Chapter 18

The hierarchy in the Weird World was clear-cut. There weren’t many grand principles to discuss.

Before today, even knowing that powerful weirds existed in the Folk Custom Garden, ordinary Tourist Garden staff avoided contact with the weirds there. This held true except for the park management above the yellow level and the special actors working in the Folk Custom Garden.

Everyone knew that the weirds there, especially the strong ones, had twisted personalities.

But now the situation was different. As the old saying went, weirds die for power, birds die for food. The Tourist Garden was undergoing a massive upheaval unseen in a decade now that the new boss had taken over. Not only did the boss refrain from layoffs, but he also offered them this chance for rapid promotion. If they cowered and failed to seize it, what was the point of being a weird?

A weird that didn’t aspire to management wasn’t a good employee!

Thus, almost the very next second after receiving the notice, the quickest employees bolted out.

They wore hats in purple, blue, and cyan. Occasionally, new employees with gray hats joined them, all racing forward relentlessly in a bid to get ahead.

Sometimes, a leading employee would sabotage a colleague overtaking them with an open and shameless shove the moment they drew level.

As for the sightseeing buses, the drivers had long since driven them off themselves. They counted as park staff too.

The road Su Ximu and the others took was filled with nearby employees all rushing toward the Wang Family Mansion.

Even with his foundation from the thousand-meter physical test, Su Ximu gradually fell to the back amid this pack of hyped-up colleagues.

He watched wide-eyed as the dorm supervisor from the neighboring building—a grandfatherly figure who usually limped on one leg—discarded his crutch. The old man hopped high and low past him at top speed, inserting himself into the middle of the pack.

Then the dorm supervisor got kicked hard. “Get lost!”

The old man tumbled across the ground several times, dropping back to the rear.

Su Ximu stepped forward to help him up.

But the dorm supervisor rolled back to his feet with indomitable spirit, not even bothering to brush off the dirt. He let out an angry roar and charged forward again, hopping high and low toward the front.

The drive of this world’s employees defied common sense.

Su Ximu turned to Blue 242 Leader, who had stuck with him the whole way, and panted out, “L-Leader, don’t worry about me. Y-you go on ahead. I-I’m fine on my own!”

He had no real obsession with rising to management. The only reason he’d run so hard was that everyone else was so eager and driven. Standing out as half-hearted among them felt out of place.

Blue 242 Leader showed his loyalty to his subordinate and friend, refusing to abandon him.

While running effortlessly himself, he flashed a smile at the young man beside him and grabbed his wrist. “Don’t worry. I’ll run with you.”

Perhaps because Su Ximu had already pushed past his limits, or maybe because someone was pulling him along, after just a few more steps, he suddenly felt his body lighten. His breathing steadied once more.

Su Ximu himself wasn’t in any rush, and Blue 242 Leader didn’t seem hurried either. The two simply hung back in the middle-rear of the pack, neither too close nor too far.

By the time they followed their usual commute route to the familiar gates of the Wang Family Mansion, some employees had already obtained the passes mentioned in the notice.

The so-called passes appeared, from the outside, to be pure black round chest badges. To all the nearby employees, the small badges emanated an indescribably powerful aura. They were the key to conquering the Wang Family Mansion this time.

The ones distributing the chest badges were temporary staff transferred from Su Consortium Headquarters.

Dressed in black work uniforms that radiated an elite aura, these headquarters employees drew envious gazes from every park worker who received a badge from them.

Outside the gates, a bustling throng gathered, as if ready to trample the Wang Family Mansion’s threshold in one go.

Inside, Lord Wang’s expression darkened. He stomped his crutch hatefully and vanished from the spot.

He had to consult his old cronies and figure out a plan.

Last time, they had forced the previous park chief to turn a blind eye to them. There was no way they’d hand over their turf so easily now.

But this new boss turned out to be so domineering. He hadn’t even shown his face today, let alone bothered negotiating with them!

The script that had played out unchanged for over a decade—of reigning supreme in the mansion—had clearly spoiled this lord of the estate. His thinking and sense of danger had started to rust.

Fortunately, before leaving, he remembered to crank the mansion’s defensive measures up to their maximum level.

The employees pinned on their chest badges and stepped into the Wang Family Mansion one after another. When it was Su Ximu and Blue 242’s turn, they fastened their badges on just like the others and crossed the threshold together. They skirted around the shadow wall at the entrance.

In a momentary daze, it felt like a drop of water hitting the surface and sending out brief ripples.

The mansion had taken in so many park employees in such a short time, yet when Su Ximu looked up closely, he found it even quieter than usual.

Where had the other employees who entered with them gone?

Puzzled, Su Ximu followed his memory toward the main hall.

Along the way, occasional passersby dressed as servants acted as if they couldn’t see them at all.

“New script?”

The young man muttered to himself in doubt, but the atmosphere of dead silence—more intense than any other day—made him edge closer to his companion anyway.

Blue 242 noticed his unease and patted the back of the young man’s hand lightly. “Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid,” Su Ximu said, salvaging his dignity.

He just thought the place felt a bit off.

It was like… like a haunted house deliberately designed for terror, or a murder mystery game setup.

His old roommate Wu Yang had dragged him to play those twice before. Each time, on top of his usual nightmare, he’d gotten an extra one that night.

“But the two of us together does feel a bit warmer. It’s kinda cold here,” the young man stressed.

Blue 242 nodded in understanding. “It is a bit cold.”

With that, he scooted a little closer to Su Ximu.

It was truly strange. As the two walked through the vast mansion, a thin mist began to rise. Obscured by the mist, the objects in the mansion grew hard to make out.

Su Ximu wanted to say he really didn’t care that much about a promotion and raise. The drums of retreat started thumping in his heart.

At that moment, hurried footsteps sounded from ahead, accompanied by heavy panting.

Su Ximu’s first reaction was that they’d finally run into other colleagues. His second was a flashback to those haunted house trips—fear that something grotesquely shaped might burst out of the mist.

The mix of anticipation and dread showed on his face as he peered ahead.

Coincidentally, the person who finally ran up wore a similar expression.

The two locked eyes. Su Ximu recognized him: a colleague, the young guy who played Sixth Concubine. He’d even praised the guy’s acting skills.

Su Ximu recognized Xu Mu, but Xu Mu didn’t recognize him.

Back then, as a newbie player just entering the dungeon, Xu Mu had been at his emotional breaking point. How could he have noticed anyone else?

Now, staring at the two normal-looking people he’d nearly collided with head-on, Xu Mu—tempered by these past few days—didn’t dare assume they were truly human.

He swallowed hard and asked the code phrase shakily. “Heaven’s king covers earth’s tiger?”

Su Ximu blinked. Not entirely confident, he replied, “Little chicken stewed with mushrooms?”

“Kin!” Xu Mu’s face lit up. He threw open his arms for a hug.

But the embrace never landed. He tripped and face-planted right there.

Xu Mu didn’t mind. He scrambled up, dusted himself off, and dove straight into the main topic with the pair. “Have you seen Rao Fei? He wears a gray long robe and has killer moves!”

“He’s an old player. I was with him at first, but then fog rose in the yard and we got separated. We’re looking for you guys!”

Xu Mu did the math in his head. Rao Fei had told him that Deep Courtyard had five players total.

Himself, Rao Fei, and now these two in front of him—that left just one more unaccounted for.

“Rao Fei said something’s changed in the dungeon. We gotta get out fast.”

“Oh, right—Rao Fei also said that because of the change in the dungeon, we can’t just hunker down till time’s up anymore. We have to clear it! And time’s short, so we need to take risks!”

“Rao Fei said that from his scouting and analysis these past few days, this mansion has powerful weirds beyond just Lord Wang!

“The people we’re playing as all really existed in this mansion!

“Ninth Concubine, Sixth Concubine, Wang Family Miss, two maidservants—as long as we find them and make them turn on Lord Wang and slaughter each other, we’ll have our shot at clearing the dungeon.”

“But we searched everywhere in the chaos earlier. We practically turned Ninth Concubine and Sixth Concubine’s yards upside down, and still no sign of them.”

Su Ximu listened and thought to himself, It lines up. It all lines up.

On his first day, Blue 242 Leader had mentioned in passing that the park didn’t just do folk performances—it offered immersive experiences for certain ‘tourists’ too.

So Rao Fei and this ‘Sixth Concubine’ in front of him weren’t park workers. They were ‘tourists’ here for the immersion?

Then what should he say next?

He kind of wanted to leave. He had no interest in playing along with an immersive horror murder mystery. That wasn’t in his job description.

And everyone had the day off anyway.

But ‘Sixth Concubine’ was so enthusiastic that Su Ximu had no choice. While peering through the fog for an exit, he tried responding with some analysis. “If we can’t find them anywhere, maybe it’s because of an Inner World? Like a mirror world that’s just like the Wang Family Mansion, but normal people can’t see or find it.”

“Lord Wang doesn’t want Ninth Concubine and the others out, so he locked them inside. We have to enter the Inner World and use a specific item to wake them.”

That’s how it always played out in murder mysteries.

Xu Mu snapped awake as if from a dream.

Right!

That made total sense!

He glanced around and suddenly felt like they might already be inside the Wang Family Mansion’s Inner World.

In that case…

Xu Mu spun around and started groping the wall beside him.

“It’s this wall! I remember—this wall leads to Ninth Concubine’s yard!”

On his first day here, he’d pressed his ear to a wall just like this one, listening to the axe blows from next door.

Later, when the axe came down on him, he’d learned the truth: those sounds that night were ‘Lord Wang’ trying to hack off ‘Ninth Concubine”s feet.

Rao Fei had taken blow after blow from the axe.

The next night, more banging—bang bang bang—the same sounds.

The morning of the third day, he’d lain in Sixth Concubine’s yard, his mind a muddled haze. He felt like he’d become part of this grand mansion.

Then Rao Fei came over and fed him a corn bun.

He’d snapped out of it.

Rao Fei’s feet…

Ninth Concubine”s feet…

With that thought, Xu Mu ignored the two companions behind him. He kicked off with both feet, face turning red from effort as he clambered over the courtyard wall.

On the other side lay Ninth Concubine’s yard, sure enough.

The thick fog receded in the small courtyard. He pushed open the door plastered with double happiness characters. Inside was a festive scene.

The girl in her wedding dress hung her head, tears falling. From the hem of her empty skirt, blood flowed in a steady stream to form a little brook.

On the round table inside the room sat a tray covered by red cloth, with the tip of a delicate red embroidered shoe peeking out.

Xu Mu fought down his terror, hands shaking as he lifted the tray. He walked over to the girl seated on the bed’s edge, crouched down, and placed the tray beneath her empty skirt.

“Even if you kill me right now, you should still go afterward and chop off Wang Songhe’s feet~”

Wang Songhe—Lord Wang’s full name.

“You have to chop him a thousand million times.”

Xu Mu lifted the red cloth. What lay on the tray was no embroidered shoe.

It was clearly a pair of bloody three-inch golden lotuses.

He lifted the tray again and pressed this pair of feet against the severed stump at the girl’s ankle beneath her skirt.

The next second, a shrill scream erupted. As the wedding-dressed girl raised her head, the blood tears on her face finally fell.

She didn’t even notice the person at her feet who was already prepared to sacrifice himself generously. The entire weirdo practically flew out of the courtyard without touching the ground.

Tourist Garden Park Chief’s Office

Su Jianglou didn’t know when he had arrived in the office. He was still beating around the bush with his eldest brother. “Big Bro, who helped you catch this Tourist Garden’s park chief? You shouldn’t have had any free time these past few days, right?”

“Was it Second Bro?”

Su Xuanxiao had just taken over Tourist Garden and finally had some idle time. He smiled ambiguously as he humored the chatterbox. “So what if it was? So what if it wasn’t?”

“If not, I was just asking.” Su Jianglou finished speaking and fell quiet for about two minutes.

Then he couldn’t hold back and spoke again. “Big Bro, you’re in a pretty good mood today? You even have time to hand out employee benefits. That park chief was really caught by Second Bro? Is he still in Tourist Garden right now?”

“Haha, he wouldn’t be in the Folk Custom Garden welfare area, right?”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Su Jianglou dismissed the idea himself. “Tsk, probably not. Big Bro, you can’t send him there either.”

With Big Bro’s personality, Tourist Garden was now entirely his territory.

Even if those old Weirds in the Folk Custom Area pissed off Big Bro, the mansion was still an asset of Tourist Garden.

Big Bro wouldn’t let Second Bro go over there for destructive reconstruction work.

Wang Family Mansion

The thick fog had completely dispersed the moment the Red-Clothed Bride appeared.

Su Ximu stared blankly at the Red-Clothed Bride hovering in mid-air not far away. His expression was dazed, as if this scene had finally awakened long-buried memories.

He remembered! He really remembered it all!

He had seen a similar scene before!

It was the last time with his roommate Wu Yang. They had watched a living person vanish right in front of their eyes!

Wu Yang had shouted that it was a haunting.

But before he could shout twice, someone blindfolded them and took them to the Confidentiality Bureau, where they signed a confidentiality agreement.

He remembered everything!

There really were unscientific phenomena in this world!

When he was signing the agreement, he had overheard Wu Yang chatting with the Confidentiality Bureau staff. It seemed some relatively weak weird entities feared being cursed at.

After remembering, his first reaction was to shield the Blue 242 Leader beside him.

“Blue 242 Leader, get behind me quick. I have experience—I’ll protect you!”

Blue 242, who had lifted his head to fix his gaze on the wedding-dressed bride in mid-air, withdrew his eyes. Frail and helpless, he took a step back. “Thanks.”

“This place is really scary.”