A liar through and through

The Qiu Family sisters were newcomers to the Nightmare World. After all, they had only played that one beginner game. Unless they had experienced a nightmare game like the Route 444 Last Bus, they could not have accumulated much experience.

Of course, if they had played the Route 444 Last Bus game, whether they would still be alive was another question.

So when Qiu Man and Qiu Lei encountered an old acquaintance like Lan Xingchen in this unfamiliar, terrifying game, they naturally pinned their hopes of survival on him, a veteran player who had struggled in the Nightmare World for at least three years.

Especially when Lan Xingchen continued risking his life against the Butcher Ghost despite being on the verge of death, Qiu Man and Qiu Lei could not help focusing all their attention on him.

So when the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost turned into a shadow and approached them, they noticed nothing.

While in shadow form, the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost seemed able to attack other people's shadows somehow. Just as the hand with sharp nails in the Hanged Ghost's shadow was about to hook Qiu Man's shadow...

Bang!

A black umbrella suddenly opened beside Qiu Man, completely covering her shadow.

The sound of the long-handled umbrella opening startled Qiu Man and Qiu Lei, who had been watching Lan Xingchen intently. Only when they looked toward the black umbrella did they notice the terrifying shadow hanging from a rope on the white wall beside them, splattered with Lan Xingchen's blood!

The Hanged Ghost in shadow form also seemed stunned by the black umbrella, her outstretched hand stopping halfway.

"You..." Qiu Man slowly turned her gaze toward the person holding the black umbrella. Although she did not know what had happened, judging by the Hanged Ghost's current state, the umbrella that had suddenly opened seemed to have saved them.

Slightly dark skin, black-framed glasses and bangs that obscured his features-it was none other than Su Bai, who had claimed earlier that he was also a newcomer.

With the black umbrella blocking her, the Hanged Ghost's shadow could not get close to the Qiu Family sisters' shadows.

Only when the Butcher Ghost, whom Lan Xingchen was desperately holding back, let out an angry roar did the red-dressed ghost reluctantly leave the wall. The moment her sharp red nails emerged from it, she seemed desperate to tear apart the black umbrella in Su Bai's hand.

Having decided to act, Su Bai did not hesitate. After borrowing power from Black Umbrella within the puzzle, he ignored the fellow's complaints about his clothes, snapped the long-handled umbrella shut, flipped his wrist, and swung it like a club straight at the red-dressed ghost's neck.

One second he borrowed Black Umbrella's power; the next, his left eye beneath his black-framed glasses became a hideous, bloody socket, and a deep bloody mark appeared around his neck. In their current surroundings, neither was particularly conspicuous.

Still, even if they did not attract human attention, they might draw the notice of something inhuman.

At least, after Su Bai struck the red-dressed vengeful ghost with his umbrella, confusion appeared on the deathly pale face she raised.

Most veteran players had abilities much like Lan Xingchen's, enhancing their own bodies in various ways. No matter how far those enhancements went, they could at most turn a player into a superhuman. They could never escape the category of "human."

But the instant Su Bai used his Vengeful Ghost Puzzle ability, he became no different from a vengeful ghost.

For a moment, the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost could not understand why one of her "own kind" had attacked her. But a second later, she apparently decided that Su Bai wanted to steal the food belonging to her and the Butcher Ghost. With her struck neck tilted crookedly, she lunged at him, clawing wildly.

Then the long-handled umbrella in Su Bai's hand pierced her body and drove deep into the wall.

Within the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle, Black Umbrella's abilities to disguise and see through disguises were highly practical, but his combat ability barely ranked among the best. That, however, was only in comparison with certain beings hidden within the puzzle whom even Su Bai could barely command.

Among the low-consumption puzzle pieces, Black Umbrella was also a powerful fighter. Besides increasing Su Bai's strength, one of his most useful abilities was granting any long, rod-shaped object the properties of a "sword." And because of Black Umbrella's personal preferences, this "sword" became even sharper when Su Bai attacked with an umbrella!

A "sword" empowered by a vengeful ghost could naturally pierce walls and evil ghosts' bodies with ease.

The instant the umbrella pinned the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost to the wall, her limbs slowly began turning into shadows on its surface. She clearly intended to escape Su Bai's umbrella that way.

But a second later, Su Bai's left hand had already clamped firmly around her neck.

Since she was a hanged ghost, her weak point was naturally her neck.

Su Bai's gouged-out left eye stared fixedly at the Hanged Ghost's deathly pale face. She had followed the Butcher Ghost's orders from the beginning. Though she was an evil ghost, Black Umbrella's power could still suppress hers.

Just as the White Qipao Paper Figure on the Route 444 Bus had once sensed the threatening power of A Xi, the Ghost Bride, within Su Bai, the Hanged Ghost felt Black Umbrella's power suppressing her the instant her eyes, devoid of whites, met his bloody left socket.

Especially with Su Bai gripping her throat, the red-dressed ghost could not break free at all.

Although Black Umbrella always seemed unreliable, Su Bai would probably never forget their first meeting. The fellow had turned the heads of every evil ghost he had killed into black umbrellas. Walking alone through a black "ocean" with a black umbrella as his cane, he had flaunted his unparalleled exquisite taste to Su Bai, whom he had just met.

That was not a move Su Bai could use yet, but Black Umbrella's presence alone was enough to terrify the Hanged Ghost.

"Would you like your head turned into an umbrella?" Su Bai suddenly leaned close to the red-dressed ghost's ear, his bloody left socket like a terrifying, bottomless black hole.

At that instant, the Mist Shop's brand on Su Bai's palm reacted, announcing the Hanged Ghost's surrender.

"Goodbye."

As Su Bai finished speaking, the red-dressed ghost's head drooped as though her neck had snapped. Then she dissolved into dark red Blood Mist, which Su Bai drew into the Blood-Red Bead Strand on his left wrist. In just a few short hours, three beads on the strand had already turned blackish red, proving that his decision to enter this game to stock up had been the right one.

Bang-!

Su Bai had just pulled the black umbrella out of the wall when the Butcher Ghost smashed Lan Xingchen into it again. His wounded body slid weakly down, leaving him sitting there, panting rapidly.

The Butcher Ghost standing a short distance away seemed to sense the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost's disappearance. His attention temporarily shifted from his food to Su Bai.

It was not just the Butcher Ghost. Lan Xingchen, panting against the wall, the Qiu Family sisters Su Bai had just saved, and even the two players beside the elevator were all watching him. After all, when Su Bai had first stood there, his presence had been almost nonexistent, and the umbrella in his hand had seemed bafflingly mysterious.

Yet just now, everyone had watched Su Bai effortlessly drive that utterly ordinary-looking long-handled umbrella through an evil ghost's body and deep into the wall. Afterward, when he gripped the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost's neck, they had all seen her struggling in his grasp, repeatedly trying to turn into a shadow, only to dissolve into Blood Mist in the end.

From their positions, the others might not have seen the Blood Mist enter the bead strand on Su Bai's wrist, but his casual ease in dealing with an evil ghost still left the ordinary players dumbfounded.

Did all the big shots these days look this unassuming...?

"A newcomer? Hahaha, you're a liar through and through too!" The Butcher Ghost had battered Lan Xingchen almost beyond recognition, yet he could still laugh. Presumably, this was not the first time he had found himself in such a predicament.

"If you die, the players' score will drop to seventy. Do you know what will happen then?" Su Bai offered no further explanation. Given another chance, he would still choose to conceal himself beneath layer upon layer of impenetrable disguise.

In his previous life, Su Bai's Vengeful Ghost Puzzle ability had caused a great deal of trouble and had even nearly led to something horrifying. So in this life, he tried to use only one puzzle piece's ability per game. With some disguise added, he could keep the existence of the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle hidden from everyone as much as possible.

"No idea." Lan Xingchen shook his head, but still braced himself against the wall and struggled to stand.

"What a coincidence. Neither do I. Maybe those two newcomers from the Qiu Family and the Building 1 players you're so desperate to save will all die?" Su Bai held the umbrella like a sword. "That wouldn't count as atonement."

"How awful." Lan Xingchen wiped his own blood off the Butcher's Knife with his clothes. "They must still not have forgiven me, even after being dead for three years. That's why they're punishing me by making me keep living, right?"

"They?"

"It's nothing. Just two unlucky bastards who kept saying newcomers were useless and troublesome, only to die because of one in the end."

Lan Xingchen said no more. Knife in hand, he charged at the Butcher Ghost.