The True Cause of His Mother's Death

Special reminder: the White Faction is currently at a disadvantage.

When he had entered the game earlier, that sarcastic voice had left him with the same message. It came out of nowhere, without any explanation, so no newcomer could possibly understand what the "White Faction" meant, much less know what stood against it.

Because they did not understand it, most new players would ignore the message.

Su Bai knew exactly what it meant, but unfortunately, that did him no good.

In his previous life, Su Bai and the other veterans had jokingly called that sarcastic voice the "Game Administrator," or "Administrator" for short. After all, they knew nothing about the "person" behind the voice or their identity, and they could hardly call them "that sarcastic voice" every single time.

In the Administrator's terminology, the faction represented by human players was the "White Faction," while the opposing "Black Faction" naturally referred to the supernatural entities in the Nightmare World.

So to players, this special reminder was nothing more than a perfectly reasonable statement of the obvious.

After all, aside from certain players, humans really struggled to defeat supernatural entities.

"Two... one... zero."

Ding-

The Administrator's countdown ended. Su Bai heard the sound of elevator doors opening beside him, and the path leading to the bus began to distort before his eyes. He vaguely saw Mr. Qin Ge, who had gotten off the bus, running toward him. He seemed to be saying something, but his voice had warped along with the space around them.

With another blink, the path and the towering flames around it disappeared, and the chill brought by the Red Moon instantly faded.

What stood before Su Bai was no longer the Ghost Village in the Nightmare World, but a brightly lit hospital corridor.

"S-Su Bai?" The elevator doors opened behind him, and an unfamiliar woman's voice rang out.

Su Bai rubbed his eyes, letting them adjust to the change in light before turning around. An unfamiliar young nurse was watching him in confusion from the elevator entrance a short distance behind him.

He searched his memories and vaguely recalled that when he had entered the inpatient building late at night, this young nurse had been standing beside the middle-aged nurse he was supposed to know. She had probably heard about him from that nurse and learned his name.

"You look exhausted. Did you stay up all night?" the young nurse asked with concern.

All night?

Su Bai looked around and spotted the digital clock hanging in the corridor. Although the disappearance of the Ghost Village and the Ghost Bride had allowed them to clear the game early, time in the Nightmare World ran in perfect sync with the real world. It was already past six in the morning.

They had spent an entire real-world night in the Nightmare World.

The young nurse probably looked confused because Su Bai had been wearing a soaking-wet school uniform in the early hours. Although his clothes were dry now, the mud on his trouser legs suggested that he was still wearing the same outfit.

"Don't worry. Nurse Chen said your mother is doing well." The young nurse probably thought he was distressed over his mother's condition, so she offered a gentle reassurance.

"Thank you."

Su Bai thanked her, but he did not take her words to heart.

He still remembered how, in his previous life, both the nurses caring for his mother and the specialists consulting on her case had confidently said she was doing well. They had even assured him that they would find a way to wake her.

But what had happened? Shortly after those specialists made their promises, his mother's condition had deteriorated steadily. After desperately battling death in the intensive care unit, she had still passed away.

Nodding goodbye to the young nurse, Su Bai headed toward the room he remembered. His mother had spent a long time in that room before being moved into intensive care.

The closer he came to the room, the stranger he felt.

When he had rushed into the hospital in the early hours, he had been desperate to reach her room. Being dragged into the Nightmare World on the way had even made him want to give the Administrator a vicious beating.

But now that her room was right in front of him, his steps grew slower and slower.

Human emotions were always complicated. It was like what had happened aboard the Route 444 Last Bus earlier: the closer it came to the Ghost Village, the faster it went, but once it reached the outskirts, it slowed to a crawl.

The difference was that the Ghost Bride had felt hatred, while Su Bai felt the apprehension of coming home to someone he loved.

Yet however slowly he walked, he eventually reached his mother's door. Even his right hand trembled as it rested on the handle.

Just then, a voice he had heard not long ago rang in his ears-

"Mr. Su, there's something bad in that room!"

It was the tearful Nurse from the Nightmare World. She had no name and called herself "Cry." After she became part of his puzzle, not only could Su Bai learn about Cry Nurse's abilities and past, but she could also access information about him.

Cry Nurse's abilities might not match those of a vengeful ghost like A Xi, who had basked beneath the Red Moon for a hundred years or even several centuries, but because of her profession, her perception within a hospital was terrifyingly sharp.

The instant Cry Nurse finished speaking, Su Bai pushed open the door.

His mother's room was a double, but the other bed was covered with a plastic sheet, clearly unoccupied. Yet when Su Bai opened the door, he saw a figure standing beside his mother's bed!

It was an old man dressed in a black burial shroud. His body and face were as shriveled as a dead tree, and his face was almost entirely covered in horrific purplish-red lividity.

Looking closer, Su Bai saw that besides the old man covered in lividity, a purple infant was crawling on his mother's bed, inching forward from her feet.

His mother still lay unconscious, but she was trembling and even sweating, as though caught in a nightmare.

No, this was no nightmare!

No one could have described how Su Bai felt at that moment. The power within him was almost exhausted-but only almost. His experiences in his previous life had taught him to always hold something back, to leave himself a way out.

But he could not worry about that now. With A Xi asleep, he immediately borrowed the power of another puzzle piece. Even if he lacked the strength to borrow its full power, it did not matter!

The instant he borrowed part of that puzzle piece's power, a gruesome bloody mark appeared across his neck. It was the wound belonging to the vengeful ghost within that piece, a normal effect of resonating with the ghost. In addition, the skin all over his body became as pale and cold as a vengeful ghost's, and even his breathing and heartbeat slowed dramatically.

The next second, a rusty short blade appeared in Su Bai's hand. As soon as he reached the bed, he sliced through the Creepy Infant, then flung the blade at the old man covered in lividity beside the window. The infant's cries and the old ghost's startled shout were cut short by his blade almost as soon as they began, and both dissolved into black mist.

Su Bai recognized that black mist. Only weak Ghost Creatures produced such dark vapor when slain, which meant the old ghost and the Creepy Infant were not particularly powerful supernatural entities. But for ordinary people... especially severely injured patients, their influence could still be fatal!

Only after confirming there were no other Ghost Creatures nearby did Su Bai finally see his mother lying in her hospital bed again, for the first time in more than ten years. She was pale and thin. Though only in her forties, her hair had already turned gray during her time in bed.

The bloody mark on his neck gradually faded, and color returned to his face. Having exhausted his power, Su Bai could no longer use the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle for the time being. But at that moment, all he could see was his mother, sleeping peacefully now that she had escaped her "nightmare."

The last time Su Bai had seen his mother, her heart and breathing had already stopped, and she would never wake again. Now, although she still lay unconscious in bed, he could sense her heartbeat and breathing.

Su Bai should have been overwhelmed with emotion and joy, but everything that had just happened was overturning his understanding of the entire real world!

In his previous life, Su Bai had never returned to the real world after entering the Nightmare World. Before entering it, he had been nothing more than an utterly ordinary high school dropout. He had only learned of Strange Creatures after entering the Nightmare World, and he had firmly believed that nothing of the sort existed in reality.

Right up until his rebirth, Su Bai had believed that, for ordinary people in the real world, ghosts and spirits would remain fantasies found in novels and movies throughout their lives.

But now, Strange Creatures clearly existed in the real world, however weak they might be. Even his mother's death could very well have been connected to them!

In fact, every time her condition had worsened, she had trembled and broken into a cold sweat just as she had moments ago, as though trapped in a nightmare she could not escape.

Su Bai could not help pressing a hand to his forehead with a bitter smile. He had thought his mother had died because the specialists were not capable enough, because he lacked the money for a better hospital and better equipment, or even because medical technology in the real world was insufficient to save her.

He had never imagined that ghosts would prey on his bedridden mother!

Although he had dealt with the two Ghost Creatures that had approached her, what if more came near her bed the next time he was away?

Su Bai glanced at his hands. He had exhausted every last bit of power in his body. He might not even be able to handle the next Ghost Creature, much less leave a puzzle piece in the room to protect his mother as he had in his previous life.

But...

Su Bai noticed the Blood-Red Prayer Beads on his left hand, and the bead that had turned a dark, blackish red after capturing the White Qipao Paper Figure.

At least he was not completely out of options!

With that thought, Su Bai turned without hesitation and walked to the door, then gripped its handle with his left hand, the one bearing the Palm Brand. According to the child in the Mist Shop, opening any door with a handle using his left hand would let him enter the Mist Shop, where time stood still.