Funerals (1) - Paper Figures

The sky was overcast and devoid of sunlight, with layers of gray clouds evenly spread across the heavens, giving everything a lifeless and gloomy feel.

When Yu Xing opened his eyes from his deep sleep, this was the bizarre and desolate scene he saw.

The streets and alleys before me were simple, old, narrow, and cramped. White coins fluttered everywhere in the shops on both sides, and the signs were written in black ink with highly suggestive words such as "funeral services" and "funeral clothes and hearses." Some shops had black and white portraits hanging in front of their doors, and the white faces, whether old or young, showed dignified smiles and looked directly at him.

He was leaning against the alley entrance, the faint sound of suona horns coming from the end of the alley, accompanied by a group of off-key wails, swirling and clinging to his collar along with the cold wind.

It seems that Yu Xing has arrived at a funeral parlor in some alley.

But...

The decoration style of this alley is far too retro, it looks like a street scene from twenty or thirty years ago.

He looked down at himself; his warm down jacket was gone, replaced by a plain white long gown. The gown was old, and the cuffs and other easily worn parts were faded from washing, revealing a color even more dull than pure white, which was not easily noticeable unless you looked closely.

He wore white trousers and a pair of simple flat cloth shoes, which, like his long shirt, looked like they had been worn for a long time, washed, rubbed, and patched.

Aside from this stark white outfit, he brought none of his belongings in, except for a small red cloth bag hanging from his waist.

Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Ruru were out of Yu Xing's sight. After observing himself amidst the faint sounds of funerals in the distance, he looked around again. He couldn't find his teammates, but he did see a small stool placed in front of the nearest shop, with an old man sitting on it, wearing a vest and wide pants.

Is it an NPC?

Seeing Yu Xing wake up, the old man glanced at him while puffing on his pipe, shook his head, and said in a voice that was both a laugh and a sigh, "There's no going back, young man, there's no going back."

Yu Xing wasn't in a hurry, and asked with a smile, "Old sir, what did you say?"

"I'm telling you, once you enter this Ghost Alley, you're going to die and never be able to go back to the human world! Young man, look back."

Yu Xing obediently turned his head to look, only to see that the alleyway exit, which should have led to other roads, was now completely blocked by a wall, without a single gap.

In other words, he was trapped, and there was no other way out except to walk to the end of the street.

But this wasn't bad news for him. The rule of Death Parallel Line was to complete tasks in stages. He had to find the mission objective in the scene and then move on to the next stage.

This alley has always been the setting for the first stage. By cutting off one path for him, it has eliminated options that would waste his time. He only needs to walk forward to find what he needs to do.

Yu Xing stood up from the ground, patted the cobwebs stuck to the corner of his long robe, and appeared polite yet casual. "It's alright, sir. I'd like to ask, besides me, have you seen anyone else wander in here by mistake?"

Two beads hung from a small pouch the size of a palm at his waist, which clinked softly as he bent his knees to stand up.

The old man glanced at him again, his gaze lingering on the small bag for a moment, only noticing a neatly embroidered character for "ghost".

"So it's the little guy who got caught up in this mess, cough cough cough..." The old man choked on his cigarette, clutching his chest and coughing. After a while, he caught his breath and continued, "There are already two or three people your age here, and none of them have found a way out, cough cough cough... If you delay for another two days, you'll die. Why don't you stay here and keep this old man company? I can even bring you some food."

As Yu Xing regained consciousness, the chat in his live stream became lively. Those who had been discussing the atmosphere of the scene setting earlier were now excitedly watching the spectacle after hearing the old man's words, and those who hadn't been paying close attention started to speak up:

[Is this a hint? This old man definitely knows a lot, let's talk to him!]

[Luckily I stayed calm. I was startled when I saw the old man when I followed his gaze; that old man was so unrealistic!]

[That won't work. The old man clearly wants to keep Xing, but can't Xing go find Zhao Ruru and Cold Wine?]

[Spend time with the elderly, have something to eat, get a clue, and feel great.]

"It seems someone has indeed been here recently. Thank you for reminding me, sir." Yu Xing seemed not to hear the old man's advice, nor could he possibly see what the comments were saying. His gaze slid over the dark marks around the old man's neck before subtly moving away.

"You'll get hungry if you go in." The old man, also wearing cloth shoes, rubbed the soles on the dusty ground a few times. Seeing that Yu Xing didn't intend to stay, he added, "Those who get entangled here don't have a good ending... Eat something before you continue your journey."

Yu Xing, like a young man declining an elder's kindness. "No, I'm not hungry."

The old man stared at him for a long while, then exhaled a puff of smoke from his pipe, sat down on the stool, and began humming a tuneless little tune, as if he had no intention of paying any more attention to him.

"Then I'll take my leave. I have things to do here. I'll burn you some good incense another day." Yu Xing nodded slightly to the old man, then looked at the endless funeral shops in the alley and took a few steps forward.

He refused??

[Such a good opportunity to gather information, it would be a shame to miss it. Although it doesn't seem necessary now, it might slow things down.]

[My goodness, can you shut up, upstairs? Can't you see something strange about the old man?]

[The handsome guy was there, he sees things much better than you brainless bunch. Of course he has his reasons for not agreeing. This is Death Parallel Line, not one of those low-popularity live streams. I'm begging you, use your brains and stop lowering the IQ of the chat, okay?]

[Didn't you hear that? Xing said, "I'll burn some for you another day." Pay attention, he thinks the old man is dead.]

I think I saw ligature marks on the old man's neck.

[Real?]

Yu Xing's white cloth shoes made little sound as they stepped on the dusty stone pavement, but after walking about ten steps, he seemed to hear an old man's sigh.

Turning around, the old man was gone, leaving only an empty stool covered in a layer of dust.

A cloth shoe lay askew next to the stool, a drop of dried blood congealed on the toe.

"..." Yu Xing's eyes flickered. He was right. The old man was already dead. If he agreed to stay and keep him company, he might not even last two or three days as the old man had mentioned. Without using a sacrifice to escape, he would probably just die.

As for the food, the food in the ghost's mouth is obviously not anything normal.

This simulation was unlike any he had experienced before; it was calm and uneventful, yet it felt as if a crisis could strike unexpectedly at any moment.

He quickened his pace and headed towards the direction from which the suona was coming.

The street was lined with wreaths and flower baskets. No one knew who had died, yet they were holding a funeral on the funeral street, receiving flower baskets one after another, stretching the entire street.

The funeral music was powerful and resonant, but it wasn't as sorrowful as it is in the real world; instead, it carried an inexplicable eeriness.

Yu Xing listened carefully and even detected a hint of pleasure and satisfaction in the music.

The old man's appearance was not just a trap; his Yu Xing not to enter the street also represented a stance that the old ghost and something else on the street were adversaries.

He also said that Yu Xing was "possessed by a ghost," but it's unclear what he meant.

While secretly memorizing the information revealed in the old man's words, Yu Xing carefully observed the shop behind the wreath, trying to find traces of the living who had been there. At least Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Ruru should not be too far away from him.

However, apart from the old ghost at the alley entrance, there wasn't a single shop owner to be seen; the place was completely unattended.

From time to time, a corner of a funeral shroud would stick out from each shop, swaying back and forth in the wind. If you weren't careful, you might mistake it for a living person being hung from a beam and swayed.

Inside the shop, the shelves were filled with paper money, gold paper ingots, and strings of white paper flowers. Next to the shelves, a paper figure with a face painted with cheap paint stared blankly out the window with wide eyes.

Some of the paper figures were placed next to coffins. Yu Xing did not go into the shop to check, but just walked along the alley. As he got closer to the end of the alley, the wailing gradually became clearer. He kept an eye on the surrounding shops while listening to some of the wailing.

"Waaaaah..."

"You died a terrible death... Hahahaha..."

"Boss Liu, we all welcome you..."

"You're finally down! My son and I have been waiting for you!"

"Waaaaah..."

Each wailing sounded genuinely heartfelt, so much so that the word "wailing" wouldn't be an exaggeration. However, upon closer examination of the lines, it seemed as if the mourners had been waiting for this moment and were gloating.

A quick plug for an app: A perfect replica of the old version of the popular book-tracking app with source switching capabilities.

After listening for a while, Yu Xing couldn't help but tease, "Oh, you seem quite happy?"

"Waaah, Liu"

The moment he murmured those words, the crying stopped abruptly, the suona horn abruptly ceased, as if they had heard his voice and all fell silent.

Yu Xing was somewhat surprised.

No way, he said it so softly from this distance, how could anyone hear him?

He couldn't help but focus his attention, listening carefully to the sounds coming from the end of the alley. A series of footsteps approached from afar, hurried and urgent. Yu Xing felt an immense malice rushing towards him. He immediately composed himself and quickly hid behind the wreath.

The footsteps grew closer, but Yu Xing remained rooted to the spot. He was confident that his skills would prevent anything from noticing him, but suddenly a helpless and urgent voice rang in his ears. "Why don't you know how to hide? Come in quickly!"

Then, a slender arm reached out from behind the wreath, grabbed Yu Xing's arm, and pulled him into the coffin shop next door with a slightly surprised expression on Yu Xing.

The soft, long hair poked Yu Xing's neck. He looked up and saw a tired yet subtly beautiful face.

This was a young woman, around twenty-three or twenty-four years old, wearing the same white long gown as him, looking like she was attending a funeral. She was wearing light makeup, but it had faded a bit, making her face look less clean. Her demeanor seemed that of someone from the real world.

She quickly pulled Yu Xing to squat down behind the counter, raised her index finger to shush, and said, "Don't make a sound, don't show your face, it's coming."

"Who?" Yu Xing obediently concealed herself, then looked into the shop and was immediately surprised.

There were more than just him and the woman in the coffin shop. Behind several coffins, there were several pale-faced people, all dressed in white. Some were older, and some looked to be teenagers. Some were lying down, and some were kneeling, all of them completely covered up. No wonder he hadn't seen anyone outside the shop.

One of the thin, middle-aged men emphasized, "It's a paper figure! The paper figure is coming! Don't speak!"

Everyone else nodded, as if afraid that Yu Xing would make a sound and ruin everything for everyone.

Yu Xing, so she stopped asking for the time being and quietly listened to the footsteps stop outside the coffin shop, her mind racing.

Among so many people, none of them were participants in the live-streamed simulation, and it was impossible for him to not encounter his teammates upon entering the game, but instead encounter other teams first.

So... are all these people NPCs automatically generated by the deduction? Like Zhou Qinghai in Coffin Village, who was completely bewildered after being kidnapped from the town to the village by Carlos?

That should be true.

He came to a conclusion, and then he heard a very unpleasant sound coming from outside.

"Who is it?" A shrill voice, neither male nor female, laced with excitement and chill, asked, "I hear someone talking. Who is it here?"

The woman who dragged him into the coffin shop looked terrible. She squatted down and curled up into a ball, a bead of cold sweat seeping from her forehead.

Seeing the woman's reaction, Yu Xing knew that the person speaking outside was the paper figure these people were talking about.

Footsteps lingered nearby, seemingly not intending to leave anytime soon.

Speaking of which, what do talking and walking paper figures look like?

Taking advantage of the woman's distraction, Yu Xing secretly peeked out and looked towards the shop entrance.

He saw a piece of pale, white paper head.

It really is a paper figure, a paper figure that is exactly the same size as a real person.

The paper figure had its back to him; its brightly colored, worn-out clothes were actually more vibrant than those of the real people dressed in white robes.

Its limbs are stiff, and every movement seems like it's about to fall apart. Its body shape is similar to a human's, but it doesn't look natural, which shows that the workmanship is rough.

It turned its head.

Yu Xing adjusted the angle and caught a glimpse of the paper figure's face.

The white pulp was pasted together, the face was flat, and the features were drawn on with ink. It had no hair, narrow eyes, bright red lips, and two particularly comical blush spots on its cheeks.

The mouth opened a crack, and a voice that was neither male nor female leaked out. "Are you here for Boss Liu's funeral? Waaah... There are people attending Boss Liu's funeral? Who are they? Come out quickly... I'll take you there, we can attend the funeral together!"

Those who hid were trembling with fear, not daring to breathe.

Unable to find anyone, the paper figure's expression remained unchanged—a constant, exaggerated laugh—but its tone gradually became more agitated, its voice rising higher and higher. "Come out! Come out! We'll attend the funeral together!"

The shrill sound echoed in the ears of everyone in the coffin shop; some people almost cried out, but were immediately covered up by those next to them.

The paper figure kept wandering around the street, its eyes fixed menacingly on every nearby shop, as if searching for its prey.

However, it did not search the shop; otherwise, Yu Xing and the people in the coffin shop would have been exposed long ago.

About five or six minutes later, the paper man reluctantly left, his footsteps disappearing at the end of the alley.

Only when the suona horns and mournful cries sounded again did the people in the coffin shop breathe a sigh of relief. The woman sat back and wiped her face without any regard for her image, making her already smudged makeup even more messy.

Yu Xing looked at the pitiful little face with mixed feelings, and felt an urge to give a reminder.

Noticing Yu Xing staring at her face, the woman was taken aback, then became embarrassed. "Handsome, if you want to flirt with me, why don't you go outside through this alley first?"

Yu Xing: "..."

He smiled politely, "Sorry, I didn't plan to. I was wondering why there are so many people here?"

The small coffin shop was crammed with seven or eight people, including Yu Xing herself. With the coffins taking up space, it was already quite crowded.

Moreover, Yu Xing had anticipated that he wouldn't see Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Ruru after scanning the area; otherwise, it would have been Zhao Yijiu who pulled him in.

"Phew, speaking of which," the thin, middle-aged man snorted angrily, "It's all because of that paper figure. At first, we didn't know that talking on the street would be heard, and it spotted us. To avoid it, we had to stay inside the shop. Later, as more and more people came in, to prevent any accidents, we quietly gathered everyone together and hid."

After the middle-aged man spoke, the others also started talking to Yu Xing all at once.

"Yes, that's too dangerous!"

"You can argue with that! My husband and I were truly innocent victims; we were terrified when we first stumbled into this awful place!"

"I was starving to death. I'm so grateful to Sister Xue. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be alive now."

"Yes, yes, I really owe it to Xue-meizi; she's the one who gave me the medicine!"

Amidst the commotion, Yu Xing figured out what they were trying to say.

The seven or eight people present were all residents of the neighborhood.

At some point, perhaps on their way home or while traveling, they stepped into an unfamiliar alley, and suddenly everything went black. When they woke up, they found themselves here.

Their original clothes were gone, replaced by a white shirt for a funeral, and all their personal belongings were missing.

The alley entrance was blocked by a wall, and a paper figure guarded the end of the alley. No one dared to go over. One brave man found a knife and tried to cut the paper figure, but the paper figure almost twisted his head off, and the knife broke as well.

After spending two or three days in this funeral alley without food or water, many people were on the verge of fainting.

Zhou Xue, the woman who pulled Yu Xing into the coffin shop, was a later arrival. She was originally sightseeing in the ancient town with a tour group, but got lost along the way and ended up in this alley in a daze. While avoiding the paper figures, she encountered this room full of people.

The only good news was that Zhou Xue, as a tourist, brought a backpack full of food, water, and medicine. Her kind heart and willingness to share saved the lives of the people who initially got caught up in the situation.

But now, the supplies are gone too.

Having been frightened by the paper doll again, Zhou Xue looked exhausted. "That's how it is. Handsome, you've had incredibly bad luck. Um... don't despair too much. Now that you're here, try to adjust your mood. Instead of despairing, put in more effort to find a way out."

Yu Xing nodded in agreement. "You're right. Have you had any plans to go out these past few days?"

"It's probably only the end of the alley, even though we have no idea if there's any way out here... but we can't give up hope, can we?" Zhou Xue was a little frustrated, but she glanced at the others who were even more dejected than her. These people were either injured or disabled, and they obviously needed mental support.

She paused for a moment and said, "I originally wanted to take advantage of my remaining energy to go to the end of the alley and take a look, but the further I went, the stronger the paper figure seemed to become. It would come out at the slightest sound. I tried twice but failed, so I don't dare to go again for now. It's too scary."

Yu Xing she seemed out of sorts, as if recalling her experience of dodging the paper figures at close range, Yu Xing offered a few words of comfort and then asked, "Is everyone in the alley here?"

"I think so, everyone I've met is here," Zhou Xue said.

Upon hearing her answer, Yu Xing narrowed her eyes slightly.

Strange, aren't Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Ruru here? Impossible, in team simulations, the team shouldn't be directly separated within a certain phase.

He thought for a moment, then made up a couple of lies. "But I met an old man before I came here, and he said that two young men had come in before."

Zhou Xue's eyes widened slightly. "Huh?"

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I didn't meet them. When I came in, there were seven people in front of me. I led them to hide, and you were the last one."

A wave of sorrow washed over her. "This Ghost Alley is straight, there are no other routes. I've already explored all the way to the other end, but I haven't seen anyone. If there really are two people left, they're probably already..."

"No, she shouldn't be dead." Yu Xing wanted to say that she hadn't seen her before because Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Ruru hadn't come in yet.

Now, these two might have reached the end of the alley when they entered the deduction phase, which means there is definitely a safe zone at the end of the alley, and there is a plot point there.

"They are my friends, I have to go find them." Yu Xing said, getting up as if to leave the coffin shop.

Zhou Xue hurriedly grabbed him. "Um... are you sure you want to go find your friend alone? The paper figure is right there! Aren't you afraid? Besides... can you find a way out?"

She's usually quite brave, but getting too close to the paper figure makes her jump out of her skin. It just goes to show that no matter how scary the ghosts in novels or other entertainment products are, they're not even half as thrilling as facing a real ghost.

This young man looks about her age, how dare he walk alone?

Yu Xing gently pried Zhou Xue's hands off her arm and promised, "I believe we can get out, but my friends are very important to me. I can only feel at ease after I find them."

He glanced at the ordinary people who dared not speak, and said to Zhou Xue, "I'll go find someone. You continue to keep them hidden and prevent them from getting hurt again."

The man who had initially intended to fight the paper figure stood in the corner; now, he had a bandage wrapped around his neck brought by Zhou Xue, looking pitiful.

The others were also exhausted and were in a state of hunger and weakness.

Zhou Xue could only say, "... Okay, then be careful."