Chapter 119
Jiang Liu was awakened by the alarm.
The two of them had stayed up a bit late last night, so she should have slept in for a while.
However, she was preoccupied with this afternoon’s instance and hadn’t slept very soundly, thinking it was still early. But when she opened her eyes, the clock hands were already pointing to eleven.
Jiang Liu thought she had misread it and squinted to confirm several times. Just as she was about to ask Xiao Si why she hadn’t woken her up, she reached out and felt an empty space beside her.
Realizing this, the last vestiges of sleepiness completely vanished. She snapped her eyes open, only to find that the person was long gone from her side.
The bed was still a bit messy, but the side that belonged to Yang Caisi had lost all its warmth. Only half of the quilt was draped over the floor, as if the person had left on their own accord.
Last night, the two of them had talked and learned that the number of instances each person needed to complete varied depending on their wish. The specific measurement method was all uniformly calculated by The System itself.
In other words, even NPCs might not know the details.
Of course, there were exceptions, like the experiment group Jiang Liu was in a hundred years ago, where all the information was controlled by Qiao Ke.
So they had planned to ask Gao Yuan today how to find the detailed information to clear the levels and leave.
But where was Xiao Si? Could she have gone to find Gao Yuan ahead of time?
Jiang Liu had an indescribable sense of unease, but she had no clue what it was about.
She raised a hand to press her temples, but still decided to go out and take a look first.
She had just approached the door when she heard low muttering from outside. Jiang Liu raised an eyebrow in suspicion and peered through the peephole, only to see Zhao Ziming and his group huddled sneakily outside the door.
A question mark popped up in Jiang Liu’s head, but her body moved faster than her mind. Before she could think it through, she had already creaked the door open, startling the group.
Zhao Ziming had it the worst. The door opened inwards, and he had been leaning against it. With Jiang Liu’s movement, he lost his balance and nearly fell in.
After finally steadying himself, Zhao Ziming immediately complained with a pained expression, “Why did you suddenly open the door?”
Jiang Liu glanced at him sideways and said coolly, “What are you doing squatting at my door like a thief?”
After speaking, she scanned Xu Meng and the others behind him and immediately noticed something was off.
The usually empty hotel corridor was now buzzing with voices. Players were gathered in twos and threes, either chatting or laughing.
This isn’t right, Jiang Liu thought calmly.
Players from different batches entered instances at different times, and it was rare for them to gather in the hotel on a large scale. Only in the quiet evenings would the streets have a bit more life.
Before this, Jiang Liu had no idea there were so many players in the game.
She felt a headache coming on and supported her head with one hand, at a loss for words.
As if noticing her weary expression, the ever-attentive Xu Meng pulled back Zhao Ziming, who was about to say more, and asked with concern, “Didn’t you sleep well, Sister Jiang?”
Jiang Liu shook her head, not answering Xu Meng’s question, and instead looked around. “Where’s Xiao Si?”
And… “Why hasn’t the three o’clock instance been announced yet?”
Hearing her words, Xu Meng hesitated, not answering immediately. Instead, she looked Jiang Liu up and down, as if the person before her was not a long-time teammate, but a complete stranger.
At her words, the others also gradually quieted down, their eyes all fixed on Jiang Liu. It was Tang Ruo who finally stepped forward and touched her forehead.
“She doesn’t have a fever. Why is she talking nonsense?”
Tang Ruo was puzzled. “In the middle of the night, The System announced an NPC meeting, and all instances are suspended for the next few days. Didn’t you hear?”
Announcement, meeting.
Jiang Liu was a bit dazed. The memory was only vague before, but now that Tang Ruo mentioned it, she remembered most of it and realized she had made a fool of herself.
“Are you too tired?” Zhao Ziming was a little nervous, afraid that if something happened to Jiang Liu, he wouldn’t be able to explain it to Yang Caisi.
Jiang Liu was speechless at this and repeated her initial question, “So what were you all doing at my door?”
Zhao Ziming scratched his head. “It’s already noon and you haven’t made a move. We came to check on you.”
As if remembering something, he handed over the bag in Jiang He’s hand. “Lunch.”
After thanking her companions, Jiang Liu closed the door and stared blankly at the bag of food.
She was indeed a bit hungry, but for some reason, looking at the delicious-smelling and appetizing food in front of her, she had no appetite at all.
This was not her style.
Jiang Liu leaned back on the sofa, feeling a dull ache in her head again.
Her phone was right by her pillow. Besides the messages from Zhao Ziming and the others, the latest one was from Xiao Si in the middle of the night, with just four words: ‘Wait for me to come back’.
Everything seemed logical, but she always felt like she was overlooking something.
She tossed and turned for a bit, but finally got up and headed downstairs, straight to Yang Caisi’s place.
The late autumn leaves, unswept, had piled up thickly on both sides of the road. Occasionally, a few would be lifted by the wind and swirl in the air, creating a sense of desolation.
There were more pedestrians on the streets. With no instances to enter, the players had clearly relaxed, and were willing to come out for a walk, taking a closer look at the public areas they had never explored before.
Jiang Liu walked quickly, her footsteps rustling on the fallen leaves. She practically jogged to the front of the NPC dormitory.
Yang Caisi’s door was locked, still covered in a thin layer of dust. This time, she didn’t bother with the so-called smart system and forcefully broke the lock in a few moves, striding inside.
Since the two of them had acknowledged each other, Xiao Si rarely slept here. The living room was cold and devoid of any human presence, yet upon arriving, Jiang Liu inexplicably relaxed.
The tense string in her heart loosened at this moment. She let out a long breath, expertly picked a bottle of water from the fridge, and drank, silently laughing at herself for being paranoid.
The game had its own rules and regulations. This was something even Lin Jiao and the others had admitted. She shouldn’t have doubted anything.
She had probably become suspicious because she had remembered too much of the past.
Jiang Liu stretched, and a wave of drowsiness rose from her body again. She yawned and walked upstairs, planning to take a short nap here.
The bed in the master bedroom had indeed been vacant for a long time, but it was a place where the former Yang Caisi had truly stayed.
Sensing the familiar aura, Jiang Liu felt exceptionally at ease.
***
The moonlight quietly crept up the branches. Jiang Liu silently opened her eyes, her hand under the covers tightly gripping her dagger, lying in bed almost motionless.
At some point, someone else had slipped in here.
She couldn’t tell who it was, only that a burning gaze was hidden behind the curtains, unscrupulously sizing her up.
Realizing this, she broke out in a cold sweat. As she carefully glanced around, she also took in the layout of Yang Caisi’s room.
She had been here twice before and knew the arrangement of the bedroom like the back of her hand. The person wasn’t hiding very well; the moonlight cast a slanted shadow on the floor.
She could vaguely make out a tall figure with very broad shoulders, hiding there for some unknown purpose.
Lying in wait was not Jiang Liu’s style. She silently counted to three in her head, and then shot up from the bed, grabbing a corner of the curtain and yanking it open—
As the thing’s full appearance was revealed, Jiang Liu’s eyes were instantly filled with astonishment.
In the hotel.
A group of people were gathered in Zhao Ziming’s room, all staring at the phone in his hand.
The screen showed the dialing interface. After a series of beeps, the call was disconnected again. Zhao Ziming, refusing to give up, dialed again, cold sweat already beading on his forehead.
No one looked good, especially Xu Meng, whose face could be described as deathly pale. If it weren’t for Tang Ruo and everyone else being there, she probably wouldn’t have known what to do.
Just ten minutes ago, the system alarm in the room had suddenly gone off again—
[Warning, a serious accident has occurred in some instances. Players are requested to wait quietly in the hotel. If you leave without authorization, you will be responsible for the consequences.]
[!!!!!!!!!!]
This time, the broadcast was unusually uniform. The usually calm and eerie electronic voice sounded as if it had been threatened, its tone sharp and piercing, not to mention the almost tangible sense of exclamation.
Without the NPCs to manage them, the players quickly fell into a panic.
Unsure of what to do, the group gathered to ask for Jiang Liu’s opinion, only to find no response no matter how many times they knocked on her door.
Excluding the possibility that Jiang Liu was dead asleep, the group quickly determined that she had gone out, which led to the current scene.
“What should we do? Should we go out and look for her?” Jiang He was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan and couldn’t help but ask.
No one in the room responded. Zhao Ziming was still repeatedly dialing the phone.
On the other hand, Tang Ruo was relatively calm. She walked to the window and looked down. The street was already empty, with only the flickering streetlights, as if they too were heralding an unknown risk.
She spoke calmly, “Jiang Liu is measured in her actions. Can we guess where she might have gone?”
Zhao Ziming and Xu Meng exchanged a look, and a possibility immediately appeared in their minds.
“The NPC residential area!”
Tang Ruo raised an eyebrow and quickly made a plan.
“Xiao Zhao and I will go out and look. You all stay in the hotel and don’t move. Contact us by phone if anything happens.”
Before she could finish, Zhao Ziming suddenly shouted, “It’s connected, it’s connected!!”
Before the others could react, he had already put the phone to his ear. “Sister Jiang, where did you go?”
—”I’m at Xiao Si’s place. What’s wrong?”
Hearing the anxiety in the person’s voice on the other end, Jiang Liu narrowed her eyes slightly, her tone intriguing.
“Didn’t you hear the broadcast where you are? Something’s happened! It’s hard to explain in a few words. Just come back first.”
Zhao Ziming rattled off a bunch of things before belatedly realizing that Jiang Liu’s tone was very calm, not like she had encountered an accident. He then added, “Did you not encounter anything over there? Where’s that sound of water coming from?”
The phone, on speaker, was placed on the bedside table. Jiang Liu wrung out the cloth in her hand and replied casually, “I’m wiping the wall.”
Zhao Ziming was confused.
Before he could speak, Jiang Liu spoke first, “I did encounter a monster. It dirtied Xiao Si’s wall. I’ll be back as soon as I’m done. Just stay put, no need to worry about me.”
She hung up the phone and closed her eyes, recalling the thing she had just seen—
Even Jiang Liu didn’t know how to describe that face. It was like a flayed skeleton, randomly filled with the flesh and blood of livestock. Its eyes grew on its arms, while its mouth was on top of its head, all twisted and pieced together.
But what was more noticeable was the wall it had crawled on.
Jiang Liu reached out and touched the seamless wall, finally understanding where her sense of strangeness came from.
If she remembered correctly, there should have been a locked secret door here.
Was everything that happened today real?
What kind of world was she in right now?