He Should Have Died Long Ago

If the game in Happiness Residential Complex had no factions or scores, if a faction's disadvantage would not trigger a riot by over a hundred Ghost Creatures, then with his mad quest for atonement, Lan Xingchen might truly have been willing to die together with the Butcher Ghost.

But even if Lan Xingchen did sacrifice himself to save the other players in the lobby, the player faction's rapidly dwindling score would very likely cause an even more terrifying crisis. A riot by over a hundred Ghost Creatures was only Su Bai's conjecture at this point; the reality might prove even more dangerous.

So if Lan Xingchen really wanted to die...

Making him keep living might truly be a punishment.

Lan Xingchen charged at the Butcher Ghost with the Butcher's Knife. Sensing the Red-Dressed Hanged Ghost's disappearance, the Butcher Ghost also became aware of Su Bai's presence, and an even more ferocious expression crossed his already brutish face. Strangely, when faced with Lan Xingchen's charge, the Butcher Ghost began backing away.

"He wants to open the doors. He might be trying to provoke those things outside." Umbrella in hand, Su Bai blocked the space between the Butcher Ghost and the glass entrance doors, then pointed his long-handled umbrella straight at the back of the Butcher Ghost's head.

The biggest problem Su Bai faced when borrowing Black Umbrella's power was that his left eye would look as though it had been gouged out. Fortunately, his glasses and bangs concealed it, making it difficult to notice without a close look.

Su Bai had reason to suspect that, upon realizing he would have trouble enjoying a feast today, the Butcher Ghost had given up on keeping all the food for himself. Instead, he had chosen to provoke the other Ghost Creatures into attacking the players in the first-floor lobby together, taking everyone down with him.

Unlike the Hanged Ghost, the Butcher Ghost had no obvious weakness. In particular, when Lan Xingchen had recklessly attacked him earlier, he seemed to have slashed the Butcher Ghost from head to toe without exposing any clear weak point.

Such evil ghosts certainly existed, and there were plenty of them.

In Su Bai's experience, the quickest way to deal with an evil ghost like this was either to burn him directly to ashes or to pierce his head and heart. Those were weaknesses shared by all humanoid evil ghosts.

"Black Umbrella, lend me more power." Su Bai looked at the long-handled umbrella in his hand, still dissatisfied with its sharpness. "Whatever the price, I'll repay it gradually afterward."

A slightly sultry male voice sounded in Su Bai's mind. "But Master, your power is far, far weaker than before. If you use any more, you'll probably exhaust it very soon."

"It's fine. Do it." Su Bai glanced at the three beads on his left wrist that had already turned blackish red. Even if he did exhaust his power, he only needed to return to the Mist Shop and turn those three supernatural entities into merchandise to replenish what he had lost.

"As you command."

The moment Black Umbrella finished speaking, Su Bai felt the long-handled umbrella grow slightly heavier in his hand. A power of the same origin as the Red Moon was gradually enveloping it. In Su Bai's eyes, it could now be an umbrella-or a longsword whose edge was being honed.

If the umbrella had been in this state when Su Bai struck the Hanged Ghost's neck earlier, he might have easily cut that thing's head off.

But it still wasn't too late.

Su Bai looked toward Lan Xingchen. Although he had obtained the Butcher Ghost's Butcher's Knife, a weapon imbued with the Red Moon's power and the baleful aura of slaughter, it was merely an excellent item for a player, perhaps even one with no restrictions on its use. It was still the Butcher Ghost's weapon, after all. When used against its owner, even if it left wounds on the Butcher Ghost's body, those wounds healed at an astonishing speed.

No matter how one looked at it, Lan Xingchen was at a disadvantage.

When Su Bai thrust his umbrella toward the back of the Butcher Ghost's head, Lan Xingchen seemed to realize something. Gritting his teeth, he threw the heavy Butcher's Knife behind him, then thrust his two battered arms beneath the Butcher Ghost's armpits and seized the ghost, who was even more heavily built than he was, holding him fast so he could not break free.

Even as the Butcher Ghost struggled and drove a knee into his abdomen, even as the ghost tried to bend his arms backward and snap them, Lan Xingchen kept his arms locked around the Butcher Ghost's body like an unfeeling stone, signaling to Su Bai behind him with his eyes.

Su Bai needed no reminder. Once he felt that the umbrella's power was enough to overcome the toughness of the Butcher Ghost's body, he swept the long-handled umbrella straight across the ghost's neck. A glint of a blade flashed like an illusion, and the Butcher Ghost's head, its expression still ferocious, parted from his body.

Before the Butcher Ghost's head hit the floor, Su Bai's long-handled umbrella had already pierced the evil ghost's heart from behind. Even if the Butcher Ghost's body had no actual "heart," the location of a human heart was still a weak point for most humanoid ghosts. Moreover, the umbrella carried power from the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle, making it deadlier than the sharpest longsword.

With the Butcher Ghost's head already rolling across the floor, his previously struggling limbs gradually lost their strength and sagged against Lan Xingchen as the life drained from him.

Then Lan Xingchen casually dumped him onto the floor.

Su Bai's two "sword strikes" had looked effortless, but the instant he withdrew the long-handled umbrella from the Butcher Ghost's body, Black Umbrella within the Vengeful Ghost Puzzle withdrew his power to keep Su Bai from overextending himself.

An exhaustion that reached deep into his soul swept over him, and the long-handled umbrella nearly slipped from his grasp. Even his body swayed as Black Umbrella's power receded and his own reserves ran dry, but he quickly steadied himself with the umbrella.

For someone like Su Bai, who was accustomed to hiding himself beneath layer upon layer of disguises, letting anyone see that he was utterly exhausted was out of the question.

At that moment, however, even another Hanged Ghost might have been more than Su Bai could handle.

Once he adjusted to the loss of power, Su Bai steadied himself against the long-handled umbrella, then crouched and brushed his left hand over the Butcher Ghost's remains. The brand on his left palm immediately took effect, and the Butcher Ghost's body and head dissolved into red blood mist. Its vivid color seemed to indicate that this evil ghost was the strongest of all the Ghost Creatures Su Bai had collected.

"What happened?"

Although he had already caught the change in the beads on his left wrist out of the corner of his eye, Su Bai still feigned complete ignorance. A human player collecting a Ghost Creature's power was certainly beyond the other players' understanding. But if Su Bai did not take the Butcher Ghost's power now, the ghost would soon turn into blood mist anyway, returning to dust in this Nightmare World.

"This is what happens after these things 'die.' Maybe it's what people mean by vanishing into ashes? Though the things I've encountered before didn't seem to turn into blood mist this quickly." Lan Xingchen did not dwell on it. Instead, he gave Su Bai a strange look. "I don't believe you're some newcomer, but you don't even know this?"

"There are plenty of things I don't know." Bracing himself against the long-handled umbrella, Su Bai stood up with an unruffled expression. "Just as I don't know why you're so eager to die, Mr. Lan."

"..."

"I do know a little." A weak, unfamiliar voice came from nearby.

Su Bai turned toward the voice and discovered that the female player who had fallen unconscious from a severe abdominal wound had slowly come around. Weakly, she looked at Lan Xingchen, whose visible injuries were even worse than hers, with an ugly expression. "He should have died long ago."