Rose Manor (2): Miss Anna

The Butler placed the tableware before each seat one by one, poured blood-red wine into tall glasses, and set them in front of the Players.

The fruit basket was filled with bright red apples, while the plates held meat threaded with blood vessels, all lined up across the long table.

Once everything was ready, he gave a mechanical bow and vanished around the bend of the staircase without looking back.

With that thing—neither human nor ghost—finally gone, the Players' tense nerves eased.

Aside from Chang Xu, who grabbed an apple and began biting into it, no one showed any interest in the food on the table for the time being.

Shen Ming let out a soft breath and looked around at the group. "This instance resembles Rule Horror. You all saw those rules, right? As long as we follow them strictly, nothing should happen. So, I hope everyone will put any ideas on the table for discussion from now on. Don't try to be clever or act on your own."

Qi Si had heard of Rule Horror. It was a recently popular type of unconventional mystery fiction online, usually presenting absurd, self-contradictory rules in a grave, cautionary tone, stirring up human curiosity and subconscious fear.

He had not expected this Eerie Game to be so up-to-date.

"What do you think about the second rule?" Zou Yan spoke first. "My watch and phone didn't make it in here, and I assume yours didn't either. The Mechanical Clock only strikes on the hour. How are we supposed to determine the exact time?"

She paused and forced a bitter smile. "The game won't give us useless information. Since the rule specifically mentions it, I think something will definitely happen at night that makes us wake up against our will."

Lin Chen asked cautiously, "Then if we all wake up and none of us knows the exact time... are we all doomed?"

"Not everyone will die." Shen Ming reassured him. "From my past experience, Rule Horror is highly subjective. Generally speaking, as long as you don't know you've broken a rule, you'll be fine for the time being. If you really wake up at night, don't think about anything. Just go back to sleep."

Lin Chen nodded earnestly.

After several seconds of silence, and seeing that no one else spoke, he raised another question. "The main quest says we have to 'solve the rules.' Could there be other rules besides the ones we already know that we need to find?"

That was Qi Si's question as well. However, considering that this was supposedly his "second time entering an instance," he did not plan to ask it himself.

Before Shen Ming could explain, Zou Yan smiled. "The basic rules are usually the ones we're told at the beginning. So-called 'solving the rules' generally means exploring the instance and explaining those basic rules.

"For example, the first rule says that 'time is the most important thing.' Then we need to figure out why time is important and what it has to do with the instance's worldview.

"Completing the main quest is only the foundation. If you want more point rewards, you need to gather more clues and uncover the instance's worldview."

Lin Chen clutched the hem of his clothes and said awkwardly, "I'm not hoping for any rewards. I've already died once. It wasn't easy getting a new life, and I just want to stay alive..."

Ye Zi gave a laugh of disbelief and scoffed. "You're already in the game. If you don't work hard to earn more points, sooner or later someone will get you killed in an instance."

Chang Xu, who had remained silent until then, suddenly looked up. "For your second time entering an instance, you sure know a lot."

Ye Zi narrowed her eyes and teased him. "What, is this police officer going to interrogate me?"

Chang Xu said nothing more, and Shen Ming hurriedly changed the subject. "Let's each share our thoughts on the rules first. At least then we can be prepared..."

Qi Si had no intention of joining the conversation. With so little known information, the more he said, the more likely he was to make a mistake.

He casually picked up an apple and used a pristine white napkin to wipe it with meticulous concentration.

When Shen Ming turned a questioning gaze toward him, he innocently brought the apple to his mouth and quietly took a bite, radiating an air of not intending to bother with mortals.

Amid the Players' discussion, a dull chime suddenly rang through the hall without warning. The pendulum of the Mechanical Clock in the corner swayed slowly, striking six times at the same steady rhythm.

It was dinner time.

Light footsteps came from the shadows, like the dance steps of a woman walking on tiptoe, or an animal hunched low and waiting for its chance to strike.

Qi Si set down the apple core at just the right moment and looked over.

A slender, tall woman emerged from the stairwell. Her long black dress dragged across the floor, wrapping her entire body into a thin, elongated Ghost Shadow.

Her lovely face was pale beyond anything living. Beneath her dark brown hair were a pair of pitch-black, lightless eyes, while her lips were painted a blood-red hue.

Her gaze swept over every Player in turn, and her voice rang high and rounded like an opera singer's. "My dear guests, welcome to my Rose Manor!"

The woman glided toward the seat of honor, trailing a rich, intoxicating fragrance mixed with the damp, fishy scent of rainwater, as though she had just stepped out of a storm.

After taking her seat, she covered her mouth and laughed, making her voice exceedingly fine and soft. "You may call me Miss Anna."

Miss Anna? Qi Si immediately locked onto the corresponding rule in the system interface—

[If you see Miss Anna wearing black clothes, please keep your distance from her as much as possible.]

It was clearly too late to leave his seat now. Besides, he did not know whether it was an illusion, but Qi Si felt that Miss Anna's gaze lingered on him especially long, sticky and slick like muddy ground after rain.

It was deeply unpleasant.

Miss Anna suddenly turned to Qi Si. "Sir, have we met somewhere before?"

Smiling, she elegantly raised her hand in the pose of a medieval Noble awaiting a hand-kiss.

For a moment, the other Players looked at Qi Si with even more sympathy.

He had arrived last and could only sit beside the seat of honor. Now he was receiving special treatment and had become the trigger for the plot. It was truly an undeserved disaster.

Qi Si acted as if he felt nothing and replied in the same tone, "Perhaps we met in hell in a past life. Who knows?"

He made a joke no one but himself could understand, then took Miss Anna's hand and gave it a quick shake.

—It felt warm, and no indentation appeared when pressure was applied. By conventional standards, the owner of that hand should be alive.

Boring. Qi Si withdrew his right hand with little interest and rested it on the napkin.

Miss Anna seemed to have anticipated this development long ago and showed not the slightest surprise.

With a faint smile on her lips, she picked up the knife and fork on her plate with her distinctly jointed fingers and cut off a piece of meat from the dish closest to her.

Her wide black sleeve concealed her wrist, exposing only nails painted vivid red. They made her hand appear even paler and thinner, like the claw of some monstrous bird.

She brought the blood-streaked meat to her mouth on a fork and chewed it carefully before swallowing. At the end, she extended her scarlet tongue to lick the corner of her lips, evoking thoughts of eating raw flesh and drinking blood.

Other than Chang Xu, who was clearly detached from the situation and had his head down as he wolfed down food, no one else dared touch their knife and fork at that moment.

They stared blankly at the woman eating at the seat of honor as all manner of bizarre speculation grew within them, brewing deeper fear.

Miss Anna stopped moving and looked up with a sweet smile. "Eat. Why aren't you eating? Is the food not to your liking?"

Qi Si obediently lowered his head, speared a chunk of meat with the polished fork in his hand, and put it into his mouth.

To his surprise, the unknown meat dish before him tasted quite good. The meat was tender, the sauce well-seasoned—on par with the average restaurant.

And judging by the texture, it was not the sort of meat likely to give someone a prion disease.

Qi Si narrowed his eyes in satisfaction and, under everyone's watchful gaze, used his fork to pull another large piece of meat onto his plate.

With someone setting an example, the others began eating as well.

After all, the rule [Do not refuse Miss Anna's requests] was written plainly in the system interface.

Dinner ended quickly in silence, with every dish on the long table eaten clean.

Miss Anna set down her knife and fork, picked up a napkin to wipe her lips, and swept her gaze across the group again, lingering on Qi Si for several extra seconds as usual.

She rose unhurriedly, bowed to the Players, and then slowly retreated into the shadows of the stairwell.

Lin Chen had barely dared breathe earlier. Only now did he finally let out a breath and hurriedly tugged Qi Si's sleeve. "Brother Qi, that Miss Anna seemed to be wearing a black dress..."

Miss Anna in a black dress was exactly the existence the rules said they should stay as far away from as possible...

Qi Si lowered his eyes and smiled. "Mm, I saw it. A solemn, formal black gown."

"Then why did you..."

Why had he still shaken her hand? Wasn't that courting death?

"The moment she sat down, all of us broke the rule. Eating at the same table doesn't count as 'keeping your distance.'" Qi Si tucked the napkin into his pocket, his tone calm. "Since it had already happened, we might as well use the opportunity to see if we could find any clues."

There was one more thing he did not say.

He suspected Miss Anna had already set her sights on him. Perhaps because his seat was the closest, or perhaps because of some similar trait—humans had always been good at recognizing their own kind in a crowd, hadn't they?

Since things had come to this, there was no need to worry about one more debt. He could act with fewer reservations.

Lin Chen seemed to understand, but not quite. "Then did you find anything, Brother Qi?"

"Of course I did."

"What?"

Qi Si smiled mysteriously and held his index finger to his lips. "Want to know? Take a guess—"