The Hand of Confession – Chapter 78

Volume 3: Days of Working at the Manor

Give Up

Their body parts were scattered in chaos…

“Anyway, being totally confused works just fine.”

Shen Maomao touched the big bump on her head, feeling that her inability to understand these stakes must be because she’d just gotten stupid from the knock.

“Looks like I was wrong before,” Lou Jingmo was still explaining like a teacher, “The game’s main storyline is the manor plot, while the outside world and plague are just side quests.”

“Let’s go,” she called to Golden Retriever, “Back to the manor, this card isn’t meant for us.”

Shen Maomao: “Huh? You’re letting a card that’s within reach slip away?”

Lou Jingmo sneered: “If I was alone, I’d definitely just go grab it.”

The oil bottle dragger (referring to someone who’s a burden or hindrance) Shen Maomao silently lowered her head.

Golden Retriever got on the carriage, playing his role as the driver well. The horse hooves clip-clopped, carrying them toward the dragon’s pond and tiger’s den.

Lou Jingmo, unusually kind, explained: “Cards are harder to get than props, usually only obtainable on the sixth or even seventh day of the game. All game instances have two mechanisms: one is that the ghosts’ powers increase a bit each day, but they must kill according to rules; two is that on the seventh day, or when someone finds the exit, they become unprecedentedly powerful and can kill without rules.”

Shen Maomao nodded. This point had been explained by Lou Jingmo when they first entered the game.

Lou Jingmo continued: “Now this instance has a bug in its progress due to that Shang Zhou, creating a program loophole that caused the ghosts’ abilities to prematurely evolve to seventh-day status, yet they still have to follow those two mechanisms.”

First, abilities get stronger daily but must follow rules; second, powers double on day seven or after finding the exit, allowing unrestricted killing.

Now the castle’s ghosts’ abilities and numbers have already doubled, and will double again after finding the exit. If they want to get this card, they’d have to wait three or four days in the game. During these days, they’d have to face super-powered ghosts in berserk killing mode and survive their siege.

“Talk about double trouble,” Shen Maomao chose death.

Lou Jingmo: “Right, it’s not worth it, no need.”

Those mere eight words laid out their upcoming itinerary crystal clear.

As they neared the manor, Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo buried themselves in the haystack, listening as Golden Retriever negotiated with the guards for ages before finally being allowed through.

After traveling quite a distance, the two emerged from the hay pile, and Shen Maomao reached up to pluck a piece of straw from Lou Jingmo’s head.

It was now two in the afternoon, and the manor’s servants had already started setting up for the ball.

The Baron hadn’t shown his face, and the four young ladies hadn’t appeared either.

As they approached the stables, Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo jumped off early, letting Golden Retriever go in alone.

Golden Retriever trembled: “I don’t dare…”

Shen Maomao, imitating how Lou Jingmo treated her, gave Golden Retriever a kick in the behind: “Get going, didn’t you hear what Sister Lou said? Your duplicate will follow your tracks from yesterday, he’s still at the farm right now.”

Golden Retriever, clutching his behind, kept looking back every few steps as he led the little red horse inside.

Within three minutes, he came running back howling, with the little red horse following behind. Reaching the two women, he said tearfully: “Inside… there are so many corpses inside!”

Lou Jingmo’s brows furrowed: “What corpses?” She started moving toward the entrance.

Golden Retriever, face pale as paper, blocked her with his arm: “Don’t look, it’s like a massive dismemberment scene in there. I don’t even know what kind of bodies they are. I just glanced, but there are horses, and I think there are people too.”

Shen Maomao immediately withdrew her advancing foot. She hadn’t felt anything before Golden Retriever mentioned it, but after hearing his description, she suddenly felt uncomfortable all over. Even though the smell of blood hadn’t reached them yet, she couldn’t help covering her nose, saying in a muffled voice: “Should we go in and look?”

Lou Jingmo asked curiously: “You’re not scared?”

Shen Maomao had already closed her eyes, her legs slightly trembling: “Well… don’t we have to get used to it?”

“Let’s go.” This was her own decision, and Lou Jingmo didn’t try to persuade her either way, just took her hand and led her inside.

Golden Retriever shamefully chickened out: “Um… I’ll stay out here, I’ve already seen it once…”

The two didn’t force him to follow, just reminded him to be careful, then went in hand in hand (mainly because Shen Maomao was so scared she refused to let go of Lou Jingmo).

The horses in the outer ring were still alive, leisurely munching on grass in their stalls, seemingly oblivious to the bloody stench emanating from deep within the stable.

Going further in revealed a scene of human purgatory – large chunks of corpses scattered in every corner, making it impossible to distinguish at a glance which pieces were horse and which were human.

Shen Maomao instantly shut her eyes and covered her nose and mouth with her free hand.

Lou Jingmo had already stepped forward to examine the large blood splatters on the wall.

These blood stains were scattered and seemed random at first glance. Shen Maomao didn’t understand why she was examining them so carefully, but she trusted that Lou Jingmo never did anything pointless, so she gathered her courage to observe together.

Her eyes met crimson red, and she tried her best to keep her gaze on the wall stains rather than looking down, asking Lou Jingmo: “What do you see? Are the blood stains pointing to the real culprit?”

These ghost-like scribbles obviously couldn’t indicate who the culprit was – she was just trying to joke with Lou Jingmo to ease the tension. But Lou Jingmo didn’t play along, instead squatting down with a grave expression and picking up a stone to start tracing on the wall.

Since the wall was made purely of earth, she could easily leave marks on it.

One line, two lines, three lines…

The seemingly meaningless line segments gradually came together to form a new shape.

— It was an imperfect hexagram. (Refers to a six-pointed star or Star of David)

Lou Jingmo stopped drawing just in time, not completing the pattern. She threw away the stone, stepped back two paces avoiding the corpses and blood, took in the whole picture, and curled her lip in disdain.

Shen Maomao was already stunned: “In this kind of environment… a hexagram should be equivalent to a demon, right? Is someone trying to summon a demon?”

Lou Jingmo sneered: “Crooked ways.”

Shen Maomao stared at the unfinished line of the pattern, hesitating: “Sister Lou… it seems to be moving… is this okay?”

“Hell no, it’s not okay!” Lou Jingmo grabbed her arm and ran towards the exit. Just as they escaped, the final stroke automatically completed itself, and a red light burst from the stable, flooding Shen Maomao’s vision with crimson.

She couldn’t see the path, could only be pulled along as they ran, but strangely, she wasn’t too panicked.

Lou Jingmo had this magical charm about her. Whenever by her side, Shen Maomao would feel an inexplicable sense of security, along with the courage to brave any difficulty with her.

She was led out of the red light like this. Outside the stable, Golden Retriever hadn’t dared to rush in, but the worry on his face was genuine. Upon seeing the two, he rushed up asking: “How was it? What happened inside?”

Shen Maomao opened her eyes: “Someone’s summoning a demon!”

Golden Retriever’s eyes widened: “Shouldn’t we run then?”

Lou Jingmo: “No need.”

Just as she finished speaking, the red light in the stable suddenly vanished. Then, two people walked out from the stable.

Shen Maomao silently moved closer to Lou Jingmo: “Holy crap, who are they??”

When they had gone in earlier, everyone inside was dead, with only two horses left alive. Perhaps thinking outside the box – those two horses… had they become spirits?

While she was lost in wild thoughts, the two people had walked up close. Shen Maomao could now see their clothes, which were similar to what Golden Retriever was wearing.

These two were actually stable hands? But hadn’t the stable hands been chopped to pieces?

Lou Jingmo turned her head slightly, whispering near her ear: “Don’t be afraid, their body parts are mixed up…”

Shen Maomao: “!!”

Holy crap!

If Lou Jingmo hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t have noticed, but now she couldn’t help but look at the two men’s arms and legs, and indeed found some very unsettling details.

These two “bros” – one had two left hands, the other had two right hands, and to make their arms fit against their bodies, one hand on each of them had the pinky finger in front and thumb in back.

Spine-chilling. (literally means “hair and bones terrified”)

Shen Maomao couldn’t think of any other words to describe it. Seems like last night when they returned, those oddly-looking horses in the stable had been dismembered and reassembled…

She suppressed her urge to shiver, gripped Lou Jingmo’s arm tightly, and stiffly allowed the two men to approach them.

Left-hand Bro said: “Who are you people? Unauthorized personnel are forbidden near the stable.”

Right-hand Bro said: “If you frighten the Baron’s horses, you’ll pay dearly!”

The two women pushed forward Golden Retriever who was holding the little red horse. Shen Maomao: “We’re his friends, he’s returning the horse.”

Golden Retriever: “QAQ Y-yes, I-I-I-I-I’m returning the horse…”

Left-hand Bro yanked the reins, saying: “Fine, it’s returned, now get out of here quickly.”

Golden Retriever felt like he’d been granted amnesty, immediately looking to Lou Jingmo: “Should we leave then?”

Lou Jingmo nodded: “Let’s go.”

The three turned around, leaving their backs to the two stable hands, walking away with their hearts pounding.

Until they could no longer see the stable’s roof, Shen Maomao’s tense body finally collapsed: “That was too intense! Why did he just let us leave like that?”

Lou Jingmo said coolly: “The star formation wasn’t completely finished, they were afraid we’d disrupt it.”

Golden Retriever asked: “Where are we going next, Sister Lou?”

Lou Jingmo: “Wait for that Shang Zhou to clear the level.”

Golden Retriever: “…Are we really being this unambitious?”

Lou Jingmo: “What’s the point of being ambitious? Surviving is the most important thing. When survival is possible, of course it’s better not to take action if we don’t have to.”

It made so much sense that they were left speechless.

Shen Maomao’s eyes rolled around once, and she bit her lip, choosing to keep her questions buried in her heart.

Ever since seeing that locked door yesterday, Sister Lou’s attitude had become so passive…

The change wasn’t very obvious, but she had noticed it carefully.

What exactly was behind that door?

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The author has something to say:

It’s not that complicated! It’s just that the instance’s plot has been completed, the following storyline has lost momentum, and it’s starting to repeat previous plots. And because players won’t act according to the original path, duplicates have appeared!

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