I am a sinner

To avoid the complex's central greenbelt as much as possible, Su Bai drew on Black Umbrella's power within the puzzle, climbed out of a second-floor side window in Building 3, then clung to the wall and climbed into a second-floor side window in Building Two. He had little choice. The doors and windows of the ground-floor lobbies all faced the greenbelt, so reaching the neighboring building through the lobby would inevitably expose him to the gazes of those human-shaped "gravestones."

After entering Building Two, Su Bai came down the emergency stairs. He eavesdropped on the three of them for a while before approaching Lan Xingchen's team from the far end of the ground-floor corridor.

Judging by what Su Bai overheard, Qiu Man and Qiu Lei, two sisters with a sizable age gap, were probably novice players who had only recently entered the Nightmare World. The man named Lan Xingchen had saved them when they encountered danger on this building's ground floor.

As it happened, the older sister, Qiu Man, and Lan Xingchen seemed to be old acquaintances who had lost touch three years ago, and their relationship was somewhat complicated.

Moreover, Lan Xingchen had come down from the third floor to the ground floor-and happened to save Qiu Man and Qiu Lei along the way-because he had noticed a distress signal from Building 1 next door.

According to Qiu Man, Lan Xingchen had been selfish and self-serving three years ago. Yet now he stubbornly insisted on rescuing strangers in Building 1, without even knowing whether they were human or something supernatural?

Su Bai also heard Lan Xingchen tell the Qiu sisters to hide in the relatively safe Room 101 and wait for his return. But the sisters seemed to have heard something coughing inside Room 101, so they refused to leave his side no matter what.

"The coughing might be real." Su Bai adjusted his raspy voice and spoke cautiously from a short distance away.

"Earlier, I saw a Ghost Creature upstairs that kept coughing. It was burying something under a tree while it coughed. Later, some noise seemed to frighten it, and I think I caught a glimpse of it fleeing into Building Two." Su Bai sounded very uncertain, but the coughing Ghost Creature he described was, of course, one of the two Ghost Creatures both he and Feng Ling had seen.

The one who had been preparing to bury the female ghost really had been coughing the whole time.

When Lan Xingchen suddenly heard a stranger's voice behind him, he almost reflexively shielded Qiu Man and Qiu Lei behind his back, placing his injury-covered body between Su Bai and the sisters.

Su Bai tilted his head in puzzlement as he looked at him. Lan Xingchen had moved so quickly. Was it because he knew Qiu Man, the older sister, or because he truly was accustomed to stepping forward to help others?

Did such selfless, noble people really exist in this world?

"Who are you?"

"I..." Su Bai disguised his voice with a slight rasp. "My name is Su Bai. I'm human, just like you. I saw those things outside and didn't know what to do. Then I heard people talking on the ground floor, so I came down to take a look."

"..." The team facing him clearly did not trust him immediately just because of what he had said.

"I'm sorry. I wouldn't have bothered you if I hadn't heard you mention the 'coughing.'" Su Bai hurriedly waved his hands. "I really am human, but I've only been through one game, so I don't want to cause anyone trouble. I really only came out of the stairwell because you mentioned the 'coughing.'"

Su Bai had originally wanted to approach this team because he was curious about their extraordinary boldness. After hearing their conversation, however, he felt that their situation was even more complicated than Ning Yan's group's.

"It's true." The eyes behind Su Bai's black-framed glasses were perfectly candid. After all, most of what he said was true. "I only dared to talk to you because those things are all outside now."

"You just said those things are all outside, but you also said that 'coughing' might really be hiding in Room 101?" Although Lan Xingchen pointed out the contradiction, he no longer looked quite so wary. "Never mind. It's normal for a novice not to know anything."

In fact, Su Bai really did know why. After Ghost Creatures like Lin Yongxian recovered their memories, they could choose to reject the summons from Happiness Residential Complex even if they heard it. In other words, although over a hundred Ghost Creatures had gathered downstairs, some Ghost Creatures that had regained their memories were still wandering through the four residential buildings.

In fact, these Ghost Creatures might be the greatest problem of all. They could be vengeful ghosts with deep obsessions, or evil ghosts whose desire to kill overwhelmed their false memories.

Then Lan Xingchen added, almost to himself, "Novice players in a game shouldn't account for more than a third of the total. If there are ten players in this game, then counting Qiu Man and Qiu Lei, all the novices are here?"

The number of novice players? Su Bai vaguely remembered that rule, but most players would not give it much thought.

"That works, too." Lan Xingchen murmured, then told the Qiu sisters and Su Bai, "Since someone in Building 1 used a flashlight to send a distress signal, I have to go take a look. No matter how careful I am on the way, I'm still likely to rouse those things outside, so I can't take you with me."

"I..." Qiu Man wanted to say more, but Lan Xingchen cut her off with a wave.

"I don't know what that 'coughing' is about, but if you don't want to stay in Room 101, forget it. I can give you the key to Room 303. That's where I've been staying, and I can guarantee that it's absolutely safe." Lan Xingchen pressed the key straight into Qiu Man's hand.

Perhaps because he had moved a little closer, Su Bai could now observe the player named Lan Xingchen more clearly.

He must have become a Nightmare World player at least three years ago, so he was unquestionably a fairly formidable veteran. In fact, the scars on Lan Xingchen's face, body, and even his neck far outnumbered those on the veteran players Su Bai remembered.

But more than the visible scars on Lan Xingchen's body, it was his eyes that struck Su Bai as strange.

From the moment they met, Lan Xingchen had been friendly toward the novices who appeared before him. He was even eager to go to Building 1 to rescue people, giving the impression that he was an exceptionally kind, warmhearted player full of passion.

But when Su Bai looked into Lan Xingchen's eyes... they looked like a dead man's.

That stagnant, lifeless gaze was something one would almost only find in the eyes of an elderly person whose life flickered like a candle about to go out, with nothing left to live for. Yet here it was in the eyes of a relatively young player who kept rushing around saving people. It was truly strange.

To Su Bai, judging by his eyes alone, Lan Xingchen looked even more like a walking corpse than the Ghost Creatures basking in the moonlight outside.

"Lan Xingchen, what exactly happened three years ago? Why did you become like this?" Perhaps because Qiu Man knew the Lan Xingchen of three years ago so well, she also sensed that something was wrong. "I don't know why, but I don't feel like you've turned over a new leaf and started doing good deeds. Instead, you're a little frightening like this."

"If you're frightened, be good and go up to the third floor." Lan Xingchen had already started walking outside. "Don't worry. Even if I die, I won't do anything to hurt you."

"I'm coming with you!" Qiu Man gritted her teeth and pulled her younger sister along after Lan Xingchen. "No matter what, I'm coming with you. You left me far behind three years ago, and now that I've finally found you, how can I just watch you go off alone to your death?!"

"..."

"I'll come, too." Holding his long-handled umbrella, Su Bai joined the group.

The younger sister, Qiu Lei, gave Su Bai a strange look. Perhaps she thought her sister and Lan Xingchen's apparent inability to part was rooted in some entanglement from three years ago. Her own decision to join could count as sacrificing herself for her sister and the man who had once been her future brother-in-law, but why was this foolish-looking fellow getting involved?

Lan Xingchen and Qiu Man also looked at Su Bai.

"That 'coughing' is still in the building. There might be other things hiding here besides the ones outside!" Su Bai wore an expression that suggested this was obvious. "If a strong player like Mr. Lan leaves, a novice like me could die unnoticed in this building whether I take the stairs or the elevator. In other words, I could die whether I leave or stay. If death is a possibility either way, I might as well follow Mr. Lan to Building 1. After all, once we get there, more players will join the team."

"And although there are lots of those things outside, their attention has been fixed on the moon. They don't care about what's happening over here at all. Compared with the things outside, whatever is still in the residential buildings might actually be more dangerous." Su Bai continued talking, but Qiu Man's expression grew a little strange.

"So please let me come with you to Building 1, Mr. Lan." Su Bai's shy smile conveyed his sincerity.

Lan Xingchen sighed. Rather than pay attention to Su Bai's earnest smile, he turned to Qiu Man. "So that's what you were thinking, too. That's why you insisted on coming with me, right? Knowing your personality and abilities, you've probably already gone over every possibility in your head."

"You're still the same. You make your decisions with absolute composure and rationality, but you always disguise them as a woman's emotional impulses. Even your sister probably thinks you're this worked up because we were engaged three years ago." Lan Xingchen shook his head, and something finally stirred in his previously lifeless eyes.

Qiu Man let go of Lan Xingchen's hand and straightened the hair she had disheveled during her emotional display. Then she said with a hint of self-mockery, "So what if I did? After spending a few years being everyone's nice guy, do you now look down on selfish people like me, Mr. Lan? Can you guarantee that there wasn't even a shred of sincerity in what I just said?"

It seemed that even after three years apart, Lan Xingchen and Qiu Man still understood each other.

Qiu Man's reasons for wanting to leave with Lan Xingchen were probably much the same as the explanation Su Bai had invented. She might even have thought further ahead. Her earlier show of agitation was probably just an attempt to rekindle his feelings for her, so that he would use his strength as a veteran player to protect her and her sister Qiu Lei when danger arose.

Precisely because they understood each other, Qiu Man knew that now Lan Xingchen had laid everything out, he would no longer believe her. She was too much like the Lan Xingchen of three years ago. As long as he understood his former self well enough, he could see through her just as easily.

"Leaving with you was only Plan B at best. Plan A was obviously to stop you from going to Building 1." Qiu Man's tone also turned cold. "Anyway, we've already decided to leave with you, and everything's out in the open now. Can you answer one question for me? Why do you insist on saving people?"

Lan Xingchen glanced at Qiu Man, his eyes turning stagnant and lifeless once more.

"I am a sinner. Everything I do is to atone for my sins."