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Published at 3rd of May 2023 06:33:47 AM


Chapter 4

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Having the Same Name as the Demon Lord of the Abyss

Even if he was prepared, when the ringing started, the fingers holding his phone still became stiff and unsteady for a moment.

Even if he didn’t turn back and look up, the same plot from the supernatural post still appeared.

Ye Zun had read the landlord’s narrative at the end of the post, and fully knew that the one calling on the other end was a ghost.

He didn’t plan to answer from the beginning.

But at that very moment when he didn’t hesitate to hang up, the phone connected by itself.

Ye Zun: “……?!” 

The other end of the phone was very noisy, as if there were many people on the call.

A trembling voice suppressing their panic came out. “Don’t hang up, you read that supernatural post just like us, right?”

“Don’t talk nonsense, hurry and get to the main point.” There seemed to be other people around, urging the caller impatiently.

Ye Zun didn’t make any noise.

“Wu wu wu, me too, we also met a supernatural event just like you and suddenly a game box popped and told us to escape, there are so many ghosts chasing us.”

“If you’re done, hurry and get to the main point. If you’re not talking, pass the phone to me.”

Ye Zun was silent.

The phone proceeded to change hands.

“Wei, are you listening ba? It’s like this, after the three of us here successfully ran out, we ran into some old players and got the contact information of other teammates from the game, so we managed to call you. You should quickly come and meet up ba, the address is…”

Ye Zun hung up.

He didn’t throw the phone away and continued to walk outwards from the community.

Ye Zun wasn’t planning to go to the caller’s address to meet the so-called teammates.

The ringing started again and this time it quickly connected by itself. “What’s the matter with you? Have you never read a infinite flow novel? 《 Infinite Horror 》, you’ve heard of it ba? A newcomer like you who’s unsociable and doesn’t cooperate properly, do you even want to live…”

Hang up again.

This time, the other party didn’t call again.

Ye Zun had already reached the nearest exit of the community.

The lights in the security room were on. He could see someone sitting in there, though he was unsure whether they were taking a nap or watching a video.

Ye Zun scanned across the room and found that the screen far away was playing a scene from a horror movie. It was a close-up shot of Sadako climbing out of the TV.

He held his breath slightly.

There was an access card on his keychain, linked to the same system as the iron door of the unit buildings. Ye Zun quietly walked over and swiped it.

The sound was very quiet even in the empty night. Ye Zun successfully left the Paradise Apartments neighbourhood without disturbing anyone.

Opposite the community was a commercial street, lights still shining bright despite the time, and there was a 24-hour supermarket next to apartment plots.

Looking at the dark neighbourhood, Ye Zun was silent for a while, and without crossing the road he walked into the nearby supermarket.

The supermarket clerk supported his head with a hand, watching the video computer video attentively as usual.

Ye Zun glanced at the screen. It seemed to be a popular romance drama.

He breathed a sigh of relief and walked into the supermarket.

In the next instant, Ye Zun suddenly paused, turned his head slightly, and took another look.

Under the light, the cigarette glass cabinet behind the clerk didn’t reflect the figure of a person, only the computer that was playing a scene of ghosts eating people.

Thud.

[T/N: 咕咚/gudong: sound of something heavy falling down ]

His Adam’s apple carefully swallowed once.

He’d already walked to the centre of the supermarket. If he wanted to go out again, he will have to pass in front of the clerk.

What to do?

Ye Zun only paused to take a few breaths then continued to walk deeper into the shelved section.

A bottle of baijiu with the highest alcohol content, a lighter, a pair of scissors, a long awl, a pair of rubber gloves, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol spray, a taser*, a pair of sports sneakers and socks, and a poncho.

[T/N: anti-wolf appliance, just stuff to ward perverts off]

“Check out please.” Ye Zun stood in front of the counter, his eyelids drooping slightly as before, not looking at the other.

The clerk was a fat man, but in Ye Zun’s memory, a woman and her son were usually in charge of this store.

“What’s a big star like you buying these sorts of things?” 

The clerk struck up a conversation with Ye Zun while scanning.

Ye Zun still kept his eyes down, not looking at the other party nor correcting him. He was just a newcomer who shot commercials as a part-time job, nothing like a big star, and he refused to ask how the other man knew what his profession was.

He quickly took out his phone and scanned the QR code to check out, saying thank you in a low voice before picking up the things and walking out.

Only after putting a considerable distance between him and the store did Ye Zun turn his head back slightly.

He saw something with a long extending neck, staring at him from inside the store. It saw that Ye Zun had spotted it, and the gray head showed a weird smile before gradually retracting.

Ye Zun’s pupils dilated. He stood motionlessly on the side of the road, slowly looking around.

Although there were not as many cars on the road at night when compared to during the day, a car would whizz by every few minutes.

As he looked carefully, a white BMW car appeared out of thin air from around a hundred meters away in the darkness and suddenly rushed over with full horsepower.

The person crossing the road bounced a ball rhythmically. After getting hit and sent flying in the air, they continued to bounce the ball. The ball in their hand was a bloody human head.

The BMW car suddenly ignited after driving another several tens of meters, burning into a crisp then disappearing.

On the other side of the road, a mummy-like man with a gloomy corpse-like face manned a night market stall, flipping human hands and rotting cat carcasses on the grill.

There was an old couple strolling hand in hand. The old man only had the torn half of his upper body and the old lady did not have half of her shoulder or head.

Ye Zunqing couldn’t help stumbling back a step, cold sweat plastering his forehead and his trembling pupils empty like a hole.

The whole world has changed, there are ghosts everywhere!

How can this be?

He glanced at his phone. 3:25AM.

The game isn’t over yet, he actually, never escaped!

There is still fifteen minutes left, where can he run?

His phone rang again, and it was connected automatically once more.

An impatient voice said, “I said, what the hell is wrong with you? Do you still want to live? If it didn’t affect Laozi’s* clearance points, Laozi wouldn’t care if you lived or died. Time is running out, hurry up and run along your right side, we are at Bi’an Cafe on the other side of the intersection.”

[T/N: arrogant way a guy refers to himself, like ‘this master’]

This time, the other party hung up directly after speaking, as if he didn’t care if Ye Zun was listening.

Ye Zun knew where Bi’an Cafe was. It was located less than one kilometer away from where he currently was. Fifteen minutes was more than enough for him to get there.

What to do, should he listen to him?

Ye Zun stood there, looking around this hellish place. On the right was a thick ink-like darkness, but there was light at the end of the darkness.

He turned back, eyes flitting over Paradise Apartments.

The community was a blanket of darkness. Only a few windows had light shining through and vague, wispy shadows showed through all the curtains. There seemed to be a ghost staring at him behind every window.

Ye Zun blinked, carefully thinking back to all the encounters tonight, not even disregarding the repeated nightmares.

Then, he changed into the sports sneakers, put on the raincoat, slipped on the plastic gloves, and turned his body around, walking into the community.

The card was swiped and the door opened.

He looked steadily forward as he walked in. The door of the security room was open.

The ghost who crawled out of the TV pulled the security guard and the two fell out of the security room together.

“Help me!”

As if he couldn’t hear, Ye Zun didn’t spare it a single look.

In the next instant, the security guard’s expression of pain and fear twisted into something hideous. He and the ghost quickly crawled towards Ye Zun.

With a flick, a small flame appeared above the lighter. Ye Zun turned his head with a blank expression, then pressed the alcohol spray towards the top of the flame with his other hand.

When the isopropyl liquid met fire, it turned into a fireball, roaring in the direction of the two ghosts. After the fire dissipated, the two ghosts immediately turned into black smoke and disappeared.

Ye Zun released the lighter, his feet running towards the 14th building without stopping.

This operation was extremely dangerous and a little carelessness would burn one’s own body. If it weren’t for this life or death situation, Ye Zun wouldn’t have made this suicidal attempt at all.

Even so, his fingers were still somewhat unsteady, in fear that he would not be able to drive away ghosts, or that the flames would burn his hands.

But now, fear cannot prevent these dangerous scenarios.

Only by facing your fear, can you find a solution to the problem.

At 3:30, Ye Zun stood under the towering Building 14 again, raising his head to look up.

Under the gloomy black sky, the whole building appeared like a dark shadow. Only two windows had their lights on.

Ye Zun’s own room, and the fourth floor that appeared out of nowhere.

Everything was the same as that described in the supernatural post. A tall, thin black figure watched him from behind the blood-red curtains on the fourth floor.

If it was before, he would run away, never to return at all costs.

But now, he stood here, under the gaze of the dark shadow. He walked towards the unit door.

The access card came in contact with the lock. With a beep, the iron door of the unit building swung open automatically.

The right hand wearing rubber gloves grabbed the iron door and pushed the door open wider. A plastic bag hung on the wrist of his left hand, containing the things he bought.

Ye Zun walked in.

The passage after unit door leading to the corridor on the first floor was pitch black. Behind him, the sound of the iron door slowly closing was distant, ethereal and chilling, as if the exit of hell had closed behind him.

An icy cold feeling climbed up Ye Zun’s back, but instead of stopping, his feet walking upstairs increased in speed.

After all, there were only ten minutes left before the end of the game.

The phone rang rapidly, resounding in the dark and empty corridor, triggering many floors of sensor lights.

The strong male voice on the other end of the phone spat, “Why haven’t you come? There are only ten minutes left. If you don’t run away, you will fail. If you fail, you will be torn apart by ghosts and die a miserable death, staying in this world forever!”

Ye Zun ignored it, turning from the stairs on the first floor to the second floor.

After the angry voice on the phone didn’t receive a reply, the phone changed hands, and a sharp, sarcastic female’s voice said, “You will die. You will die immediately. You are the stupidest person I have ever seen in this game.”

Ye Zun was not provoked into anger. He paid careful attention to whether there were any hidden dangers in front of him, behind him, or above his head.

A child’s sharp laughter flashed across the corridor, eerie and terrifying.

An anxious voice came through the phone: “What are you doing, did you go in? Hurry and come out, don’t you know that there is a ghost in the room? And you still dare to go back? If we wanted to hurt you we would’ve just ignored you entirely ah? Trust us and hurry back out!”

Ye Zun stood at the top of the second floor stairway, about to enter the third floor. His eyes were fixed on the slightly ajar door.

“En*, I think so too.” This was the first time Ye Zun responded to the voice on the other end of the phone.

[T/N: an affirming hum]

The person on the other end seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and gently said, “There are still eight minutes left, should be enough. You should come out quickly ba, and we will also head towards you. Everyone will help you…”

“Since the beginning, I’ve been wondering, why is the room scarier than the corridor? Why did my escape go so smoothly? Why didn’t the ghost appear in the corridor to block me like in my dream? Until the call came, I couldn’t understand.”

The other end was silent.

Ye Zun still stared at the door. “If you had stopped calling, if I was scared by the sights at the community gate that I end up losing my mind, I really might have hesitated and tried to make my way to Bi’an Cafe in a panic. But you were too anxious.”

“What are you talking about? There are only seven minutes left, are you sure you want to waste your time?”

Ye Zun stared at the unlocked door on the third floor, without a trace of repose. “Why do you keep calling me over and over? What will happen if I agree? I’ll just get farther and farther away from here ba, even if I realise the correct way to clear the game, it’ll be too late. Right, it’s just a waste of time. You want me to waste my time.”

“……”

“Just like hunting, the real exit is full of danger. Pretend to leave a safe exit, so that the prey will panic and go in the direction the hunter wants in order to escape, but little does it know, that is the most terrifying trap.”

Ye Zun stared at the door on the third floor. “You are behind the door, right? The key to escape is in this building, am I right?”

Creak. The black door slowly pulled back, exposing an even darker gap near the top. Towering at two meters high, a pair of lifeless resentful eyes stared at him in the darkness above the door frame.

The author has something to say:

Everyone said it’s not scary, so I changed it to ‘a little bit’. If I get beaten, those of you who said it isn’t scary have to stand with me oh.




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