Cheng Xu

Biodata

Personality

Cheng Xu valued teamwork and repeatedly intervened when Zhang Zhiqiang and Zhao Yuqing argued. He was cautious about the hidden mission and asked the group to vote before entering the courtyard refuge 11 12 14.

He adapted when the instance diverged from its guide, but became ruthless toward the school residents after they tried to eat his group. Despite his fear of the puppets, he chose to fight rather than surrender 13 18 20.

Abilities & Skills

Perception and physical ability

• His mental strength let him sense the invisible doll’s approximate location before it attacked 12 13.
• His physique surpassed that of an ordinary person, allowing him and his companions to escape a crowd of pursuing residents 18.
• He had not awakened as an ability user. Clearing Haunted Town would have brought him to level 10 and allowed him to awaken 11 21.

Equipment

• Demon Blade — A C-grade, blood-red short blade and Cheng Xu’s only supernatural item. He obtained it by completing a hidden quest after narrowly escaping death 13.
  • It inflicts wounds that never heal, can slay and devour spirit entities, and grows by consuming them. A strike disabled a doll by turning it into ordinary wood and metal 13 16.
  • It devoured the blood of two residents Cheng Xu killed, leaving their bodies without bleeding 18.
  • The negative emotions of consumed spirits affect its owner and permanently reduce the owner’s spirit attribute. If the blade grows too powerful, it may kill its owner 13.
  • After Cheng Xu’s death, Jiang Yue used the blade to kill herself. Shen Hao later retrieved it from the instance 21 22.

Relationships

• Jiang Yue — Fellow player who accompanied Cheng Xu through the hidden map and survived alongside him until the final puppet attack. After witnessing his death, she killed herself with his Demon Blade 14 20 21.
• Zhao Yuqing — Fellow player whose suspicion that the instance had been strengthened proved justified. She fought beside Cheng Xu at the school and died shortly before him 12 19 21.
• Zhang Zhiqiang — Fellow player with whom Cheng Xu entered Haunted Town. Shen Hao later possessed Zhang’s body and deceived the group into letting him approach Xu Jing 11 18 19.
• Shen Hao — Haunted Town’s instance boss and Cheng Xu’s adversary. While possessing Zhang Zhiqiang, he killed Xu Jing’s benevolent side and revealed the deception 11 19.

Story Role

Haunted Town

Cheng Xu entered Haunted Town at level nine, hoping to clear his advancement instance and awaken as an ability user. He proposed that the four players remain together at a crossroads until dawn and avoid the dangerous hidden mission 11 12.

Repeated doll ambushes forced the group to abandon the guide’s plan. They trapped the doll in a fishing net, but its owner intervened and helped it escape. Injured and unable to defeat their attackers, the players voted to seek refuge in a courtyard 13 14.

The hidden map and school

The courtyard protected the group until sunrise, but its gate then opened inward, leading them to Haunted Town’s hidden map. After a resident told them survivors were sheltering at the school, Cheng Xu urged the group to fight through the dolls and reach it. He disabled a pursuing doll with the Demon Blade, helping Jiang Yue and Zhao Yuqing escape through the gates 14 15 16.

At the school, Cheng Xu falsely claimed to be a doctor in an attempt to reach the mayor and learn more about the town. The mayor later locked the three players in a storeroom, intending to use them as food. Cheng Xu cut an escape route through the door. The group later captured two residents, learned that Xu Jing kept the monsters out of the school, and found him unconscious in a locked room. Cheng Xu killed the two captives after obtaining Xu Jing’s location 16 17 18.

Death

The apparently recovered Zhang Zhiqiang claimed he could wake Xu Jing, but decapitated him instead. Cheng Xu realized that the instance boss had possessed Zhang. Xu Jing’s death freed his evil side, and strengthened puppets slaughtered the residents before surrounding the remaining players 19 20.

After Zhao Yuqing was killed, Cheng Xu charged a puppet with the Demon Blade. It dodged him, transformed its arm into scissors, severed his arm and then cut him at the waist, killing him before he could awaken as an ability user. His death earned Shen Hao 500 Fear Points 21.