Nightmare (5)-Nightmare

There was definitely something strange about this room...

Yu Xing bent down and picked up the shoes, examining them with a completely emotionless gaze.

These are embroidered shoes.

The red shoe upper is embroidered with small flowers in a darker shade of red thread, so exquisitely crafted that it seems to have been made by the most skilled embroiderer.

Aside from the barely perceptible aura of curse surrounding it, it was just a pair of ordinary shoes that felt cold to the touch.

Yu Xing narrowed her eyes.

That's right, it wasn't ordinary ghostly energy, but the aura of a curse.

The ghostly aura indicates that a ghost is lingering here, while the aura of curse indicates that this incident involves some kind of curse carrier. The solution is no longer to deal with a ghost, but to find the point of breaking the deadlock, like solving a puzzle.

The chill in the room lingered, yet it wasn't particularly aggressive; it was like a series of mindless, drifting molecules that simply floated slowly.

"A curse... traces of ghostly activity left behind..." He glanced at the embroidered shoes in his hand again, went to the balcony of the hall, quietly opened the window, peeked out to make sure there were no pedestrians below, and threw the embroidered shoes out.

A pair of red shoes flew far away with his strength, landing in the distant green grass, disappearing without a trace.

After finishing this task, Yu Xing turned her gaze to the paper figure next to the TV cabinet, pondering the possibility of throwing it down as well.

The paper figure's face was painted with intense, vibrant colors, its mouth was flat, and the features outlined in ink were significantly different from those of a human, unlike the lifelike paper figure from the first phase of the mission.

The aura of curse emanating from him wasn't as strong as that from the embroidered shoes.

It looks like just an ordinary little paper figure.

"Never mind."

The embroidered shoes could be said to have appeared out of thin air, and throwing them away wouldn't be noticed, but the paper figure was a decoration that had always been there; if it disappeared, Zhou Xue would definitely notice.

Yu Xing let it go and instead walked towards Zhou Xue's bedroom.

Although as a man one should refrain from looking into a strange girl's bedroom, these are extraordinary times, and he can only do this kind of thing that is both pleasant and sad.

He didn't rummage around the bedroom, but glanced at the desk. There were a few messy draft papers on the desk, with some worldview ideas written on them. But in Yu Xing's eyes, the handwriting was fragmented and had no connection at all, as if he often thought of something and immediately wrote it down to prevent forgetting it.

As for the content, it's all about "nightmares".

The current storyline of this Yugi is that the male character, played by the player, gets into a car accident while traveling. A red figure flashes past in front of the bus, causing the driver to brake suddenly, but due to the slippery road caused by rain, the bus plunges off a cliff.

After waking up from his coma, the protagonist finds himself in a very old-fashioned mansion. He is dressed as a servant and is being ordered by the butler who appears in the courtyard to add firewood.

Still harboring doubts, the protagonist, filled with panic and helplessness, temporarily gets to work, only to overhear the cooks in the kitchen discussing the happy events in the household.

This reveals to the protagonist that the mansion has actually purchased a beautiful woman to keep the young master company after his recent suicide!

The woman refused and committed suicide last night, but the master of the house not only showed no remorse or fear, but also ordered that the wedding preparations proceed as planned.

Because that woman was going to die anyway.

This is an utterly depraved act.

The protagonist suspects that he was brought here because of the bride's resentment and decides to ruin this "happy occasion," but fails.

After the laughter and chatter, the entire mansion suddenly turned eerie, everyone vanished, and the surrounding area turned gray and dilapidated, indicating that something unusual was amiss.

What follows is the protagonist's adventure in the now- Ghostification mansion, searching for clues to the truth. Amidst the ghostly figures, the protagonist narrowly escapes death but eventually learns the whole truth and wakes up in a hospital bed.

However, players will soon discover that in the ending CG, after the protagonist recovers from his injuries and is discharged from the hospital, he hums an ancient folk song. That folk song is the one that the groom in the Ghostification mansion loves to hum.

Whether the protagonist was influenced by the groom and developed a twisted mind, or whether the groom's soul was reborn through the protagonist's body, the player can no longer know.

Yu Xing had already learned about the plot that morning, but since the Yugi Nightmare was still in early development, the plot was not very detailed.

He couldn't glean much truth about the haunted house from the Yugi's storyline.

Turning her gaze away from the draft paper, Yu Xing walked to the wardrobe and opened the door.

The only thing he wanted to check when he entered the bedroom was the wardrobe, because the bride's hand had reached out from the butler's cabinet, and there must be some reason for that.

Zhou Xue's wardrobe is a white double-door glass cabinet with a girlish feel, featuring transparent glass inlaid in the pattern, allowing a glimpse of several clothes inside.

The cabinet made a strange creaking sound, as if it had rusted.

Yu Xing parted the layers of clothes with her hands and stared at the wall inside the wardrobe.

Sure enough, fine scratches covered the cabinet walls, making this hidden corner look grotesque and terrifying.

"This house... has been gradually transformed under the influence of the curse." He muttered to himself, closed the cabinet, and walked out of the bedroom thoughtfully.

The moment the door opened, a pair of red embroidered shoes came into view.

Two embroidered shoes were placed side by side outside the door, their toes pointing towards Yu Xing.

It's as if... there's an unseen person wearing these shoes, standing face to face with Yu Xing.

Raising an eyebrow, Yu Xing picked up the shoes that should have been thrown downstairs again and turned the toes around.

He had already investigated everything he wanted to, and the results were remarkable; there was no need for him to look at anything further.

To successfully complete this phase of the mission, it is essential to find the cursed object and break the curse's internal rules before Zhou Xue dies. Otherwise, even if one is constantly watching over Zhou Xue, it may not be possible to save her.

If the mission fails within five days...

Then it won't be a matter of progress; the entire team will be wiped out by the simulation system due to mission failure.

The cursed object is not in this house; there are only remnants, not its source.

In other words... what he's looking for should be on Zhou Xue, carried with her at all times.

He left Zhou Xue's house, glancing back one last time before leaving; the red embroidered shoes were still stubbornly facing him.

Yu Xing: "..."

She's quite stubborn.

He erased all traces of his entry, then calmly closed the door, as if he had done it many times before.

[Familiarity breeds pain]

[So skilled it evokes pity in the victims]

[This lock-picking skill... what does that amount to in real life? Is it... a locksmith?]

[The person upstairs has a survival instinct]

[Hahahaha]

Yu Xing returned to the stairwell and suddenly found herself with nowhere to go.

The two girls probably want to eat for a while longer, so he...

He stood there in thought for twenty seconds, then shivered as the cold air enveloped him, and let out a cold snort of displeasure.

So he opened Zhou Xue's door a second time, went into the bedroom, and then... opened the window.

There was no windowsill outside the bedroom window, not even a security window, just a small ledge less than a decimeter and a half long.

And right next to it is the bedroom window of the character played by Zhao Ruru.

[What does Xing want to do?]

How do I climb through this window?!

Even if you could hold onto this one, there's no way you could get through the fortune teller's window.

[Wouldn't it just fall straight down?]

Yu Xing flipped out the window, her toes barely touching the edge, and grabbed the window frame with one hand.

He looked at it, then pinched the side instead, and closed the window in this difficult way.

Then, he glanced at Zhao Ruru and jumped without hesitation!

There was indeed no foothold there for a man with momentum to regain his balance, no matter how skilled he was.

Under the tense gaze of the viewers in the live chat, Yu Xing first raised her hand, and then-

With a soft thud, the sharp blade pierced the wall.

The dagger from the Sheqing Dreamscape was halfway embedded in the white wall, the remaining part gleaming coldly in the pale moonlight.

Yu Xing swayed twice, but managed to steady herself and land on the edge of the cliff.

Well, it's Zhao Ruru's "home" anyway, so poking a small hole won't cause any problems at all!

Yu Xing nimbly and nimbly opened the window and entered the room, thinking happily.

On the other side.

Completely unaware that someone had entered her bedroom more than forty minutes earlier, and that person had shamelessly turned on the air conditioner and was scrolling through their phone, Zhao Ruru had prepared dinner and called Zhou Xue to the table.

The air conditioner in the living room was also running, blowing warm air continuously, which, combined with the steaming hot food, gave people a sense of comfort.

As expected of Zhao Ruru, a master at gathering intelligence, under her persuasive and emotional guidance, Zhou Xue, who was swayed by her apparent empathy, roughly recounted the recent events.

"It all started about a month ago when I went to the cemetery to pay my respects to my grandmother. For the past month, I've been having recurring dreams..."

Zhao Ruru served her some food. "Tell me about it?"

"In the dream, I... I always woke up in bed at first, unaware that it was a dream." Zhou Xue had a poor appetite, and coupled with her recent lack of good sleep and mental tension, she put down her chopsticks after eating very little.

"Then, I could hear a man's voice, it sounded like he was in my bedroom, and I panicked. I searched the room, and the man just kept laughing."

Zhao Ruru recalled the word "laughter" mentioned in the deduction hints.

"I wanted to call the police, but I couldn't find my phone. I wanted to run out, but the door was locked. I had this dream every night. This was at the beginning. Later, I gradually started to notice some clues about that man. He started talking."

Zhao Ruru thought that if Zhou Xue and Liu Xue were related, then the man in her dream was probably the ghost groom.

She asked, "What did he say? Did he threaten you?"

"No, he would tell me..." Zhou Xue didn't even need to recall carefully; those words were as if they were engraved into her soul, every single one clear and distinct.

"Come with me, stop hiding, you can't escape... Go back, go back and do what you're supposed to do, obediently complete the wedding ceremony, and be a weeping bride..."

With a sinister tone, Zhou Xue seemed to be describing the way the man in her dream spoke; her deep voice revealed undisguised malice and seduction, making Zhao Ruru frown.

Let modern-day Zhou Xue stop hiding and be a proper bride!

Could it be that Zhou Xue is actually Liu Xue's reincarnation in this era?

Goodness, the groom's ruthless! Even in his next life, he's still going after her?

Zhao Ruru's thoughts were scattered, while Zhou Xue was completely immersed in her own fear.

"Of course I wouldn't agree in my dream. As soon as the man's voice disappeared, a woman's voice appeared. She was hysterical, screaming and cursing, saying all sorts of jarring things... But for some reason, as soon as I heard her voice, the fear I had from the man subsided, as if... In my dream, I could feel that she wasn't cursing me, but cursing the man who wanted to take me away."

Zhou Xue's eyes were faintly red, a sign that she was about to cry. She glanced at Zhao Ruru: "After I woke up, I told my parents about it on the phone, but all they said was, 'Oh my god, is Xue okay? Maybe you should take a day off to see Doctor,' or 'Should your parents come and keep you company? You must be under too much pressure, you're even hallucinating.' They think they care about me a lot, but..."

"Yet they can't even manage the most basic trust..."

Zhao Ruru quickly comforted her and expressed her stance, "I believe you! There are so many strange things in this world, you were just unlucky to run into one!"

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The harm caused by bad luck is almost negligible compared to the harm caused by no one believing in you.

Zhou Xue burst into tears. She grabbed two tissues to wipe them away as she said, "Thank you!"

Zhao Ruru stroked her back and whispered, "And then? Did your dream change?"

"Yes, I came here more and more often, and the figures of that man and woman appeared in my mind's eye. The man still wanted me to go with him. I had looked up some information, and it said that I couldn't give in, otherwise the ghost would kill the living, so I kept telling him to give up. But then, he took out a knife..."

"What kind of knife?" Zhao Ruru asked.

"I don't remember... I can't remember many things I see in my dreams when I wake up, I only remember them when I dream again. Anyway, in my most recent dream, that man seemed to want to kill me with his own hands. And that woman... I recently saw her clearly, she's a Female Ghost!" Zhou Xue grabbed Zhao Ruru's hand, "Her face and body were covered in blood, she was wearing Da Hong wedding dress, and her face was hideous, I was so scared..."

"She screamed at me, telling me to smash the jade, but I won't! If the jade is gone, they'll kill me right away; they're all waiting for me to die!"

Jade?

Zhao Ruru's heart skipped a beat. "What jade? Is there really such a piece of jade? Why do you think that if the jade is gone, it can kill you? Could it be that the jade has been protecting you all along?"

Zhou Xue pressed her hand to her chest, seemingly a little wary yet nostalgic. "That's right, it was given to me by my grandmother before she passed away. She knew a lot of strange and wonderful things. After we moved to the city, no elderly person wanted to play with my grandmother. Because of this jade, she was always very lonely... She said this jade could protect me from harm."

"Excuse me for asking," Zhao Ruru. She could tell Zhou Xue was very attached to the so-called jade, even to her, and was reluctant to elaborate. So, instead of pressing for details, she asked another question, "What's your grandmother's name?"

Zhou Xue was a little confused. "Does this matter?"

Zhao Ruru said seriously, "This is important. You see, you only started having nightmares after you paid respects to your grandmother. Maybe these two ghosts are connected to your grandmother. I think we should try to investigate your grandmother's affairs; perhaps the solution lies within them."