Nightmare (15) - Driving Away
The night was dark and windy, perfect for committing a crime.
At midnight, the culprit that had caused Zhao Ruru so much anxiety was lying quietly on her bed, fast asleep.
Everything seemed to be repeating the process of last night: blood and flesh covered the ground, Black Shadow swayed, and paper figures wearing red embroidered shoes approached silently, while Zhou Xue on the blood-red bed remained oblivious, still trapped in her dream.
After a while, a soft sound came from the window, and a wisp of blue mist poured in. A tall, slender figure in a coat leaped in from it with a swift and agile movement, clearly not a first-timer.
Yu Xing had already adapted to the environment in the room. Under the watchful eyes of the shadows and the red-clad bride who emerged from the paper figure, he decisively approached Zhou Xue and pulled the red string with white jade pendants from her neck.
"You..." The ghost bride, her face pale, floated over hesitantly, but before she could finish her sentence, Yu Xing interrupted her.
He tossed the white jade up and down in his hand a few times, and the word "Ling" on the jade kept appearing in his sight. He smiled and said, "Shall we change the environment for you?"
The two ghosts in the house didn't know what he meant. When they saw him climb through the window again, they thought he had decided to help smash the jade. They were somewhat disappointed when they heard this.
The ghost bride remained silent. Normally, she would have been consumed by resentment and started screaming, but after being tormented by Yu Xing's spiritual body last night, she discovered that her ability to control herself had actually improved, and she could think independently for much longer than before.
So she simply floated silently toward the paper figure, intending to fend for herself.
Before she could float for even two seconds, she sensed something and turned around in alarm— Yu Xing had already stuffed the jade into her pocket and was about to leave.
He never intended to get a reply from the ghost; he was probably just being polite by informing it in advance.
"Stop!!" the ghost bride roared.
As soon as evening falls, the comments section becomes active.
Because dreams occur at night, each team undergoes a life-or-death ordeal during this time.
Yu Xing was currently under intense scrutiny.
What is he going to do?
[Luo Jue smashed the jade, and the entire group entered the dream world. The system issued a final protection mission. If you ask me, isn't this the perfect opportunity to overtake the progress?]
[Holy crap, they've overtaken us in terms of progress?!]
I find it a bit strange; if he wanted to smash it, he could have done it yesterday, but he didn't.
[She's just timid and overly cautious; she deserves to be surpassed. A little girl is far more appealing than someone who doesn't even dare to show their true face.]
[You're hilarious, so what are you doing here?]
[Friendly reminder: I've seen what Xing really looks like, and he's definitely much more handsome than what you see now, because his beauty is beyond your imagination.]
[Luo Liang didn't smash anything last night either. He and Xing seem to have the same idea, because he also asked about the car.]
[A car? What car? I didn't watch the daytime episodes.]
[Xing asked Zhao Ruru if her character had any sex scenes, and Zhao Ruru said yes, so Xing said that was fine.]
[That's incredible, Luo Liang's group is almost the same, oh and Si's group too, none of them smashed the jade.]
[It's now obvious that to trigger the next stage of the quest, they need to overturn Zhou Xue's words and help the "ghost who wants to kill Zhou Xue" smash the jade. Why don't they smash it?]
[If it were another month, I would just say these people are no good, and I wouldn't readily trust seemingly malevolent spirits. But this month there are so many powerful figures, and those who aren't smashing jade are all true powerhouses. I'm starting to have doubts. Is this the aura of a powerful figure?]
[Perhaps. I want to know where Xing is taking the jade.]
While the comments section was buzzing with noise, Yu Xing, already gripping the jade, began to climb out the window.
The ghost bride seemed anxious about him taking the jade away and tried to stop him, but was blocked by a cloud of green mist.
"I... won't... die..." She was in a bad mood today and couldn't speak a complete sentence. She could only squeeze out syllables like toothpaste.
However, she was powerless to stop Yu Xing.
It's unclear whether her existence depends on Zhou Xue or the jade. In any case, after Yu Xing decisively took the jade and left, the ghost bride let out a painful scream, blood flowing continuously from her body.
The flesh and blood began to breathe, wriggling little by little. The black shadow was forced into a corner, struggling to stand between pools of blood that seemed to have come alive. Meanwhile, the ghost bride's mind was being eroded again, and she began to howl like a wild beast, her sharp nails becoming long and pointed.
For a moment, the bedroom seemed to become even more terrifying, as if it had lost the protection of the jade.
Only Zhou Xue, lying in such a terrible environment, slept very soundly.
The wind was strong, bringing a unique chill to the night.
Downstairs, Zhao Ruru, dressed neatly, waited for Yu Xing in the car with the heater on.
Her view from below was excellent, and she watched as Yu Xing moved with ease on the high wall, filled with admiration.
"Tsk tsk tsk, as expected of Xing, she's too strong." She exclaimed, half sincerely and half jokingly, watching Yu Xing climb down the wall before turning her gaze away and driving the car away from the parking space.
Yu Xing touched her nose, which was red from the cold, walked a few steps to the car, opened the door, and got into the passenger seat.
Zhao Ruru asked, "Did you get it?"
"Of course. Let's go."
The vehicle slowly glided along the road illuminated by the streetlights.
"Are you really going to the cemetery so late at night?"
While driving, Zhao Ruru made small talk, because to be honest, she was slightly worried about Yu Xing's somewhat risky approach.
After returning from the subway station, she suggested that since the three-day mission was different from what they had imagined, why not try smashing the jade tonight to see if it could trigger the plot?
Yu Xing's response at the time was--
"It will inevitably trigger the plot, because this is the first step in the correct way to complete the game."
"But I don't plan to smash the jade, which means I don't plan to clear the level this way."
Zhao Ruru: "..."
Your confidence puts a lot of pressure on me as your teammate.
But Yu Xing has the capital to be confident.
He just smiled and reminded her, "Side Quest, have you forgotten?"
The initial hints did mention that there were Side Quest at this stage, which the player would need to discover on their own.
Since Yu Xing said that, Zhao Ruru knew that this guy must have found a way to trigger the Side Quest.
What else can we do? We have no choice but to trust him.
She was driving her car, already outside the residential complex, with her phone's navigation on; her destination was the distant cemetery.
She said worriedly, "It must have closed down a long time ago."
Yu Xing leaned back in her chair, gazing at the scenery outside the window, her eyes narrowed. "Let's climb over the wall."
Zhao Ruru's forehead twitched. "If you climb in, what am I supposed to do?"
"That wall isn't high, you can do it too."
She felt that Yu Xing had overestimated her skills. "... I can't."
"You can do it." Yu Xing turned to look at her earnestly, making a perfunctory gesture of encouragement that felt utterly weak. "Believe in yourself."