Father Wasn't Father, Mother Wasn't Mother

Her father and mother were the people Feng Ling knew best in this world.

Her mother was a hardworking housewife who loved cleanliness. Though she didn't work outside the home, she kept their little home in Apartment 602 neat and spotless, and her cooking was delicious. The only thing that bothered Feng Ling a little was her mother's fondness for making pork rib soup-and for chopping the ribs herself.

Perhaps her mother worried that her father thought she did nothing at home. Every time she chopped ribs, she made a tremendous racket. It was only thanks to the downstairs neighbors' good temper that no one complained.

This time, perhaps because she wanted to make a nice meal for her daughter returning from school, her mother's chopping went thud-thud-, louder than before, and continued longer than Feng Ling remembered.

Even after Feng Ling greeted her parents and retreated to her bedroom to unpack the clothes she had brought back, she could still hear the distinct sound of ribs being chopped, and even the faint vibration of the walls.

As for Feng Ling's father, he seemed to sit on the sofa by the window all the time, holding a large newspaper and reading without pause. He hadn't even responded when Feng Ling came home and greeted him.

When Feng Ling had looked at her father earlier, the newspaper had hidden his face completely.

In Feng Ling's memory, her father always left after she went out and returned before she came home. He was clearly an ordinary middle-aged man with a steady job, yet their different schedules made it seem as though he stayed home doing nothing every day.

At that thought, Feng Ling suddenly felt guilty. Her father and mother were clearly the people she knew best and was closest to in this world, yet on this rare visit home, all she could see were their faults. She really shouldn't have been like this.

"I'm acting so strange today."

Feng Ling muttered to herself, then pushed aside all the thoughts she couldn't quite explain and began looking around her little bedroom. The walls were a pretty pink. A cold breeze from outside lifted the sheer layer of the curtains and brushed over her desk and neatly stacked textbooks.

A studio portrait of Feng Ling and her parents hung on the wall. In it, Feng Ling also wore her hair in two braids. Her mother was gentle and beautiful, and her father looked scholarly. By any measure, they were a very happy family.

Truly happy.

Very happy.

Feng Ling glanced at the sky outside again. Listening to the continued chopping, she decided she might as well take a shower first, change into pajamas, and wait comfortably for dinner.

Just as Feng Ling was about to take off her clothes, she suddenly noticed the necklace around her neck.

Her grandmother had given her the silver necklace. Though Feng Ling no longer remembered when that had happened, she still remembered that its pendant could be opened, and that inside was a photograph of her with her parents.

Why had Grandma gone out of her way to give me a necklace like this?

Feng Ling tried hard to remember, but nothing came to her.

"I'm really acting so strange today."

Feng Ling rubbed her temples, opened the pendant on her necklace, and looked at the photograph inside.

Feng Ling looked about eight or nine in the photograph, sitting happily across her parents' laps. Her parents held her from either side, both smiling joyfully. Even the rural tiled-roof house in the background and the patches on their clothes did nothing to diminish the family's happiness.

But the instant she saw the photograph, Feng Ling went cold all over. Terror froze her completely, and for a moment, her breathing and heartbeat all but stopped.

The parents in the pendant's photograph and the parents in the portrait on the wall... were completely different!

Why? Why were the parents in the photograph Grandma gave me completely different from those two people in the living room and kitchen? Their faces, their bearing-everything was different. They weren't remotely the same people!

As Feng Ling's blood seemed to freeze, she heard something smash outside the window. Instinctively, she looked toward the sound, but the next second, the sky outside seized all her attention.

A blood-red full moon hung high in the sky beyond the window, watching the entire world like a demon's eye.

The instant she noticed that Red Moon, it was as though a tightly shut, locked door in Feng Ling's mind had suddenly been kicked open. Memories she had been utterly unable to recall surged out like seawater.

What her parents looked like, the day her grandmother gave her the pendant, and who she was...

She remembered everything!

Feng Ling was indeed her name, but she had never known anything about the Happiness Residential Complex. She had been born in a village on the outskirts of Honghuai City, and her parents had died when she was eight. Her grandmother had given her the necklace and pendant at their funeral.

Eventually, her grandmother had also died of illness, not long after Feng Ling received her university acceptance letter. She no longer had anyone left in this world to care about.

How could parents who loved chopping ribs and reading newspapers suddenly appear out of nowhere?

Along with her identity in the real world, Feng Ling remembered the Nightmare World. She had become a Nightmare World player only recently. To be precise, she had gone through just one game: the beginner stage she had entered upon being selected.

After returning to the real world, she had tried to keep studying and taking part in all kinds of activities as though nothing had happened. She had even studied so relentlessly for certification exams that she neglected food and sleep, as though that could make her forget an inescapable existence like the Nightmare World.

In the end, she had exhausted herself studying and fallen asleep in the library. As she slept, she heard that snide voice sending her into the Nightmare World again, along with a series of precautions concerning the Happiness Residential Complex.

"All residents will experience varying degrees of memory confusion?" Feng Ling also remembered the New Residents' Guidebook mentioned by that snide voice, and its crucial fourth rule.

Her lost memories, her failure to notice the red moon in the sky, and even the false memories that had appeared-all of it had to be because of that rule!

Thud-thud-

Now that Feng Ling had recovered her memories, she remembered that she was in her second Nightmare World game, that the condition for clearing it was to survive forty-eight hours in the Happiness Residential Complex, and that she had seen evil ghosts and vengeful ghosts in her previous Nightmare World game...

Hearing the chopping outside her bedroom again, and thinking of those two supposed parents, Feng Ling broke out in goosebumps all over.

What on earth had I just greeted?

The more Feng Ling thought, the more anxious she became. She couldn't calm down at all. Here in a sixth-floor bedroom, she was practically a trapped turtle, easy prey for those two things outside. She simply took a deep breath, opened the bedroom door, and rushed out.

On the stretch from her bedroom door to the front door, Feng Ling kept her eyes fixed ahead and held her breath as she ran.

"Where are you going?" The chopping in the kitchen suddenly stopped, and that thing's icy voice rang out.

"I, I'm going out for a walk." Feng Ling had already opened the door, her heart practically leaping into her throat.

But no footsteps came from behind her, and nothing moved to stop her. There were only more cold words-

"Come back soon... we'll wait for you to eat."

"Okay." Holding her breath, Feng Ling rushed straight out, but still remembered to pull the door carefully shut without making too much noise.