiko breathless, and Xie Wu kindheartedly helped steady her.
As a father with a daughter, when Xie Wu saw the young and beautiful Watanabe Keiko, he was reminded of his daughter who was in university.
His daughter was still waiting for him to send living expenses; thinking of this, he became more determined to find a way to escape this wretched place.
He felt she somewhat resembled his daughter.
“Miss Watanabe Keiko, are you alright?” Xie Wu asked.
Watanabe Keiko shook her head and bit her lip, saying: “N-no… I’m fine.”
Her pupils shifted slightly, her micro-expressions revealing her inner anxiety.
Among the three, only the mysteriously identified Miss Shen Qingyou remained unmoved, her room door tightly shut.
Ning Lan’s pencil paused on the notebook, her gaze turning toward the second floor, and she marked a dot in her notebook.
Watanabe Keiko hurriedly came down the stairs and sat on the leather sofa, clutching her hair, just wanting to escape the second floor.
Ning Lan asked the bartender NPC for a glass of warm water. The NPC mechanically poured water for Ning Lan, just a wooden NPC set by the game system.
She handed it to Watanabe Keiko saying: “Drink some water, don’t panic.”
Trembling all over, she cried: “I… while taking a bath… saw bloody water.”
Watanabe Keiko stammered as she recalled.
Half an hour ago.
Watanabe Keiko took the room key from the NPC and went up to the second-floor room, feeling exhausted all over, so she decided to take a hot bath.
The bartender NPC had told them there would be no “ghosts” here, so Watanabe Keiko let her guard down, undressed, and entered the bathroom.
The warm lighting helped her feel somewhat relaxed.
Initially, she turned on the shower head and was washing normally, but halfway through, when she was about to apply more body wash, she looked down to see bloody water mixed with soapy bathwater slowly seeping into the overflow drain.
The bloody water soaked her feet, and in a daze, she saw that woman’s face again, beckoning to her from the pool of water: “Come here, come here.”
Her mind buzzed as she thought of the “ghost” from the tenement building, and Watanabe Keiko fled from the bathroom with her scalp tingling.
Watanabe Keiko held the warm water with both hands, trembling as she recounted everything that had just happened, still not recovered from her terror.
“Take a moment to calm down, let’s go up and check,” Ning Lan said.
Ning Lan put her notebook in her backpack and called Xie Wu to go with her to check the situation in that room.
Xie Wu, being a grown man with more courage than them, walked in front and pushed open the door.
The door was open since Watanabe Keiko had rushed out earlier.
Ning Lan followed closely behind into the room, but in the bathroom, there was only a puddle of water, with no blood as Watanabe Keiko had described.
Xie Wu thoughtfully said: “Miss Watanabe Keiko must be under too much pressure, this is clearly just bathwater.”
Ning Lan glanced at a bottle of melatonin on Watanabe Keiko’s table, picked up the medicine and said: “It might be related to this medicine. I saw her take it out of her bag earlier and drink it with alcohol downstairs.”
Ning Lan recalled Watanabe Keiko from an hour ago, holding a wine glass and greeting her, with one detail being that she took out a bottle of medicine from her bag.
“Melatonin is just a sleep aid, could it have caused some kind of hallucination?” Xie Wu asked puzzledly.
“It’s not because of the medicine, but because she triggered the game’s setting, which induced the hallucination,” Ning Lan continued.
In the original 《The Wicked Ghost》, they all experienced hallucinations of seeing “ghosts” after drinking bloody water.
This hallucination setting is likely related to contact with “water” substances, causing a chain reaction.
Did Watanabe Keiko drinking alcohol plus her melatonin intake trigger a butterfly effect?
“That makes sense, but I wonder if it’s connected to this two-dimensional space,” Xie Wu casually interjected.
Ning Lan thought for a moment and said: “Anyway, let’s first make sure Watanabe Keiko stays away from the melatonin.”
If her hypothesis was correct, then it was related to the butterfly effect.
Shen Qingyou in room 223 on the second floor was awakened by their voices. Wearing Totoro pajamas, she rubbed her head and said to them: “Can’t you let me sleep in peace? If the ghost doesn’t kill us, you’ll drain us to death with your mental exhaustion first.”
“Miss Shen, I’m truly sorry. It’s my fault for being too sensitive, nothing happened,” Watanabe Keiko said apologetically.
Shen Qingyou, clearly dissatisfied with Watanabe Keiko, said: “At least you’re self-aware, take care of yourself.”
There was prejudice in Shen Qingyou’s words toward this Japanese woman; her intuition told her that Watanabe Keiko wasn’t as simple as she appeared.
Hostility had somehow developed between the two women.
Ning Lan went downstairs to the vine chair to get her backpack. The notebook shook slightly, the backpack zipper slightly open. She quietly zipped it up and put the notebook back.
Someone had touched her notebook – but who?
Ning Lan walked straight to room 222 on the second floor, glancing at Watanabe Keiko – could it have been her?
When Xie Wu and Ning Lan went upstairs to check the room, Watanabe Keiko was left downstairs, and Shen Qingyou only appeared fifteen minutes later.
Excluding Xie Wu and Shen Qingyou, there wasn’t enough time to search her backpack – it was too rushed.
For Watanabe Keiko to so boldly search her backpack, her motives must be complex.
Ning Lan didn’t expose Watanabe Keiko’s actions publicly, wanting to see what else she might do next.
She didn’t mind sacrificing Watanabe Keiko to the “ghost” first.
Ning Lan was no saint; she wouldn’t let anyone become her ally, because she was an ordinary person tempered by society (life experiences that shape one’s character), her kindness had long been worn away.
Ning Lan swiped her room card and entered the room, placing her backpack on the chair. She took out her phone to check the time – it was exactly 12 o’clock.
Exhausted, Ning Lan changed into her pajamas after washing up. She opened the laptop from her backpack only to find there was no signal here; they were completely cut off from the outside world.
Her laptop was nothing but scrap metal in this game world.
Ning Lan sighed and said: “I wonder how Mom and Dad are dealing with not being able to find me.”
With the high-speed train accident in the tunnel, her parents probably wouldn’t even be able to find her remains, or perhaps they thought she was dead?
Ning Lan lay back on the soft bed with her arms propped up, looked at the ceiling and said: “I should focus on how to clear this game instance and return to reality.”
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