Volume 14 - CH 6

Chapter 6: The Completed Event

Location: Atlantis Time: 12:23 PM

I saw a red knife directly flying over before plunging in front of my feet.

After freezing for three seconds, the first thing that appeared in my mind was…classmate, you want to take the opportunity to kill someone, huh!?

I knew at a glance whom that much-too-familiar Illusionary Weapon flew from.

Just when I was thinking about whether or not to bill him for it, the thing that pierced through the roof below issued a strange slight wail before falling down. The fingers, bones and whatnot were all gone. The red knife was still in the same place, and a small ring of flames ignited in the surroundings.

I hastily took a few steps back; if I took any more, the one who’ll become a burning man later will probably be me.

Originally disappearing into the corner of the roof before, Ryan came back at some point and picked up the red knife, “Found it.”

Found it?

“What did you find?”

He reached out and opened his hand, and a silver hanging accessory appeared before my eyes. It looked somewhat like those earrings and the like that girls use, but there’s only one. That said, who would have nothing better to do than to throw an earring up on the roof?

“What is it?” Probably hearing our voices, Chifuyu and Miao Miao also rushed over and asked.

“Something ran up. There might be others.” After tossing the earring to Chifuyu, Ryan twirled the red knife in his hand, and the Illusionary Weapon directly disappeared in midair, “Did you find anything over there?”

“Miao Miao found a box.” Standing by the side, Miao Miao took out a long box like the one just now and opened it. Inside was a bracelet and a letter, “This letter is similar to the one just now.”

It’s also a love letter?

“The two boxes all have letters of praise and accessories, but the handwriting of this is different from the one before.” Chifuyu said, “As of now, what we see are all complimentary boxes, which shows that Rosalyn Hall’s master was quite well-loved by humans at one point. However, if she wasn’t a human, do these things still exist?”

“Did she come before or after that?” Ryan asked.

“According to what I know, when she was alive, she was quite well-respected and loved, so there shouldn’t have been a period of decline.” Folding his arms, Chifuyu frowned slightly, “But that doesn’t make sense. If she wasn’t human, how could all the humans accept her…Unless, no one knew she wasn’t human?”

No one knew?

Isn’t this similar to many legends and stories?

In the past, I used to hear stories about the fox, the snake and whatnot too. Those types often turned into humans too, but at the end of the story, they always get exposed.

“What does Yang Yang think?” Miao Miao suddenly looked over and gave me a big scare.

“Uh…I don’t have any particular thoughts on it…I just think that it’s similar to some traditional stories, like the white snake’s or crane’s repayment, that sort of thing…” Scratching my head, I didn’t know where to start either.

[T/N: The legend of the white snake (Madame White Snake) and the Crane’s Return of a Favor (the Crane Wife) are all stories about repaying a debt of gratitude. In both stories, a snake/crane is saved or helped in some way by a human man and transforms into a human to be his wife]

A slapping sound scared me half to death. Turning my head, I saw Chifuyu’s hands which still haven’t moved away from the clap, “That’s right, it’s probably a Crane’s-Return-of-a-Favor type.”

Crane’s Return of a Favor?

The feather-plucking one?

Rosalyn Hall’s master couldn’t have possibly plucked out her feathers to build the house, right!?

“I have a rough idea of what the answer is. Let’s return to that room just now first.” Aware of the answer himself and not caring if others have no idea whatsoever, Classmate Chifuyu urged us on.

“It might not be that simple.” Ryan paused in his steps and suddenly issued this sentence.

The second he finished speaking, a boom sounded behind us, followed by a small piece of the roof that was sent flying. A white-bone hand pierced through and appeared before us.

The same sound appeared in different places, and several human hands grew out of the roof as if they were sprouting. Then the palms attached themselves to the roof, and one by one, the human crawled up as if in slow motion.

“The second wave of attack is coming too.” Miao Miao looked around at the bones and took out a black talisman paper, “Don’t be eager to fight, let’s hurry downstairs.”

I agree two-hundred percent.

“Yang Yang, go down first.” Ryan grabbed my collar and, after taking out that red knife from just now and swinging it at a few skeletons in front of us to clear the road, he pulled me down with him.

I can go down on my own—

With a boom, I was already on the ground before I could finish shouting internally.

“There seems to be different barriers on the roof. Those skeletons won’t be able to come down.” Raising his head and looking at the black ceiling, Ryan slowly said.

Meaning that it’s the same as why those decomposing corpses from before didn’t go up on the roof?

A couple of sounds, and Miao Miao and Chifuyu, who successfully escaped, each came down from the roof as well and withdrew the weapons in their hands, “It should be about time now. If we don’t hurry up and leave this place, we won’t be able to finish playing at the haunted house today.”

Oh right, that said, it’s been quite a while since we came in.

But then again, how is it that we still haven’t seen any other people in the haunted house up to now?

Unlike the average people outside who get hacked to death, weren’t there a few who were said to be black robes also coming to play just now?

I just don’t believe that black robes would be hacked to death by that thing at the entrance as well.

“Aih, have you guys also felt something weird about that well?”

Miao Miao’s words made me immediately snap out of it.

Well?

Everyone’s gaze instantly turned to that sealed-shut well in the courtyard.

“It is somewhat weird.” Chifuyu pushed his glasses, “Normally, an unused well should have weeds and vines crawling over it. The exterior of this well is very clean though, unlike places that have been abandoned for a long time.”

You didn’t have anything better to do than to look that closely at it…

Just when everyone was staring intently at the well, something slowly fell out of it.

As if we were watching a horror film, an upside down ghost appeared bit by bit in our line of sight. Hair scattered out on the stone sealing the well, and an eyeball fell out of a half-rotten eye socket. A tattered old kimono covered half of its face, and that eyeball discourteously insisted on staring at us.

Turning its gaze upward, it didn’t know who tied it upside on the dead tree, as if it was supposed to be there in the first place.

I swallowed and really wanted to pretend I didn’t see anything, turn my head and walk backwards.

“Since it’s already appeared, that means there must be something over there.” Chifuyu completely disregarded that upside-down, potential-evil-spirit-and-whatnot truth and took out a white triangular talisman all of a sudden. With a turn of his hand, it became a dagger and went straight toward that ghost and shot it down.

The upside down ghost was sent flying and disappeared behind the well.

I say…you guys should, at any rate, respect the dead a little, alright?

Entering a haunted house, seeing a ghost aahhh-ingly turn around and running back should be common sense! How could you fight every one you see; ghosts scare people into acting very undignifiedly!

Ryan crossed over in big strides and very straightforwardly tore off the thing sealing the well, not at all afraid that there would be a hand or something that might pull him down underneath. He directly stretched his head down to look, “There’s something inside.” Saying that, he reached down to fish around and took out a piece of paper.

Chifuyu and Miao Miao directly went closer to see. Although I was scared of the well, I was even more scared of being left alone here, and had no choice but to follow them over to see.

That well wasn’t deep, in fact. Closely speaking, it was probably very deep at first but was filled in for some reason. Looking down from here, you could only see an indentation about thirty, forty centimeters. The top was covered with paper, and one of them was in Ryan’s hand.

“This is an exorcism spell.” Taking the paper and looking it over, Chifuyu said, “It’s used to prevent all impure things from happening.”

Obviously, that must be useless, because everywhere around us was impure.

“Is it enough to stick talismans in a well?” Miao Miao took that piece of paper, looked at it and gave it to me, “That house should have them too, probably because so much time has passed and it disappeared?”

“Probably.” Chifuyu nodded, “The talismans don’t look like something an average family would use. They’re probably what aristocratic families and exorcists would have, to seal up the well and use so much human labor just because of a fear of hauntings. In every era, people who have done bad things are almost always like this.”

To be honest, it really is scary seeing them discussing how to find it. Later their conclusion might be to dig up the well along the way and take a look.

We don’t have that much time, dear classmates!

But fortunately, Chifuyu didn’t say this answer that scared me, “Since it’s the same here, the question has been solved. Let’s go back to that room just now and explain it there.”

I hurriedly threw the paper back into the well. If I accidentally forget about it and took it with me, the next cursed thing might look for me.

Speaking of which, has the answer really been revealed without me noticing?

It was quiet all around us.

“Yang Yang, we’re going.” Miao Miao patted me, then followed the other two as they quickly headed in the direction of the house.

“Oh oh.” I hurriedly chased after them, and after running just two steps, I thought of something.

You guys aren’t going to seal the well back up?!

What if ●● crawled out!?

After following those people and quickly running back to the room just now, before we took a step in, I first saw a huge throat covering the entrance—

“Close your mouth! We solved the haunted house’s mystery!” Swiftly moving, Chifuyu dodged to the side, just in time for Xiao Ting to fall short of her target.

The little black snake MeiMei blinked her innocent eyes as she looked at him, “But Master said to eat anyone I see. He didn’t say I can’t eat if the mystery has been solved.”

Is this the problem right now!?

“We agreed just now, if you don’t eat us, we’ll invite you to at dim sum at the dim sum house later.” Miao Miao immediately used food-temptation attack; I seemed to be able to see Ryan’s resentful gaze from losing his beloved just now.

“Okay, I won’t eat you guys.” Xiao Ting actually closed her mouth in a second.

You’ve neglected your duties for the second time, little MeiMei.

After getting rid of the swallowing crisis, Chifuyu slowly walked into the room. Ryan followed behind him, on guard in case something else rushed out: “We know the answer.” He said, and that gorgeous screen before us suddenly shook. A light lit up behind it, and the shadow of a sitting woman was reflected on that screen, “The master from a foreign land created a sensation at the capital, making it the most well famous place of exchanges and establishing a large residence for people to come and go. The people you love heaped praises upon you; they were baffled by the foreign master. And then there was a person with a special identity, who was infatuated with…”

Before he could finish, some kind of crying sound suddenly came from behind the screen, and yet that woman’s shadow didn’t move at all.

Pausing, Chifuyu frowned slightly, but still continued to speak: “From what we found, those who gave the gifts all had an established high status. Could it be that one of them discovered the foreign master’s face, driving him to plot to destroy Rosalyn Hall? The foreign master didn’t leave a body after being burned, and yet your spirit still remained. Is it to wait for that traitor?”

The crying sound became louder, then Chifuyu didn’t speak again. The whole room was silent except for that mournful sound.

So, this was a very simple human-fell-in-love-with-a-monster-but-destroyed-the-monster incident?

[My loved ones…] The crying stopped and was replaced by a woman’s clear voice: [My loved ones, I came here for him and abandoned my identity as the Mistress of Flowers. I constructed this place for him and let him control this place, but why did he treat us like this?]

[The other people in Rosalyn Hall hadn’t done anything wrong at all…why?]

They were eradicated only because he was a monster.

I suddenly felt that this mansion only belonged to the vicissitudes of the past. The blackness on the floor and the handprints on the walls all spoke of unfairness. They could laugh, they could make friends and they could remain here to keep each other company, but as soon as they knew the truth, the time they spent together no longer mattered, getting rid of her as if they had never known this monster.

This, was too unfair.

“The red flower reflected in the river under the moon… the sound of the wind is so hoarse, lightly caressing the faces of the dead…” Not responding to that woman’s voice, Chifuyu softly chanted a short sentence, yet it was one that I was very familiar with as if I’d heard it somewhere before.

The woman’s shadow suddenly moved, slowly as if she was turning toward us.

“The master who gave up her identity of Mistress of Flowers, that song was left by the butterfly demon for the sorrowful you.” Looking behind the screen, Chifuyu told her: “The red flower reflected in the river under the moon, the sound of the wind is so hoarse, lightly caressing the faces of the dead. The red flower standing on the shore under the moon, your singing is so desolate, softly weeping over the sorrow of the dead souls. You look at the halo of the moon blurred in the river; on it are red flower petals, their scarlet dye dripping into the river; whose worry do they stir up? The flowers on the other shore, he who yearns, the bones left behind, deep below the water.”

I remembered where I heard this song before.

It was the song I heard in the *Butterfly Pavilion.

[T/N: The Butterfly Pavilion is a restaurant they went to back in V4C9]

The woman’s voice paused for a long time, not saying anything as if that shadow was fixed in place over there.

Xiao Ting came over and tugged on my clothes: “She said you guys can go.”

We can go?

As soon as Chifuyu and Ryan heard that, they walked forward, and Miao Miao and I immediately followed after them. The little black snake MeiMei stood in the same place humming a song.

After going around, all we saw was nothing behind the screen. That shadow was still projected on the screen, as if it was a human figure cut and pasted on it.

Just as we were a little confused about her intentions, an object suddenly fell on the ground out of thin air with a bang. It was a small box, and after opening it, there were four little coppery-gold bell bracelets inside.

[You have passed.] The woman’s voice said.

“Just like this?” Chifuyu looked a bit surprised. Could it be he originally still wanted to explain?

[You can pass just like this.] Once again repeating it, the woman’s voice had already become steady: [Before Rosalyn Hall was solved, another black robe had brought along the same song, so you do not need to re-explain it.]

I guess the person she’s talking about is probably Senior, right?

“Tsk.” Chifuyu divided the bells up among us.

[This is Rosalyn Hall, which is in cooperation with the haunted house event. I am the master of the mansion here. From here on, I wish you success in leaving the haunted house. I am very pleased to have met you.”

The woman’s voice hadn’t finished speaking yet and the scenery around us was already beginning to blur. Obviously, after completing the level, it activated either a teleportation array or a transfer array.

[Please be careful in the next round. It is an abandoned ancient battlefield.]

I saw Xiao Ting waving vigorously at us—

“Remember to bring Xiao Ting to eat dim sums!”

Then, the entire scenery shifted.

A cold wind suddenly blew over.

“That hurts!” Something flew into my eyes, and after forcefully closing them and reopening them, the surroundings had become an extremely desolate landscape.

The place I saw was…

A large mass of graves. Beaten gravestones were scattered everywhere, and there were weeds taller than people and also a cold wind blowing nonstop. It really is the standard scene of a cemetery appearing when the wind blows and the grass parts.

“This is the second location…” Chifuyu and the others looked around and revealed enthusiastic expressions, the complete opposite of the goosebumps all over me.

The cold wind abruptly blew over again, bending all the tall grass. There were even several ruined stone idols, a couple of earth store bodhisattvas (Kṣitigarbha) and the like lying on the ground. Most of the gravestones on the ground no longer have names. Some were worn smooth and some simply couldn’t be read.

“Uh, let’s hurry and find a road out of here.” I honestly feel something weird about this, especially since it was very likely that Senior and the others will appear here. That degree of terrifyingness went straight up.

“There isn’t a hint like before here. I guess it’s probably the same as when we came in. Find the transfer array and we’ll be able to leave.” Looking around, Chifuyu’s gaze settled on the back of the cemetery a bit far away from us: “It should be over there. It has an array reaction.”

Sure enough, as expected of someone not on the same level as me. I guess if I’d come on my own, I probably would have disappeared here forever…

“Then let’s go.” Miao Miao clapped her hands and happily said.

Speaking of which, right now we’re going to walk over graves, not take a stroll…If we can actually leave this place safe and sound, then it really is haunted.

“Looks like we’ll have to first work out a little.” Abruptly materializing beside us, Ryan said something scary without warning, before starting to slowly tie up his hair—

I simply don’t even need to guess whether ●● will appear, because a loud sound suddenly came from the entire grave-and-weed-covered land. A soil-breaking noise quickly told us…things weren’t looking good.

“Come on, everyone.” Slapping out a pair of black Illusionary dual knifes, Ryan was full of excitement and expectation after tying up his hair, as if what was coming out of the ground was his long-lost friend.

As if to match his words, a large number of people suddenly broke through the ground with a single boom; correction, it was corpses, the type of half-rotten, sometimes still having their skeleton, zombie.

I only came to visit the haunted house! Not to play the being-chased-by-evil-spirits game!

“Yang Yang, get your Illusionary Weapon ready.” Miao Miao directed a sweet smile at me, then took out a murder weapon from her pocket…I mean, an Illusionary Weapon. [The one who signed a contract with me, allow the attackers to witness your dance.] I saw that pair of grassland-attribute claws.

Most of the corpses emerging from the ground were wearing armor and the like. Some of those that turned into bones had scattered pieces of their remains on them, and some didn’t wear any.

Although I know all of these are fake, I still think of them as weird and frightening in my heart!

This is just a disguised massacre event for the gifted class students to release stress, right!?

Clutching Minas in my hands, I was still scared and took a step back. These ghosts are all Class A, these ghosts are all Class A…

Just when I was thinking of asking those seniors to have mercy on us, Ryan had already rushed out. The clanging sound of several weapons confronting each other summoned me back from my distractedness. More ghosts had sprang out in the cemetery at some point, and every one of them was holding a murder weapon and charging toward us.

I bet their orders are definitely to hack someone to death before considering it “finished”!

I fired several shots at the ghosts that were about to hack at me. After all, knowing that they’re our seniors, I don’t dare to actually shoot them and could only knock off the blades in their hands.

“Yang Yang! Just beat them into the ground, otherwise there will be no end to them!” Chifuyu, who was surrounded by a bunch of zombies, caught the knife Ryan threw over and neatly and viciously put down several corpses beside him.

I don’t dare to!

These are all people from Class A!

Like cockroaches that couldn’t be killed, the number of zombies increased and they soon separated the four of us in the tall grass. I was chased by a couple of corpses for a good distance, and I already couldn’t hear the sound of the others calling me.

How big is this cemetery…Senior! It can’t be that you guys made a real cemetery again!?

“That hurts!” I got distracted momentarily, and my hand was cut by the weeds next to me. A trace of blood appeared on my arm.

Why in the world did I come here to be chased by zombies…This place simply isn’t a haunted house, right…

Abruptly coming to my senses, I discovered that my surroundings had become quiet all of a sudden. The corpses that chased me just now were all gone. I stood in the middle of a bunch of weeds that were taller than people, silence all around me.

“Ah!” Suddenly realizing that I was stepping on a gravestone, I immediately jumped back.

So quiet, it’s too quiet.

The cold wind blew with a whirring noise, and the weeds kept on hitting me. A strange smell diffused in the area, causing goosebumps to appear all over me. Even though I ran a distance away, if I search, I should be able to still hear the sound of Chifuyu and the others fighting, right?

Holding Minas, I discovered that my whole hand was sweaty and a bit slippery.

“Miao Miao?” I attempted to call out twice. No one answered.

This is awful, the situation now is even worse than being chased by zombies. At least when being chased by zombies, I still knew that they were basically human, but when there’s nothing at all, it became scary instead.

“Chifuyu? Ryan?”

A huge gust of wind suddenly came and bent all the grass.

“Yang Yang! Crouch down—” Appearing right in front of me in the twelve o’clock direction without warning, Chifuyu’s face paled as he shouted.

After the wind finished blowing the grass, they became upright again in less than a few seconds. I hugged my head and immediately crouched down on reflex, and a weird icy wind blew past behind my neck. I saw many grasses being cut off and falling before my eyes.

The clang of weapons colliding sounded directly above my head.

I instantly looked up and saw that Ryan’s knife had prevented a fatal strike above my head. I’m going to die; if I didn’t crouch down just now, I bet there would probably be half of my head left now!

Standing on the other side was the zombie king that just broke through the ground.

A few sounds came and the surrounding tall weeds were all cut off. Chifuyu abruptly leaped out beside me and pulled me away: “Seriously, I was just about to say that they were all gone and that it was probably over, I never thought a big one would come out.”

Big one, big one…

Fearfully looking at this zombie king that only wore heavy armor, I had a very bad feeling.

Of those who are able to equal the zombie king, I guess there is probably only one person in the whole world, although he personally didn’t look like this half-rotten type in front of me right now.

“Yang Yang! Chifuyu! Find the exit!” Still separated from us by a large distance, Miao Miao waved from afar and shouted.

Turns out she ran to find the exit. No wonder I didn’t see her come over here.

Without any ideas, someone suddenly grabbed my collar and dashed over there.

“Weren’t you going to fight!?” I looked at Ryan who was running beside me. His imposing manner just now was clearly to fight!

Ryan gave me a quick look: “That king looks difficult to fight at just a glance; if there’s a way, why wouldn’t you escape!”

Good, very good, turns out I was the one wrong, I’m so sorry!

Very quickly, reality told us that this way of thinking really is too naive.

With a bang, a large black shadow landed in front of us from above and created a huge hole in the ground of the whole cemetery, forcibly stopping our footsteps and cutting us off from the exit before us.

The zombie king caught up.