Chapter 17: We Are Friends

After some time, Qin Dan and Zou Zihao also ran out from the increasingly fierce flames and regrouped with Zhang Bing and the others to exchange information.

Qin Dan was in relatively good shape. Several talismans drawn with yellow paper and cinnabar were plastered all over his body, seemingly used to insulate against the fire’s high temperature, making him look somewhat damp.

Compared to him, Zou Zihao, who followed behind panting heavily, looked exceptionally disheveled. His clothes were tattered, his hair was scorched dry, and he clutched a cleaver he’d procured from who-knows-where in a death grip, his expression a mix of panic and terror.

“Sorry, I’m a bit late. Saving Brother Zou slowed me down,” Qin Dan explained.

The sudden changes in this instance world always caught them off guard. Last time, it was the knocking sound in the middle of the night. This time, the moment it hit the wee hours, all the objects inside the room became charred and carbonized. Inextinguishable flames ignited out of thin air, forcing them to run outside to find a path to survival.

Zhang Bing, despite his outwardly difficult demeanor, was fundamentally a rigid soft-hearted fool, insistent on dragging along his two novice deadweights. Qin Dan didn’t want to be held back, so he found an excuse about trying to rescue Zou Zihao to separate from them.

However, he hadn’t lied. He really did want to find Zou Zihao and check on his condition.

Qin Dan hadn’t let his guard down regarding the suddenly changed mirror in his original room. He had been planning to observe how Zou Zihao, who’d been left alone with that mirror, was faring after the instance world continued to undergo aberration.

Truthfully, he hadn’t held much hope. To put it cruelly, the novice might well have already met his end.

But surprisingly, he actually found Zou Zihao in the kitchen, cleaver in hand, being chased frantically by Charred Corpses.

He didn’t die? Qin Dan first observed for a while, finally stepping in to help only when it seemed Zou Zihao was about to collapse, earning a string of gratitude from the other man.

Could it be that the mirror wasn’t as terrifying as he imagined? Or perhaps it wasn’t a certain-death trap but some other clue item?

He would still need to find someone else to test it.

While countless schemes swirled in Qin Dan’s mind, his face showed only the expression of one who’d narrowly escaped disaster: “Thank goodness you’re all unharmed. These flames are too terrifying. We can only evade them, not resist.”

“Time was a bit tight. I only managed to thoroughly explore the third and second floors. I found that it wasn’t just our bedrooms; every place in this house has turned into the post-fire state. I suspect we’ve been transported back to the day of the accident.”

He lowered his voice: “In other words, the main quest requirement of ‘investigate this house’s past’.”

“But the main quest still hasn’t updated,” Zhang Bing frowned.

“We must still be overlooking some key location. For example, the staff like the servants in this house turned into Charred Corpses after burning to death, driven by lingering resentment. But that little young master, Pearl, is still perfectly fine so far,” Qin Dan glanced at Yin Luo not far away and said, “Only by knowing why he turned into a ghost, and exactly how he died, can we perhaps complete the main quest.”

“Bringing him out was very useful. That was a good move.”

Zhang Bing’s brows knitted together tightly. Words were on the tip of his tongue, but in the end, he didn’t explain that he’d simply acted out of pure soft-heartedness.

Their conversation was very quiet, deliberately held away from Yin Luo. They even specifically dispatched an unlucky soul to distract the little young master.

But the black-haired youth heard every single word clearly.

The interior of the rooms changed too?

Hearing this, Yin Luo found a key point.

These players said all the rooms had transformed into their post-fire states, yet his room alone showed no change at all, remaining as it originally was.

So what was the difference between the two?

Those dolls?

Or rather, the corpses hidden inside the dolls!

A small light bulb went off in Yin Luo’s mind.

Those corpse fragments not only radiated cold at all times but were also abnormally hard. Sliding a knife across their surface wouldn’t even leave a white scratch. Combined with their large volume, making them inconvenient to carry, Yin Luo had been forced to leave them in the room, somewhat concealed with a blanket.

It seemed he’d need to go back again.

But it would be best to trick these players into clearing the path first. His fight with the Blade-Wielding Charred Corpse had consumed a lot of his stamina. Before his strength fully recovered, he didn’t intend to reveal his special nature in front of the players. Best to blend in as much as possible.

The black-haired youth snapped back to attention, looking at the unlucky Wei Congxin, whose cold sweat was nearly dripping from his chin to the ground. He tilted his head: “You seem very afraid of me.”

“N-n-n-no! I-I-I’m just a-a-a bit c-cold!” Wei Congxin’s teeth chattered.

Yin Luo glanced at the blisters from high-temperature burns on his body and tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Uh, that…” Wei Congxin, struggling for conversation, couldn’t figure out how to address the other person, so he mumbled past it, “Do you know where Lin Yujing went? The one with the grey hair.”

Yin Luo blinked: “You miss him?”

“Why would I miss him?” Wei Congxin raised his voice. “I spent five hundred thousand just to share a room with him! And he actually took off while I was asleep! I almost got clawed by a Charred Corpse! If Brother Zhang hadn’t saved me in time, I’d be nothing but ash!”

Since arriving in this world, the people Yin Luo had talked to the most were the scheming, fox-like Lin Yujing and Aunt Jing, who never divulged a word more than necessary. Someone who spilled all the information in one go before even being asked was truly a rare creature. So, his gaze held a hint of pity: “You want to settle the score with him?”

Wei Congxin froze.

Wei Congxin fell silent.

Alright, Wei Congxin indeed didn’t dare. He didn’t even dare to grumble behind anyone’s back except to an instance NPC.

“You can’t find him, can you?” The black-haired youth looked at him understandingly. “I can take you to find him.”

???

“N-n-no…” Wei Congxin shook his head frantically.

“Don’t be so polite. We’re friends, right?” Yin Luo looked up, grabbing his hand with such force that Wei Congxin stumbled on the spot. “Friends should help each other. This time I’m helping you. Friend, you’ll definitely help me next time, won’t you?”

Friend?

Wei Congxin’s mind jolted. His heart leaped with excitement. He even waited several seconds for the game’s voice to descend.

Ten seconds later, the jarring, cynical notification sound didn’t chime.

Nothing. Nothing at all.

Wei Congxin stared blankly for a moment before finally reacting. It was like a bucket of ice water poured over him in the dead of winter. His heart went cold.

Screw being friends!

So it turned out this little brat was also full of lies!

But because of that moment of hesitation, he was too late to voice his refusal. Yin Luo dragged him by the hand and ran straight into the flames: “Help! Aah! I never wanted to find that bastard Lin Yujing! I don’t want to die, aahh!”

Qin Dan and Zhang Bing, who were still talking over there, saw this scene and exchanged a glance: “Follow them!”

It finally dawned on Wei Congxin that the person before him wasn’t just some ordinary instance NPC kid, but a ghost. He, a strong man, was being dragged along by a child who barely reached his chest, utterly powerless to resist.

And this was no ordinary ghost. This was basically the Instance Boss!

After all, if everyone else was a Charred Corpse, why were you the only one with a normal body temperature, hey?!

Wei Congxin whimpered out a sob. Looking up, he saw the flames encroaching like the God of Death, heat waves assaulting his face. Having a greater trauma regarding fire than the others, he promptly started wailing: “Holy crap, save me, aahh!!”

Yin Luo was starting to regret dragging this unlucky fellow along. Mainly because he was still wary of Lin Yujing, and among the group, only this poor sap Wei Congxin owed Lin Yujing money. He figured the guy could be useful at a critical moment.

Fortunately, they didn’t encounter many Charred Corpses along the way, and that leading Blade-Wielding monster was nowhere to be seen, allowing him to conserve some stamina.

With demonic wails piercing his ears, Yin Luo suppressed the rising irritability in his heart. He stepped forward with his toes, his palm like a blade, cold energy like a sword, swiftly severing all obstacles in the blink of an eye.

Those inextinguishable flames were like candle sprouts under a rainstorm—hiss hiss, extinguished.

Wei Congxin was like a duck grabbed by the neck, his scream stuck in his throat.

He stared in shock at the back of the black-haired youth ahead. “Y-y-y-you!”

“Don’t scream.” The black-haired youth cleared the path ahead. Yet the frost, like an ulcer attached to the bone, spiraled upward from his palm, finally blooming into a sharp Ice Flower by Wei Congxin’s neck.

“Scream again, and I’ll kill you.”

His voice was flat and level, yet just like that exquisite Ice Flower, it inspired a bone-deep, chilling fear far more effectively than the ostentatiously raging flames.

Wei Congxin’s lips turned purple from the cold, but for the rest of the journey, he didn’t utter another word.

Having finished this villainous act with practiced ease, Yin Luo reached back and grabbed the truly useless golden frog-baby from his hood: “Find your master.”

“Ribbit?” Frog no understand. Frog has no master.

“I remember there’s a safe in the fourth-floor study. If you find gold inside, it’s yours.” Yin Luo poked it.

“Ribbit!” The golden frog immediately raised its head and puffed out its chest, charging ahead like a champion to lead the way.

…

“A job well done.” Lin Yujing clapped his hands, looking at the “masterpiece” before him.

“Next, just give the little guy a surprise~”

He turned to leave the room and just happened to run into Yin Luo, guided by the traitorous frog-baby, and the pale-faced Wei Congxin.

“Frog-baby?” Lin Yujing’s gaze fixed on the familiar frog in the black-haired youth’s hand. His face paled in alarm. “What are you doing to my frog?”

Yin Luo squeezed the soft, doughy frog, kneading it like a ball of dough. Just before it swelled up in anger, he immediately stuffed a gold bar into its mouth.

The frog was instantly appeased, even instinctively nuzzling against the black-haired youth’s palm.

Yin Luo found the texture quite pleasing, a sensation completely different from the fluffy Little Bear. He gave a cold humph: “Your frog-baby? How can you prove it? If you call it, will it answer?”

Lin Yujing watched his own frog-baby eating with obvious relish and already had a bad premonition: “Golden Toad? Golden Toad, come to Daddy. Golden Toad?”

“But it’s a frog,” Yin Luo pointed out the problem.

“It’s a frog. What does that have to do with its name?” Lin Yujing raised an eyebrow. “You’re a ghost. Your name is also Pearl, not Pearl Ghost.”

Yin Luo: “Heh.”

His heart held no surprise at having his instance identity called out, only a grudge. A massive, rapidly accumulating grudge.

He pulled out another gold bar and placed it by the frog-baby’s mouth.

Golden Toad heard the call of its original master, glanced back at Lin Yujing, then looked at the gold bar in front of its mouth, and finally looked up at its new benefactor.

Gulp!

A six-figure sum went straight into its stomach. Delicious!

Any so-called old father was fake. Only gold was real.

“See? It says you’re not its master.” The black-haired youth stated flatly.

Lin Yujing watched this unfilial son who recognized anyone as its father if fed, his heart already having anticipated this. He had to switch tactics, repeating an old trick: “How about this then: Let’s trade. I’ll give you a gift, and you give it back to me. What do you say?”

“A gift?”

“That’s right, a gift.” The grey-haired man stepped aside, revealing what was behind him with an exaggerated sound effect: “Ta-da~ A gift just for you~”

Yin Luo saw his own quartered body lying on the ground.

Like shattered porcelain painstakingly pieced back together and glued. Although every piece was in its correct position, the countless dense cracks covering its surface could no longer be mended.

The black-haired youth fell silent.

He didn’t know how these hundreds of body fragments, severed from muscle to bone, large and small, had been tracked down. Nor with what patience, what efficiency, they’d been assembled into this “puzzle” in such a short time without a single error.

He looked at the cold, pale body on the bed, at that face identical to his own, and froze in place.

Lin Yujing, acting as if this insane feat wasn’t his own doing, even said proudly: “So, are we trading or not, Pearl Ghost?”

Ghosts were most prone to aberration when realizing their own death and confronting its cause. If their will wasn’t firm enough, they’d be controlled by instinct, sinking into the endless agony of their death, leaving only the craving for their obsession and murderous intent towards the living.

Things that had lost their brains and minds posed no danger to Lin Yujing. What he feared least was brute force. This way, he could also get his frog-baby back.

It was just a slight pity; he’d have to say goodbye to this interesting little friend.

The grey-haired man gently brushed his fingers over the shattered corpse of the youth lying on the ground, feeling the coolness and deathly stillness emanating from his fingertips.

He always believed that dying lucidly was better than living in a daze.

It was just that he always liked to make choices for others without permission.

The black-haired youth didn’t explode in rage, nor did he lose his sanity.

He slowly closed his eyes.

It felt as though some shackle imprisoning him had been unlocked. As though he’d broken through some valve. His body felt lighter and lighter. This room, this house, even this world seemed to be within his grasp.

【Main Quest 1: Find Your Complete Corpse – Completed】

【Instance Restrictions Broken. Corpse Frost Power Strengthened】

【New Ability Acquired: Flesh and Blood Force】

Pain. The agony of being cut to pieces suddenly danced upon every nerve. Every inch of flesh, every segment of bone wailed in torment. The pain was so severe his very soul seemed to tremble with convulsions.

Cold. Extreme cold, so freezing that his consciousness grew stiff, slowly causing one to lose awareness and head towards the final destination with this coldness symbolizing the dead.

The standing youth’s body gradually cracked, becoming like the human “puzzle” lying on the ground. Frost dyed his black hair white, like fresh snow covering scorched earth.

He slowly lifted his eyes. Eyelashes the same color as his white hair trembled slightly, revealing jade-like crimson pupils.

“I like this gift.” He showed Lin Yujing the first smile since they’d met: “Thank you. We truly are friends, aren’t we?”

【Side Quest ① Completed】

【Quest Reward ①: Goodwill of Special Ghost Mirror ?? (Acquired)

Quest Reward ②: Goodwill of Special Ghost Pearl (???) (Acquired)

Quest Reward ③: Goodwill of ??? acquired… Already ???】

【(Acquired)】

【P/S: Holy shit, you actually completed it? What a massive simp… No, wait, what I meant to say was, you’re of the same kind.】

【Only those of the same kind can become friends, right?】