Chapter 62

Dawn broke.
The thin curtains still allowed sunlight to filter through, illuminating the room with brightness.
Inside, two girls occupied the larger bed; even in their sleep, their brows were furrowed, revealing the unease deep within their hearts.
On the other single bed, Gu Yi'an's eyelashes fluttered.
She was about to wake up.
Beside the pillow, a miniature notebook sensed this.
Its originally smooth, unblemished cover suddenly bore a deep gash.
The slash cut deep into the notebook's inner pages, nearly splitting it in half, making the notebook look utterly pitiful.
The white sunny doll occupying one corner of the pillow witnessed the notebook's self-inflicted injury.
It chose to turn its back, pretending it had seen nothing.
On the other corner of the pillow, the little girl pushed open the lid of her small coffin.
She had sensed the change in Gu Yi'an's aura and intended to greet her good morning, only to witness this scene.
The little girl silently closed her coffin lid.
She did so without making a sound.
The next second, Gu Yi'an opened her eyes.
She stared at the ceiling for a while.
Freshly awakened, her mind slowly began to function, recalling the events of the previous day.
She had entered a new game.
The beginner's hint in the game was "The Silent One."
The six players had ended up in a room filled with hidden cameras and ghosts.
After collecting evidence of the hidden cameras, they had escaped the hotel.
Now, they were in a new hotel.
A new challenge had arrived, taking down that hotel would be incredibly difficult.
So many murders had occurred there, yet the hotel remained open, indicating that the forces backing it were anything but ordinary.
As Gu Yi'an mulled this over, she pushed aside the covers, intending to get up.
Her gaze unconsciously fell upon the pillow on the bed.
A notebook, nearly split in two, came into Gu Yi'an's view.
The notebook... broken?
"Lu Zize!"
The two girls sleeping nearby jolted awake, looking around in panic before their frantic eyes settled on Gu Yi'an.
Gu Yi'an showed no reaction upon seeing the notebook.
She also realized her voice had woken the other two female players.
"Sorry. Something happened on my end. Go back to sleep."
After apologizing, Gu Yi'an turned her gaze back to the notebook on the pillow.
She wondered, could the notebook be seriously injured? Could damage to the book also harm the ghost residing inside it?
The other two female players in the room could sense the anxiety beneath Gu Yi'an's calm exterior.
They knew something major must have occurred to make this veteran player, who usually remained unruffled even when facing ghosts and death, so visibly disturbed.
The two female players each said it was fine.
Since it was already quite late, they got up anyway.
Gu Yi'an paid no attention to the other players' movements.
She wanted to pick up the miniature notebook to check its injuries but worried she might worsen its condition.
Torn between these concerns, she remained still.
After a few seconds, Gu Yi'an calmed down.
The notebook wouldn’t get injured for no reason, something must have happened during the night.
She glanced at the white sunny doll occupying a corner of the pillow and asked, "Hanged Ghost, what happened tonight?"
Gu Yi'an felt her current train of thought was somewhat off.
Right now, all she could think was that no matter what had occurred, the notebook shouldn’t have been the one injured.
How could the notebook possibly get hurt?
Why hadn’t the Hanged Ghost and the little girl protected the notebook?
They usually feared the notebook so much, addressing it as "Lord," yet they were perfectly fine while the notebook was injured.
In that instant, countless thoughts raced through Gu Yi'an’s mind.
However, when she looked at the Hanged Ghost, she kept all her emotions in check, there was no blame or misplaced anger, only a desire for answers.
The sunny doll blinked, its small black round eyes first turning into horizontal lines before reverting to black dots.
The Hanged Ghost was hesitating.
It was terrified right now.
It was deeply afraid that the Princess would discover the Ghost King was deliberately feigning weakness.
At the moment, the Princess was worried and had overlooked some details, but if she figured it out later, the Ghost King would be in serious trouble.
The Hanged Ghost weighed its options.
If it helped the Ghost King deceive the Princess now, the Ghost King might gain her concern temporarily. But once the Ghost King was exposed, he would suffer greatly.
If it sided with the Princess Consort and exposed the Ghost King's deception, it would solidify its position as her top subordinate.
One was immediate gain, the other was long-term benefit.
The Hanged Ghost had made its choice and was about to speak.
Suddenly, an overwhelmingly powerful aura locked onto it.
The moment the Hanged Ghost sensed that aura, it nearly collapsed under the pressure.
Faced with imminent danger, the Hanged Ghost immediately raised its voice and declared, "Princess Consort, the Lord did this all to protect you."
The Hanged Ghost felt it wasn’t entirely lying.
After all, the Ghost King had indeed been the first to rush out and protect the Princess Consort the night before.
The Hanged Ghost spoke with full confidence.
Protect her?
Gu Yi'an looked at the motionless notebook.
She lowered her gaze.
The Hanged Ghost noticed Gu Yi'an's reaction and put on an exaggerated performance, saying, "Princess Consort, you don’t know this, but after you fell asleep, that acting-obsessed dismembering ghost followed us. It wanted to kill you. Fortunately, Lord Lu noticed it in time. Without hesitation, he used his own body to block that ghost’s attack."
The notebook used its own body to block it?
Gu Yi'an looked at the notebook again.
She hadn’t expected such a scene to unfold during the night.
She knew their escape from that room had been too easy. Logically, the ghosts in that room wouldn’t have let them off so easily.
Now it seemed that was indeed the case, they hadn’t given up. Instead, they waited for them to let their guard down and struck when they were most vulnerable.
Gu Yi'an examined the scars on the notebook again. The slash mark was deep on one end and shallow on the other. Although it hadn’t completely split the notebook in two, it was clear the notebook was ruined.
Gu Yi'an remembered the scene in the hotel room where the young man raised the cleaver.
Based on the length and width of the blade in her memory, as well as the force with which the ghost had swung it, the notebook had suffered greatly this time.
In its current state, the notebook would fall apart if she tried to turn the pages.
Gu Yi'an called out, "Lu Zize."
The notebook gave no response.
The Hanged Ghost raised its voice again, fabricating, "Princess Consort, Lord Lu is severely injured and is recuperating inside the notebook. To protect you, he lost most of his vitality. It’ll be difficult for him to recover."
The oppressive aura that had been weighing down on the Hanged Ghost weakened slightly as it persistently exaggerated the Ghost King’s pitiful state.
By now, the Hanged Ghost understood the notebook’s intention, to emphasize how "miserable" the situation was, so the Princess Consort would show concern.
Hearing the Hanged Ghost say that the notebook might not recover, Gu Yi'an pursed her lips and asked, "It can’t recover?"
The Hanged Ghost froze.
Had it said the Ghost King couldn’t recover?
Crap, it couldn’t even remember its own made-up story.
The Hanged Ghost laughed awkwardly and said, "It can recover. Of course, it can recover. It’s just a matter of time."
Gu Yi'an looked at the notebook’s pitiful state and gently touched its cover with her fingertip.
The nearly detached cover shifted slightly, as if it were about to fall off due to the pressure of her touch.
Gu Yi'an immediately withdrew her hand and asked the Hanged Ghost, "In this condition, how long will it take for it to recover?"
The Hanged Ghost felt the recovery time depended entirely on the notebook’s own whims.
It tentatively suggested, "Five..."
The aura enveloping the Hanged Ghost intensified once more.
"...Ten! Fifty days! Your Highness, Lord Lu was gravely injured this time. You have no idea, that ghost's blade was materialized, capable of striking a person. The sound of it slicing through the air was especially loud, so Lord Lu's injuries are particularly severe. He needs at least fifty days to recover."
The Hanged Ghost fabricated a lie it didn't even believe itself.
It had actually dared to spout such nonsense about needing fifty days to recover.
Trembling with fear, the Hanged Ghost watched Gu Yi'an, terrified she would see through the deception.
What ghost takes that long to recover?
Only if a ghost's form dissipates could it possibly be that slow.
Fortunately, things didn't unfold as it feared.
Upon hearing it would take fifty days, Gu Yi'an breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as he could recover, that was what mattered.
She glanced at the notebook, fell silent for a moment, and then broke the quiet, saying to the Hanged Ghost, "You stay and take care of him later. You don't need to do much, just keep watch over him."
Gu Yi'an still had matters to attend to; she needed to discuss with the other players how to expose the hotel's crimes.
With the notebook in its current state, she couldn't take it with her. Even if she tucked it into her coat pocket, she was afraid it might bump around and fall apart.
Upon hearing this, the Hanged Ghost cautiously glanced at the notebook.
It felt the current situation was likely completely different from what the Ghost King had imagined.
The notebook remained motionless.
Taking that as tacit approval, the Hanged Ghost assured Gu Yi'an, "Your Highness, rest assured, this humble one will take good care of His Lordship."
As long as His Lordship himself didn't stir up any trouble, there would be no issues at all. The Hanged Ghost kept that thought to itself, not daring to voice it aloud.
Gu Yi'an nodded. She looked up at the two female players by the side, they had already finished washing up and were ready. Now it was her turn.
As she stood up, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
She asked the Hanged Ghost, "By the way, what happened to that ghost that tried to kill me? Did it escape?"
According to the Hanged Ghost, it was the young man who had staged the dismemberment scene in the previous hotel room who had tried to kill her.
She was still alive, had that young man survived or escaped?
"Your Highness, no. With His Lordship taking action, how could it possibly escape?"
The Hanged Ghost floated toward the nightstand between the two beds.
Gu Yi'an followed its gaze and saw that, at some point, a transparent glass jar containing a small red sphere had appeared on the nightstand.
The Hanged Ghost said, "Your Highness, look, this is the gift Lord sent you."
Another gift?
Gu Yi'an had developed a certain psychological shadow regarding gifts.
She glanced at the bracelet on her wrist, each bead shaped like a small baby. It was the last gift Lu Zize had given her.
Come to think of it, this bracelet had followed her into the game as well.
This was something Gu Yi'an hadn't anticipated at first.
Since the Hanged Ghost called it a gift, Gu Yi'an took another look at the glass jar.
This time, she seemed to notice tiny moving black dots on the small red sphere.
The Hanged Ghost proactively explained to Gu Yi'an, "Your Highness, this is Lord's exclusive Ant Factory. Here, you can observe the reproduction and daily life of ants, a great toy to pass the time when you're bored."
Hearing this, Gu Yi'an had a rough idea.
She might have figured out where that ghost had gone.
"Is it this red sphere?"
Gu Yi'an recalled the young male ghost and then looked at the small red sphere again. Something felt off no matter how she thought about it.
How did it end up like this?
After a moment's thought, Gu Yi'an decided not to dwell on it further.
The Hanged Ghost knew that Her Highness wouldn't want to learn that the small red sphere was actually the result of it and the little girl ghost chopping the young male ghost into pieces, one slash at a time.
So it avoided the topic and simply said, "Your Highness, yes, it's food for the ants."
Gu Yi'an took another look at the glass jar. The ants inside didn't seem ordinary either, their heads were buried in the red sphere while their bodies remained outside.
Gu Yi'an didn't look any longer and averted her gaze.
Wait, Gu Yi'an suddenly thought of a question.
If Lu Zize could turn that young man into an ant factory, how did he end up so severely injured himself?
If he was that badly hurt, how did he manage to create the ant factory from the young man?
Thinking this way, Gu Yi'an suddenly realized there were loopholes everywhere in the earlier scenario.
First, it was impossible for the notebook to be so severely injured.
It was an avatar of a god, how could it be so weak?
Second, it was strange that the Hanged Ghost and the little girl were completely unharmed, while only the notebook was affected.
Given their fear of the notebook, how would they dare let it take the front line?
Moreover, at night, the notebook was the first to protect her, which could only mean the notebook's strength surpassed that of the Hanged Ghost and the little girl, allowing it to detect the young man first. No matter how severely injured it was, the notebook itself was just a vessel, it couldn't have harmed its core essence.
Given Lu Zize's cunning nature, he would never allow himself to be truly injured.
Even if he was putting on a show for her, he wouldn't actually harm his own foundation.
No matter how she thought about it, the notebook couldn't have been genuinely injured.
In other words, the notebook was lying.
He was lying again!
Gu Yi'an didn't know whether she was angry or if there were other emotions mixed in.
She smiled faintly and turned her gaze to the notebook on the pillow.