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Published at 19th of September 2022 05:11:19 AM


Chapter 57.1

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Bai Lixin chuckled and pointed to the ghost mother: “The little girl was her. Didn’t you hear what they were arguing about? The two couldn’t have children, so where would the little girl have come from?”

“Didn’t we feel a gust of wind when we were outside? It was her coming from next door.”

The ghost mother was silent for two seconds, then said, “That’s right.”

Dijia looked at Bai Lixin with a smile in his eyes, “I didn’t even discover it. You’re so smart.”

Bai Lixin: “……”

The ghost mother glanced back and forth between Dijia and Bai Lixin and said with emotion, “You two are so close.”

“When I first moved to this place with my children, I started with the idea of getting along with the neighbours.”

“But the man next door came into my house on the pretext that something fell from his balcony.”

“Let’s talk from outside,” the ghost mother said as she exited the bath room first. “Then something bad happened, and the man took pictures to blackmail me.”

“I can’t believe they knew what he did and just turned a blind eye and called me a vixen.”

The ghost mother came to the table, took a piece of roast pork and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing it fiercely.

It was like she had the flesh of the man in her mouth.

“He could touch me, but not my two children!” The woman’s expression suddenly turned sinister, ” I got some evil ideas then, and I planned to get rid of him once and for all.”

“I just didn’t expect him to find out in advance. Not only did he not drink the sleeping pills, but he tied me up and killed me.”

The ghost mother paused, “Afterwards the woman next door came over and helped him dispose of my body.”

She rubbed her hair in pain, “I regret it. If I had been calmer and less extreme, this wouldn’t have happened and my children and they wouldn’t have been left helpless. I should have been braver and not cared about the gossip and just called the police.”

“All I want is to get my children back,” the ghost mother said to Bai Lixin, “can you help me?”

Bai Lixin: “How long have you been here?”

The ghost mother: “I don’t remember, a long, long time, I think.”

Bai Lixin: “What exactly does the Red Apple House do?”

The ghost mother glanced at Bai Lixin, and her mouth parted in a smile. “I didn’t take the people, but I know what took them. If you can help me find my children, I’ll tell you something I know but you don’t.”

“What do you think of that deal?”

A system prompt suddenly rang out in Bai Lixin’s mind.

[Ding! Explore the s-rank task: help the ghost mother find her children. Upon completion of the task, you will receive 50,000 points from the pool and gain access to the hidden secrets of the Red Apple House. Will the player accept the quest?

Receive, Decline]

Bai Lixin clicked on receive, “Okay, I’ll help you find your children.”

The system prompt rang out again.

[Ding! Congratulations to the player. You have accepted the s-rank task: Ghost Mother’s Long-cherished Wish.]

Bai Lixin: “You’ve been to the Red Apple House many times. Do you have any clues?”

Ghost Mother: “Yes. The end of the basement, the end of the sea, the end of the road.”

Bai Lixin mulled on that one sentence carefully.

Three ends.

The clock on the wall chimed; it was exactly four a.m.

There was a sudden, rhythmic knock at the door, and for a moment, the ghost mother’s crooked eyes froze suddenly, before returning to normal.

“It’s time.” The light overhead began to flicker violently. She walked towards the door as she spoke with difficulty, “I’ve looked everywhere else and those three places were the ones I couldn’t set foot in.”

She walked in a strange manner, as if someone was forcing her to walk.

Her head was also turned with force as she uttered her last words with a pained expression, “You guys should first hide in the kitchen.”

Without much hesitation, Bai Lixin and Dijia quickly entered the kitchen.

Bai Lixin opened the door by a small crack to look outside, and saw the man from next door walk in.

Unlike the arrogance of a moment ago, the man had a terrified expression under the ever-flickering light.

The ghost mother laughed, “Why are you standing outside? Come in. ”

The man stiffly walked into the room.

Pouring a glass of water, counter-attacking, dismembering…

These actions seemed to have been repeated countless times, as the two ghosts skillfully repeated the events of that day.

The ghost mother’s shrill laughter resounded throughout the space as she was being split up.

It was clearly the ghost mother who was being dismembered, but it was the man who was screaming in fear while doing the act of violence.

Blood splattered everywhere along the man’s knife, and countless pieces of flesh were scattered on the ground.

The man was going mad.

The ghost mother was dismembered uncontrollably and his mouth was wailing for mercy: “Forgive me, I was wrong. I was really wrong. Please let me go. I’m sorry. I was the one who wronged you back then, I shouldn’t have raped you, I shouldn’t have taken pictures, and I shouldn’t have set my mind on your two children. I was an animal.”

Blood and bits of flesh flew everywhere.

He had to come here once a day, and every time he returned home after the dismembering, his wife had to cook him a big fish and meat dish.

His stomach would turn over, but he had to eat it bit by bit and hold back the nausea.

The little girl who appeared out of nowhere had to play the role of his daughter all the time, monitoring him every day.

Sometimes she was normal, sometimes she suddenly hugged his leg, and suddenly she was a ghost baby with a pale face.

It was too painful. When would this torture ever end?

A warm hand covered Bai Lixin’s eyes from behind.

Dijia’s gentle voice reached his ears, “There’s nothing to see, I’ll tell you when it’s over. Get a good night’s sleep.”

In his ears, the ghost mother’s shrill laughter and the man’s pleading voice gradually faded away.

……

Bai Lixin woke up after a while and found himself already back in the room at the Red Apple House.

The ghosts above his head had disappeared, and the little doll head lay on the pillow, sleeping peacefully.

Lin Jue was lying on the bed next to him, his breathing calm.

Dijia was nowhere to be found.

Bai Lixin opened the task bar, and the time in the top right corner read 4:30 in the morning.

He walked out of the room and checked from room to room; all the players had returned to bed. They were breathing heavily, with smiles at the corners of their mouths and contented expressions on their faces, but there were shadows under their eyes.

It was still pitch black under the window.

The two moons, one red and one white, had disappeared from the sky, and there wasn’t a glimmer of light as far as the eye could see.

On the sea, there was no lighthouse to guide the way.

Just when Bai Lixin was about to turn his attention away, a faint light in the distance suddenly caught his attention.

He redirected his sight over. In the distant sea, something seemed to be flickering.

The end of the basement, the end of the sea, the end of the road.

The ghost mother wanted him to visit these three places she could not reach on her own.

So, would these three ends lead to some

thing?

This was an island, and the former Red Apple House was known to be an orphanage. So the question arises, would an orphanage really be built on an island?

To make it easy for adopters to take their children, an orphanage would not be in such an isolated place even though it would be in a remote area.

This kind of paradise was not like an orphanage, but more like a sanatorium, or some special experimental base.

At half past four in the morning, the undead had disappeared and the living had not yet appeared.

Between heaven and earth, he seemed to be the only one awake.

Bai Lixin stood beside his bed, his eyes silently gazing at the place where the bright light had emanated.

In his head, an abrupt system prompt rang out.

[Ding! Players dead x2, 18 players remaining currently.]

The hand holding the windowsill clenched for a moment, and Bai Lixin opened the task bar.

It was showing 20 survivors a moment ago, but now, there were only 18 left.

The other players were all in their beds, so it was the two missing players who were dead.

At exactly five o’clock, the sun was slowly rising from sea level.

The bright light in the distance was still flickering at regular intervals.

The blue water was gradually tinged with broken and clear wave points, and birds flew in from afar as they chirped.

The window was open and a gentle sea breeze with a salty smell blew in.

Everything was so beautiful and perfect.

The rising sun was not too harsh, and Bai Lixin held the same pose for a full hour.

At six o’clock, footsteps sounded outside the room.

The priests who had disappeared had returned.

At seven o’clock, Lin Jue stretched and opened his eyes. He opened his eyes in a daze and was startled at the sight of the figure by the window. After a few seconds, he realized that it was Bai Lixin, and he said, “You’re up early.”

Bai Lixin turned his head to look at him for a few seconds, then faintly withdrew his gaze, “Yes, you’re not late either.”

Lin Jue scratched his head.

The look in Bai Lixin’s eyes made him feel like he was looking at someone else through him.

How had he fallen asleep last night?

Shit, did that ghost take over his body again?

Lin Jue asked tentatively, “Um, I’m a sleepwalker. I didn’t do anything strange yesterday, did I?”

Bai Lixin continued to look out with one hand on his cheek. He didn’t even turn his head back and said, “No, I was asleep too. I don’t know what you did.”

Lin Jue was suspicious, but in the end, he didn’t say anything more than, “Oh, that’s good. I’ll go and wash my face.”

In the corridor, the familiar footsteps of the priests rang out.

Bai Lixin looked back at the bed, and the doll head had disappeared.

Ten minutes later, the players stood in the corridor, just as they had yesterday.

All the players had excited and happy expressions today, as if all the unpleasantness had never happened, as if they had simply forgotten the purpose of their trip, that two players had died, and that it could be any one of them next.

Xia Chi waved to Bai Lixin in high spirits, “Brother!”

Bai Lixin walked over and stared at the dark shadows under Xia Chi’s eyes, “What good dreams did you have last night?”

The happy Xia Chi froze for a couple of seconds, then shook his head, “Hey, I don’t know, I forgot, it was a good dream anyway.”

Bai Lixin: “Did you dream about Tan Yue?”

Xia Chi’s eyebrows knitted together, “Tan Yue, who is that?”

Bai Lixin’s eyes narrowed as he lowered his voice and his gaze fell on Xia Chi’s face, not letting go of a single change in expression, “Tan Yue is your best friend. Have you forgotten?”

Xia Chi’s expression became even more tangled. He thought for a long time but finally shook his head and said, “You are my best friend, I don’t know any Tan Yue.”

Bai Lixin: “……”

Memory loss.

Or lost memories of the things most precious to him.

Bai Lixin asked again, “Your parents, do you still remember them?”

Xia Chi: “Parents? What are you talking about, brother? Aren’t we orphans? We’ve always lived in the Red Apple House, ah.”

It wasn’t just memory loss; his memories had been tampered with.

“What about the immersion escape game? Do you remember that? Tell me, how did you get here?”

Xia Chi: “What immersion escape game, brother? Are you still sleepy? We’ve been living here since we were kids. Every day is carefree and this is the purest place in the world. We are the future of the world.”

Bai Lixin looked around, and his gaze fell on Lin Jue.

At that moment, Lin Jue had the same expression as he did, and opposite him stood Emil.

It seemed that Emil had also lost his memory.

Sensing Bai Lixin’s gaze, Lin Jue took a step back to Bai Lixin’s side and lowered his voice, “Their memories have all been tampered with. The Third Symphony of the Undead, I now remember that name.”

Lin Jue’s tone was very serious, and there was a strong sense of worry in it.

Bai Lixin looked at Lin Jue and encouraged him to continue.

“The current Sand Sea Guild is one that has undergone a major reshuffle, and although I am one of the vice presidents, I am not an old member. I used to hear the veteran players in our guild mention ten copies that scared all the players back then.”

“But because it was so long ago, my memory is very vague. Among them was this copy, the Third Symphony of the Undead: Night Walk of A Hundred Ghosts, and it was ranked eighth at that time.”

“From what those players said, the escape game started out without a live stream and without an entertainment centre every 50 levels. It was only as the escape game continued to awaken and improve itself that live streaming and a wide variety of entertainment appeared.”

“The survival rate for this copy was, well, almost zero.”

“Players set up guilds and news distribution points at that time in order to exchange information and prepare adequately for clearance. There weren’t so many copies back then, so players quickly gathered a lot of copy information.”

“But this old copy was never talked about. If it wasn’t for the live stream opening up later, people wouldn’t have known that this copy even existed. The survival rate was almost zero, and no one has ever left this copy.”

“The reason why the survival rate is said to be almost zero is because back then, one player broke the law of total death and took several players through the copy.”

“It was also on that day that this copy was identified as a bug-ridden copy and was blocked.”

“Because this copy had been blocked and was so old, much of the information in it was incomplete. I only remember a veteran saying that those who survived still talked about it with a terrified look even after many years.”

“It is said that they would enter a state of drunkenness and would lose the willpower and courage to clear the copy, that this copy would eat people, and the dead players would be absorbed to become its nutrients.”

Lin Jue, who had always been fearless, squeezed his dagger with a trembling hand and fear began to converge at the bottom of his eyes. “But wasn’t this copy blocked? How come it’s suddenly opened again?!”

“Look at them now, they’ve all forgotten what they’re here for. Isn’t that what the veterans call being drunk and losing willpower?!” It was Lin Jue’s first time saying so much, and it seemed that he was really frightened.

Bai Lixin caught a message in these words, “That player who took everyone out back then, is he the one who is now number one in the rankings?”

Lin Jue nodded, “Yes, that’s him.”

Bai Lixin thought for a moment, “Why is his name in mosaic? Since his rank is so high, you guys should remember his name, right? What was his name?”

“What was his name ……” Lin Jue suddenly hesitated, “I don’t know. Not only do I not know, all the veterans have forgotten too. He was already in first place when I joined the game, and his name was already mosaicked by then. I went and asked the other players, even the ones that have been here the longest, but they all forgot what his name was.”

“We can only vaguely remember that there was such a person.” He paused and was suddenly puzzled, “But when you think about it, was there really such a person that could get 9-digit points? Isn’t the system making up memories for us?




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