Chapter 76

It seemed... it really wasn't very nice?
Gu Yi'an didn't respond. She calmly listened to the screams rising and falling around her, her gaze following the roller coaster as it reached its peak.
Then, she watched as the man sitting in front of her stretched his neck, like a long duck's neck, and turned his head a full 180 degrees.
"Your Highness, Lord Lu, this is so boring."
The speaker was none other than the Hanged Ghost, who had been ignored by Gu Yi'an and Lu Zize for a long time.
In fact, the Hanged Ghost had been there all along.
When they first boarded the roller coaster, there had been a small incident involving it.
It wanted to wear sunglasses, but the staff insisted that such personal items had to be removed.
The Hanged Ghost had no choice but to roll its eyes back, put down the sunglasses, and then board the roller coaster.
To avoid scaring people with its eyes, it quickly closed them when the staff lowered the safety bars for everyone.
For a hanged ghost, the thrill of a roller coaster couldn't compare to the exhilaration of floating up into the sky on its own. It regretted choosing this ride.
The bored hanged ghost just wanted someone to talk to, but as it looked around, its gaze fell on the intertwined hands of the two people in the back row.
The hanged ghost chuckled softly and retracted its head back.
The person sitting next to it, as well as the people in the row behind Gu Yi'an, noticed the eerie sight of its elongating and retracting neck.
"Ahhh!!!"
Even more piercing screams erupted high in the air.
The roller coaster staff below listened to the commotion.
"Today's visitors have quite the vocal cords, their screams are way more bloodcurdling than usual."
A few minutes later, the roller coaster came to a stop at its starting position.
Gu Yi'an tried to pull her hand back.
The other person didn't budge an inch, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't free her hand.
This was going too far.
"Lu Zize."
Suppressing her emotions, Gu Yi'an calmly called his name.
Lu Zize heard her and turned to look at her, his gaze as gentle and smiling as before.
"Are you going to abandon me again?" he asked softly.
Though his voice carried no discernible emotion, it somehow made him sound deeply wronged.
For some reason, Gu Yi'an recalled the words she had heard high up in the air.
A restless heat seemed to permeate the atmosphere.
Gu Yi'an averted her gaze.
Just then, chaos broke out.
Gu Yi'an heard the panicked accusations from the person sitting in the front row, next to the hanged ghost.
"Let me out of here!"
"The person next to me isn't human. It's a monster. It's a ghost!"
As soon as that person shouted, the people in the row behind Gu Yi'an also erupted.
They had been terrified by what they had witnessed high in the air, but seeing that there were many people around now, they all started chattering at once.
"I saw it too."
"Its neck stretched out really long."
"It's probably not human, it's a ghost!"
The hanged ghost overheard their discussions but remained seated calmly, as if meditating with its eyes closed, leaving Gu Yi'an and the others with a composed view of the back of its head.
Since the hanged ghost itself wasn't worried, Gu Yi'an didn't pay it much mind either.
The people in the row behind Gu Yi'an noticed that she and Lu Zize in the front row seemed completely unfazed by what had happened high in the air. They hadn't joined the outcry and appeared perfectly composed.
The certainty they had felt earlier began to waver.
In their eyes, Gu Yi'an and Lu Zize were the ones closest to the incident.
If Gu Yi'an and Lu Zize showed no reaction, could it be that they had imagined it all?
Unable to contain themselves, someone kicked the back of Gu Yi'an and Lu Zize's seat and called out, "Hey, handsome, beautiful, are you sure you didn't see anything?"
Hearing the commotion, Lu Zize glanced back slightly and shook his head in denial.
Though he appeared gentle, he rarely engaged with outsiders.
Gu Yi'an looked at the person who had spoken and, after a moment's thought, came up with an excuse. "It might have been mass hallucination. You all must have seen wrong."
Her voice was cool and calm, and anything she said seemed to carry an air of undeniable truth.
Mass hallucination?
The person who had asked only had a vague understanding of the term, but seeing Gu Yi'an's confident expression, he took it at face value, they must have seen wrong.
Gu Yi'an's credibility was so high that the questioner was half-convinced. He relayed this explanation to his companions.
The two who had been making the most noise earlier quieted down now that they had an answer.
Their silence triggered a chain reaction, and the chattering people behind them also fell quiet.
Earlier, the staff member had glanced at the Hanged Ghost upon hearing their discussion.
He looked like a normal person.
He didn’t pay it much mind and started helping people lift the safety bars, beginning with those in the front row.
But the person next to the Hanged Ghost couldn’t wait for the staff to arrive.
He lifted the safety bar himself and quickly made his escape.
Since the safety bar was open, the Hanged Ghost also got up from his seat and walked over to the area where visitors stored their belongings to put on his sunglasses.
He couldn’t stand keeping his black eyeballs like that for too long.
Gu Yi’an watched as the Hanged Ghost left and tried once more to pull her hand back.
She still couldn’t free her hand, it was held firmly in place.
The staff member came over to their row and helped them lift the safety bar.
He noticed their interaction and gave Lu Zize an approving look.
Well done, young man, knowing how to provide your girlfriend with a sense of security at a time like this.
The staff member had seen too many men who went weak in the knees after riding the roller coaster and ended up needing their girlfriends to comfort them instead.
Gu Yi’an had a rough idea of what the staff member was thinking.
She was used to being misunderstood.
Although it might not necessarily be a misunderstanding.
Once the staff member disappeared from their row and moved to the back, it was time for them to leave.
Gu Yi’an gave up struggling. She calmly stood up and conceded, "Let’s go."
Xiao Cheng, Brother Wei, and the other six players gathered at a youth hostel in the town.
It was called a youth hostel, but in reality, it was just a self-built house with a signboard.
The eight players had claimed to be budget travelers and successfully applied to work as staff at the youth hostel, which provided food and accommodation but paid very little.
Around three or four in the afternoon, when the hostel was at its quietest, the owner cleared the cash from the front desk and went back to his room to sleep. The eight players took the opportunity to gather in the dining area of the hostel to exchange the information they had gathered.
"I asked around. The people in the town all say that village is poor and superstitious. The most famous incident there is the one we heard about, a class of students went there for a trip and ended up dying after offending the mountain god."
"Also, they originally planned to develop it as a tourist attraction, but after that incident, the investors' money went down the drain."
"What I found out is more recent. People here say that village has been experiencing frequent deaths lately, and some villagers even came to town specifically to order funeral supplies. I heard they offended something unclean, and now they're facing retribution."
The players took turns sharing bits of information, except for one female player who remained silent and didn't join in.
Her behavior stood out too much.
Since she wasn't participating, the other players ignored her.
They discussed their next course of action.
They decided to investigate the recent deaths in that village to figure out what was really going on. Once they had clarity, they would connect those incidents with the word "wish" from the beginner's hint to see if they could uncover the true clue for this mission.
That meant they had to sneak back into the village.
But there was a problem with infiltrating the village: earlier that day, they had been chased out by the angry villagers, so going back now would make them easily recognizable.
The players had two options: either disguise themselves or sneak in at night to eavesdrop on the villagers' conversations.
Both choices were troublesome.
At this point, a middle-aged male player couldn't hold back and said, "If it weren't for Xiao Cheng getting us kicked out, we wouldn't have to go through all this extra trouble."
The middle-aged male player glanced at Xiao Cheng, the only female player who hadn't joined their discussion.
Hearing his words, Xiao Cheng shrank behind a seemingly honest male player nearby and retorted, "We weren't safe there anyway. People are dying there."
The middle-aged man argued, "If no one died, what would be the point of us playing this game? That's the clue!"
Hiding behind the male player, Xiao Cheng said, "Brother Wei, I was just trying to find clues."
She sounded particularly aggrieved.
This made Brother Wei, whom she was using as a bodyguard, both frustrated and helpless.
He shouldn't have agreed to protect this novice female player.
Brother Wei didn't want the team to fall apart, so he reluctantly stepped in to mediate. "Even though we were forced out, we still gathered a lot of useful information."
The middle-aged man questioned, "Did we? Wasn't it mostly the same as what we already knew?"
Brother Wei fell silent, unable to respond.
Because the middle-aged man was right.
Seeing Brother Wei silenced after speaking up for her, Xiao Cheng no longer hid behind him. She seemed to muster her courage and stepped forward, saying, "But most of the information you had before came from the questions I asked."
The middle-aged man instinctively wanted to refute, "The things you asked were just..."
He trailed off.
Because he realized that even though Xiao Cheng had gotten them expelled, she was also the one who had managed to extract some useful details from the villagers.
Most of the information they had gathered in the village did come from Xiao Cheng's inquiries.
As the atmosphere grew tense, the only experienced female player among them spoke up. "We all have the same goal: to clear this game."
After she spoke, everyone turned their attention to her, realizing she was trying to smooth things over.
Xiao Cheng, still hiding behind Brother Wei, shot a sidelong glance at the female player.
The female player noticed Xiao Cheng's reaction but didn't change her intention.
She said, "There's never just one way to beat a game. Staying in the village has its advantages, and leaving has its benefits too. Now that we're out, we've all confirmed the accuracy of the earlier information. Staying in the village, as Xiao Cheng said, isn't safe either. We'd have to be wary of all the villagers. Now, at least we might be able to get a good night's sleep."
Brother Wei gave the female player a grateful smile.
She had just helped him out of a tight spot.
Seeing this, Xiao Cheng shot the female player another glare.
The middle-aged man, however, did not agree with her words.
"Didn't we just discuss sneaking back into the village? How can we sleep well?"
He was too annoyed with Xiao Cheng to appreciate the female player's gesture.
The other three novice players, witnessing the tension, didn't dare utter a word.
The last male player, who had remained silent until now and was also an experienced player, looked at the situation and said, "If we keep arguing like this, the whole team will fall apart. How about this: let's split into two groups. Brother Wei, you take Xiao Cheng and follow your own plan. The rest of us will stick with Sister Xiao Lian's approach."
Brother Wei opened his mouth to say he didn't have any particular plan, he just wanted to stick with the main group.
But remembering his earlier words, he ultimately stayed silent and accepted the arrangement, siding with Xiao Cheng.
When Xiao Cheng heard the decision, her eyes welled up with tears as she looked at Brother Wei.
"Brother Wei."
Her voice was filled with endless grievances, making Brother Wei instantly regret his decision.
He never should have agreed to protect this novice female player just for a beginner's tip, he'd spoken without thinking.
The middle-aged man finally seemed somewhat accepting of the proposal.
He said, "As long as that troublemaker isn't around, I'm willing to cooperate."
Xiao Cheng wanted to say something in response.
Seeing her about to speak, Brother Wei steeled himself and immediately clasped his hands together, pleading, "Please, I'm begging you, let's just go investigate on our own. Didn't you say you wanted to look into that lucky one? We'll go find her, alright?"
As he said this, Brother Wei felt a pang of guilt, guilt toward that stranger, the so-called lucky one.
Xiao Cheng was determined to disturb that person.
It seemed they had no choice but to seek her out now.
Hearing Brother Wei's words, Xiao Cheng glanced around at the other players, lowered her head, and fell silent.
Seeing this, Brother Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The matter was settled just like that.
Brother Wei and Xiao Cheng took all the money they had earned from working and left the youth hostel, setting out on the path to find out who the lucky survivor was.
They had already learned from the newspaper which school the student, whose entire class had died on the mountain, attended. They then took a bus to that high school.
Brother Wei wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about finding the person. He hoped they could take their time, allowing the other party to enjoy a little more peace before being disturbed.
As he and Xiao Cheng sat on the bus, he couldn’t help but ask her, "Why do we have to find that lucky survivor?"
He found Xiao Cheng’s reasoning quite strange, as if she had some sort of grudge against that person. None of the many clues they had found so far were related to that individual.
Clearly, more clues pointed toward the mountain shrine on that mountain.
Facing Brother Wei, Xiao Cheng no longer acted as timid and weak as she had in front of the other players.
She was gradually revealing a more assertive side.
Xiao Cheng glanced at Brother Wei and replied, "Brother Wei, it’s not that I have a problem with that person. It’s that our mission is related to them."
Brother Wei frowned.
Xiao Cheng said, "The wish is the wish of those ghosts. Since their wish isn’t to kill the villagers, it can only be related to the lucky survivor."
"What are you talking about?"
Brother Wei vaguely sensed something was off.
He noticed that the word "wish" in Xiao Cheng’s statement referred to the content of their beginner’s prompt, the wish.
Xiao Cheng said the wish belonged to those ghosts.
The question was, how did Xiao Cheng know there were ghosts?
And she referred to them as "those ghosts."
Brother Wei hadn’t even caught a glimpse of a ghost so far.
Xiao Cheng had been with the players the whole time; there was no way she could have encountered something he didn’t know about.
Moreover, she had confidently ruled out the other option, killing the villagers.
Brother Wei felt something wasn’t right.
He looked at Xiao Cheng.
Her expression was a bit strange, as if she were waiting for him to realize something.
Brother Wei reached out and touched her forehead, then compared it to his own temperature.
"No fever."
Hearing this, Xiao Cheng, who had been wearing a peculiar expression, couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
Seeing her reaction, Brother Wei knew this topic was over for now.
He smiled innocently on the surface, but inside, he began to doubt Xiao Cheng’s identity.
How did she know so much?
She had arrived in this world at the same time as them, and she was just a novice player.
Brother Wei temporarily buried his doubts.
The two of them found the high school. Brother Wei, with his honest appearance, managed to gain the trust of the convenience store owner near the school.
She confirmed that there had indeed been an incident where an entire graduating class from the school went on a trip, and only one person survived.
Since it had happened just last year, the shopkeeper still remembered the specific class and shared the information with Brother Wei and Xiao Cheng.
In the internet age, with specific details, finding someone was relatively straightforward.
Brother Wei and Xiao Cheng found a small internet cafe near the school that didn’t require ID and successfully got a computer.
They searched online and found the lucky survivor’s name.
Gu Yi’an.
Along with the name, a photo of the person appeared.
It was a candid shot taken unintentionally.
The girl, dressed in a loose and puffy school uniform, was chatting with friends in the classroom. Her eyes curved into crescents, and the vibrant energy unique to youth seemed to spill right out of the photograph.
"Tsk, she's beautiful," Brother Wei couldn't help but exclaim.
He earned a glare from Xiao Cheng.
Brother Wei said, "I'm just telling the truth. She must be the campus belle, right?"
"What's the use of being pretty? People like that usually die young."
Xiao Cheng urged, "Check where she's studying now. It's not the holidays yet, so she should still be in school."
Hearing this, Brother Wei felt something was off.
He was the experienced player, so why was he being bossed around by Xiao Cheng now?
Though he thought this, Brother Wei still followed Xiao Cheng's instructions and searched for Gu Yi'an's name online.
As it turned out, good-looking people never stayed unnoticed anywhere.
The search quickly revealed Gu Yi'an's current school, major, and even the area where she lived off-campus.
Seeing this, Xiao Cheng nodded and said, "Let's go find her now."
Hearing this, Brother Wei could only remind her, "We have no money in this world, and no identities either."
The place where she studied was far from here, so there was no need to go looking for her.
Xiao Cheng didn't seem to care. "We can just steal a car and drive there."
She was completely different now from the person who had once hidden behind Brother Wei.
Her tone, her manner of speaking, and her attitude were all drastically different.
Watching Xiao Cheng, who made no effort to conceal her thoughts, Brother Wei felt bewildered.
He wasn't blind, with Xiao Cheng acting like this, of course, he could tell something was wrong.
A new problem now lay before Brother Wei: should he confront Xiao Cheng directly?
To be honest, Xiao Cheng's trust in him was something even Brother Wei found baffling.
Xiao Cheng had no intention of harming him.
Driven by this intuition, Brother Wei chose to speak up. "Have you been through this before? Do you have some kind of time-reversal item?"
There were too many suspicious points about Xiao Cheng.
And she made no effort to hide them in front of Brother Wei.
It was impossible for him not to notice.
Earlier, Brother Wei had already noticed that Xiao Cheng's attitude toward every player was strange.
Her attitude toward the other three novice players, who were just like her, was one of indifference, as if she were looking at the dead.
Among the four veteran players, Xiao Cheng also ignored the male player who spoke less.
As for the female player who had helped her out of the predicament and the middle-aged male player, Xiao Cheng’s attitude toward them was one of inexplicable disgust.
But toward him, Brother Wei, Xiao Cheng’s attitude was surprisingly the best.
This special treatment made Brother Wei wonder if Xiao Cheng might have feelings for him.
Otherwise, why would she treat him the best?
Brother Wei thought about it again and came up with another, more reasonable explanation.
It was probably because, before the time reset, he had been the most approachable among the veteran players, the one who never offended others and was always willing to help, that Xiao Cheng treated him differently.
Though it felt a bit self-flattering, this was the most reasonable explanation Brother Wei could come up with.
Xiao Cheng heard Brother Wei’s words, and her gaze toward him took on an indescribable quality.
It seemed as though she wanted to kill him.
Brother Wei keenly sensed this.
He inwardly groaned. It seemed he had guessed right, but also wrong.
He had guessed correctly about Xiao Cheng’s item, but he had misjudged her personality.
She might be planning to take action against him.
If Xiao Cheng had specifically chosen him as a teammate, shouldn’t she trust him?
Brother Wei realized he might have idealized Xiao Cheng and overestimated his own importance.
Perhaps Xiao Cheng just wanted a bodyguard to cover for her.
Brother Wei pointed out the truth: "Xiao Cheng, you haven’t made any effort to conceal yourself."
Xiao Cheng nodded. A dagger had somehow appeared in her hand.
"If I kill you, there’s no need to conceal anything."
Brother Wei’s hand discreetly felt for his own item, while he maintained his honest and sincere expression.
"Xiao Cheng, I think I should remind you of something. Time-related items usually come with a heavy price."
Xiao Cheng smiled faintly. "No. It has no cost."
Brother Wei was taken aback.
No cost at all?
That good?
Brother Wei didn’t believe it.
But he knew Xiao Cheng wouldn’t reveal the item’s true drawbacks to him.
Right now, his goal was to make her temporarily trust him and avoid her taking action against him.
Brother Wei had no choice but to be direct: "I thought you chose me as a teammate because you trusted me. That’s why I decided to bring this up, hoping to strengthen the trust between us. I never expected it to backfire. I consider myself a reliable teammate who would never betray a friend."
"I know," Xiao Cheng said, playing with the dagger.
She knew this, which was why, when she once again pretended to be a newcomer after the reset, she had chosen Brother Wei and deliberately let her guard down in front of him.
Xiao Cheng tilted her chin up slightly and said, "You pass."
She put away her dagger.
Brother Wei was stunned. Just moments ago, Xiao Cheng had seemed ready to attack him, but now she had suddenly changed her mind. Her thoughts shifted far too quickly.
Brother Wei had no choice but to shift his focus and act like a dependable teammate, asking, "...If you’ve reset time, does that mean the key to our mission this time really lies with Gu Yi’an?"
Xiao Cheng replied firmly, "Yes. Let’s go find her now."
Brother Wei was puzzled. "You seem in a hurry to complete the mission?"
In response to his question, Xiao Cheng smirked mockingly. "Because we’re already being haunted by a ghost."
"If we don’t finish the mission quickly, the ghost will kill us."
Brother Wei was baffled by this. "When did we get haunted by a ghost?"
He had no recollection of it at all.
Xiao Cheng said irritably, "In the village. Why do you think the villagers chased us away? Because the moment we appeared at the foot of the mountain, we were already haunted by ghosts. They knew we were going to die and didn’t want us to die in the village."