Self-imprisonment

Sister Yao said she had once had a child. Perhaps that was why she had put herself in a mother's shoes and still could not get over Ning Yan's death, even in the Nightmare World, where death was an everyday occurrence.

Both Sister Yao and Lan Xingchen knew perfectly well that Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie could have survived just like the other players. Instead, because Lan Xingchen had been blinded by self-interest and beguiled by an evil ghost, they had both died in a game they could have cleared.

Whatever else had happened, Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie had kept Lan Xingchen alive, so Sister Yao did not want him to actually die.

But...

Perhaps death was the norm in the Nightmare World. Perhaps, without Lan Xingchen, someone else would have been beguiled by the evil ghost. But just as there surely were other people in this world who still could not forget the players who had died in the Nightmare World, Sister Yao could not forget either.

And for Lan Xingchen, as long as even one person remembered, as long as even one person could not let go, his obsession would not fade, and his atonement would not end.

Yet as long as Lan Xingchen himself remained alive, he would always remember. He would never let go. Perhaps no one would ever appear in his lifetime who could stop or change him. He might keep trudging onward in a shell that looked alive on the outside but was as lifeless as the Dead Sea within.

There probably... would not be any more unexpected changes.

For three years, he had found a twisted sense of "peace" in this self-torment. It even allowed him to temporarily forget his pain amid the numbness.

Lan Xingchen was certainly not the only player in the Nightmare World who had caused his teammates' deaths. The Nightmare World was full of lunatics who dealt fatal blows to their fellow human players. Anyone who heard his story knew that Lan Xingchen was neither a good man nor an evil ghost. He had done something wrong and chosen to imprison himself.

It was as though a layer of dead flesh had covered his ears and eyes. He wanted to hear nothing and see nothing.

This was his atonement, but it was also his comfort zone.

Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie had given him his life, so Sister Yao had no right to say anything. Yet whenever she thought of them, she still felt that the greatest punishment for Lan Xingchen was not to let him remain a walking corpse in his comfort zone, but to force him out of it in the most painful way possible!

But Sister Yao did not know how to do that.

"That girl, Ning Yan, met up with me in the real world before she took part in that game." Sister Yao recalled the grief she had felt when Ning Yan died. "She'd apparently managed to get into the most popular Physical Education Elective, which was incredibly hard to do, so she was in a wonderful mood. Even knowing she'd be entering a nightmare game soon, she kept smiling all day. I heard that teacher she liked left two years ago, and even the school moved to another campus. Everything's changed..."

As Sister Yao spoke, she fell silent again.

"Um..."

Just as the atmosphere in the lobby grew rather awkward, Qiu Lei, the younger sister who had been standing off to the side, suddenly approached Su Bai.

"Isn't it a little awkward in here?" Qiu Lei and Qiu Man were both newcomers, but perhaps because Qiu Lei was only a Regular high school student in the real world—a genuinely Regular one—she was as green as a newcomer could be.

Compared with newcomers who liked running all over the place, or people who only pretended to be newcomers, Qiu Lei was quiet and barely drew any attention.

Su Bai even suspected that Qiu Lei's Trait might have something to do with her presence.

"The adult world is complicated." Su Bai even felt that if Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie appeared right in front of Lan Xingchen now and beat him up and berated him, he still might not be able to move on.

"Didn't you say you were only a high school student too?" Qiu Lei looked at Su Bai in surprise.

"..." Su Bai had indeed said that, but he had not expected Qiu Lei to keep believing his introduction even after seeing him fight, rather than think he was a complete fraud like everyone else did.

"Are you from Honghuai too? Maybe we've seen each other somewhere? Maybe our schools are really close?" Although the atmosphere was heavy, it clearly had not affected Qiu Lei to the same extent. Even though she was already a high school student and considered herself mature, the truly complicated world was still rather far removed from her.

"My sister might sound cold when she talks, but I don't think she's actually as heartless as she says." Qiu Lei edged closer and lowered her voice. "When Brother Lan disappeared three years ago, my sister was really worried. She even..."

"Ahem." Qiu Man seemed to have heard her sister talking. She coughed a few times as she glanced over.

"But you're seriously amazing." Qiu Lei immediately changed the subject and said thoughtfully, "Before I came here, the most impressive person I'd ever seen was probably that top student in his final year at our school! Our teacher said he could get into any school he wanted."

"That really is impressive." Su Bai did not actually remember who the top student at his high school was.

"Yeah, but then my sister and I suddenly ended up somewhere like this, and I heard that upperclassman took sick leave too. He hasn't shown up at school in ages. I guess that's just how unpredictable life is!" Qiu Lei sighed helplessly. "My classmate even said she'd take me to pay homage to that supposedly really good-looking top student, so we could do better on our next exams. But now, whenever I think about the Nightmare World, I don't feel like doing anything."

"Now I think I'd be better off paying homage to you than to him!" There was a touch of admiration in Qiu Lei's eyes as she looked at Su Bai. "We look about the same age, so how are you so amazing?"

While Qiu Lei spoke, the others resting and regrouping nearby were secretly listening too.

When they heard Qiu Lei ask about Su Bai's abilities, every one of them pricked up their ears. Although Lan Xingchen had called Su Bai a complete fraud earlier, and his current disguise obscured his features, they could still tell he was very young.

If Su Bai really was an experienced player, or even a veteran, how old had he been when he entered the Nightmare World?

There should not have been any very young players in the Nightmare World.

Unfortunately, in response to Qiu Lei's question, Su Bai merely gave an exceedingly shy, innocent smile on his face, disguised with a dark complexion. He continued fobbing her off with layers upon layers of half-truths. "Maybe I've just been lucky?"

Su Bai knew very well that his survival as a newcomer in his previous life had indeed owed a great deal to luck.

In other respects, he was actually quite Regular.

"Being honest with each other isn't necessarily a good thing in the Nightmare World." Though she had not learned anything useful, Sister Yao, who had sat back down against the wall with a hand over her wound, did not intend to press him. "Our objective for clearing this game is to survive for forty-eight hours. Right now, our score is lower than those things', and we don't know what they're doing outside. But since we're not in any immediate danger, everyone should make the most of this time to rest and recover."

"Come to think of it, all of you seemed to recover your memories much faster than I did. Even these two." Sister Yao touched her belly, seemingly shaken by the thought that she had mistaken the Ghost Infant hidden inside it for a pregnancy. "I still haven't quite shaken it off."

"Maybe it's because the fake memories this hellhole made up for me weren't the life I wanted?" Qiu Man gave a self-mocking smile. "All these years, I've gone to work, come home, and worked overtime every day. I couldn't even be bothered to apply for annual leave. Then, after I got trapped in the Happiness Residential Complex, it turned me straight into someone unemployed. I couldn't leave the complex or go out to work. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me, and suddenly my memories came back."

While Qiu Man spoke, Su Bai kept watching their surroundings and the area beyond the glass entrance doors.

Unless his eyes were deceiving him, he seemed to have spotted some unusual activity in the direction of Building 3, opposite Building 1-the residential building where Feng Ling, Ning Yan, and the others were.